Oct 11, 2024
Executive Committee Report
While we are approaching the midway point of spring, the weather is still delivering variety around the nation. This is certainly being felt to the extreme in the southern regions of the country where soils are waterlogged, but the rain continues to fall. Our thoughts go out to those in the affected areas and hope a change is soon on the horizon.
This year’s Branch Chairs meeting in Wellington had a venue change for the first time in many years. We had a full programme of topics and given the diverse range of issues we are facing as deer farmers, it was hard to decide what to include or omit for discussion over the two days. We had three new branch chairs and six new faces in attendance which was great to see. It is always valuable to get the NZDFA team together from all corners of the country and create a platform where they can interact together, but also connect with the DINZ board and office executive. This connected structure is a real point of difference with other primary sector groups and certainly allows us the opportunity to better deal with this fast-changing world we are in.
Velvet access to China continues to be on the forefront of deer farmer's minds and was certainly a keenly discussed topic at this year’s meeting. We had updates from Rhys Griffiths, Tony Cochrane and Neil Kennington from MPI. The consistent message received was everything is in place for frozen velvet access to resume again this season and while getting ever closer the exact date still can't be given. The advice was to stay close to your trusted buyers through this period and work through the options available, particularly to you if don't have the option of holding larger volumes of velvet on farm.
The National Velvetting Standards Body (NVSB) remains one of the key groups in the deer industry. It has become apparent during the China velvet access discussion that had the Regulatory Control Scheme (RCS) and Veltrak system not been in place, gaining access for this season would have been highly unlikely. A key function of the group is identifying risks and staying ahead of them, which given the growth of the velvet sector has never been more important. After many years of service Paddy Boyd has made the decision to step down from the NVSB. We would like to thank him for his commitment and contribution over that time (not even Paddy can recall how long) and thankfully that knowledge remains close by as he focuses on his DINZ board chair duties. Following recent expressions of interest the NZDFA Executive Committee have eight applicants to interview during October to fill the vacancy.
Like other pastoral sector groups, we are undergoing a major demographic change. In the case of the deer industry that has meant not only on farm changes, but also within the NZDFA as the farmers that established and ran our organisation for so many years are now enjoying a well-earned retirement. As we saw at this year’s Branch Chairs meeting there are a number of new faces and branch representatives, which is great for the future as we transition through this change. From my own personal perspective of becoming a branch chair and more recently on the Executive Committee there is a massive amount to initially get your head around. The support I received from experienced branch Chairs and others was invaluable. We have just provided a new handbook to help branches in this regard but would also encourage all farmers to support or become involved with the running of their local branch to ensure the farmers voice is heard both now and into the future.
Mark McCoard
NZDFA Chair
