Lipstick doesn’t hide the ugly truth

Silver Fern Farms released its annual loss accompanied by a press release which attempted to put some gloss on what was in reality an awful result. It was an improvement on the year before, a matter of some pride on the teleconference this morning, but a $36.5 million loss was only $5.8 million less than the previous year.

Advertisement

Genetics programmes critical for improving productivity

Two complementary programmes have just been announced which promise to deliver improved sheep traits which will compensate for lower production and generate greater profits.

American sheep farmers suffering even more than New Zealand

An article headlined ‘Drought, high feed costs hurt sheep ranchers,’ appeared last Friday in the Northern Colorado Business Report. It makes the problems being experienced currently by New Zealand sheep farmers look comparatively pretty small.

Silver Fern Farms bullish in spite of $31 million loss

Hard on the heels of Alliance’s announcement, Silver Fern Farms has also come out with a big loss, reinforcing the belief that all meat companies have had a bad year. SFF’s result was a loss of $31.1 million compared with a profit of $30.8 million before extraordinary items the previous year.

Alliance posts $50.8 million loss for last season

Alliance posted its annual result on Friday which was every bit as bad as predicted, a net after tax loss of $50.8 million for the 12 months ended September. The result included restructuring costs of $13.5 million associated with the closure of the company’s Mataura sheep and lamb processing operations which followed similar costs of $19.4 million the previous year from the closure of its Sockburn plant.