We are all told that it’s because it clean, green etc.

But I would put a bob or two on it that it’s cause we are cheap! and bloody beautiful.

I have travelled extensively and when ever I said I came from NZ I always got ” what a beautiful country you come from” not what a clean green country you have.

Lets get real, we need to lift our game production wise in a whole heap of areas and arrest this downward spiral we are in. get ourselves back amongst the more wealthy and productive countries before we join the third world. Plus make a country that our young enterprising people want to live in to prevent them form heading offshore for the bigger brighter world.

Rather than having herds roaming free and leaving effluent to flow where it will, with the risk of pollution to waterways and aquifers, it would, while the cows were under cover at least, be collected for more orderly disposal.

Yeah, because the alternative wuld be to have these kind of… ditch things… which kind of… collected the run off… and sent it where it could be filtered or otherwise controlled. We could even call them “drains”…

In my experience farmers are concerned about the environment (and I was ralking to them back in the 80s, before environmentalism became mainstream). They realise that damaging the environment means damaging their asset, sooner or later. But they also have to keep a farm profitable, on often very small margins.

If a fraction of the money spent on “tourism” promotions like hip hop tours over the last 20 years or so had been spent on assisting farmers to institute effective (but often expensive) environmental protection measures and conversion to more sustainable farming practices, we wouldn’t be building indoor lavatories for cows.

Dairy farming always has been and in the forseeable future will be, all about turning sunshine into money. The fact that the intermediate steps are grass and lactating bovine ruminants is purely an efficiency choice on the part of the farmer. he could choose grass and ovines or grass and porcines or small seeds or edible crops but he doesn’t. Yes by God, farming is a business. …. Quelle Horreur (spp?) quick someone tell Norman and Kedgely that it is not about cuddly animals with names like Flossie and Bossie and warm hands on cold mornings.

Bah Humbug

Isn’t there irrigation for something or other?

No, I’m with SSB on the economics of it, the intensification of dairy farming can be very profitable when the payout is high and costs are stable, this sort of operation can look good on paper because the initial capital investment is lower than that of buying good dairy land at $40,000/ha, but a relatively small drop in the payout can wipe out a fairly narrow profit margin, and dairy payouts in NZ are, relative to most other things, very volatile.

It does, yes. Though…

Federated Farmers said “so-called factory farming” cut costs,

So…er yup i dunno.

More labour instensive, higher capital requirement in barns & such and is very dependent on feed costs; offset i guess by economy of scale and the low cost of land in Mckenzie Country.

The only places it “works” are the USA and EU where the farmers exist inside some large protected market.

“Osment Dairy Goats herd is one of many indoor herds in New Zealand, although more labour intensive with feeding and bedding, this makes the goats are more productive. The goats live in a large loafing barn with access to outdoors for fresh air and sunlight only. They do not graze on pasture at all.”

“The benefits of indoor farming are greater control of the goats’ diet; they are fed fresh cut grass, silage, brewers’ grain and maize silage on the conveyor belts and always have good quality hay on their hay racks. When the weather is very wet and grass is not cut, other feeds are still able to be fed. When living outdoors goats tend not to go out and graze in very cold wet weather and this can cause a drop in milk production. Goats also do not have a natural worm resistance and require regular drenching in the summer months to keep parasites at bay.”

http://www.rd1.com/web/content?in_section=10&in_item=908&in_page=5408

I agree with the Fonterra POV though. Whacking great barn farming operations right where all the tourist buses go to show people mountains and lakes etc. Great way to diminish NZ produce’s premium “all natural”/ “free range” etc brand – however fictitious it may have been.

The buggers are all Freisians or Holsteins

The facts of the matter is that most of New Zealand’s primary sector exports are commodities – WMP, SMP, block cheese, market pulp etc – there is no “clean green” premium to the commodity price.

That isn’t what Fonterra are saying. Perhaps they’re looking to the future more than the current position?

It’s their money to do with how they wish.

They can grow them from seed in the vegetable patch for all I care.

What matters to me is how this plan will affect my lifestyle and my ability to eat.

As long as the plan does not require more rape of the water supplies that feed the SI East coast rivers and does not create massive buildings that pollute the landscape many of my customers visit NZ specifically to view let them go ahead.

How come all dairy industry spokemen have Dutch names – where are the Kiwi dairy farmers (real farmers) of old?