September 29, 2025 • 8 mins
Graham Butcher wants to see transparency around the Alliance Group figures before a decision is made around the Dawn Meats proposal.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Look cam far, We've come so far from where we
used to be. Joined in studio This Afternoon by Graham Butcher,
fun consultant based here and Gore Good Afternoon Afternoon, Andy, September.
That's the theme for the music today. I tend to
steer away from stereotypical songs for the time of year,
but I think that's one month when on the last
(00:21):
day of it, finally, it's been a stretch.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It has been at great winter, great late winter. We're
anticipating a nice warm September to get lemming and feed
supplies underway. But it just doesn't seem to have happened.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
When you're talking to people. Feed supplies just pretty tidal
to imagine, so.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Declining, I mean stocking takes peaking, also not peaking. It's
very high and the demand is higher than what's growing,
So covers reduced.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
How's the land drop seemed?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
It seems okay. No final, Well we weren't no results
until tailing comes in, but I think it'll be okay.
Lambs are pretty tough.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
They're resilient to think the words we.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Didn't want to accept word fair cool.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Look the Alliance screep. These meetings are happening this week
down here in the South was shareholders. This is an
interesting situation that the cooperatives faced with.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It certainly is I mean, it was really presented as
a fato complete that Dawn meets is the way we
should go. But now we have this group of five farmers,
and they're pretty influential farmers, They're not slugs, have come
up with a counterproposal, and I have to say I
have a certain level of sympathy for them. Things have
(01:38):
changed in the last six to eight months in terms
of profitability of sheep farming. Alliance have rationalized, Smithfield's closed,
and the straits have dropped. I would like to think
that those factors have been taken into account recently in
their final decision to sell and in the view of
(01:59):
the banks and whatever you they may or may not
have taken that into account. I don't know. I would
like to see the twenty five interim result before the
SGM vote. I think shareholders should have a copy of
how twenty five is panned out before they make your
final call.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Rationalization across the red meat sector as such, though well
it was just a tip of the iceberg Smithfield. You
get that feeling don't.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
You, Yes, you do. I think there's still going to
be excess capacity there. But the twenty five result, to me,
is critical for Alliance for farmers to make a reasonable
choice about which way they should go. It does need
to recapitalize. I think this group of five farmers have
realized that, and they have a plan in place on paper.
(02:48):
It looked recently brief the communications we've had about it
needs recapitalize. But is Alliance back and profit for twenty
five year that's to me a key factor. The alliance
was set up. The co op was set up in
first nineteen forty eight. There was a lot of planning
and a lot of work done prior to that date
before it was actually set up. And it was set
(03:10):
up because farmers weren't getting a fair share of the
market price. Okay, so that's why farmers are involved as
owners of a company. They get they should get a
better value for their product. I don't think that philosophy
has changed. I don't think there's anything wrong as such
with a co op structure. Maybe some of the board
(03:32):
decisions haven't been that brilliant in the past with co ops,
but that doesn't detract from the actual nature of a
co op structure. So yeah, as I said, twenty five accounts,
I think the team of account as alliance should sit down,
do an infom account, let farmers know how twenty five
is gone. Then they'll have all the information they need
(03:54):
to make a final call on what they should do.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
There seems to be more questions and answers though around
the whole.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Situation there is, which is why twenty five accounts of
an interview that would be really handy. I think this
bid from the five farmers, I think it has merit,
but it's a last achieve at the s GM is
only a couple of weeks away.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Do you know of any smaller scale farmers who would
agree with their thinking?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I haven't, No, not at the moment, but I haven't
spoken to a lot of smaller scale farmers about it.
I think it's probably a matter of do you how
long a view do you take on the structure of
the supply of the meat company that you want a
short term fronting up with five dollars a lamb for
this next coming year than two dollars a lamb and
(04:46):
two dollars a lamb for the next two years might
seem like a big ask, or do you take a
long term view and say, look that the meat company
should the farmers should own it, They should have a
say on how it to run. They should get the
full market value return or the maximum they can get
from the market value in the long term. That would
(05:07):
probably outweigh the costs in the short term. So, but
if you're under pressure from your banks and you've got
to make a profit, I mean, three thousand lambs fifteen
thousand dollars out of the budget next year, that could
be a bit of an ask.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Do you think the days of a cooperative model are numbered? No? Why?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I think it is for benefits of a farmer producing
stock to sell to a company whose sole purpose is
to get the maximum return back to the suppliers, and
not necessarily for any other company. Their prime consideration as
the shareholders, not the suppliers.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Something that has been a good news story over the
last couple of weeks, particularly last week, is the price
of war out of nowhere. I wouldn't say it's raised
from the dead and making a trajectory going upwards great,
but it's certainly a good start. And all of a sudden,
walls seems to have had got a bit of gumption
about itself.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Well, that last sale in christ Church there was a
sharp uptick in the clean value when up forty six
percent the indicator good style crossbred Wall seventy eight percent
yield three point thirty five greasy, that's okay. Sale costs
to come off that probably fifteen cents, so you're probably
looking at three twenty in a budget for that sort
of thing. That's for the fleece line, not for the
(06:27):
odd months. Good to see when you look at the graph,
it's it's quite a remarkable uptick, but the scale on
the vertical axis is actually fairly small, so it sort
of exaggerates the uptickle with it.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
But anything that is positive about Wall, you need to
take it. At the moment.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Couldn't agree more. I think when you look at the
sharing account it'll probably be in the surplus, so that
when farmers start fleece weighing Hogitt Wall again, we've made.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
It finally before we go we're management as well. You've
got to thoughts around this. I mean, we've all heard
about we're in Burden's drench resistance and the likes, but
there's a lot of thinking.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Well, we're approaching another season a couple of months away
will be right into it. Farmers are very good at
fetally accounting and giving me the drench management right. But
then what is not so well done and more difficult
to do is looking at the effective lava on pasture,
because that's where ninety five percent of the worms are
on the pasture. So you can have a very good
(07:26):
drenching program every twenty one, twenty eight days, whatever it is,
but if the sheep, if the lambs are having an
intake or a higher intake of effective lava, they will
not reach their potential growth, no matter how good your
drenching policy is. So a critical issue is the laval
intake from the pasture, and to get some sort of
handle on the management of that, you need to know
(07:48):
where the effect of lava are. So to be able
to do that is actually quite difficult because you've got
to look at your drenching program, your life cycle of
the worms, the climate, what grazing is being done by cattle,
are you feeding crop that. There's a whole lot of
factors that come in to determine how severe the effect
of lava is on a particular pasture, and it's not
(08:10):
an easy thing to do, and that's the bit we
need to focus on.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
It's not that many months ago we were talking about
looking at your spring rotations for your young lambs and
the likes, and all of a sudden here we are.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yep, it's Harley spring.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So it's been.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
It's not not.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Brilliant pretty much. Hey, Graham, always appreciate your time, mate,
you yeah, you go and wrap up this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yep, absolutely, step for just a while.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Neil Diamond, that's not Neil Diamond, that's Graham Butcher far
get salted up. Next the way to close Friends Station
Grant Disaster McMaster standing in the door.
Look cam far, We've come so far from where we
used to be. Joined in studio This Afternoon by Graham Butcher,
fun consultant based here and Gore Good Afternoon Afternoon, Andy, September.
That's the theme for the music today. I tend to
steer away from stereotypical songs for the time of year,
but I think that's one month when on the last
(00:21):
day of it, finally, it's been a stretch.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It has been at great winter, great late winter. We're
anticipating a nice warm September to get lemming and feed
supplies underway. But it just doesn't seem to have happened.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
When you're talking to people. Feed supplies just pretty tidal
to imagine, so.
Speaker 2 (00:40):
Declining, I mean stocking takes peaking, also not peaking. It's
very high and the demand is higher than what's growing,
So covers reduced.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
How's the land drop seemed?
Speaker 2 (00:51):
It seems okay. No final, Well we weren't no results
until tailing comes in, but I think it'll be okay.
Lambs are pretty tough.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
They're resilient to think the words we.
Speaker 2 (01:04):
Didn't want to accept word fair cool.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Look the Alliance screep. These meetings are happening this week
down here in the South was shareholders. This is an
interesting situation that the cooperatives faced with.
Speaker 2 (01:18):
It certainly is I mean, it was really presented as
a fato complete that Dawn meets is the way we
should go. But now we have this group of five farmers,
and they're pretty influential farmers, They're not slugs, have come
up with a counterproposal, and I have to say I
have a certain level of sympathy for them. Things have
(01:38):
changed in the last six to eight months in terms
of profitability of sheep farming. Alliance have rationalized, Smithfield's closed,
and the straits have dropped. I would like to think
that those factors have been taken into account recently in
their final decision to sell and in the view of
(01:59):
the banks and whatever you they may or may not
have taken that into account. I don't know. I would
like to see the twenty five interim result before the
SGM vote. I think shareholders should have a copy of
how twenty five is panned out before they make your
final call.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
Rationalization across the red meat sector as such, though well
it was just a tip of the iceberg Smithfield. You
get that feeling don't.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
You, Yes, you do. I think there's still going to
be excess capacity there. But the twenty five result, to me,
is critical for Alliance for farmers to make a reasonable
choice about which way they should go. It does need
to recapitalize. I think this group of five farmers have
realized that, and they have a plan in place on paper.
(02:48):
It looked recently brief the communications we've had about it
needs recapitalize. But is Alliance back and profit for twenty
five year that's to me a key factor. The alliance
was set up. The co op was set up in
first nineteen forty eight. There was a lot of planning
and a lot of work done prior to that date
before it was actually set up. And it was set
(03:10):
up because farmers weren't getting a fair share of the
market price. Okay, so that's why farmers are involved as
owners of a company. They get they should get a
better value for their product. I don't think that philosophy
has changed. I don't think there's anything wrong as such
with a co op structure. Maybe some of the board
(03:32):
decisions haven't been that brilliant in the past with co ops,
but that doesn't detract from the actual nature of a
co op structure. So yeah, as I said, twenty five accounts,
I think the team of account as alliance should sit down,
do an infom account, let farmers know how twenty five
is gone. Then they'll have all the information they need
(03:54):
to make a final call on what they should do.
Speaker 1 (03:56):
There seems to be more questions and answers though around
the whole.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Situation there is, which is why twenty five accounts of
an interview that would be really handy. I think this
bid from the five farmers, I think it has merit,
but it's a last achieve at the s GM is
only a couple of weeks away.
Speaker 1 (04:20):
Do you know of any smaller scale farmers who would
agree with their thinking?
Speaker 2 (04:25):
I haven't, No, not at the moment, but I haven't
spoken to a lot of smaller scale farmers about it.
I think it's probably a matter of do you how
long a view do you take on the structure of
the supply of the meat company that you want a
short term fronting up with five dollars a lamb for
this next coming year than two dollars a lamb and
(04:46):
two dollars a lamb for the next two years might
seem like a big ask, or do you take a
long term view and say, look that the meat company
should the farmers should own it, They should have a
say on how it to run. They should get the
full market value return or the maximum they can get
from the market value in the long term. That would
(05:07):
probably outweigh the costs in the short term. So, but
if you're under pressure from your banks and you've got
to make a profit, I mean, three thousand lambs fifteen
thousand dollars out of the budget next year, that could
be a bit of an ask.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
Do you think the days of a cooperative model are numbered? No? Why?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
I think it is for benefits of a farmer producing
stock to sell to a company whose sole purpose is
to get the maximum return back to the suppliers, and
not necessarily for any other company. Their prime consideration as
the shareholders, not the suppliers.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
Something that has been a good news story over the
last couple of weeks, particularly last week, is the price
of war out of nowhere. I wouldn't say it's raised
from the dead and making a trajectory going upwards great,
but it's certainly a good start. And all of a sudden,
walls seems to have had got a bit of gumption
about itself.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
Well, that last sale in christ Church there was a
sharp uptick in the clean value when up forty six
percent the indicator good style crossbred Wall seventy eight percent
yield three point thirty five greasy, that's okay. Sale costs
to come off that probably fifteen cents, so you're probably
looking at three twenty in a budget for that sort
of thing. That's for the fleece line, not for the
(06:27):
odd months. Good to see when you look at the graph,
it's it's quite a remarkable uptick, but the scale on
the vertical axis is actually fairly small, so it sort
of exaggerates the uptickle with it.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
But anything that is positive about Wall, you need to
take it. At the moment.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Couldn't agree more. I think when you look at the
sharing account it'll probably be in the surplus, so that
when farmers start fleece weighing Hogitt Wall again, we've made.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
It finally before we go we're management as well. You've
got to thoughts around this. I mean, we've all heard
about we're in Burden's drench resistance and the likes, but
there's a lot of thinking.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
Well, we're approaching another season a couple of months away
will be right into it. Farmers are very good at
fetally accounting and giving me the drench management right. But
then what is not so well done and more difficult
to do is looking at the effective lava on pasture,
because that's where ninety five percent of the worms are
on the pasture. So you can have a very good
(07:26):
drenching program every twenty one, twenty eight days, whatever it is,
but if the sheep, if the lambs are having an
intake or a higher intake of effective lava, they will
not reach their potential growth, no matter how good your
drenching policy is. So a critical issue is the laval
intake from the pasture, and to get some sort of
handle on the management of that, you need to know
(07:48):
where the effect of lava are. So to be able
to do that is actually quite difficult because you've got
to look at your drenching program, your life cycle of
the worms, the climate, what grazing is being done by cattle,
are you feeding crop that. There's a whole lot of
factors that come in to determine how severe the effect
of lava is on a particular pasture, and it's not
(08:10):
an easy thing to do, and that's the bit we
need to focus on.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
It's not that many months ago we were talking about
looking at your spring rotations for your young lambs and
the likes, and all of a sudden here we are.
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yep, it's Harley spring.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
So it's been.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
It's not not.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Brilliant pretty much. Hey, Graham, always appreciate your time, mate,
you yeah, you go and wrap up this afternoon.
Speaker 2 (08:33):
Yep, absolutely, step for just a while.
Speaker 1 (08:39):
Neil Diamond, that's not Neil Diamond, that's Graham Butcher far
get salted up. Next the way to close Friends Station
Grant Disaster McMaster standing in the door.
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