Fonterra staff cuts adding more uncertainty and stress and signalling the wrong message

So on top of the carnage of the last auction we now have Fonterra slashing and burning staff. I was appalled not only for the staff but for farmers who were already left reeling this morning - only to have the headline news plastered with what looks like a hara-kiri cost cutting measure.
The timing could not have been more inappropriate...and it looked desperate.
The irony is that many farmers have defended the number of staff needed to run such a large scale organisation and the salaries committed to keep the best minds inside the co-op.
They weren't calling for the delete button...not by any means. Farmers are bright...they read a lot, they network a lot and they work social media better than most of the city slickers.
They know they are at the mercy of world prices - Fonterra can't control the price...and yes - in a time when all farmers have to make efficiencies it makes sense for everyone to be reviewing their practices.
But I'm sorry - this just seems like the panic button has been pushed - and the message that sends farmers already completely stressed by their financial situation is that they're screwed...
Fonterra has a responsibility to its farmers. It needs to be the parent in this situation. It needed to help reassure and advise farmers - and yet, instead it became an insular child, sulking in a room.
May-be Damien O'Connor was right when he said this morning on twitter that Fonterra has always been slow.
It's time for vision, cool heads and strong leadership. Sacking a tonne of staff smacks of a business model that has lost it's way. I'm afraid knee jerk is absolutely on the money when describing today's turn of events.
I like how Andrew Hoggard put it when the first round of job cuts were announced:
"As for these reviews Fonterra had the big strategic refresh only a couple of years ago, and a whole bunch of changes since then.  The obvious question is, if we have people in the wrong place why wasn’t all this identified back then and since then? Are these changes being talked about just a routine evolution of a business over time? None of our farms stay still.  We keep making little changes each year.  Is this just the same or is it bigger? The unfortunate appearance is it’s just a knee jerk response."

All roads lead to China - Chinese whispers over alleged houses for trade deals

The two worlds of China and Auckland have again collided and there are Chinese whispers aplenty...for months now I've been hearing of alleged so called agricultural trade deals done in China in exchange for housing in Auckland.
And now Labour comes out with this list which predictably the media have twisted into a racist row. I suggest you look at what Andrew Little is not saying...why is he sticking his neck out over this one, knowing that it could look racist?
He is not a stupid man...I suggest there is much more than meets the eye on this one...may-be more to come. Are there handshakes going on behind closed doors and if so...who is clasping the hand?
There may be nothing in it...then again there might be...(and no I'm not suggesting it's John Key!)
And no, I'm not a Labour or National supporter before you ask...and I don't normally trade on rumours until there are so many of them it becomes a virtual bonfire!
But let's ask ourselves what the price of trade deals with China are...and why Little is making such an apparent mountain out of a molehill.

Craig's legacy...a man that has a passion in Synlait?

We were all shocked by Craig's sudden demise. As a young (cough cough - hate to admit I've aged!) ag journalist in those heady years when Craig took on merging companies who basically loathed each other and managed to get them to not only sit together but work together for the greater good, I admired his tenacity.
He was forthright, quick thinking, and above all brutally honest.
As a journalist I was thrilled that he always answered my calls, and spoke in volumes of  passion about the dairy industry he loved. He wanted it to work...and because of  him it is working. He was always a gentleman but only 36 years old when  he took on Fonterra.
He was brave, fearless and didn't care what others thought of his style.
Former titan of Ashburton dairy farming and chairman of the first Fonterra board John Roadley told me today what a visionary Craig was.
He could see problems before they arose, he said, and his passion for NZ agriculture was not surpassed...
Until now...in a strange irony I have to say that John Penno from Synlait (the opposition) reminds me of Craig...he answers my calls...he doesn't dodge media requests...and tells me in passionate terms what is happening in the market. He is visionary and one supplier told me today how proud they were to be with Synlait...
There is no PR spin (Nathan Guy's office would do well to note that) - no ego...just passion. And it reminds me of a young Craig Norgate determined to succeed.
I know that Craig was not everyone's cup of tea but I know there hasn't been one person who would deny his impact on NZ agriculture.
He made a difference and really that's all we can ask for.

Chopping and changing...dairy farm land remains the same

It seems that Key guy is as slippery as one of those Stonegrill pans my friends are fond of (Teflon John rides again!) ...and if you can unlock the English Key code you'll find they are a teency weency bit worried about the economy in the face of falling dairy incomes.
Yesterday Mr English was saying the dairy industry was "probably a smaller part of [the economy] than most people think".
By this morning, after much questioning Mr Slippery as an Eel Key was saying:
"What happens is that dairy farmers will spend less money in those local communities...(Banks) have a very fluid overdraft system."
That doesn't sound very healthy to my fifth form economic class mind but who am I to comment...
Mr Key pinned our economy on the fact that dairy farm prices are not moving...
I would like to know from you if this is purely PR spin...I haven't seen many if any farms for sale in the past six  months...and with vegetable growers putting equal pressure on sales I can't say if what he is saying is true.
Tell me your thoughts? Is recession really tied up in land value and if so how?

Bill English needs a good strong cup of reality

It was interesting listening to TVNZ's Q and A this morning - my ears perked up when I heard yet another Government line about dairying not being the bee all and end all to our economy.
I say this because on a recent visit to Ashburton Nathan Guy was positively brimming with optimism that prices were just a short term glitch.
And it's more than a little frustrating to hear a farming man like English, although a little glib, saying dairying was "only about 5 to 6 per cent of the whole economy."
"It's only 20 per cent of our exports. The other 80 per cent will be starting to enjoy the benefits of the lower exchange rate, and the lower exchange rate will help cushion the impact on dairy of their lower prices."
He should have thrown in one of his stock standard shrug of the shoulders to really ram the point home...and what was that point?
Perhaps Bill was a little the worse for wear this morning after his night out celebrating the Highlanders' win (and who could blame him!) - may-be his hearing aids need to be turned up just a tad because I'm pretty sure he missed the meeting on the flow on affects of a dairy slump.
To put it in simple terms, our towns are starting to bleed, and when towns start to bleed because of a halt in spending the cities start to bleed too.
Admitting that this might go on a little longer than he had previously thought was a huge step in Bill's PR "economy is fine" campaign that's been on the gramophone now for what? - probably the last six years.
What catches a Government out quicker than a Winston Peter's enquiry is complacency - and betting on getting through by doing what we've always done before.
Right now our sheep meat industry is in chaos - as part of Bill's magic 80 (the rest of us that he can cobble together to earn a quick export buck) we don't look to be on the front foot.
But writing off the dairy sector by saying it's only 20 percent of our exports denotes a little more than optimism - and a need for a good strong cup of reality.
Tea anyone?

And here we go again..Pebbles Hooper comits disgraceful social media foh pah - MUST BE SACKED

So while we were all celebrating a great Southern victory last night - this was tweeted from socialite Pebbles Hooper. She is a NZ Herald columnist and appears on the Paul Henry Show for her views regularly.
This might not be a farming issue but it is one I touched on in the previous post and it is also one that I'm close too as I work in Ashburton. I've seen the pain first hand of this tragedy. What we do know is that Cindy George was by all accounts a wonderful loving Mum. This is the second tragedy to befall the Cook Island community in Ashburton as they lost another child tragically a few months back. I went to that funeral and I can tell you there is nothing that embodies a caring family more than the Cook Island way.
They are hard working people trying to make a living in New Zealand and have greatly enriched our provinces and small towns as have the many other nationalities that have come over the past decade to make Mid Canterbury a proud multi-cultural community.
What makes this ironic is that often the provinces get stereotyped as being the rednecks and racists of our country - and yet this young educated women from Auckland is spouting the rubbish that taints our society.
Outraged is a fairly common sentiment among those that have seen her words and now her defense of those words. To try and justify what she said is paramount to sticking the knife in deeper.
There was a leader, a long time ago who spouted similar selection ideals - that related to blonde hair and blue eyes and led to genocide.
That is why we don't stand for this. That is why she MUST be sacked and MUST apologise to a hurting Cook Island family.
Social media is a wonderful thing...but it can also be a slippery slide to those who develop Messiah like egos.

Social Media changing farming - making our Nathan Guy less than likely to broach the hard issues

So I got posted these pictures today from the World Heritage listed Wollangambe River in the Blue Mountains where Clarence Colliery allegedly dumped toxic coal waste.

 

If this is correct, this company is another example of not learning fast enough that we are in a social media environment where pictures can be circulated in seconds and speculation can become fact by sheer weight of mass population that it goes too.

That is why I believe NZ farmers are doing the very best they can to meet all our animal welfare and environmental standards. The small one percent of idiots are going to court but no farmer I know wants to be plastered all over Facebook and made to look like a redneck with no education.

Any slip up and it's all over the world in a nano second....which is alarming when it's incorrect. In the case of the live sheep export to Mexico SAFE did immense damage to our sheep trade by being allowed to talk without backing up their facts. Media jumped on their sensationalist headlines (not my media I might add!) and used it to sell papers without a thought as to what carnage it could cause.

When I'm sent this stuff I always want to see the other side before I make a decision - I thought that was what everybody else did too but now I know there are people with agendas who simply will not bend their views to allow others.

This worries me as we are a democracy - and increasingly I see farmers rights being imploded against the need for politicians to win elections.

In NZ farmers don't hold the balance of power - even though they hold the economy in the palm of their hands and this country would collapse should a true agricultural disaster like foot and mouth ever come to our shores.

When I spoke to Nathan Guy's office this week about live sheep for slaughter and whether even discussion would be allowed around the issue, his press secretary told me he already knew the answer and that was a big fat "no".

It seems the next election is never too far from a politician's mind....Just once I would like a Primary Industries minister to stand up for farmers. It hasn't happened for a long time on either side...

 

The Animal Welfare hysteria! FACTS

Yes..after a five year hiatus I am back in blog land...and as frustrated back then as I am now!
Somehow the urban/rural divide has grown and that was never more clearer than in the hysteria I like to call "successful sheep shipment to Mexico."
I have no position on sheep exports...but I have grown up in a farming community. I have witnessed animal welfare standards first hand and I know how much money is lost when a lamb dies.
Peter Walsh had the balls to say he could take this contract on...and no SAFE there was no dilly dallying over numbers...there was I think 76 farmers who supplied the VERY BEST in breeding stock for this shipment. Peter has been clear from the start about all figures.
People said this shipment was a secret! I knew about it from February this year...MPI releases figures as soon as you ask for them...I can only say that SAFE and the other activists were not  bothered with ringing the right people.
Peter would have talked to these people had they rung. And when you say he should have talked about it from the start I say why the hell would  he embark on a publicity witch-hunt willingly?
Peter and Karen Walsh are decent people. They would never condone animal welfare violence. This was a shipment that was carried out with every sheep in mind. Peter has a long history in the sheep industry. He is not a villain. He doesn't make huge amounts of money out of these shipments but he does care about farmers and their stock!
SAFE and others say this was done in secret but that is simply not true. Peter and Karen were advertising on their website for many months for farmers to supply them with sheep...I'm sorry they didn't notify you guys...hang on - was that an MPI requirement?
And now the positives that SAFE can't say even though Hans told our feisty Ashburton reporter Daisy Hudson yesterday that the death rate "wasn't too bad" - this shipment could have been a two week period on a big sheep farm. Actually, with the snow in the South Island there would have been a lot more lost...but why should we let facts get in the way of a good story.
I supplied Paul Henry, TV2 and HDPA with photos and urged them to look at the data. What did they do? Well...Paul Henry decided to have SAFE on without balance, TV1 did nothing as it wasn't headline news...do you  understand the picture!
I was twitter trolled last night by people asking me if I  loved the lambs on my farm! Do those same people ask about animal welfare at point of sale?
$15 million came into our economy in a terrible year for farmers. I honestly am shocked at urban complaints...Look at the photos and good on you Peter for having the guts to do what others wouldn't. I really hope you keep going - for the NZ farmer's sake.
That's not to say that what went on in Saudi Arabia wasn't bad. I don't know one single farmer that doesn't feel uncomfortable with exporting live sheep for slaughter...but what if we could regulate..what if we could find countries who wouldn't do that?
And now ladies and gentlemen: the facts according to SAFE on TV when sheep left:
They said 30% would die....0.4 sheep died
They said sheep were starving in dustbowl on feedlot before they left: If they had  bothered to check they would have found that we had a wet month...there was no dust! Sheep were acclimatised on pellets. Apparently at least another 2000 sheep were lined up at the feedlot had there been any "shy feeders on board"
They said today that "many sheep died of starvation": When they were questioned they backtracked and said this was what happened in the past.
The real question is why the media gives these people air? They have no facts!