Crucial times for sheep and beef farmer leadership

The referendum in August will determine sheep and beef farmer representation by Meat & Wool New Zealand (MWNZ) and funding of its activities from April 2010. Under the Commodity Levies Act MWNZ must seek a mandate every six years from farmers who have one vote per farm and one per 250 sheep and goats, 50 beef or 100 dairy cattle.

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PGW latest to try to convince farmers to take up e-commerce

The press release announcing the launch of Agonline last week suggests PGG Wrightson (PGW) “is bringing e-commerce to the rural sector with the first specialist auction site for livestock trading.” Praiseworthy and bold it may be, but I can remember Fencepost’s Livestock Online launched seven years ago and more recently Allied Farmers’ MyLiveStock which got there before Agonline.

Big falling out between would be partners

Several clichés spring to mind after the latest twist in the relationship between Silver Fern Farms (SFF) and PGG Wrightson (PGW), but at the moment “Hell hath no fury like a (partner) scorned” seems the most appropriate. When I spoke to Keith Cooper about the $10 million offer from PGW and its method of presentation – a letter closely followed by the press release last Tuesday afternoon – he used words like ‘antagonistic’ and ‘unusual’, particularly since the parties were in discussion, and said the offer was ‘grossly inadequate and totally unacceptable’.