Breeder finisher collaboration.

Increasingly consumers want to know where their food has come from and how it has been produced.  Confidence in food safety, animal welfare, and environmental practices is paramount.  High value market opportunities requiring a clear and traceable provenance story linked back to the birth of an animal, are developing quickly.  

Livestock in New Zealand are commonly traded from a hill country breeding farm as store stock, onto a flatland specialised finisher to be grown out to prime slaughter weights.  Presently there is a lot of insular and opportunistic behaviour of trading livestock through sale yards with no clear business relationship between the breeder and finisher and a breakdown in the transparency of the provenance story.  

Consumers in the market are driving the requirement for increased transparency and traceability through quality assurance programmes providing verification of the provenance of the food they’re eating.  This can be seen in higher value markets where retailers require lamb and beef to be certified from birth to slaughter through validated accreditation standards.  

This report investigates the current opportunities for livestock breeders and finishers to collaborate, bringing their farming systems closer together so that the provenance story is not impacted by the sale of store stock to a finisher.  Where collaboration is currently occurring, this report looks at what sales models are being utilised to determine the trade price from breeder to finisher.

It is understood that farmer producers differ in how they wish to conduct their business relationships and whether they have a desire to be more collaborative or prefer to operate in a spot market.  For our customers who are demanding strength of our provenance story, to enhance livestock breeder finisher collaboration I recommend:

• Livestock processors and marketers promote the awareness of producer group type structures and engage more breeders and finishers into these supply programmes.
• Livestock processors and third-party agencies embrace collaboration, developing and enhancing the skillset of livestock and procurement agents in identifying and connecting suitable breeders and finishers and facilitating these relationships.
• Further in-depth analysis be carried out by a data analyst into the development of a pricing model for the trading of store category livestock between breeders and finishers.