Farmer-owned organisation Meat & Wool New Zealand, a merger of two former producer boards, is officially changing its name to Beef + Lamb NZ Ltd.

Beef + Lamb NZ is funded by farmer levies to help develop the country's sheep and beef industry, including funding Beef + Lamb NZ Inc, which promotes beef and lamb in the domestic market.

The name change takes effect on July 1.

Meat & Wool NZ will dump about a third of its head office staff in Wellington following massive budget cuts.

Yesterday the organisation, which has around 30 staff, announced it slashed $6.3 million in its yearr-on-year budget ending a number of projects and minimizing others.

The adjustment was required because of the loss of the wool levy and has been carried out in conjunction with the Meat & Wool New Zealand organisational restructure announced last week.

Meat & Wool chairman Mike Petersen said the dumped projects were funded directly by the wool levy.

Now that woolgrowers have dumped Meat & Wool NZ during its levy referendum, new options are being floated to snare millions in farmer cash.

About $6.5 million per year would have been collected from woolgrowers by Meat & Wool based on its failed fibre proposal.

Federated Farmers vice president Don Aubrey said yesterday afternoon that fine wool producers should develop their own organisation and he is seeking support to hold a referendum with a view to develop one.

It’s back to the drawing board for Meat & Wool NZ, which will soon be dropping the “wool” moniker from its logo.

The organisation’s board is meeting for the first time today following a crushing defeat on its proposal for the wool industry moving forward from April 2010.

Meat &Wool chairman Mike Petersen is bitterly disappointed following the farmer referendum on its proposal for beef, sheep meat, goat meat and wool levies.

New Zealand’s wool industry is unsustainable if the status quo remains.

But Federated Farmers meat and fibre chairman Bruce Wills said he understood how a stoush developed between a group of wool growers and Meat & Wool NZ of its proposed wool levy plan and spending.

“There’s a fair bit of frustration and anger in the farming community,” he said.

“The collapse of the wool industry has led to it and farmers aren’t happy about it. But the bottom line is, the status quo can’t remain.”

In a move to silence a small group of vocal dissenters, Meat & Wool NZ has called in support from overseas in support of its new five-year plan.

Farmers have until the end of the month to vote in Meat & Wool’s new levy proposal, which sees step increases to levies on sheep and beef but a reduction in overall spending.