Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Richard Dawkins: Federated Farmers Meat and Wool Chairperson on Sheep and Beef numbers

Transcript

Richard Dawkins: Federated Farmers Meat and Wool Chairperson on Sheep and Beef numbers · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Right now. If you remember, back in May, stats in
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: ZID data showed sheep numbers had fallen twenty one percent,
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: beef cattle by thirteen percent. This is over the past decade.
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: Well now, Beef and LAMB says for the year ending June,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: this is the year ending June, sheep numbers fell by
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: just one percent, beef cattle rose actually up four point
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: four percent. So what does all this mean? Richard Dawkins
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: as Fed Farmers Meet and wheelchair with us this morning. Richard,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: good morning, Yeah, good morning, Ryan. Hey, what do you
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: make of these numbers?
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's great to see. That's like recovery, isn't it.
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: But it's just important to understand the nuance of these
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: figures and the overall trend. I suppose what is the nuance?
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: So we're seeing a recovery and numbers due to the
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: rebuild after cyclone Gabrielle and also a couple of regions
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: are coming out of drought last year, so so restocking
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: on capital stock. But yeah, we're obviously still concerned with
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: the general trend over the last two or three years,
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: which shows us down about one and a half million
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  Speaker 2: stock units.
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  Speaker 1: Because we've got obviously export prices increasing. We've got that
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  Speaker 1: part of the equation seems to be looking good. But
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: what's holding it back? Is it all forestry or what?
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Oh? Look, there's there's no doubt the sector is in
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: a really good space, Ryan, And it's fantastic to see.
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: We have to see these that we have to enjoy
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: these positive times returns wise, the higher schedules are combined
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: with some easing of farm working expenses, but also interest
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: rates coming down, So that's good timing. But look, the
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: major concern for the sheep and beef sector particularly right
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: now is this Climate Change Amendment Bill and preventing those
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: wholesale conversions to carbon forestry.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: What exactly is wrong because there's I've seen fed farmers say,
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: you know, not happy with some of the changes from
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: the Select Committee about conversion. What exactly is wrong here?
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Look, so I want to be really clear. We
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: support the intent of the bill. We think the Coalition
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: government is trying to do the right thing, but I'm
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: just not sure if possibly they're across all of the details.
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: So the and I want to be clear too, Ryan,
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  Speaker 2: this is actually a restriction on people's ability to claim
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: carbon credits. It's not actually a restriction on their ability
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: to plant trees. But the reality is the protections are
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: mostly on classes one to five, and only twelve percent
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  Speaker 2: of the whole farm conversions were actually on that country.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: So the majority of our sheep and beef farms, sixty
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: six percent of our sheep and beef farms are on
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: classes and classes six and seven, which don't have those restrictions.
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: So you would be able to claim credits on land
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: that you think should be found.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: So the way the bill stands, if you plant your
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: entire property in trees, you could only claim credits on
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  Speaker 2: twenty five percent of that area. So look, if it's
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: the right tree in the right place and there's a
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: commercial demand for that timber, there's nothing stopping you doing that. However,
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  Speaker 2: it should prevent sheep of beef farms being lost due
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: to the ets and that carbon value, but like I said,
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: it doesn't extend to where the majority of the sheep
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: and beef farms actually are.
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: Right, gotcha. So the government obviously wants to double our exports,
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  Speaker 1: sheep and beef will have to be a big part
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: of that. Is this, What is it that would stop
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: us or prevent us from doing that? Or do you
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: think we can.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, like I said, Ryn, we support the intent of
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: the villain. And yeah, like you've mentioned, they want to
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: double exports, so it's sort of strange. It appears they're
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: siding with polluters over producers. So I mean, the simple
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: solution to me would be actually just extend that twenty
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: five percent restriction across all land use classes. It's very
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: strange they have chosen to use that land use capability
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: class system and that started being developed in the fifties
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: for soil conservation reasons. It was never designed for legislation,
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: so I'm just not sure how that would work in reality.
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: Richard, appreciate your time this morning. Thanks mate, Richard Dawkins
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: Fed Farmers Meat and Wool chair.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: For more from earlier edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live
• 4:37
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• 4:40
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