Country-Wide August 2022

2 0 1 9 & 2 0 2 1 R O N G O AWA R D W I N N E R S U P R E M E AWA R D F O R E XC E L L E N C E I N AG R I C U LT U R A L J O U R N A L I S M

BACKING FARMERS

CU TTI N G A

PATH

West Otago two-tooth competition winner Sam Barton is boosting production to counter cost creep, p52

RURAL CRIME: HOW TO HANDLE IT

DRONES: ONFARM POTENTIAL $12.95 INCL GST

AUGUST 2022

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EDITOR’S NOTE Opinion

Hail the volunteers

A

RECENT INTERNATIONAL SURVEY placed New Zealand as the second worst country for expats to live in.

The main gripe was NZ was too expensive, the cost of living too high.

Anecdotally expats and people returning from overseas travel have said we are too controlled and glum.

It is easy to be negative given what is happening in NZ and abroad. The rest of the world has mostly moved on with Covid but we are still subject to controls and expectations. Inflation is pushing up costs, the Reserve Bank is in disarray and the economy is heading for a recession.

Government legislation is adding more cost and pain. Global warming is blamed for floods and fires in NZ and Europe. Wokeness, a failing fourth estate and social media witch-hunts have endangered free speech. It is easy to offend these days.

Then there is the Ukraine war and if Russia starts firing nuclear missiles, global warming will not be a problem.

Despite all the gloom there is much to celebrate.

On a personal note, it is more than five years since the first of my three brain tumours along with others in my body. It is an understatement to say it has been a reality check. It has made me look for the positives in life and there are plenty of them.

Every day is now a good day, though some are tougher than others.

We should celebrate the unheralded army of volunteers in rural communities.

Recently I attended the funeral of a friend Eileen Gordon (91) who had lived in the North Otago town of Kurow and been a St John’s volunteer for

51 years. As well as raising a family and helping her husband run the local grocery store, Eileen was often away in the ambulance attending to emergencies.

She made me think about the thousands of volunteers all over NZ keeping our rural communities going. Farmers, mechanics and others are ready to unselfishly give their time and skills for community groups, schools and coaching sport.

Fire brigade sirens would be silent without them.

When there is a weather crisis an army of rural volunteers emerge for the clean-up.

There are also the random voluntary acts from farmers who cut a fallen tree across a rural road or bury a rotting dead seal at a camping spot because DOC or the local council staff were unavailable.

Advocacy for farming has sucked up a lot of time in recent years and stretched the volunteers involved in water catchment groups, farmer groups, Federated Farmers and Groundswell.

Whether you agree with them or not they are unpaid volunteers spending countless hours doing what they feel is best for rural NZ.

Terry Brosnahan

Got any feedback?

Contact the editor: terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz or call 03 471 5272 @CountryWideEd

Next issue: September 2022

CROP & FORAGE Special

Special feature covering from soils to crop utilisation.

Farm managers

Those who made it a career path.

Country-Wide

August 2022

Historic farm

A mix of beef, forestry and watermelons.

Weed alert

Gravel groundsel is spreading in Northland.

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Contents

74

NURSERY FOR THE FUTURE Native trees and shrubs grown in the farm nursery provide a fresh focus for a Waikato farming couple.

68

UP, UP AND AWAY The latest and greatest developments in drones used for agriculture.

32

BANG FOR YOUR FERT BUCK

Soaring fertiliser costs in the wake of international events is under focus for hill country farmers.

8 BOUNDARIES HOME BLOCK 11 Mark Chamberlain picks up on the tell-tales around us 12 Winter means mud for Suzie Corboy. She’s not a fan 13 Andrew Steven gets hooked on blogs 14 Robert Carter makes connections on the Chatham Islands 15 Roger Barton is facing an onslaught of lifestyle blocks 17 John Scott reflects on farming alongside his father

BUSINESS 18 Rural crime: Crooks in the back blocks 22 Rural crime: DIY hack for security

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18

CROOKS IN THE BACK BLOCKS

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August 2022

BUSINESS 24 Exports: NZ will handle global upheaval

Country-Wide is published by NZ Farm Life Media PO Box 218, Feilding 4740

27 Aunty Thistledown: FOMO at Boma 28 Measuring ewe BCS is important 30 Political answer needed

General enquiries: Toll free 0800 2AG SUB (0800 224 782) www.nzfarmlife.co.nz

32 Bang for your fertiliser buck 34 Management: Making good decisions 35 Don’t point the finger at farmers 36 China: Will consumers pay more?

Editor Terry Brosnahan 03 471 5272 | 027 249 0200 terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz

44

38 The drivers of NZ’s inflation

SCIENCE

VERTICAL INTEGRATION PAYS DIVIDENDS

40 Pine trees and petroleum

LIVESTOCK

Over five generations a family has bought blocks of farmland in Northern Wairarapa.

44 Onfarm: Integration pays dividends 50 Long-acting pre-lamb drench peril

Publisher Tony Leggett 06 280 3162 | 0274 746 093 tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz Sub editor Andy Maciver 06 280 3166 andy.maciver@nzfarmlife.co.nz Designer Emily Rees 06 280 3167 emily.rees@nzfarmlife.co.nz

52 Onfarm: Cancelling the cost creep 59 Stock check: Advice is mostly farm-specific 60 Scanning: More dries and triplets

Production Jo Hannam 06 280 3168

64 Making it better in North Canterbury

Writers Anne Hardie 03 540 3635 Lynda Gray 027 465 3726 Robert Pattison 027 889 8444 Sandra Taylor 021 151 8685 James Hoban 027 251 1986 Russell Priest 06 328 9852 Jo Cuttance 03 976 5599 Joanna Grigg 027 275 4031

TECHNOLOGY 68 Drones: Up, up and away

CROP AND FORAGE 72 Clover: Canary in the pasture 73 Ewe ovulation risk

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ENVIRONMENT 74 Diversification: Nursery for the future

Partnership Managers Janine Aish | Auckland, Waikato, BOP 027 890 0015 janine.aish@nzfarmlife.co.nz

PINE TREES AND PETROLEUM

80 Carbon forestry: The tree-planting gamble 82 Solar panels: Solar vision

Pine trees are the source of much debate but they have the potential to supplant the oil industry.

YOUNG COUNTRY 86 Catering for glampers

88 SOLUTIONS 90 FARMING IN FOCUS

Angus Kebbell South Island, Lower North Island, Livestock 022 052 3268 angus.kebbell@nzfarmlife.co.nz Tony Leggett | International 027 474 6093 tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz Subscriptions nzfarmlife.co.nz/shop | 0800 224 782 subs@nzfarmlife.co.nz

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Printed by Ovato Print NZ Ltd

AG EMISSIONS: ANSWER NEEDED

ISSN 1179-9854 (Print) ISSN 2253-2307 (Online)

OUR COVER Two-time West Otago two-tooth competition winner Sam Barton prefers to keep things simple. Photo by Chris Sullivan.

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August 2022

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BOUNDARIES

WHAT A DEAL!

Family farm 143 years THE TYLEE FAMILY HAVE FARMED APPIN, the original 446ha block since 1889. Fourthgeneration farmer Lochy Tylee’s great grandfather Walter Edward Charles Tylee bought the Northern Wairarapa farm as a bush-clad block. By 1896 most of it was cleared.

They run 16,360su on four farms between the Puketoi Ranges and Mangatainoka, an effective area of 1700ha.

In 2008, a 91ha easier-contoured block (Springhill) was added with the whole farm now known as Appin. A two-terraced 454ha hill block (Te Rata) across the road from Appin was bought in 2013 and has since undergone considerable development.

Loch’s son Tom is the fifth generation of Tylees to farm Appin. Married two years ago to Harriet (an occupational therapist) they have a 13-month old daughter Millie.

Lochy who is married to Ruth (a registered nurse) has been managing the business since 1987. Both Lochy and Tom live on Kohinui as this is closer for their wives to travel to work in Palmerston North and Pahiatua.

Above: Lochy and Tom Tylee looking east from one of the highest points on Appin.

The meat and dairy industries haven’t held back in their criticism of the Government’s European Union trade deal.

Not only were they unhappy with paltry new market access but they were furious at Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for undermining her own negotiators in the critical final stages of talks by letting slip that New Zealand was willing to settle for the smallest of improvements for key pastoral exports.

Just as well then the Ardern Government has its earlier deal with the United Kingdom as evidence of its trade negotiating prowess.

Seen as one of the best deals ever done by NZ it achieves unlimited access to the UK market within five to 15 years for meat and dairy.

All is forgiven then? Not so fast.

A source involved in the UK talks says that deal was in spite of the Ardern Government not because of it.

“The deal was there to be done quite easily and late in the piece the Government introduced confusing stuff around the Treaty of Waitangi holding up the deal for ages as the UK tried to get its mind around what all that meant,” the source said.

“And they got the credit for it?

“God. They damn near buggered it up.”

It is understood the Government insisted on similar protections for Maori data from the EU as it had in the UK talks.

Those are unlikely to have gone down well with the EU whose financial firms depend on the free flow of data across borders modern trade deals are meant to encourage.

Whether that tipped the balance against better meat and dairy access is yet to emerge.

“Ardern may be popular with certain leaders in Europe and media around the world but she has no idea of what is involved in trade negotiations,” the source said.

JOK

E A statue of a man and a statue of a

woman stood looking at each other for hundreds of years out in a park.

One day a wizard, feeling sorry for the statues, brought them to life for 30 minutes.

Right away, the two of them ran into some nearby bushes and you could hear all kinds of strange sounds from there.

After a while they came back out, giggling.

The wizard told them, “You have another 15 minutes left, if you want to have another go.”

The statues looked at each other and the male statue answered “Fine, but this time you hold the pigeon and I’ll shit on it.”

• See Vertical integration pays dividends, p44.

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August 2022

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NZRDA

BEAR NECESSITIES Officials from The National Park Service in the United States of America have incurred a problem in designing suitable garbage cans for some of their National Parks.

A park ranger explained, “there is a crossover between the smartest bear and the stupidest tourist, and this is the problem”.

JULY CARTOON Cartoons, like any form of art, are open to interpretation. The July cartoon on page 9 was intended as a comment on the Government’s use of Maori language to help disguise the legislation it has been ramming through. It was not intended as an attack on Te Reo. Some have interpreted it as offensive and I apologise for any offence this caused. – Editor.

MODERN GENETIC SELECTION Daisy seeks a strong, silent vegetarian.

New Zealand Riding for the Disabled celebrated 60 years in July. The United Kingdom charity and equine-based therapy programme had small and rural NZ beginnings in Waipukurau driven by President of NZ Pony Club Tom Aitchison.

Nowadays about half of the 52 groups are in regional locations where their operation is largely reliant on volunteers who train and learn techniques and skills to assist riders with a range of special needs.

As with many community support organisations financial survival without government funding is always a battle. Those who join a group such as Country-Wide writer Lynda Gray, say the payback of smiles and fun with riders from all walks of life is priceless.

She joined the Central Otago group six years ago which caters for 20 riders.

“We’re always on the hunt for volunteers, suitable horses and money.

It’s never easy but we get by and for me it’s a great break from an office and keyboard. I think I learn as much from the riders as they learn from me.”

RDA groups are always on the lookout for volunteers, horse experience is not essential, more important is an open mind and a willingness to learn. Find out the location of your nearest group and sign up.

• More?: Visit rda.org.nz

D I D YO U

KNOW? Every year, more than 2500 left-handed people are killed around the world from using equipment that is meant for right-handed people. The right-handed power saw is the most deadly item.

Statistically, one person in 4,400,000 is killed every year from using equipment which is meant for right-handed people.

MIND THE BARBS

In an irreverent wish-list at the end of her closing address at the Primary Industries Summit in Auckland recently the chief executive of the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR), Dr Alison Stewart didn’t spare any sector or lobby group. “This is where I get really flippant.”

• She wished the livestock sector stopped using the argument about its efficiency “as a get out of jail free card for environmental pollution”.

• “We are not playing monopoly and one doesn’t cancel the other out.”

• She wanted the dairy industry to recognise consumers were quite happy with the notion of plant-based milk.

• She urged the plant sector to “get off your pious greenhouse gases pedestal and sort out your own shit”.

• She pleaded with the Government to leave their staff in the same position for more than a year, and when the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) sent 10 representatives to a pest incursion, that one of them could sign off decisions made.

• She knew Federated Farmers was a voluntary organisation – “But I really wish you would stop sitting on the fence on every major issue. Sometimes you just have to take a stance, and you must have bloody sore crotches from straddling that Number 8 wire”.

• Read more p35.

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August 2022

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August 2022

HOME BLOCK Gore

Dangerous days Mark Chamberlain picks up on the ‘hall monitors and tell-tale tits’ around us.

“These are dangerous days, to say what you think is to dig your own grave.”

B

LACK BOYS ON MOPEDS. A SONG released by Sinead O’Connor, 32 years ago, contains the pithy line, “these are dangerous days, to say what you think is to dig your own grave”.

O’Connor was a lot of things to a lot of people and now, also appears to have been able to predict the future… For those 15 words written all those years ago, have never carried so much weight and relevance as they do, present day.

You could argue that this fear has always been in society but with the accessibility of social media over the last generation, there has been an influx of ‘hall monitors and tell-tale-tits’ ruling our lives, whether we like it or not.

We have all suffered or imposed cancellation in our lives. The range and width are huge. Mrs Chamberlain operates more on a yellow card system than a blanket cancellation, thankfully. Friends cancel friends, families cancel each other often over silly things such as trinkets, who is hosting Christmas and of course power.

Funny story, recently I texted a radio station in support of the farmer volunteer group Groundswell.

At the time, the announcer, a self-confessed failed farmer and serial name-dropper, was publicly undermining Groundswell’s good work.

I’ll be the first to admit my text might have been a little vigorous, but the radio announcer was not a happy chappy. The ensuing on-air rant was kind of funny, threatening to release my name and address to the public, was not. Reactions like this tell me that I was right above the target with my message.

And just like that, I was cancelled… Persona non grata from a show that in my humble opinion, had some good content but had increasingly become lightweight and slapstick.

What most people don’t know is that it is a show run by a media organization that has been subsidised by the Government. But wait, there’s more. One of the conditions of accepting these millions of dollars, is that they cannot criticise

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August 2022

“We are a splintered bunch and while I would argue that most farmers can still meet at the boundary fence and nod in collective agreement, it is some of our farming leaders that have sold us out.”

anything Treaty of Waitangi related – which includes of course; co-governance, Three Waters and He Waka Eke Noa. Breach that, and they would have to repay the money. Couple that with the same announcer who, at the last election, encouraged farmers to party vote Labour and then you begin to understand the ‘soft’ interviews he conducts with our Prime Minister.

My point is this; this is not a sob story about me.

It is about us. Too often we are blaming the wokesters, a cluster (insert bad word here) of academics and puritans who paddle in a pool of righteousness, who celebrate diversity and difference – but only if you agree with their views. The real problem is us.

We are a splintered bunch and while I would argue that most farmers can still meet at the boundary fence and nod in collective agreement, it is some of our farming leaders that have sold us out.

In doing so, they have created division at a time where our unity is needed more, than perhaps ever before.

People we had truly believed were advocating for us, are sadly, on the gravy train of self-importance, free smokos and free flights to Wellington. Don’t get me wrong, there are countless people out there doing hundreds of hours of thankless volunteer work on our behalf, always happy to take a phone call. Real “Keep Calm and Carry On” type of people.

I write this as the country is mourning a rugby test series defeat to a very classy, deserving Irish side. The media outcry for the metaphorical heads of the coaching team is sadly unsurprising. If only that same media were prepared to hold the Prime Minister to the same standard. In these days of record inflation, a ‘Hotel Generation’ of children, daily shootings in Auckland, an overwhelmed, ineffective health system, record truancy rates and the heartbreak of a country divided into ‘them and us’ – who is calling for her ‘head’?

It’s almost as though they are too afraid to, in these, ‘dangerous days’. Or, has their silence been bought?

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HOME BLOCK Owaka

Mud, inglorious mud Winter’s wet weather has meant a lot of mud for Suzie Corboy. She’s not a fan.

W “I lost him a couple of times in the first two weeks and had to lie on the lawn at dusk having to try to tempt him out of the hedge with food...”

12

HEN TERRY RANG ASKING ME to write this, I was rushing around moving five mobs of cattle on swedes, about 430 cattle total, before trying to get home for a sleep before night shift at Balclutha St John.

Paul was away at a Beef + Lamb NZ council meeting and as usual all was going wrong. There was a short in the mains electric fence, and I was starting to have to make choices, find the fault or leave the cattle with a lower voltage and hope they stayed in, and what was the higher priority, lunch or sleep?

Thankfully the fault was in a direction where there were no animals and I just turned the switch off in that block. Lunch versus sleep was not so easy, I didn’t really have enough time for either, so had a snack and was just falling asleep when the alarm went off. Thankfully it was a quiet night for ambulance work and I got some sleep at work.

Farm work just now mainly consists of break fencing. We have three mobs of sheep on swedes, five mobs of cattle on swedes and hoggets on grass.

This past week has been wet and unfortunately this has meant lots of mud.

I don’t agree with the saying “where there is mud there is money”.

We try to do some farm maintenance in the winter, but with the short daylight hours and not starting work early enough we often fix the problems that every day seems to deliver, such as last week’s wind that blew trees down on to the electric fence in an area of the farm that we are wintering cattle, so had to be fixed.

We will have scanned our ewes by the time you read this, after a dry summer, with the ewes not being fed as well as we would like, we wait with trepidation.

These are interesting times in the Owaka Valley

with the farm next door sold to be planted in trees, and the land across the road from us, previously part of a dairy farm, being converted back to sheep.

There have been lots of temporary fences put up there as they only took possession at the beginning of winter so there are lots of two-wire dairy fences that aren’t very good at holding sheep.

We found a young wild kitten in our workshop, rather dehydrated and lost, so I saved his life and have tamed him. This has had a few challenges. I lost him a couple of times in the first two weeks and had to lie on the lawn at dusk having to try to tempt him out of the hedge with food on one of these occasions.

He also seems to have a sensitive stomach so is prone to diarrhoea if he eats the older cat’s food.

This was easy to avoid when he was young and couldn’t jump very high but more difficult now.

Sammie is now a loved member of our family, but I could have given him away very easily in those first weeks when I was cleaning up shit in the laundry every morning.

Despite there always being something to do when farming, I made time in June to have a seven-day holiday visiting family in Wellington.

It was a fantastic week catching up, none of us are getting younger and I need to prioritise seeing my parents over farming.

My ambulance work often reminds me that we never know which day will be our last. We went to the zoo, Te Papa, up the cable car and to the movies, a rare occurrence for me. Top Gun Maverick is so much better on the big screen. My brother and I did a high ropes course, great sibling bonding. I came home vowing to make more effort to visit family, especially after them both saying how much it meant to them that I made the time to stay.

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August 2022

HOME BLOCK Timaru

Blogosphere insights South Canterbury’s Andrew Steven is no champion of smartphones, but he has got hooked on the blogs he’s found.

A

S I WATCHED MY FIRST CELL phone descend to the bottom of a 20,000 litre water tank, I knew I was never going to have a good relationship with them. I have long since given up carrying a phone.

I watch as other farmers have their lives ruled by a device and I think, how did they cope before phones and is their quality of life better for having one in their pocket at all times?

I like to tell a story from before smartphones. I was a young man in Canada and just embarked on my OE. I was sitting in a bus station café, feeling a bit lost and lonely and killing time with a bottomless coffee and a smoke.

A bloke walked in and he looked familiar, like I should know him. Eye contact was made and he came over to say hello. Turned out that his girlfriend came from Timaru. A contact and friendship was made - the joys of travelling. The point of the story being that nowadays, people are head-down and engaged with their devices. There is zero chance of eye contact and ironically they’re more lonely than ever.

While I don’t carry a device, I do borrow Vicky’s and enjoy reclining on the couch checking Facebook and also a new vice: reading blogs.

Chris Trotter is well known and writes very insightfully and well. Karl du Fresne is excellent and often a breath of fresh air. Martyn Bradbury is a raving lefty, sometimes vile, but his best role is the excoriation he delivers to the woke. I do read some others also - we cannot rely on main stream media to keep us informed.

These three bloggers share a common value: a commitment to the principles of free speech as

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August 2022

“These three bloggers share a common value: a commitment to the principles of free speech as being fundamental for the proper functioning of a liberal democracy. If somebody is offended, so what?”

being fundamental for the proper functioning of a liberal democracy. If somebody is offended, so what?

Meanwhile, farming just carries on.

An autumn highlight for me was to become Andrew the apple picker. The local orchard was desperate for help and a message came via Fed Farmers looking for labour.

I spent a week on the job and thoroughly enjoyed it. The pleasure was working together with a diverse group of people. Quite a few had lost better-paying jobs because they were anti-vaxers. The political classes might have demonised them, but they were good company. I was impressed by the efforts of two guys in their 70s. I was less impressed by the young man who regularly picked less than the woman who was 62 years old.

Another highlight was a party of 13 people, mostly farming types, crossing the main divide at the head of the Rangitata river and then rafting out the Perth/Whataroa river to the West Coast.

We headed off in the face of a dodgy forecast and spent our first night in tents at about 5000 feet (about 1500 metres).

The weather came in and the wind roared all night, the tents flapping and one blowing away.

There was very little sleep and we had to retreat down for a day until things improved. It may seem strange to readers, but that was great fun.

The rafting section was in the hands of very competent guides and a day on a serious river. It was my first time rafting and great fun.

My new hero [ine] is Nadia Lim for advocating a positive story about farming and our products.

13

HOME BLOCK Taumarunui

Making connections A chance to lead a visit to the Chatham Islands saw Robert Carter discover his kind of people.

T “The most lasting impression I took away was the sheer resourcefulness of the people and the stoic manner they displayed against the tyranny of distance, and therefore huge costs as well as the horizontal weather.”

14

HIS PAST AUTUMN IN THE KING Country was challenging from a climatic perspective, however there were some bright parts as a result of making some good connections with city folk while skippering a tourist jet boat on the Whanganui River.

I took a group of Auckland-based senior members of society on a three-day jaunt down the river, staying at Posh Pioneers (Google it) and forensically exploring the history and sights we have here on the upper reaches just below Taumarunui.

Three days later we landed the party back at their coach safe and sound and full of stories and good humour.

At one juncture I was talking to their tour leader, Nikki, from Seemore Tours, about my bucket list and I mentioned the Chatham Islands and Stewart Island.

Morphing forward Nikki asked me to lead a tour to the Chathams and Pitt Island and so, a few weeks later we were off!

I had only a cursory knowledge of the islands but before we travelled, I got busy and read as much as I could get my hands on.

We left Auckland one afternoon on Air Chathams ATR 72 500 aircraft, about 15 people on board and the rest filled with freight.

About 900km and 2.5 hours later we landed at Tuuta Airport on the Chathams.

Welcome to Chatham Island, Wharekauri in Maori and Rekohu in Moriori.

We were hosted by Greg and Rosemarie Horler at Awarakau Lodge on the west coast a few km south of Waitangi.

Between Greg and Rosemarie and their good mate Denny Prendiville we were treated to an unforgettable tour.

Being shown about by locals meant we were able to see almost every inch of the island, this was topped up with a day trip to Pitt as well, hosted by Brent and Bernie Mallinson.

Going there with farming lenses on certainly

educated me, the land mass was a lot bigger and extensive than I had imagined.

We saw some very well-run operations as well as some very extensive low-input enterprises.

The most lasting impression I took away was the sheer resourcefulness of the people and the stoic manner they displayed against the tyranny of distance, and therefore huge costs as well as the horizontal weather.

One interesting social insight I gained was how their being and interrelationships manifest now, are shaped by their history. More to the point is how their society appears to handle the presentday outcomes of their origins compared to how we are going about the same in New Zealand.

I liked what I saw there.

Here is a very short, abbreviated history.

Moriori chanced upon the place by sea many years ago and set up a peaceable society under what was eventually known as Nunuku’s law.

Their first visitors in the early 1800s were Europeans, sealers, whalers etc from the Americas and further afield.

Things gelled between them, and the gene pool was made use of.

A while later Taranaki Maori: Ngati Tama and Ngati Mutunga were feeling squeezed by Maori from the Waikato and the southern North Island and they made a move to the Chathams.

A rough time for Moriori ensued and Maori became well established by the means of the days, back then.

Since then, as they say in the Bible, there has been a lot more begatting, and now we have the Chatham Islanders, proud, capable, friendly, resourceful and on the face of it, not appearing to count much on their origins or who did what to whom back in the day.

It’s a great place to visit, we were looked after extremely well despite the Island being in a Covid epidemic.

I would go back there in a flash, my kind of people, thoroughly enjoyable.

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HOME BLOCK Greytown

Tar seal good, pasture bad Wairarapa farmer Roger Barton is facing an onslaught of lifestyle blocks. At least he’s trying to have control over those on his farm.

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OME YEARS AGO A WONDERFUL POM by the name of David Hughes (Professor of food marketing. Imperial College, London) spoke at the Red Meat sector conference in Auckland.

My distinct memory of the start of his address was for him to stand up on his chair, a hand shading his eyes and looking out to the crowd.

His words were “I’m 65 and I can just about see the end”. He then continued to give us his vision of world food trends with a particular focus on New Zealand products and markets.

I, along with a bunch of other younger farmers had the opportunity of engaging more closely with David as part of a two-day meat marketing workshop/seminar back in 1988 in Hawke’s Bay. This was a forerunner to our involvement with the Atkins Ranch programme that we have been involved with since its start just after that.

In 1995 David and I spent a weekend together in Milton Keynes, north of London, as part of a group of about 25. Same focus and themes.

While a year younger than David’s 65 I can feel that if I look into the horizon, I too can nearly see the end. Over the last period we have done the unthinkable and subdivided another five lifestyle blocks from our southern edge.

Fringed with native bush, the good people of Wellington have been keen to help us contemplate retirement in style and with options while still retaining the balance of the area of 470-odd hectares although only 185 growing pasture.

Have I tired of farming? Answer “No”. Do I approve of lifestyle blocks? Answer “not really.”

Why have we done it then? Because a wholesale marketing of this property would definitely go to developers with no control of the outcomes by us.

This way we have control while easing back on physical farming needs. We have already been courted by two scale developers with proven track records. The hope of this property staying “as is” remains a forlorn thought.

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“Fringed with native bush, the good people of Wellington have been keen to help us contemplate retirement in style and with options…”

If I stitch together the thoughts of David Hughes with many aspects of Atkins Ranch supply needs and springboard on to Geoff Ross’s expose, via Country Calendar, of his vision for Lake Hawea Station and its attendant publicity, both good and bad, I realise that NZ producers are still hugely disconnected from their markets and their underlying requirements.

Hungry people just want to eat, whereas we need to fish at the better end of the pond. We need to meet the needs of affluent people. Yes some of the Lake Hawea expose went too far. A white shearing board becomes slippery and dangerous. I’ve shorn on polyurethane surfaces. It’s no fun. But, the messages around care and attention weren’t lost on me and shouldn’t be lost on the wider farming fraternity.

Laugh all we might about “carbon neutrality” but the legislation is coming for me and you. There is a market focus. I would prefer it to be on efficiency but that doesn’t have the same ring to it. Efficiency sounds too “clinical”.

The government is intruding on our abilities more than they should, as was the situation when I got into farming. Think “Livestock Incentive scheme” and “Land Development Encouragement scheme” - frustrating policies that dogged our efforts and direction at the time, in retrospect.

Forty-odd years later and we have more taxes just over the horizon. Taxing livestock seems such a difficult science to mitigate and regulate. We’ve done the Beef + Lamb calculator thing and look hugely in credit because of our QE 2 bush, but then I’m advised that this can’t be included.

I’m getting cynical about it all. So cynical that I am advocating a new tax. This new tax will be known as the “Impermeable Surfaces tax.” It will apply to all concrete surfaces, tarseal and other roading plus roof areas. In short, all areas that don’t allow the biosphere to operate as intended.

That nature’s own solar panels, where leaves of any description, can’t operate as nature intended will attract a tax.

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HOME BLOCK Hill of Fearn, Scotland

Going through a phase John Scott reflects on the stages of life, farming alongside his father.

John Scott, James Scott Jnr and James Scott Snr hooked to the big screen at Fearn Farm’s ram sale.

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THINK WE MAY HAVE FINISHED lambing, I’m not 100% sure but we haven’t had a fresh lamb for two weeks now so it may be over at last!

I realise that lambing for almost half the year isn’t really that cool but there are positives to take from the situation which involved a ram lamb spending several weeks with the hoggets when he really should have been eating turnips with his mates.

Following a recent conversation with a friend who is having some serious succession challenges it has made me think a lot about my situation and how fortunate I have been and am.

For the past 30 years I have had the opportunity to work alongside Dad, on the whole we have got on really well. Yes there have been some difficult times but invariably we know what each other is thinking and have had each other’s backs when times were tough.

If I were to analyse that period in my life, it’s roughly split in three.

The early part would see me learning from Dad, working alongside him, tapping into his knowledge while making the most of my energy.

In the second phase, along with my awesome wife Fiona, we took over the running of the business while also having our family. The relationship between Dad and me changed a bit, I must ask him how he found it but looking back I did feel we clashed more than the first or last third.

And in the recent third it’s been different again. He’s been there in a support role while still remaining active every day checking stock. He lets us get on with running the business as we see fit, being there for advice when we need it and, of course, sometimes when we don’t.

So looking ahead, which is always the exciting bit in theory, I’m moving into phase four which will

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“He lets us get on with running the business as we see fit, being there for advice when we need it and, of course, sometimes when we don’t.”

likely be more of the same with Dad although he might do a little less and phase one with James and Izzy and maybe Lexie and Archie (as long as New Zealand doesn’t keep them).

I hope I get the balance right in terms of support and encouragement, and as a family we get plenty of special moments to share which make us all proud of each other and what we are achieving on a daily basis collectively.

Over the past two weeks we have hosted two farm visits, one I remembered about and one I didn’t, which tested our scramble defence to the max. Both gave us the opportunity to work as a family team.

Creating opportunities for the kids to engage with others is so important and this is a high priority in our plans.

As an industry we have forgotten how much we need to socialise and it’s been great to get back to shows post Covid. They have been a huge miss in our farming calendar and we are all making the most of them now they are back. So far we have done the Royal Highland and the Great Yorkshire which hosted the world shorthorn conference delegates who were great fun.

Our local shows start this weekend and it’s already been suggested that I spend less time in the beer tent than the last time I went three years ago.

It would be remiss of me not to mention the recent summer rugby tours to the southern hemisphere, some very interesting results. Scotland were consistent in that they gave us as fans the usual roller coaster of emotions before failing at the final hurdle. Of course the other matchups were also very close and interesting, I would love to be a fly on the wall in NZ Rugby HQ at the moment, when does Scott Robertson get the gig, now after WC 2023 or could he come to Scotland instead? Either way November will be interesting.

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BUSINESS Rural crime

CROOKS IN THE BACK BLOCKS

Rural crime is an increasing problem as more people struggle financially and illicit drug dealing becomes more widespread, Lynda Gray reports.

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he increase in the incidence and frequency of known and suspected rural crime is borne out by last year’s Federated Farmers survey. The 2021 survey answered by 1200 Feds members showed more than half (52%) of the respondents had experienced or suspected they had been the target of rural crime.

That’s a 10% increase from the previous survey in 2016. Over the same period the frequency of rural crime increased with 37% reporting two or more incidents compared to 22% in 2016.

The stats will come as no surprise but raises the questions of what’s driving it, and what steps farmers can take to keep livestock, property and themselves safe from criminal harm.

Federated Farmers rural crime spokesperson Colin Hurst believes the trend is reflective of what’s happening across society as more people struggle financially and illicit drug dealing becomes more widespread.

“I think that generally rural people are honest so there’s naivety about how criminals work and what they get up to, especially when it’s based around drugs. What we do know is that once the drug element is present it tends to turn a rural community upside down.”

The Feds are doing their bit to raise crime and security awareness by running rural crime prevention workshops, in conjunction with the police, throughout the country.

They’re not intended as a precursor to a Neighbourhood

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Watch type of group but rather a starting point for discussions and awareness around rural crime, and to encourage farmers to report suspected thefts.

Hurst says the under-reporting of actual or suspected rural crime is a big problem. Farmers often flag the reporting of burglary, vandalism and other acts of crime because they don’t have sufficient evidence or assume police won’t be interested enough to follow-up. But he says the reporting of suspicious activity is a crucial step in prevention because it can uncover patterns and waves of crime which over time can lead to the apprehending of offenders.

But the tardiness of the police in responding to crime in rural areas is a huge frustration which is covered off in just over three pages of an 80-page report by the Independent Police Conduct Authority Review.

The 2018 report followed several complaints about policing in small communities. Discussion around the question of ‘are members of small communities easily able to contact their local officers’ highlighted the difficulty people had in getting hold of help. Police took too long to answer calls or respond to messages, which discouraged them from trying and this is why crime was under-reported.

If you see something, do something, that’s the message from Inspector Paul Carpenter who is leading the New Zealand rural police model.

The finger is often pointed at police for not following

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up on reported rural crime due to the perception of scant resources but that’s not the case, he says.

“We understand that farmers are interested in what’s happening due to perceived resource constraints and we want to change that.”

The answer is not through the employment of more rural police but rather improved communication links and promotion of them, he says.

There are 165 police staff distributed among 104 oneto-three police officer rural community stations which cover about 60% of the country’s geographical area. It’s a huge expense and satisfying everyone is not easy, but Carpenter says feedback from rural police is that the fundamental model is working although it needs to be updated to deal with the increasing volume of calls.

“The police are there and contactable, our job is to raise awareness of how best to share information.”

A combination of online means and better resourcing

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of the 105 Police non-emergency number is being worked on, he says.

A snapshot of rural crime The 2021 rural crime survey is the second undertaken

by Federated Farmers. The first in 2016 gave a snapshot of where rural crime was occurring and what the focus of those crimes was.

Respondents in both surveys were quizzed on property stolen, livestock stolen, livestock killed, poaching or foraging, property damaged or vandalised, and the clandestine onfarm growing of drugs.

Of those surveyed last year more than half had been victims of crimes during the past two years.

Smaller farm equipment (other than machinery) accounted for 46% of items stolen followed by fuel at 45%. The theft of motorbikes, quadbikes or other farm vehicles accounted for 27% of reported thefts.

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Survey feedback noted very new bikes and vehicles were targeted, probably by the same criminals who stole the old vehicle.

Respondents reported several occasions of quadbike theft despite removing keys and locking sheds. Some were now using specialist quadbike locking systems to prevent further thefts.

About 14% of respondents had had or suspected stock had been stolen from their farm.

About 8% of total respondents had had or suspected that drugs, mostly cannabis with some suspecting methamphetamine, were grown or manufactured on their farm. Many of the respondents who knew cannabis was being grown on their farm avoided the area and didn’t report the activity to avoid repercussions.

The grouping of respondents according to their location revealed Bay of Plenty, Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne-Wairoa and North Otago as crime hot-spots, recording significantly above the average for having had or suspecting an incident in the last two years.

app can be used outside of cellphone range and farmers can tag their location, upload photos, and other relevant details. It is intended particularly for incidents which might otherwise go unreported such as illegal hunting, trespassing, illegal use of drones, deliberate damage, theft of fuel and stock.

“We know that under-reporting of crime is a big problem in rural areas and we hope this will encourage people to report these incidents,” Federated Farmers North Canterbury president, Caroline Amyes.

She has her own story of not bothering to report suspected crime. Gates went missing from her lifestyle block at Whitecliffs.

“It was a pain and rather than report it we just went and replaced them. We later found out it was happening around the community so if we had reported it the police may have got on to it sooner.”

Feedback from users of the trial app has been positive.

It’s easy to use and people say they’ve had good follow-up from the police, Amyes says.

A couple of recent examples was the reporting of illegal street racing. The logging and photograph with clear identification of number plates was the evidence police needed to follow up. In another situation police were able to get the exact location of a dumped car in an isolated area from a photo sent on the app.

“It’s giving the police more data of where incidents are happening so that they can target their resources.”

The app is being trialled for two years after which a decision will be made about further rollout.

"Generally rural people are honest so there’s naivety about how criminals work and what they get up to..."

Look out Rural Outlook is a new-release police app for logging suspicious activity.

It was launched in early May and is being trialled in the Waimakariri and Hurunui districts of North Canterbury.

Federated Farmers is backing the trial by encouraging farmers to upload the app.

By mid-June about 2000 had uploaded it and 40 incidents had been reported. The

Spotlight on security

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The installation of sensor lights about six months ago on Colin Hurst’s cropping farm at Makihiki, South Canterbury, was a simple $1700 investment. He bought two Eufy Cam Security kits from Noel Leeming.

The system, ready-to-go out of the box, is wire-free with a 365-day battery which keeps working if and when there’s a power outage.

The system has facial recognition to reduce false alerts, stores video without the need for cloud storage and is weatherproof.

The high-resolution camera picks up clearly the number plates and defining features of unwanted guests. The cameras overlook the fuel tanks, workshop, house and driveway.

Security measures Are farmers doing enough to keep their stuff and property safe?

No, judging by responses to the 2021 survey with just over half improving their security in the wake of a rural crime incident.

Lock and key are no longer enough to keep property safe. Experienced criminals armed with easy-to-use cutting tools can make short work of padlocks and chains on gates to paddocks, implement sheds and woolsheds.

However, criminals are more likely to bypass farms that have padlocked access along with other deterrents such as sensor lights, dogs near sheds, and security cameras.

The NZ Police security checklist is a good starting point to gauge the status of your farm security. https://www.police. govt.nz/aboutus/publication/ security-checklistnew-zealand-ruralproperties

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BUSINESS Farm security

DIY HACK FOR SECURITY IF WI-FI DOESN’T REACH TO FARM sheds, a cell phone can be on guard to beam videos back home.

One way to do this on the cheap, is to install the Alfred app. It will turn an old cell phone into a motion detection camera, with microphone.

To set it up, install a sim card in a redundant cell phone (about $19). This gives it a connection to the mobile network. Then load a pre-pay card, to provide the monthly data needed to record and send the videos to another cell phone.

The phone can be taped up inside a shed – perhaps looking through a hole inside a shed, with a view towards the fuel bowser. An area that is lit at night, with a sensor light, is ideal to flood the area for clear recording.

The phone will need to be plugged in to power full time, to avoid missing any important moments. It is paired with another device (cell phone, ipad) which will notify of any movement in the view.

SHARING THE MEAT MURRAY AND TANYA FROST ARE happy to share meat from their farm, Mt Oliver, if they are asked. This generosity may help discourage local theft and poaching.

Their 200ha dairy farm in Linkwater, Marlborough, backs on to a large area of indigenous forest in the Marlborough Sounds. Deer regularly move out of the bush to graze on the paddocks.

Murray, or his son Troy, are happy to shoot a feral deer, if asked by the community or people who ring them.

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The basic and free version of the app records and stores videos, up to about 30 seconds. The premium version allows scheduling of when motion detection is turned on/off and it will record longer videos (up to 120 seconds). It also gives high-definition images and zooming of the image. This costs about $50/year.

Tips to get the best picture include setting the device within 15 metres of the zone. Starlings flying into sheds can be a pain but that’s usually a daytime event.

Recordings are stored in the cloud for seven days, and then deleted, so it doesn’t take space on the phone. The phone can be set to continually monitor live sessions in an eight-hour loop.

There are around 15 million subscriptions to Alfred worldwide. If a night-time movement is detected, the microphone can be turned on to ‘talk’ to whoever triggered it. This is safer than storming down there in person.

There are rules about collecting video images, especially if the camera is filming

“We don’t want to kill to throw away,” Tanya says. They have supplied deer to the Renwick Fire Brigade, to the local hall committee for community events, visiting truck drivers, casual contacts who ask and people in need.

Rather than let people go hunting, the Frosts get the deer themselves.

“This way we know who’s on the property, and the boys like hunting.”

The Frosts gut the deer and can skin it, if required. In return, the Frosts are often offered a koha, typically a box of beer.

“We appreciate this, as a bullet is $5 a pop now.”

The Frosts won the 2021 Farming Award at the Cawthron Marlborough Environment Awards for their work turning around a non-compliant dairy farm.

They have focused on getting the basics right on the farm, Mt Oliver, which they bought 10 years ago and are using

Gotcha. Screen shot of a video, captured by the Alfred app.

technology to improve management.

A new effluent pond gives up to 75 days’ storage, with liquid and solids spread back to develop the paddocks.

Wi-Fi has been boosted from the house, down to the dairy shed and yard area. Tanya says it was the best $1600 she spent.

“It allows staff to load-up data to the iPad, without using phone data, and means our records are a lot better.”

Another advantage is that it can support Wi-Fi security cameras.

When it comes to security, the Frosts’ house is central on the farm and on a hill.

This gives a view over most corners of the farm. Although it sits right alongside Kenepuru Road, access to the farm livestock and sheds is past the worker’s house or the homestead.

“It is hard to get on to this farm, for poaching or theft, without being seen.”

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an area that is also a public space. On private land, like a farm, make sure there are clear reasons why the surveillance is happening. Tell staff about the camera or place a sign.

Lock it up Rural insurer FMG reports that between January 2019 and December 2021, there were 73 claims made for theft of fuel from farm properties.

Angela Hogg, Advice Services Manager, FMG, says this is almost 10% of all farm contents theft/burglary claims in this period. Claims peak in February and July, which mirrors the trend with general theft/ burglary claims.

“We expect to see an increase in the costs associated with these claims due to the rising fuel costs,” she says.

A simple lock can deter. A surveillance option is to install an infrared point-topoint perimeter security alarm system, across the main entrance to your property.

Stock theft scale unknown Insurance company FMG estimates theft of livestock costs the rural community $120 million annually. They report that one in four farmers have had stock stolen within the past five years. This can only be described as a guess, as many thefts are not reported to Police.

The Police record prosecutions for animal thefts but don’t distinguish between

Alfred security app: A cellphone, plugged to a power source, can be used as a motion detection camera.

livestock and non-stock animals, like family pets. Exact figures for stock are unknown.

Insurance doesn’t offer much financial protection. Farmers are typically not covered for theft of livestock from home farm paddocks or grazing blocks.

The policy is not offered, as stock theft is hard to prove and difficult to prevent, making it difficult to insure.

Angela Hogg, Advice Services Manager FMG, said livestock theft claims to FMG from 2019 to 2021 were a very small number.

“This is due to the policy response, where unspecified livestock are not covered for

theft from open environments.”

Farmers can get cover for specified high value or stud stock. FMG offers cover for general stock if stolen from a building or yards (not from the paddock). It falls on farmers to try and protect their assets and prevent thefts. FMG recommends stock grazing roadsides should be locked back in the paddock overnight. Roadside gates can have long-pin gudgeons or caps, to make them harder to lift off.

Community policing senior sergeant Alasdair Macmillan said there has been a push on preventing poaching, working with rural groups.

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BUSINESS Exports

NZ WILL HANDLE GLOBAL UPHEAVAL Former diplomat and trade negotiator Tim Groser is upbeat about the red meat sector’s prospects, despite the global challenges. By Sandra Taylor.

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espite global economic and geopolitical challenges, this country’s red meat industry will be just fine, the former diplomat and National government minister said.

While Groser acknowledged the challenges the sector was facing, he said New Zealand’s agricultural export economy has dealt with far worse, most notably in 1973, the United Kingdom, which took about 50% of this country’s agricultural exports, joined the European Economic Community and its unreformed Common Agricultural Policy.

Groser told farmers at Silver Fern Farms’ recent Plate to Pasture conference in Christchurch, “we had nowhere to go as a country”.

“There were no rules applying to agriculture, it was the wild west out there.”

China wasn’t even on the radar as a potential market and there was deep concern across the political divide about this country’s future.

“Sure, we face global challenges and new threats, but we’ve made enormous progress over the last 40 or 50 years and I think we’ll get through it.”

The sector has shown enormous resilience over the years and he encouraged the industry to continue to invest in innovation, listen carefully to what the markets are saying and above all, keep the faith.

NZ farming sector has a first-class system that has proved time and again to be resilient.

“We have demonstrated resilience, we have faced new challenges and if I was to sum up the overarching conclusion, we will be fine, we will get through this.”

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The challenges facing the sector can be put under two broad headings, the first is changes in the global macro-economic environment, which will affect NZ’s customers, and the second is sharp geo-political shifts, particularly the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the tough environment with China.

Looking at macro-economics, Groser said the situation was clearly heading south and will impact consumer demand.

“We just have to work our way through it.”

He doesn’t believe there will be a soft landing, but he acknowledged the work Adrienne Orr, the Governor of the Reserve Bank has done to begin the tightening cycle, well ahead of other countries.

Groser was dismissive of commentators’ “obsession” with the term peak inflation with the implication that inflation will fall rapidly once it has peaked.

“The real issue is the duration of the adjustment downwards and I think that’s going to take a little bit of time.”

Being in the food industry, he believes farmers do have some natural hedging, as do those in the energy sector.

Looking at geo-political shifts and their impact on business models and globalisation, Groser quoted Lenin saying there are decades where nothing happens and there are weeks where decades happen; one of those weeks was when Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine.

This has completely changed the military and strategic views of some of the world’s most influential players. This includes Sweden and Finland dropping their neutrality and joining Nato and Germany pledging to become a

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“We have demonstrated resilience, we have faced new challenges and if I was to sum up the over-arching conclusion, we will be fine, we will get through this.” major military player again.

“This is a massive change.”

Similarly, Japan has talked about ending its strategic ambiguity policy towards the defence of Taiwan.

“The geo-political situation has become more difficult and more challenging and this will affect everything including traditional business models.”

Over the past decade, little thought has gone into the complexity of supply chains and their resilience (or lack of it) which has been costing some of the major companies of the world billions of dollars.

Not the end of globalisation Groser predicted a move towards different business models and while the impact of darker strategic forces will accelerate this, it does not mark the end of globalisation.

“It is an evolution and a slightly amended version of it.”

Globalisation, he said, brought hundreds of millions of people out of terrible poverty, it created millions of new customers for NZ. While acknowledging the glacial pace of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Groser stressed the importance of this organisation to world trade.

There have been eight successful trade rounds since agriculture was included into the WTO system in Uruguay in 1986, which have resulted in massive liberalisation and the establishment of rules to govern deeply inappropriate trading practices “Let me assure you that it is vitally important to NZ that that system doesn’t start to fall apart, even if we can’t move forward very much.”

There are no free trade agreements between the world’s major economies such as the United States, China and Europe and their trading relationships are all based on the WTO system.

Hundreds of millions of jobs depend on preserving that system.

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“I think it’s extremely unlikely that people would be so catastrophically stupid as to untangle it.

“We can see some erosion around the edges, but the basic system will be in place and this is very important to us.”

Groser referred to successful trade deals NZ has forged over the years with countries including Australia, China, Japan, Canada and Mexico. He spoke of the frustration when, under the Trump regime, the US pulled out of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership, which was the closest NZ was going to get to an FTA with the US. While disappointed with the outcome of the recent European Union FTA for the red meat and dairy industries, Groser said the results elsewhere were very positive.

“It would be a complete fantasy to think we were ever going to negotiate something comparable to what we have with the UK or Australia, but it has taken us forward.”

He refused to make judgement on whether the Prime Minister should have pulled away or not because it is impossible to know what exactly goes on inside these negotiations.

The number one priority now should be getting the Australian and NZ and UK FTAs through the British House of Commons and House of Lords.

“Those are two truly world-class FTAs which will give us a lot of insurance policy should China go south in the years ahead.”

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BUSINESS Advice

Dear Aunty Thistledown, I saw a 5 foot tall thistle heading into the Boma E tipu AgriSummit and figured it must be you. What did you think of the conference? Should I have bought a ticket instead of lurking on the street?

Regards, Fear of missing out.

Dear FOMO, Yes it was me. The number one agony aunt of agriculture. Also the number one gifter of tweezers. Large prickly weeds were not built to navigate a crowd.

The E tipu conference was pleasant enough.The food was really good and the attendees were super friendly. The MC, Rod Oram, was lively and engaging.

Although he seemed to have set himself a challenge for how many Maori words he could mispronounce. At one point he opts to describe something as “matariki-esque” (or matter-ricky-esk in Rod’s tongue), simultaneously mangling three languages in one fell swoop.

I really liked the app for the conference that pinged you to tell you what was going on and what was for lunch. This gave the delegates licence to look at their phone a lot which was a good thing because many talks were eye-rolling affairs.

Don’t get me wrong there were about five or so top notch talks that made it worthwhile. But mostly, the format was short, lively, “ted-talk” style presentations laden with buzz words and little else. Just imagine speakers lining up to talk about the values or purpose of their company without stacking any meat into their conversational sandwich.

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This was the kind of event that branded you with your pronouns (she/her, he/him etc) as you walked in the door, if you catch my drift.

One talk was a real stinker. Hannah Tucker at Balance Point Advisory dived head first into death cult territory. I’ll set the scene for you, in case this is the kind of thing that would make you rip up your $800 ticket.

We start by setting up a false dilemma - do we want to carry on with industrial agriculture (referred to as the “doomsday world”), accept a world of synthetic food, or collaborate with nature to build a “regenerative world”.

That’s it. Those are your only three options.

“Is there no room for inter-relying systems in the future?” I wondered. This is a strictly one-way conversation with no audience questions built into the talks, so all wondering was done silently.

Then we were on to some frighteningly misunderstood climate science. We will see a 6C lift in global temperatures “within our lifetimes”, Hannah decrees confidently alongside a map that shows vast swaths of the world becoming uninhabitable with a 4 change.

Maybe Hannah plans to live for hundreds of years to see this eventuate in her lifetime,

or maybe no one was prepared to do a basic fact check before handing over the microphone.

By the end of her short segment I was expecting her to try to sell steak knives for five easy payments of $29.99 or roll in a cauldron of cult special Kool-Aid. Later I googled Hannah to find she runs catered lunches serving jellyfish (according to Hannah’s bizarre timeline predictions this will have to be a staple in 10-20 years when the oceans heat up).

It’s a real shame that the presentation I saw did not focus on the core business of feeding strange things to rich-listers. I think I would have enjoyed an ocean to horsd'œuvre description of jellyfish cuisine.

Anyway, the doomsday talk fueled some robust lunch time discussions which I guess is the purpose of it all.

One person I spoke with was concerned about the camera operators who might not know enough about the topic to smell a rat. I think they were safe enough though, they were too busy snapping the event from every conceivable angle to be indoctrinated.

If you wanted to keep a low profile, this would not be the event for you.

Photographers absolutely everywhere. The whole event was punctuated by shutter clicks.

Would I recommend you go? Well it depends who you are.

The speakers clearly thought they were addressing farmers. That didn’t seem to be the case, which is lucky since these talks would have been about as relevant to a farm as a parliamentary press release.

The crowd was mostly rural professionals having a nice time switching off from the reports or spreadsheets awaiting them back at the office. If you want to mingle with mid-level managers and tech folk, then this might be up your alley.

Love, Aunty Thistledown.

Cali Thistledown lives on a farm where all the gates are tied together with baling twine and broken dreams. While she rarely knows what day it is, she has a rolodex of experts to call on to get the info you need. She’s Kiwi agriculture’s agony aunt. Contact our editor if you have a question for her terry.brosnahan@ nzfarmlife.co.nz

27

BUSINESS Condition scoring

MEASURING EWE BCS IS IMPORTANT As we move into full winter mode, now is a good opportunity to prioritise feed to ewes based on body condition score.

Laura McQuillanReese writes.

A

s stock go through the scanning crate, it’s a great opportunity to get a hand over the ewes and work out where things are at. Prioritising the lighterconditioned ewes to better feed supply will provide better outcomes at weaning.

The relative profitability of sheep breeding enterprises is largely determined by kilograms of lamb sold per hectare. Lambing percentage and average lamb weaning weight are two of the most important factors which determine this outcome. A key driver influencing both of these factors is the body condition score (BCS) of the ewe, and in particular, the percentage of ewes at or above a BCS score of 3.0 at mating and lambing.

Body condition scoring is an important method to measure the muscle and fat reserves of ewes. This gives us an indication of condition regardless of frame size.

In preparation for lambing, ewes should have substantial reserves available as they move into the highly demanding phase of peak lactation.

Table 1: Effect of improved individual ewe BCS at lambing from 2.0 to 3.0 Average ewe BCS at lambing

2.0

2.5

3.0

Average ewe weight

59

63

67

Set stocking rate (ewes/ha)

7.5

7.5

7.5

Lambing percentage

133%

139%

145%

Average lamb weaning weight (kg/lamb)

29.2

30.5

31.8

Total lamb weaning weight (kg LW/ha)

291

318

346

Store price ($/kg)

$3.80

$3.80

$3.80

Average lamb value at weaning ($/head)

$110.96

$115.90

$120.84

Total value of lamb weaned ($/ha)

$1,106.83

$1,208.26

$1,314.14

8%

16%

Difference

28

Throughout mating and early pregnancy, a BCS of 3.0 is ideal, aiming to be no greater than 3.5 at lambing. The benefits of measuring ewe BCS at scanning means that lighter ewes bearing multiples, can be identified and preferentially fed to minimise the risk of lamb losses. Upon identifying lighter ewes at scanning, there is an opportunity to improve ewe body condition score up to five weeks before lambing. With such a tight turnaround, ewe BCS at scanning should really be set up by good management from weaning the year before. From scanning to lambing, the goal is to protect and minimise losses of body condition score.

Ewe BCS at lambing It is expected that ewes should drop to a BCS of 2.5 by weaning. This change in BCS from lambing to weaning is an indicator of maternal success in the flock. A ewe that drops body condition score in this period is more likely to have successfully reared lambs with a higher weaning weight than one that has maintained condition throughout lactation.

Don’t cull a ewe at the end of lambing because she is just ‘a bit skinny’. These ewes will have been the mothers that grew healthy, heavier lambs because they partitioned more of their energy reserves into producing milk for the lambs, rather than storing it themselves. However feeding over winter and early lactation determines if the ewes can be put into a position to be able to do that.

Table 1 shows the improvement on breeding performance, with an average flock BCS of 2.0 vs 3.0 at lambing.

Some of the key assumptions used included: • An increase of 8kg of ewe liveweight to lift ewe BCS from 2.0 to 3.0; • About a 2% increase in reproductive potential (scanning percentage) for every kg of ewe liveweight gained between BCS 2.0 to 3.0; • A 12% increase in lambing percentage by lifting ewes from BCS of 2.0 to 3.0; • A 2.6 kg lift in lamb weaning weight by lifting ewe BCS from 2.0 to 3.0; and • Lambs were valued at weaning at a $3.80/ kg store lamb price (based on 47% of an $8/kg lamb schedule) to capture average lamb value at weaning.

Country-Wide

August 2022

Table 1 shows how improved body condition score influences the bottom line.

Achieving an average BCS of 3.0 at lambing was 16% more profitable than having ewes at an average of 2.0 at lambing. This is because ewes in better condition at lambing wean more lambs per ewe with higher weaning weights per lamb.

Ewe BCS drives productivity across all facets of the sheep breeding operation, from fecundity at tupping to the ability to provide sufficient milk supply throughout lactation.

Adopting ewe body condition scoring into the farm management toolbox improves your ability to better manage the condition of ewes in the herd and this can improve performance. This is because the information that body condition scoring gives you allows you to manage the lighter ewes in the mob, minimising tail enders.

Planning for next mating Post weaning is your best opportunity to make the greatest changes to ewe BCS. While feed is in good supply, think about the benefits that you may be able to achieve from improving 50% of the ewe flock’s BCS by one point and maintaining that throughout the course of the year.

Once weaned, ewes can be separated according to BCS. This improves the efficiency of feed utilisation and gives ewes that have put more into their lambs the best chance to recover prior to the next round of mating. Increasing BCS during the post weaning period and before mating is the best way to increase the number of lambs born, number of lambs weaned and total lamb weaned weight.

“Don’t cull a ewe at the end of lambing because she is just ‘a bit skinny’.”

Key points • BCS gives you a more accurate assessment of the ewe’s condition regardless of frame

feed for ewes that are already at an ideal BCS, improving feed use efficiency.

• Measuring at key moments such as mating, scanning, lambing and weaning gives you the best opportunity to act when it matters and make differences to flock production

• Improving uniformity in the ewe flock and aiming for a BCS of 3.0 at lambing has a direct impact on the bottom line.

• BCS enables you to isolate ewes that require priority feeding and ration

Country-Wide

August 2022

• It’s easy to learn and requires minimal extra investment in time and labour to provide good results.

Consistent body condition scoring throughout the year is a key driver for success in lamb production systems. It goes hand in hand with feed budgeting and informs better decisions for feed allocation.

The onfarm results from collecting the BCS data and subsequent feed management choices are well and truly worth the effort.

If you want to have a crack at body condition scoring yourself, there’s a number of resources to assist your training. Next time you’re in the yards, try running your hands over the ewes in the race and see if you can get a feel for the different body condition scores. Think about cover over the ewe’s hip bones and ribs, and try to identify lighter and heavier conditioned ewes.

Contacting your local vet or accessing online tools are good starting points to incorporate body condition scoring into your farm business.

• Laura McQuillan-Reese is a farm consultant with Perrin Ag in Rotorua.

29

BUSINESS Ag emissions

10%

3%

Zealand to drop its food potential and have it transferred to another country with a worse climate profile.

“We need to have more tools in the toolbox before putting too much levy on.”

The commission wanted farm sequestration which was outside the ETS not in He Waka.

Kuriger said if farmers were to be levied they should be rewarded for sequestration in the same package because methane is a cycle.

Cranston said DairyNZ made a major error by agreeing to the 10% emissions reduction target. This robbed the industry of a critical debate when it was needed.

“If the targets were properly addressed at this time it’s unlikely an agricultural emissions tax would have even eventuated.”

Both DairyNZ and Fonterra supported the 10% reduction target levels by 2030.

DairyNZ in its submission to the 2019 Zero Carbon Bill said: “We support the 2030 gross methane target of a 10% reduction below the 2017 levels.”

Government’s target

Political answer needed Agriculture’s industry groups need to lobby for a public discussion on farming’s contribution to atmospheric cooling, advocacy group Groundswell says. By Terry Brosnahan.

T

he Climate Change Commission is unlikely to review emissions targets in 2024 and the agriculture industry needs to now focus on a political solution, Groundswell says.

Environmental consultant and Groundswell emissions spokesperson Steven Cranston warned the commission would not agree to targets based on the warming effect.

“It has made it clear in communications to me there won’t be a target review.”

Cranston said industry groups need to come clean with farmers and that it now required a political solution.

It was time for industry groups to lobby the National Party and have a public discussion about how agriculture’s

30

contribution to atmospheric cooling should be treated rather than have the false assumption it would be dealt with by the commission, he said There may well be a National-led Government after next year’s election.

Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard warned earlier this year National had a track record of getting into power and continuing with Labour’s legislation.

National agriculture spokesperson Barbara Kuriger said as Government, it would look at what was fair and sensible without cutting stock numbers. Changes to He Waka and the 10% target would be allowed, but it had to be science-based.

National would support an industryled solution because it didn’t want New

DairyNZ chairman Jim van der Poel stands by the decision to accept the 10% target to get He Waka Eke Noa and the split gas approach over the line.

“These were the two key important things for us.”

Van der Poel said 10% was the Government’s target. It was always going to be put in place no matter what the dairy industry did. DairyNZ was happy to accept it on the basis it would be reviewed twice, in 2024 and 2029.

“We will continue to advocate for the latest science.”

Cranston said agreeing to the 10% as a trade-off to get the split gas approved was an extremely poor negotiating strategy.

“It does absolutely nothing without the warming-based accounting to back it up.”

Cranston has been arguing for farmers to be measured on warming effect and GWP* since 2019 because the GWP100 accounting system grossly exaggerates the impact agriculture has on the climate. However, there was little interest from levy groups to actively use and promote GWP*.

After He Waka was completed, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb NZ acknowledged the focus should be on the warming effect and say 10% is unfair, that it should be 3%.

During the He Waka process levy groups said the targets were separate and

Country-Wide

August 2022

“Failure to address the targets in 2019 is now a problem and farmers will pay for it.” should be dealt with in the reviews by the commission, the first in 2024.

Cranston said the industry groups needed to explain to farmers why they have spent two years creating an emissions pricing scheme that was not compatible with the target they claim to be advocating for.

Cranston said the commission had strict criteria for a target review. It needed new science for that to happen and the GWP* was not new.

“Failure to address the targets in 2019 is now a problem and farmers will pay for it.”

Van der Poel said at the time GWP* was not widely accepted. Country-Wide asked him if DairyNZ had it in writing, the commission will hear a review based on the warming effect and GWP*.

Van der Poel said all DairyNZ had done was look at the criteria for what the commission had to consider. How

the commission reported that, who the Government would be and what it did with it, was out of DairyNZ’s control.

Pricing mechanism Cranston said it was evident from a Zoom meeting with He Waka earlier this month the pricing mechanism would not be compatible with revised warming based targets.

If the emissions were reduced to 3%, there would be no need for He Waka. Agriculture is already on target to meet 3% without a tax. At 10%, farmers are subsidising 7% of other emitters’ emissions.

“So what is the purpose of the tax?”

Kuriger said indigenous sequestration needed to be sorted.

She said QEII blocks and riparian planting could be incorporated into He Waka even if they were small blocks.

“My daughter can measure her pasture from space now.”

All the plantings farmers have done over time could be added up by farm because they were having an effect, she said.

“Farmers should be rewarded for anything sequestering on their farms.”

There is also a question mark over funding He Waka if it did go to a 3% target.

Cranston said He Waka would have to be re-evaluated because 80% of farmers would not be taxed. There would not be the money to pay for all the sequestration they were trying to encourage.

It would need to be modelled to see how that would work, but He Waka did not appear to have done that yet, he said.

He had twice requested the modelling He Waka claims shows their scheme can operate under revised targets (3% by 2030) and was still waiting for a response.

“ With SMARTSHOT® we’ve found

that the production and health of the animals has been amazing.

They are bonny, healthy and productive sheep.

“Maria Bamford

Kingst_1826_CW_A

Hurunui Hills, North Canterbury

Registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997, Nos. A009984 and A009402. Copyright @ 2022 Virbac New Zealand Limited. All rights reserved. *Based on label claims and dosage, and supporting published literature.

Country-Wide

August 2022

smartshot.co.nz 31

BUSINESS Fertiliser

W

bang fOR YOUR buck

fert

Soaring fertiliser costs in the wake of international events is under focus for hill country farmers, Tom Ward writes.

32

ith substantial increases in fertiliser prices a certainty, particularly but not exclusively, nitrogen products, the focus needs to move on to how to best use the fertiliser spend.

The 2020-21 Beef + Lamb NZ forecast expenditure on seeds was a decline by 7.6%. Lime and fertiliser accounted for 17% of farm working expenditure. For 2021-22 (March to March), fuel prices increased 54%, and fertiliser, lime and seeds prices increased 23%.

Although hill country incomes are at very good levels, it is sobering to see the relatively small increase in profit.

B+LNZ have reported a weighted average farm profit before tax, for all classes, shown in Table 1.

The NZ/USD exchange rate from March 2021 to March 2022 moved from 71 cents down to 68c, reflecting an average US/NZ exchange rate of 69%.

Fertiliser applications have been 26 to 28kg/ha in recent years.

Between mid-2020 and May 2022 nitrogen, phosphate, potassium and sulphate fertiliser prices increased 140%, 19%, 41% and 20% respectively. Since then these fertilisers have increased respectively, 3%, 33%, 34% and 38% driven by international shortages out of Russia and China. In addition, the exchange rate, driven by the US central bank lifting interest rates, has declined to 63c, which will be good for the sector if that can be maintained.

The high cost of nitrogen suggests a greater focus on P, K and S, in order to generate more nitrogen from legumes, would be desirable. It might also be possible to reduce some NPK inputs.

Where the Olsen P level is high, phosphate fertiliser can be withheld or reduced for a few years without any negative effect on productivity. This is because the pool of available phosphate could be 10 times the amount needed to be available to the plant in any one year. Care needs to be taken that the “pool” of P is not significantly depleted leading to an expensive recovery process. Keep an eye on the most limiting nutrient.

The situation with sulphur (S) is different to phosphorus (P), and a sulphur deficiency can develop very quickly (within 12 months). Sulphur becomes Table 1: Year

Farm profit before tax

2017-18

$123,200

2018-19

$119,800

2019-20

$122,200

2020-21

$89,800 provisional

2021-22

$200,000 forecast, US$ exch rate $0.62

2021-22

$116,200 forecast, US$ exch rate $0.69

2021-22

$80,400 forecast, US$ exch rate $0.76

Country-Wide

August 2022

Table 2: Fertiliser costs - per kg nutrient

Nutrient percent

Nitrogen (N)

Urea

46

AMMO 31

30

Cropmaster DAP

18

Superphosphate

Price/ tonne ex Store#1

Freight/ tonne (100 km)

Application rate - kg/ha

Aerial spread Rate/tonne

Total cost applied/ tonne

Cost kg N applied ($)

$1367

$50

100

$200

$1617

3.52

14

$1114

$50

170

$200

$1364

4.55

20

1

$1809

$50

100

$120

$1979

10.99

9

11

$507

$50

220

$120

$677

$806

$50

220

$120

$976

Phosphate (P)

Std potassium chloride

Potassium (K)

Sulphur (S)

48

Ureammopot

26

10

10

$1189

$50

200

$120

$1359

Cost kg P applied ($)

Cost kg K applied ($)

Cost kg S applied ($)

9.74 9.90

197.90

7.52

6.15 2.03

5.23

13.59

13.59

15% potash super

8

7

9

$645

$50

250

$120

$815

10.19

11.64

9.06

15% potash sulphur S

7

8

18

$687

$50

300

$120

$857

12.24

10.71

4.76

15% sulphur super

9

15

$537

$50

220

$120

$707

7.86

#1Ex Hinds (Mid Canty) store

“If farmers are having difficulty achieving their fertiliser goals, they may have a balance sheet issue.”

Country-Wide

August 2022

4.71

$17/t store and handling

available from the soil organic matter in roughly the same proportions that is required by the plants.

However, it leaches easily in a high rainfall climate (e.g. South Island West Coast) and in a very dry climate, like the Mackenzie country, sufficient S will never become available from natural processes. So S nutrients need to be constantly added. Furthermore, the soil test for available S is very unreliable.

In the early spring, clovers will benefit from additional elemental sulphur, rather than nitrogen, as low temperatures can limit the release of soil sulphur.

Potassium (K) is different again with a relatively large proportion of the element present in the animal/ plant cycle so potentially liable to be removed each year. There is disagreement among soil scientists as to whether this element is in general decline in NZ soils.

Optimum K levels are 7-10.

Remembering that nitrogen is the most limiting element, there is no reliable test for available nitrogen in NZ soils, although we can estimate it and look for signs in the plants. Adequate N in the clovers is 4-5% and optimum legume content in pastures 30-40%.

Table 2 highlights some interesting issues.

First, urea is still the cheapest form of nitrogen (N), although not by much, especially when the value of sulphur (S) in AMMO 31 and the value of nitrogen in DAP is accounted for.

Secondly, applying maintenance fertiliser at 20kg/ ha P, 10kg/ha K, 20kg/ha S) there are two lessons.

First, 250kg/ha 15% pot super (P-K-S: 20-17.5-22.5) will cost $204/ha, whereas 250kg/ha 15% straight super with 20kg/ha potassium chloride (0-0-48-0) added (blend 22.5-10-27.5), will cost $189/ha, a 8% saving.

Another way to “skin the cat” is to apply 100kg/ ha DAP (18-20-0-0) with 20kg/ha KCL (0-0-48-0) and

100kg/ha sulphur super 20 (0-8-0-20). This gives a 1828-48-20/t blend, or 18-20-10-20/hectare. The applied cost is $288/ha, which is $10.28/kg P. However, if you apply the $189/ha in the super/KCL example in the paragraph above as the opportunity cost, the N cost is $5.50/kg.

Second, assuming a hill country pasture grows eight tonnes of drymatter/ha per year; with 75% grass, a nitrogen input of 250-300kg/ha would be required to grow this pasture. Applied as urea at $3.52c/kg N, the cost would be $1056/ha/year (300kg N/ha, 13.2c/ kg DM), compared to the $190 to $205/ha/year to maintain a grass/clover pasture (2.5c/kg DM). In addition the pasture quality, as a livestock feed, will be higher due to the clover.

Prioritising expenditure away from fertiliser to increasing lime, which has only increased by the cost of application and freight, could be considered, especially if the farm is marginal in some areas for pH. Quantifying the immediate benefits of lime is difficult, however, there are long term improvements to soil organic matter.

To optimise the use of the fertiliser spend the farmer could consider prioritising different land classes with the most fertiliser going on to the most responsive soils. Either the best soils, higher rainfall areas, or the summer country in high rainfall areas, or shady country in dryer climates. Being very clear about environmental regulations is also a help here.

Well subdivided paddocks utilise feed better.

In summary, farmers are having to react to rising costs with fertiliser being one of the biggest. Keep an eye on the most limiting NPK nutrient. Cashflow for hill country farmers is good at the moment. If farmers are having difficulty achieving their fertiliser goals, they may have a balance sheet issue.

33

BUSINESS Management

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Making good decisions In management, not every decision will be a winner, but we aim to have few that are detrimental, Kerry Dwyer writes.

IN ARTICLES ON DECISION MAKING, I have neglected to mention how time and responsibility greatly influence it. I recently read that farmers should not be afraid of failure, if they learn and improve for the future. That may be true but has to be read in context.

That good decisions lead to good outcomes is a fundamental of management.

But we know that doing the same thing at different times can lead to very different outcomes. How do we get the timing right?

Any decision making has to factor in time, and we all place different importance on that. Time has a different value to a 20-yearold than a 60-year-old. One seems to have a life of time ahead while the other starts to think they are running out of it. It is easy to finish an apprenticeship and be ready to retire. Parenting is a good example of that.

If the decision is faulty and leads to “failure” then what are the impacts on time available? Dealing with a seasonal climate and growing season, timing is often vital to success in the short time available.

For example, having a paddock ready to sow in November might give a very different result to having it ready in December, with differing impacts on management before and after that.

34

When the boss says every day counts they are probably factoring in experience and their value of time.

When shifting stock, drenching, weaning etc every day’s variance will have ongoing impact. To get it right the impact of time should be factored into the decision making process. When you are under the pump it becomes harder to make good decisions; reverting to habit or reaction is a human thing. I spend time watching local rugby, or rather local rugby referees. In a fastmoving game it is important for referees to consistently make good decisions.

The basic requirements are good information, being the best view of the game and play; and good decision making processes which use that information in a consistent manner. The management process is really no different to business but happens in real time with pressure to make accurate calls, fast.

That leads on to responsibility. When the rugby referee makes a call it impacts on the players, the game and all those watching.

When you make a business decision it will have a ripple effect across all those involved in your operation. You must factor responsibility in to your decisions.

Education always costs, either in effort,

money or time. If you have a “failure” there will be some cost, maybe you bear that cost solely, or spread it around the team.

This is not an excuse to not make decisions but who carries the can? For example, Shackleton didn’t get to the South Pole but got all his team home alive, while Scott made it but it cost the lives of his team. It is a values judgement on which gave the better outcome.

If your decision costs others effort, money or time, then you should factor that into the decision making process. For example, did you get your machinery serviced and to a fit standard? If it doesn’t work, or breaks down as a consequence of lack of maintenance, who pays?

Also, who is responsible for good or bad outcomes should be factored in. A good coach or captain might spread the love by delegating praise for success, but spreading the burden of failure can kill teamwork.

Being the boss and decision maker carries the responsibility of making good decisions.

Not every decision will be a winner, we aim to have few that are detrimental to the game.

• Kerry Dwyer is a North Otago farm consultant and farmer.

Country-Wide

August 2022

BUSINESS Conference

DON’T POINT THE FINGER AT FARMERS Farmers should not focus on the negative but sort out some red flags for the industry.

Glenys Christian reports.

N

ew Zealand agriculture does not need to be turned on its head, Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) chief executive, Dr Alison Stewart told the recent Primary Industries Summit in Auckland.

But anyone watching television and scrolling through social media would get the impression it was “totally stuffed”.

“Why doesn’t NZ like what we’re doing in agriculture at the moment?,” she asked. It went back to the 1980s when Government deregulation and reforms “threw everyone up in the air” meaning a survive-or-die choice was faced. So farmers intensified their focus and efficiency of scale and transitioned away from mixed farming. The results were silos of intensive monocultures, where “dairying bubbled up to the surface”.

That was supported by the Government, banks and research institutions and the general public was happy because it got NZ through two global financial crises and would probably mean a good recovery from Covid.

Environmentalists, who had an important role to play, had pointed out some of the inherent problems with such a system.

“I don’t have a problem with them pulling us up, but the problem is the finger is being specifically pointed at farmers,” she said.

They should not be blamed for the unintended consequences of what had happened over the last 40-50 years in the same way as no one should be blamed for catching Covid.

Reducing herd numbers and intensification were not the answer nor was cutting out synthetic inputs.

“But we may not need as many, in as many places for so many purposes. We’ve got to stop thinking black and white. We try to solve every problem with one set of policies and procedures. We can’t get our heads around the subtleties and complexities and expect everyone to

jump through the same hoops.”

She likened the situation to a doctor seeing a dairy farmer who was injured after being knocked down by a cow and concussed, a sheep and beef farmer who twisted their ankle while fencing and a kiwifruit grower who developed repetitive strain injury (RSI) counting all their money. The cure the doctor suggested was no dairy cows, the fencer should wear lead boots and all farming should be made unprofitable. An arable farmer only there as a support person was told, “Tough shit, get your lead boots on.”

Toxic binary arguments Stewart said some of what environmentalists were saying was taken on board by politicians, TV personalities on social media “and then the media blow it up”.

The result was toxic, binary arguments such as plants versus animals or declarations that the country needed to go organic or totally embrace regenerative agriculture.

Stewart said she was nervous about saying NZ was in a situation where it was hearing that it might be a good idea to frame agriculture’s future around matauranga Maori (Maori knowledge) as a unique point of difference.

She described this as a form of modern decolonialism as Maori had struggled to keep their culture going and now it didn’t seem right to “market” it by appropriation by non-Maori. If adopted NZ ran the risk of negating the value of all other contributions from different cultures which made the country into “an amorphous lump of western thinking”.

“NZ’s point of difference is that we’re not shackled by thousands of years of thinking. New ideas bubble up from within and we don’t want to lose that.”

It was already the most sustainable and diverse in the world with 50 different types of agricultural sectors.

Don’t pick winners The Government shouldn’t try to pick winners as it lacked the capability to do so. Instead it should enable successful industries to become more successful, taking on the role of sorting out trade agreements, water regulations so farmers knew what they could and couldn’t do and advanced breeding technologies.

The debate on genetic modification was 20 years ago and not revisiting it was “one of the most irresponsible things successive government have done”.

“We might have a referendum and decide no, but not to have the conversation is irresponsible.”

It was important for farmers not to focus on the negative but to sort out some red flags.

“We will do it. We’ve jumped over all the barriers in the past.”

If farmers wanted to have a go at anyone it should be those in agriculture not operating to good practice rather than those “playing classical music to their sheep”.

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BUSINESS China

Will consumers pay more?

Shanghai-based Kiwi trader Hunter McGregor challenges the assumption that Chinese consumers are willing to pay more for New Zealand grass-fed beef and lamb.

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he New Zealand Government keeps saying that our consumers around the world are looking for more environmentally friendly products and are willing to pay more for them. From a Chinese market perspective, are Chinese consumers willing to pay more for this?

The short answer is that I do not see any evidence right now that Chinese consumers are willing to pay extra for NZ products that are more environmentally friendly unless we give them a good reason.

NZ Beef and Lamb in a May 2022 Red Meat report said: "...the aspiration to buy New Zealand grass-fed beef and lamb remains strong amongst Chinese Conscious Foodies, with approximately 75% willing to pay a premium and choosing to purchase our product when they can."

This sounds like the Government is right and that the Chinese Conscious Foodies are willing to pay a premium.

But the challenge is that apparently, this is already happening in the Chinese market for NZ meat products.

So the real question is, are they willing to pay even higher prices?

“Chinese consumers place higher importance on sustainability than their United States and European counterparts. But this willingness doesn't translate into paying more for green credentials.”

Many Chinese consumer studies say people in China do want to live more sustainably. According to a survey from PWC in 2021, 72% of Chinese respondents buy from companies that are conscious and supportive of protecting the environment.

This all sounds great, but as Chinese economic pessimism and inflation increases, the willingness to spend on sustainable brands decreases. In a study by financial advisory firm, Stifel Financial, in April, Chinese consumers place higher importance on sustainability than their United States and European counterparts. But this willingness doesn't translate into paying more for green credentials.

Just 18% of Chinese consumers say they would pay over 10% more for green brands, compared to 26% of US consumers, 23% of Brits and 28% of Germans.

Where does this leave NZ products with the pending higher cost of production via the new Government rules?

I just don't see how in the short term Chinese consumers (or even the Chinese Conscious Foodies) will be willing to pay significantly or slightly more for anything. Especially with higher than normal inflation and plenty of uncertainty in the Covid climate.

If we dig a bit deeper into the NZ Beef and Lamb's

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research about the point of "75% are willing to pay a premium". This sounds good but I have never seen NZ beef sold at a "premium" in China.

NZ grass-fed beef is usually sold at a discount compared to grain-fed beef, and there are no strong or high-profile NZ beef brands in China. I could give lots of examples in wholesale, restaurant and retail. So there are plenty of opportunities and upsides if any of these Chinese Conscious Foodies were to move to grass-fed beef.

NZ lamb is a different story. For example, NZ lamb racks usually retail in China anywhere from $NZ80 to $120/kg.

This is premium pricing which means at least one cut is in line with NZ Beef + Lamb's research.

It is great to see NZ lamb racks about this price point but how much more do you think Chinese consumers will be willing to pay? The important question is if NZ racks did move to $150/kg because of the consumer demand for low environmental impact meat, maybe that could happen! How much of this increase will be returned behind the farm gate? I think we all know the answer is very little.

The reality is changes the NZ Government are bringing in are most likely in the short term about maintaining market access, then consumer demand. Maintaining market access is a very fair and valid point, but it is not what the NZ Government is talking about.

Maybe over time, there might be a large enough segment of Chinese consumers who will care enough about the environmental impact of the products they consume. Potentially they might be prepared to pay extra for this. Maybe that is the key word.

The only products I am aware of that are trying to leverage their "environmental credentials" and are also sold at premiums are plant-based products, meat and milk. Their pricing is higher than the meat or milk they are trying to replicate. Apparently highly processed food made from plants is the future. But for some consumers of these products, their environmental impact, perceived or otherwise, is a big driver in their purchase decision.

There is a small market for these types of products and they claim to be good for the environment and healthy for you. I am not convinced they do either. On a positive note, there are plenty of NZ food products that do both of these points very well. The challenge is going to be that even with robust science to back up claims of both environmental and health benefits, will this command a larger premium on top of current pricing.

It is yet to be seen if this will happen. One thing is for sure. Chinese consumers will continue to change and some will demand improvements to the environmental impacts of the products they consume. Will they be prepared to pay for these changes? Your guess is as good as mine. I think if we give them enough good reasons, we might be in with a chance.

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BUSINESS Inflation

Maybe this is not what you want to hear, but you need to hear it, writes Dennis Wesselbaum.

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nflation has now returned to New Zealand for about one year. The unlucky numbers are: 3.3, 4.9, 5.9, 6.9, which are the last four quarterly inflation rates. The return of inflation has triggered lively exchanges between the Government and the opposition and a lot of bad reporting in the news media.

A central point has been the discussion about what drives inflation: global factors or government spending? Maybe supermarkets?

Putin? Statements by National and Act put fiscal policy in the hot seat, while Labour argues it is all about global factors, which are beyond their control. Watching TV news, you might think it is entirely driven by supermarkets.

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The Adrian Orr-led Monetary Policy Committee of the Reserve Bank of New Zealand concluded the key drivers of inflation are: (i) strong global economic activity, (ii) supply disruptions, and (iii) the Ukraine War. This is surprisingly in line with what Finance Minister Grant Robertson argues: global factors.

When you look into the data you see that these arguments miss the key point.

Yes, supply chains are adding to inflationary pressures; however, these have been easing (but could easily increase depending on China’s Covid policy). For example, the Freightos Global Container Index (FBX) has decreased since its peak in September 2021 by about 20%. The Ukraine War has only temporarily

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increased commodity prices and, according to the Hamburg Institute of International Economics’ HWWI commodity price index, prices are trending down. Further, recall that inflation started to increase way before the Ukraine War started.

What then, is the main driver of inflation?

In early 2020, Covid started to spread and the Government decided to put NZ into a lockdown for almost two months, with more lockdowns to follow, especially for Auckland. At the same time, it seems many believed that Covid and the public health measures would cause a substantial fall in aggregate demand.

“..THE RBNZ HAS LOST CREDIBILITY AND ECONOMIC EXPERTISE UNDER GOVERNOR ORR, WHICH POSES A MAJOR THREAT TO THE FUNCTIONING OF MONETARY POLICY AND MACROECONOMIC STABILITY.” In response, the Government started to increase spending. The average annual growth rate of Government final consumption expenditures between 2020 and 2021 was 11.5%. In comparison, from 2010 to 2019, it was 4.6%. According to OECD data, government consumption increased from $4.6 billion in 2019 to $6.9b in 2020 and $9.2b in 2021.

This was mainly financed using the RBNZ’s balance sheet, which roughly tripled since 2019. Broad money (the amount of money in an economy) increased by about 21% since January 2020. The main driver was the Large-Scale Asset Purchase (LSAP) programme.

LSAP bought New Zealand Government bonds on the secondary market, which, essentially, is fiscal financing by the central bank. It started in March 2020 and stands at about $53b.

What does research tell us about the effects of fiscal policy? Robust lessons are that fiscal policy has larger effects in a recession, that it has larger effects when

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interest rates are close to zero, and it creates inflation with a delay of about one year.

When did the Government start to spend? During the June 2020 quarter, when the OCR was 0.25% and GDP fell temporarily by about 10%. When did inflation start to increase? During the June 2021 quarter: about one year later.

The large, persistent fall in aggregate demand did not materialise. From a purely macroeconomic perspective, Covid and the public health measures caused a large, negative supply-side shock. Supply goes down and demand goes up. What happens?

Prices go up.

Chris Luxon and David Seymour have it exactly right when they say that wasteful Government spending contributed to inflation. I think the Government overspent over the last couple of years (especially in 2021 and 2022) and, in particular, spent wastefully rather than in productivity-enhancing activities.

Further, the proposed “Grocery Commissioner” is nothing but a futile attempt by Labour to put blame on a scapegoat: the supermarkets. Inflation is not related to supermarkets.

Yes, the low competition in the supermarket sector in NZ will have an effect on the level of prices (relative, for example, to Australia) but it will not affect the change of prices (i.e. inflation). In fact, the policies discussed by the Government could actually lead to more cooperation between the current supermarket companies to engage what economists call “entry deterrence” (i.e. work together to prevent someone from entering the market).

Here is what you should be really worried about: First, the unwillingness of the Wellington elite to accept that fiscal policy adds to inflation and, therefore, continued wasteful spending. Second, that inflation expectations become unanchored: household’s one-year, five-year inflation expectations are already at 7, 3% respectively.

Monetary policy is all about keeping expectations stable (at about 2%). To do so, the central bank needs to make good policy decisions, needs to be credible, and clearly communicate with the public.

Unfortunately, in my opinion, the RBNZ has lost credibility and economic expertise under Governor Orr, which poses a major threat to the functioning of monetary policy and macroeconomic stability.

• Dr Dennis Wesselbaum is a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Otago.

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SCIENCE Petrochemicals

Pine trees and petroleum Pine trees are the source of much debate in the New Zealand rural sector but they have the potential to supplant the oil industry. By Nicola Dennis.

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etroleum (a.k.a. crude oil) comes from plants and organisms that died millions of years ago. It is used to create a dizzying array of products. Fuels, solvents, plastics, fabrics, electronics and even food additives call petroleum their daddy.

This month, I sat down with the NZ Bio Forestry company employees to hear about their plans to cut out the million-year middleman when it comes to turning trees into these products.

“Give us enough time and we will be able to make everything that is currently petroleum based out of pine trees,” Kai Hsuan Lin says. He’s beaming in from his home in Taiwan to explain the chemistry to me, along with Wayne Mulligan in New Zealand and Dr Yin Fah Kam in Singapore.

The biographies of these people are nothing short of intimidating - these are very serious businessmen and scientists. But they ask me to call them Wayne, Kai and YF which is the first clue that I am dealing with a Kiwi business. The second clue is the extensive discussion of the Maori values that drive the business.

This is a global Maori business that is out to achieve very big things. We will get to that in a moment, but first we need to burn through some background information.

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The history of petroleum Petroleum has been used in its raw form since ancient times, but it wasn’t until the mid-1800s when it started being refined into more sophisticated products, most notably kerosene for lamps.

In today’s language kerosene lamps were the new and improved ethical option for the Victorian-era consumer.

No longer would they need to burden themselves with the guilt of the whaling industry to secure their lighting needs. However, historical advertisements suggest that the main selling points of the new “coal oil” lamps were how many “candle’s worth” of “smokeless” light they produced.

It took a long time and a lot of development for petroleum-based products to become the cheapest option.

Especially in New Zealand, which was still ripping whales out of the sea until 1964.

I’m telling you all this because we need to remember that developments take time to get cheap enough to compete with their predecessors. When it comes to making petrochemicals from pine trees, it is the business development, rather than the science, that is the main issue.

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Turning pine trees into petrochemicals Wood has three main components. There is the cellulose and hemicellulose which are types of complex sugars/carbohydrates and there is the lignin which is a polymer that holds it all together.

You might better recognise cellulose as paper or cellophane. Rayon/viscose fabric is also made from cellulose. So, the idea of turning wood (or more specifically waste wood such as sawdust) into shiny things is not that new.

In many cases, it’s not that complicated. I found a science paper (Xia et al. 2021) that listed a threestage recipe for wood-derived plastic. (See right).

“This is not new technology,” explains Wayne, “but it will be new to NZ.” NZ Bio Forestry are planning on a slightly more technical route for the new NZ wood refining industry.

They are planning to break the waste wood into its sugar components and then ferment that sugar into chemicals and materials. It will be the same methods that other countries use to make corn and beet into bioethanol and other biochemicals.

NZ Bio Forestry has validated the process on 42 tonnes of pinus radiata in Malaysia and Taiwan and are getting ready to scale the process up.

The great New Zealand pine problem To outsiders, the fuss about pine trees seems trivial.

After all, who doesn’t love trees? Especially now we know about the extra talents our leafy friends have been hiding from us. Despite the wood enthusiasm going on above, I think the crew at NZ Bio Forestry would find a lot of common ground with the belaboured sheep farmers being squeezed out by pines.

Both recognise NZ has a pine problem. Kiwis are world leaders in producing pinus radiata. The temperate climate of our disease-free piece of paradise suits Pinus Radiata (which, like the brushtail possum, is a threatened species in its homeland).

Plus, NZ has put the hard yards into breeding good pine genetics. But we fall short when it comes to making products with pine.

Most of the harvested pine (60%) leaves the country as logs bound for China or South Korea.

Why blanket the land with pines just to ride the boom-and-bust cycle of the Asian commodity log market? Why not put a little more thought into things and get more value out of fewer pines?

How about switching it up so that the pine tree is not simply appeasing the guilt of the fossil fuel industry via carbon credits, but creating sustainable alternatives to their products?

Wayne asserts that to change the value of the NZ forestry estate and to create greater benefits for NZers, it is critical to change to higher valued markets. The markets NZ Bio Forestry are targeting are high value decorative wood engineered products,

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Three-stage recipe for wood-derived plastic Step 1: Treat the sawdust with a biodegradable solvent to dissolve the lignin and break up the cellulose.

Step 2: Separate the hemicellulose (who isn’t invited to this party) from the lignin and cellulose with some water.

Step 3: Evaporate the water and mould your cellulose-lignin slurry into your desired shape. Voila! You have a piece of black plastic.

Step 4 (optional): Bury your piece of plastic in the ground and watch the microorganisms compost it.

biochemicals and biomaterials. All individually valued much higher than carting whole logs out of the country.

NZ Bio Forestry says making the switch will strengthen rural communities and increase the pool of money available for further investment in research and innovation.

The company’s strategy The Tri-national team at NZ Bio Forestry is planning on producing high-end wood products. Decorative plywood is part of the plan, but also wood engineering. If you want a nice rabbit hole to go down, google “programmable wood” or “4D printed wood”. The shortest explanation I can offer is that it is wood that is engineered to bend and fold itself.

Think self-assembling flat pack furniture and the like.

The waste wood left over will be turned into “green chemicals”. The first cab off the rank is the solvent used to etch semiconductors (the tiny microchips that are ubiquitous in modern electrical goods).

Japan and Germany have cornered the market with a petrochemical-derived product, but an identical product can be made using NZ pine tree waste. NZ has the rare advantage of being both a strong supply of underutilised trees and having a good reputation for calling a spade a spade.

If the NZ authorities say that product is a biodegradable solvent made from pine trees,

People of the land, unite!

It would be remiss of me not to mention the Maori values that underpin this business because it is clearly a big part of what makes NZ Bio Forestry tick. If these three words are unfamiliar to you, I think the concepts will resonate with most farmers.

There is Tikanga, which is an intergenerational principle of doing what is right. In this context, it is balancing what is right for the planet and what is right for the people.

Kotahitanga is unity in the community. Here this means

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“

Why blanket the land with pines just to ride the boom-andbust cycle of the Asian commodity log market? Why not put a little more thought into things and get more value out of fewer pines?

”

customers can rest easy knowing they aren’t being duped. Also, as opposed to many other places, NZ has some room to move when it comes to manufacturing space and electricity use, given that barely any manufacturing takes place here.

In time, other products can be added into the mix depending on which companies want to collaborate.

For example, plastic extrusion equipment is relatively inexpensive ($100k to $200k in capital costs), local producers may wish to buy them to make packaging or consumables from the local pine-derived plastic. During our meeting YF pitched the idea of biodegradable plastic toys. As a mother who stands on Lego on a daily basis, the idea of burying toys in the garden holds some appeal.

Where to from here?

The next step is a large ($3-5 billion over more than a decade) capital raise. Wayne says there is some $50 trillion of Green Investment and ESG

working in unison with the forestry industry, the governments, and international companies that want to remove themselves from petroleumbased products. It’s teaming up for a better solution from NZ for the rest of the world to use.

Mauri is the vital essence or special nature of a being or object. In this

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case it means respecting the pine tree by using everything and leaving no waste.

I think many rural people will find themselves nodding along to the beat of that drum. Taking care of the land and the community and not wasting natural resources. Sounds pretty similar to the goals of farming.

(Environmental Social and Governance) funds that can be attracted to create new precision wood manufacturing and bio-refining in NZ. Also, there are many global companies seeking alternatives to traditionally petroleum-based products, be they packaging, carbon fibre, energy, or biofuels.

The plan is to start the construction of the first commercial plant. This prototype is now planned for Taiwan because legal processes and bureaucracy is holding things up in NZ. It has been years of legal stuff just to try to rezone some land in Marton from “rural” to “industrial” so they can build a biofacility.

But this is where the strength of the other nations comes into play. Taiwan is strong in innovation and new product development. It is a good place to get prototypes up and running in the highvalue electronics and material markets. Meanwhile, Singapore is an excellent place to raise funds, conduct research and work through intellectual property protection.

Once that is done, the plan is to licence modular and scalable wood processing plants, both wood engineering and bio-refining here in NZ. They believe there could be up to 12 facilities located throughout the country turning pine into the highvalue products.

The business model is to be a technology platform assisting NZ and global companies that want to get the most out of pine trees and secure their supply of non-fossil products, rather than NZ Bio Forestry operating the facilities themselves. The Netflix of pine, so to speak. Therefore, they will be looking for local collaborators.

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LIVESTOCK Onfarm

Vertical integration pays dividends Over five generations the Tylee family has bought blocks of farmland in Northern Wairarapa. These blocks are the cornerstone of a successful vertically integrated livestock business. By Russell Priest. Photos by Brad Hanson.

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N SPITE OF FARMING ADJACENT TO ONE OF the more notable trout-fishing rivers in the eastern North Island, Lochy Tylee (58) and his son Tom (31) manage to stay focused on what they love doing, farming sheep and cattle.

They are running 16,360su on four farms between the Puketoi Ranges and Mangatainoka, an effective area of 1700ha. They traditionally employed a casual, general person who works across all farms as well as young shepherds who unfortunately tend to be quite mobile.

A head shepherd was due to arrive in June with his young family.

“We’ve now employed someone who we hope will be more permanent,” Lochy says.

The blocks complement one another in contour, temperature and rainfall and proximity to amenities. The Puketoi Range blocks Appin (537ha) and Te Rata (454ha) are higher, steeper and colder, ranging from 300 to 780m asl. They are used primarily for breeding flock replacements and store lambs.The flat/easier contour blocks closer to Mangatainoka, Waima, 434ha (80ha flat) and Kohinui, 300ha, (200ha flat) are used mostly for finishing lambs and steers.

Stock movement between the blocks is always from the hills to Waima and Kohinui.

About 1100, five-year-old ewes from Appin and Te Rata are trucked down to the easier country on Waima where they are mated to Suffolk rams from Gilbert Timms on March 3.

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About 1000 B-flock ewes are run on Waima’s higher and steeper country which includes about 500 cull ewe hoggets.

The hoggets are moved to Waima in mid-winter and mated the following year as two-tooths to Suffolk-Cheviot cross rams on April 1 along with the other B-flock ewes.

The early lambing ewes usually lamb 125% on Waima and Kohinui.

Most of the terminal lambs off Waima and Kohinui are killed by the end of April at an average of 19kg ($155). About 20% of these are killed off mum at 16-17.5kg. The Romney cryptorchid and cull ewe lambs from the hill blocks are killed off the finishing blocks at 21-22kg ($175) on winter contracts mainly with Anzco but a few with Atkins Ranch.

After weaning in mid-January and shearing in late January/early February the Romney cryptorchids on the hill blocks are set stocked (often in weight-range mobs) on the easier hill country and progressively trucked down to the finishing country on Waima and Kohinui.

“If it’s dry on the finishing blocks we tend to leave the trading lambs on the hills until conditions improve,” Lochy says.

Being able to finish all the stock bred on the hills adds significant value to the business but also makes it independent of the store market.

Lochy says they are usually about $70/head better off by finishing their cull ewe lambs rather than selling store.

They cannot winter enough stock to control the explosive spring growth on the hill blocks. So the Tylees through their

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Above: Aerial view of Appin which is 537ha and one of two blocks in the Puketoi Range. Below: Cheviot rams for hogget mating.

stock agent David Wright) buy 450 twoyear old mainly Angus steers (430-500kg LW) between August and Christmas. A quarantine drench greets them on arrival.

The steers are set stocked lightly during early winter among the rotating ewes to clean up remaining roughage. The R3 steers are trucked down to Kohinui in August after receiving an abemectin drench, to be breakfed on 40-50ha rape supplemented with balage for six weeks before being set stocked onto pasture previously occupied by winter trade lambs. Progressively killed from November to May as part of the AngusPure programme, the average carcaseweight is close to 400kg and a $600-$800 margin.

Breeding cows were dropped because they needed too much feed even for an October calving so reduced sheep numbers.

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i FARM FACTS Makuri/ Mangatainoka, Tararua district.

Owners - Tylee family.

Farming 1725ha (1700ha effective), 16,360 stock units.

Four separate complementary blocks.

Sheep breeding/ finishing and cattle finishing.

Sheep-to-cattle ratio 80:20.

KEY POINTS Terminal lambs killed by the end of April, average 19kg and $155.

Romney cryptorchid, cull ewe lambs 21 – 22kg ($175).

Winter contracts Anzco, a few with Atkins Ranch.

About $70/head better off finishing cull ewe lambs.

Gross farm inome $1100/ha. Net farm income $572/ha.

Farm costs 48% of GFI.

Also too many age groups also complicated management.

Lochy says with steers there are at most only two age groups and often only one.

Makuri is a small settlement at the western base of the Puketoi Ranges, 30km southeast of Pahiatua in the Tararua District.

Consisting mainly of limestone these ranges are significantly older than the Ruahines and Tararuas having once been the geographical boundary between the east and west coasts of the North Island.

Wind and snow The area is renowned for its strong, cold south-easterly winds bringing with them on average three falls of snow a year.

“The wind is so strong on occasions we’re forced to crawl down ridges to avoid being

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blown over,” Tom says.

They had to pick moments to open gates.

Good coloured wool is one of the few bonuses in this windy environment although generating electricity could be another. Mercury Energy has applied for a consent to build a wind farm in the Puketois. When the wind is not blowing the higher reaches of the farm are often shrouded in mist.

The annual rainfall is about 1500mm.

Springs on some of the highest points on Appin provide a plentiful supply of stock water via troughs using three gravity-fed water schemes. Any gorges on the farms likely to be a danger to stock have been fenced off and allowed to regenerate.

All the blocks’ soils are sedimentary-based.

Waima has flats next to the Makuri River.

Limestone forms the predominant sediment on the hill blocks above Makuri.

Soil tests on Appin show Olsen Ps at 16-18, pHs at 5.6-5.7 and low levels of sulphur.

Sulphate sulphur is readily leached out of the plants’ root zone if applied in the autumn so to counter this elemental sulphur blended with super (250kg/ha sulphur super) is applied in the late summer.

Soil fertility on the development block (Te Rata) is low.

Survival lamb improved Until six years ago Perendale composite ewes were run on the hill blocks. Crossed with Ross Humphrey’s thick-skinned Romney rams to improve lamb survival the ewe flock now numbers 5200.

“I think they have better survivability

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than the composites,” Tom said.

With significant variation in climatic differences on the hill blocks due to altitude and aspect it is not surprising lambing dates vary.

The four-year ewes are mated on April 1 on the lower country on Te Rata.

“One year they docked 145% however the following year after 10 days of continuous rain they docked just 98%,” Lochy said.

Hogget lambing also takes place on Te Rata with Gilbert Timms’ Cheviot rams going out on May 10 at 1:50 for two cycles.

Gradual culling of 3500 ewe lambs over the summer reduces numbers to 2100 of which 400-500 (dry hoggets) go into the B flock on Waima. The cut-off weight for ewe hogget mating is 38kg with teasers being used to stimulate reproductive activity.

Normally hoggets produce about 1000 lambs.

“Cheviot rams leave small, vigorous lambs at birth which all become trading lambs,” Lochy said.

Across the road on Appin’s lower country

“We use set stocking as an ease-of-management tool to take a bit of pressure off man and beast because we get sick of rotational grazing.”

Above: R3 steer: The average carcaseweight is close to 400kg and a $600$800 margin. Below: Lunchtime in the old homestead for Lochy and Tom.

the six-tooths are mated on April 10 while on the higher country the two-tooths and four-tooths see the rams on April 20.

Rams are out for 2.5 cycles with the lambing percentage normally in the 125130 range. Scanning identifies the single, multiple-bearing and dry ewes which are culled.

Winter rotations generally involve mobs of 500-1000 with some rotation lengths being quite short. Rotations are continued for as long as possible before the ewes are set stocked. Paddock size is 5-20ha.

“No matter how much grass we take into the winter we generally run out sometime in July, particularly at higher altitude where the grass just stops growing because the ground gets too cold,” Lochy said.

To help alleviate this shortage 100kg/ha (21kg N/ha) of ASN Cold Start is applied in the spring. Following an extremely dry summer last year it was also applied (after

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Easier country on Appin which ranges from 300 to 780m asl.

the autumn rains arrived) to build winter feed reserves.

At lower altitudes where the hoggets are run the grass keeps growing throughout the winter.

Single bearing ewes are set stocked for lambing on the higher, steeper country at 9/ ha while ewes with multiples are lambed on the easier, warmer country at 6/ha. Ewes are not shepherded at lambing.

A pre-Christmas muster of ewes and lambs results in a tape drench for the lambs and jetting of the ewes and lambs to prevent fly strike.

After weaning both ewes and their Romney lambs are set stocked with the latter being drenched and divided into sex mobs. The drenching interval for lambs is 28 days ending with an exit drench at the end of June.

“We use set stocking as an ease-ofmanagement tool to take a bit of pressure

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off man and beast because we get sick of rotational grazing,” Tom says.

Ewe shearing occurs immediately after the lambs are shorn with lower conditioned ewes being drafted off, drenched and given preferential treatment. A similar procedure is carried out at the end of tupping and prelambing when all ewes are also vaccinated with Nilvax.

The Tylees pay $1200 for their Romney rams and go for a more compact type, focusing on the maternal index and placing particular emphasis on the number of lambs born breeding value.

“We used to buy the biggest rams we could however we don’t want our ewes to get too big hence the change to a more moderate type,” Lochy said.

Porina are an annual threat to winter feed reserves so are treated with a growth regulator (Dimlin). Grub size (optimum 10mm) is monitored to determine the

ideal time to spray.

“One year we missed spraying and we had to send half our hoggets away grazing while the ewes really struggled,” Lochy said.

Agritone at 0.5 litres/ha to kill thistles is added to the porina spray.

Woolless being considered The Tylees are becoming increasingly disillusioned with growing wool, last year’s prices being $2.06/kg for a ewe and $2.11/ lamb.

“I remember when I started farming 40 years ago we were getting between $5.00 and $5.50/kg,” Lochy said.

To ensure sheep farming continues to be sustainable for future generations no-wool farming is being considered.

“The work and expenses involved in growing wool are massive so we’re seriously looking at switching to Wiltshires which appear to tick a lot of boxes for us.”

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LIVESTOCK Parasites

On the plus side: •

•

•

•

Long-acting pre-lamb drench peril Wormwise programme manager Ginny Dodunski cautions against the blanket use of long-acting drench products as a pre-lamb treatment.

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W

here there is a flock-wide response to these products (capsules and longacting injections), there is likely to be a problem at a farm system level, she says.

There is little or no productive benefit in providing long-acting worm protection where ewes lamb in optimal body condition (BCS 3-3.5) on to feed where the pasture growth rate, length and quality of the forage doesn’t limit their daily intake (bare minimum 1200kg drymatter (DM)/ha 3.5cm grass height but 1400kgDM/ha is better).

The further a flock is from these ideals at lambing time, the more likely there is to be a positive response in ewe and lamb weaning weights to a long-acting pre-lamb treatment.

A project run in the Wairarapa in 2011 and 2012 set out to measure production and financial responses to long-acting pre-lamb treatments on commercial farms highlighted the pitfalls associated with these products.

The project was led by AgResearch and Baker & Associates, with 14 separate onfarm trials conducted over the two years. This was followed by five similar studies on commercial farms in other parts of the country.

Dodunski says all these studies have provided broadly similar outcomes.

Long-acting (LA) treated ewes weaned heavier (average about 3kg). Thin ewes did not respond differently to better conditioned ewes - but they still gained weight, which is important for a thin ewe at lambing time.

About half of this benefit was carried through to the next tupping. This indicates a period where LA treated ewes did not gain weight as fast as the untreated ewes. Previous work has shown a temporary slackening in parasite immunity after LA treatments have run out; the above finding is likely a reflection of this. One BCS in today’s ewes is typically between 6 and 8kg LW, so this is less than a quarter of a BCS advantage by tupping.

Individual lamb weaning weight was better in LA treated ewes’ lambs, (average 1.5kg) and importantly, in 8 of the 14 Wairarapa trials the observed increase in individual lamb weaning weight was not statistically significant.

Capsule treated ewes were cleaner (less daggy) than untreated ewes.

However, at farm system level: •

•

•

•

LA treatment did not improve the weight of lamb weaned per ewe. This ranged from -5.2 to +15.6kg in the Wairarapa. This was driven by big differences in ewe and lamb survival between mobs not related to LA treatment. In nine of the 14 Wairarapa trials the treated ewes reared fewer lambs than the untreated ones.

Some of the improved weaning weight of treated ewes is attributable to the fact that they reared fewer lambs. This was the same for the improved individual lamb weaning weight.

On some of the Wairarapa farms 25-30% of the capsule response was attributable to the minerals in the product (B12 and Selenium; an educated guess would say given the location it would more likely be a Se response) Concurrent ’mectin and white drench resistance was evident on a number of the farms with as many as 50% of the treated ewes having positive egg counts throughout the capsule pay-out period;.

Using pure cultures, Ostertagia was grown from these. In a two-year monitoring project of LA treated ewes in 2016 and

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2017, Vet Services Hawkes Bay found that 80% of farms surveyed had egglaying worms in their treated sheep.

“Given the reports of combination drench resistance coming from most parts of NZ today, if we repeated these surveys now, what would we find?”

Dodunski says at the time the Wairarapa study findings were first reported, she had conversations with a range of people involved, and their comments were all similar.

The farms where there was no (or a very low) response to the LA treatments were those with a long-term history of a high performing, stable ewe flock with good feed levels and high level of management skill.

Paraphrasing one of the trial participants, she says there is no silver bullet as opposed to well-fed animals.

While removing worm larval challenge will always result in less dags, she questions the value of that compared to improved ewe and lamb weaning weights.

About 30 ram breeders are actively putting dag score data into SIL and selecting against this trait.

“Have a chat to one of them, or suggest your ram breeder does the same. So many management decisions with sheep are the consequence of dags – could we deal with this another way?”

“Given the reports of combination drench resistance...if we repeated these surveys now, what would we find?”

As a general rule, ewes should not need drenching, but there are circumstances when drenching ewes may bring production or animal health and welfare benefits, Dodunski says.

Thin, multiple-bearing ewes lambing on to short pasture fit this definition at prelamb time, but if this is an annual issue, she says it should be addressed at the farm system level.

“Blanket drenching of all ewes should be avoided.”

She recommends running untreated ewes and treated ewes together. This provides the offspring of ‘unselected’ worms with the opportunity to breed with the likely resistant offspring being shed by the treated ewes. This is refugia.

Factors which could influence the need to drench should include ewe condition, feed availability and ewes carrying multiple lambs.

If farmers see big responses to long-acting pre-lamb products, it's likely an honest assessment of ewe body condition and feeding are in order.

Farmers should plan to close the gap for next year.

“That plan starts straight after weaning this summer and may take more than one year to bed in.”

She says to get help as it is a grind and requires discipline around body condition and feed management.

Two-tooth ewes have been shown to be more susceptible to parasitism during lactation. These should be monitored separately and farmers need to be prepared to act quickly in the face of a challenge.

Building a strong case for not blanket prelamb drenching, Dodunski says pre-lamb drenching of ewes has produced variable production responses in published trial work.

• Supplied by Wormwise.

Ginny Dodunski has recently been appointed Wormwise programme manager. She has 20-plus years of experience working in clinical vet practice, farm extension, analysis and trial work.

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51

LIVESTOCK Onfarm

CANCELLING THE COST CREEP Keeping it simple is paying off for the Bartons in West Otago, Lynda Gray reports. Photos by Chris Sullivan.

T

wo-time West Otago two-tooth competition winners Sam and Liz Barton are driving production to cancel out cost creep.

“Most of our costs are fixed and to cut any would potentially mean that our production and profit would take a hit so we’re concentrating on output,” Sam says.

Their production focus and a keep it simple stupid (KISS) management philosophy appears to be paying off judging by their key performance indicators.

Sam is quick to point out that the almost $30 gross farm income per stock unit and $220 EBITDR/ha improvement over the last five years is reflective of the 20% increase in lamb prices. But over the same time the Bartons have managed to further push production through breeding and feeding changes which have transpired to an increase in lambing performance, and reduction in lamb wastage and the average time to slaughter.

They first won the two tooth competition in 2019.

Although proud of their success they told Country-Wide (May 2019) there was a lot of unfinished business and scope to further improve sheep flock performance.

Reducing lamb wastage from scanning to weaning was high on the list and they’ve managed to knock that back from 18% to 16% by tightening up body condition score (BCS) targets and treating potential iodine deficiency with a Flexidine injection.

The Bartons had always condition scored ewes at weaning and preferentially fed the lighter ones in the lead up to mating. However, in 2019 they raised the BCS cut-off for preferential feeding which has resulted in better

52

condition ewes at mating and a higher rate of conception.

“We’re comfortable with wastage at 16% but whether that’s sustainable I’m not sure because it’s largely dependent on the weather at lambing. We don’t want to fall below 140% lambing (survival to sale) and over the last six years we have averaged 144%, ranging from 141 to 151%.”

On the feeding front, the introduction of Cleancrop leafy turnip last year for finishing lambs has been a significant production boosting move.

There were two main drivers for growing it: the washout of spring cultivated established permanent pasture two times over the past five years, and Intensive Winter Grazing regulation (subsequently amended) requiring new crops to be in the ground by October 1.

The crop is direct drilled into eaten out crop paddocks

by October 20 and at the end of March is cultivated and sown in permanent pasture for lambing in spring.

Last season Perendale crypts got three grazings, and the top tier achieved live weight growth of 583 grams per day – about twice as much as what was possible on pasture.

The crop cost $14,500 to establish ($675/ha) so from a strictly cost-benefit analysis it doesn’t add up. But Sam says it stacks up well from an overall system perspective.

“It gives us feed security for dry years as well as the opportunity to add extra weight to other classes of livestock on the pasture that would otherwise be grazed by lambs. It’s also pushing feed forward until the end of April and therefore reducing the need for nitrogen on pasture.”

Although the Bartons are taking an increased output

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The Barton’s prize-winning sheep.

i FARM FACTS Sam and Liz Barton, Wilden, West Otago.

4500 (8.9su/ha) sheep and cattle breeding/ finishing on 553ha (510ha effective) rolling hill country ranging from 458-736 metres above sea level.

Sheep (Romdale) 2380 MA ewes, 820 two-tooths, 900 ewe lamb replacements.

Cattle (Angus-cross) 75 breeding cows.

The Bartons are equity partners with Jenny and Phil McGimpsey in Montana Pastoral Ltd.

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approach to help cancel out the effect of cost creep, they’re also minimising unnecessary expense where possible. The direct drilling of crops to save on tractor hours is one example; a more strategic approach to nitrogen application is another.

“It gives us feed security for dry years as well as the opportunity to add extra weight to other classes of livestock on the pasture that would otherwise be grazed by lambs.”

“We tend to view nitrogen as an ‘ambulance at the bottom of the cliff’ type action, but at the same time know it helps establish crops, especially those that are direct drilled.”

They used to apply 180kg/ha DAP across the farm in mid-March, for maintenance and to boost pre-winter covers, but that’s

not needed with the introduction of the leafy turnip which has reduced the grazing pressure on the wider system, pushing pasture covers till the end of autumn. Also, the Bartons were keen to move away from DAP due to the negative effect on pH. Now 300kg/ha of Superplus along with potassium and selenium prills are applied in January. Although the change isn’t saving any money, the deferred payment until March is a help. Another advantage is safer ground conditions on the steeper hill country for bulky application in summer.

The Bartons are also keeping an eye on shearing expenses, given the May announcement of the 7% increase in shearing costs for crossbred sheep, although they believe the increase is justified. They’ve skipped the increase in the meantime by shearing all the ewes before July 1. The ewes are belly crutched in the autumn, and shorn pre-lamb. Only the replacement ewe lambs are shorn.

“We believe that with the high quality

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genetics we’re using and the high ME feed it’s not necessary to shear the terminal lambs to increase growth rate.”

In another move to contain farm expenses all the herbicides needed for the 2023 growing season have been bought in advance. Also bought and in storage are pipe, fittings, tanks and troughs for water scheme developments across the farm.

On the breeding side, Perendales replaced Romney as the preferred maternal sires in 2020. The Bartons shopped locally from Richard and Kerry France of Hazeldale whose rams meet the physical and genetic checklist.

“Given that they’re relatively close neighbours, I felt there was a good chance that their genetics would transfer successfully, and it’s proved to be the case.”

As well as being in the top 20% for SIL maternal, survivability and growth traits they have a good spring of rib, heavy bone, a medium-type wool and a clean head and ears.

The hybrid vigour is apparent in the offspring; they’re definitely more of a challenge to handle than the Romney sired progeny. Sam says they’re open minded about whether Perendale sires will be used for the long term.

“Our plan is to review the Perendale influence after five to seven years. We can always go back to Romney to inject hybrid vigour again, but we’ll never go along the composite line for a maternal flock.”

In another breed change Kelso terminals from Meadowslea Genetics replaced the Sufftex rams from 2020.

“It’s early days but the lambs have been outstanding so here’s hoping that continues.”

Keeping notes Monitoring and measuring is second nature to progressive farmers such as the Bartons.

Their efforts at recording key data were acknowledged in the winning of the agriscience category of the 2020 Otago Ballance Farm Environmental Awards.

Interestingly, Sam takes the old school pen and paper approach to recording all the data. He has a stack of 23 hard-backed farm diaries spanning his entire farming career, the page in each recording key data and points of relevance.

He’s deliberately steered clear of online farm management software and platforms.

“I don’t think they give enough scope to add in thoughts and comments and I

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West Otago farmer Sam Barton with dog Chubb on his farm near Weldin, Moa Flat.

Production and KPIs

2017

2022

Gross Farm Income/SU

152.68

180.68

FWE/GFI

58

47

EBITDR/ha

$463.48

$682.16

Average lamb price

$117.71

$145.63

Lambing % (incl 2T survival to sale)

144

149

Calving %

94

98

Over the past five years: • The average time to finish a prime lamb to an 18kg CW has reduced by three weeks.

• Lamb wastage from scanning until weaning has reduced from 18 to 16.2%

55

Above: Sam Barton surveys his crop of swedes. Below: Sam deliberately steers clear of online farm management software. Photo: Lynda Gray.

believe we spend too much time looking at our phones these days, it’s not great for our children.”

He’ll often add in his diary entries a note about something that went well or not so well.

His most recent note to self was to never, ever buy store lambs late in the season. This year, encouraged by the surplus growth, they bought for the first time ever 450 stores in the first week of April. Soon after a dry period kicked in at the crucial pre-tup feeding time causing a lot of stress. They ate about 1000kg drymatter a day over the 52 days – the equivalent of 216 bales of balage.

After grazing kale for 23 days the lambs were taken off at 42kg LW-plus and killed out at 16.5kg.

“It was very disappointing. We took a hit, and it wasn’t good for our mindset. Luckily May and June was very kind to us, so we got ourselves out of jail.”

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Sam and his wife Liz, with children Hattie and Angus, on their farm near Weldin, Moa Flat.

Benchmarking performance Sam and Liz have in effect benchmarked their own farming performance by entering farming competitions, winning this year’s West Otago two-tooth competition and best ewe hogget flock. A particular highlight was the acknowledgment by one of the judges of their passion and energy to succeed.

“We were a bit taken aback and it was a special moment to hear them say that,” Sam says.

They were first time entrants in the 2020 Otago Ballance Farm Environmental Awards and won the livestock, quality water and agri-science categories. They were encouraged by their equity partners Phil and Jenny McGimpsey and are glad they did.

“Our goal was to win the livestock award, the other two awards were a nice surprise.

The judging was a great process to go through and we learnt so much and made some great connections.”

The connections have included an invitation to join the ‘Growing Future

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Champions of Good Practice’, a NZ Farm Environment pilot programme to be trialled throughout the Otago region over the coming year. The intention of the programme is to mentor young farmers with input from rural professionals and experienced successful farmers on how to develop their business within a best practice framework.

Another project is ‘What’s possible together’, a Ballance Agri-Nutrients backed ‘farmers-leading-farmers’ initiative in which the Bartons along with other motivated farmers throughout the country will implement and showcase management and tools for driving farm performance and environmental sustainability.

“There’s a lot of negativity about environmental regulations, especially from the older generation. But our view is not to fear them, and we want to prove that our farm can be both environmentally sustainable and profitable.”

The Barton and McGimpsey equity

partnership Montana Pastoral continues to work well. In a recent restructure the Bartons bought stock and plant, while retaining a 20% share in land and buildings.

The buying of stock and plant has taken the pressure off without compromising on-farm performance, Sam says.

“A big focus is to continue growing our equity but not at the expense of our lifestyle.”

It’s about finding the right balance, which is difficult given their full-on stage of juggling the farm, community commitments and a young family. Sam is president of the Heriot Collie club and a member of the Eastern Southland LandSAR with Liz providing the crucial behind-thescenes support.

Sam likes the thinking of an older and successful farmer who once said balance is eight hours’ work, eight hours’ play and eight hours’ sleep.

“It’s a good guideline and something we’re trying to do as a family.”

57

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LIVESTOCK Stock check

ADVICE IS MOSTLY FARM-SPECIFIC

E OVER HER NO THIS WAY

Farmers frequently complain of getting conflicting advice, writes vet Trevor Cook.

A

comment I hear very frequently from farmers is how they get exposed to conflicting advice.

I can understand that to some extent, in that much advice is specific to a farm, the season, the district or the stock class. Many advisers do not emphasise that enough. I am sure I have fallen into that trap many times.

An interesting encounter recently was with a farmer who attended a Wormwise workshop I had presented at least 20 years ago. He had picked up the concept of integrated grazing and had by his description done it very well.

Basically, he ran his sheep and cattle separately and weaned lambs on to cattle areas and weaned calves on to sheep areas.

He was confident he had got a significant weight gain in both young stock classes.

Just this year his farm consultant advised him that running at least the adult sheep and cattle together would make for more efficient grazing. Even the younger classes together at times would be more efficient.

The farmer asked me what was correct.

Very little in farming is absolutely correct but in this case there are two different objectives. I am sure some co-grazing of sheep and cattle would increase the grazing efficiency and would not compromise the integrity of integrated grazing. It would need to be well-planned though.

The reality of where we are now with widespread and severe drench resistance, very integrated grazing concepts are the way of the future and are the only option for some farmers already. So in this case the advice, as maybe most advice, needs to

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take in a wider picture.

Farmers are no more exposed to the danger of the advice coming from the person selling the product than the rest of the population. For farmers it is fertilisers, animal health products, seeds, quad bikes – the list goes on.

“In this case the farmer was confused because the result he had did not fit the advice so he sought another opinion. But that cannot always be an option Look at the science In many cases past experiences help cut through the sales pitch. I always advise to look at the science. That is easy to say but very often is difficult to do. Close to my heart is animal health products and the compromised position veterinarians can get into as sellers of these. That is a huge topic on its own but is an example of multiple products available and advice being sort of which is best.

The confusion of conflicting advice, though, remains the biggest complaint I hear. How does the farmer sort this? As I write, I have received a text from a client with a faecal egg count result for pregnant ewe hoggets with advice that they need to be drenched soon.

My interpretation of that result was that they do not need to be drenched at all.

While I doubt the advice to drench was driven by a prospective drench sale, it did highlight the knowledge of the adviser.

In this case the farmer was confused because the result he had did not fit the advice so he sought another opinion. But that cannot always be an option to take.

What sort of copper injection is best, what form of copper supplementation is best, which pre-lamb vaccine is the best, what testing is best for finding trace element status, when should vaccination of suckling calves start or what drench is best are common questions where there are varied opinions and options.

Worm advice Worm management is probably where the most complaints of conflicting advice comes from.

This is not surprising because, despite the messages being given which try to simplify the actions needed to be taken, the reality is that it is not simple.

Most of the advice around quarantine treatments, drench intervals, types of drench to use, refugia, paddock and grazing options or monitoring are very farm, season and stock class specific. While concepts are generic, how they are applied is not.

A big contribution to the confusion is because of the interaction of various actions.

So it is not confusion rather than wrong application. One that I have seen often is the message of appropriate quarantine treatment being heard but not linked to the other message of not drenching on to clean grazing areas.

The outcome is lambs quarantine treated but as they go onto clean grazing. The outcome is severe drench resistance very quickly.

Drenching lambs or calves and leaving them on the same paddock for a day or so before moving, rotation lengths linked to worm challenges, how long to leave paddocks to lower the worm contamination level and using faecal egg counts to trigger drenching are all actions that will vary according to where in the country, the farming system and the season.

So, farm specific. As is much of what we apply to farms – the principle is the same, how it is applied is specific.

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LIVESTOCK Scanning

Sheep scanners saw a trend in the lower North Island and upper South Island, for more dry ewes than average. At the same time, these mobs have more triplets and twins on board than usual.

MORE M DRIES AND TRIPLETS Ewe scanners are detecting a surge in triplets this season, Joanna Grigg reports.

60

arch-tupped mobs have some curvebending conception results.

Lower North Island ewe pregnancy scanners, contacted by CountryWide, have seen a trend for more dry (empty) ewes than average. At the same time, these mobs have more triplets and twins on board than usual.

Because of the high multiples, the end result is close to the district average. But there is the headache of more lambs being a triplet and the lost opportunity from 10% of ewes being dry.

These higher dry rates were seen in Marchtupped mobs, across the lower North Island, upper south and parts of North Canterbury.

High dry rates typically go hand in hand with fewer multiples, especially when driven by lower ewe body weight and a lack of flushing feed. This is not the case with more triplets and fewer singles than expected.

By all accounts, late summer feed quantities were very good and farmers enjoyed tupping feed surpluses. Hawke’s Bay had a cracker of a season following significant February rain. Perhaps here lies the answer. One

suspect behind the higher dry rate is fungal toxins. This includes zearalenone, a naturally occurring mycotoxin from the Fusarium fungus. It grows on pasture, can interfere with oestrogen production and is proven to quickly have an affect on ewe ovulation. It sits on the dead material, so aged, rank pastures are more at risk. Ewe urine tests would have confirmed it. A change of feed type may have helped.

Carl Williams, AgScan, Feilding, witnessed this trend for March-tupped ewes across his scanning beat, through Gisborne, Port Waikato, Waipukurau, Dannevirke to Taihape.

He said there are some good results, such as 225%, but also high dry rates, more than 5%.

Some mobs that were usually 4% dry, had 7% dry.

Those ewes that did ovulate, had higher multiple pregnancies than previous years. His thoughts were a touch of facial eczema and other fungal effects were at play.

“Barbers Pole, in flocks that hadn’t seen it before, might also have had an effect.”

Zearalenone doesn’t often rear its head. By the time farmers’ realise it could be an issue,

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it’s too late to test. Some of his clients were planning to use dry ewe sale proceeds to buy in-lamb ewes.

Andrew Vavasour, Ewe Scan, had been scanning his way across Gisborne and Wairoa.

Most farmers were happy with the results.

Many places had results starting with a two, he said, with one place scanning 226%.

“I’ve never seen a place have more triplet ewes than twinning ewes, but I saw it this year.”

This mob had 350 triplet ewes, 347 twins, 88 singles and 2.5% dry. At 44% of the mob with triplets, this was above the typical 30% to 40% triplet rate. One negative observed was poor first cycle conceptions.

“At one place there were zero ewes in the first cycle.”

“It’s going to be a drawn-out lambing.”

Vavasour suspects it was caused by some form of fungal toxin limiting early conception.

Some of his clients this year asked for foetal aging within 10 days. They plan to use this to manage ewe feeding and condition closely, down to the wire. Their options for managing these extra triplet-bearing ewes include set-stocking with the twins, or sprinkling them at light stocking rate through calving cows, he said.

By July there was plenty of quality “bright green” feed ahead of ewes and Vavasour said the tail of light ewes was very small. In past years, he’s seen 25% of mobs light but only 10% would be below desired condition this season, on average, he said.

James McKay, McKay Scanning Services, said his early Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa flocks were showing 10% dry rates and a lot of late conceptions. These were in Romneybased mobs. The April-mated flocks were much improved, with flocks scanning around 175% and dry rates at 3%.

Zearalenone was not mentioned over tupping, but there has been talk about it since, he said.

“A wet and warm autumn also meant parasites may have been an issue.”

Facial eczema was seen in Hawke’s Bay and even into the Wairarapa, he said.

Because of the good season, more hoggets were joined with the ram. Recent cold wet weather has put some pressure on ewe condition, with a tail of light ewes being seen.

Nitrogen costs had meant farmers were deciding to quit some in-lamb ewes, like B flock ewes, rather than spend money on fertiliser to grow feed for them, he said.

“Some are selling up to 5% of the mob – no wonder the Feilding market did a bit of a dive last week.”

The ewe price fell from $220 to about $170, he said.

“Our discussion group discussed using nitrogen only strategically in spring – about 70kg on some areas, not all areas.”

Further south, February and March-tupped mobs were showing a lot of variation. Hamish Monteath, North Canterbury sheep scanner, mainly scans stud and EID flocks, after selling the main business. Within a district there were excellent results (low dry and high

FEWER TRIPLETS EXPECTED SOUTH By early July, scanning in Otago and Southland was kicking off. Early indications were that the 2022 Southern drought had knocked multiple rates, as expected, but it wasn’t to disaster levels.

Dan Broughton, Dan Scan, said his early mobs were back to 175% from the usual 180% for example. Some ewes in Balclutha were back and the farmer said it was a result of being tight for feed over tupping, he said.

Ewe condition score at scanning continued to be lower than average and feed tighter, he said.

“I won’t be asked to re-scan the dries.”

Middlemarch mobs were scanning better, with dry rates at 1%. Ewes were running through well and Dan cracked a new personal scanning record of 7180 ewes in eleven and a half hours. More farmers were asking for foetal aging of early and mids, as well as lates. Usually, 60% of mobs were called for lates only.

Rowan Farmer, Stock Scan, said being 73 years old means he only scans a few mobs, to help out. His Oamaru mobs were all 20% up, into the 180s. One mob in the Maniototo region was 30% back, with two-tooths dropping from 200% to 156%. Farmers were pretty happy as fewer triplets, he said. Feed was green but limited.

Jason Farmer, Farmer Scanning Services, had noticed a trend for early April-mated flocks in the south to be 13 to 15 percentage points back. It was at the start of the main scanning season, so results might change a little, he said.

At this stage, up to 30% of the ewes in a mob were scanning with a single lamb, when typically, it would be 15% to 20%, he said. Triplets are usually up to 12% of the flock but it was more common for only 5% of ewes to be carrying triplets.

“Triplet ewe numbers have been halved.”

As an example, a Gore flock was down 20 percentage points, even after supplementary feeding over tupping.

Cracking 180% was unlikely, with figures more like 167%. This was not due to any marked increase in dry rates, rather more singles. Perhaps the extra North Island triplet-bearing ewes may find a home in Southland.

Ewe condition score at scanning continued to be lower than average.

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61

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Fungal toxins can find a welcome home during muggy conditions, on aged pasture, with high levels of dead material.

multiples), as well as some mobs with high dry rates.

“This was not related to tupping feed and could be fungal toxins,” Hamish said.

Banks Peninsula seems to be an exception. Dan Broughton, Dan Scan, said Banks Peninsula had a fantastic autumn, after droughts and floods hit the region hard. He said dry rates were mostly 1%-3%, with mobs making 180% scanning with 10% triplets. Many mobs are 15 percentage points up (155% to 170%) which was very welcome.

Older ewes had been retained and mated, to build numbers, he said.

“It’s really cool to see a smile on farmers’ faces after a really hard time, especially those in the eastern bays.”

Coastal North Canterbury mobs of older ewes were full of lambs but not first cycle – it’s mainly second, he said.

Zearale-what?

“Farmers that have come to the clinic have quietly mentioned 10% dry.”

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Facial eczema is usually the pin-up problem fungus for ovulation. But maybe another fungus, zearalenone, has reared its head this tupping. It finds a welcome home in warm muggy conditions and likes aged pasture, with dead material. The lower North Island and top-of-the-south had an unseasonal 25 to 100mm of rain in February followed by muggy weather. Ryegrass staggers in calves, and red boots from walking through pastures coated with fungus, were characteristic of late summer 2022.

Jason Clark, Vetsone, Hastings, said it is very hard to prove zearalenone caused high dry rates but agrees that, as a potential ovulation suppressant, it has slipped off the radar for many farmers and vets this autumn.

“Perhaps it was in the mix.”

He has noticed a trend for high numbers of empty ewes in March-tupped mobs in the Hawke’s Bay. “Farmers that have come to the clinic have quietly mentioned 10% dry.”

The overall number of lambs expected has been as good as or better however, due to more triplets.

Clark said facial eczema would have been having an effect in some regions and vets advise farmers to test blocks for spore numbers.

“If you see lambs with floppy ears, then more sheep will have subclinical effects.”

Late February, a Nutritech newsletter warned of mycotoxin effects on cow production. Mycotoxin binders are an option to mitigate the effects for cattle but not an option for large scale sheep flocks. High endophyte ryegrass may be another influence. Staggers can disrupt mating activity and reduce conception rates. Early embryo losses could also have contributed.

Pete Anderson, veterinarian consultant, said that the widespread nature of the high empty rate suggests it is weather related. He is investigating high dry rates in high country beef cattle, with a focus on weather events.

A review of zearalenone studies (Smith, Morris 2006) included findings from a 1994 survey, Garthwaite et al. (1994). The survey found zearalenone at toxic levels in autumn on pastures from Northland to Southland. Nine percent of over 6000 samples tested had zearalenone at high enough levels for ewe fertility to be depressed.

Another 35% were from paddocks where flocks would be ‘at risk’.

The effect is a depression in lambing rate of about 5% for every one mg/day of zearalenone ingested in a short period (five to seven days) and about twice this for longer (20-day) periods of exposure.

The extent of the effect, and the duration, depends on the quantity of zearalenone ingested and the period of time during which it is ingested.

A feeding period of as short as five days at a level of six mg/ewe/day significantly reduced ovulation rates. The effects of as little as one mg/ewe/day, for 20 days, still resulted in a 20% reduction in ovulation rate. This carried over for at least one cycle after zearalenone intake ceased. Prolonged exposure, for 20 to 40 days, resulted in the effects persisting for at least two cycles after exposure ceased.

Zearalenone should have the effect of reducing the incidence of multiples. The 2022 results don’t follow this pattern however, with more multiples.

The excellent flushing feed could have set a high multiple potential.

The jury is still out and the focus should be on picking the warning signs prior to next tupping.

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LIVESTOCK Bull beef

Constantly making it better A focus on bull beef following years of drought has worked for a North Canterbury couple. Story and photos by Annabelle Latz.

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rought recovery brought a change in direction for North Canterbury farmers Nic and Andy Fairbain.

Farmers in the region have strained memories of the drought-stricken years of 2014 to 2017, but the following recovery years opened up opportunities for the Fairbains from Scargill.

Andy, 60, and Nic, 54, live on the 300-hectare rolling hill farm Andy’s great grandfather bought in 1919, where they have always traditionally run sheep. They got into rearing bull calves as a way of restocking after the 20142017 drought.

Having dabbled at rearing calves over the years, they had the quick and efficient infrastructure.

“We soon realised we enjoyed farming cattle more than sheep,” Andy says.

They have the place humming, running one third bulls to two thirds sheep, the goal and focus to create a farming system which allows stock to receive optimal feed and water all year-round.

Andy is always thinking about feed and feed budgets.

“It’s rewarding to see results on margins and finances.”

Their 24 year-old son Fergus works in Christchurch as a builder.

Until last year Nic has always worked full time off farm. But, it was always a struggle to work both farm and full-time work.

“I used to turn myself inside and out getting it all done between my full-time job off the farm, calf rearing and lambing,” she says.

Now she works more on the farm so it’s a better balance.

Andy was a full time shearer for 12 years after completing a Bachelor of Agricultural Science at Lincoln

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FARM FIGURES 2020 (2021 was a write-off with the drought.)

EBIT $106.78/ su Farm expenses: 42% of gross income Fert/ha/year: 230kg Installed stock water system Wintered 120 R1, 120 R2 bull beef and 1356 composite ewes.

University, and has enjoyed the move towards bull finishing.

“I had always wanted to be a farmer, the shearing funded me into the farm.”

Tweaks and changes Finding the right balance for stock numbers has required some tweaks and changes. After the drought years they peaked at a 250-calf rearing system, which was a 50/50 ratio bulls to sheep. Last year dropping down to 120 calves meant less pressure on water and feed, describing February to October of 2021 as horrendous, where they were constantly tied to the farm feeding out.

The Fairbains have dabbled with bull breed combinations like straight Friesians, Friesians crossed with Angus, Hereford or Murray Grey. For their farming system the timing of the straight Friesian works best, buying in August, and going straight to once a day feeding using a mix of cows’ milk and powdered milk.

They learn from their calf suppliers, North Canterbury’s Rotherham dairy farmers Simon and Leanne McAdams. Nic and Andy say they can always talk to them about problems and questions because they’re

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the experts. It’s all about continually tweaking what they do to achieve the best outcome.

They worked out that calves need 1.5-2 bags of milk powder equivalent a calf.

“By collecting pods of colostrum and penicillin milk we can give them that extra quantity for a cheaper price,” Nic says.

“We absolutely thump the feed into them when they first arrive, we give them plenty.”

Adapting with North Canterbury’s seasons can be tricky. They buy barley, sell stock and fill the hay sheds when they can.

In the perfect world, Nic and Andy would finish all their bull calves, but the season is dependent. They winter 120 R1s and 120 R2s, having dropped the beef numbers from 230 reared each year to 120, due to water regulations. As of the end of June they were wintering 1356 ewes.

They sell half the R2s in June and the rest are carried through to spring, which requires some sort of summer crop either side of February. Last summer they planted eight hectares of kale, and maize is another option.

Maize has been okay but has limitations, it’s not high quality and they can’t make grazing maize into baleage.

“Kale can let you down in a drought, maize is good in drought,” Andy says.

Andy and Nic buy extra water units from their local council and no longer rely on animals drinking from creeks. Upgrading all the troughs and power supply have been significant expenses, but unavoidable and worth the investment.

Andy and Nic now pay for two more points of water from their local council which cost about $20,000 a year in total, as they can no longer rely on animals drinking

Above: A mix of crop and roughage is very important.

Below: These R1 bulls enjoy the beet for the winter, although introducing it to them has to be done slowly.

from creeks. They have about 15 new cattle troughs which cost about $10,000.

“Upgrading all the troughs and power supply have been significant expenses, but unavoidable and worth the investment.”

When comparing a prime bull of about 600kg to a prime steer about 540kg, Andy says they are magnificent animals.

“The way they produce meat, they definitely have a higher growth rate.”

The Fairbains aim for 550-600kg for a finished bull, weather dependent. Last year the bulls were sold around the $1800 mark.

The temperament of bulls is well-managed.

The R1 bulls reaching puberty pose challenges running on winter feed when they are harassing each other and subsequently losing condition. The solution has been Bopriva, a two-dose vaccination to inhibit testosterone temporarily. The young bulls have their second injection timed just before they go on the fodder beet. They learned about Bopriva from their local vet Gerard Poff. The cost is $15 per animal, and has no effect on the meat.

“It means they use their energy to eat rather than chase each other around,” Nic says They’ve tried other options to mitigate challenging behaviour, such as smaller mob sizes, mixing steers in with the bulls or mixing the ages. Bopriva proved the best option.

“Nic does the winter breaks on the fodder beet, and it’s much preferable when they’re behaving themselves.”

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Above: Rainfall and growth have been very favourable for North Canterbury farmers this year, a much different situation to last year.

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Ewes a good fit Andy and Nic see the good fit that ewes are to their farm, that it’s good to have options and capitalise on a good market.

“With the way prices are at the moment for sheep, it makes the option pretty irresistible,” he says.

They would like to run one big mob of ewes on a long winter rotation.

Increasing sheep numbers has been an easy decision with the attractive schedule of $8 or $9. Buying in 1400 Composite ewes at the moment was easy, given the “unbelievable” season with continual grass growth throughout summer into winter. Feed’s been so good the last few months, they recently bought a unit load of lambs from Southland to keep the feed under control.

Buying in 1400 Composite ewes at the moment was easy, given the “unbelievable” season with continual grass growth throughout summer into winter, paying about $220 for the in-lamb ewes.

Feed’s been so good the last few months, they recently bought 710 lambs from Southland to keep the feed under control, paying $116.36 excl gst/head.

Nic says Andy is good at managing feed and water.

“So in a testing year we can keep options open, like buying in-lamb ewes which we don’t always do, but if the market is right, it's ideal.”

Sheep performance is enhanced by farming bulls who retain the quality in the pasture by not grazing it down too hard, and controlling surplus growth.

August 2022

Cattle dilute the number of parasites which could potentially be affecting the sheep.

“That is a big part of the reason of why you would want to be farming both, because the biggest enemy of a sheep is another sheep,” Andy says.

Buying younger sheep if they’re at a good price, if there is a good feed surplus, is another part of their sheep farming model.

“It’s about getting a good price when you can and jumping on board.”

They lamb at an average of 140%, with 70% of the lambs going to the works straight off the ewe, which Andy says is a great way to farm sheep and an incentive to focus on a quality feed programme for both the bulls and sheep.

“What it boils down to is doing the basics well.”

Pinch time is mid-August to mid-September, so the right balance of stock is a huge benefit.

Expenses in the 2020 year were sitting at about 42% of the gross farm income, which is a culmination of good prices, efficient feeding, turning stock over at optimal times, and keeping a close eye on body conditioning.

“We draft out the bottom end and run them on better feed if we need to.”

Contrasting seasons is the biggest challenge of farming in the region and makes planning hard.

It’s hard work and to make it profitable Andy is constantly asking himself, “How can I make it better?”.

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Photo: www.dji.com

TECHNOLOGY Drones

Up, up T and away Drones have come a long way and their capabilities in agricultural use are significantly improved. By Lynda Gray.

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he latest and greatest developments in drones was the topic of a South Otago field day. Over two days more than 80 people came to look and learn about the potential of drones onfarm.

A range of drones were on display, from the portable and entry price level to trailer-towed commercial spray drones.

Drone specialist company Ferntech overviewed the capabilities and uses of Mavic, Phantom and AGRAS spray drones. What became obvious was the big leap forward in drone technology over a short time such as the improved high definition and zoom capabilities of cameras along with the developments in thermal imaging and mapping. Drones could capture more precise and accurate information than before, Luke Johnson of Ferntech said.

A growing area of use was for the spraying of crops and weeds. Spray drones have been around for about five years but there wasn’t huge interest initially because of the small payload capacity of about 10kg, Johnson said. However the development of 30kg payload drones made them a more practical option for farmers.

“The more they can spray and faster makes them a more attractive option for spraying.”

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Photo: ferntechcommercial.co.nz

"If you’re spending $15,000 a year to spray 100ha using a helicopter, that money might be better invested in a drone which could be used for more spraying around the farm."

He gave a demonstration of how to plot a grid map for a spraying mission which included continuous and spot spray areas.

Onlooker and an early adopter of drone technology Brett Sanders (Country-Wide, July 2017) was interested to see the spray drones in action.

They’re expensive at about $50,000 which includes necessary accessories to map a spraying mission, but he thinks they could work out on extensive hill properties reliant on helicopters for the spraying of crops and weeds.

“If you’re spending $15,000 a year to spray 100ha using a helicopter, that money might be better invested in a drone which could be used for more spraying around the farm.”

However, he says the big turn-off for most farmers would be the mandatory requirement for Civil Aviation Authority 102 certification which applies to owners of drones used for the application of agrichemicals. Certification costs between $2500 to $3500 and takes about a year to complete.

Johnny Bennett, another farmer at the field day

was impressed with the improved zoom capabilities of the new drone cameras. He has owned two drones and used them for checking sheep, water troughs and for picking up obvious issues on regular flights over his Te Houka farm. The first, a Phantom 4 went for about three years until it went AWOL on a pre-planned mission, never to return. It was replaced with a second-hand drone, but that met with a crashing end due to a burst of speed at the wrong time. Despite the run-ins he’s still keen on them because they saved a lot of time, especially checking ewes at lambing time.

“The drone could do a circuit around the farm in 20 minutes which was enough to uncover any problems. To do the same driving would have taken four hours.

“There’s greater accuracy than with the older drones. Often I’d see there was a problem but not the detail whereas I probably could now. I’ll buy another one at some stage, but it’s not a priority at the moment.”

The field days organised by the Otago South River Care group with MPI funding attracted a lot of interest.

“We asked local farmers about innovations they wanted to know more about, and drones was a reoccurring topic,” Rebecca Begg, group coordinator, said.

“A lot are interested in the technology but not necessarily at the tipping point of buying one.

The idea of the field day was to let them see the technology in action and start more conversations.”

Drone rules and regs You don’t need a licence to fly a drone in NZ provided it is less than 25kg fully loaded and is not being used for the application of agrichemicals.

However, all drone users need to follow the Civil Aviation Authority Part 101 drone rules.

Go to: www.aviation.govt.nz/drones/part-101rules-for-drones/ Continues

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Self-taught pilot Brett Sanders is a self-taught drone user.

He soldered together his first drone in 2013 from a basic frame with add-ons and bought a DJI Phantom in 2016. It was used a lot for mustering and was especially good at hunting out elusive Merinos from steep schist and briar country.

Brett also used it to accurately map the slope and drainage of land. The Phantom had probably flown the length of the country when it was replaced with a Mavic Enterprise Advanced last year for $10,000.

“It’s a lot of money, but I’m an experienced user and know how to get

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the most out of them,” Brett said.

The thermal imaging is great for tracking down sheep and pests such as wild pigs and the zoom power of the camera means it’s possible to identify the ear tag numbers of ewes in a paddock without disturbing them.

At the field day farmers were interested to hear about Brett’s dog barking drone which had reduced the workload of Matangi’s working dog team.

“We still use dogs, but they’re probably not on to it as they used to be. When the drone comes out they sit back and watch.”

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Pilots of drones used for agrichemical application need CAA Part 102 certification. This takes about 12 months and costs $2500-$3500.

Go to: www.aviation.govt.nz/drones/part-102certification-for-drones/

New versus second-hand There is a second-hand drone market, but Brett Sanders thinks buying new is probably the better way to go. Newer models have intuitive technology so they’re easier to use. A new release model, a Mavic Mini 3 which retails for about $1400 and includes one battery could be a good option. If a control base and screen were included it would cost $1700-$2000.

“For that amount you should be able to get good quality pictures.”

His advice for buying second-hand is to go with a reputable brand, and check that the batteries are in working order and hold their charge.

A Mavic Mini 3 is a possible option but Luke Johnson said it wouldn’t withstand the wind conditions on exposed farms. A better choice was a Mavic Air 2S for about $2500 which would provide quality video and photography.

Farmers wanting a ‘barking drone’ and thermal imagery features would need a Mavic Enterprise Advanced or similar ($9500).

A ready-to-go AGRAS spray drone with a 30kg payload and supporting mapping functions costs about $50,000. This would include three batteries which could be rotated to enable continuous spraying.

Bill Paterson plans to go full time with his drone spraying business he started at the beginning of the year.

Spot on Covid led to the start-up of Bill Paterson’s drone contracting business. Until March 2020 Bill’s main income was from helicopter flying tourists in and around the Queenstown southern lakes region.

That business dried up with Covid leading Bill back to the family-owned Waikaka Station where he was able to combine helping on the farm with development of a drone contracting business.

In January he started out with a $70,000 XAG P30 which has a 16kg payload. It’s been used for spraying and seeding work throughout Otago and Southland. Bill’s mapped and precisionsprayed areas for thistles and insect strike, and spot sprayed for particular weeds. He’s also reseeded areas of crops that didn’t establish due to the dry summer. There’s potential for more seeding jobs once he gets a bigger payload system in place.

“There’s a lot of potential but there’s still a lot of R&D to do.”

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CROP & FORAGE Clover

Clover: S Canary in the pasture Clover needs 16 essential nutrients to grow well, but soil scientist Doug Edmeades says we often aren’t even soil testing correctly to know which nutrients are missing.

By Anne Hardie.

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peaking at a SMASH field day near Hokitika, the often-controversial Dr Edmeades said there is a generation of younger farmers who don’t know what a good ryegrass-clover pasture looks like.

Ideally, dairy pasture should be between 35 and 40% clover which will then put about 100kg of free nitrogen into the soil.

Clover has a poor root structure though, so has higher requirements for nutrients.

Because of that, it shows up deficiencies first which makes it the “canary in the mines” for farmers.

“If one of those 16 nutrients isn’t there, clover won’t grow. If your pasture isn’t pulling its weight, there will probably be an underlying nutrient problem. The chain is only as strong as the weakest nutrient.”

The nitrogen fertiliser cap and rising fertiliser costs should be making farmers look at clover as their friend.

“But we’ve lost sight of how to grow clover-based pasture.”

On his workings, a farm with a good clover pasture could produce 800 to 900kg milksolids (MS)/ha without nitrogen supplements – about 150kg N/ha/year.

Whereas, applying nitrogen to pasture stimulated the growth of ryegrass which then shades clover so that it can’t do its job as well. Or clover doesn’t need to fix as much nitrogen.

“If there’s too much nitrogen in the soil, the clover decides it will use that rather than make its own.”

Regardless of its nitrogen-fixing capabilities, clover is also a better feed source than ryegrass and that makes it important in the pasture and worth looking after.

Clover has disappeared from many pastures though for a number of reasons,

including nutrient problems. But he said it often only takes the right nutrients to kick start it. A bank of clover seed can remain viable in the soil for up to 20 years.

Getting all the nutrients right depends on soil and herbage tests. Animals don’t put nutrients back on the pasture evenly and if you take a soil sample from a urine or dung patch, it will alter the true results for a paddock.

A sample from a urine patch will produce results that may not match the poor-quality pasture you are looking at in the paddock.

When urine patches are not obvious, the underlying soil fertility is probably good.

He advised farmers to get an expert to take soil samples – someone who knew how to look at pasture and where to take relevant samples. Then be aware of the variability of soil tests and use that data carefully. For those farmers struggling to grow clover, he recommended clover leaf samples and again, not from dung or urine patches.

On farms he has worked with, about 70% had one or more nutrients missing and often it was potassium, sulphur and molybdenum. The latter is usually only tested in herbage tests so farmers only doing soil tests don’t know if it is missing.

Molybdenum is only required in small amounts but that small amount is essential for clover’s fixation of nitrogen by the rhizobium bacteria in root nodules. Clovers are more often affected by molybdenum deficiency than grasses.

“A sure sign you need molybdenum is if you can’t find any clover.”

A rule of thumb for soil testing is to take them the tests when pasture is actively growing and Edmeades pointed out that most soil sampling on the West Coast tended to be carried out in winter, when farmers had more time.

“If one of those 16 nutrients isn’t there, clover won’t grow... The chain is only as strong as the weakest nutrient.”

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Clover is more dormant in winter, so you need to take samples when it is growing.

Moisture and temperature drive clover growth and he said it fixed nitrogen in proportion to its growth. Clover fixes nitrogen, then animals eat clover which puts nitrogen into the soil, or the plant dies and goes back into the soil as organic nitrogen.

When clover is not growing, there is no nitrogen fixation occurring. It also can’t compete with ryegrass through the months it isn’t growing, but once the conditions are right, it will take off.

When the soil fertility is low, the pasture will generally be full of weeds and the whole composition of pasture could be improved by simply getting the clover growing well because it would then compete with weeds.

If farmers think they aren’t growing enough pasture by trying to rely on clover for nitrogen, it could be due to one or more of those 16 nutrients missing in the soil.

“Get the soil nutrients level right and clover does well.”

Edmeades is a fan of the older species of clovers that have survived in a region, rather than newer species bred elsewhere.

If older clover doesn’t emerge from the soil once nutrients are right, he said the bank of seed may have been depleted and then it is time to sow more seed.

Likewise, older pastures don’t always need to be replaced. Often it is a fertility problem.

“I see no reason why you have to be ripping up pastures every few years.”

Dr Edmeades’ booklet, Pasture Visual Assessment, is aimed at providing farmers with the visual skills to identify possible nutrient limitations in clover-based pastures.

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EWE OVULATION RISK IF YOU TOOK AN EAST COAST holiday in February you probably got wet.

Following 20 to 100mm of rain, Professor Derrick Moot, Lincoln University, warned that this out of character rainfall could lead to some management issues for lucerne, over tupping.

“Hot humid conditions are exactly those that increase the coumesterol levels in lucerne, which can reduce ovulation rates.”

Moot had seen ovulation reduced by 25% following a wet 2014 and didn’t want farmers to have a repeat, so made the warning. He suggested grazing the lucerne up to two weeks before the ram goes out, then moving them on to a grass-based pasture. Once mated, the lucerne is fine to be grazed again, he said.

Moot would like to hear from any farmers that did have issues with ovulation on lucerne following this wet summer. A call to tup on pasture may have inadvertently exposed ewes to another ovulation risk however - fungal toxins on dead material.

Richard Dawkins, The Pyramid, Marlborough, grazed both hoggets and mixed age ewes on lucerne during March tupping. Hogget results may have been affected, as dry rates were highish, with no sign of abortion being the issue at scanning. Abortion had been an issue in the past. However, the mixed age B mob ewe on lucerne scanned 5% higher than the maternal line on medium height, green quality fescue. The mobs were 213% and 208% respectively, so exceptional.

“I worked to keep the fescue quality high with a summer graze, to get the dead material out pre-grazing,” he said.

“I feel confident tupping ewes on lucerne.”

Richard Gorman, Dumgree, Marlborough, said he’s had varied results tupping ewes on lucerne with a “hammering in a wet season”, especially with two-tooth dry rates.

“I never went back to using it for tupping feed.”

His ewes were tupped on quality hill country pastures and achieved an exceptional 211%, with many twins. It was green and leafy, without much dead matter and he didn’t push them below 1200kg DM, he said.

The two-tooths were tupped on brassica and made 195%.

“Brassica is a safe bet.”

He believed the old ewes can handle fungal toxins better than young ewes.

Gorman was making a plan to deal with 600 ewes carrying triplets. This included making a “massive effort” to have good lambing covers and a low stocking rate of three ewes per hectare. A lambing beat will be done morning and late afternoon, to check for cast ewes and stuck lambs, with the focus on preventing ewe deaths.

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Nursery for the future 74

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ENVIRONMENT

D I V E R S I F I C AT I O N

Native trees and shrubs grown in the farm nursery provide a fresh focus for a Waikato farming couple. By Glenys Christian. Photos by Emma McCarthy.

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dam Thompson leads by example when it comes to persuading farmers of the benefits of planting the least productive areas of their land in natives.

On his Te Miro beef farm just out of Cambridge in the Waikato he’s retired 14 hectares since the property was bought with wife, Linda, and there are plans for many more, as well as continuing riparian planting.

His onfarm Restore Native Plant Nursery is supplying plants to up to 150 sheep, beef and dairy farmers who’ve embarked on their own planting plans with natives they can buy at an affordable price.

“There’s a lot of misinformation about the cost of establishing natives,” Adam says.

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Some estimates range from $40,000$50,000 a hectare.

“But most come in at from $20,000$25,000 and they can be as low as $10,000.”

A lot of that depends on the distance between plants. While 1.5 metres is “the gold standard” gaps of 2m are fine and up to 2.5m in some cases.

“Once you’ve got the ground cover you can bring in whatever species you like.

“If you don’t love it, you won’t look after it, so why have a scrappy hillside you don’t love?”

About 500,000 plants a year are grown in the 1ha nursery and he’s invested in automation and upgraded infrastructure to double that production this year, with expansion planned.

“I’m the sort of person who does everything a million miles an hour,” says the 35-year-old.

“I like to see what works and what doesn’t quite quickly so we can evolve and do more.”

He was born in Kaitaia but his parents moved into dairying and market gardening in the Waikato. Venturing south after he left school he worked fencing on a Landcorp farm at Mossburn, then returning to the Waikato he set up a mortgage broking business in Cambridge 15 years ago, of which he still owns one third.

He and Linda, who is the head of energy and climate for Fonterra, lived on a 12ha farm down the road where they had built their dream home and planted many trees,

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A view of the one hectare nursery from the farm’s hill country.

i FARM FACTS Adam and Linda Thompson – Te Miro, Waikato.

175ha (133ha eff).

150 autumn-calving white-faced Angus bred to Charolais.

Multi-species pasture mix trialed which will be refined.

100 big bales of silage made.

1ha plant nursery, growing 500,000 seedlings.

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prompting admiring friends to ask if they could buy seedlings from them.

“We had lots of ideas on the environment and we needed to fund a way to make more money to build something we were really proud of,” he says.

When two adjacent farms, totaling 175ha, came up for sale within a year of each other the prospect was too good to resist. They’d been run by two brothers, the oldest of whom was in his early 80s, but were sorely in need of new investment.

“They were primarily rearing and selling beef calves but there were a dozen sheep we couldn’t muster in the gorse.”

He has recently built a new house nestled into a 14ha covenanted bush block which provides a great playground and connection with the farm and nature for their children Clara, 5, and Maverick, 3.

They then looked at what land should be retired with a 2ha block of pines being taken out for milling progressively and replanted in natives. Next up, about 20,000 plants, mainly manuka and kanuka, will go in on a steep face as erosion control.

They run 150 autumn-calving cows, making the switch from spring last year.

“We grow more feed in July than in February,” he says.

“So we wean and sell in November. It’s a better market, and we’re not offloading stock into a declining market like we had been in the past.”

Good for morale The change has also brought about “a massive shift” in animal health. There are very few metabolic issues during calving, compared with spring. Adam says it makes a big difference to morale for farm manager James Kilgour to be able to check calving cows with some light and without the mud associated with spring calving. He’s in charge of the day-to-day operations of the farm but splits his time with the nursery as well.

Only the young stock receive a zinc bolus, with the cows getting a selenium and B12 injection three times a year.

Specklepark and more recently Charolais bulls are run with their white-faced Angus cows for six weeks. They come from Kia

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Toa Stud, Te Kuiti and also Silverstream Charolais out of Akaroa in Canterbury.

He says the calves grown are like a Ferrari.

“If you feed them they’re great but they don’t perform as well as traditional breeds if the feed is not kept up to them.”

Stock are weighed every six weeks with the top line of weaners put on to summer crop and finished as 15-month-olds before their second winter, killing out at between 250-300kg.

Kale was previously grown as a winter crop but now that they are finishing their weaners before the second winter this has reduced the labour and environmental impact, allowing a focus on the nursery during the busy winter season.

Initially Adam thought he would trade cattle but soon realised a lot of their country isn’t good enough for finishing.

“The breeding cows are a good fit for this country and we finish what we can and try to do that well rather than carrying too much stock.”

About 100 big bales of silage they make around Christmas are fed out to deal with the high feed demand in autumn. As part of a regrassing programme last year a 16-species regenerative agriculture mix was trialed containing chicory, plantain, and two clovers, giving a good balance of bulk and high protein feeds.

“The sunflowers looked cool but we didn’t find the crop had the high protein feed we required in summer to continue putting weight on our weaners.”

He plans to try a mix of just six species on

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Above: Adam Thompson and some of his stock who get a fine view of the . Below: These 15-months old Charolais-cross animals are always keen to see what’s going on.

a couple of hectares this year.

Fodder beet is used as autumn feed - “but I wouldn’t feed it in winter because of the soil damage”.

Their farming dovetails well with running the nursery.

In winter they can spread the cattle out more and if it’s quiet at the nursery they do more on the farm.

“You can’t farm by a diary or run a nursery on one. You have to roll with it.”

Olsen P levels on the farm were between 5 and 6 when they took over the property with little inputs having gone on for the last 40 or so years. As well as a lot of lime there have been consistent applications of traditional fertiliser over the past four years along with the regrassing programme to get nutrients to start to come into balance.

About 30-40ha has some gorse on it which was sprayed by helicopter and along with blackberry, is being followed up on foot.

Adam is near where he wants to be with improving fencing on the better country to allow better and easier stock management.

“We’re very much focused on developing

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our good cattle country, not our hills,” he says.

“It’s no use saying to farmers they should start planting natives on the most productive part of their farm.”

So he’s able to help them out on starting a planting programme, giving site location and fencing advice.

Keeping cost down To keep costs down local seed is collected, a point of difference from other large nurseries based outside the Waikato.

“I’m that crazy guy who drives around with a pole pruner and secateurs,” he says.

About half the seed comes from bush remnants on the farm.

“Anyone can grow a plant but it’s not so simple to get the quality of plant at the size it needs to be to plant at the right time of year.”

Some plants will need to be sown months apart to achieve this as they’re all grown outside.

“We give them a hard time in the nursery because they need to thrive when they’re

Six full-time staff and six casuals are employed in the nursery.

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planted out on farms.”

In order to get the root-to-plant ratio right they’ll be trimmed off at 500-600 millimetres tall – “There’s no point getting them to a metre and then they just fall over.”

Restore Native specialises in a pioneering plant mix containing a dozen species, including manuka, kanuka and cabbage trees which will thrive in difficult conditions. Tree lucerne and banksia are also included to provide bee and bird fodder as they flower when few other plants do.

“That gets an incredible symbiosis going on.”

“Anyone can grow a plant but it’s not so simple to get the quality of plant at the size it needs to be to plant at the right time of year.”

Planting in the nursery will usually begin on Anzac Day but was delayed this year because of the dry weather, which has added some extra pressure as a planting service is also offered. About half of their plants go on to farms across the Waikato so there’s only a relatively short window of a few months to do the planting.

There are six permanent workers employed as well as the same number of casuals, with Adam hoping to also make them full-time. Recently people have been drawn to the work from a variety of different backgrounds, with an airline pilot and an occupational therapist amongst them.

“They’re wanting a change of scenery and to have a bit of fun.”

That’s provided by barbecue lunches on the back of the ute when they’re planting out. And Adam works on the idea that there’s a better planting success rate with workers specialising in just one of the tasks involved such as digging holes or planting seedlings with more care.

With most of their clients being farmers he aims to make their planting projects as cost effective as possible.

He says they are selling plants at $2.25 to $2.50 when the market is $3-$4.

“We’re blessed that we’re dealing with progressive farmers who want to get more out of their land”.

He finds it rewarding to see what they’re planted. “We all want to win together.”

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Top: Adam plans to double the size of the nursery. Above: Once grown, seedlings are supplied to 150 Waikato farmers.

He’s also continually looking at expanding the range of natives which might be able to grow in the Waikato, such as pohutukawa and kaka beak, by trialling them in the nursery.

Last year he applied for the third time, was accepted and became one of four New Zealand finalists in the Zanda McDonald Awards, which links future agriculture leaders. He says it was a fantastic experience and still keeps in touch with the other

farmers he met.

“It’s hard when you’re doing new things and pushing the boundaries, but linking up with other like-minded people in agriculture has really helped me to progress in my own business and help others.

Adam wants to grow trees for the rest of his life and leave a legacy on their farm and with others, that his children can be proud of.

“I’m keen to make sure of that.”

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ENVIRONMENT Carbon forestry

The tree planting gamble Planting 10% of a farm in trees has extra benefits with little loss of production.

Annabelle Latz reports.

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etiring livestock farming on a small portion of a North Canterbury hill farm and putting it into trees would result in very little drop in production, a forestry advocate says.

Alistair adds there would be the extra benefit of claiming carbon credits.

“It surprises me that not more farmers are seeing it, changing even just 10 to 20% of the land use.”

He said young farmers were starting to look at their budgets and do it.

The former fruit grower said farmers have a choice of why to grow trees, whether that be for carbon credits or timber, and the end reason can change, depending on the market.

The 72-year-old retiree describes it as a coincidence that his hobby and interest came up trumps because of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), and said his venture with eucalyptus trees is one decision he is certain of.

Alistair was the first chairman of New Zealand Summer Fruit Export Council and the 2021 South Island Farm Forester of the year. He left behind an extensive

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Nitens are the eucalyptus of choice for Alistair, who says they “are idiot proof, and grow easily.”

and comprehensive career in fruit growing on the northern fringe of Christchurch nine years ago for retirement. He and his wife bought 63 hectares of bare land in Glenmark, North Canterbury to pursue Alistair’s long interest in forestry, which he’d followed for some 40 years after a course through Wellington Open Polytechnic.

Upon arrival at Glenmark, they logged two thirds of the Indian cedars that were there, and built their house.

Nearly a decade ago under the ETS, NZ carbon units were only $3 to $4 per tonne, so Alistair’s initial thought was to plant the property in radiata pine, adding to the 6ha already in the ground. In the following years, their value leapt to $15/ tonne.

About three years ago things started to change again, when unit prices hit better than $25/tonne, and a year ago unit prices hit $35/tonne.

“At that rate, you’d be best to keep them growing rather than harvesting, they’ll have significant tonnages to 100 years old.”

The retirement venture has certainly kept

them busy. They farm 100 composite ewes which they breed from with a Texel ram.

Focus on trees For the tree side of the operation, they have planted most of land in eucalyptus totaling 44ha, one hectare of beech and kauri, half a hectare of totara, five hectares of poplars, one hectare of redwoods, and two hectares of Douglas fir. In addition, they have a hectare of native plantings in two different blocks.

“It has cost $2000/ha to plant eucalyptus, which includes the trees, pre-planting and post planting spray. Poplar poles are the much cheaper option, as I cut my own poles.”

The carbon unit price is $76/tonne for any tree whether that be pine or hardwood and Alistair admits the Minister for Climate Change would be comfortable to see prices above $100/tonne.

“I don’t see much downside for the carbon price, unless a world war or something like that. While ETS is at a high price, I won’t be logging them.”

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"I do acknowledge that things that go up can come down... our policy from now on is to cash the credits in each year.”

Alistair has also invested in a significant number of poplar poles.

Eucalyptus not pine What steered Alistair towards eucalyptus was the shorter harvest time as these trees can be milled six years earlier than pine, and the uses for the timber are growing with options in fence posts, the pulp industry, and there is research into flooring options.

“It’s also being used for feed stock in heating systems instead of coal because it’s a renewable energy.”

The oldest area of trees is the eucalyptus block that was planted in 2016, which Alistair had initially planned to thin and harvest in 25 years, but will now take carbon credits and leave the trees standing

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in the meantime.

To sell for carbon under ETS, a farm must be registered with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), as a carbon forest in fiveyear tranches and carbon credits must be claimed every five years.

Trees must be at least one-hectare blocks, shelter belts do not count unless they are greater than 30 metres wide, and the land must be planted in a species that will grow at least five metres tall when mature.

“Manuka will grow this tall in the North Island, but not always necessarily in the South Island.”

Under these rules, Alistair said claiming carbon credits on the one hectare of native

trees poses a complication because they were planted more than five years ago and are less than one hectare.

Look-up tables supplied by MPI are used to measure areas of trees under 100ha, and over 100ha they must be measured every five years to calculate tonnage. There is only one table for all hardwood across all of NZ, and prices are the same for poplars and eucalyptus.

Also under ETS, trees must be on land that was not forest at the beginning of 1990, and this must be proved through photos or other solid evidence.

The canopy must cover at least 30% of the land area when mature, Alistair has planted poplars to fit this bill.

To work best within the rules, Alistair has focused on eucalyptus nitens and some poplars.

“They are idiot-proof, and grow easily.”

From 2023 some rules are changing and blocks planted from then will sit under the ‘averaging regime,’ meaning carbon credits can be claimed for the first 15 years from landowners and the government gets the credits for the second half of the 30-year rotation.

“This means when the trees are harvested farmers don’t have to repay any carbon credits.”

It’s a gamble Alistair said it’s dangerous ground when the Government sets the rules, and can change them at any time, thus creating uncertainty.

“I do acknowledge that things that go up can come down. At the moment it is pretty good, but our policy from now on is to cash the credits in each year.”

He believes new forests will not be milled for timber, but if carbon dropped back, people would register out of ETS. “It is a real gamble, taking into account maintenance costs like pruning also add up.

But whatever happens in the long term, we will always have trees in the ground.”

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ENVIRONMENT Solar power

SOLAR VISION Following a boom overseas, the power of the sun is about to be captured by Kiwi farmers.

By Delwyn Dickey.

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C

oming late to the party with energy generated from solar farming could give New Zealand the opportunity to avoid some issues that have cropped up overseas, and integrate the structures more smoothly into our commercial rural landscapes.

The increase in solar farms around the globe is leading to a new type of farming – agrivoltaics – running livestock, usually sheep, under the photovoltaic panels as well as cropping.

Incorporating farming operations under the panels is being seen more often and is

becoming a stipulation for more local body resource consents. In countries like Japan, with limited land, they now go hand-in-hand with 120 different crops grown under the panels.

There is much to appreciate as the photovoltaic panels silently harvest energy from the sun and pump it into national grids, as the world moves toward a zero carbon future. But they have also come in for criticism from some farmers and environmentalists. Some large utility solar farms overseas have been described as ecological wastelands, with spraying or mowing to keep weeds down and little biodiversity going on under them. Placing them on undeveloped land has seen the shading damaging native ecosystems.

The preferred option is to put the solar farms on ‘brownfields’ – previously developed land that is underused like old mining areas or has issues with toxic residue from industry.

Possibly the most famous is a 1MW plant

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Opposite page: The phase one build of Kowhai Park, next to Christchurch airport.

Left: Farm renewables consultant Karin Stark, seen here with daughter Noa Elder, owns the biggest solar/diesel irrigation system in Australia.

Having crops and pasture under the panels raises moisture levels and cools the panels. Studies several years ago by the universities of Arizona and Maryland found evaporation from the crops below, kept the panels 9C cooler and increased their energy generation by 2%.

Meanwhile, the soil under the panels retains about 300% more water with crops, depending on the species, up to three times more productive with the shade, and water consumption reduced by nearly 160%. developed by Solar Chernobyl, just 100 metres from the giant metal dome sealing the remains of the nuclear power plant which suffered a catastrophic meltdown in 1986. Radiation contamination means land in the area can’t be used for agriculture, and there are plans to expand the operation to 100MW. But good quality agricultural land falling out of production has been one of the biggest bugbears of local rural communities as arrays have been built in the countryside.

The best places to site solar are often the best places for farming. Flat land close to urban areas which can hook into transmission networks.

Incorporating farming under the panels could be a win-win.

Solar panels operate better in cooler conditions – one of the most efficient is a floating array that sits on an alpine lake in the Swiss mountain village of Bourg-SaintPierre, which is 1810m above sea level.

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“The best places to site solar are often the best places for farming. Flat land close to urban areas which can hook into transmission networks.”

Sheep also appreciate the shade and are able to graze areas it would be hard for mowers to reach.

This coexistence has seen the rise of solar grazers - sheep farmers whose whole operation consists of running flocks under the panels often on multiple solar farms.

In the United States they have their own association. But the big power companies aren’t the only ones interested in solar arrays.

While about 35% of generated power globally comes from big solar farms, owned and operated by commercial power companies, the rest are smaller community and private use installations.

While 12 of the large utility scale systems in Australia use grazing under panels, says Karin Stark director of Farm Renewables Consulting, many more farmers are using solar to help keep their own costs down, running sheep under their own arrays.

“It’s all sheep grazing, Merinos in particular seem to go well with solar,” she says.

“There haven’t been many cropping systems under solar panel trials in Australia yet, but AgVic (Agriculture Victoria) is doing a pear orchard trial which should be interesting.”

Australia’s largest solar/diesel irrigation pump was installed on Karin’s New South Wales farm, in 2018. Along with running a Renewables in Ag conference each year Karin is also part of a consortium led by the Queensland Farmers Federation, investigating how microgrids can benefit agriculture as part of a federally funded project.

Panels must be higher for cattle Running cattle under solar is still largely at a research stage. The panels have to be higher off the ground and more robust. Not just because cattle are much bigger animals and like to rub on structures, but also higher

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In Japan 120 different crops are raised under solar.

panels are exposed to higher winds.

Designing systems specifically with agrivoltaics in mind – both livestock and cropping – is behind solar energy startup Wynergy, at Tamworth, NSW. This sees rows widened from 5-6m to 10-12m to allow for ease of movement and machinery, with panels raised from 1.2-1.5m up to 2.2m, founder Ben Wynn advises.

System components come from United States company Nextracker, and Soltec in Spain.

Ben has designed a system locally that sees cattle running under panels used to power irrigation.

Irrigation is one of the areas Canterburybased start-up Solagri Energy will also be looking at in the future, managing director Peter Saunders says.

The company is looking at a production system specifically aimed at reducing power costs, and continuity of electricity supply, to dairy farm milking sheds.

They’ve just finished an 18-month pilot on Canterbury dairy farmer Richard Stalker’s dairy shed to prove the concept.

While cattle, goats and horses couldn’t

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be run under the panels, one of Richard’s farm workers ran ewes under the array periodically, he says.

Planting alyssum (gardeners may recognise these white flowered plants) or other low-growing plants that will attract bees, but also reflect light up under the panels, is one thing they have in mind.

“We are using bifacial panels which will absorb light from underneath and generate a little more electricity from that,” he says.

They are dealing straight with the manufacturers for their arrays including buying their panels from Jinko Solar in China.

“The technology is advanced, but the model is pretty simple,” says Peter. “Farmers provide us with a small parcel of land, about a quarter of a hectare, where we build the solar array.

In return, they receive solar electricity generated on their own farm at a fixed price for 20 years. There is zero capital cost to the farmer, any unused power will supply the local grid.”

“Solar arrays in our rural networks will improve onfarm economics and network

resilience. It will help farmers prepare for the electric vehicle future and contribute to NZ’s zero-carbon goals,” Peter says.

Ten Canterbury dairy farmers have already signed up with installation of the first array planned to go in the ground in April, he says.

Ultimately Peter expects to have a community of farmers in each of the main dairy areas of the country. A recently approved grant from Callaghan Innovation will also help them develop a battery energy management system which they hope to have up and running within 18 months.

This will see battery power kick in seamlessly if the power goes off - no more cups falling off cows or unfinished milkings.

Future projects include working with irrigation.

Like Karin’s set-up in NSW, high electricity demands of irrigation systems relying on pumping in Canterbury, mostly south of the Rakaia River, is an area Peter sees a real need for solar.

“They’ve got a real problem,” he says.

“The networks struggle during the summer months to provide enough electricity for

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Top: Canterbury-based Solagri Energy plans on installing no-upfront cost solar arrays to power milking sheds. Above: Running sheep under solar panels is the most common form of agrivoltaics.

some of the bigger pumps. It’s costing farmers a lot more to run those pumps because of that.”

The first solar park was installed in California in 1982 with an output of 1 megawatt (MW) – enough to power about 160 homes. There are now more than 9000 around the world producing over 4MW with the biggest single park producing over 1170MW, although clusters of parks around access points into energy networks can produce much more than that.

Panels aren’t forever Land used for solar farms isn’t lost forever, rather land leases generally last between 20 to 30 years. At the end of that time the infrastructure can be removed or new panels put in place.

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The panels are still operating at 85% capacity after 20-25 years. While they will still have 10 or so years of life left in them, from a commercial perspective they have reached the end of their productive life.

Todd Corporation – think natural gas - is behind the Kapuni Solar Power Plant opening last year in South Taranaki. Built by Sunergise the 5800 photovoltaic (PV) panels can produce enough electricity to power 500 homes. They have several other plants planned. Sheep are run under their arrays.

Far North Solar Farms has built the $30 million Pukenui power station on 12 hectares on the Aupouri Peninsula. The 32,000 panels generate 16MW — enough to power about 3000 homes, and run sheep under the panels.

The company plans on building further

arrays that will have a combined output of 1000MW (1 gigawatt), in the next five to eight years.

Meridian Energy plans to build a solar farm connected to a grid-connected battery energy storage system (BESS) at least 100MW in capacity on 105 hectares next to the Marsden Point refinery, south of Whangarei.

This should provide enough electricity for 15,000 households.

They also have several other solar parks planned. Running livestock is also a possibility here but not settled yet. While they don’t have a policy on use of livestock on current and future solar arrays an agrivoltaic approach will be considered.

Australian company Solar Bay is investing $100m in a 150MW array next to Christchurch Airport.

Initially covering 220ha, this first phase of Kowhai Park will provide enough power for 30,000 homes.

There is room for it to eventually expand the array along with other initiatives, like green hydrogen, including green data centres and vertical farming within the 400ha site. While still in its early stages and partners are being sought, agrivoltaics could well be part of the mix.

In northern Waikato, Waikato Solar Farms, owned by UK-based Island Green Power is going through the resource consent stage to build a $100m solar farm over 380ha leasing agricultural land from farmers in Waiterimu. This would see enough energy supplied to power up to 40,000 households.

It’s uncertain if running livestock is being considered.

Lodestone Energy is looking at solar farms in five locations from Kaitaia and Dargaville, Waiotahe Valley, east of Whakatane, Whitianga, and Edgecumbe where that site will also supply power to local residents and industry including the Fonterra dairy plant.

In total they will cover 500ha and produce enough energy to power 50,000 homes. Taking good quality farm land out of production is always going to be unpopular and dual land use will likely be an easier sell for rural people.

Ultimately how successful agrivoltaics will be in NZ may well come down to how willing energy companies are to adopt dual land use and local councils insisting on it during the consenting process.

• First published in NZ Dairy Exporter February 2022.

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Catering for glampers Identifying the target market and providing what it wants is essential for farmers wishing to diversify into the accommodation business. By Lynda Gray.

Rocky Ridge Hut at Dunback in East Otago.

O

nfarm accommodation is potentially a great way to diversify your income, but you have to know exactly who your target market is, and what they are looking for.

That’s the advice of Canopy Camping (canopycamping.co.nz) a booking website for glamping-type and back-to-nature escapes throughout the country.

Liz Henderson co-founder of Canopy Camping says there are numerous farm cottages around New Zealand for people to rent. But in order to get great occupancy and a decent price owners need to create something that's special on the farm with the “wow” factor, She says operators need to know what their target market likes, “...things like outdoor baths, contemporary decor, and 'surprise and delight' touches are all crucial to the success of your

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PURPOSE-BUILT, ONFARM TOURIST ACCOMMODATION What to consider: Take time to pick the right location with good shelter that’s accessible for guests and to water.

Think through the design before getting into the details. Changes and alterations to building plans eat into the budget.

Be aware of council and building compliance and regulations.

accommodation business.”

She says a genuine desire to welcome and host people on a farm was important.

About half of Canopy Camping’s escape destinations are on working farms, and includes Rob Hewett and Helena Robinson who own Rocky Ridge Hut at Dunback in East Otago, an easy hour’s drive from Dunedin. They’ve identified their target market – couples wanting timeout and away from the busy-ness of everyday routine – catering for them with a simple yet stylish cabin with a perfectly placed outdoor hot tub and a telescope indoors for stargazing.

They charge out the stylish and well-appointed accommodation for two from $280 per night.

The couple promote their accommodation exclusively through Canopy Camping whom they’ve found excellent to deal with.

“They were very helpful throughout the

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building process and even looked over our plans before we started building,” Rob says.

It took the couple three years to follow through on their idea of purpose-built, selfcontained accommodation on Rob’s family sheep and cattle farm at Dunback. He started mulling over the idea during backpacking and travels overseas which included staying in some character cottages and accommodation.

On return home in 2017 Rob realised just how special the environment in which he’d grown up was, motivating him and Helena to run with the accommodation idea.

“We had a rough idea on design, we wanted big windows at the front with a couple of rooms, but soon realised that even with a small hut the expenses soon mount up.”

They decided to bite the bullet then “stumbled in the dark”.

“We had a rough idea on design, we wanted big windows at the front with a couple of rooms, but soon realised that even with a small hut the expenses soon mount up.”

The pre-build work took about 18 months and included compliance and extra box-ticking they hadn’t anticipated such as the checking of soil stability and structural engineering reports to ensure any building would stand the rigours of a high wind and high snow loading area. The resource consenting process was a protracted exercise due to the farm’s location within a designated ‘rural scenic area’.

Helena Robinson with Walter, and Rob Hewett at Rocky Ridge.

Exactly where to build on the family farm took a long time to decide. About half a dozen sites were shortlisted and the chosen one is high on a hill with views of the Kakanui mountain range, private but easily accessed off the road to Macraes.

A local builder constructed the 57 square metre hut over two months and Rob helped out where he could. The couple funded the building with a 15% deposit and borrowed the rest. The hut was finished just before the first lockdown of March 2020.

Rob says they’re “stoked” with the look and feel of the hut, and the almost constant occupancy. The only downside is the constant cleaning and hut prep which takes longer than anticipated. However, they plan to employ someone for cleaning duties when a second hut is built at another secluded spot on the farm.

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SOLUTIONS

The Solocator App not only records an image, but the direction and GPS coordinates. Swipe right and it also shows the spot on a map where the photo was taken, and what area it covered.

Handy field camera BY: JOANNA GRIGG

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he Solocator app doesn’t just take a photo. It takes a photo showing the direction, the GPS location, time taken and the spot on the map.

This GPS field camera app costs $1.69 and can be downloaded to android or Apple smartphones.

One really useful application is photographing weed patches out on the hill, to be collated for the spraying contractor. The files can be shared in a way so they show up as way points on a map.

The app is recommended by many forestry consultants for farmer clients gathering tree samples for Emissions Trading Scheme applications. The photos can be used to prove the position of trees and indication of the site. A whole album of photos can be uploaded to DropBox, for example, then imported into a digital map.

No sorting required.

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The GPS coordinates on the photo prove the position. Forestry consultants can charge $120 to $150/hour to do this job so farmers can save by gathering the data themselves.

It’s handy to build historical records of the farm over time or gather information for audits. For example, a photo can prove that winter break feeding grazing was done correctly by a time-dated image of the block at feeding.

Ditch GPS, use phone It’s quick and cheap to use a smartphone as a GPS. For $5.99 the New Zealand Topo maps app pro can be downloaded to a smartphone (2021 Atlogis version). It downloads to android best but Apple phones can use the very similar NZ Topo50 offline app created by Land Information New Zealand (LINZ). The options are either North or South Island maps ($5.99 each).

The apps give a detailed topographic map on a phone and locate where you are by connecting to at least 35 satellites overhead.

They can measure distances and heights, record tracks and mark important features.

Onfarm uses are endless. Waypoints can be added to the map, either while you are standing on the spot, or imported as a file.

Weed patches can be quickly marked on a map, and then the waypoints exported to the spraying contractor. The files can be in GPX, KML, KMZ or CSV format. In other words – a great range of file types. They can be texted, emailed or sent via WhatsApp within seconds.

Broken wires needing repairs can be pinpointed with accuracy. Pasture sampling sites, or water quality testing sites can all be added as waypoints. Records of farm pipes and other underground infrastructure can be ‘GPSed’ into a map and saved.

A route between two points can be stored on the map. This could show the best access way to a site, or to help new shepherds know where to start mustering on a block and the best route through it. For health and safety, it could mark hazards that someone needs to go back to attend to.

It states the distance to a certain spot and indicates which direction to walk in to get there, using the compass. It is useful for monitoring and farm records. Landowners needing to measure regenerating forest or prove evidence of tree cover for example, will find it straightforward to get to allocated way points. When used in conjunction with the Solocator app, a photo of the phone screen with the GPS coordinates, alongside a tree stump, is enough to prove that the tree is in the required location.

Some of the old handheld GPS only pick up 12 satellites. Most Smartphones will pick up 35 satellites, making it accurate and quick to locate where you are. Just make sure you are standing outside.

Save on phone power by running on airplane mode. No internet or cell phone connection is needed.

Overlay maps are available including open hunting areas, DOC huts and tracks.

It’s worth buying a version as the free versions can be limited (e.g. only three waypoints and no route recording or importing of waypoints).

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Berry offers hope for diabetics AN INTERNATIONAL CLINICAL trial testing a molecule found in New Zealand blackcurrants may offer hope for thousands of Kiwis living with diabetes and associated metabolic disorders.

An estimated 5% of the NZ population has type 2 diabetes with this prevalence expected to increase to 7% (430,000) within the next two decades.

Dr Jian Guan, an Auckland University scientist considered the world’s leading expert on cyclic Glycine-Proline (cGP) research, says cGPMax will be tested in an open-label trial among a group of diabetic participants living with a range of metabolic syndromes.

The patient trial is now underway at a university-affiliated hospital in China using cGP derived from NZ blackcurrants at a Canterbury production facility.

The aim of the trial is to establish the efficacy of the natural form of cGP on type 2 diabetes associated with dyslipidemia, hypertension, peripheral neuropathy, retinopathy and kidney dysfunction.

“Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of disorders resulting from poor metabolism, including hyperglycaemia, high blood pressure, poor insulin function and

excessive LDL cholesterol.

“There is a strong correlation between poor metabolism, heart disease, cancer and premature death.

“The trial, which is expected to be completed later this year, will investigate whether consumption of the natural form of cGP can improve blood pressure, cholesterol, and complications from diabetes including poor eye function and nerve damage,” she says.

Dr Guan who has studied cGP for over 30 years at Auckland University says feedback from those taking non-synthetic cGP as a supplement for brain health suggest it may assist with other conditions.

Wool farmers urged to take ‘simple step’ SHEEP FARMERS REGISTERED under the New Zealand Farm Assurance Programme (NZFAP) for their meat production are urged to add their wool specification sheet.

“This makes sure our farmers’ beautiful wool can be branded and marketed under this important new quality standard,” explains Campaign for Wool NZ Trust Chair Tom O’Sullivan.

“It provides assurances to consumers across the globe that our wool is produced with integrity, traceability, and animal health and welfare top of mind.”

He says many farmers already signed up to the programme for their meat operation,

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may have neglected to include their assurance code on their wool specification to ensure it is sold and promoted as NZFAP certified.

The wool industry adopted the NZFAP as a national standard for wool in September 2021. O’Sullivan says although there’s been an increase in farmers including their NZFAP assurance code on their wool specification sheet in recent months, there is still a long way to go.

He says there is no additional cost to farmers. When the NZFAP auditors visit a farm, wool is automatically included in the audit process.

Protecting bees from killer mites THE PARASITIC MITE VARROA destructor is a severe threat to New Zealand’s honey bees. Since the mite appeared on our shores twenty years ago, affected bees have not been able to survive without human intervention.

Effective treatment for varroa is essential for protecting our most productive pollinators.

More bee colonies are now being lost due to varroa mites than any other cause, according to the latest Ministry for Primary Industries annual bee surveillance report. This was the first time in the survey's history that the mite had been most frequently attributed to colony losses, with queen problems previously being considered the leading cause.

“Varroa wiped out wild bee colonies as it spread throughout the country, so it’s essential that beekeepers remain highly vigilant, check for its presence and treat hives with miticides - at the right time and with the right dose,” Agcarm chief executive Mark Ross says.

Miticides aren’t sprayed on bees.

Rather, plastic strips are inserted into hives.

“The bees walk on the strips, get the material into their body and it kills the mites,” Ross explains. “It’s also important to get the timing and dose of the treatment right.”

A good guide is to follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

MPI has commissioned Landcare Research to conduct a colony loss survey annually since 2015, to help it monitor losses over time and support work to improve bee health.

The 2021 winter survey, which involved nearly half of New Zealand's beekeepers, found the overall loss rate to be 13.6%, or about 109,800 colonies, up 2.3% on 2020 levels.

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FARMING IN FOCUS

Top left: Charolais bulls on Adam and Linda Thompson’s diversified beef operation at Te Miro, near Cambridge. Top right: Native plant seedlings in Adam’s Restore Native Plant Nursery. Above: Adam has invested in automation and upgraded infrastructure to double production in the nursery.

Centre left: Adam Thompson: “We’re blessed that we’re dealing with progressive farmers who want to get more out of their land.”

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Top left: Possum damage to swedes on West Otago farmer Sam Barton’s farm. Top right: Sam and his wife Liz, with children Angus and Hattie.

Above: Lochy and Tom Tylee looking across the valley at Te Rata on the family’s farm in north Wairarapa. Centre left: R3 steers on Appin.

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While you kick back, know your ewes and their lambs will be looked after with the benefits of BIONIC Plus, the reliable combination worming capsule with 100 days protection.

Together with this ultimate DOMETIC Cool-Ice Box, time will be on your side.

Ensure young stock become future high producers through improved health, growth and energy at:

futureproducers.co.nz 92

So, talk with your vet clinic about how to get your FREE * DOMETIC Cool-Ice Box with purchases of BIONIC Plus sheep capsules this season. *Only while stocks last. Promotion runs from 1st May to 30th September 2022.

PROUDLY AVAILABLE FROM YOUR LOCAL PARTICIPATING VETERINARY CLINIC Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health New Zealand Limited. Level 3, 2 Osterley Way, Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand. BIONIC® is a registered trade mark of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH, used under license.

Registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997, No. A011825. See product label for full claim details and directions for use. © Copyright 2022 Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health New Zealand Limited. All rights reserved. NZ-OVI-0019-2022.

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