Sheep and beef farmers have been urged to stop beating up on themselves over comparisons with the ever-expanding dairy industry.
The industry is continuing to lose land to dairy farm conversions.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand's new chairperson James Parsons told Federated Farmers meat and fibre representatives that has left the industry with low self-esteem.
Mr Parsons says that bench-marking is a more constructive way of measuring individual farmer performance than making simple profit comparisons.
He says bench-marking would show top performing sheep and beef farmers are also making great gains, but without the financial risk faced by some dairy farmers.