So we all know how unprofitable it is to sheep farm atm

**F5 Dave** · 16th August 2010, 15:43

Despite farmers being as slack as with spending any money on upkeep of fences etc, the trend for quite some time is to convert to Dairy farm or just be happy not to make any money.

but if one ventures into the meat isle in any super market Lamb is the most expensive 'mainstream' meat.

So where does the rest of the money go?

Presumably if the export market was depressed with low international prices, bad exchange & freight costs they'd sell off more profitably locally.

Who's making the money here?

**slofox** · 16th August 2010, 15:45

Originally Posted by F5 Dave

Who's making the money here?

Mr Bloody Grocer man, that's who...

**F5 Dave** · 16th August 2010, 15:54

Are you saying progressive & foodstuffs own the meatpackers?

**JimO** · 16th August 2010, 16:37

we dont eat lamb, cant afford to according to she who buys the grocerys, NZ pork is a third the price of lamb

**merv** · 16th August 2010, 16:56

Lamb is still my favourite, but eat smaller cuts these days to go easy on my figure so that helps the cost.

**F5 Dave** · 16th August 2010, 17:16

Beef is my fav, but like variety & the wiff's roast lamb is the bomb. Going home to some mutton chops in the slow cooker. Even those once you carved the fat off weren't cheap. Mutton used to be what the poor eat.

Won't eat pork because of the welfare issues, although I get a little hypocritical on the odd occasion when bacon or kransky come into the equation, . . . but everyone needs a little hypocrisy to make them a balanced person.

**pete376403** · 16th August 2010, 17:16

Originally Posted by F5 Dave

Are you saying progressive & foodstuffs own the meatpackers?

No, but they have the buying power to more or less dictate prices. There was something similar on Country Calendar a few weeks back where vege growers were being squeezed by the big chains, they (the veg growerrs) set up their own market where they were undercutting the supers, yet getting better returns for their efforts.

**Pussy** · 16th August 2010, 18:13

The sheep farmers are definitely NOT getting fat.
It has been several years since they had a decent return

**danchop** · 16th August 2010, 19:20

simple,dont buy from the supermarkets,its shit quality and most stuff on special is water injected.i now buy from the old school butchers,at least you get higher quality and they are often cheaper than the supermarkets

**T.W.R** · 16th August 2010, 19:30

grow your own

$50 to get a sheep butchered & processed properly. Get a good vege garden going & run some free range chooks (ducks in our case) and the weekly shopping costs shrink dramatically

But if you want to F@#k a sheep or cropping farm in next to no time yep convert it to a friggin dairy unit

**SMOKEU** · 16th August 2010, 20:42

The NZ meat is only fit to be made into dog food anyway, I don't see what the problem is.

**Hitcher** · 16th August 2010, 21:03

Originally Posted by F5 Dave

So where does the rest of the money go?

About one third of what the customer pays is the retailer's margin. If everybody else in the supply chain clips the ticket, as they should, then it's not hard to figure out what the farm gate price should be.

It really pisses me off when sheep and beef farmers moan about farm gate prices. The meat industry they've got is the industry that they want. There's nothing they love more than several buyers lining up to buy their sheep and cattle. This farm gate marketplace is spectacularly successful at turning processors into volume driven rather than value driven operators. They have nothing left to invest in new product development, marketing strategies or other means of strengthening their market proposition because they have to pay 5c a kg more than their competitor on the day if they want to kill those animals.

Sheep and beef farmers are capitalists when prices are high and socialists when they're low. They've had longer to get their shit together than have their cousins the dairy farmers. They've also had some purple patches when prices for meat and wool (remember than now defunct industry that 30 years ago was New Zealand's third-largest earner of foreign exchange?) have been mind-numblingly high, and others when they have been bailed out by the New Zealand taxpayer to the tune of $1 million a day.

Strategies have been tabled before. Some have been extremely well thought out but have failed because of parochial pigheadedness. I predict that Beef+Lamb's latest initiative will fail for the same reason. This is a shame because New Zealand can grow more profitable land-based products than cows and pine trees.

**Hitcher** · 16th August 2010, 21:04

Originally Posted by danchop

its shit quality and most stuff on special is water injected.

Balderdash.

**98tls** · 16th August 2010, 21:17

Originally Posted by Hitcher

About one third of what the customer pays is the retailer's margin. If everybody else in the supply chain clips the ticket, as they should, then it's not hard to figure out what the farm gate price should be.

It really pisses me off when sheep and beef farmers moan about farm gate prices.

Sheep and beef farmers are capitalists when prices are high and socialists when they're low. They've had longer to get their shit together than have their cousins the dairy farmers. They've also had some purple patches when prices for meat and wool (remember than now defunct industry that 30 years ago was New Zealand's third-largest earner of foreign exchange?) have been mind-numblingly high, and others when they have been bailed out by the New Zealand taxpayer to the tune of $1 million a day.

It really pisses me off when someone compares sheep and dairy farmers,what price can you put on the shit dairy farmers do to this country every day not to mention the cost to the consumer come retail time.