Agsafe Weekly Rural Report
Finance:. NZ dollar firmed slightly over the week but the cross rate with the Australian dollar remains a concern. The Brent Crude moved up over the week & is currently $109.27/barrel. It’s the cost of refining that has gone up as the Russian refineries are destroyed.
Wool: The prices in both the crossbred and finer wools are encouraging but have eased again at last weeks’ sales.
Beef, Sheep & Venison schedules: The meat schedules remain steady across all categories as the spring growth kicks in. The international demand for red meat is very strong. Schedules are expected to rise leading up to Christmas.
Dairy Prices The alternative week Pulse Auction shows both WMP and SMP continuing to increase. Another positive auction next week will be good for the confidence in the dairy industry. Final payments will have been received, but spend cautiously.
The early maize crops are up and silage making is underway. The frost across much of the Waikato this morning could damage the early crops. The spring fertiliser should be on and grazing rotations can be shortened as grass growth rates start to peak. Do you still do feed budgets as they are crucial in optimising pasture utilization?
Quote: “Strange as it may seem, I still hope for the best, even though the best, like an interesting piece of mail, so rarely arrives, and even when it does it can be lost so easily.”
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,
AgriZero has been in the news lately after the Chairman of AgriZero announced a funding from Farmlands Cooperative. Rob Hewitt is the Chair of AgriZero and of Farmlands and the independence of the investment was questioned. The investment from Farmlands is moderately small compared with the size of the fund that now has $308 million of investment being 50% government funded and partnered with The Alliance Group, Farmlands, a2Milk, ANZ, ASB, BNZ Fonterra, Rabobank, Ravensdown, Synlait, Silver Fern Farms and ANZCO (meat exporter). The governments investment is to match industries investment with dollar for dollar. It is a powerful group of investors with a strong Board of Directors. The objective of AgriZero is to accelerate the development and the deployment of tools to help farmers reduce emissions without compromising profitability and productivity. A noble objective as they correctly state that Agriculture is the backbone of the NZ economy and they go on to remind themselves of the importance of reducing emissions. They are convinced that global customers are setting ambitious emission targets that will put critical revenue streams at risk. I personally find this strange as China and India don’t care about the Paris Agreement and NetZero, the USA pulled out of the Paris Accord and even some of the big international companies like Nestle and Mars have modified their approaches to NetZero over the last year. I have listened to various commentators trying hard to defend AgriZero and all I hear is “political speak” that lacks substance and fact with the commentators trying hard to support it to stay “politically acceptable”. AgriZero is fixated on Methane reduction and the development of various inhibitors, bolus’s, drenches, vaccines and breeding programs to be available by 2030 in an attempt to lower the Methane emissions. The concept of AgriZero and its objectives are dumb and there will be millions of dollars wasted to achieve nothing while more important things such as health seem to be underfunded. Methane (CH4) is a very minor gas in the atmosphere at 0.0002% compared with Carbon Dioxide (CO2) at 0.042%. Methane is considered more potent as a Green House Gas (GHG) than CO2 and has a shorter atmospheric life, but it is still problem gas. The oxidation of Methane allows some specialist bacteria to use Methane as a source of energy to produce CO2 and water – (CH4 + 2O2 = CO2 + H2O) and that’s how Methane become a very bad gas because it makes more CO2. Methane is released from livestock, wetlands including peat bogs and rice-paddies (whoops, what are the large rice growing countries doing??), landfills and gas and oil fields and there is more Methane in the Northern Hemisphere than the Southern Hemisphere. I prefer to listen to Prof Ian Plimer, Dr Richard Lindzen, Dr William Happer, Dr Judith Currie and many others about the effect of Methane and CO2 on the climate than a group of politicians playing games with the international trade markets. The NZ politicians and the directors of AgriZero need to have at least 1 hour a day of science lessons to help them understand the nonsense they are peddling and the money they are wasting looking for the fairies at the bottom of the garden. NZ is coming out of a financial crisis and investment needs to go into growing businesses and industry and supporting our economy and not into made-up problems trying to control and manage nature.