Welcome to the first newsletter for 2014. Again the off season has gone by too quick and as I write this I still have some customers to visit. I made a good start in April however for various reasons haven’t got around everyone yet. One of those reasons was in May I took my Stepfather in-law and my youngest son to Queensland for two weeks where we drove over 4,000km from Brisbane through the Queensland Highlands up to Townsville and back to Brisbane. Our aim was to avoid cities and instead see farming Queensland  style. The main farming types we saw were cotton, sorghum, cattle, prawn and sugar. I even managed to call in and see a couple of feed mills as well as Australia’s biggest cattle sale in Roma (14,200 head the day we were there).

Pricing for 2014 Season

As most of you will know grain prices have risen substantially this year. We have a certain amount contracted from last spring, which was lucky, and have contracted more recently. It’s unlikely prices have peaked, however with palm kernel becoming available again and under $300 per tonne, this may have some impact on grain sales. Ironically grain is about $50 per tonne cheaper in the North Island as they are importing from Australia. We can’t use Australian grain as we don’t process it enough to meet quarantine specifications and with some of my friends and neighbours being grain growers it’s not a path we want to go down.

Soya meal prices had been quite high until about the start of June and then dropped by nearly $100 per tonne over a couple of weeks. We have now secured 50% of our requirements at a good price. Only time will tell if they are going to continue their downward trend or will they start to climb again.

It always a guessing game on when to contract, sometimes I get it right and sometimes I get it wrong. Also unknown is what our production levels will be which has an obvious effect on how much I need to contract.

Our prices for the start of this season are:
High Octane Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg $750 + GST and Delivery
Low Protein Aoraki Calf Meal 40 x 25kg $710 + GST and Delivery
This price will be reviewed in September or October.

Although we have enough grain contracted to maintain this price based on last year’s sales, price movements could happen if some of our other raw material prices move up or sales increase and we have to go to the free market for more grain. Read more in our latest Newsletter for July 2014 here...

Cheers

Ken Buckingham