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Speaker 1: Right now. If they keep it green, they'll get the gold.

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Speaker 1: Fonterra is offering its dairy farmers an extra one to

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Speaker 1: five cents per kg of milk solids to get the

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Speaker 1: payment their emissions. Yes, the climate emissions need to be

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Speaker 1: lower than they were in twenty seventeen, and based on

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Speaker 1: how Fonterra's farms met climate criteria last season, they're expecting

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Speaker 1: around five thousand farmers should qualify for this plus. But wait,

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Speaker 1: there's more. If a farm's emissions are thirty percent lower

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Speaker 1: than the average, Mars and Nestley, which is where all

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Speaker 1: this money is coming from, the contract done with them,

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Speaker 1: will drop in an additional ten to twenty five cents

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Speaker 1: perkg of milk solids. John Stevenson is the chair of

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Speaker 1: Fonterra's Cooperative Council. He's with me Hi John good evening.

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Speaker 2: Ryan.

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Speaker 1: What do you make of this?

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Speaker 2: I think it's big news for our farmers. It's certainly

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Speaker 2: a significant amount of extra funding and recognition of their

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Speaker 2: high quality milk, and it'll make a material difference to

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Speaker 2: those farmers that receive it.

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Speaker 1: So put it in context, extra one to five per

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Speaker 1: kilogram of milk solids might not sound like much to people.

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Speaker 1: What will it well, what could it mean to your

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Speaker 1: average farmer?

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Speaker 2: I think what it could mean will depend on their production.

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Speaker 2: But for a for an average farm, you know, we

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Speaker 2: could we could see, we could see recognition there in

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Speaker 2: and around that, you know, sort of ten to twenty

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Speaker 2: thousand dollars MARC depending on the achievement. And I think

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Speaker 2: it's important to note that there there is a range

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Speaker 2: within that, so you know that that will depend on

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Speaker 2: on on the farm practices.

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Speaker 1: What are they on farm practices? What's the criteria?

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Speaker 2: So I think what we're hearing from our farmers at

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Speaker 2: the moment is a real desire to understand more about

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Speaker 2: these changes, what these changes exactly do mean for them,

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Speaker 2: and I suppose ultimately whether they're in with a shot

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Speaker 2: at either some of this money from Fontira or or

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Speaker 2: more poignantly, the customer funded money. So that's what we're

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Speaker 2: hearing from our farmers is exactly those questions. But if

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Speaker 2: we look a look at practices like stocking rate, the

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Speaker 2: ability for our cares to be as efficient as they

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Speaker 2: can be, making sure that they're getting in car in

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Speaker 2: some of those other green initiatives, my understanding is that

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Speaker 2: they all contribute to the ultimate end number farmers.

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Speaker 1: Surely this is surely the way that you would like

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Speaker 1: to see climate change handled, you know, as an organization,

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Speaker 1: because it's incentive driven rather than whacking you with a stick.

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Speaker 2: I think you're right in that regard, Ryan. I think

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Speaker 2: our farm has been asking Fonterra for some time for

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Speaker 2: evidence that sustainability will deliver the premiums that have been

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Speaker 2: talked about. This is this is evidence of that which

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Speaker 2: I mean within a cooperative you need to balance that

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Speaker 2: up against against the cooperative nature of Fonterra. So you know,

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Speaker 2: not not all of our farmers are going to receive

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Speaker 2: this money, so that will that may present some challenges

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Speaker 2: on the other side.

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Speaker 1: Is it enough to incentivize them to do that for

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Speaker 1: next time?

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Speaker 2: I think so. But each farm will run a cost

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Speaker 2: benefit analysis of how they potentially might achieve those numbers

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Speaker 2: in what investment will be required on farms. So we

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Speaker 2: already have some right at the top end and they're

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Speaker 2: doing an outstanding job. But for those that aren't, the

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Speaker 2: pressure will come on from TIRA to get alongside them,

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Speaker 2: show them what they need to do to achieve those

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Speaker 2: figures and ultimately whether it's a value proposition worth chasing.

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Speaker 1: John, thank you, obviously not to be scoffed at. John Stevenson,

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Speaker 1: chair of Fonterra's Cooperative Counsel, that he represents the farmers

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Speaker 1: in the Deiry Cooperative eleven minutes after six year on

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Speaker 1: News Talks V.

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Speaker 2: For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.

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Speaker 1: Listen live to News Talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,

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