Farmer votes crucial to future

The big meat industry co-operatives have been active in the boardroom with the Alliance annual meeting and the upcoming Silver Fern Farms election likely to create plenty of shareholder interest.With export markets under.

The structure of the meat industry remains a perennial discussion topic in farming circles.

The intensity of the debate often increases as prices decline because of supply and demand at the peak of the season.

Fuel is also added when the co-operatives hold their annual meetings, release their financial results and their farmer directors are up for election.

Annual meetings are important events for all organisations. But, for our two meat co-operatives and their shareholders they provide a crucial opportunity to have your say on the direction of the company you own.

If you believe farmer ownership and control of the meat industry is important, it is essential you engage in these processes.

The industry is not filled with mind readers, so let them know what you want. You forfeit your right to complain if you don't like what they are doing.

Alliance held its annual meeting in December and it was fantastic to see a strong voter turnout of 63 per cent for the director elections. The engagement bar has been set high so, hopefully, the Silver Fern Farms' shareholders will follow suit with their meeting on February 18.

To have such a closely contested election between the four Alliance candidates -- Dawn Sangster, Russell Drummond, John Lindsay and Amanda Bell -- was encouraging.

This demonstrated the quality of candidates and showed the shareholders felt they all had the skills for the job. It was also heartening to see the calibre of farmers putting their hands up for these crucial roles. Congratulations to Dawn and Russell on their re-election and the election respectively.

With the Silver Fern Farms election next up, chairman Rob Hewett and director Herstall Ulrich have put their hats back in the ring and are joined in the race by Fiona Hancox.

I encourage you to get to know what skills, experience and perspectives the candidates offer and what they stand for before you have your say.

The other activity of Silver Fern Farms that will be watched with interest over the coming months is the outcome of its capital-raising efforts.

The stated preference is for the capital to come from shareholders. However, Silver Fern Farms is exploring all of its options.

The outcome could have significant bearing on New Zealand farmers.

The other notable change in the industry is that three of the big four companies have new chief executives at their helms. Dean Hamilton has replaced Keith Cooper at Silver Fern Farms; David Surveyor has replaced Grant Cuff at Alliance and, at privately-owned AFFCOs, Rowan Ogg is acting general manager following the resignation of Hamish Simson.

They all have boards that determine their strategic direction, so I wouldn't expect to see any radical changes quickly.

However, it is an interesting dynamic and this will undoubtedly be watched with interest by many inside and outside the industry.

At this point in the season, the beef kill is tracking well ahead of average. This was driven by high prices due to a lack of supply in the United States, then fuelled by dry conditions around the country. It will be interesting to see how the kill tracks and if this creates a hole later in the season.

The dry conditions around the country are of concern, particularly for farmers on the east coasts of both islands. They have affected both the lamb and mutton kills and resulted in the collapse of store market prices with longer wait times for killing space.

Fingers crossed for rain, a continued softening of the New Zealand dollar and demand for our products in international markets remaining strong.

Sarah Crofoot is Federated Farmers' meat and fibre policy adviser.