Profit goals for new meetings | Rural

Sheep and beef farmers in the Taihape and Ruapehu districts will have a chance to see their levies to Beef + Lamb NZ put to work with two programmes taking place next month.

The day-long Farm for Profit programmes will be held on March 7 at Peter Buchanan's property and the other on March 20 at Bruce Parkinson's property.

Mel Poulton, the organisation's Western North Island extension manager, said the programmes were the opportunity for farmers to access value from their levy investment with Beef + Lamb NZ.

And Ms Poulton said the programmes would be unique to individual areas and focus on issues peculiar to those areas.

"What will be the focus at the Ruapehu meeting, for example, won't be reiterated at the Taihape meeting because each area has it's own set of unique issues the farmers are dealing with."

Ms Poulton said the programmes were new to Beef + Lamb and would address current issues that the local farming community faced within their farming systems.

"They'll use on-farm field days, seminars and workshops to deliver information and knowledge to local sheep and beef farmers."

But the emphasis was on farmer involvement and they were urged to facilitate and deliver the programmes with local committees to the community.

Driving the first two programmes were Anthony Oswald from Taihape Vet Services and Gary Massicks from Stantiall and Keeling in Feilding.

Mr Massicks is an agricultural consultant who works in farm management consulting, HR management and employment, monitor farm facilitation, fertiliser and crop management, group facilitation and project management.

"This programme will be great for farmers to get valuable information to help their farming businesses from this programme," he said.

"Recent seasons have been tough on red-meat farmers with dry summers and extreme weather events locally putting significant pressure on.

"In the last few years farm-gate returns have been better which has meant a return to profitability, but work needs to continue.

"Farmer meetings are a good way to spend some time off the farm while still working on the business.

"They give owners and staff the opportunity to up-skill themselves, have some social interaction and look at some outside thinking," Mr Massicks said.

He said the programme enabled all facets of the sector to meet together, discuss limiting factors and attempt to lift overall industry performance, while having some fun and socialising.

Mr Oswald has been a vet for 12 years and worked in the Taihape district since 2006. His specialty is in sheep, beef and deer veterinary work with a focus on animal production; farm management advising and farm discussion group facilitation.

He said there was more to the sheep and beef business than vaccines and drench to produce good lambs.

"We need to all work together on ensuring that hill-country farmers have long-term economic and environmental sustainably," he said.

Ms Poulton has been working with local farmers to build two steering groups to oversee and assist with the delivery of the March 7 and March 20 programmes.

"It's critical that local farmers drive these programmes because they best know what's needed in their local areas. Their guidance and input to field day topics helps to ensure farmers can capture value from their levy."

Danny Mickelson is chairing the Taihape group and Ron Frew the Ruapehu group and each programme has three meetings planned to be completed by the end of September.

Ms Poulton said it was the first time the programmes had been rolled out in the Western North Island area, which covers an area from New Plymouth across to Turangi and south to Wellington.

"These have been created as a direct response to what farmers were wanting," she said.