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Volume 48 I March 22, 2021 I email: agined@globalHQ.co.nz I w w w.farmersweekly.co.nz The first New Zealand Rural Games Secondary Schools Shearing Championship Wairarapa boys school Rathkeale College won the first New Zealand Rural Games Secondary Schools Shearing Championship in Palmerston North on March 13. Rathkeale College has recently made shearing one of the core sports of its curriculum. The team of five beat four other schools, with Feilding Agricultural High School the runner-up, followed by New Plymouth, Napier and Palmerston North boys’ high schools.
The winning team of Michael Buick, Sam Mathewson, Sam Loder, Charlie Heard and Liam Quirke.
STRETCH YOURSELF:
Have a go: 1 Go to www.farmersweekly.co.nz 2 Find and watch the OnFarmStory of Niamh Barnett “It’s pretty cool and I want in” and read the article “Breeding is in the family blood”. 3 Which type of cattle do the Barnett’s breed ? 4 Where in NZ is Te Mangahuia Station?
1 Niamh has a long family history of breeding Hereford cattle. In 2018 she attended a herd dispersal sale and said that “it was her first real look at EBV’s”. What are EBV's and what use are they to breeders and/or potential purchasers? 2 How big is the Barnetts farm? How many stock units do they winter? 3 Apart from the Hereford cattle, what else do they farm? What does Niamh’s mother Lyn breed? What are some characteristics of this breed? 4 Their commercial cows are mixed breed. “Some are put over Herefords and others over Gelbvieh and Shorthorn for hybrid vigour”. What is hybrid vigour? How does this benefit the animals? 5 How many cattle comprise Niamh’s Hereford stud?
SUMMER ENDS FOR THE SECOND TIME! It's the end of Summer (yes, for the second time in a month!). The Autumn Equinox is this Saturday and is a precise point in time (10:37pm this year!). After this moment the nights in the Southern Hemisphere become longer than the days. Put another way, the next 6 months have the least amount of available sunlight compared to the last 6 months. The earth's tilting and rotation around the sun is called the "Astrological Calendar" and based on this calendar summer ends Saturday March 20th. On the meteorological calendar (more often used in NZ) Autumn already started March 1st. Both dates are true and it's up to you to decide which one you prefer - neither is "official". The longest day of the year was in December, this Saturday's Equinox is halfway between the longest day of the year and the shortest day of the year. What month has the shortest day of the year in NZ? The equinox means equal length daylight and darkness. Visit www.RuralWeather.co.nz and scroll down the page to "Sun and Moon". Note the sunrise and sunset times for your location. What are they? Notice how the day is almost exactly 12 hours long? Finally the 1600km length of NZ means that the top of NZ has different sunrise and sunset times to the south of NZ. Compare northern Kaitaia to southern Invercargill at www.RuralWeather.co.nz Who has the earliest sunrise right now and the latest sunset?
This table shows a selection of data from the Wellsford Weaner Heifer Fair.
Have a go: 1 Which line of heifers made the top per head price? 2 Which breed were they? What are some beneficial characteristics of this breed?
STRETCH YOURSELF: 1 Calculate the missing $/kg values 2 Which line of heifers made the top $/kg value? 3 Which breed had higher $/kg values than other breeds? 4 Why would that breed be more desirable than something like a Hereford-Friesian? Do you have a question about New Zealand’s sheep and beef market? Send it in to us at agined@globalhq.co.nz and we may get one of our analysts to answer it!
Got your own question about how the weather works? Ask Phil! Email phil@ruralweather.co.nz with your question and he could answer it on the Weather Together podcast!