Agsafe Weekly Rural Report
Finance:. NZ dollar eased again over the week & the real concern is the cross rate with the Australian dollar. The Brent Crude varied across the week dropping below $100/barrel before rising again & is currently $104.07/barrel.
Wool: The prices in both the crossbred and finer wools are encouraging but eased about 5% at last weeks sale.
Beef, Sheep & Venison schedules: The meat schedules remain steady to slightly easier across all categories as the spring growth kicks in. The international demand for red meat is very strong pushing the local prices higher.
Dairy Prices Fonterra revised its season estimates upwards with a new mid-point of $9.50. They are also offering a Consumer-Funded Emissions incentive of 10-25c to the lowest net footprint farmers – Fonterra has been sucked into the Climate nonsense!!!!
Fonterra’s final payout is $9.69/kg ms down 4.6% on last year which is $0.47 drop. The final dividend is up from $0.57 cents to $0.73. Last years payout was $10.16 and remember the 2021/22 payout was $9.30. This years payout is being lauded in the media as a great result – tell all employees to take a 4.7% in income and the then listen to howling!!!!
Quote: “ You cannot control the behavior of others, but you can always choose how you respond to it.”
Need Help. If at any time you just want to talk & need someone to talk to, just call - Male Support Services (Waikato) 0800-677-289, or Rural Support Trust 0800-787-245. Crisis TXT – HELP (4357). A shared problem can be a problem solved!!
Jims Rant,
The formation of a new education lobby group follows on from my Rant last week. The new group known as “The Parents Alliance” seems to have been formed as a challenge to Education Unions and to encourage parents to become more involved in formulating educational outcomes. The group is chaired by Cameron Bagrie who is very well regarded in his understanding of the needs of our country. Cameron’s longtime comment echoes the thoughts of many of us “ if you want to see the state of a nation’s economy in thirty years, look at its education system and achievement now.” – so true!!! The aims of the Alliance are:
1. Ensuring educational achievement and progress for students is the top priority for our schools.
2. Ensuring teachers are well trained and ready for the classroom.
3. School reports are meaningful.
4. There must be more early support for those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds.
5. There needs to be fewer zoning barriers for high schools meaning parents can send their child to the one most appropriate.
6. An insistence that schools are surveyed annually by the parents so that schools know what they must do to improve.
They are 6 simple yet powerful statements with the need for a seventh being:
“The education system must ensure that the teaching is relevant to careers on offer”.
Thirty years from now, I have no idea what the world will look like or what the work-force will need to know, but what I do know is that a young person finishing school today has little appreciation of the jobs or careers available and that the NCEA is seen by the students as a game to accumulate the minimum necessary points to get through the system. My 17-year old grandson is in Year 12 (old 6th Form) and while he is bright enough, he doesn’t seem to be given the educational motivation to achieve more than what is required to get through, he advises me of the path he has worked out to get his much-needed credits.
The Parents Alliance includes David Farrar who founded the Tax-Payers Union and former Labour Cabinet Minister, Chris Faafoi together with two Wellington businesswoman and mothers. To date the group has nearly 3,000 signed up supporters at parentsalliance.nz. The motivation to develop a group to support better educational outcomes comes off the disastrous results of our NZ education system where in 2000 NZ was 5th on the overall list combining maths, reading and science and by 2012 we’d slipped to 20th but last year we’d climbed back up to 10th, but we should be better. The value of education was always a given in our house growing up and I like to think that value was passed on to my children and now my grandchildren. Let’s all support a better education system with improving outcomes as we need the brightest and the best to be our agricultural leaders in 30-years’ time. Perhaps a re-watch of the educational motivational movie – Dead Poets Society staring Robin Williams, and remember that statement – Carpe Diem – seize the day. We must seize the day or the moment and prepare for tomorrow now!!