Dairy Focus | May 2019 by Ashburton Guardian

Dairy Focus MAY 2019

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Synlait in land covenant tangle

“ Tim Cronshaw

RURAL REPORTER

Canterbury milk company Synlait says it acted on legal advice when buying Waikato land to build a nutritional powder manufacturing site at Pokeno after a covenant decision was reversed in court. Synlait, based at Dunsandel, announced last year its conditional purchase of 28 hectares of land in Pokeno to establish a second manufacturing site. The title to the Pokeno land was transferred to Synlait after the removal of land covenants restricting its use for grazing, lifestyle farming or forestry by the High Court late last year. However, that High Court decision was reversed on May 9 when the Court of Appeal ruled in favour of an appeal by an adjoining landowner.

Synlait’s development of its new Waikato site has come up against a covenant problem.

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Synlait is confident the land covenants no longer remained relevant because the land was being re-zoned from rural to industrial and other developments in the nearby area, including another dairy

plant. The company said this was confirmed when the High Court removed the covenant in November, 2018. Synlait chief executive Leon Clement said the removal of the land covenants

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by the High Court made sense as a result of zoning and proper planning that allowed for industrial zoning. Synlait only took legal title to the land after the High Court decision removing the

We intend to continue with our plans at Pokeno,” said Clement.

land covenants, he said. “[The] Court of Appeal decision was unexpected.’’ Clement said Synlait would continue to engage with all parties involved and was confident the covenant issue should be able to be resolved by the parties. The company remains committed to the location. “We intend to continue with our plans at Pokeno,” Clement said. Synlait said in March that the building of the Pokeno site was on track for commissioning for the 2019/20 milk season. The $280 million investment was designed to meet customer demand and eliminate its single-site risk. New milk suppliers were being recruited in the area.

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Salvesen leaves feds in good heart Mike Salvesen plans to spend more time on the family farm with wife Nicky after three years as a Federated Farmers leader. Tim Cronshaw

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RURAL REPORTER

Hill country farmer Mike Salvesen has stood down as Federated Farmers Mid Canterbury president, relieved that ministry officers are more concerned about the toll of the mycoplasma bovis cattle disease on farmers. Salvesen has served his three-year term and is making way for his replacement, who should be announced after member voting in the federations’ offices at Ashburton. He said M. bovis was the most difficult challenge for him as president because it was such a multi-faceted problem at the “big picture’’ and farmer level. Dealing with the disease response had not been helped by Ministry for Primary Industries officers consumed by process, he said. “It’s not sorted yet. We said nearly a year ago the ministry is focusing less on people and more on process and only now has it changed. On some individuals it’s had quite a devastating effect where they have been badly let down and we read in some cases where they quite simply got it wrong.’’ Salvesen said he accepted that the ministry was bound to protecting individuals’ privacy and that so much of it was “secret”. However, Mid Canterbury farmers found there was an over-zealous use of privacy legislation to not give out information, he said. “We have got to the stage

where they have asked for some help, but we are not sure how much information they will give us and therefore how much we can help and help the farmers concerned.’’ While it might have been good for him to carry on the presidency and see the bovis response through, there was the risk of blocking the seat for someone else to freshen

“

and regional councils and you find out how they tick for the betterment of farmers and not always for the betterment of farmers, but you do find out where they are coming from. Sometimes it’s good to understand their argument and it would be even better if they understood our argument.’’ Salvesen said it had also

retaining membership [has been my greatest achievement]. I do think membership is very important to give a single voice to farmers because there are industry bodies but there is nobody else to look after farming in general and pull agriculturists as one industry together. The regulators don’t need

I’ve learned how deeply involved Federated Farmers are in many issues. They have got the largest policy team of any organisation outside of government.

the role, he said. Normally the vice-president progresses to the presidency in Federated Farmers, but Salvesen was somewhat surprised for the job to be foisted’ upon him and grew into the role. He leaves satisfied that he did his best and that farmers were well represented by the federation team. “It has a positive role and it’s not just negative and fighting corners all the time. You get to meet a lot of people who have greater influence whether its ministers or people at local

been satisfying meeting many Mid Canterbury farmers and learning about how democracy works and, being cynical, the limited effect elected people can have at times. He also learned that it was important to help farmers and become involved, but not at the expense of home life or to take on other people’s problems personally. “I’ve learned how deeply involved Federated Farmers are in many issues. They have got the largest policy team of any organisation outside of government. Probably

conflicting messages. If farming can’t give them a single position they will carry on with the policy they want to do.’’ Salvesen said the complete picture and complexity of new legislation or policy often got lost as lobby groups took positions on issues such as water and climate change. Policy makers could also be short on the consequences of new policy as shown by interference in the housing market, a loss of land equity from reduced immigration, a shortage of eggs following rule changes on caged hens,

and the repercussion of tenure review such as gains made from land sales or farms left without their high country. Hollywood director James Cameron’s support of increased plant growing for food failed to take in the complexity of New Zealand’s climates, topography, water supply, soils, limited cropping land and farming history, he said He said farmers were working to improve the farm environment and when the influx of dairying arrived 20 years ago there was no measurement of irrigation, but it’s understood that nutrient losses were an issue that needed balancing. Salvesen plans to spend more time on the family farm, but is open to accepting directorships if offered and has been invited to enter politics. As the immediate past president he will sit on the committee for the next three years and assist the incoming president. “I’ve left the organisation in pretty much a good heart, as I started, and I’m confident there are good people to carry on the work.’’

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Ice-cream brand moves offshore By Tim Cronshaw

Kiwis who have always connected golden summers with Tip Top ice-cream will have to reconcile themselves that they will be eating a foreign-owned product now. Fonterra has exited the brand after selling it to global ice-cream company Froneri for $380 million in its quest to balance the books after a $196m loss in 2017-18 for the first time in its 17-year existence. Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell said the sale was a bittersweet moment for Fonterra. “Since we took ownership of Tip Top in 2001, a lot of work has gone into ensuring it remained New Zealand’s leading ice-cream company. Over that time, we’ve had strong support from New Zealanders and I want to recognise and thank them for that.’’ Hurrell said Tip Top’s popularity among ice-cream fans was reflected by the number and quality of bids for the business and the good price

Fonterra has sold Tip Top to global ice-cream company Froneri for $380 million.

secured for shareholders. Fonterra has signed an agreement with the new owners to supply milk. The co-op said this ensured that Fonterra farmers would continue to be part of the Tip Top story. An estimated 340 serves of

Tip Top ice-cream is consumed every minute of every day. An attraction for Froneri is that Tip Top and Kapiti ice cream contain fresh milk and cream, from New Zealand grass-fed cows. Hurrell said Fonterra had

PHOTO LEE HOWELL

retained full ownership of the Kapiti brand and would be licensing its use for ice-cream to Froneri. “This means our popular Kapiti cheese isn’t going anywhere. I get the strong connection New Zealanders

have with Tip Top. It will be important for them to see that it’s in good hands. It’s been a privilege being the guardians of Tip Top, but it’s time to hand the baton to new owners.’’ He said the Tip Top brand needed continuing investment and focused ownership to be sustainable and this was not something that Fonterra was in a position to do “right now’’. Throughout its 80-year history, Tip Top has been owned by several international brands. The new owner is the third largest ice-cream manufacturer in the world, selling its brands in 20 countries. Froneri chief executive Ibrahim Najafi said the Tip Top name and its operations, including the Auckland based factory site at Mount Wellington, would be maintained. “The acquisition enhances our scale and supports our vision to build the world’s best ice cream company.” The sale will be settled on May 31 with employees transferring across to become part of Froneri.

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Fewer on restrictions The Ministry for Primary Industries expects fewer new farms will go on movement control for mycoplasma bovis than the initial estimate of 250 properties. Last month the ministry announced a big surge in possibly infected properties with the cattle disease as a result of increased surveillance in the lead up to Moving Day, formerly known as Gypsy Day. Initially, 250 farmers were expected to receive notices of direction restricting animal movement and 10-12 per cent of them to result in their properties ending up with the cattle disease. Over the past few weeks about 300 farmers were contacted by ministry officers as a result of carrying high-risk animals. About two-thirds of the properties are beef farms and the rest are dairy operations. The ministry said in an update that efforts to contact farms that may pose a high risk from stock or other movements had been increased in advance of Moving Day. Of the 300 properties contacted by the M. bovis team, 182 of

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them had been “assessed and progressed’’. “We’ve tasked 72 notices of direction (NoDs) to control movements on and off these farms,’’ said the ministry in a statement. “It was initially anticipated that 250 of the 300 identified high risk properties would be issued with a NoD. Based on current figures, we

expect that number to be significantly less than 250.’’ The ministry confirmed that after testing, only 10-12 per cent of the properties would be found to be infected with M. bovis. So far there have been 168 properties nationwide confirmed with the disease with 54 of them still active and 96,985 cattle culled.

Farmers have seen an easing in fuel and feed costs in recent months, but a caution has been sounded on feed costs in the year ahead, starting with the dairy sector. ASB senior rural economist Nathan Penny said that, while annual inflation had fallen, feed cost inflation, in particular, may fire up again for the rural sector. “Falling feed price inflation drove much of the overall decline in farm input inflation,” he said. Annual feed price inflation slowed to 3.7 per cent in the year to March, from the 6.6 per cent annual rise in 2018. Fuel prices also slowed their march higher over the past year, now being 3.5 per cent higher than a year ago, Penny said. However, looking at the year ahead, Penny expected farm input price inflation to “reignite”. “We anticipate that rising dairy prices will lift the demand for feed, and thus lead feed prices higher.” ASB had forecast the 2019-20 milk price to rise to $7 per kilogram of milksolids. Potentially offsetting a rise in feed prices, Penny said a key exception was likely to be wages. “Wage pressures are likely to remain modest this year, but at the same time finding good farm workers will remain a challenge for the sector,” he said.

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EDITORIAL COMMENT In life it’s easy to see the road bumps and forget about the good path ahead. Within dairying it can seem like everything is conspiring against farmers. A file full of paperwork often greets them after a hard day’s work and the compliance and regulatory load seems never-ending, with more on the way in the plan to combat climate change. It’s also undeniable that mycoplasma bovis has done immeasurable harm to our farmers. Hearts sunk when the Government stated that animal movement restrictions would rise as a result of stepped-up surveillance. More lately, the Government’s admission that delays in tracing cattle with M. bovis could have caused the disease to spread will rankle. There’s no way of soft-soaping it, the disease is a burden on dairy farming and the sooner life can return to the way it was before the better. Other grumblings are justified – changing immigration rules

Tim Cronshaw

RURAL REPORTER

have deflated farmland prices and farmer equity and the ripples from Fonterra’s first ever loss of $196m are starting to be felt. The subsequent review of assets this month resulted in the sale of TipTop to Froneri for $380m. But, there is also much to cheer about – simple things like the value of working outside with good people and watching the sun rise can never be under-estimated. The proposed capital gains tax which would have been punitive to farmers, was jettisoned. There would also be few complaints about the past growing season, even though it did tail off

from a roaring start. The payout is in a healthy position for this season, if forecasts hold true. Fonterra announced in February that this season – due to end soon – was heading for a milk price range of $6.30-$6.60 a kilogram of milksolids. Yes, the share earnings went down to 15-25c a share and that’s not so healthy, and the payout would be just under last season’s $6.69/kg, but farmers can live with the forecast as long as there is a six in front. Farmers have seen enough cycles in their lifetimes to know that good times follow bad and there will be many humps and hollows ahead of them. If it was easy then everyone would be a dairy farmer. Lastly, this is my last issue of Dairy Focus as I’m leaving the Ashburton Guardian to go travelling before old age sets in further. I’ve really enjoyed my time here and would like to thank all the many farming people who have helped me. It’s been a pleasure.

Prices fall at global dairy auction Dairy product prices fell at the Global Dairy Trade auction, ending a record string of 11 consecutive gains, as whole milk powder declined for the fourth straight time. The GDT price index fell 1.2 per cent from the previous auction two weeks ago. The average price was $US3,414 a tonne, compared with $US3,490 a tonne two weeks ago. Some 15,510 tonnes of product was sold, up from 15,375 tonnes two weeks ago. Whole milk powder dropped 2.1 per cent to $US3,180 a tonne. “This is the fourth consecutive decrease in the whole milk powder price index, with price levels decreasing across all contract periods, particularly for June and July deliveries,” NZX dairy analyst Robert Gibson said in a note.

“Although offer volumes leading into the event were unchanged on the previous event, prices likely reflect buyers having adequate short term cover, with milk supplies coming online in the Northern Hemisphere,” according to Gibson. At the latest GDT auction, butter retreated 3.2 per cent to $US5,297 a tonne, while anhydrous milk fat slid 1.4 per cent to $US6,140 a tonne. Meanwhile, cheddar soared 15.2 per cent to $US4,851 a tonne, while rennet casein jumped 5.1 per cent to $US6,916 a tonne. Lactose rose 0.6 per cent to $US893 a tonne, while skim milk powder gained 0.5 per cent to $US2,529 a tonne. The increase in skim milk powder prices “was driven by demand for contracts for August to November, likely in response to

markets anticipating New Zealand spring milk production,” Gibson noted, adding that the increase in the overall average price occurred despite offer volumes being up on 17 per cent on the previous event. Butter milk powder was not offered at this event. For sweet whey powder, no product was offered or sold, or no price was published for the last event, or on both of the two previous events. The New Zealand dollar last traded at 65.05 US cents as of 3.24pm in New York, compared with 65.34 US cents at the previous close in Wellington. There were 100 winning bidders out of 149 participating at the 20-round auction. The number of registered bidders was 524, down from 529 at the previous auction.

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Not being a dick pays dividends Craig Hickman

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There’s a picture doing the rounds on the internet of an English nutrition company by the name of Huel. Like a lot of companies, they have their mission statement written large upon a wall at headquarters, but where Huel differs from most is the message placed above. It dwarfs their mission statement, emblazoned in bold type: Don’t be a dick. It’s a pretty good goal for individuals and companies alike: Don’t do silly things to unnecessarily upset other people and good things will follow. The flipside, of course, is that being a dick can do you needless harm. Earlier this year an exrugby official and aspiring

politician contacted me via Twitter to ask my advice on how to be successful on the micro-blogging platform. “Don’t be a dick!” I replied. Of course he ignored me and now not only is he largely mocked online, but even the party famous for tolerating dicks, the Conservative Party, doesn’t want a bar of him anymore. Fonterra isn’t immune to being a dick either. Back in 2016 and in the face of plummeting milk prices, they changed the terms of payment for thousands of trade suppliers; instead of getting paid within 30 days now they would have to wait 90. Nobody liked it; not the Government, not the opposition, the suppliers or the press. It was an indefensible move and, even though the appointment of new CFO Marc Rivers in 2018 saw the policy gone by lunchtime, the sour taste still lingers. The damage done will take years to repair, the new government doesn’t think too

This mission statement of a UK company is attracting attention.

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kindly of the co-op and a lot of energy has to be expended rebuilding trust that was needlessly flushed away with a single dick move. That’s why it’s heartening to see Fonterra being pragmatic when it comes to the Government’s recentlyreleased emissions targets and Mike Cronin, Fonterra’s managing director of co-

operative affairs, had the perfect response: “… we anticipate the Government will support the significant investment in research and innovation that is needed to develop solutions to help farmers reduce their emissions. “Our focus now is on supporting our 10,000 farming families…”

It’s a response that sees Fonterra support the Government’s ambitions but leaves no doubt that they don’t intend to shoulder the entire burden. That the Climate Change Bill has been attacked by Greenpeace for having no teeth, by Federated Farmers for unrealistic methane reduction targets, by Forest & Bird for offering “special favours to the agricultural lobby” and by Beef & Lamb for just about everything, should signal that the Government has probably got it just about right. Upsetting all the lobby groups at once requires some level of skill. We need to choose our battles and I don’t believe arbitrary targets set for 30 years in the future with no means of enforcement and no penalty for not achieving them is a battle worth fighting. Let’s save that energy for something meaningful and immediate, like DIRA, and in the meantime let’s try not to be dicks.

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Making the most of genetic potential By David Law

Imagine buying a Maserati to be told you’re only permitted to drive it at 50km/h. Bit of a waste of potential, don’t you think? The same goes for dairy cows. Many of them are not performing to their true genetic potential because farmers are choosing a higher stocking rate, leaving cows underfed and underperforming. Farmers spend a lot of time and money choosing the best genetics with which to breed their cows, but there is no emphasis on getting a return on that investment. With artificial breeding, most cows have the potential to do high production – about 1kg of milksolids per 1kg liveweight. However, what varies is the opportunity to express that genetic potential in milk production; is the herd being fed enough to perform at its potential, or has the farmer tipped the balance between stocking rate and feed availability? In a calendar year, a cow

For a cow to run like a Maserati it has to be fed well. PHOTO SUPPLIED

generally only needs eight weeks (56 days) dry to prepare herself for the next season. That leaves 44 weeks (or 308 days) to maximise her genetic potential. So how do you work out the current number of lactation days of your herd? Look at the time between your median calving date and dry-off date, and you will get a general estimate of the total number of lactation days.

If your herd’s average lactation length is 235 days, you are experiencing a dramatically shortened season and individual cows are not milking to their full genetic potential. To see maximum genetic potential, you need to be able to feed cows comfortably to a 270 to 300day lactation. This is where stocking rate comes in. A 500-cow herd with average of 235 days

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lactation equals a total of 117,500 lactation days across the herd. Increasing lactation length by just one month, to 265 days, means you can lower your stocking rate to 443 cows without losing any lactation days. (117,500 ÷ 265 = 443 cows). Those extra 57 cows would have required 12kgDM/cow/ day as maintenance, a total of 684kgDM/day. Over a year, that’s 249,660kgDM, costing roughly $80,000 (at 32c/kg). Instead, that 684kgDM/ day, divided by the lesser stocking rate of 443 cows, is 1.54kgDM/day extra feed available to the herd. That extra feed goes a long way towards cows expressing their genetic performance potential. At 1kgMS per 1kg liveweight, an average mixed breed cow can comfortably produce 450kgMS if it is fully fed on a mixed ration diet. With a herd of 443 cows, that’s 199,350kgMS. However, a herd of 500 cows may only produce 340kgMS

due to being underfed – that’s 170,000kgMS. In comparison, it’s easy to see that in most cases it is far better to fully feed a smaller herd, allowing them to perform closer to their genetic potential, than to have a higher stocking rate and be unable to fully feed them. Underfed cows not only experience lower production but calve at a lower condition score; heading into the peak profit window of JulyDecember, low condition score cows don’t have the reserve condition to pull themselves through the increased demand. They are also under more pressure during mating, resulting in higher empty rates. All these flow-on effects cost the farmer money. If you feel you need to increase lactation length by dropping your cow numbers, the best cows to drop are your last calvers. David Law is the Director of Forward Farming Biological Consultancy

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Water and wellbeing Water is essential for life – we all know this, objectively and intuitively. However, it is not often that individually or collectively we stop and think about what water means for community wellbeing. Incorporating wellbeing into freshwater decisionmaking provides us with a new lens to understand the effects of those decisions and improve how we do things. Wellbeing is not a new concept – local government was given the task of incorporating aspects of wellbeing into their planning several years ago. However, it is now becoming a national-level priority, with the focus shifting to intergenerational wellbeing, reducing inequality, measuring how we are doing outside of purely economic indicators and ensuring that decisions are made that improve outcomes across a number of areas at the same time. How we need to think about freshwater and its

management aligns well with these wellbeing objectives. The development and management of water infrastructure is a good example – whether that be for renewable energy generation, municipal supplies, irrigation, or waste and stormwater. I heard a quote that one does not solve water infrastructure issues once and for all, but that they continually need to be resolved over time. It is, by its nature, intergenerational. So, we need to think about the intergenerational aspects of what our communities’ needs and aspirations will be in the future when we consider options such as water storage. This will become even more important as climate change impacts on water availability over time. How will we manage the predicted periods of prolonged dry, punctuated with periods of more intense, heavy rainfall?

This applies as much to urban water as to rural and we need to think about this now, not once we find ourselves in the midst of a crisis. Although irrigation may be seen by some as a means of increasing private wealth, it is an important means of improving community wellbeing for many rural areas. Research has found that irrigation is highly effective at reducing inequality in social and health service provision

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and outcomes, as well as improving the ‘traditional’ economic indicators of GDP contribution, increased wages, higher status jobs and retaining tertiary-educated young people within a community. The critical water-related issues facing communities require innovative solutions that provide for a variety of values and wellbeing indicators – from improved health outcomes through clean drinking water supplies, to cultural health, to water for

productive purposes. Irrigation is one part of this and must be thought of in terms of how it contributes to that wellbeing. If we are to achieve the outcomes that we all want for our freshwater resources, then thinking about water’s contribution to community wellbeing will allow us to better frame debates about investment, development and regulations that consider and provide for intergenerational outcomes and equality. As a small island nation, we have the means and opportunity of developing a cross-sector approach to freshwater not available to other countries. Such an approach would recognise the importance of water to all measures of wellbeing and guides decision-making relating to its use and management – from drinking water, to cultural values, to ecosystem health, to irrigation. Written by Irrigation NZ

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Young farmer of the year 2019 Tim Cronshaw

RURAL REPORTER

For the first time in 51 years North Canterbury shepherd Georgie Lindsay is one of two women in the line-up for the FMG Young Farmer of the Year grand finals. She, and newly-trained Waikato vet Emma Dangen, are among the seven grand finalists competing in the event in Hawke’s Bay in July. Rounding out the field will be Aorangi’s Alan Harvey, James Robertson (Northern), Alex Field (Taranaki/Manawatu), Joseph Watts (East Coast) and Matt McRae (Otago/ Southland). Lindsay, 24, is the first woman to represent the large Tasman region. “I entered the contest to learn and grow my skills, so it’s been an exciting few months. Whatever else happens will be a bonus.’’ Dangen said the appearance of two women in the grand finals was good for farming. “A lot of women have put in a lot of hard work over the years to get more women involved in agriculture. Their efforts are paying off,” she said. The bride-to-be takes multi-tasking to the next level. She lives on a 750 cow split-calving dairy farm in Pirongia in her first year working for vet clinic Vetora and her days start at 5.30am, when she pulls on overalls to help her fiance Chris Poole feed calves before work. After a quick shower and breakfast, she heads to the clinic in Te Awamutu, where she’s a cattle vet. “I get such a kick out of working with cattle. I was quite quick to close the door on treating cats and dogs. I’ve had to treat a few cows with unusual eye problems, which is something I didn’t learn much about at university. These are the sort of cases I thought I’d probably never see in my career, let alone in my first

Georgie Lindsay (left) with Emma Dangen.

couple of months as a vet.’’ Emma completed a vet science degree at Massey University, where “75 per cent” of her class were women. Her skills and ability to work efficiently helped her take out the Waikato/Bay of Plenty title in March to become one of two women grand finalists. “It’s huge for the contest and it’s awesome to be one of those women,” she said. “A lot of women have put in a lot of hard work over the years to get more women involved in agriculture. Their efforts are paying off. You just have to look at all the young girls dominating the Junior Young Farmer of the Year competition.’’ The competition starts on July 4 with an opening ceremony and parade at the Napier Sound Shell at 3pm. This will be followed by a practical day at the Hawke’s Bay Showgrounds

based around technology, food and innovation. On July 6 the finalists have to complete an evening show and an agriknowledge quiz hosted by Te Radar in front of a 600-strong audience at the Rodney Green Centennial Events Centre. The event will take place alongside grand finals for the AgriKidsNZ and Junior Young Farmer of the Year competitions, which will involve almost 100 students from across the country. Aorangi finalist Alan Harvey is not only a sheep and beef farmer, but oflate has also become a dairy operations manager. The North Otago farmer has dreamed of competing in the Young Farmer of the Year grand final since he was a child and will finally get the chance in Hawke’s Bay this July. Harvey has ambitious plans to double the size of his sheep flock.

The 28-year-old’s family farm in North Otago has 500 border-romney cross ewes, 150-200 trading cattle and arable crops. He’s in the process of farm succession and is set to take over in July. “My plan is to double ewe numbers to 1000. They’re an unusual cross, which you don’t often see,” he said. “I’m going to have to grow the flock naturally by breeding my own replacements, as opposed to buying them in.” His family has farmed the crossbred sheep on the rolling dryland 190 hectare property since the late 1800s. “They suit our country. They’re hardy, produce well and the ewes handle our early lambing date,” he said. continued over page Lambing starts at the beginning of

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July, which ensures lambs are at target weight and sold before Christmas when it starts getting dry. The early start isn’t ideal this winter as he will be in the Hawke’s Bay for the grand final. “I expect to have new-born lambs on the ground before I head to the grand final. I haven’t quite worked out who will be looking after the flock while I’m away competing. I might have to grovel to a neighbour.’’ The 220 beef trading cattle will drop in number to make room for the expanding sheep flock. It’s been a hectic few months for the Five Forks Young Farmers member since he won the Aorangi title. In March, he started a new job as operations manager at Borst Holdings Limited in North Otago. The privately-owned company operates four large-scale dairy farms, and a runoff. The dairy farms cover a combined area of 992 hectares and milk 3500 cows. “It’s been a really exciting change for me,” he said. “It’s my first time working in the dairy sector since I spent two summers on dairy farms while I was studying a Bachelor of Agricultural Science at Lincoln University.” Alan is responsible for adding technology to the business, compliance, nutrient, staff and helping to improve all aspects of the operation. I haven’t had much experience managing staff in the past,

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so that another thing which has been new for me. The dairy farms are all irrigated with either centre pivots, k-lines, or roto rainers.” The job has provided Alan with a much-needed refresher on the dairy sector in the lead-up to the grand final. His win at February’s regional final was his fourth attempt at clinching a spot in the grand final. In the past two years he lost to Nigel Woodhead and Logan Wallace, who both went on to win their respective grand finals. “It’s awesome that I finally get to have a crack at the grand final. This is something I have aspired to do since watching the contest on television as a young fella,” he said. Before moving into the dairy sector, he worked for Oamaru-based Agri Planz and was also an agronomist for Agriseeds covering the Otago and Southland regions. Tasman finalist Georgie Lindsay North Canterbury shepherd Georgie Lindsay will make history in July when she becomes the first woman to represent the Tasman region at the Young Farmer of the Year grand final. Mustering sheep off rugged hills is all in a day’s work for the North Canterbury shepherd and her team of dogs. The 24-year-old works at Marble Point Station, a 2400 hectare property between Hanmer Springs and Culverden. It’s her first fulltime job as a

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shepherd and she has five working dogs. “A good team of working dogs is essential here. It would be difficult in this terrain to muster sheep without them,” she said. “The past 12 months have been a big learning curve for me. I hadn’t worked much with dogs prior to taking this job. I’m really fortunate to have been given three good dogs and I’m in the process of training two pups.’’ The Amuri Basin Young Farmers member has crammed a lot into her

first year at the station. In March, she made history when she became the first woman to win the Tasman regional final. She’s also taken up dog trialling and competed in her first event at Waiau. “It was terrifying, but loads of fun at the same time,” she laughed. “I took Penny, a huntaway who was given to me by my boss Matt. They let three sheep out in front of you, and you have to use your dog to move them up the hill between a series of markers It was quite nerve-racking because

Dairy Efﬂuent Ponds

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Left – Matt Rae, Georgie Lindsay and Alan Harvey.

literally every man and their dog is standing behind you watching to see how you go.’’ Dog trials offer a supportive environment, perfect for a young shepherd looking to grow their skills and make connections. “Shepherds with a good team of dogs earn a huge amount of respect from their peers and their reputation often precedes them,” she said. “They’re admired in the same way as people with tidy farms.” Georgie has plenty of opportunities to hone her technique, with the help of her employers Matt and Sarah Black. Marble Point Station runs 3600 corriedale ewes and 380 angus breeding cows, plus replacement stock. It’s a 10.5 kilometre walk for the sheep from the back paddock to the yards and woolshed on the flats at the front of the property. The ewes are set-stocked in sheltered blocks before lambing starts in midSeptember. “Corriedales really suit this country. They are a dual-purpose breed, with a higher value fleece than crossbred sheep,” she said. Lindsay grew up on a sheep, beef and deer farm in Dipton and graduated at Lincoln University with a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Honours) degree. She got her job by picking up the phone last year. “I heard through the grapevine Matt was looking for a shepherd, so I gave him a call,” she said. “I came for a drive around the farm and it kind of just went from there. I don’t like applying for jobs and Matt didn’t really want to interview people, so it worked out pretty well,” she laughed. The property is run as an equity partnership between Matt and Sarah and West Melton brothers Robin and Gavin Wilson. Between now and July she will be busy preparing for the grand final. Otago/Southland finalist Matt McRae This will be Southland sheep and beef farmer Matt McRae’s last shot at taking out the Farmer of the Year title. McRae is 30 and will be too old to meet the age restrictions next year so he’s mindful that it’s now or never. He is one of the driving forces behind a family-owned agribusiness in

Southland which is in expansion mode. The addition of a new 320 hectare lease block in April has enabled the family to grow sheep and cattle numbers. “It’s been a busy couple of months,” said McRae who was named the Otago/Southland Young Farmer of the Year in February. The fourth generation farmer lives on a 405ha property at Mokoreta with his wife Natalie and their young son Jacob. The land is farmed by him and his younger brother Joe, alongside another 250ha property nearby. Their two siblings own shares in the business. “Ewe numbers will increase by 2300 to a total of 6500, hogget numbers will climb to 1900, dairy grazers will jump to 300 and beef steer numbers will grow to 120. The opportunity to expand has arisen at a time when buoyant demand has seen ewe prices nudge $300 each. “It’s probably not ideal timing in terms of what we’re having to pay for capital stock, but it’s great the industry is looking positive,” said McRae. “To help build numbers we’ve retained an extra 700 hoggets or ewe replacements, which we’d usually sell.” The farm runs romney-texel ewes which McRae describes as solid, low maintenance sheep which are good at foraging. The ewes’ lambing percentage over the last three seasons has been 150 per cent, which is above the national average. It’s 85-90 per cent for the hoggets. Lambing starts in midSeptember and the McRaes’ target over an 18.5kg carcass weight lamb. Before returning to the family farm seven years ago, McRae obtained a Bachelor of Commerce (Agriculture) degree from Lincoln University and spent three years working as a rural banker. “That was a pretty invaluable experience. I got to see the financial figures for a lot of different businesses,” he said. “It taught me pretty quickly that while a business might look good from the outside, they weren’t always profitable. When I worked in banking I saw some great examples of families working together to grow their equity. It helps that we are a close-knit family.” The property where Matt lives has been in his family for 110 years and he hopes his young son Jacob might want to farm it one day. His immediate focus is on winning the grand final in July. “It’s my last shot at the title. I turn 31 in August, so there won’t be any second chances. I will be going there to win. It really helps to sharpen my focus,” he said. The final will be Matt’s first time in Hawke’s Bay. He’s attempting to broaden his knowledge of horticulture and viticulture before the highpressure event. “I’m just trying to fill my brain with as much information as possible.’’

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Dairy Focus

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MAINTENANCE

Keeping the tractor ticking over Tractors are an important tool on farms and not one that comes cheaply, so it’s important that they are looked after and well maintained. There’s a wide variety of tractors on the market and some specific maintenance tasks will vary between manufacturers, makes and models. Your first port of call when making sure your tractor is well maintained is the owners’ manual. That will not only provide you with a maintenance schedule, it will also give specifications that apply to your particular machine. That said, there are a few general steps that can be taken to ensure you get the best and longest life out of your tractor. Firstly, it’s important to remember that tractor use is measured in hours rather than kilometres. That means you will need to check things with a different timeframe in mind compared to some of the other vehicles on-farm, such as the truck, ute or farm bike.

Cows feed on maize as Karaka dairy famer David Yates feeds out from his tractor in the background. PHOTO SUPPLIED

However, just as is the case with those other vehicles, it’s essential to keep a regular watch on the fluids – be that engine or hydraulic oil, radiator coolant or transmission fluid. Don’t forget to check the battery and battery cables and while you’re at it, have a look at the tractor’s filters. Farms can be dusty places, especially during the dry summer months, so it’s important to check the air

filer regularly. Clean the regularly, either by vacuum or compressed air, not by washing them. Fuel filters should also be checked, particularly for accumulated water. As with any piece of machinery involving a large number of moving parts, lubrication is important. There’s far more of those moving parts on a tractor than there is in your average car, so there’s more to do.

In general, it’s not hard to find grease fittings near those moving parts and it doesn’t take much to get a grease gun in there and make sure things are properly lubricated. When it comes to areas of the tractor like hydraulic systems and gear boxes, make sure you use the right lubricant. Failure to do that can be a very expensive mistake. Just like your car, or truck, it’s also important to keep an

eye on belts and hoses. If they start to look worn or cracked don’t hesitate to replace them. It’s far easier to do that when you spot something in the shed than when something fails out in the paddock. Similarly, keep an eye on the tyres, particularly their pressure, which is not always obvious at a glance. Of course one of the best ways to keep on top of your tractor’s maintenance is to have it serviced regularly. It’s something you can either have done professionally or do yourself. Either way, it’s a great way of keeping on top of things and heading any potential problems off before they get more serious. Another simple way of getting the most out of your tractor investment is, particularly when we’re heading into winter, to protect it as much as you can from the elements. That means, when you’ve finished using it for the day, park it in the shed, rather than the yard. Advertising feature

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Dairy Focus

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Canterbury contestants impress Ne Culverden farm manager Matt Redmond and Fairlie assistant herd manager Nicola Blowey have national titles attached to their names after impressing the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards judges. Redmond was named the New Zealand dairy manager of the year and Blowey the national dairy trainee of the year at an awards function in Wellington last weekend. Northand couple Colin and Isabella Beazley are the New Zealand sharefarmers of the year, with CanterburyNorth Otago finalist Ruwan Wijayasena missing out on the major placings, but winning several section awards. The three main winners collected a combined prize pool worth $210,000. Redmond, 25, is the farm manager on Craigmore’s Pahau Flats Dairy-Landsend, a 232hectare, 830-cow property at Culverden. He only entered the dairy industry four years ago after graduating at Lincoln University with a Bachelor of Commerce (Agriculture) degree and has worked for the past two as a manager.

Tim Cronshaw

RURAL REPORTER

Dairy manager head judge Mark Shadwick said Redmond was an all-rounder who benchmarked himself against others in the industry across all aspects of farming. “He concentrates on all aspects of the farm, but his financial capability and thorough understanding of his finances really set him apart,” he said. Co-judge Malcom Scott said Redmond was goal-focused and knowledgeable. “He’s not willing to just sit still, he wants to continually challenge himself to learn and grow. He has strong support from his wife Mel. He doesn’t just have business focus; he has life focus.” Judges noted the continued use of technology and

PHOTOS ELIAS RODRIGUEZ

National winners (from left) Nicola Blowey, Colin and Isabella Beazley and Matt Redmond.

innovation in pasture management and stock movement by the finalists and strong performance in the health and safety area, particularly with farm inductions, records and the use of social media to monitor the location of staff on farms and getting them home safely.

Runner-up James Matheson from Gore, also won the leadership merit award and was complimented by judges for managing a casual and relaxed style, yet still being goaldriven. Dairy trainee judges described Blowey, as “confident, mature and compelling’’.

“She has a mature outlook and her communication skills were exceptional, dairy trainee head judge Jenny Sinclair said. “Nicola came to New Zealand to learn about low-cost pasturebased systems. She has a sound general knowledge base and an ability to interpret farm reports

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w Zealand dairy awards judges

National Dairy Manager of the Year Matt Redmond.

National Share farmer of the Year Colin and Isabella Beazley.

and make recommendations from those.” Blowey, 25, won $9700 in prizes, as well as the knowledge award, communication and engagement award and best video award. She is employed by Matthew and Vanessa Greenwood as an assistant herd manager on

Kieran and Leonie Guiney’s 600-cow, 175ha Fairlie property. Runner-up was Matt Dawson from Waikato. In the main event, winners Colin and Isabella Beazley had entered the awards twice previously and were third placegetters last year in the

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National Dairy Trainee of the Year Nicola Blowey.

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MOVING DAY

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Moving to a new farm or farm job? If you’ve got kids, that adds another important ball to juggle with during the shift. Early contact with their new school is key to keeping the transition smooth for children. “When children are involved in the move to a new farm, there’s even more to consider and prepare for,” Jenny Smith, a Southland-based resource teacher for learning and behaviour said. “There are a few actions parents can take to help ensure a smooth transition for both their child and the new school. It’s really important that the current and new schools are notified of the move. It helps them to manage class sizes, alter the curriculum and topics to cater for new students, and allows them to help children settle into the school socially.” Jenny and Dr Pauline Stewart, an educational psychologist and dairy farm owner, have put together some helpful advice for parents. It can be used as a reminder of things to do, before and during the transition, to help both children and schools with the change.

Advice for parents this moving day Preparing for a new school • Notify the current school so academic records can be sent to the new school ahead of time. Do this

about a month out from the new school start. • Enrol at the new school early to help them prepare. Again, doing this a month ahead of school starting will be a great help. • Visit the new school with your child, before they start or visit the school’s website. • Sign up to school newsletters to learn about the school and stay informed. • Provide the new school with any information you have about your child’s academic levels, strengths, or special needs that will help them settle in better. Starting at a new school • Go to school with your child on the first day and meet the teacher. • Tell the school what your child enjoys and what they’re good at. • Find out key dates and information. • Let your child’s new teacher know how and when it’s best to contact you and provide emergency contact details. • Find out how the school involves parents with education. • Find out when school social events are on, as this will help you meet members of the community. • Accompany your child to the first bus pick-up, if possible. • Remind your child it’s ok to be nervous and talk to them about how they are feeling. • Check in with the new school after a couple of weeks. Advertising feature

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Collson Accommodation Units have the affordable solution for your accommodation needs. Fifteen years ago Clyde Collins decided to help Kiwis who needed comfortable, Council Certified accommodation. “We saw an opportunity in worker’s accommodation on farms, older people wanting to downsize to a smaller home on larger rural sections often owned by their children, and thirdly a need for comfortable, economical and efficient housing.” The company has now built over 30 units in just over two and a half years. “All Collson units are Council Certified and code compliant, so the only thing our buyers need to do is to ensure the site is certified, and we can help with that.” Collson’s energy efficient units are designed to your personal

requirements and transported to your site by truck. Size options range from 10 to 12 metres long by 4m wide, and a there’s choices of one, two or three bedrooms. Collson Units are fully selfcontained with all services ready to connect to your site. They feature superior insulation, double glazing, and an ensuite bathroom with gas hot water. Collson Units are also an asset that can be permanent or sold and relocated. Prices range from $79k to $115k +GST*. Contact Clyde Collins on 021 028 22495 or Jan Collins on 022 318 6953. Email: janandclyde@xtra.co.nz Facebook & Trademe search with: ‘Collson portable buildings’. Display and Building site at: 35 Anchorage Road, Hornby, Christchurch. * Prices are subject to construction costs. Advertising feature

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Dairy Focus

www.guardianonline.co.nz

19 www.guardianonline.co.nz MOVING DAY

MOVING DAY

We find the best people for your farm Nicky Fairburn and Paula Conti, co-owners of Rural People Ltd, possess a passion for working with dairy industry and assisting farmers to find the right employees. Working together for four years now, we believe our success in finding the right people lies in how well we get to know our clients. “We work with you, not for you”. We don’t “fill a job”. We will come to your farm and take the time to really get to know you. We have built long term lasting relationships with our farmers; it is important for us to spend time to understand your business. Our recruitment processes are thorough, we do the hard work for you. When we advertise, we talk to every applicant, in the past we have found that applicants who do not provide a CV get overlooked. Just because a person has not written a CV does not mean they are not a good employee; we give everyone a fair hearing. Once we have conducted our full interview, we do at least one reference

Are you spending too much time finding the right people for your farm?

(two where possible) that is industry related. Then present the final two or three candidates that we feel fit into our client’s farm and arrange for them to conduct an onfarm interview. We are recruiters not dairy farmers, our interviews are behavioural based, we question them on their work

ethic, morals, personality etc, all the things you can’t teach. We do cover skills, but we do not rule them out if they are one or two skills short. We are big believers in the fact that skills can be taught, the other things you either have or you don’t and we whittle out the ones that don’t. Once our clients have

PHOTO SUPPLIED

interviewed and chosen the right person, we take care of letters of offer, employment agreements, visa’s (if necessary). Once they arrive at your farm, we maintain contact with both the employee and the employer. We don’t just dump them at your farm and be on our way, we are in regular contact

with everyone, if there is a problem, we come back to your farm to sit down with you and work out what the problem is and reach a solution. In this candidate short market, it is imperative that you retain staff, we work with you to ensure that you retain the best people. We are not just recruiters, both having a background in HR we are well positioned to give the best possible advice when it comes to matters of employment and our Licensed Immigration Advisor Andrew will give you the most up-to date immigration advice. In recent months we have also had a lot of success recruiting people from South America and the Ukraine. When you need legal advice you call a lawyer, when you need tax advice you call an accountant so when you need staffing advice call the professionals, call Rural People Ltd.

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Dairy Focus

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Ready, set, plough Farming folk from across New Zealand converged on the Ashburton District earlier this month for the New Zealand Ploughing Championships. Dairy Focus was there to capture some of the action.

SOIL QUALITY FACTSHEET

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Reduce your NPK fertiliser cost by 50%

IT IS understood that growing almost anything increases your soil acidity or lowers the soil’s pH. While Aglime easily corrects acidification the final target pH level for optimum nutrient availability is and always has been a moving target. The absolute building blocks for growth such as Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Sulphur and Magnesium, are not even close to their peak availability at a pH of 5.5 as shown in the table below. As you can see a pH at 5.5 seems inefficient and illogical. However, a pH between 6 and 6.5 increases availability exponentially and even starts peaking across many nutrients.

WHAT IS THE OPTIMAL PH AND WHY?

Your soil’s pH is one of the

key drivers in making nutrients available to the plant. With a pH that is too low (< 5.5) trace minerals such as Aluminum become available which can heavily diminish growth or even kill crops. While the general consensus is that a pH of 5.5-5.8 is ‘good enough’, the science just doesn’t back this up.

NUTRIENT AVAILABILITY TABLE

5.5

6.5

7.5

8.5

ALKALINITY

ACIDITY NITROGEN PHOSPHORUS POTASSIUM SULPHUR CALCIUM MAGNESIUM IRON

MANGANESE BORON COPPER & ZINC MOLYBDENUM

“One aspect that has baffled us for years, is the apparent disconnect between fertiliser application and the availability or efficiency of the very nutrient being applied due to soil acidity.“ Almost every element of a fertiliser is represented in the nutrient availability table. When you are spending good money on fertiliser, you should be concerned if your advisors aren’t ensuring that the nutrient you are applying is at, or near, maximum availability. If they are not, you need to ask yourself why not? Maybe they have a vested interest in selling more fertiliser? One of the fastest ways to neutralise soil acidity and increase pH is to apply lime. Liming is relatively cheap, especially when you consider that a shift in pH could potentially double the efficiency of a fertiliser in both the short and long term. The fertiliser efficiency table indicates this point and goes some way to show how a capital investment in lime may affect your overall and ongoing annual fertiliser spend.

FERTILISER EFFICIENCY AT VARIOUS SOIL PH VALUES

Soil pH

N P K Overall Efficiency Efficiency Efficiency Fertilizer Efficiency

pH = 6.5

95%

63%

100%

86%

pH = 6.0

89%

52%

100%

80%

pH = 5.5

77%

48%

77%

67%

pH = 5.0

53%

34%

52%

56%

vanRoestel, J. (2014, March). The Value of Maintaining a Good soil pH.

consistent long term release into the soil. Consider solubility and As a rule of thumb 1 tonne/ha ensure you are dealing with a of high quality Aglime will raise limestone resource that has been the pH by 0.1 pH unit. Therefore a proven to lift pH as expected. Talk 6 tonne/ha application is required to a few neighbours, they will to increase the pH from 5.7 to 6.3. know the history. To maintain the optimum pH of Keep in mind that many lime 6.2-6.5, maintenance applications companies can create specific lime of at least 500kg per annum will be and fertiliser/mineral blends prior required. to dispatch to make your The above rates are based on annual applications even more high quality Aglime – that means cost effective. a lime equivalency or ‘as delivered’ Calcium Carbonate content of 90% SOIL PH TESTING or greater. It is vital that you have a The particle size should meet comprehensive soil test done prior New Zealand Aglime standards to any fertiliser application to of 50% passing 0.5mm and no show what other trace minerals are present. Talk to your specialist more than 10% passing 2mm to lime company today. allow good even spreading and NOT ALL LIME IS CREATED EQUAL

At Victory Lime we’re here to help. If you have concerns about your soil talk to Shaun today on: 027 228 7045 • 0800 303 980 • www.vlime.co.nz

Dairy Focus

Ploughman sheds favourite tag to win By Tim Cronshaw

Clinton farmer Scott McKenzie will always have a soft spot for Chertsey after emerging from a closely contested field to win the Silver Plough trophy at the New Zealand Ploughing Championships. In the absence of last year’s champion Ian Woolley, who elected not to plough, there was no clear favourite in the conventional class at the national event at the Wilkinson family farm. McKenzie put his hand up, finishing with an overall tally of 360.5 points to emerge just over five points from runnerup Kelvin Stokes from Taupiri (355 points) and Riversdale farmer Mark Dillon was third on 335.5 points. For his efforts he earned the right to represent New Zealand in next year’s world championships in Russia. Despite his protestations Bob Mehrtens was always going to be the favourite in the reversible class. The Timaru truck driver’s combined total of 406.5 points

was some distance away from the rest of the field. Courtenay farmer Ashley Seaton was runner-up with 388.5 points and Putaruru dairy farmer Malcolm Taylor was third on 376 points. Leading up to the competition Mehrtens was adamant that he was not the favourite and any ploughmen among the small field of five ploughmen could pull a win out. But his Ford 7740 tractor and Kverneland plough never let him down and he will also be going to Russia after attending the Minnesota championships later this year and previously the Germany and Kenya championships. He was the most experienced ploughmen in the line-up, attending his 41st national event at Chertsey. Co-organiser John Davison said good crowds supported the “fantastic spectacle’’ of top ploughmen and women at work. “We reckoned there was definitely 1000 people on the Saturday and maybe two thirds of that on the Sunday. “The carpark paddock was

just chokka on Saturday. It’s been a wee while since it was in the district so people made the effort to come and I talked to one guy from Methven and he came both days and was absolutely fascinated by it.’’ Aside from Seaton’s top effort, local ploughmen and women also didn’t disgrace themselves. In the new contemporary event for novices Matt Ridge from Methven was first and Jess Cunliffe was second. The competition was closest in the vintage event with only seven points separating the first and fourth place-getters.

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massive tractors carrying 12 furrow ploughs at the end of each day’s competition. Farmers had one hour to have a four-hectare Chertsey grass paddock cultivated, ploughed and cultivated again into a seedbed for drilling in winter barley. Making easy work of the challenge was Peter Butterick’s 525-horsepower eight-wheeled Versatile with the May brothers and fellow agricultural contractor Roger Smith on John Deere tractors. They were assisted by a quad track tractor with a large set of discs from Hewson Farms and Power Farming drilled the barley. Davison said the crowds emptied out of the competition paddocks to watch the attempt. “I believe they did it under [the time target] quite comfortably. The tractors would be $500,000, the ploughs $150,000 and the driller $150,000 so that adds up to a gazillion quite quickly and it will be some time before people see that again.’’

Hamilton mechanic Paul Houghton earned the national title on 341 points, narrowly ahead of retired Ashburton farmer Pearce Watson on 337 points, while John Stalker finished with 335 points and Murray Grainger was just behind on 334 points. In contrast, Oxford couple John and Sharon Chynoweth accumulated 371.5 points to put some distance between their pairing and the rest of the field in the horse ploughing. A drawcard for the onlookers was a grass-tobarley attempt by three

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MYSTERY CREEK

Fieldays at Mystery Creek Fieldays is owned and operated by the not-forprofit New Zealand National Fieldays Society. The society was born through the vision and determination of a small group of individuals in 1968, after Nuffield Scholar John Kneebone wrote to the Waikato Times promoting the idea of a town and country show for farmers. The idea pitched was to create an event whereby farmers could meet and view products and services and innovations in farm machinery, creating the concept for the first Fieldays event and the inception of the New Zealand National Fieldays Society. The first Fieldays events were held at the Te Rapa Racecourse with the event rapidly outgrowing the venue due to its immediate success. Fieldays’ home site at Mystery Creek was purchased in 1970, financed by a 100 per cent mortgage secured against the organising committee’s personal assets and farms, with just a coil of copper wire

EVENT 2019 National Agricultural Fieldays Wednesday, June 12 to Saturday, June 15 Mystery Creek Events Centre, Ohaupo

provided as a tangible asset, such was their belief in the event. Through this passionate group of volunteers, some of whom are still involved today, the Fieldays’ home at Mystery Creek was created and developed into what is

now the home of the largest agribusiness expo in the southern hemisphere. Those behind the hugely successful event are proud to honour our heritage and continue the legacy created by Fieldays’ founders, while looking to the future and

continuing to work for the advancement of agriculture, agribusiness and agritech, supporting primary industry, community and New Zealand. The statistics around the event make for remarkable reading. Last year alone more than 130,000 people visited

the event, viewing the 1051 exhibitors across 1460 sites. More than 300 international visitors from 42 different countries were in attendance. The event contributed $221 million to the New Zealand GDP and generated close to $500 million in sales revenue. The 2019 Fieldays event will again be held at Mystery Creek beginning on Wednesday, June 12 and running through to Saturday, June 15. Full information can be found at www.fieldays.co.nz

Rural Reporter The Ashburton Guardian is based in New Zealand’s primary production heartland, and our independently-owned daily newspaper is looking for a new team member. The person we’re seeking will have a strong affinity with, and knowledge of, the rural sector. We are looking for a journalist with a solid media background, who is excited by the opportunity to write for our two monthly publications as well as for our weekly rural pages.

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The rural reporter’s position offers the successful candidate an opportunity to write for a wide audience across the entire spectrum of the rural sector because of the district’s diverse agricultural economy. We are open to employment options that could include working as an independent contractor or as a Guardian employee, full or part-time. The Ashburton District offers an opportunity to enjoy the best the outdoors has to offer but is within an easy hour’s drive of Christchurch City. We have Mt Hutt Skifield on our doorstep and offer a wide range of aquatic sports on Lake Hood.

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Dairy Focus

MYSTERY CREEK

www.guardianonline.co.nz

Good planning essential for winter Fred Hoekstra

VEEHOF DAIRY SERVICES

We are now entering the drying off period. Another season is nearly over and, if you are anything like me, you will be looking forward to a little bit of downtime – some of you may even go away on holiday. Your cows may be going away for the winter or, if you have them on the run-off, you will only need to feed them and leave them to it until tomorrow when you must feed them again. You don’t have to get up so early in the morning for milking and, apart from the air temperatures, life is good. We all need breaks and time away to refresh. It is the same for a cow. They need a dry period. They need a time of rest.

They need to be able to lay down in a dry comfortable place, out of the rain and the wind. I have said in previous articles, that cows are lacking resting time under normal circumstances during the milking season. Even on the best farms, cows are being deprived of resting time because there simply isn’t enough time in a day for a cow. I know it sounds silly but our dairy cows are overworked during the milking season, so the rest time during the dry period is even more important. However, when I drive through the countryside

during winter I see many cows on winter crops - the management of which is critical for the cows’ wellbeing considering the cows that have died because of mismanagement with fodderbeet. But, apart from the potential nutrition problems, there is also a problem due to the lack of proper resting facilities. You may think that this just doesn’t make sense because the cows don’t do anything other than eat and rest, but look at cow behaviour in the paddock. We all know that a wellfed cow’s normal behaviour during the day is grazing, drinking, laying down and

resting. Cows don’t normally spend a lot of time standing. If they do there is a problem. The cow may be sick, or it is raining, or it is too hot and the cow is under heat stress. Now, when we look at cows on winter crops we see them spending a lot of time standing. This is not necessarily because they are sick or because it is raining. It is because there is nowhere for them to lay down and be comfortable especially when it gets muddy. Even in those muddy conditions, cows will lay down but only if they just can’t stand any longer.

Why is this important? Because tired cows don’t perform. Tired cows are under severe stress. Tired, stressed cows are much more susceptible to lameness. Sometimes the difference in numbers of lame cows from one season to the next is due to the wintering conditions. I know that costs need to be kept to a minimum to run a profitable farming operation, but if you want to calculate the true cost of the different farming systems, you need to include the lameness cost during the upcoming milking season, as well as the empty rate and mastitis cost. Much more research needs to be done in this area to get a better understanding of the true cost. It is quite likely that the cheapest system may be the costliest. The views, opinions, positions or strategies expressed by the author and those providing comments are theirs alone, and do not necessarily reflect the views, opinions, positions or strategies of the Ashburton Guardian Co Ltd or any employee thereof.

www.guardianonline.co.nz

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Dairy Focus

www.guardianonline.co.nz

Regional benefits from Westland sale The proposed sale of Westland Milk Products would create an injection of about $280 million into the West Coast economy, ANZ agriculture economist Susan Kilsby says. In March, Westland Cooperative Dairy Company announced it had signed a conditional agreement to sell the co-operative to a subsidiary of Mongolia Yili Industrial Group in a deal worth $588 million. The transaction was subject to shareholder approval and a vote was scheduled for July 4. If approval was obtained, the transaction would occur on August 1. In ANZ’s latest New Zealand Dairy Update, Kilsby said farmers would receive a share price of $3.41, representing a cash injection into their hands in the vicinity of $245 million. The co-operative’s 429 shareholders would receive, on average, $572,000 from the sale of their shares. Even if a large share of those funds was used to repay debt, the multiplier effect of

Westland Milk Products.

spending radiating through the local economy from the gain from the sale of shares would positively impact the local economy to the tune of about $280 million. The sale would provide timely income for farmers who had struggled to recover

PHOTO SUPPLIED

losses incurred during the downturn, as Westland’s milk price had been well behind that paid by other New Zealand dairy companies in recent years, she said. A strategic review last year found Westland had little option other than selling

the business if it wanted to deliver a fair milk price to its suppliers. The company did not have sufficient capital and its high debt levels were crippling its ability to operate profitably, she said. The funds would allow farmers to pay down debt and carry out necessary capital expenditure such as upgrading systems to meet tightening environmental standards. Dairy farming accounted for about 11.7 per cent of the West Coast economy, while the dairy processing sector accounted for a further 2.1 per cent. Following the decrease in mining activity there, the dairy sector now contributed more to the West Coast economy than any other sector. Jobs on dairy farms and employment in the dairy processing sector accounted for 9 per cent of total employment in the region. The West Coast needed a strong dairying sector in order to prosper, Kilsby said. The real value of the

Westland deal was not confined to the share payment but also the certainty that the terms of supply brought. That certainty would help bolster confidence in the sector and stabilise farm values, she said. The deal guaranteed the milk produced by all existing suppliers would continue to be collected for the next 10 years. All existing Westland suppliers would be paid a milk price equivalent to or higher than Fonterra’s farmgate milk price for the next 10 seasons. In the past three seasons, Westland’s milk price had trailed Fonterra’s by an average of about 75ckgMS. If Westland had been able to match Fonterra during the past three seasons, dairy farmers would have received an extra $140 million over that time, she said. The sale required High Court and Overseas Investment Office approvals but it was unlikely they would not be granted, due to Yili’s existing track record operating the Oceania Dairy plant, just north of Glenavy.

www.guardianonline.co.nz

Canty women at top in seed research By Tim Cronshaw

The New Zealand arm of an international seed company is now led by two Canterbury women, challenging the status quo of the traditionally maledominated industry. Germinal, an agricultural seed company based in Ireland and the United Kingdom, has supplied the New Zealand market with clovers and grasses for the past 15 years. Since last year the company’s New Zealand team has been led by general manager Sarah Gard. Gard, 28, is an agricultural science graduate from Lincoln University and started working for Germinal in 2014 to establish its research programme. She was promoted to the trials and product development manager and last year took over the role of general manager. She also manages two North Canterbury dairy farms with her husband Will and sits on several committees for the New Zealand Plant Breeding and Research Association.

Kate Peddie (left) and Sarah Gard are stepping up seed research for New Zealand conditions. PHOTO SUPPLIED

She has recently been joined by Kate Peddie, also 28, as research agronomist, a new position in line with the company’s focus on research and development. Peddie will help coordinate Germinal’s national plant breeding programme,

managing its research site in Canterbury and several plot trials on farms. She will draw on pastoral experience gained from working on large highcountry properties and stock finishing operations in North Otago and Manawatu. Gard said it was important

that Germinal’s seed technology and research provided tangible results for farmers. “Ultimately, pasture quality can play a significant role in improving animal output and long-term farm productivity.” The pair is developing a

new breeding programme to ensure the company’s products are suited to New Zealand conditions. Initial breeding development results indicate that it is achieving improvements of up to 2 per cent per year for specific traits, compared with the industry average of 0.76 per cent. Purpose-bred grasses and clovers were improving animal performance and leading to economic benefits for farmers, Gard said. “We are developing new varieties with important agronomic characteristics such as high yield, persistence and tolerance to environmental extremes. This work is unprecedented, as it’s the first time any genetic material has been taken outside of Germinal’s research and development partner, the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) in Wales.” IBERS material is being used to select for traits wanted for the New Zealand environment, such as increasing the early spring growth in perennial ryegrass.

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Dairy Focus

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