Agsafe Weekly Rural Report

Finance: The US dollar was steady over the week as markets get used to the Trump trade war. The Australian dollar weakened slightly as they move towards a consolidating of a failed government!! Brent Crude has eased again to around $61.00/barrel.
Wool: Wool prices The Government buildings should prefer woollen carpets – good start but need more action!!
Beef, Sheep & Venison schedules: Meat schedules are steady to slightly easier. The demand for red meats especially the manufacturing beef in the USA is strong. Venison prices are good, lamb & beef schedules are OK
Dairy Prices. Dairy prices are strong. The slight drop noted above is due to the stronger US dollar. The g/DT this week will be a good indicator of the effect of the tariffs on China where there are several 100’s of millions of workers directly affected by the tariffs.
Stock will be coming & going from grazing. It is important to have weights & growth rates recorded. Some photos are always helpful. It is important to establish the health/drench plan with the grazier & make arrangement for inspection at least every 2-months. It is always a tough job arguing a case of poor management when the information is unavailable and several months after the fact!!.
Jim’s Weekly Rant:
It’s election day in Australia and the outcome will be important to NZ as it will be part of defining the relationships in the Pacific and Asia region. A couple of months back the Coalition led by Peter Dutton looked to be in the box seat to win the election from Albanese’s Labor party supported by the nutty Greens and the entitled Teals. In Canada the elections last week saw the Trudeau Liberal Party under the new leadership of Mark Carney returned to power over the Conservatives Pierre Poilievre who was previously expected to win. The Canadian’s election came down to who could best fight Trump and who was the most likely anti-Trump candidate. Australians’ political fortunes have turned for the exact same reason. Sky News Australia showed a graph of the political support in both Australia and Canada and the change in support for the Australian Coalition and the Canadian Conservatives both dropped dramatically on the “Trump” factor, transferring the support back to Labor in Australia and the Liberals in Canada, that is the support swung back to the socialist left of politics. Albanese and his Labor party will need the Greens and the Teals to support them to form a government and the policies they promote are woke madness at the best. They are the same politicians that promoted the failed “Voice” referendum in Australia, who encourage the embarrassing “Welcome to Our Country” performances at every sporting event and even at the solemn ANZAC commemorations. They are chasing the ideological Net Zero dream that is pushing electricity prices up and they were unaware of the Chinese frigates in the Tasman Sea or of the Russians seeking air-force access to airfields in Indonesia. Dutton is keen to develop nuclear power to ensure the economic stability of Australia and develop better alliances with the USA and other Western Countries. But alas, the fear of an unknown Trump seems to override sensibility and reality and all we need to do is look at Spain and Portugal this last week and see how the reliance on “renewables” for energy shutdown two countries when the sudden drop in power generation collapsed the same system. Australia wants to move to, “renewables” that will destabilize the industries and the economy. Australia will go backwards with another term of Albanese running the country as they show support for the Hamas rebels in Gaza, promote racial division and chase unrealistic dreams while allowing the growing mythology of the Aboriginal people to stop development and progress. They have a similar problem to NZ where anyone seems to be able to declare themselves to be indigenous and some don’t even have any ancestral claim to being “indigenous”, just a wish for political expediency. After Trump was inaugurated the leaders of the center-right of politics hailed his decisive actions as something to aspire too and we all wish that some of our politicians had the necessary attributes to act decisively, but with the tariff war and some of Trumps statements about annexing Canada and Greenland has changed the world view and the effects will be far reaching affecting both Australia and Canada for at least another election term. We can only pray that the Australians look beyond the Trump effect and get rid of the woke socialists and supporters of terrorism and division and look towards a government that wants to grow the economy of our closest neighbours. The outcome of the Australian elections are critical to our future and the stability of the Pacific – Asia region.!!
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