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NEW ZEALAND MERINO FARMERS ILLUSTRATE THE BENEFITS OF
FARMING SMARTER BY WORKING TOGETHER TO IMPROVE THEIR RETURNS.
Merino Breeders in New Zealand are a small but
united group of farmers in comparison with their Australian Cousins.They have
banded together to form a strong producers organisation, Merino New Zealand,
which in my view, punches well above its weight in the world wool market.
There are only about 300 commercial merino growers in the
whole of New Zealand, and they have formed themselves into a grower body which
now handles promotion, marketing, animal health and research, and indeed all
aspects of the Merino industry in New Zealand. They have become a strong
champion for merino within the much larger NZ Wool Board and have placed the
merino growers interests in the forefront of Wool Board and Government
thinking.
This group worked well together on a common objective and
saw the benefits that individual members were getting from their involvement
with the group and each other as well as the science support system. Some of
the group members commented that the process of working together in a group
with a common objective and sharing lots of information with others was by far
the best benefit of group membership, much more than the premiums that they
have been able to achieve for the stock and wool sales.
Principles that Merino NZ has learnt through the building
of relationships between groups of growers and end users of the product are:
* Build strong working relationships
with your fibre users.
* Invite them to visit your groups
farms and see the production system at first hand.
* Find out exactly what they want from
your product and be prepared to modify your production systems to produce what
they want.
* Leave them with positive images of
yourselves, your products and your environment.
* Build trust for a long term
relationship.
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Merino NZ provides linkages between growers and
manufacturers and manages the relationships on behalf of the growers. In
essence, Merino NZ has taken a "commodity-level" product and added
considerable value for growers by developing a whole range of lucrative niche
markets for objectively measured portions of the clip.
Examples of Merino NZ initiatives include suit
manufacture from Wain Shiell Saville Row, London and speciality brand shops in
major shopping centres selling merino products such as Loro Piana's new shop in
Tokyo. In each of these cases there has been considerable added value all the
way back down the supply chain to the growers who now appreciate the benefits
of marketing and working together in groups.
A classic livestock example of the adding value concept
was operated at Tara Hills High Country Research Station in the high
country of the South Island of New Zealand from 1989 until 2002.
Animal Scientists, working in partnership with a group of
local Merino farmers had developed a flock of ultra-fine merino wool sheep that
had added considerable value to the wool clip for the property and the other
farmers in the group. This had been achieved by going through and testing over
50,000 Merino sheep and selecting those sheep that as rising two year old
animals, had a wool micron of less than 16 microns.
The 1000 selected animals were assembled into a single
flock at the Research Station and fed well so that those who had
"starvation-fine" micron of their wool immediately coarsened in
micron diameter and were removed from the flock. The animals were then mated to
selected very fine merino rams and the resultant offspring tested and selected
for flock replacement over a number of years. Rams from the breeding programme
were supplied to participating farmers who developed their own satellite flocks
using the same selection processes.
The adding value aspect of this venture was the
significant additional return that was generated per animal from the breeding
plan to develop a Merino sheep that produced at least 4 kg of wool per shearing
of ultrafine wool at less than 16.5 microns in diameter valued at the time at
over $120 per kg.
This was in comparison with the standard Merino sheep in
the area that produced 6 kg of fleece per year at 20 micron diameter valued at
$5 per kg.
So the adding value aspect was that instead of having a
standard Merino ewe wandering around the hills and mountains of the district,
producing a lamb and $30 worth of wool, by selective breeding, you could have
the same four legs of grazing pressure with an ultrafine Merino sheep producing
a lamb and $480 worth of fleece. This was better on both the land and on the
pocket as you could afford to run less stock, take better care of them and feed
them better and make considerably more money from your livestock.
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