Deer Industry News #36 June 2009 - Deer Industry New Zealand

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conferenceNAIT features prominently at BranchChairmen’s meetingDeer farmers signalled a more flexible attitude and representatives of NAIT indicated room for more pragmatism at theNZDFA Branch Chairmen’s meeting in Palmerston North on 26 May.The Branch Chairmen welcomed three new members to theirranks at their meeting: John Somerville (Southland), MurrayCoutts (South Canterbury/North Otago) and Jim Scorgie(Otago).There was a healthy sign of interest in leadership in theSouth, with an election required for the Southland Branch,quite possibly a first in recent times. A small leadership fund,supported by DINZ, been created this year to introduce futureExporter/marketer forum from page 9has a destabilising effect in New Zealand and offshore. It’sgood to see our competitors here [at conference]. It’s just asinteresting to see who’s not here – and they are often absentfrom industry-good tables as well.”Cooper strongly endorsed the strategy and role of DINZ as akey part of the industry going forward. “It’s very importantthat we have that body to represent you as producers and usas processors, giving the industry one voice. It’s importantwe ensure it is fully funded for the future of the industry.”Cuff predicts stablescheduleAlliance Chief Executive, GrantCuff, reinforced Keith Cooper’swarnings about the destructiveeffects of fragmentation in ourvenison industry. “Going out andselling venison to someone whois not developing the market,spreading the geographic position,or spreading the segments awayfrom the traders and the Germangame season – it’s not helpful. It’smarketing efforts and maximising returns – not just sales andtaking a margin – that’ll keep you ahead of someone else.Please think long term when you choose your processor.”He also forecast a stable schedule price at current levels for thenext three years – an encouraging prediction for farmers giventhe highly volatile nature of the world economy right now. Thatprediction was qualified however: it requires some exchangerate stability, and it requires the global recession-inducedreduction in demand to match the reduction in supply.Cuff said the current good prices were more than simplya question of falling volumes. He said the industry has anopportunity to maintain current price levels. This could bedone by avoiding extremely high prices while also steppingaway from lower-value business, thus keeping prices stableand firm.He said Alliance had managed to keep lamb processing coststhe same since 1990, shrugging off 45 percent inflation sincethat time, while producing a far more complex product range10Grant Cuff: Stableschedule over the nextthree years if rightconditions persist.Branch leaders to national events, and Branches have beenasked to nominate contenders.Deer Industry News attended the meeting, and the followingkey points emerged:Stagline-onlineAbout half of the paid-up NZDFA membership (900–950under much more stringent compliance requirements. “That’sjust an example of the processor end of the productivitygains that we have to keep doing.”Sustainable returns throughout thesupply chain – HickeyThe 50 percent farmer-ownedFirstlight Venison will continue todevelop organically in line withmarket growth, its director GerardHickey told deer farmers.The company was begunin Hawke’s Bay and is nowestablished in the Manawatu andis designing its farming systemsto deliver niche products underinternationally recognised brands.Gerard Hickey saidintegration of the supplychain is important.The venison products – about500 tonnes in total – are targetedat UK and US markets, where the company has about a 30percent share of all venison exports at present. Firstlightconcentrates on year-round chilled product and doesn’t focuson markets with a traditional game season.Hickey said the product is targeted at the top end of themarket and the company is working closely with celebritychef, Peter Gordon, in London.At the production end of the supply chain they are concentratingon genetics to give them a younger slaughter animal (15 months)with specialist meat attributes, good tenderness and colour.The integration of the supply chain is important to Firstlight,and Hickey said the company is working closely withretailers to ensure they feel part of that mix and understandwhere all the costs of production lie.Producers are paid on the basis of boxed meat sold, so thehigher the yields the better for them.As part of their strategy for improving productivity andproduct quality, the company is looking closely at growthrates, genetic selection, good recording systems (includingelectronic identification) and carcass quality.Hickey joined the previous speakers in strongly endorsing theindustry-agreed strategy for venison.Deer Industry News
conferencepeople) now receive this electronic monthly newsletter asan additional benefit to members. Innovations such as the“Corner Pen” reports, recipes, etc have been well received. Ifyou are a DFA member, have an email address and don’t yetreceive the newsletter, contact the national office. It’s plannedto send a hard copy out with the forthcoming subscriptionreminder as an indication of the additional services NZDFAmembers receive as part of their subscription support of thenational body.Finance and membershipThe 2009/10 budget allows for 1750 members (1759 theprevious year) and a $10 increase in the membership sub inorder to balance the budget. There was a deficit of $10,676after tax for the 2008/09 year. There was no need to run anelection this year, which will save about $5,000 and make iteasier for DFA to meet its break-even budget for 2009/10.The drop in membership has been less than the overall lossin active deer farmer numbers (now believed to be about3,100). The proportion of DFA members to total deer farmersis now slightly higher (about 57 percent) than it was whennumbers peaked in 2002.There are reports of some returning to deer farming, andthere was a call for the DFA to develop a promotionalpackage for Branches to use to attract new members. WaikatoBranch assigns each committee member a number of non-DFA members to contact and encourage to join up.Branch remitsThere was only one Branch remit this year – perhaps a recordlow for the NZDFA. The Canterbury remit (see AGM report)was carried forward from 2006 when velvet production wasstill high and the processing industry was starting to sufferfrom competition in Korea. The remit requested that theremoval of lower tynes on dried or frozen velvet destined forKorea be made mandatory. There was general agreement thatthe need for such a measure had passed, but the CanterburyBranch was committed to seeing the remit process through.NAITAn Executive Committee remit to the AGM called for areview of the NZDFA position on NAIT (see NZDFA AnnualReport in Deer Industry News April/May edition for a fullexplanation). In order to bring Chairmen up to date andaddress current concerns, a high-powered delegation fromNAIT was invited to join the meeting: NAIT GovernanceGroup Chairman, Ian Corney, Technical Advisory GroupChairman, Lindsay Burton, and Project Manager, CraigPurcell.Producer Manager, Tony Pearse, gave an initial overviewof proposed NAIT operations. He said no separate AHB tagwould be needed for NAIT. Dairy and deer farmers mightstill use a separate visual management tag which may ormay not be linked to the NAIT tag. In time the NAIT tagwill be the basis for the electronic Animal Status Declarationform. At its very minimum, NAIT will not require farmers topurchase scanners, although some may choose to do so formanagement reasons.The farmer would only be required to buy the tags andinform NAIT when they had been applied. This informationwill be able to be transferred directly through email/internetlink or an 0900 number, or through a third-party provider.In the case of direct-to-slaughter animals, it will be a “onelegged”transaction, with the processor advising that theanimals were received and slaughtered. The farmer wouldbe required to tell NAIT of animals that die on farm, onan annual basis (within the bounds of practicality). Whereanimals are sold from farm to farm (direct from farmer tofarmer or via a third party agent) the movement must berecorded and reported to NAIT: either manually (where thereis no scanner owned), electronically (using a scanner – yourown or a third party’s) as a sending and receipt two-leggedtransaction.Sending deer direct to saleyards or sale as whole or part lotswill be a one-legged transaction with the saleyards reportingstock receipt on behalf of the vendor and advising of the newownership in whole or part lots.The NAIT charter precludes the information gathered fromNAIT from being used for any other purpose other thanthe whole-of-life movement basis on individually identifiedanimals. The low frequency RFID tags have been set as thetechnology of choice for the introduction of NAIT – stillplanned to be mandatory in mid 2011 for cattle and deer.Waikato’s Steven Borland challenged the NAIT group torespond to an Australian media article reporting problemswith the accuracy of that country’s National LivestockIdentification System. Craig Purcell said the initial problemswith sheep were not likely to persist as the system bedded in.He said it was very early days for the Australians.On the question on ongoing funding for operating costs – tobe shared by government (35%) and industry (65%) – IanCorney said the Governance Group was looking for the mostequitable method. A slaughter levy was the most likely.(Other possibilities are a tag levy or a transaction levy.)Craig Purcell said annual operating costs were not yetknown, but were estimated to be less than $1 per animal.There was also a reminder that animals are only tagged oncein their lifetime and would only require a single electronictag as a bare minimum.Lindsay Burton said the stage two business case to Cabinetfor NAIT was in preparation. This involved more detail onsystem design and funding and it was expected decisionsabout this would be made by the end of September.Bill Taylor (Chairman, Executive Committee) asked whetherthe stage two business case would allow deer to sit outsideNAIT until the system was working properly, and then addedon later with other species. He said there was some softeningof attitudes on the part of deer farmers, but they still sawmore negatives than positives. Ian Corney noted that deerhad been involved in plans from the beginning, and thatthere would be some commonsense when the system wasintroduced to make sure it was workable.Lindsay Burton said NAIT’s policy was to bed down thesystem properly with cattle and deer first before introducingnew species. Ian Corney said the system would be practical.“You won’t have to crawl down a cliff to scan the tag of adead cow. As a farmer I sense there will be some pragmatismin cases like this.”It won’t be perfect from day one, it must be as low-cost asIssue No 36 • June 2009 11
Page 7: conferenceExporter/marketer forumFo
Page 11 and 12: NZDFA 2009, 34th Annual General Mee
Page 13 and 14: conferenceThe amendment was CARRIED
Page 15 and 16: Hannah Hsu joins DINZ teamgeneral n
Page 17 and 18: conferenceand returns. This strateg
Page 19 and 20: Korean FTA negotiations under wayco
Page 21 and 22: industry newsFitting climate change
Page 23 and 24: Market ReportVelvetWhile the weight
Page 25 and 26: general newsStrategies begin to sho
Page 27 and 28: general newsThe treated group showe
Page 29 and 30: Venison production shows healthy gr
Page 31 and 32: July technical conference draws top

Deer Industry News #36 June 2009 - Deer Industry New Zealand

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