How to spend $151 million

The goals of the Primary Growth Partnership are worthy, looking for meat industry reform, and improving value and price for all stages in the value chain.

But what does concern me is, that this large public investment only involves a percentage of the meat industry. Why haven't we got industry participation for such an important strategy?

There is a huge amount of money being invested in this proposal not only from the public purse, but from the companies involved, so I hope the money is being invested wisely. PGGWrightsons track record in the Uruguayian development, and its first partnership with SFF left a lot to desired, and it is hoped much better financial mangement is in place this time.

This project could be pivotal in the future of our meat processing industry, so a lot is at stake to get it right.

How to spend $151 million from the Primary Growth Partnership to ‘reform’ the meat industry. This possibility intrigued 50 farmers meeting recently at Pirongia, Waikato, to discuss the formation of and tasks for the new Farm IQ entity reports Rural News. Farm IQ proposals are couched in plain language and cover all aspects of the meat industry. Silver Fern Farms executive Grant Howie, leading the market research group, is blunt in his estimation of the change needed if our industry is not to be either taken over by such conglomerates as those in Brazil, or be cut out of world markets by cheaper commodity product.

Howie urges farmers to learn about overseas consumers and their dietary preferences, and the ways new niche meat packs and products might suit different countries and markets. “We can’t feed the world, so we should stop fooling ourselves we’re a commodity supplier and concentrate on becoming niche suppliers to those who can and will pay more for a well-packaged product matching their requirements. ”But meat is still being sold as carcases or in black trays covered with clear plastic. Asking consumers to pay more without it being “special” and appropriately packed is never going to work, Howie says.
 

PGW’s Greg McSkimming answered the ‘what’s-in-it-for-me?’ question by outlining work done on 50 farms with 75,000 animals, using EID tracking and weighing.From October 1 a new Farm IQ web portal has been up and running.This contains private individual farm data and a huge range of information under the title Livestock One, bringing sheep and beef farmers the type of information available to dairy farmers on the DairyNZ website.

Landcorp’s Colin Isaacs explained how the company has been matching genetics to markets, and how the newly available SNP chips have been helping this work.