Friday, March 29, 2024

Sheep needed on hill country

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Waikato farmer Alastair Reeves has taken umbrage at the Productivity Commission’s suggestion sheep should be cast aside to make way for trees. He reckons sheep have a great future if they are not threatened by people making decisions in isolation and ignoring the ramifications of being wrong. He’s even got a plan for wool involving the Duchess of Sussex, aka Meghan Markle.
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Sheep should be at the forefront of sustainable farming on hill country rather than being tossed aside for massive tree-planting programmes, Waikato hill farmer Alastair Reeves says.

It is a disgrace for the Productivity Commission to suggest up to 2.8 million hectares of new forestry be planted as a means of achieving a low carbon-emissions economy. 

That is a threat to the sheep industry and could be devastating for rural areas as people are taken from houses, schools and communities because of the loss of jobs and population decline.

The plan was poorly conceived and thought out. 

“There’s too much making decisions in isolation and ignoring the ramifications of getting it wrong,” Reeves said.

The commission has spoken of a decline in sheep and beef production of up to 16% under the long-term tree-planting scenarios but Reeves said that will be an average figure. 

“In some areas it won’t be near that but in others it will be a lot more so how will those communities be able to cope with that?”

Sheep farming has not been given the credit it deserves for productivity gains over the last 30 years. 

From having about 70m ewes in the early 1980s and no adverse publicity about environmental issues New Zealand now has about 27m.

Productivity gains over that time had reduced greenhouse gas emissions by 30% and produced about the same volume of sheep meat for export. 

That was an exceptional result and the credit belongs to breeders and farmers.

There aren’t issues with the impact of nitrogen fertilisers or erosion and there isn’t the pugging problem in pasture that comes with cattle in wet winter conditions.

Reeves said sheep are the only animal that can be sustainably farmed on hill country and around sensitive waterways and could enhance the reputation of farming among urban people. 

Other farm uses are suffering in the public mind because of the environmental concerns around dairying.

However, for all that to happen the sheep sector will have to become sustainably profitable. The latest year was very good for earnings but the industry will have to work to make sure it wasn’t a one-year wonder.

Exporters had done well to push increasingly bigger lamb and mutton export volumes into the Middle East and Asia rather than relying on European markets. Asian countries are typically exporters themselves and so consumers have a focus on quality and are not worried about price. 

“We need sheep farming to regain its position as NZ’s pre-eminent livestock industry.”

“This isn’t to slight dairy because we have to pay the bills and dairy was seen as the only farming system to do that but we have become like a one-horse town over the last 20 years. “Horticulture is doing well now and good on them and now we need sheep and beef and deer to come forward as alternatives.”

Sheep farming also needs higher wool prices to remain sustainable. 

“It is ironic that the Government has stopped oil and gas exploration but then they’ve ordered that thousands and thousands of houses be insulated with what will be synthetic products. Why aren’t they pushing for wool produced in NZ to be a big part of that. Where’s the leadership on that?”

Wool is a sustainable product and just trying to do anything to grow demand will help lift prices. 

“We need to get Meghan Markle wearing wool rather than Prince Charles. That would give it a boost.’’

Farming needs lambs sustainably fetching between $7kg and $8kg and crossbred wool worth $5/kg rather than under $3/kg. 

There are other exciting developments such as sheep milking as an alternative to dairy cows. 

“You’ve got a swag of dairy farms on the market and maybe some of them might be converted back to sheep and that’s not a bad thing.

“We shouldn’t be stopping dairying. We just need good alternatives.’’

Most NZ hill farms are a mix of sheep and beef because they work well together. 

Traditionally, the mix was 70% sheep and 30% cattle but Reeves said it has moved closer to 50/50 because of the better beef returns in recent years. 

He’d like to see a recovery in the sheep ratio back to 70% as a more balanced land use.

“We just want recovering profitability and growth and it doesn’t matter what the numbers get up to. We just don’t want a continuing decline.”

Reeves farms 800ha including of180ha of leased land on challenging hill country near Raglan in eastern Waikato with wet winters and very dry late summer and autumn. 

Despite that, three generations of the family have developed one of the best Romney flocks, specialising in producing and selling rams with top-of-class facial eczema and worm-parasite resistance.

The farm has native bush and he’s also planted pines on land not suitable for livestock. 

He expects the planted area to make up 8% of the land area when planting finishes.

Reeves accepts farming will end up in the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and when that happens farmers should be given back the carbon sequestration credits for about 1.4m hectares of native forests on their land. 

“That was claimed by the Government in the 1990s as a carbon sink in what was an erosion of property rights. 

“We own the land, we pay rates and insurance on it, we’ve fenced off the native areas but we don’t get the carbon credits. There’s no recognition of the role farmers are playing in that.

“The Government needs to stop making decisions in isolation and acknowledge that a profitable sheep industry is not only great for rural communities but great for the environment and great for our 3.5m tourists that turn up every year. 

“Last time I checked, tourists liked taking photos of sheep on hill country, not photos of pine trees.”

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