Primary Growth Partnership Research, should be made available to me?

I don't know the ins and outs of how all this works, but I do know that the money the government puts into a venture is money we give them as taxes, so in theory, this is an investment on our behalf.

I also know that as a shareholder of the Alliance Group (“Alliance”) any money the company contributes to a partnership programme should  be an investment on behalf of its shareholders.

Assuming this logic is correct, you would expect any venture entered into by the Government and Alliance and a private company called Headwaters (“the Venture”), would be done on my behalf, firstly as a taxpayer and secondly as an Alliance shareholder. 

Headwaters is a composite ram breeding operation, that presumably provides animals, property, and man hours as its share of the Venture. The Government's primary contribution is money.  Alliance, I believe, apart from providing killing facilities and data,  pays something like 20 cents per kilogram premium ( over and above what the rest of its shareholders get) for lambs killed through the Venture.  I understand this premium payment has been paid for many years now.

Recently Alliance publicly lauded the launching of a new brand of lamb produced by the Venture.  Apparently, this is fantastic tasting lamb with intramuscular fat, omega 3 etc.  I have requested more than once to see the research, data and findings of the Venture only to be fobbed off. 

I even had the Alliance chief executive David Surveyor come and visit me, primarily because of an invoice I sent to them for the additional costs associated with having to sell my heavy weight lambs through the Temuka sale yards.  As most shareholders would know you would get more money through the yards than killing them through Alliance as lambs over 23 kg were heavily penalised.

I considered this inequitable and ridiculous given that these same lambs were bought from the sale yard and then killed by meat companies, including Alliance. Alliance never paid my invoice, but to their credit (upon receiving the invoice), changed the policy so that loyal shareholders would not be penalised if a small percentage of lambs from a line killed were over this weight.    I have been advised recently that non-shareholders, through third party buyers, have also been getting the benefit of this change.

I appreciated Mr Surveyor coming to see me, but again it was made clear that the results, data, workings and findings of the Venture would not be made available to me.  

Anecdotally, I understand that they have found that grazing lambs on chicory for the last month before killing, has a positive and significant impact on the quality and taste of the lamb.  I also believe that from a genetic standpoint, no advancement or breakthrough has been made and if there is anything worth pursuing that it’s not unique to the Venture but is common to many if not all other breeds of sheep in New Zealand.

My point is that everything from the Venture should be readily available to me, firstly as a tax payer and secondly as an Alliance shareholder.  It would stop me guessing and if there are significant developments then it can benefit all of us. 

It seems to me the only organisation standing to gain significantly from the launching of this new brand of lamb, and the research and findings, apart from procurement of lambs for Alliance, is Headwaters.

Some basic legal advice?

As some of you will know I played lawyers for 6 years before returning to farming.  For most of that period I specialised in civil litigation, in other words I was a lawyer who tried to resolve disputes for clients over money which obviously includes property.

I am someone that if I am ripped off, scammed or cheated by someone or some entity, generally, I will do my utmost to hold that person or entity to account.  I do it, as I believe I have an obligation to the next person they deal with, to make them think hard and long before trying to scam, cheat or rip off their next customer.  I say generally because even I don’t fight everything, otherwise I would never get any farming done!

The following are hopefully some basic helpful tips that might help you avoid disputes or assist you once you are in one:

Never assume anything.   I recently changed power companies again on the farm, I was getting a very competitive rate on my irrigation supply, but months down the track I realised I was getting ripped on the power supply to the houses.

  

Be very explicit and clear as to what you expect some product/service to do or achieve.   Indeed you could record it in writing.    That way when the service or product doesn’t do what it is represented as being able to do, you have a strong argument to show grounds for having the product replaced, refunded or indeed compensation being paid, as it amounts to misrepresentation and/or it is not fit for the purpose for which it is provided.   There will be arguments as to who is to blame, but it is a good starting point if you have a record in writing as to what you expected it to do.

If something goes wrong with the product or service:  each time record this in writing with a date and your initial next to it as and when it happens.    This is what is known as a contemporaneous file note which can be used as evidence that it did in fact happen in any subsequent dispute.

There is nothing in writing:  Some transactions are required by law to be in writing, but most don’t.  The problem is if it comes down to your word versus another, then it’s a harder to prove who is telling the truth if nothing is in writing.  Again a contemporaneous file note of your discussion could be useful evidence later on.  If you have an independent witness who can corroborate what you say then that is strong evidence to support your case.

An account you dispute.  If you receive an account that you are not going to pay for whatever reason and simply ignore it, then such an account cannot be pursued through the disputes tribunal as you have not disputed the account, a prerequisite for a disputes tribunal.  If you don’t dispute it, it could be forwarded to a debt collector or pursued via the District Court. 

 

The flip side is if you dispute an account and communicate that to them, then such an account cannot be referred to a debt collector.   The dispute tribunal is the cheap way to have such matters resolved.  If you are seeking a refund or compensation, then if you can get the person or entity to dispute your claim partly or in its entirety, then you can pursue the matter through the disputes tribunal (depending on the quantum of your claim as there is a maximum limit) as opposed to issuing proceedings in the District court, which in many cases will be uneconomic to do so

Finally I know lawyers cost a bloody fortune, but from my days of practising as a civil litigator, the most common mistake clients’ made was to come to see their lawyer too late.  In many cases the parties have become so entrenched in their position, that it doesn’t matter how good the lawyer is the only route left is to issue court proceedings.  However if you go to a good lawyer early, before the parties hate each other’s guts, often the matter can be resolved fairly and quickly.

Genetically Modified Food - who do you believe?

I watched a program recently about this and thought it would be an appropriate and relevant to offer some view on Genetically Modified Organisms (“GMO”) or Genetically Modified Food (“GMF”) as it’s commonly referred to.

As someone who likes to be well informed before expressing my opinion, I spent a number of hours researching including trolling the internet and trying to seek out someone who could shed some light on the topic.  All that effort was in vain as I still do not have a definitive view on the topic, primarily because it would seem that everything written has a predetermined agenda, in other words it’s phenomenally biased.   Moreover it seems nigh on impossible to find some person who can give you an independent view on it.

It was just like the program this last Sunday,  in my opinion the organic apple grower in the Hawkes bay was more concerned about protecting his organic export sales, than discussing the pros and cons of GMF.   His rationale was that the possibility of cross pollination from GMO crops to non GMO would mean he couldn’t market himself as GMO free or indeed organic.

The argument wasn’t about what the actual risk of this happening was or how this could be safeguarded against.  Moreover the grower thought that the government should not be able to override the Hawkes Bay district council labelling itself as a GM free zone, which was essential to the marketing of their apples.   An argument which was pretty farcical given that there is no difference between Hawkes Bay and other apple growing regions in New Zealand (in terms GMO crops at least) and if one day we had GMO crops in other regions, then the risk of cross pollination could of course easily come from another district outside of the Hawkes Bay, which makes a Hawkes Bay declaration as GME free bloody stupid (Yes it’s a decision to be determined on a National basis). Note as far as I am aware we don’t have any GMO crops in this country at all to date.  Although I would be surprised if we are not eating some food already that has some GMO food ingredients in it from overseas.

The apple grower’s other principal argument against GMO food was to say “go around the world and ask consumers what they want?”  Yes people with a good discretionary income (not poor or impoverished people) responded that they would rather buy organic food (which is not necessarily  the same as non GMO food).   From my reading it appears most consumers apparently “buy organic food because they believe they are avoiding all pesticides”.  However one thing I did learn from my reading of various biased articles was the misnomer that organic farming means no use of pesticides.   Apparently a lot of pesticides are used (and often more regularly than conventional pesticides) so long as such pesticides are derived from “natural sources”, it’s okay.  Moreover there is some debate about the risk to human health and the environment with many of these pesticides organic farmers use.   The apples on the program I watched the other night looked amazing not like the ones grown in my backyard, that do grow naturally free of any attention from me whatsoever.  My point being that to justify your argument by saying this is what consumers want is pretty weak, when realistically these same consumers base their opinions on a marketing story that almost certainly doesn’t disclose all the relevant facts.

Unfortunately I am not in a position to advance the debate on what we should do in regards to GMO crops.  However I can recommend that if you want a short article that addresses the pro and cons of the debate, then google an article “Genetically Modified Food Pros and Cons List” written by a Crystal Lombardo. It’s a good starting point.   From this I agree wholeheartedly with the following quote:  “If used properly, the science behind genetically modified food could be used to end hunger. If used improperly, the science could be misused and potentially endanger (sic) our entire food supply. This means that if we are to pursue this field of food science, we must have responsible management of the research being done and have third party independent verification and monitoring of results so that it becomes possible to distinguish fact from fiction.”

As such I conclude is this is definitely a decision to be determined by Government having regard to the above quote, not on adhoc basis by various regional or district Councils.

More Rhetoric regarding the Wool and Meat Industry in New Zealand.

I am a passionate stud sheep breeder who obviously wants there to be a strong future for sheep farming in New Zealand, but what is the future, I don’t know?

I do know that I am sick to death of listening to commentaries on the topic which are just generalised generic crap, with no detail as to how we achieve these grandiose statements they make.

A perfect example of this recently was Damien O’Connor, the agricultural spokesperson for Labour, waffling in an interview with Jamie McKay on the Country along the lines: wool is a great sustainable product with health benefits, fire resistant blah blah, they need to get out there and market the product, too long nothing has been done by the government, by processors, by blah blah.  I don’t recall exactly what he said but it was along these lines: he uttered similar rhetoric regarding the meat industry.

I know from my own experience and involvement over the years that a lot of people and entities have endeavoured to get the message out about wool, they have tried to market a clean green traceable story behind it, they have emphasised the positive attributes of wool, but has any traction been made, given the price of wool currently you would probably say no.   Should more be done? Sure, but what do we do?   

I did a quick search on the internet:  wool versus synthetic carpet,  some key differences:  Price, synthetic carpets generally much cheaper: synthetic carpets generally much more fade resistance (solution dyed nylon carpets carry warranties for this) an issue if have large windows or doors where carpet is exposed to sun; wool better insulator, warmer in winter and cooler in summer and good for those with asthma; wool generally more resilient, but will wear more in heavy traffic areas compared to some synthetic carpets.  Wool is a natural sustainable renewable product.  There is a lot more on the internet for consumers to digest before determining what carpet to buy. 

 

However like most things today I would imagine the biggest obstacle for wool carpets is Price!  Clearly anything made of wool is a niche product that needs to be aimed at the wealthy consumer, a generic statement made by me!  However I really don’t know how we gain more traction in this market.

Citing Icebreaker as an example is pretty tiresome, given this is a fine wool clothing product produced by a private company that focuses on a very small niche market, in theory it should be easy to replicate, but I suspect the bigger the niche market you are trying to target the harder it is! Moreover clothing is a product that appeals to people’s vanity and in terms of the price to carpet a home, is a very small sum to pay and such I would presume it’s much easier to market an expensive sweatshirt to a person than a wool carpet.

Others waffle on about how we need to bring back a Wool board and a Meat board:  to do what?  If they were so fantastic the first time around why is the sheep industry in the present predicament it is today.  If these boards are the answer, could the advocates please state why they will make a difference, give specifics of how and what they will and can do, including the amount of funding that may be required to achieve what they are suggesting, not simply we need to bring back the Wool Board to market generically around the world.

I think many people forget that while we as New Zealanders consider ourselves big players in the market, we are not, we are just a drop in the ocean and as such to create the sort of brand recognition that the “Wool board would do” is so far beyond the resources we have its ludicrous.

I applaud those who publicly air their opinion, as arguably without it, nothing would ever change or improve.  However those who simply regurgitate what has been said for the last 20 years, without providing specifics or detail as to how we achieve these stock standard generic statements, I, for one, would rather not have to read or listen to any more of their dribble!!!

Stop killing ram lambs: Utter Rubbish or Not?

In response to an article I wrote a month or so ago regarding the eating quality of our lamb,  it was suggested that if we stopped killing and processing ram lambs, then this would go a long way to sorting this issue.

The same person did acknowledge that the Meat companies have carried out taste tests to satisfy themselves to the contrary (but she “questions those results”).   I understand that a few years ago Alliance undertook significant research in this regard and found there was no difference.

Where do I stand on this?  As a pragmatic farmer applying a common sense approach view to this question, for me it simply comes  down to the age and maturity of the animal in question. 

My lambs are born from I September onwards.   I generally aim to kill my lambs at a live weight of 44 kgs or above; in the hope of averaging between a 19 and 20 kg carcass weight.   As I am all studs, I don’t kill lambs off mum; the majority of all lambs have to be weighed at weaning and again at least 6 weeks later to obtain meaningful genetic growth figures for selling rams.  The last of my works lambs are killed by early to Mid-April, of which the large majority of these are ewe lambs.

Do I think there is an issue with the taste of the ram lambs that I kill during this period?   The answer is quite simply NO!  The lambs are young and being killed at, for the want of a better term, what I would call an immature weight.      The combination of these two factors I would think ensures there is no difference in taste.  Take a ram lamb say born 1 September, which is killed in early April as it has only just reached 44kg live weight, which incidentally is firstly a bloody cull, and secondly inevitably a multiple and most importantly still immature, so will there be an issue as to taste:  I somewhat doubt it.  This assumes the lamb is in good condition, i.e. prime, for which the works should pay a premium (and do not) as that must affect the eating quality and taste of the lamb.

But if you take a ram lamb that is 50kg or more live weight over that same period, then the sex of this lamb may affect taste, as it’s obviously a very mature lamb.   I do sell a few through Temuka that are 50 kg or more, because being a stud breeder I can’t cull my lambs till early February (for the reason outlined above: growth figures).  But generally no lamb is going to reach such a live weight before being killed.

Similarly a skinny ram lamb (i.e. not prime, for whatever reason that achieves the target live weight of 44kg and is killed, there could be an issue as to taste but primarily because its skinny not because it’s a ram lamb, as its very unlikely that such a lamb has attained any form of maturity.

Accordingly the works present payment regime: that pays you even more abysmally for heavy lambs and that the lambs are still young i.e. killed by Mid-April ensures the sex of the lamb has very little if not no bearing at all on the taste.   As my circumstances are similar to how most lambs are killed in New Zealand, I believe this holds true for practically all lambs killed.

I actually would love to see technology that enables us to ensure that all lambs destined for the works, are born as ram lambs, for the simple reason they are ready to be killed weeks ahead of ewe lambs (this would be waste of time for me as a stud breeder, but be big benefit for a lot of commercial farmers).

The cynic in me does however wonder about those ram lambs killed through the winter season, which are considerably older and likely much more mature; as I can assure you I wouldn’t be eating them! 

Paid success no basis for gong!

Twice a year the government makes various people knights or dames of the realm!!! I don’t consider myself a republican or a royalist.  I would also assume that I, like most people, are unaware exactly what the criteria is upon which they decide to bestow such titles on people.

However, irrespective of what the criteria are, twice a year, I find myself absolutely stunned as to who receives such titles.  If someone simply pursues their goals or career and they get well or adequately remunerated for it: why do they deserve to be made a knight or a dame simply because they have been successful in their chosen field    It’s farcical!  

Surely to be worthy of receiving such a title you must do more than simply pursue your career or your vocation and be successful at it.   You need to use your position, success and/or status in society to help many others over your lifetime to be even considered worthy of being made a Knight or a Dame.  Logically this would mean most people would normally receive such an honour in their twilight of their life as it takes success, benevolence and hard work over a lifetime to truly make a difference in society.  It goes without saying that someone’s contribution in this regard is not their vocation or employment for which they are getting paid.

I don’t know much about the basis for receiving a CNZM or ONZM either.  But I think I heard Phil Goff being quoted after receiving one of these that he was simply doing his job.  Which succinctly sums up my view that if you are doing your job well, do you deserve this as surely even in a small country in New Zealand, we have millions of people who do their job well?

I have a lot of admiration for what Val Adams has achieved in the field of athletics, but being extremely successful in the world as a shot putter, for which she is remunerated in some form or another means she should be made a Dame?  No way!   Perhaps twenty years down the track when through her success and status she gives so much back to society via unpaid appearances, speaking engagements or endorsements etc, then she may deserve to be made a Dame.

Sir Graham Henry is another.   For most of his career as a rugby coach, he has been extremely well paid for pursuing his vocation and ultimately his career.  Again I admire what he has achieved and done, but did he deserve to be made a knight, again based on my criteria, no way.

A coupler people who in my eyes do deserve it: Sir Colin Meads; sure he was a legendary All Black, but it is what he done over the subsequent decades in giving his time, endorsement etc to many worthy causes.  What he put back into rugby.  It is his lifetime of what he gave back, not as part of his job, which means he deserved to be knighted.   

Similarly Sir Peter Leitch, aka the Mad Butcher.   A very successful businessman, a man who deserved to be knighted, not for his success as a businessman, but for what he has done (and still does) for so many entities, charitable, sporting and otherwise.  He has used his success to help so many others.  The man seems to be a dynamo; he is always using his notoriety and resources to help some cause.

Sporting stars can have the abilities recognised through Halbergs, or Halls of Fame etc if we are simply looking for a way to acknowledge how good someone is in their chosen field of endeavour.   Surely such success alone cannot merit being made a Dame or a Knight.

Great Tasting Lamb

I am writing around this topic again because I read another article on taste research, presumably this one was put out by Headwaters, given it appears in both the NZ farmer and Farmers Weekly.

Headwaters are essentially an entity that breeds composite sheep (a cross between Romney, Texel, Finn and Perendale breeds as stated in the article).  As I understand it their rams are sold to shareholder farmers of the entity.   I am unaware whether this breed is now what is considered stabilised or not, by this I mean whether they still introduce outside purebreds eg a Romney ram: if not its stabilised and no additional hybrid vigour is being introduced.

I read the article and again it repeats the importance of polyunsaturated intramuscular fat and omega-3 fatty acids being key factors in succulent tasty lamb.   I certainly not saying this is not correct, but I do think you will find that if they have 30000 lambs meeting such criteria, then there will be millions of other lambs around the country that would also fulfill such criteria.  If what they are doing is indeed the benchmark, why isn’t Alliance rolling this out for all its suppliers, given the suggestion there may be a premium for good tasting lamb one day: wow what a radicle idea that is!!  A day all of us are looking forward to.

There are many things that go into taste: I understand for example that Alliance acknowledges that if the meat yield gets too high, then the eating quality of such a lamb seriously diminishes.  Similarly others would argue that very fast growing lambs are also not that tasty as such animals lack a covering of fat (which does seem at odds with whats written in the headwaters article, love to see the data on this).  Generally, as with most things there is balance to be struck between meat yield and growth, it’s a rarity to find an animal high on both.

I have stated this before:  historically if you asked someone considered a stockmen and one who likes to eat decent lamb or mutton, then almost every time the answer will be the best eating lamb is either a Southdown or merino cross lamb.    The explanation being that both of these breeds have very fine wool and as such that translates into fine textured meat that is succulent and very tasty.  When is a company like Alliance actually going to fund some research to verify whether this is true or not.    If indeed if it is true: then we already have established breeds that will provide the consumer with very enjoyable lamb eating experience.  I almost always only ever eat Southdown cross mutton or lamb and I have never ever had a visitor not blown away by how nice it was.  It would be good to know if this could be done on a national basis.

The comments in this headwaters article regarding fat, namely the focus on moving away from lean meat and have some fat cover on your ewe flock, is certainly not something unique to Headwaters.   Most breeders worth their salt today are focusing on this, indeed even SIL (Sheep Improvement Limited) have acknowledged that rewarding animals with no fat with high ebvs is not right and results in a sheep that you don’t want.    There are many breeders who have endeavoured to keep a balance between growth and doing ability (yes fat).  Condition scoring your ewes regularly and culling those hard doing ewes is one way that every farmer in the country can easily improve this aspect of our sheep.

I do think that one of the quickest way to improve the taste of lamb, apart from all the research that many groups and breeders are doing (not just Headwaters), would be for Meat companies to quite simply pay a premium for those lambs that are ready to kill, i.e. they are thriving and in good order, (they have some fat cover) as opposed to so many lambs that are killed on weight alone, but are hard and extremely lean, who wants to eat that!!