Agsafe Weekly Rural Report
Finance: The NZ dollar finished the week up slightly on the previous couple of weeks but remains weak against the US dollar. Brent Crude has lifted to +$86.50/barrel. Trump is wanting oil prices down to try and starve the Russians out of the war.
Wool: Wool prices remain in the doldrums. Let’s hope 2025 will bring something exciting to the wool industry.
Beef, Sheep & Venison schedules: Meat schedules are steady. Venison prices are good. Lamb schedules are a concern & perhaps we need a ramp up the national lamb day in February. Beef prices are OK.
Dairy Prices. The g/DT lifted 1.4% with WMP up 5% to $US3988/tn, Butter +2.2% while AMF fell 7.8%. It was a very good result underpinning the seasons expected Farm Gate Milk Price..
Jim’s Weekly Rant:
Donald Trumps inauguration heralded some massive changes for the USA. There was no mucking around and he just signed a 100+ executive orders that have changed the face of a nation overnight. I was thinking of this in relation to how our government mucks around dropping hints of change then developing a three-month strategy then comes up with another idea for the next three-months. The economic turn-around in the USA appeared to be almost instantaneous while NZ wallows in an economic depression for two to three years at a time. We have also seen Argentina vote in a new right-wing president who introduced some massive policy changes in an economy that has been the basket-case of South America (if you exclude Venezuela) that have worked reducing inflation and turning the countries massive deficit into a modest surplus over 18-months. The measures were tough. The achievement was facilitated by a combination of reductions in budgetary allocations (for things including public works, economic subsidies for energy and transportation, and transfers to provinces) and below-inflation increases in other areas (such as public sector wages and pensions). Reducing government expenses was not easy, but the administration pushed them through their Congress and they are now about to reap the benefits. Our coalition government has been in power now for 15 months and the “Fast-Track” legislation is still waiting to be finalised and Shane Jones will make a speech on the 31st January regarding the mining and mineral extraction plans and remember that Donald Trump, just said Drill, Drill, Drill, and that is what will happen or has already started to happen. After 15 months we have just been given the proposed changes to the science sector and research initiatives, the government has announced a new bureaucracy to encourage off-shore investment in NZ. All stuff they talked about two years ago when electioneering and wanting your vote and are now just starting to do something about it. I don’t want a Presidential type political system, but I do want action and to see our country get a kick-start. I still believe our government is still too afraid to tackle some of the woke leftish nonsense. Trump has said that leaving the Paris Accord and the IPCC will save the USA 3-trillion dollars and many of us believe that NZ will save billions if we leave the Paris Accord, and remember that Russia, China, India and a number of smaller countries are not hooked to the Net Zero by 2030, that means that over 50% of the worlds population are ignoring the ideological nonsense. The Methane research alone is expected to exceed a billion dollars to achieve nothing. Nationals drop in the recent polls is based on a lack of perceived activity on matters that really matter to the ordinary New Zealander and in particular their lack of understanding of the racial divisions that occurring in our society – Trumps answer to that was to put the army along the Mexican boarder and deport all illegal immigrants, it is not something that is needed in New Zealand, but expecting everyone in NZ to be a equal New Zealander is an important pillar of our society. Drip feeding policy over the term of a government will not get the economy kick-started, New Zealand needs some real action and we should demand it.!
The Coalition has a year to turn things around so that as we begin the journey to the election, they must demonstrate they have the situation under control – instead of merely saying so. Whether they are up to the task – remains the big question of 2025.