Dairy Restructuring Amendment Bill attracts different views

Fonterra chairman, Henry van der Heyden, says that monitoring the milk price is not necessary, but “we can live with it”, particularly with Commerce Commission oversight, while Simon Couper, Fonterra Shareholders’ Council chair, believes it to be draconian with the potential over time “to destroyNew Zealand’s biggest, most successful and most important export industry.”

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Schedule setting process as much art as science

The weekly schedule setting process is a hallowed meat industry tradition which determines what farmers will receive for their livestock during the week beginning with the Sunday evening phone calls from buyers.

Meat and dairy prices off their peak for now, but outlook positive

The recent fall in Fonterra’s GlobalDairyTrade on line auction for the fifth time in six months means global dairy prices have fallen by 9% since last May and by 24% over the season when adjusted for the value of theNew Zealanddollar. The dollar has only just come off historical highs against both theUKpound and the euro, so the combined effect on our dairy, beef and lamb exports has been disappointing to say the least.

Cheltenham Festival the best week’s horseracing

This is a self indulgent piece of writing about what I have always reckoned is the best horseracing week of the year anywhere in the world. It doesn’t take place at Flemington, Riccarton, Ascot or Aintree, but in a magnificent amphitheatre just below the Cotswold Hills on the edge of Cheltenham inEngland.

AFFCO able to operate despite lock out

Interested observers of the argument between AFFCO and its unionised meat workers may be confused by a state of affairs which results in a portion of the workforce being locked out, another percentage going on strike in support of their colleagues, and the rest of the workforce being able to keep production going.

More farmer support for Beef & Lamb NZ

Keith Cooper’s resignation and call to farmers to give meat companies their levy funds for marketing appear to have, in B&LNZ chairman Mike Petersen’s words, “crystallised support for the organisation.”

AFFCO digs in for the long haul

The dispute between AFFCO and its unionised workforce doesn’t look like ending any time soon, a fact admitted on the radio on Tuesday morning by Dave Eastlake, Meat Workers Union National President.