If National wins ...

[fungus pudding]

They are starting to get close though Who knows once David comes back from holiday that might be that catalyst required to have a the flip flop happen.

Good point. I'd forgotten he's away.

[Major von Tempsky]

The dairy industry in the Waikato may be "huge" but it will be passed by Canterbury in a few years :-)

[neopoleII]

""Can't we think of something a bit smarter to do with all that capital and borrowing? The banks are loving it, they always make money on the recycled debt. ""
fully agree with this statement.
My land is leased out for cattle, my other option is cropping.
I dislike both, but I have bills to pays and no time currently to work my land.
10 years ago i ran my block and my neighbours block and we breed equestrian horses, provided training, and had a few nurse cows and weaners.....
it provided a nice income...... but that was with my ex who worked this full time.
I am hoping to in the near future start up a passion fruit orchard..... check out the price of those in your local supermarket.
until then, cropping or dairy on flat land, dry stock on medium land and sheep or pines on rough........ it seems to be the kiwi way.
I guess im about 4 to 5 years away from taking my place and neighbours place back and going intensive.
I even drilled a water well by hand last year...... local olde school farmers said it couldnt be done....... now I have a big solar array pumping water
from a home made ground water well....... spent $400 on all the materials to drill and set up the well.
scored a few brownie points from the farmers as well.
but anyway...... for the outlay for a viable income generating farm doing traditional things ..... yes ..... its expensive capital.
my ears are always open to other opportunities for land generated income.

cheers

[elZorro]

""Can't we think of something a bit smarter to do with all that capital and borrowing? The banks are loving it, they always make money on the recycled debt. ""
fully agree with this statement.
My land is leased out for cattle, my other option is cropping.
I dislike both, but I have bills to pays and no time currently to work my land.
10 years ago i ran my block and my neighbours block and we breed equestrian horses, provided training, and had a few nurse cows and weaners.....
it provided a nice income...... but that was with my ex who worked this full time.
I am hoping to in the near future start up a passion fruit orchard..... check out the price of those in your local supermarket.
until then, cropping or dairy on flat land, dry stock on medium land and sheep or pines on rough........ it seems to be the kiwi way.
I guess im about 4 to 5 years away from taking my place and neighbours place back and going intensive.
I even drilled a water well by hand last year...... local olde school farmers said it couldnt be done....... now I have a big solar array pumping water
from a home made ground water well....... spent $400 on all the materials to drill and set up the well.
scored a few brownie points from the farmers as well.
but anyway...... for the outlay for a viable income generating farm doing traditional things ..... yes ..... its expensive capital.
my ears are always open to other opportunities for land generated income.

cheers

I am part of a landless generation Neopole, although my grandfather had a farm, and I've worked on one for pocket money. From what I've read, most farms could produce more output, some have a lot more potential than others. If I had a small block I'd be keen on glasshouses, hardening up palms/tropical, growing fruit out of season, or using it to grow on shrubs and plants for landscapers. But these are all labour intensive, your passionfruit idea sounds good. If someone had a use for a lot of heated water nearby, I'd use those evacuated tubes at scale. These are 80% efficient. Much better than an animal cropping grass, that in turn used sun energy.

Even the dairy farmers have cause for concern, although I think this is being used as a giant excuse for holding interest rates.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=11293749

Very interesting comments after this lightweight article.
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/n...ectid=11294429

[slimwin]

I think you'll find there is a lot of proactive market gardners in NZ exploring new crops. The govt and varsities does a lot of the reseach for them on this too.
Bottom line is it has to be economic. High price on shelves means a high price to produce,not large profits.
An idea for innovation is always woth exploring.
My dad was a market gardener who grew tomatos in Oamaru under glass. Of course it had to be heated and after 1979 oil got expensive.
He was the first to try these new fangled zuchinni things and did really well for one year. The year after that everybody jumped on board. There's very little "moat', if you will, in agriculture. NZ dairys is in it's collectiveness. If lamb sorted their C@ap out they would have that advantage too.

[elZorro]

NZResources has two or three articles today, gloating about National's strong polling. But on top of that, they announce a new native species in NZ.

Kapako chicks successfully fledged

[Sgt Pepper]

Neopole/EZ
I was reading the other day that in the 1950s Dairy Farms were being converted to Sheep/beef during the wool boom. I wonder if this will ever happen again. The other interesting thing, and I could have the scale wrong, was that Italy, despite being the same size as NZ, and having an industrial base of scale ,chemical, autos etc. produces 10X the amount of agricultural produce as we do, much of it exported.

[Sgt Pepper]

They are starting to get close though Who knows once David comes back from holiday that might be that catalyst required to have a the flip flop happen.

Don't get too smug boys, 2016 looms: 11% mortgages, Housing Sector negative equity, Mortgagee sales in the Dairy Industry, industrial action within the Health Service, ISIS invading Jordan and threatening Saudi Arabia, John Key bailing out ( late 2016 early 2017) to pursue other interests etc, etc. What do you reckon??

[slimwin]

I reckon most of those won't be blamed on national. And labour will still have to find a leader that more than just the hardliners will support.

[Major von Tempsky]

The Press today,, Friday 18 July. "Cunliffe a Liability, poll finds."

It goes on to say that Cunliffe may have become Labour's biggest liability and Labour would poll 13.5% better without him.

Put that in your pipe and smoke it, EZ and Belge.