Reality Agriculture

Don talks about the deer farming industry in New Zealand crashing.

There has been a surge in the monitoring effort on many farms over the past decade. Although most of these measurements are not highly accurate (pasture growth rates; animal live-weight gains; liveweight or carcass weight per hectare) these data are seized upon to produce various efficiency ratios to justify often major changes in management. Worse [...]

Defining Optimal Lambing Percentages.
Do higher lambing percentages result in higher profits and if not, what is the optimal percent?
What are the factors in lambing% that result in less despite more?
Farmers are routinely being told to improve their performance in order to survive; the main theme appears to be one of increased production and often of [...]

Profitable Beef cows.
Although farming is a business and often an enduring focus for family, there is a need to pay the bills to ensure it remains so.
It seems odd therefore that farmer’s make largely emotional rather than business decisions, often encouraged by less than objective advice from those around them.
Breeding cows for example have a [...]