We sell farm plans. So you’d expect us to tell you every farm needs one. They don’t — and if we’re going to put the premium maths in front of you, you should see the other side of the ledger too.
Here’s when certification doesn’t stack up.
You sell most of your stock store
The premium’s paid on what you kill. If you’re a breeding operation sending most of your lambs away store, the cents-per-kilo land on someone else’s kill sheet, not yours. Run your actual kill — not your stock numbers — through the calculator. If the annual figure looks thin, it is.
Your kill is small
20c/kg on 50,000 kg is real money. 20c/kg on 5,000 kg is a thousand dollars — and against the cost of a plan, that payback gets slow. There’s no shame in that maths; it’s just maths. The plan might still be worth it for other reasons (freshwater rules, a tidy succession or sale), but don’t buy it for the premium alone.
Your processor pays in access, not cents
Not every company puts certification on the schedule. Some reward it with entry to premium programmes and contracts instead — real value, but harder to count, and it only pays if you actually get onto those programmes. Ask your livestock rep exactly what your certification is worth with your company, in writing if you can. If the answer is vague, price the plan against the vague answer, not ours.
You’re on the way out
Selling up, converting, or winding down in the next couple of years? A three-year certification cycle is probably not where your money should go — though a good set of farm maps might be, because they add value to the sale either way.
So why tell you this?
Because the farms where it does stack up — killing decent volume with a processor that pays — are leaving real money on the table every season, and they’re more likely to believe us about that if we’re straight about the rest.
If you’re not sure which side you’re on: ring with your stock numbers. Ten minutes, no charge, no visit — and if the maths says don’t buy our product, that’s exactly what we’ll tell you.
