Farmers must face facts every day
Facts are pieces of information, handy to have at hand. Recently, I organised to be displayed on our roadside some previously overlooked important pieces of information.
The lack of this potentially crucial detail was apparent when a holidayhome visitor experienced a medical emergency in the wee hours one morning.
I drove her in for assistance, but realised that if we weren’t home the shiny blue and white ‘‘rapid number’’ on the gate, helpful to direct emergency crews rapidly and easily, was lacking.
Information like ‘‘past the cabbage trees’’, ‘‘opposite the diesel tank’’, ‘‘over two culverts’’ are indeed facts but wordy, complex and confusing when all the operator wants is a useful, factual, simple number.
A rapid number identifies our driveway and the new plaque will be nailed on, even though I’m hoping that these numerical facts are never needed for emergency callouts.
Added to complication with too many pieces of information is confusion between facts and opinions.
Facts tell truth straight while opinions often tilt.
A statement heard recently, that ‘‘farmers have plenty of money. Beef and lamb prices are good so they can afford it’’ is not fact. ‘‘It’’ being planting trees, more fences, added costs of compliance, increases in rates to cover increasing council expenses. That is an uninformed viewpoint.
A political opinion which is not backed by relevant facts from Beef and Lamb economic survey comparing profit over the past six decades.
In the 1960s, average profit per hectare was $221, 1970s up a bit to $243, 1980s went down to $136, 1990s dropped to a low $105, 2000s it recovered back to 20 years earlier levels of $133, and our past decade 2010s lifted to $194.
Still nowhere the 1970s’ income; 1973 was the best year as the NZ dollar was briefly buying US$1.49 but volatility plunged to buying less than US$0.40 11 years later.
So while current prices are healthy and certainly better than last decade, it is far from any Lotto strike.
Bear with me.
New Zealand inflation conversion table facts can be used to calculate comparisons for real profit per hectare.
What $1 is worth now was $22.77 in 1960 making a high $5032.17 profit per hectare, $16.50 in 1970 meaning drop to $4009.50, $5.31 in 1980 bringing it lower to $722.16, $1.80 in 1990 and down to $189, $1.50 in 2000 making $199.50 and in 2010 that $1 was worth $1.30 earning a slight rise to $252.20 profit per hectare.
Hardly keeping up with cost of living rises and not something we can go on strike for demanding wage increases.
Graphing those trends will not show farmers currently sitting on any exciting peak.
Since those supposed ‘‘plenty of money’’ prices for lambs in late November, our weekly schedule has disappointingly dropped, Friday after Friday, seven times.
Combined that means a 17 per cent loss in value for each lamb which certainly impacts profit and, with it, the ability to absorb ongoing additional costs.
Election date 2020 has been announced and we now face 33 weeks of media mania, political party propaganda, differing groups influencing voters by differing means.
We need wisdom when reading slogans and manifestos, and courage to ask questions.
Sometimes complicated, wordy information confuses facts when, like the emergency services, we just want simple truths. Frequently there’s a tendency not to let facts get in the way of a story.