Jeanette Maxwell - Chairperson, Federated Farmers Meat & Fibre
Spring is officially here although for some around the country the weather is much more like winter. Since the last RamBull things have been progressing slowly.

The board had its first meeting in August, which went well. We discussed the issues surrounding quad bikes. I hope we will have more information on this at National Council in November.

In August I attended a meeting alongside Barry Pullin and Nick Clark where we discussed shearing and how to forge a closer working relationship with the NZ Shearing Contractors Association. The association is currently working on an accreditation scheme for shearing and while we may not like all of the documents content, it is a chance for Meat & Fibre to be part of its creation. Thank you to all who participated.

On the wool side of things, since the last Rambull the Cavalier and Godfrey Hurst case has been before the High Court and we are now awaiting a decision. Additionally, Wool Services International (WSI) intends to raise capital, so expect to see some more information on this in the very near future. There was recently an article in Farmers' Weekly and a WoolCo mailer on this.

We hope Cliff Heath from Wool Equity Limited (WEL) will speak at National Council in November and enlighten us further on the direction of the company.

Willy Leferink and I attended a meeting in Lincoln at the beginning of this month to address pasture performance issues. We created a ‘wish list' of what we see as key attributes for good pastures. From here further discussions will take place and a document will be developed identifying the key areas where research and development is needed. This process will involve all the key stakeholders, including our levy organisations. This will take some time, but we hope in the future pastures will be developed to suit New Zealand's different regions as opposed to the one size fits all approach. On this note, we really need to encourage our young folk to take up pasture genomics.

In the last two weeks I have been involved with the Animal Health Board's (AHB) Representatives Committee selection process to find two new AHB directors, as the positions are up for renewal. The matter will be concluded in November at the AHB's Annual General Meeting.

Happy farming and please feel free to contact myself or the Meat & Fibre Executive team if you need to discuss anything.

Jeanette Maxwell
Chairperson
Federated Farmers Meat & Fibre
Mobile: 027 357 4464
Phone: 03 302 8860
Email: jmaxwell@fedfarm.org.nz

2011 Meat & Fibre Council meeting
This event will be held at the Brentwood Hotel in Wellington on 2-3 November. The Agenda for the event is being developed and will be available on the Federation's website next week.

Registration Forms for the meeting have been sent out and need to be returned by Friday 7 October. Similarly, requests for notices of Remits/Discussion have also been sent out and these are due back by Wednesday 12 October.

Report on the Red Meat Sector Strategy Conference
On 4-5 September I represented Federated Farmers at the Red Meat Sector Strategy Conference in Rotorua. Lyn Neeson also attended, as did a number of meat and fibre members. The conference was jointly organised by the Meat Industry Association and Beef & Lamb New Zealand with the aim of bringing together representatives from the meat industry, farmers and other service providers. The conference was opened by the Agricultural Minister Hon. David Carter, who was followed by Colin James who gave a very insightful presentation on what political scenarios might unfold following this year's election.

Day Two was opened by ex-All Black Frank Bunce who used his rugby experience to give some lessons on team work and leadership. Richard Brown, an analyst and partner in the UK firm GIRA Euroconsulting, rounded out the first session with a presentation in which he outlined the growing world-wide demand for meat. He stated that global demand for meat would increase by 40 million tones over the next nine years, of which China would account for around one third of this volume. While around 60 percent of this increase would be made up of pork and poultry, Brown felt that this growth would have positive impacts for New Zealand's sheep and beef farmers.

The remaining three sessions of the conference were based around the three core themes of the Red Sector Strategy Document. The first was coordinated in-market behaviour. In this session we heard from four speakers including Mike Burrell, who is the CEO of Aquaculture New Zealand, which has also had an Industry Strategy prepared for it by Deloitte. His first key message was there are no silver bullets to turn around the fortunes of an industry. He then talked about the collaboration of five green lip mussel producers who are marketing mussels into China. This joint venture has managed to lift the price of mussels substantially. "Give your customers a reason to pay more or buy more of it".

The second session was based around the theme of efficient and aligned procurement. In this session we heard two successful stories about the New Zealand Merino Company, from David Maslen, and the Tatua Co-Operative Dairy Company, from Steve Allen. Both are relatively small producers in their industries and have chosen to focus on adding margin rather than dealing in volume. Another common feature in these two stories was the close link between the producers and the consumer.

The final session focused on three speakers talking about sector best practice. Rob Davison from Beef & Lamb's Economic Service opened his address with some sobering statistics about the amount of land which has been lost from sheep and beef production in recent years. He then talked of the gains in production that could be achieved by farmers and what these would mean in terms of increased economic returns to the industry. He talked of how Beef & Lamb are developing a simple internet based portal where farmers could benchmark their production and see what effect a 10 percent increase in lambing percentage would have for instance. Finally, Graham Turley from ANZ Bank spoke of how he felt farmers were ready to embrace the challenge of increasing their performance and strengthening their financial position in order to meet the challenges ahead.

This brought a very successful conference to a close. I felt it was good to see something tangible arise from the strategy document. The important thing now is for each sector of the industry to take on board the messages they have heard and try to implement a change. Farmers need to set themselves some achievable and realistic targets in terms of increased production and develop targets around commitment to meat companies. So we can go to next years conference and say "this is what we have achieved, what have the rest of you done". Conference presentations can be obtained from the Meat Industry Association website by clicking here.

Tim Mackintosh
Member, Meat & Fibre Executive

NZShearing programme
The New Zealand Shearing Contractors Association is in the process of developing a new programme - "NZShearing" - that is designed to to recognise excellence in wool harvesting, encourage better communication of market signals and ensure consistent product description.

The document has been drafted and the Federation has provided feedback to the association on the draft document and looks forward to working with them to ensure the final document is as robust and effective as possible.

Open shearing sheds
Members who use open shearing sheds are reminded they should pay the PAYE involved as per the required schedule, so that, should a shearer be injured, they get paid the right amount of ACC.

New Beef +Lamb New Zealand levy rates announced
Effective from 1 October 2011, the new levy rates are $0.55 per head for sheep meat and $4.20 per head for beef. The announcement can be found at http://www.beeflambnz.com/main.cfm?id=437

National Identification and Tracing [NAIT] scheme is to take effect from 1 July 2012
The implementation date of the National Animal Identification and Tracing [NAIT] scheme, involving the mandatory tagging of cattle, is likely to be 1 July 2012 - subject to the passing of the NAIT legislation.

The requirements around tagging cattle can be found on the NAIT website by clicking here or by contacting David Burt at the Federation's Wellington office at dburt@fedfarm.org.nz.

Biosecurity Reform Bill
The Biosecurity Reform Bill has been reported back by the Primary Select Committee and awaits a second reading. We raised a number of serious concerns with the Bill including changes to border inspection, Import Health Standard formation, Government Industry Agreements and the Pest Management strategy formation. While a number of changes to the draft Bill have been made, the key Government Industry Agreement legislation remains the same. Although the changes made are an improvement a number of concerns regarding levies and farmers paying for readiness and response activities continue to progress. On the positive, the legislation is not expected to progress this term and there are still opportunities to work through our concerns with MAF. An industry working group representing all primary sector organisations is presenting a number of alternative initiatives to MAF in the hopes of making changes to the current Agreement process.

The two leadership courses being held later in the year are now fully booked, but details about next year's courses are on our website, click here to find out more.  

Getting Your Feet Wet -  Level 1 courses will be held on 22 - 23 February, 16 - 17 May and 4 - 5 April and 24 - 25 October in 2012.

Shining under the Spotlight - Level 2 courses will be held on 4 - 5 April, 11 - 12 July and 28 - 29 November in 2012.

These courses provide members with valuable opportunities to develop their leadership skills to benefit both the sector and their businesses.

Employment Agreements
Federated Farmers has a completely up to date range of Contracts and Agreements to assist with all aspects of rural employment.  We have employment contracts for fixed term, casual and permanent employment agreements, as well as Application for Employment forms, Application for Leave forms, Contract for Services and Occupational Health and Safety manuals.

Members pay from just $50 + GST, non members may also purchase from $150 + GST.

To discuss and order your employment contract and agreement needs call 0800 FARMING (0800 327 646) to talk with our Customer Service Team. 

Special offers for Members of Federated Farmers
All current members enjoy great purchasing discounts when shopping with Federated Farmers sponsors.  For example Resene Paints offer members a 25 percent discount off premium paint in the 500ml to 4 litre range, Swanndri gives a massive 20 percent discount off orders placed online and Avis provide an additional five percent discount off the best deal of the day. Remember to present your Federated Farmers card to our sponsors and enjoy the extra savings and benefits of being a member.

Federated Farmers Meat & Fibre
Please remember that if you have any issues or queries you would like to discuss, please feel free to contact Federated Farmers on 0800 FARMING (327 646) or contact your local Federated Farmers Meat & Fibre representative or one of the executive team as listed below.

Head Office
PO Box 715
Wellington 6140
Tel:  04 473 7269
Fax: 04 473 1081
www.fedfarm.org.nz

Staff contact - David Burt
Tel:  0800 327 646
Fax: 04 473 1081
Email: dburt@fedfarm.org.nz

Chairperson - Jeanette Maxwell
Tel:        03 302 8860
Fax:       03 302 8849
Mobile:   027 357 4464
Email:  jmaxwell@fedfarm.org.nz

Vice-chairperson - Dugald Mclean
Tel/Fax:  03 313 5442
Email: mcleanfam@xtra.co.nz 

Executive members:

Tim Mackintosh
Tel:  07 322 1039
Email: timmack@xtra.co.nz

Will Foley
T: 06 855 8009
F: 06 855 8008
M: 027 499 6947
E: wfoley@clear.net.nz

Lyn Neeson
T/F: 07 893 8547
M: 027 353 7907
E: alyn@xtra.co.nz

A full list of the Federated Farmers Meat & Fibre team can be found by clicking here.