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US-style dairy farms coming here?


teamfatboy

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In this article, it's reported that US-style dairy farming is proposed for New Zealand.

Now, I'm not a greenie, but it seems like a bad idea to me... on the basis that the land can't feed that many cattle, so what would they be feeding them, and what would it mean for the quality of NZ dairy produce?

From films like King Corn, it's apparent that this style of intensive farming can result in an inferior product.... whether it's beef, or milk - and therefore whey?

It'd be a fair bet that this style of intensive farming wouldn't result in LOWER whey prices....

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:pfft:

but we are most of us eating from cans now!

as for cubicles where do you think our eggs and chickens are coming from.

I wouldn't worry too much re changing of farming as not going to happen any time soon.

cheaper to have cows grazing than using machines to harvest grain etc to feed them

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Intensive farming of a single species in one spot also wrecks the land! Increasing our reliance on artificial fertilizers/feeds etc..

Go see Food Inc. or read any Michael Pollan book to find out more about this sort of thing....

Sure everyone wants cheaper this and cheaper that but you have to look at the overall cost to society rather than just pennies saved in your pocket.

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Without going in to it in depth, animals who walk around, graze, and generally live on a fresh diet are so much better for you. The milk composition is different and has more nutrients in it. And that goes for the whey too.

NZ is in a position where we can increase organics, look after the land and live up to our 100% Pure status. Or adopt the european/american industrial farming. I hope that the latter doesnt happen.

Cows are hard on land and waterways.

My opinion on it is that we shouldnt be increasing cow numbers. Making do with what we've got.Look after our land and waterways and then just let the rest of the world wreck their natural resources. Then they will come crying for some natural,nutritious,sustainable food products from NZ. Thats when we can cream it!!

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Without going in to it in depth, animals who walk around, graze, and generally live on a fresh diet are so much better for you. The milk composition is different and has more nutrients in it. And that goes for the whey too.

NZ is in a position where we can increase organics, look after the land and live up to our 100% Pure status. Or adopt the european/american industrial farming. I hope that the latter doesnt happen.

Cows are hard on land and waterways.

My opinion on it is that we shouldnt be increasing cow numbers. Making do with what we've got.Look after our land and waterways and then just let the rest of the world wreck their natural resources. Then they will come crying for some natural,nutritious,sustainable food products from NZ. Thats when we can cream it!!

Couldn't agree more with ya, Milkey - grass-fed for the win, in so many ways. This concept, in the arid McKenzie Basin, would be the death knell for our already tainted green image (can you smell the Manawatu river?)... hell, we're already bringing in Palm Kernel Extract to feed cattle (another double-bad food stuff right there!).

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I'm not about to call this style of farm 'US style' as they are found everywhere where maximum production is paramount. It is probably more common in northern Europe because of the climate. Intensive farming might be a better choice of word. More cattle are probably farmed like this in Canada than the US but people don't like to shit on Canada. Pork is for sure.

Is meat quality worse? It certainly is not as textured as grass fed. Wagyu beef, the most expensive in the world, never eats grass. And I don't imagine milk quality would suffer so much. You're probably find that if the animals, like humans, were to eat a range of good quality foods they would be better off especially if farmed free range.

I think the bigger questions are around animal health and environmental impact. Animals that have free range are likely to be less stressed. Intensive farming of any sort, whether conventional or organic or even biodynamic, is not good for the environment. But intensive farming should not be in the philosophy of the last two, and definitely not the last.

NZ doesn't need it, that's not to say individuals don't want it. It's all about more for less and someone making a better buck than they are now. It all comes down to greed at the expense of everything else.

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  • 7 years later...

I'd be more worried about the Chinese owned farms..... 19 such Chinese owned farms in the waikato area all feed a Chinese dairy factory where it's all sent off overseas.

 

In hauraki area there's a similar situation with a Chinese ice cream factory who owns 4 farms in the area, with all product being sent overseas.

 

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1 hour ago, welderguy said:

I'd be more worried about the Chinese owned farms..... 19 such Chinese owned farms in the waikato area all feed a Chinese dairy factory where it's all sent off overseas.

 

In hauraki area there's a similar situation with a Chinese ice cream factory who owns 4 farms in the area, with all product being sent overseas.

 

What's the problem with that? Whoever owned the Farms obviously wanted to sell them to the Chinese buyers.  If property and assets are supposedly our own if we own them, then we should be able to sell them to whoever we please for however much we please.

 

its all going to be sent overseas anyway doesn't matter who owns it.

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Don't know why everyone is so anti Chinese. It's just scaremongering stuff. Americans and Europeans have been investing in New Zealand massively since the gfc. People who whinge about Chinese investors usually have little facts. The statistics weren't even accurate when they were first released it was just people with Chinese names... as if no nz citizens have Chinese names lol.

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So give the farmers more incentive to not sell their farm to foreigners.

 

Let's say a guy who is 55 and has been working his arse off every day on a farm since he was 15. Went without and Saved the money to be able to get finance on the farm and own it. Built it from what it was to what it is today and wants to sell it. Why does he have to settle for what an nz market dictates it's worth? Why can't he sell it to who ever he pleases and maximise what he can get for it?

 

What do you propose? 

 

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On 11/22/2017 at 11:02 PM, welderguy said:

 

@Realtalk I only said Chinese's because it related to milk and farming as per topic, what I stated above is fact

 

The reason why it matters who owns it.

 

https://www.radionz.co.nz/news/business/326190/foreign-ownership-nears-50-percent

 

 

Scare-mongering headline from a guy with an axe to grind, published as outrage-porn.  It made ya click, so they'll keep publishing that sort of thing.

 

Find out how he came up with those ownership figures.  The Companies Office would struggle to come up with stats like this, yet he managed to with less information?  That's quite an achievement eh.

 

Anyway, North American-style dairy farming is not coming to New Zealand.  Chat with some dairy farmers and Fonterra people.

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