Clutha Agricultural Development Board Media Release

Tuesday 8 June 2010

Clutha Agricultural Statistics uncovered

A new statistics report by the Clutha Agricultural Development Board reveals the amount of farmed land area in the Clutha District has remained relatively static over the last 20 years, but farm types and profitability levels have changed significantly.

This is just one key finding of the ‘Agricultural Statistics for the Clutha District’ report produced by the Clutha Agricultural Development Board and released this month.

The greatest change of land use in the last 20 years has actually been a 50% increase in plantation forestry; although the more talked about change to dairying is seen by the statistic of a 28% increase in dairy farms in the seven years to August 2009.

This collection is the first release of statistics on the Clutha District since the year 2000 and the Clutha Agricultural Development Board hopes this is the first of at least biennial updates. The aim of this data collection is to capture a distinctly Clutha District agricultural picture and open up the opportunity for farmers, agribusiness and developers to recognise trends and plan accordingly, according to one of the authors of the report, Graeme Pringle.

“It isn’t easy to get datasets at the district level so we’ve had to have a lot of co-operation from all the industry bodies concerned. Everyone has been great, although different bodies collect data in different ways, and sometimes it’s been tricky to see the picture clearly.

“Farmers often feel harassed to give up particular information, about stock numbers or dollars achieved or whatever, so it would be good if we can put a reasonably brief picture together that gives them some value,” said Mr Pringle.

Clutha Agricultural Development Board Project Manager Malcolm Deverson says the Board is keen to get feedback on their report and hopes the quality and consistency of the data can improve at each year it is produced.

“There’s a fair bit of ‘looking over the fence’ opportunities in a bunch of statistics like this, seeing what everyone else is up to,” said Mr Deverson. “I think farmers like to have an idea of the global picture in their district.

People can access a copy of the report on the Clutha District Council website at  http://www.cluthadc.govt.nz/agriculturalreport.pdf, and members of the Clutha Agricultural Development Board can write to the Board for a hard copy.

“We are still a sheep district (75% of Clutha farmers) but will the trend to dairying continue? The answer is probably in these statistics and farmers’ responses to them,” concludes Mr Deverson.

ENDS