Livestock Farmer Focus: It’s the season of change for George Moss

Change, volatility and uncertainty are the catch words currently in vogue. We have a new manager for the organic property, starting on 1 June, who is looking for a challenge.

Our farm assistant, who has been our right-hand person for the past three years, has decided to train as a vet and will leave in January.

Our co-operative Fonterra is looking to change its capital structure. Historically, capital has been linked to production, in future, farmers will be able to hold significantly more shares than their supply and also be able to sell the dividend stream and capital change to outside investors.

Control will be still exercised through the voting rights that are attached to the supply and not the shares. Farmers will have three years to buy upto(??) their milk supply and three years to sell their shares to other suppliers when they chose to exit.

This is an exciting change as it will give the co-operative a stable and expanding capital base to invest for the benefit of the farmer shareholders.

Milk price has gone up 40c/kg milk-solids, which will help mitigate the drought shortened season.

Industry leaders continue to remind us that what goes will come down, and quickly. So we need to be prepared. Why does this seem to happen only on the income side of the P & L statement?

The weather continues to vex us and we are looking at yet another incredibly dry autumn and early winter; this is the third in a row, but we have had a unusually warm April/May. We used to have a fair amount of certainty around the seasons, but now it is anyone’s guess as to what the next months will bring.