MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland Landholdings: increase in production numbers and quality

FLH General Manager Andrew Pollard in April attended the Merino Conference in Montevideo which also included a tour of farms and technology center

An overall increase in production numbers and quality at Falkland Landholdings was reported by General Manager Andrew Pollard at the FLH Board meeting on March 27. Mr. Pollard in early April also attended the World Merino Conference held in Montevideo, an excellent opportunity to meet Uruguayan customers of Falklands' wool, sheep farmers from other countries and Peter Ackroyd, President of the International Wool Textile Organization, IWTO.

Falkland Landholdings owns and manages three farms with some 150.000 sheep, 1.000 cattle in an area of 308.000 hectares. The last clip totaled over half a million kilos.

GM Pollard reported that up to the date of the meeting, 10,971 mutton, 6,040 yearling lamb and 57 new season lamb had been supplied to Falkland Islands Meat Company from the FLH farms.

Average weights and value for the mutton were up on last year and the incidence of boils in the carcasses had reduced from an average of 16.4% to 10.7%.

In addition to the sheep, 135 prime beef and six mature beef had been supplied to FIMCO. Average weight for the prime beef was up from 238 kg to 254 kg, giving an approximate extra £40 of value to each animal.

Wool prices had remained strong across all microns. During the season 2,795 bales or 514,771 kg of greasy wool had been harvested, 10,000 kg more than the previous season. Approximately 20 lots were still out for offers.

Genetic improvement was evident, the General Manager said, in the reduction of the average micron across the whole clip from 24.8 last year to 23.9 this year. Given that the price difference between these two microns was currently £1.61 per kg clean, this could amount to £500,000 across the entire FLH clip.

With regard to recruitment of staff, the General Manager reported a lively response to advertisements recently placed in the Scottish Farmer, Farmers Guardian and Farmers Weekly magazines in the UK.

Currently there were 35 applicants to be assessed. Still on the topic of staff, Mr. Pollard reported that meetings had been held with MLAs and FIG with a view to the reinstatement this year of the Agricultural Trainee Scheme. The Committee was advised that AI technician Michylla was in the Islands prior to the start of the insemination program scheduled to begin next week.

World Merino Conference

Mr. Pollard spent some time reporting on his attendance at the World Merino Conference and Farm Tour in Uruguay, which Senior Agricultural Advisor Adam Dawes also attended.

While stating his intention to give a more detailed account of his findings during Farmers’ Week, he gave the Committee a summary of what he described as a very insightful and useful visit.

Mr. Pollard spent some time reporting on his attendance at the World Merino Conference and Farm Tour in Uruguay, which Senior Agricultural Advisor Adam Dawes also attended.

While stating his intention to give a more detailed account of his findings during Farmers’ Week, he gave the Committee a summary of what he described as a very insightful and useful visit.

On the tour three Merino studs, cattle farms, a show and sale, the national sheep nucleus with INIA were all visited in the Salto region.

Mr Pollard said that it was interesting to see that the industries’ productivity was similar to the Falkland Islands, particularly with regard to lamb marking and wool cuts, despite a marked difference in climate.

A visit was made to Lanas Trinidad, a wool processing plant ran by Pedro Otegui, who visited the Islands five years ago and has since become an important buyer of FLH wool.

The Conference ran over two days and provided insight into Merino wool and meat production in Australia, Uruguay, South Africa, Argentina, New Zealand, Portugal and the USA. Presentations were made around new technologies such as DNA flock testing and internal parasite control.

The second day the focus was more specifically on high quality products: wool and meat. Topics included the quality of Merino lamb versus yearlings, the demand, trends, new products and marketing of Merino wool, international demand for Merino Wool and the role of the International Wool Textile Organization (IWTO) in the world fiber debate, who are advocates for the naturally sustainable. The latter presentation was given by Peter Ackroyd, President of the IWTO.

This conference was a very good networking opportunity. 200 people attended the tour and 250 the conference. There was a delegation of 80 from Australia and 20 from New Zealand. These delegations were made up of stud breeders, farmers, buyers, Australian Wool Innovators, retailers, government and other private organizations.

Visiting Uruguay was Peter Brice and another Director of Australian Merino Exports. AME are another buyer of FLH wool, which is now processed at Lanas Trinidad. The GM held a meeting with the two buyers.

Farm Reports

The reports from the three farm managers were all positive on the whole, especially with regard to the quality and quantity of animals sent to the abattoir, though Keith Alazia of Goose Green had some queries about discrepancies in the price obtained for two lots of sheep from the same camp.

Mr Alazia also expressed some doubts about the proposal that ‘cull’ animals usually disposed of on the farm should be sent to the abattoir as part of a trial proposed by the abattoir’s Business Development Manager to see whether their meat could be profitably exported for use in processed meat products like pies, sausages and burgers.

North Arm Manager Steven Dickson expressed similar doubts, but Fitzroy Manager Gilberto Castro seemed enthusiastic. Mr Dickson was also critical of what he regarded as poor attendance by farmers at the recent agricultural show in Goose Green.

He stated that more effort was required by more people or there would be no show. (Penguin News)