Agro-Ecological News - Agro-Ecological InvestmentAgro-Ecological Investment

Farmland Investment Notes: How to Beat Climate Change and Improve Productivity.

Diversity in pastoral agriculture. Not monoculture. Pastoral agriculture done well is based on species diversity. Carbon Storage Diversity of species in pasture increases soil organic carbon (SOC). In the face of increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations and resulting climate change, the accumulation of SOC in land based ecosystems is an important ecosystem service as in this process atmospheric carbon is sequestered in the soil. In simple terms, this is as […]

Farmland Investment Notes: What Defines Smart Farming?

Production without pollution. Better environmental outcomes, better production outcomes, and better financial outcomes. ‘Yes Matilda, you can have it all.’ What is the one thing that defines smart farming? N Yes, one single letter. You may know it better as nitrogen. Defining Difference The primary difference between regenerative organic production systems and external input reliant systems is not sprays or yield or beards. It is N. From this all […]

Farmland Investment Notes: The Triumph of Biological Nitrogen.

Nitrogen (N) is the most important nutrient for plant growth and therefore farming but its management is the most complex and it has the largest negative environmental impact. This negative impact is as a result of nitrate nitrogen leaching into waterways and causing eutrophication, as well as turning into nitrous oxide gas (N2O) which has 298 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide and ammonia gas which is […]

New Zealand Update – Q3 2017

September 2017 New Zealand Update The latest dairy auction saw prices increase by 0.3% with butter rising 3.8%. The prevailing view in the market is that both will move higher in the coming months. The wet start to the season has production below expectations which will underpin the broad price strength. Butter in particular is seen as being able to move significantly higher in response to demand. Fonterra’s payout forecast […]

Breeding Quality, Grass and the Unseen Majority

The key themes for agri-investment success you probably know nothing about What is involved? What does it take? What do you have to do?……and how much does it cost? This is the science (not alchemy) of transforming farms from underperforming conventional orthodoxy into healthy, resilient, successful ecological systems. It is not alchemy as it is real and we are not creating ‘nuggets of the purest green’. Capex is not the […]

Reputational Damage and the Blindingly Obvious

Catchy Headline You may recently have seen the following article http://nacla.org/news/2017/01/06/how-tiaa-funds-environmental-disaster-latin-america, or at least seen it covered elsewhere. It is certainly a catchy title. Perhaps not one that investment institutions would seek to be part of but, nonetheless, that is how it turned out. So how did so many serious and ‘sustainable’ (groan) investment institutions become committed to a strategy approach that generated the one thing they all claim to […]

New Zealand Update – Q1 2017

March 2017 New Zealand Update The latest dairy auction saw prices decrease by 6.3%; the second decline in a row. Fonterra’s payout forecast for the season 16/17 of $6.00/KgMS is holding firm. This decline is not yet putting the payout forecast under too much pressure. New Zealand’s terms of trade rose 5.7% in the fourth quarter of 2016. Export prices rose 5.7% and import prices rose 0.1%. Dairy led the […]

New Zealand Update – Q4 2016

December 2016 New Zealand Update The latest dairy auction saw prices decrease by 0.5% with the key whole milk powder declining by 0.8%. Fonterra’s recently revised forecast for the season 16/17 of $6.00/KgMS is well up from the opening forecast $4.25/KgMS. This decline in the auction is the first since early October and appears to be something of a consolidation after recent significant increases. The organic forecast is unchanged at […]

New Zealand Update – Q3 2016

September 2016 New Zealand Update The latest dairy auction saw prices increase by 7.7% with the key whole milk powder up 3.7%. Fonterra’s recently revised forecast for the season 16/17 of $4.75/KgMS is up from the opening forecast $4.25/KgMS. It is however, still below the estimated average cost of production of $5.05/KgMS for this season. Losses continue to be the reality for conventional producers although the mood is certainly improved. […]

Tales from the Farm

We have noticed increased interest at the paddock level in organic management systems at the same time as we are experiencing a wave of active interest from an investment perspective. In this note we explore some of the implications of these developments. Appetite for Organic As investor demand for genuine and measurable HSI (high sustainability investments) increases, so too does interest in an organic approach at the paddock level; driven […]