“History tells us that demand for red protein surges on the back of exponential growth in demand for white protein.” – Gregg Doud, president of the Commodity Markets Council (note that this statement is supported by Cattlefax statistics sourced from China customs).
“We believe there is an opportunity to meet a huge and growing demand for sheep meat [red protein] and we have plenty of markets close by that we can supply such as Venezuela, Cuba, Puerto Rico etcetera. We believe this so much we are going to do all we can to grow our small sheep industry.” – Colombian sheep farmer.
“The thing we admire about you NZ farmers is your ability to innovate, your systems thinking, and ability to implement and execute new ideas – you’ve got good industry infrastructure, education and science.” – Uruguayan farm consultant.
“We love NZ. We think you guys have a great story to tell – you produce the best red meat in the world. We are sourcing all our grass-fed beef, lamb, and venison from NZ, we’re sourcing NZbeer and wine, NZ water, and NZ butter. How can we tell your story better?” – proprietor of Burger Bach, an American NZ-inspired gastro pub.
This is a great time to be a NZ sheep farmer. We’ve got the land and we’ve got the water. We’ve refined our production system over decades with the support from our universities and science institutions. We’ve got a great track record of improving performance.
We’re also producing what consumers want – grass-fed beef and lamb. We’ve got restaurateurs in the US wanting to tell our story and we’ve got farmers in other parts of the world so convinced that sheep farming has a strong future that they are prepared to build their own sheep industry, pretty much from scratch.
But have we got what it takes to capitalise on the opportunities already in front of us?
Given what I’ve seen and heard on this Nuffield tour, I can say – yes.
We have to focus on the opportunities, on what’s possible. We need to put our energy into things that are going to count. We must work together, work smarter, and understand what our customers and the final consumer want.
We must then provide what they want, with the story they want to hear, and back it up by connecting with positivity and confidence. Yes, we can do this.
The technology is available to us all. As farmers, social media provides a fantastic channel to connect with consumers and share our NZ story. Let’s be smart about this and use what we’ve got in our hands already.
Yes, indeed, this is a great time to be a NZ sheep and beef farmer.
• Mel Poulton is extension manager for Beef+Lamb NZ. At the time of writing Mel had just travelled through South America and was in Washington, DC. Mel and husband Mike run a hill country sheep and beef farm near Dannevirke.
