Encouraging the growth of other sectors, such as goat and deer, to take advantage of over-capacity in abattoirs would ensure sheep and beef farmers had the ability to cull stock during adverse weather events such as the recent drought, says Jeanette Maxwell, Federated Farmers
Meat and Fibre chairperson.

She told the Bay of Plenty branch of Federated Farmers conference in May that farmers could face a situation of 'use it or lose it” when it comes to processing capacity.

'No one complained about over-capacity during the recent drought. We need to balance the leger on both sides and get more diversity. Why not grow the goat and deer industry to make plants more viable?”

Joint opportunity
Europe remains New Zealand's highest-paying meat market with China the best by volume – but opportunities also exist in Indonesia and Malaysia where there are growing wealthy middle classes. 'I see potential to put money into joint ventures in these areas to further process meat sent from New Zealand as is done in Europe.
'It's a lot closer to home for shipping and their populations know sheep and goat products. We need to decide where we want to grow our markets. We need to grow, not down-size. There are whopping good opportunities to go forward.”
Jeanette said it is also time to take a more holistic approach to farming in New Zealand.
'Even arable farmers are part of pastoral farming and we need to look at how each sector can work together.”
When it came to which company farmers supplied stock to, Jeanette said loyalty often out-weighed price.
Preliminary results from a survey of farmers showed price came behind loyalty to the company, and respect for the person farmers dealt with.

Loyalty
'Loyalty is especially strong in the South Island and not so strong the further north you go in the North Island, where there is more choice.”
It also didn't appear to matter to farmers whether the company was a co-operative or a corporate. However, it was important that farmers were rewarded for their loyalty.
'It needs to be remembered corporates will pay just enough to keep you in the game. All companies need to be honest in their communication with farmers,” she said.