viewpoint January 2016 with John Barnes – Managing Director January 2016 Welcome to TWENTY sixteen The weather pattern seems to have changed, which is good […]
John Barnes
viewpoint December 2015 with John Barnes – Managing Director December 2015 What stands out for you in 2015? My VEIWPOINT in December 2014 was about […]
December 2015
viewpoint November 2015 with John Barnes – Managing Director November 2015 Preparing for Summer We enjoy summer weather. Our weather is renowned worldwide as being […]
November 2015
viewpoint October 2015 with John Barnes – Managing Director October 2015 Although TPP may seem a long way from the farm gate, the realities are that […]
October 2015
To make any sense of where we are now or how we move into the future we must understand the past, and ask how did we get to this point and what can we learn from what has happened.
September 2015
Profitability is important in any business and for dairy farmers it has gone from being of little concern last year to being of urgent concern this year. One cannot face a 60% drop in prices with any equanimity at all.
August 2015
There is no doubt that we need to increase food production, the down side to this is we are polluting our world. This is evident in our own country where we have the Ministry for the Environment at odds with the Primary Industry as to how to make progress. The vast majority of business say that is the price of production. They then say we can remediate, now that is a great word. So, remediation is going to slow down pollution and will also make many very clever business operators a whole lot of money.
June 2015
Farming in the next twelve months will be a challenge for many, particularly for dairy farmers. It is times like this that concentrate the mind on things that must be achieved rather than those that we would like to happen at some point. There is a quote from Sir Ernest Rutherford from many years ago and it is on precisely this point...
"Gentlemen, we have run out of money. It's time to start thinking"
May 2015
We at Fertilizer New Zealand believe that our farmers need to be better served and provided with real options that are sensible alternatives to that which is proven to be causing the harm to our waterways and lakes.
April 2015
There has been quite of lot of discussion regarding science and making sure we have a science based fertiliser programme. I am in favour of this as we should all be very careful about what we apply to our soils.
March 2015
While we wait for the irrigation schemes, we need to change some of our farming practices to take account of the drier seasons. In my travels visiting farms across both islands, I have witnessed some very good results from those farmers who have bowed to the inevitable and planted some alternatives to the normal grass species.
February 2015
We in the agricultural sector begin 2015 with a fresh set of challenges ahead of us; almost universally lower prices, but none more so than dairying. Our costings are going up with increased demands from the market and our government.
January 2015
In this article the Federated Farmers share-milkers section Chairman Neil Filer is reported to have said, "Survive the pay-out drought by going back to farming basics – and if you don't know how to farm the old fashioned low cost way, ask someone". He concludes by saying that "Grass is the cheapest feed".
December 2014
Since Britain stopped looking to us for food and we had to begin marketing our produce to the world we have become pretty good at it. The ‘Clean Green’ image may have been the work of a clever ad agency but it was such a perfect fit that we adopted it as our own quite naturally as if it was our birthright.
November 2014
Back in 2003 a Clean Streams Accord was instituted with Fonterra, Regional Councils, the Ministry for the Environment and Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries as the partners in the scheme. This initiative was met with much anger and criticism from almost all sectors, however it survived right through to its proposed end date of 2012.
October 2014
I have the privilege to meet with many interesting people both in the farming sector and other related professions, and all of them are keenly interested in how New Zealand creates its wealth and income. All of us must be concerned about this because it is the way we survive and thrive in our World. There are very few people who I meet who would argue with how we obtain our income, but most express concerns regarding the sustainability of our farming sector.
September 2014
At Fertilizer New Zealand we spend an inordinate amount of time and money explaining to our potential clients that we provide products that are far more sympathetic to the aims and objectives of modern farming systems. So how did we get to this point where the only advice farmers seem to get is to throw on more super and nitrogen?
August 2014
It's really encouraging to have farmers looking for new solutions. It always starts on the farm, no matter how sophisticated and hi-tech the scientific community become or how much money is spent, change comes from those who are out there doing the business on the ground.
July 2014
From time to time it is necessary for me to visit our suppliers on the other side of the world and ensure that our relationships are sound and ongoing. I have just returned from such a trip and it is interesting to note the views of those who trade fertiliser worldwide on a huge scale.
June 2014
We have been thinking of our many friends in the West Coast region where there has been a once in three hundred year storm, and in Canterbury where it does not want to stop raining.