Leave Tariffs to the Farmers
Hank Volger started ranching in 1971 in Spring Valley at the tip of Nevada, south of Las Vegas, near the Arizona border with two cows and seven sheep. His business Needmore Sheep Co has over 7,000 merino ewes shorn mostly by Kiwi shearers.
Farmers in America and New Zealand farmers are all the same except for our funny accent. We would all like to be paid for our hard work. Blaming everything on imports is about as productive as trying to get a politician to tell the truth. Blaming everything on tariffs is silly.
Free trade is the goal for me. Your country has lost around half of your flocks. We have gone from 60 million to around three million breeding ewes. Our infrastructure is nearly gone. Whether shearing crews or haul trucks, it is difficult at best. Very few facilities to process our product and shelf space in the grocery store is very limited. My fellow producers will consider this hearsay, but without imported lamb, our market would be limited to religious holidays. We would be forced to sell our lambs out the back of a pickup not unlike selling Christmas trees.
“I think us American sheep farmers and you Kiwi sheep farmers need to sit down, knock a few back and straighten this mess out.” – Hank Volger, Needmore Sheep Co
Levelling the playing field to make us competitive is mostly internal. Most sheep in the West are run wholly or seasonally on federal managed land. Just like you, we have the ‘greenies’. They think that the hard-won range rights are no longer applicable. No matter what side of that argument, it doesn’t matter.
Don’t ask me to explain reintroduction of large predators too. You have the lack of such an issue. Somehow I don’t think these folks know whether Christ was crucified or shot in a crap game! We don’t run under wire so our labour cost tends to be high. The H2A sheepherder programme has 500 pages of rules and regulations. Most of the people that work at the Bureau of Land Management are hunters or recreationists or of some other flavour than production agriculture. Throw in the environmentalists and buy and pay for politicians and it becomes attractive to move to your country.
The good news is red meat consumption is up substantially in America. Recent cultures moving to America eat lamb and the carnivore diet is in vogue. Wool is making a comeback as a natural fibre. I think us American sheep farmers and you Kiwi sheep farmers need to sit down, knock a few back and straighten this mess out. We should pick a cold day so the politicians will have their hands in their own pockets!
