James Parsons: Farmer confidence has taken a dip

James Parsons.

As part of ensuring we at Beef + Lamb New Zealand are relevant and delivering services you value, we carry out regular research through UMR Research.

We gather a range of performance and confidence indicators and assess Beef + Lamb New Zealand's performance through the eyes of farmers.

It's of no surprise that farmer confidence has taken a dip in the last four months and that's largely a tale of two species. Farmers with high beef numbers are more confident than those with sheep dominant enterprises.

Uncertainty over sheepmeat markets on the back of Brexit and declining wool prices has knocked confidence.

Throw in a very wet spring across the country where young stock haven't been 'doing' and it's understandable that farmers are feeling uneasy right now.

There continues to be confidence in the long-term fundamentals of the sheep and beef industry and farmers know they are producing a high quality, safe product for a growing global population with plenty of discerning customers.

The research has given us a good steer on some things that farmers rate as really important, but where they think we need to be doing better. They include improving market access and market development opportunities for our beef and lamb in international markets.

In terms of market access, we continue to work very closely with the Government to ensure any Brexit impacts are minimised for our sector. One of the ways we keep Government up to date with our activities is this newsletter which includes Brexit news.

Since writing that newsletter we met with Trade Minister Todd McClay recently and impressed on him the importance of maintaining our market access arrangements, ensuring stability for our lamb trade. I was encouraged that the Minister is very aware of the importance of this to farmers and New Zealand.

Other UMR Research findings were:-

• Farmer confidence in the sheep and beef industry 32% - down 11%
• Farmers with 5000 or more stock units were more confident in the future of the sheep industry
• Farmer satisfaction with Beef + Lamb New Zealand 53% - up 7%
• Awareness of Beef + Lamb New Zealand 78% - up 5%
• 32% of farmers have attended a Beef + Lamb New Zealand event in the past three months (28% said they had in August)
• 42% of farmers have accessed information from the Beef + Lamb New Zealand website in the last three months (32% said they had in August)
• From a prompted list of issues the ones farmers agreed that they'd like Beef + Lamb New Zealand to focus on are:-
1. Telling consumers the unique NZ red meat story (78% agreed)
2. New ways to introduce farm practices to farmers (66% agreed)
3. Better online resources for helping improve farm practices (62% agreed)
4. Develop new pasture species for hill country (59% agreed).
*Results of the report are based on a representative sample of n=770 sheep and beef farmers. At the 95% confidence level the margin of error is + or - 3.5%.

Kaikoura Earthquake

Farmers and residents of the Kaikoura earthquake impacted areas have had a rough end to the year. Coming on the back of the drought, the earthquake has hit people hard. Here at Beef + Lamb New Zealand we've been supporting Federated Farmers and Young Farmers who mobilised to get help to where it is needed. Over the last week and a half, we visited farms in Marlborough, Kaikoura and Hurunui.

The purpose of the visits was to make sure urgent needs have been identified and the longer term recovery issues for the region are quantified. This information will be used in discussion with MPI and other organisations to quantify and plan ongoing recovery support.

The structure for supporting the recovery of farm businesses has improved with regional and overall coordinators appointed by MPI. We've been working alongside these coordinators and many other organisations in the rural sector under the banner 'TeamAg'.
The principle for all participants has been to work together to do whatever has to be done to support farmers.

In the New Year B+LNZ's role will move from supporting emergency response to more of a focus on the longer term recovery needs of farm businesses in the region. This will be farmer led, with an emphasis on technical support and will likely see priorities around land remediation, pasture recovery, and overall farm systems review.

Alongside others in 'TeamAg', B+LNZ were proud to support successful farm community events in the earthquake impacted areas of Ward and Kaikoura last night. More than 200 people from these communities attended each event. We plan to do something similar for the inland road community in the New Year.

Here at B+LNZ we will continue to engage with government on farmers' needs following the earthquake, in particular details around the current MPI relief funding package which closes in February and needs for ongoing support in farm infrastructure recovery.

James Parsons is chairman of Beef + Lamb New Zealand. This is an edited version of his Chairman's update.
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