DROUGHT conditions across much of the North Island and parts of the South Island have been described by a prominent Taranaki farmer as the driest since the 1970s.
Dairy farmer Shane Ardern said conditions surpass the memorable droughts of the mid-2000s and 2016-2017.
Pasture growth rates are “virtually zero” and there is little left.
The former MP, who farms west of Ōpunake, close to the coast of Taranaki, said the whole coastal strip from Ōkato south to Hāwera is affected.
The only areas not as badly impacted are around the foot of the mountain.
Many of the dairy farmers in the area are now on once-a-day milking, taking the gloss off the record milk prices farmers are receiving.
“It’s an irony that when you get a good milk price, you don’t get a good season. It’s going to have an economic impact as it’s starting to really hurt in some cases,” Ardern said.
The lack of rainfall prompted Agriculture Minister Todd McClay to classify drought conditions in the Northland, Waikato, Horizons,
and Marlborough-Tasman regions as a medium-scale adverse event.
He also extended the Taranaki declaration made in late February.
Ardern said while there is a high degree of resilience among farmers, the sector has only just climbed out of a period of tight economic conditions – and is now being smacked with a drought.
“It’s starting to have a toll. The younger guys that are the future of the industry are starting to question the reason why they decided to be farmers.”
The region’s Federated Farmers president, Leedom Gibbs, said the situation is growing increasingly grim.
“Every day is a day closer to rain, but every day is a day without rain as well. We’re in a situation now where we really need prolonged rain.”
An entire change in the weather pattern is needed.
While generally farmers are still feeling positive because of high commodity prices, she urged any farmers struggling to reach out and speak to the Rural Support Trust.
Eltham sheep, beef and dairy support farmer David Turner said while his farm is not as badly impacted as those on the coast, the dry weather is beginning to really bite.
“Every three or four days we’re deteriorating.”
page 3
Dairy farmer and former MP Shane Ardern says the dry conditions on his farm, west of Ōpunake, have surpassed the memorable droughts of the mid-2000s and 2016-2017. While there is plenty of resilience among farmers, the sector has only just climbed out of a period of tight economic conditions – to find itself smacked with a drought.
Photo: Charlotte Curd Photography
Two heads are better than one
The Guild brothers, who run High Peak Station in Rakaia, approach their business model by using the farming knowledge of Hamish, right, and Simon’s marketing experience to make the most profitable use of their land.
SHEEP & BEEF 17-23, DEER 24
Enough talking about gene tech, writes William Rolleston.
15
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Focus
17-24
News in brief Farmer jailed
A Rangitīkei farmer has been jailed and disqualified from being in charge of animals indefinitely over the preventable deaths of lambs and sheep.
Peter James Valentine, 63, was sent to prison for 28 months on 12 charges under the Animal Welfare Act.
The Ministry for Primary Industries said three of these charges were wilful illtreatment of animals – the most serious level under the Act.
Imports suspended
Fiji’s Biosecurity Authority has suspended imports of brassica vegetables, such as cabbage, celery and lettuce, from New Zealand.
GET ALONG: James Meager says that, having met with Federated Farmers and Southland Fish & Game, he is urging all sides to get on with the job of enabling New Zealanders to go hunting and fishing.
The manager for plant exports at the Ministry for Primary Industries, Shane Olsen, said the suspension – which came into force on February 24 – was as a result of the detection of pests and soil on products.
Climber on top
World champion tree climber Steph Dryfhout has been named Ford Supreme New Zealand Rural Sportsperson. Dryfhout’s outstanding achievements also earned her the RX Plastics New Zealand Rural Sportswoman of the Year title, making the gala dinner in Feilding a night for the Feilding expat to remember.
Royale recognition
High-performance Merino wool outdoor designer clothing company Mons Royale has earned global recognition with two major international award wins.
Wānaka-based Mons Royale’s Diversion Merino trail pant and Diversion Merino wind jacket secured category wins at the ISPO Awards, which are recognised as the gold standard in the apparel industry.
‘Confront drought reality to survive it’
Gerald Piddock NEWS Weather
DROUGHT-stricken farmers must face up to uncomfortable truths if they are to manage their way through this situation, Total Ag farm consultant Rob Macnab says.
Ignoring it and treating it a “typical dry” and not adjusting farm management practices are the worst things farmers can do, he said during a seminar at Huntly organised by Beef+Lamb New Zealand on surviving the dry.
Farmers need to own the situation because it is happening and livestock condition is already starting to be impacted.
“Everyone in this room is heavily invested in the welfare of their animals and unfortunately, stock welfare is beginning to suffer.”
He reminded farmers that their friends, neighbours and wider
Continued from p1
Feed levels are starting to run short and the paddocks have lost any green tinge, but fortunately there is plenty of supplementary feed around with the maize harvest underway.
Earlier in the season his lambs were hitting their target weights, but those that were remaining will be gone as soon as possible as the focus turns to next season and preserving the condition of his capital stock.
“Anything that’s not capital stock we’ll look at unloading.”
In Northland, Mid North Farms chief executive Chris Neil said its Matauri Bay farm has just started autumn calving and is in good shape with better than budgeted feed reserves. The cows are in targeted condition and there is
community are going through the drought as well.
“They are going through all of this, the same as you are. Talking to one another will give you a lot more fortitude to carry through.”
Farmers also need to make sure they take time out for themselves and their family.
Be tough on what your best return on feed is.
Total Ag
“What you do when it rains will set you up not only for this year, but the following year and the years after that.”
No one ever regretted making an early drought decision, he said.
“Act early and it’s never too late.”
When the grass supply stops growing, the only way to act is to either increase supply by bringing
sufficient grass to start the season.
However, its farms in the Mangakahia Valley are very dry with little pasture growth. Its silage just finished but production is holding to plan thanks to imported feed.
“Overall, we’re managing okay.”
In King Country, Waikato Federated Farmers meat and wool chair Reon Verry said it has yet to really rain in 2025.
“What little rain we have had has been blown away by windy days.”
His said his biggest concern is ewe condition with tupping fast approaching.
“We’re heading into tupping time for sheep. Do you go early while they are still in good condition, or do you wait until your normal waiting date in the knowledge that things might be
in feed or to lower demand – and that meant allocation or removal of stock and prioritising stock for next year’s production. For sheep and beef farmers, this is their ewes and beef cows.
That means running a hand down the animal’s back when condition scoring rather than just visually judging them.
“Be tough on what your best return on feed is. Make sure you are feeding the small amount of feed available to the stock that’s going to return something as long as it adds to next year’s production.”
He also recommended updating the budget and showing it to the bank manager.
Farmers will also be paid back if they leave feed behind – so avoid overgrazing and never set stock on a paddock because when it does rain, the pasture recovery lag will be much longer.
He suggested making a list of options and writing them down.
worse than they are now?”
In the South Island, parts of Nelson and Tasman are in the
This gives farmers the chance to review, plan and share that list.
Never let a good drought go to waste, he said.
“Farmers learn from adversity, so put some things in the bank from this spell that you can take into the next dry spell.”
grips of drought for the second successive summer.
Murchison, St Arnaud, Nelson
Macnab said farmers should plan now for when the drought ends.
Farms will be in a feed deficit and building up feed reserves for lambing once pastures recover is one of the most important things farmers can do.
Lakes and the West Coast districts of Karamea, Buller and the Grey Valley have essentially not had any rain since Christmas.
Last year Tapawera, Central Tasman and Marlborough bore the brunt of the dry weather. Now, while dry, they are not yet in drought.
FarmWise Consultant Brent Boyce said rainfall was regular up to Christmas but since then little has fallen over large areas of the region.
A drought meeting was held last week in Murchison and the Rural Support Trust has been mobilised. Farmers are culling stock, drying off light or poor-performing cows and buying in feed.
With the start of the grape harvest, he said, farmers will welcome access to grape marc for stock feed.
WORSE: Dairy farmer Shane Ardern says many of the dairy farmers in the area are now on once-a-day milking, taking the gloss off the record milk prices farmers are receiving.
Photo: Charlotte Curd Photography
Rob Macnab
STITCH IN TIME: No one ever regretted making an early drought decision, Total Ag farm consultant Rob Macnab says.
Robyn Dynes receives Bledisloe Medal
Annette Scott PEOPLE Research
FARMING leader and principal scientist Dr Robyn Dynes is proof nothing beats experience.
From her own lambing beat as a young girl on the family farm in Southland to advising farmers on global trends, best practice and the latest science, the trailblazing farming systems scientist has done it all.
To top off her highly regarded career, Dynes has received Lincoln University’s highest accolade, the Bledisloe Medal, for her lead in multidisciplinary, agriculturefocused research and adoption programmes that are both science and industry leading.
Dynes has worked at AgResearch for more than 20 years with her applied science work having investigated flock efficiency, pasture quality, climate adaptation and greenhouse gas emissions.
More recently she led the Whitiwhiti Ora programme as part of the National Science Challenge – Our Land Our Water, looking at land use opportunities.
Uniquely, Dynes works across three agricultural sectors – arable, dairy, and sheep and beef.
She is on the board of the Foundation for Arable Research (FAR), FAR’s research and development and advisory group, Beef + Lamb NZ’s northern South Island farmer council, and is a member of the Southern Dairy Hub and Lincoln University dairy farm research advisory committees.
She said the Bledisloe Medal came as a “total surprise”.
“This is very much unexpected, but I feel very honoured.
“I’m just proud of what we have achieved.
“Winning the Bledisloe Medal is a thrill, fantastic for AgResearch, significant for applied science, and provided my colleagues and supporters with a sense of satisfaction that the work we do is making an impact,” Dynes said.
“I started my career in a different time. I stepped into a very maledominated workplace and at Lincoln we were about 25% of the class but probably only 15% of the university.
We need to create space for the voice of science when it comes to farming.
Dr Robyn
Dynes AgResearch
“I was born and bred to farming and worked shoulder to shoulder with my dad. My approach has always been to get involved.”
Passionate about agricultural research and deeply connected to industry, Dynes continually seeks to understand the challenges facing farmers and the role of science in working with those challenges.
She was brought up farming the rolling hill country at Arthurton in Southland.
“We were quite small when Mum died, and Dad’s belief girls could do anything meant I had my own lambing beat, I was feeding out hay by myself when I was 11 or 12, I was working in the shearing shed, I was crutching lambs.”
The family shifted to a mixed cropping farm near Methven when Dynes was a teenager.
Science was a natural fit for Dynes, who did her Honours degree at Lincoln College in equine reproduction.
“I was always fascinated by
science, and it was agricultural science that held my attention right from the start.”
Her first job was as an animal nutritionist for a poultry company.
“But I soon realised that being a poultry nutritionist was not my lifetime ambition and came back to Lincoln to do a PhD on the impact of gastrointestinal parasites on feed intake in lambs.”
Before that, she had toyed with the idea of becoming a driver in the standard-bred industry, which she was involved in as an amateur horse-racer and breeder.
It turned out that 1991 was a grim time to finish a PhD and look for work, with an unemployment rate in the country of 11.5%.
“I had a post-doc lined up at the University of Nottingham in the UK, but then fate intervened, and I got offered a permanent position with CSIRO Animal Production in Western Australia.”
That was the start of 14 years in Perth and working in a very different farming environment to Canterbury.
The work was varied but her experiences working with agronomists and hydrologists widened the way she thought about science.
On returning to NZ in 2004, she took up a role as a senior scientist in farm systems at AgResearch in Lincoln, where in her 20 years there she has moved from working in strategic science to more applied science.
“The world is changing and in the coming generation we will have an increasing diversity of proteins that people can choose from.
“NZ’s agricultural sectors first need to be profitable, and secondly, they need to produce food and fibre in a way that will be wanted by our global customers, because they don’t need what we
produce, but we need them to want it, and that’s an important difference.”
Dynes claimed good communication is the foundation that underpins a science career.
“We need to create space for the voice of science when it comes to farming and help the public understand the complexities and the challenges our rural communities face.”
Jordan joins Game Animal Council as CEO
Gerhard Uys PEOPLE Conservation
FISH & Game New Zealand chief executive Corina Jordan has resigned to take up the position of chief executive of the Game Animal Council.
Jordan will remain in her Fish & Game role for the next three months to support the organisation to deliver on key priorities and to transition to new leadership.
Jordan will have been in the role for two years and 10 months when she leaves on May 30.
Fish & Game New Zealand deputy chief executive Richie Cosgrove will lead the organisation in the interim.
Jordan told Farmers Weekly
she is proud to have built Fish & Game’s first organisational strategy and unifying values and developed a five-year implementation programme for the New Zealand Fish & Game Council.
“From advocating for licence holders, creating a pathway to modernisation of our licensing systems, through to establishing the ReWild brand campaign and fostering strong stakeholder relationships, my focus has been on ensuring Fish & Game remains relevant and resilient,” she said.
“Having strengthened the voice for hunters and anglers, built a high-performing team, and led significant organisational improvements, I feel the time is right to move on to my next challenge.”
LEADER: Dr Robyn Dynes is a regular visitor to farms in New Zealand, where she leads engagement, imparting and sharing scientific knowledge with farmers.
Photo: Supplied
Bank rules come with sting for farmers
FNigel Stirling NEWS Finance
ARMERS are being stung with interest rate increases three times greater than those facing other New Zealanders because of new Reserve Bank rules.
Appearing at the latest hearing of Parliament’s banking inquiry, BNZ chief executive Dan Huggins said rules requiring banks to hold enough shareholder capital to withstand a 1-in-200-year financial crisis are adding a full percentage point to interest rates for farmers. This was more than three times the average 30 basis points for all borrowers.
Committee member and ACT MP Mark Cameron said multiplied by $60 billion of farm loans, the cost to farmers is $600m annually, or $44,000 per farm.
The rules are due to be fully implemented by 2027.
Federated Farmers is among those hoping for a reversal of the controversial rules designed by former Reserve Bank governor Adrian Orr, who resigned recently two years into his second five-year term.
“The government has a plan to double the value of exports
COST: Committee member and ACT MP Mark Cameron says multiplied by $60bn of farm loans, the cost to farmers is $600m annually, or $44,000 per farm.
and that cannot happen under an ultra-conservative governor that is basically terrified of risk,”
Federated Farmers banking spokesperson Richard McIntyre said.
Since the new capital requirements began to be rolled out in 2019, the trading banks have complained that these, combined with higher risk weightings for
Caution urged on copper comms exit
Richard Rennie TECHNOLOGY Communications
THE head of the tech association TUANZ is calling for caution before copper lines are removed as a communication option for rural communities.
Lines company Chorus has already signalled its intention to end copper voice and broadband networks by late 2026 in areas where ultrafast broadband alternatives are offered. They will be gone entirely by 2030. Many urban areas have already removed the copper option, and Telecommunications Commissioner Tristan Gilbertson said the commission now sees a case for removal from rural areas. He said technological change has eroded the natural monopoly concerns that led to copper being regulated 20 years ago when it was the only way to provide
widespread phone and internet services.
TUANZ CEO Craig Young acknowledged the need to pick up on new tech but said with rural communities already facing the shutdown of the 3G mobile network this year, access may only be compromised further for rural users.
“The commission believes most rural users have up to three alternative providers, but we would like to analyse the data behind this claim to identify any gaps in coverage and capability,” he said.
In a draft recommendation to the government the commission has called for deregulation of the copper lines network, but Young said this could lead to affordability issues.
Last year Anna Mitchell, Chorus’s GM for fibre frontier services, told Farmers Weekly Chorus had a job ahead to win
hearts and minds in rural areas when removing the copper network.
The last Federated Farmers technology survey highlighted that 52% of respondents still had a landline, and 17% were still relying on copper for their internet.
Mitchell has acknowledged the need for Chorus to better educate rural customers on what their options are, something Young agrees with.
“We also stress the importance of a customer-centric approach to any transition.
“This means clear, transparent processes and a well-funded education programme to equip users with the knowledge and support they need,” said Young.
Chorus chief corporate and regulatory officer Julian Kersey said Chorus welcomes the commission’s draft recommendation to deregulate copper services.
rural loans, are forcing banks to slug farmers with higher interest rates than other borrowers just to maintain their returns on capital.
Orr hit back, suggesting the argument is a “fig leaf” for profiteering by the banks. He urged farmers to shop around for better deals.
However, Orr was on a collision course with Finance Minister Nicola Willis.
In December Willis wrote to the then governor instructing him to justify the risk weightings to ensure they reflected the actual risks to lenders.
McIntyre said current risk weights are unfairly skewed against rural borrowers.
“You can have 5% equity and be a first-time home buyer who is a new graduate and still considered to be less of a risk than a farm owner with a multimillion-dollar property and 90% equity.”
Massey University banking expert Claire Matthews said Willis’s power to veto recommendations by the Reserve Bank board for Orr’s replacement mean she will have significant sway over where bank capital rules are headed next.
She will, however, need to consider a range of factors, such as the candidate’s inflation-fighting credentials, and not just their views on how much capital banks should hold.
Asked whether he expects Willis to consult Federated Farmers on the suitability of candidates, McIntyre said the minister is already aware of its views.
“I am sure she will take that into account. She certainly did when she wrote a letter of expectations to the Reserve Bank governor and we fully support what she wrote then.”
Wools of NZ makes a modest profit
Neal Wallace NEWS Food and fibre
WOOLS of NZ has returned to profitability, turning around a $1.4 million loss in 2023 to report a modest $165,000 profit for the 2024 financial year.
Chair Richard Young said turnover for the two years was steady at $27.6m in 2024 ($27.3m in 2023).
He said the financial turnaround shows its strategy – of efficiently transacting wool sales and growing demand for wool carpets and commercial wool tiles – was working. Demand for its wool floor coverings has increased 25% in recent years.
“The last six months have seen wool prices increasing, and while wool prices remain well below where they need to be, it’s encouraging to see a positive trend.”
Young said in the past year, strong wool returns rose $1/kg, reaching $3.50/kg, almost double the 2021 price.
The volume of wool handled by WNZ is growing due to increased demand, falling sheep numbers and the reopening of the Napier wool scour, which has also helped improve supply chain efficiency.
Young said WNZ cannot take all the credit for that growing demand, but its strategy and rising awareness of wool’s benefits have both contributed.
One NZ Satellite TXT is here.
Living the rural dream? There’s a new way to help you keep in touch while living and working in rural New Zealand.
Whether you’ve got a fence down, livestock on the loose, or a flat tyre on the 4x4, you can use One NZ Satellite TXT to stay in contact while living or working in areas traditional cell towers don’t reach (around 40% of our land mass).*
Our nationwide satellite TXT service is the first of its kind in the world and promises to be a game-changer, helping Kiwi be safer, better connected and more productive.
To TXT in the middle of nowhere, you’ll need an eligible One NZ mobile plan and phone. Messages can take a few minutes to send and receive^ (they’ve got a long way to travel, to space and back!), but it’s worth it knowing you’ve got an additional layer of communication alongside existing safety devices you carry. Best of all, it won’t cost you extra to use it if you’re on an eligible One NZ plan.
One NZ Satellite TXT – helping you work smarter not harder on the farm, even if you’re down in the back paddock! Visit one.nz/SpaceX for more info.
RubyRed challenges faced head-on
Richard Rennie NEWS Horticulture
TRAY volumes of RubyRed kiwifruit are set to double this season as consumers develop a taste for the red variety, with Zespri and the Kiwifruit Breeding Centre committed to resolving some of the challenges the fruit continues to present to growers.
The latest kiwifruit cultivar in Zespri’s portfolio has been in development for over 20 years and has been well received in markets it has reached.
But, while its berry-like flavour is highly palatable, growers have faced issues with smaller fruit size, lower yields per hectare, and susceptibility to Psa in certain areas. Additionally, its shorter shelf life limits its export to closer Asian markets.
The Kiwifruit Breeding Centre, jointly owned by Plant and Food Research and Zespri and based in
Te Puke, is the hub for resolving some of those issues.
The centre’s chief commercial officer, Dr Bart Challis, said unlike SunGold, which followed a direct cultivar-to-concept approach, RubyRed may evolve through multiple cultivars.
“We run a continuous pipeline of cultivars, selecting from additional red varieties to make incremental improvements.”
In November, Zespri CEO Jason Te Brake reaffirmed the company’s commitment to RubyRed, despite sizing and storage challenges.
He highlighted ongoing trials
We run a continuous pipeline of cultivars, selecting from additional red varieties to make incremental improvements.
Dr Bart Challis Kiwifruit Breeding Centre
for a new cultivar with the potential to extend the shipping and retail window beyond eight weeks, complementing the current variety. With accelerated assessment, commercial availability could be possible within two years.
Challis said Psa’s emergence in 2010 meant breeders had to reset their breeding plan and incorporate greater Psa tolerance, delaying RubyRed’s commercial release.
The disease remains a significant challenge, prompting Zespri’s grower and industry engagement officer Tracy McCarthy to stress the importance of farm and sheltered sites for improved resistance.
“In partnership with growers, we have developed many management tools that work well on Red19 (RubyRed),” she said.
Challis believes RubyRed’s Psa tolerance has advanced beyond that of the varieties of competitors overseas.
solution may involve at least two cultivars.
POPULAR: The RubyRed kiwifruit is proving popular with consumers, and the focus for Zespri and the Kiwifruit Breeding Centre is on resolving some of its size, cropping and keeping issues.
Meantime, Zespri has temporarily suspended issuing new licensed areas for the fruit, pending an announcement in its five-year outlook plan later this year.
Finding the right balance for the fruit cultivar remains a priority to meet the needs of growers, consumers and the supply chain.
“That supply chain component is very much a New Zealand Inc issue, due to our distance to market,” Challis said.
“There’s no point in developing a fruit with great consumer appeal unless it can be delivered in good condition.”
He noted that relying on controlled atmosphere storage to extend shipping life affects
profitability, compared to breeding storage quality directly into the fruit. However, Zespri’s Global Supply agreements in the northern hemisphere could help address some of the distance challenge.
Growers have also raised concerns about RubyRed’s size – it is considerably smaller than SunGold and Green.
Challis hopes the precommercial trials of the new cultivar will provide more clarity on larger size potential.
With gene editing legislation now getting a government hearing, the technology could also prove a tool to help iron out some of the fruit’s issues.
Zespri and the centre support precision breeding tools in principle, but not gene modification that transfers genes between species.
Challis said the tech is also no
silver bullet and in the context of a 25-year breeding cycle the timelines are still considerable when employing it.
In response to claims that RubyRed struggles to crop with volume, he pointed to evidence that growers consistently achieve higher yields than trial crops.
Farmers Weekly confirmed some growers have exceeded 13,000 trays per hectare through strong cropping and management practices.
With over 50,000 hectares of red kiwifruit grown globally, particularly in China, a red kiwifruit’s place in consumer fruit bowls is well established.
“And RubyRed is commanding a very good premium despite global competition,” Challis said.
Grasslanz picks up supreme science award
Richard Rennie TECHNOLOGY Awards
AGRESEARCH’S commercial company Grasslanz Technology has claimed the supreme award in this year’s Science New Zealand awards, after coming top in the innovation and commercialisation category.
The award winners were announced in Wellington’s Parliament buildings last week.
This year’s theme was “Impacts for Aotearoa New Zealand”, recognising research driving innovation and tangible outcomes benefiting all New Zealanders.
The plant tech company was recognised for its efforts in focusing on solutions for farmers and growers, developing safe methods for enhancing plant growth, improving resilience and increasing pest and disease resistance.
Since its establishment in 2003 the company has overseen a raft of plant-based technology that has been successfully translated into commercial reality.
The AR37 endophyte that was
commercialised 20 years ago marked the start of its science-tofarmer success and is estimated to have contributed $3 billion to the NZ economy since that time. Overall it has generated 233 licences, 189 plant variety rights, 18 trademarks and 17 patents.
The judges noted Grasslanz Technology stood out because of its contribution to the growth of the New Zealand economy through excellent science directed to solve issues faced by the primary sector in an economically and environmentally sustainable fashion.
They said it reflected the core values of the organisations that make up Science New Zealand.
Megan Skiffington took up her position as the company’s new CEO in late February. She said a key part of the company’s success has been its ability to collaborate successfully to deliver outcomes with results for farmers and growers.
“What we are putting up is solutions to solve problems or to create opportunities, asking ‘How would farmers do better if this tool was implemented?’” she said.
The successful partnerships Grasslanz has enjoyed include with PGG Wrightson Seeds, and Skiffington said such relationships demand more than simply cash.
“It is not just dollars. It is understanding what our farmers are trying to do, and delivering solutions to achieve that, and having scientists that are not stuck just looking for the next thing to research.”
It is not just dollars. It is understanding what our farmers are trying to do, and delivering solutions to achieve that.
Megan Skiffington CEO Grasslanz
She also attributed the company’s success to her predecessor John Caradus for his commitment to agriculture and belief that good science can help farmers and growers do better.
Grasslanz has been involved in gene-editing research including on high tannin clover varieties being
trialled in Victoria, Australia.
Skiffington welcomed the legislative process now underway to free up research here. She said the opportunity to do more transparent GE work here would deliver crop and plant solutions developed, trialled and commercialised here, rather than overseas as has to be done now.
She said there is also more to expect coming out of the company’s endophyte research this year.
Work is also intensifying on biological crop treatments as older synthetic chemicals come to the end of their approved lifespan.
Other winners at the awards included now defunct Callaghan Innovation for its bioresource waste processing project in the Collaboration for Impact category.
The Early Career Researcher award was made jointly to GNS Science geologist Dr Genevieve Coffey and Dr Hilary Ireland, a Plant and Food Research molecular biologist developing coreless fruits that do not rely on insect pollinators.
She also hosts the Plant and Food Research Scigest podcast.
DEGREES: Rather than a one cultivar, one fruit, Dr Bart Challis of the Kiwifruit Breeding Centre says RubyRed’s
WINNER: Grasslanz CEO Megan Skiffington says the company’s researchers have always looked at solutions to make farmers and growers more productive and profitable.
Fish & Game outlines farmers’ duck options
Neal Wallace NEWS Pests
SOUTHERN farmers struggling with an explosion in the mallard duck population can seek approval for a cull or to disperse the birds, says Fish & Game New Zealand.
An exceptionally wet spring in Southland and parts of Otago provided ideal breeding conditions and promoted high survival rates among juvenile mallard ducks, which farmers say are decimating winter crops.
Wyndham farmer and Southland Federated Farmers meat and wool chair Ben Dooley said last week that ducks had eaten 85% of one of his swede crops and that bird numbers were out of control: “They’re everywhere.”
Provincial president Jason Herrick said farmers seeking dispensation from Fish & Game Southland to cull flocks on their land have had their request rejected.
They were told they could only shoot to scare, he said.
“Other farmers have heard about that response and decided to not apply.”
He has written to Fish & Game Southland saying it needs to acknowledge and act on the problem, noting provinces like Canterbury allow summer weekend shoots.
Other farmers have heard about that response and decided to not apply.
Jason Herrick Federated Farmers
Herrick is also meeting Hunting and Fishing Minister James Meager and calling for the inclusion of ducks on the pest register.
“At the end of the day they are an introduced species and they have got to be controlled better than they are.”
Southland Fish & Game is seeking approval to increase the
allowable opening day bag from 20 to 25 and for the balance of the season from 10 to 25 a day.
Fish & Game NZ chief executive Corina Jordan said the wet spring created ideal conditions for breeding and survival, which has created a spike in the juvenile population.
Those birds are now fledging, which is coinciding with the germination of crops, sown late because of the wet weather, and which are especially palatable to mallards.
She said farmers should move flocks of birds from new or early growing crops and ensure insect or pest infestations are managed as caterpillars, in particular, attract mallards.
Jordan said summer hunting seasons need to be set a year in advance as dictated by legislation but farmers can apply for permits to allow ducks to be culled and to be scared off crops using non-lethal methods such as bird scarers.
“Contrary to some claims,
permits to cull ducks outside the standard game bird season are available,” she said.
She rejected calls for the yearround hunting of ducks, saying managed culls ensure targeted intervention and continued sustainable management, noting that removing Fish & Game’s management of Canadian geese has led to population growth.
“Without a coordinated management strategy, geese have
caused extensive damage to crops and pasture, increasing costs for all ratepayers.”
Jordan advocates a mix of crop management, limited culling and bird scarers and also working with neighbours to prevent large congregations of birds.
“The best way to manage duck numbers around crops is through proactive, science-based strategies, not knee-jerk calls to scrap permits altogether.”
Simmer down, minister chides in duck spat
Neal Wallace NEWS Environment
HUNTING and Fishing Minister James Meager is calling for de-escalation in tension between Federated Farmers and Southland Fish & Game.
GOOD WEATHER FOR DUCKS:
Ideal breeding conditions have led to a spike in mallard numbers – bad news for southern farmers.
Relations have become strained in recent months, initially after Fish & Game’s involvement with a Forest & Bird Environment Court case that could have required farmers to apply for resource consent for incidental diffuse discharges.
Tension has further escalated over the duck population explosion since spring, with Southland Federated Farmers president Jason Herrick calling on Southland Fish & Game to focus on its core roles.
“If they did that, we wouldn’t have an issue,” he said.
Meager said that, having met with Federated Farmers and Southland Fish & Game, he is urging all sides to get on with the job of enabling New Zealanders to go hunting and fishing.
“Farmers are fishers, and vice versa. The average punter doesn’t want to see their membership levies or licence
URGING: James Meager says that, having met with Federated Farmers and Southland Fish & Game, he is urging all sides to get on with the job of enabling New Zealanders to go hunting and fishing.
fees spent on local squabbles, they just want to be able to run their farm, shoot some ducks, and go for a fish.”
Meager is considering restructuring Fish & Game NZ and has been meeting with councils around the country.
He is considering feedback and views but said any reform would take time.
Sweeteners in the works for affected landowners
GOVERNMENT moves to speed up the process to acquire land under the Public Works Act and incentivise settlements have confirmed its commitment to moving infrastructure projects along with more haste.
As part of a focus on fasttracking infrastructure development, the government has aimed to reduce the time spent negotiating and to speed up objections from landowners affected by the Act’s claims on their property.
A streamlined objections process means landowners who object to acquisition will not go through the Environment Court, but to the
relevant minister or local authority for resolution.
The new process includes incentive payments up to $150,000 for early settlements and up to an additional $92,000 in “recognition payments”.
These will be 5% of the landowner’s land value up to $92,000, paid to those who have their property acquired through the accelerated process.
Richard Rodden, a property law and Public Works Act expert with law firm Tavendale and Partners, said the changes are the most significant made for years to the Act, with the values offered slightly higher than he anticipated.
“I think we were always expecting to see increased incentives offered but it seems these will be in addition to the additional compensation already offered under the Act.
“A landowner who has their principal dwelling affected is paid up to $50,000 already, or up to $25,000 for other landowners.”
He said he has several clients who will be considering the implications of the government’s announcement, some of them farmers.
“Farmers tend to be most
affected by the Roads of National Significance projects.
“These cover areas including Tauriko in Bay of Plenty, Cambridge to Piarere in Waikato, the Brynderwyns project, the Whangārei-Port Marsden roading project, and the Woodend Bypass in Canterbury.”
The Takitimu North Link north of Tauranga requires negotiation and purchase of 73 properties along the project’s 8km length.
He said removing the right to object to the Environment Court will remove what amounted to a complex, slow and expensive part of the process.
“This change has the potential to shorten the acquisition process by months.”
While it may represent a removal of a guard rail, the minister’s (or local authority’s) decision will remain subject to a judicial review. Landowners also have the ability to challenge the land value compensation through the Land Valuation Tribunal.
A draft Bill on the changes is being pushed through by a government keen to see infrastructure projects kicking off. Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop pointed to 49 objections
over the past decade on roading projects alone, adding to delays.
Rodden said the proposal is that landowners who agree to settle before a formal “notice of intention” is issued receive a premium of 15% of the value of the land, capped at $150,000. This and the additional payment recognition payment of 5% of the value of the land, capped at $92,000 may be enough to encourage landowners to accept a Crown valuation that is slightly under the landowner’s valuation.
“Given the premium, recognition
payment and additional compensation, landowners may be incentivised to accept the Crown’s valuation.”
He said he had already received inquiries from clients alerted to the changes.
“It will be interesting to see when exactly it comes into law and whether it will be applied retrospectively for those landowners whose negotiations are underway.
“There are a large number of projects that are already well underway.”
INCENTIVE: Property lawyer and Public Works Act expert Richard Roddick says farmers with land linked to Roads of National Significance are most likely to be affected by the new incentives offered to speed up the acquisition of land.
Photo: NZTA
Richard Rennie NEWS Land
This change has the potential to shorten the acquisition process by months.
Richard Roddick Tavendale and Partners
Rural companies bring the polished results
Hugh Stringleman NEWS Agribusiness
LISTED companies in the primary sector provided highlights in a reporting season that was generally downbeat and economically depressing.
Equity analysts said results for the majority of the NZX50 companies were weak and the outlook statements underwhelming – but most rural companies bucked that trend.
Share market sentiment has swung in behind rural companies, the S&P/NZX Primary Sector Index having risen by 14% since the start of 2025.
For comparison, the S&P/ NZXTop50 index fell 5% throughout January and February.
Dairy and horticultural companies provided the best results, starting with LIC’s halfyear net profit of $39 million, up 35%, followed by a2 Milk with $92m interim profit, up 7%.
The a2 share price has since risen 35%, providing a big boost to the primary sector index.
Three horticultural companies reported bounce-backs from the two-year adverse effects of Cyclone Gabrielle in early 2023.
Scales and Seeka both had net profits of $30m in calendar 2024, compared with $5m for Scales in 2023 and a loss of $21m for Seeka.
T&G Global returned to $13m operational profitability compared
with a loss of $45m in the previous corresponding period.
Rural servicing company PGG Wrightson had a net profit increase in their interim results of 25% to $16m and the company’s share price has risen 35% year to date.
Synlait Milk’s share price has doubled from 45c to 90c. It will report its half-year results on March 24.
More Hawke’s Bay water plans in the pipeline
Richard Rennie NEWS Infrastructure
HAWKE’S Bay farmers and growers will be contemplating their growing water supply options with the announcement of plans for the Heretaunga Plains water storage project near Whanawhana.
The 27 million cubic metre project proposal will supply water to residents of Napier and Hastings and offer greater water security for growers on the fertile Plains area.
The announcement comes hard on the heels of the Tukituki water security project put forward last year as a revised version of the original Ruataniwha scheme, shelved in 2017.
The latest proposed project
WATERY: HBRC chair Hinewai Ormsby says the proposed Heretaunga water project will offer supply security for growers and residents of the Plains district.
would be based on privately owned land on a tributary to the Ngaruroro River, storing peak winter freshwater flows for release back into the river and stream network over summer months.
The preferred site has been confirmed by Hawke’s Bay Regional Council (HBRC) with costs of feasibility shared with central government. Feasibility funding is confirmed at $3.2 million with central government funding coming through the provincial growth fund.
HBRC chair Hinewai Ormsby said the project is smaller than the Tukituki project and cost estimates are about $225m at this stage.
The Tukituki capacity is estimated at 93 million cubic metres and original cost estimates back in 2017 as the Ruataniwha
Market leader Fonterra will report interim results on March 20 and it has already said that earnings will be in the upper half of the guidance range 40 to 60c a share.
“Fonterra’s earnings and the forecast farmgate milk price have both benefited from solid demand for our high value ingredients products, and our sales book is well contracted for the season,”
chief executive Miles Hurrell said.
“Considering these factors, we expect to be in a position to pay a strong interim dividend.”
The dividend policy is to pay 6080% of earnings, half of it as the interim dividend.
Forsyth Barr analyst Matt Montgomerie said that the a2 Milk result was the standout of the whole reporting season, agriculture and non-agriculture, for its profitability and positive outlook commentary.
“The dairy companies have been surprisingly upbeat and the cyclical commodity prices have been helped by the weaker NZ dollar.
“In previous peaks of dairy prices, other countries have
The dairy companies have been surprisingly upbeat and the cyclical commodity prices have been helped by the weaker NZ dollar.
Matt Montgomerie Forsyth Barr
responded with increased milk production but supply now looks flattish,” he said.
The current harvest season for apples and kiwifruit also looks to be very encouraging.
Forsyth Barr said the reporting season had been tough but not dramatically worse than expected.
Craigs investment director Mark Lister said a2 Milk had good results and outlook whereas nonag heavyweights like Spark and Sky City were disappointing and investors very unforgiving.
“The economic downturn has hit all companies that rely on consumer spending and rising unemployment may prolong the economic pain.”
scheme had it priced at over $300m.
Ormsby said she does not believe the latest project means Hawke’s Bay faces the risk of too much water storage capacity, given the schemes are at very different parts of the region with the latest located nearer Napier and Hastings’ urban demand.
“We don’t see it as competing. It is complementary with no crosspurposing of the two projects, with different needs in different parts of the region.”
She said without the storage facility, projections were that the Napier-Hastings district would be short of 25 million cubic meters of water by 2030.
“This is very much allowing for status quo and growth, but we need to start planning for it now.”
She said there has been strong interest from large growers in the district who have formed a group to look at water storage and efficiency.
The project will also contribute to aquifer recharging helping offset water extraction on the Heretaunga Plains. She said user pays is a core principle of the project, with funding coming from those likely to benefit most from stored supplies.
Ormsby hopes resource consent will be approved within six months, with construction estimated to only take two years to complete.
“We have a site selected that has good topography, with large natural barriers in the form of hills. We are very confident it offers the best option in terms of location and scale.”
PROTECT: The role of Team Manager Readiness Animals (exotic diseases) being advertised by the MPI will be key to protecting New Zealand’s borders from animal disease incursions such as avian influenza.
MPI advertises role to prep for bird flu
Gerhard Uys NEWS Disease
A KEY role to prepare for a possible incursion of avian influenza and ongoing protection of New Zealand’s animal health and biosecurity is being advertised by the Ministry for Primary Industries.
The role of Team Manager Readiness Animals is open following a vacancy at the MPI.
The director of diagnostics, readiness and surveillance at Biosecurity New Zealand, Fleur Francois, said the role is not a new role and is one of many involved in preparing New Zealand to respond to potential biosecurity threats.
The position plays a key role in leading a team of subject matter experts preparing operationally for diseases such as HPAI H5N1 (avian influenza), and foot and mouth disease, among other diseases.
Outbreaks of diseases could cause significant economic and social impacts, Francois said.
Unlike many biosecurity threats, HPAI H5N1 (avian
influenza) is not expected to be brought to New Zealand by human activity, but by migratory wild birds, she said.
“If it reaches New Zealand and becomes established in wild birds, it’s unlikely we’ll be able to eradicate it.
“While there is no way to stop wild birds with HPAI H5N1 from coming to New Zealand, early detection and strong biosecurity can help reduce the impact of this disease if it gets here.
“MPI is working in partnership with the Department of Conservation, the Ministry of Health and Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora to prepare for the possible arrival of HPAI.
“The response planning aims to reduce the impact on native species, reduce the impact on the commercial poultry sector, maintain supply of poultry meat and eggs to the domestic market and maintain access to overseas markets where possible and protect human health.
“The role works alongside other MPI groups to lead, plan and manage the delivery of Biosecurity New Zealand’s animal health biosecurity readiness functions.”
DOUBLED: Synlait Milk’s share price has doubled from 45c to 90c and it will report its half-year results on March 24. Photo: File
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Seeds of sustainability take root in Tairāwhiti
Richard Rennie NEWS Forestry
ALINK between exoticbased commercial forestry operations and iwi-based kaitiakitanga has proven both can thrive in Tairāwhiti-Gisborne.
Ūawa-Tolaga Bay has been the base for the Ūawanui environmental sustainability project for over two decades.
It draws from the ethos of the local iwi Te Aitanga-aHauiti’s ancient chief, who focused on values of ecologic and environmental care. Today that continues with the project educating Māori youngsters on ecology, plant life and environmental restoration.
When they graduate, they take a New Zealand certificate in primary industry skills – often the first qualification many have achieved.
Until 2023 the project enjoyed strong scientific ties to the Allan Wilson Centre.
The recently closed universitybacked centre was named after molecular evolutionist Allan Wilson, and its work included understanding links between
Increase profits from trees
environment and human health.
Post covid, the project has now built a relationship with local forestry company Aratu Forests.
That company’s 9000 hectare Te Marunga Forest forms a big chunk of the project’s 56,000ha catchment and has loomed large in locals’ lives after past weather events.
Project organiser and local Victor Walker said the project is essentially only 14 years into a 100-year rehabilitation span.
It becomes important to source those seedlings locally.
Richard Powell Aratu Forests
The relationship with Aratu marries iwi world view on environmental improvement with the commercial reality of having a large forestry block within the catchment.
“We started off really as a school-based project where kids came to count the pipis and take samples of watercress.”
This morphed into taking children who struggled with
conventional schooling and teaching them more about the environment and indigenous plants, with almost 200 passing through in the past 20 years.
Walker said the impact of the weather and the effect Aratu’s forest has had on the district’s flats cannot be ignored, but his people and the company have been focusing on where opportunities lie for their shared environment going forward.
Aratu’s environmental manager, Richard Powell, said this includes eco-sourcing native seeds from areas in Aratu’s forest block and having the eco-cadets raise them to the point they can be then sold back to Aratu as seedlings.
“If we as a forest company are going to have to retire land from trees, and plant more around waterways, it becomes important to source those seedlings locally.”
For local iwi a plant’s whakapapa or link to the area it is growing in is vital.
“It’s about putting our own plants on our own land,” said Walker.
It is also known that transplanted species from other areas do not tend to do as well as local varieties in many situations.
Treefarmer is a free software programme designed to help landowners make informed decisions for planning or harvesting a woodlot.
• You can map several woodlots on your property at the same time and simulate harvesting by overlaying possible harvesting roads and skid sites
• Choose from any of five forestry species and three management regimes
• The model will generate the wood and carbon yields at any selected harvest age.
• There is a checklist of requirements for site preparation, establishment, silviculture and harvest planning.
Treefarmer was developed with Forest Growers‘ Levy Funds. Access is from Forest Growers Research website at:
One such local plant is ngutukākā or native kākābeak, which traditionally thrived in Ūawa’s coastal environment.
Cook’s botanist Joseph Banks took samples back with him after the 1769 landing. Stored in the British Museum for many years, plants were also raised in Kew Gardens in London.
Some seeds ultimately returned to Ūawa and today the offspring of those continue to thrive in the community, with many being raised by the project for replanting in Aratu’s forest.
“As we look at retiring land,
it’s plants like this we see having huge potential. Some will revel in the environment, some will need help,” Powell said.
Walker said the project has recently suffered funding cuts, leaving him scrambling for more money to continue with the cadet intakes.
“Many of these kids come from very tough backgrounds. Often the best we can do is offer them further training. It really does change their lives.”
• Rennie travelled to Tairāwhiti with assistance from Aratu Forests.
Aratu meets second enforcement order
Richard Rennie NEWS Forestry
A SECOND enforcement order has come into effect on Gisborne’s Aratu Forests, with the company agreeing to a range of measures with Gisborne District Council to lift woody debris management in Wakaroa Forest.
The order follows on a similar agreement struck between Aratu and GDC on the Te Marunga forest near Tolaga Bay late last year.
Like the Te Marunga order, the agreement includes commitments to mitigation methods, including identifying and removing woody debris from land sites and waterways subject to defined timelines.
The forest’s management will also incorporate the
use of debris nets, a Swissdesigned method for the capture of wood material in stream flows during flood events.
The Te Marunga forest was a particularly problematic estate in the aftermath of Cyclone Gabrielle, with significant quantities of materials washed onto the valuable flat country between the hills and the coast.
Neil Woods, CEO of Aratu, said the company welcomes the latest agreement, which underscores the company’s commitment to build on work to date to prevent debris impacting the environment and communities beyond the forest.
He said the company has achieved a significant amount of work in Wakaroa Forest since the cyclones,
including improving roading, removing landing site debris and managing sediment flows.
“With this agreement we will redouble our efforts so we can meet the timelines the council is wanting us to achieve.”
The company is also employing artificial intelligence assessment methods via high-resolution drone imagery to highlight areas where wood debris needs removal, and confirming removal once it has taken place.
In a visit from Farmers Weekly, Woods said enforcement orders provide a more constructive, collaborative way forward for companies to try to right the impact of forest plantings and felling, compared to a purely punitive fines based approach.
Gisborne mayor Rehette Stoltz has acknowledged the work companies including Aratu have engaged in to improve forest practices. She has also acknowledged that continued debris run-off for some years is likely, given the widespread planting of pines across all country that took place post
ago.
PLANTED: From left, Aratu Forest’s Richard Powell, Ūawanui nursery manager Liz Puha and project manager Victor Walker in the project’s native nursery with whau seedlings.
Cyclone Bola, almost 40 years
MANAGED: Part of the 55,000 hectare Aratu Forest estate near Gisborne.
Korea stretches Fonterra mozzarella demand
Richard Rennie MARKETS Dairy
SOUTH Koreans’ appetite for Fonterra’s mozzarella cheese product is growing, with a leading retailer recently boosting demand through its hypermarket chain.
Emart Traders, a big box warehouse chain that carries a wide range of food and non-food products, has started serving pizzas topped with the co-operative’s IQF mozzarella at its Traders cafés.
The café chain recorded 7 million customers in 2024.
Richard Allen, president of Fonterra global markets (ingredients), said Emart’s custom for the stretchy cheese product hinged on several factors.
“Our New Zealand-made, grassfed proposition really sets us apart in this market as increasing awareness of sustainability is driving Korean customers to choose sustainable and healthy cheese products,” he said.
He said Koreans also appreciated the consistent high quality of the product.
The giant retailer has partnered
STRETCHED: Fonterra says it is enjoying a growing market for mozzarella cheese in South Korea, in part fuelled by consumers’ demand for sustainably sourced food products.
with Fonterra to showcase the benefits of grass-fed dairy.
That includes in-store displays advertising Fonterra’s mozzarella as “golden cheese full of aroma, taste and freshness”, thanks to the cows who graze outside year-round on grass.
Cheese consumption in South Korea has soared by 160% over the past decade. Dairy news website Bullvine reports the lift has come despite stagnant domestic milk
production and is spurred by adoption of Western diets and an aging population.
Increasingly, cheese is found as an ingredient in traditional recipes, used to temper spiciness in dishes, including ramyeon noodle combinations.
Fonterra exported over 20,000 tonnes of cheese to South Korea in 2024, with mozzarella comprising a small but growing portion of that.
What does Fonterra propose to sell?
Hugh Stringleman NEWS Fonterra
ALL four of Mainland Group’s geographic regions have improved gross profit over the past three financial years, Fonterra’s roadshow for potential purchasers has reported.
The Oceania division of New Zealand and Australia is the biggest with nearly $500 million gross profit, and 14% of revenue, in FY2024.
It is followed in size by southeast Asia on $293m and 36% gross margin, Sri Lanka $106m and 22% GM, and Middle East and Africa $41m and 17%.
The Mainland Group of consumer businesses in Fonterra has 15 manufacturing sites, 11 of which are in NZ and Australia.
The four further abroad are the Biyagama plant in Sri Lanka, the Dairymas and Susumas plants in Malaysia, and Sikarang in Indonesia.
The roadshow presentation features eight major brands, led by Anchor with 24% revenue composition, 17% NZMP, 8% Mainland, 6% Bega (under
licence), and 5% each for Anlene, Western Star, Perfect Italiano and Ratthi (Sri Lanka).
Therefore, the major components of value in Mainland Group are the NZ and Australian plants and the Anchor brand.
Oceania accounts for 60% of the gross profit of Mainland, followed by 24% in southeast Asia and 12% in Sri Lanka.
As a whole Mainland Group had net revenue of $4.9 billion in FY2024 with 916,000 tonnes of product sold and $200m of earnings before interest and tax, which is a 4% EBIT margin.
The roadshow for potential divestment will be presented in NZ, Australia and Asia, led by Mainland chief executive-elect René Dedoncker and chief financial officer-elect Paul Victor.
The main possibilities are full or part sale to new owners or an initial public offering of Mainland with preference given to Fonterra farmer-shareholders.
Farmers will vote on whatever divestment shape the board and senior managers recommend.
From the Editor
Fabulous financials only deepen dilemma
Hugh Stringleman Senior reporter
FONTERRA’S interim results, to be released on March 20, will have a big influence on the planned divestment of its consumer businesses, now named Mainland Group. Prosperity confirmed may encourage prospective purchasers of Mainland, but the divisional breakdown may alternatively leave suitors discouraged.
Farmer-shareholders, many of whom are already strongly for or against divestment, need the detailed information in the divestment roadshow presentation.
They will also have, in all likelihood, the best set of interim earnings Fonterra has ever achieved.
The 15 cent boost to the FY2025 full-year earnings guidance, now 55c to 75c, cries out for quantifying and sourcing.
Farmers will be as interested in the details as potential Mainland bidders.
The argument for retention of Mainland must be strengthened by the biggest-ever farmgate milk price forecast AND a midpoint dividend prospect of around 50c.
Why sell an arm when the body is doing so well?
But the counter argument hinges on
This week’s poll question (see page 15):
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that over-used phrase “added value”, and Fonterra’s ability to consistently deliver both a top milk price and record earnings. It used to be that a high milk price and high AV earnings were antithetical.
That still carries logic, because AV products are made from ingredients that the main body of Fonterra sells to its consumer arms around the world, at home, in Australia, southeast Asia, Sri Lanka, the Middle East and Africa.
As commodity prices rise, the gross margins on dairy consumer products shrink.
The task of Mainland’s acting chief executive, René Dedoncker, is to demonstrate that is not necessarily so, just that Fonterra is not the optimum owner.
Nevertheless, farmers will see the gaps between $10/kg milksolids at the farmgate, $13/kg wholesale for butter and $10/500g retail and ask “Why shouldn’t we continue to own chunks of that?”
When Fonterra was first proposed in the late 1990s, the growth in dairy consumer products was forecast to drive up revenue to $30 billion annually.
Only this financial year will Fonterra’s revenue come close to that mystical $30bn, a number now that is nothing like it would have been 25 years ago.
When former chair Sir Henry van der Heyden proposed an A and B company split
LAST WEEK’S POLL RESULT
in 2007, more than half of turnover was assumed to come from added value.
Farmers voted against him and almost two decades later some version of A/B will again be put before shareholders.
An initial public offering with preference to Fonterra shareholders is included in considerations.
Mainland has reportedly attracted much interest from Australian dairy companies and private funds in advance of Dedoncker’s roadshow for potential investor groups.
Fonterra has decided to retain a manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia and its Greater China consumer business, refinements that have dropped Mainland’s net revenue in FY24 to just under $5bn.
Added value earnings are around $200 million, about one-eighth of the company’s total.
Return on capital of 7% for consumer businesses is well below those of ingredients (10%) and foodservice (20%).
Farmer-shareholders have been tempted with $1 a share capital return, or more, should Mainland be sold.
Share prices have doubled over the past 12 months in anticipation, along with the gross dividend yield of 12% in FY24.
An abundance of financial information will provide guidance but the decision boils down to influence and control.
Just over half (52.1%) of voters expected to make a profit this year, but many pointed out that the cost of production, debt and drought are big challenges.
“With costs, people don’t realise how high prices have to go to be reasonably profitable,” one voter said.
“Still hurting from last year’s drought. There’s been great weather so far this year in Canterbury but velvet is going to really hurt our bottom line,” said another.
Another voter said that as stock prices are high as well, it is difficult to find a profit margin despite better farmgate returns.
Finally, one voter stated: “If you can’t make a profit at $10/kg MS you’re doing something seriously wrong.”
Letters of the week Stop peddling ‘pest’ paranoia
Laurie Collins Sporting Hunters Outdoor Trust
I WAS somewhat bemused by the article “Software helping hunters home in on their prey” (February 24).
As a lifetime hunter and conservationist, I’ve noted the increasing fretting over increased numbers of deer and other animals. It seems to spread like a virus, almost reaching a paranoid fear and alarm, rather than a calm, calculated assessment of the reality. Even Federated Farmers has been peddling the “pest” paranoia.
Associated with this is the gadgetry developed through technology and of course we have thermal imaging, which poachers are now using instead of spotlighting. So much for the benefits of technology!
What also amused me was that the article on new software said “planning hunts can be extremely complex”. The software helps hunters understand “on a hot summer day, deer will prefer shaded, southwestern sides of the hill – whereas in winter they prefer the northeast sides of the mountain”. It’s not complex. You don’t need fancy software for working out where deer will be relative to season. The human brain can cope well. It’s simple logic.
It was good to see in the article reference to hunters “better managing” game animals. Game management takes in keeping animal numbers under the carrying capacity of the habitat. Unfortunately, the Department of Conservation has a basic policy of eradication although that is an impossible dream based on anti-introduced attitudes.
Even Federated Farmers has termed trout an invasive, introduced species. That’s all a bit rich coming from humans, all of whom originate from self-introduction to New Zealand by way of migration and colonisation.
It is very selective judgment because cattle, sheep – and deer – are introduced, so are petunias, potatoes, grapes and pasture species and insects like honey and bumble bees, which are welcomed.
What is needed in the attitude to wild animals is rational, realistic thinking, not panicked paranoia.
Send your letter to the Editor at Farmers Weekly P.0. Box 529, Feilding or email us at farmers.weekly@agrihq.co.nz
Last week’s question: Are you confident your farm business will be profitable this year?
A bird poo breakthrough
Eating the elephant
THE Waikato is not known as a great stone fruit region. The humidity causes rot and high winds cause the majority of fruit to drop. In my orchard at least, this dropped fruit feeds both the wasps and birds far more than our children – who typically complain when gathering that “the peaches from a can taste better on cornflakes, and therefore why am I here”.
Home-grown sweetness is often lost on children.
This year’s peach harvest will be memorable for a couple of reasons. Firstly the comic relief of Dad getting stung twice by a record number of wasps and, more significantly, for a practical observation of ecology and ecosystems.
While picking, son Henry
stopped to announce that a spider hanging from a gate was eating bird poo. Although dismissive, I went over to have a look. What we discovered was the bird dropping spider (Celaenia excavata for those preferring Latin). Like any cool creepy crawly, the spider was promptly captured and taken home.
With the spider back on the kitchen table and its captors armed with ChatGPT, the family wanted to know about this cool creature whose evolutionary adaptation has resulted in its eggs and itself looking like bird droppings. We were wowed further as we learnt that the spider produces pheromones to mimic the female moth. Male moths are attracted to these pheromones and the spider has its culinary favourite ... male moth for lunch. In this way, the bird dropping spider was doing us a great service, leaving more peaches unaffected by caterpillars for the birds, wasps or us.
Cutting some middle management and changing the signs on the door will not make the discoveries.
At 9pm, with our kitchen resembling a peach-processing factory, it was decided Celaenia excavata should not be left in the Glad Wrapped Tupperware container, but rather returned to battle the moths and protect next year’s fruit crop.
While a lone spider and my three peach trees won’t double our
sector’s export revenue (although pheromones for pest management are a US$3 billion industry), the episode did get me thinking about the innovation ecosystem that will.
Recent reports and articles by the likes of James Allen, John Foley and Jacqueline Rowarth talk of systemic under-investment in innovation and agricultural research, now at 1.47% of GDP in New Zealand compared to an OECD average of 2.73%.
These writers describe a fragmented system, with Crown Research Institutes and numerous universities competing for slim funds. Minister Judith Collins’s recent shake-up – disbanding the seven Crown Research Institutes and Callaghan Innovation to create three Public Research Organisations focused on bioeconomy, earth sciences and health & forensic science – could help.
But if we are to make progress, the new system will need to be match fit to warrant more investment. Cutting some middle management and changing the signs on the door will not make the discoveries.
While talk of focusing on commercialisation and removing regulatory hurdles is great, the sheer shortfall of dollars invested into fundamental discovery work is the real issue.
Despite my new interest in it, this inevitable investment is unlikely to involve further understanding of Celaenia excavata. But it could involve research that transforms a unique plant or bacteria endemic to
for a couple of reasons’
among them a practical observation of ecology and ecosystems.
New Zealand into high-value commercial opportunity like a biopesticide, biofertiliser or a nutraceutical product.
Case in point : one in eight people in the United States now reach for Ozempic to reduce their appetite. NZ-developed Calocurb uses a homegrown hop variety to activate the same satiety response. Nothing synthetic, no needles, similar result. By all accounts, it is going great guns in the US.
Breakthroughs start like my son’s moment with Celaenia excavata – a surge of curiosity among the seemingly ordinary. While we can’t
Levy bodies have let farmers down on GE
In my view
IT IS good to see that DairyNZ, the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand, Beef + Lamb NZ and the Meat Industry Association are supporting the Gene Technology Bill. They are right to point out the potential benefits we could gain from gene technology. They are right that this is a rare opportunity for reform, that the rest of the world is liberalising and that it is critical we get the settings right. Get it wrong and we end up with another 20 years of a de facto moratorium.
In their recent article calling for the inclusion of trade as a consideration for the regulator, the levy bodies praised the implementation of “stringent government oversight” to maintain our market reputation. But haven’t farmers just pushed back on overbearing and inappropriate winter grazing rules, unrealistic nitrogen targets and entry into the Emissions Trading
Scheme, which we were told would boost our “reputation as a reliable and trusted trading partner”?
They want more inspectors marching over farms with clipboards and tape measures.
It seems that the levy bodies are asking the government to implement a whole new set of government regulations to manage traceability. They want more inspectors marching over farms
with clipboards and tape measures. Industry leaders were warned not to enter into He Waka Eke Noa as, if it was just going to be a pricesetting exercise, farmers wouldn’t buy it. They didn’t listen. He Waka Eke Noa should have been about reducing greenhouse gases through improving productivity. What farmer wouldn’t want that? Have they not learnt their lesson? They say they want more time for discussion, but haven’t we been talking about gene technologies for two decades? Didn’t the government signal over a year ago that the Gene Tech Bill would be
based on Australian legislation?
Where have they been? Have they communicated with farmers and set up discussion groups? These levy bodies have let their farmers down.
One only has to look across the Tasman to see how the Bill will work in practice. Agriculture and the organics industry are thriving.
The most recent Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ) China report showed that New Zealand’s lamb premium over Australia had eroded to nothing over the last 10 years. All the while Australia has been operating its Gene Technology Act and has deregulated low-level gene editing.
Last week the Dairy Companies Association of NZ was unable to answer the Select Committee when it was asked if Australia’s price had eroded or if trade barriers had gone up since gene editing was deregulated there. They haven’t.
Reform of gene tech regulations is in both coalition agreements. However, it does not appear that the levy bodies have taken the time since then to look around the world to see what best practice looks like.
They have not communicated to their levy payers that those countries who allow their farmers the choice to use GM are those
study every spider to death, we clearly need to both invest more into the innovation ecosystem and accept that a sizeable portion of that curiosity will lead nowhere. That is the nature of the new.
Based on our current trajectory, I fear that when it comes time for Henry’s science career to leave the experimentation and unbridled curiosity of the family orchard for the commercialised lab, he’ll be more inclined to join our miners, doctors and nurses and take his bright mind elsewhere in the world.
This week’s poll question: Have your say at farmersweekly.co.nz/poll Do you think improved access to genetic technologies would have a positive effect on New Zealand’s food and fibre sector?
who trust their farmers and farming industry to manage trade and traceability.
Government mandated regulatory schemes (like in the European Union’s) perpetuate de facto moratoria where farmers have no choice.
Gene technologies provide another tool for farmers to use in the interests of their farms, their businesses and their families. More government regulation, inspectors and the levies that go with them are the last thing farmers want when the international evidence is quite clear that, for little effort, they can do the job themselves.
FIELD STUDIES: On Phil Weir’s farm in the Waikato, ‘this year’s peach harvest will be memorable
–
Photo: Wikimedia Commons
Phil Weir Weir is an associate trustee of AGMARDT and a Beef + Lamb New Zealand farmer-elected director
William Rolleston
Dr Rolleston is chair of the Life Sciences Network and a former president of Federated Farmers
TOOL: Gene technologies provide another tool for farmers to use in the interests of their farms, their businesses and their families, says Dr William Rolleston.
Photo: Pexels
Unwise and unwelcome sabre rattling
Alternative view
Alan Emerson
Semi-retired Wairarapa farmer and businessman: dath.emerson@gmail.com
AS WE know, New Zealand is a trading nation. We survive on our exports, which are largely made up of farming produce.
In international terms we are a minute nation in the South Pacific. Our independent foreign policy has enabled us, as an insignificant nation, to trade with the world. Our wealth has been created as a result of that independence.
China is our largest trading partner with considerable untapped potential.
The United States is our secondbiggest trading partner but is volatile, currently extremely so.
Putting that in perspective, I was slightly amazed at the bodiceripping media frenzy over three Chinese Navy ships in the Tasman Sea. It was accompanied by statements from the government that we needed to increase our defence spending. China was painted as the villain. Sending ships to the Tasman Sea was seen as “provocative”.
In my view China wasn’t the villain nor was it being provocative.
I’d add that I thought the
provocative statement was hypocritical.
In late September, just six months ago, the New Zealand Navy was involved in a multinational exercise involving live firing in the South China Sea. China has claimed the South China Sea as its own. Neither NZ nor Australia has claimed the Tasman Sea.
Subsequently our ship sailed through the Taiwan Strait. The visit was “welcomed” by Taiwan.
The Taiwan Strait is a mere 130km wide. The Tasman Sea is over 4000km.
I could humbly suggest that NZ has been more aggressive towards China than the other way round.
At the time Defence Minister Judith Collins described the NZ provocation as “a routine visit consistent with international law”.
China claims the Straits are “not an international waterway”, so why are we playing a silly game with our major trading partner?
It’s not the first time we’ve provoked China. A Rim of the Pacific exercise we were part of last June was described by China as an “allied bloc confrontation”. The Pentagon described the aim of the exercise as “deterring China”.
Why are we part of that?
We are a nation of traders; our economy depends on it.
There are two additional issues.
The first is a tariff-happy US President Donald Trump, who has just put additional tariffs on Chinese imports. China has responded as you’d expect.
The US exported US$41 billion of food to China in 2022, mainly dairy products, beef and soy.
That’s almost four times our total exports.
That tells me that the market in China will expand while that in the US will contract.
We’ve also been opposing Chinese initiatives in the South Pacific, currently in Fiji and Kiribati, although many more countries are involved.
China started Belt and Road
in 2013 as an initiative to open up trade. We are a signatory. Under Belt and Road, airports and harbours have been built across the Pacific, Africa, Asia and South America. The old Silk Road from China to Europe has been rebuilt. It’s been going for 12 years, so why the current apoplexy?
We also have the US cancelling all of its aid budget, which will have a major effect on the Pacific.
In 2009, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa created the BRICS trading group, which has since expanded to many more countries.
Brazil is looming as a large supplier of beef to China.
My position is simple: I don’t see China as a threat to NZ. We should be working alongside China in the Pacific and elsewhere.
We’re a trading nation and I’d suggest China will be a far more reliable trading partner than the US under current management.
I’d suggest China will be a far more reliable trading partner than the US under current management.
I do not accept the “traditional allies”argument. Yes, we fought a war with the US 80 years ago. Since then we went to Vietnam with the promise of a free trade agreement that didn’t materialise, and to Afghanistan under the threat of trade sanctions. The world has changed and so must we.
For that reason Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s bolt out of the blue of a “foreign affairs reset” concerned me greatly.
Sabre rattling from Collins and David Seymour about billions of dollars more on defence does the same.
What are we going to spend the
money on and to do what?
I also found the Collins statement that we were riding on the coat tails of the US taxpayer on defence spending quite absurd.
If the US wants to spend US$158bn supporting Israel in what the United Nations has described as genocide, that’s their business, not ours.
As a long-retired army officer, I support defence spending but not for the reasons given.
As a patriotic Kiwi who has travelled extensively I find any suggestion of a foreign policy reset just plain crazy.
We need to remain as an independent nation. Our future wealth as a nation depends on it. It’s served us well in the past and has the ability to do so in the future.
Read weekly articles from Alan Emerson at farmersweekly.co.nz/ author/alan-emerson
AMAZED: Alan Emerson says he was slightly amazed at the ‘bodice-ripping media frenzy’ over three Chinese Navy ships in the Tasman Sea.
Photo: Australian Defence Force
Sector Focus Sheep & Beef
Two heads are better than one
IF TRADITION stood, eldest son Simon Guild would be farming 3750 hectares of High Peak Station in Rakaia, but from a young age he had his own ideas and after completing his marketing degree at Otago University, he set out for a successful marketing career.
Starting at Lion Nation in Auckland and later working for Fosters, Red Bull and the King’s organic food brand Duchy Originals, he very quickly worked out what sells.
He once had a cake sent to the King and gained the nod of approval in the way of a handwritten letter.
“We sent it off to the boss for approval. It was a decent twopage letter as well; he is quite remarkable in that respect. He was very passionate about this particular business,” Simon said. His younger brother Hamish travelled also but came home to farm a few years earlier than he did.
In 2008 when the global financial crisis hit, Simon took the leap and decided to return to the farm with an idea about the part he would play.
“I’m not really a farmer. I enjoy working and doing a few things on the farm but the overall farming mindset is more Hamish.”
Their father had started a hunting business in 1987, which was run as a bit of a side dish.
Today it contributes more than 50% of the land’s annual earnings.
“In the years that I have been
here it has grown from a nice piece of supplementary income to a very strong part of the business in its own right.”
“Tourism has become the main earner; it is linked with the farm but it is no longer a side part anymore.”
There are brothers who work together and there are the Guild brothers, who not only share the land, but financial strain and gain.
“It’s one business. For example, when the government shut the border for covid, I was reliant on the farm.
“I think it works on the basis we recognise each other’s strengths and the fact we do contribute equally to the same pot. I think if we were competing for land use and resources then it wouldn’t work.”
Simon’s part of the deal is the fenced-off 4500 acres for High Peak Hunting alone.
Between February and June they will host around 140 clients predominantly from the United
PRIME TARGET: New Zealand backcountry hunting isn’t known for the record-breaking trophy stags, but High Peak hosts 40-point stags. Packages start at around $10,000 per client.
States, with a few Australians, Canadians, Kiwis and Europeans too.
These are some of the country’s biggest-spending tourists, with the average around $25,000 within four to eight days.
“We are without doubt hosting the highest-value, highest-spend per capita tourists in New Zealand and there are a lot of them –maybe 5000 per year come in across the country.
“They slip to the four corners of the country and they’re not in your way, they are just spending
good, strong foreign currency on something we offer uniquely.”
High Peak prides itself on an authentic high country hunt for the red stag, fallow buck, Pacific goat, wild pig, chamois, tahr and Arapawa ram.
“The American market has amazing sheep hunting over there. It seems a bit funny to us but when you go to the US and understand what it’s like hunting sheep in Alaska or a bighorn, you realise how passionate they are about shooting sheep.
“Whatever people want to do that we can make a good fist of we will offer that.”
New Zealand back-country hunting isn’t known for the record-breaking trophy stags, but High Peak hosts 40-point stags. Packages start at around $10,000 per client.
“Because we have a good size of land, they hunt on what we call a fair chase basis. There is a lot of cover, a lot of scrub, a lot of relief and terrain.”
The farming and hunting business are mutually beneficial, the brothers say.
“When I am out there, I see the work, the imperfections and the
things that need doing ... but when you see it through someone else’s eyes it’s quite refreshing,” Hamish said.
“You actually sit back and take a deep breath and realise this is a special place to farm and raise a family.”
Simon admits he wasn’t much of a hunter before he started the business. He went out with his father as a teenager, but being in London didn’t lend itself to that sort of lifestyle.
“It is something I have gotten into more since running the business. We would always go out hunting as kids, but I have a greater appreciation for what we have here.”
His strength is people and hospitality, which he said they both get from their parents, who have been hosting visitors for decades.
“Farming can be pretty tough. One of the key things with hunting is at least we get to set the price and we do it to run a viable business and when people pay that and enjoy the experience and thank you for it – it makes those tough times in farming easier to handle.”
From concept to completion, we offer reliable, long-lasting steel sheep yards in both permanent and semi-permanent options.
Olivia Caldwell ON FARM Agritourism
BEST OF BOTH WORLDS: The Guild brothers approached their business model by using the farming knowledge of Hamish, right, and Simon’s marketing experience to make the most profitable use of their land.
Photos: Supplied
Black Hawk: The pet food backing New Zealand’s future farmers
Sweeping across 70,000 hectares of highcountry Southland, Glenaray Station is one of our country’s most significant sheep and cattle farms
It’s a vast landscape and no coincidence that farm manager Simon Lee chose premium dog food brand Black Hawk to fuel the 82 working dogs on the farm.
They’re also keen supporters of Growing Future Farmers (GFF), an immersive NZQA-accredited two-year programme for school leavers to kickstart their farming careers
Through the programme young farmers are placed with a knowledgeable and passionate farmer where they learn first-hand what it takes to run a working farm. They also participate in regular, hands-on group training sessions to learn key skills such as shearing and pup training.
Here’s how Black Hawk, Glenaray Station and Growing Future Farmers (GFF) are working together to empower the next generation of farmers - and their dogs
Pup training just the beginning
The great value of raising and training multiple dogs early in a farmer’s career is why GFF students are allocated a pup at the beginning of the programme
“Pup training days are great to attend. It’s the foundational work that forms one of the most important working relationships on a farm,” says Black Hawk Southern Farm Manager Andrew Harman.
GFF student Philippa (Phil) is settling into her placement at Glenaray Station. She says it was hard to “know where to start” with training her pup and still has lots of work to go
As well as pup training, Philippa has also participated in hands-on farm learning including chain sawing, first aid, butchery, cooking, and shearing.
Simon says Phil is doing well and taking farming in her stride.
“GFF is a fantastic programme that’s giving Phil a solid foundation of skill and knowledge to get her farming career going. We’re proud to be sharing what we know and do here at Glenaray to support her and the future of farming in New Zealand.”
The importance of nutrition
Black Hawk is a staunch supporter of the GFF programme and is proud to play a crucial role in fueling every pup’s growth and development. Every student receives a bag of Black Hawk food and other essential items to get them started, plus additional food during their programme
“At Black Hawk, we believe in giving working dogs the best possible nutrition. By supporting Growing Future Farmers we hope our contribution helps farming students choose the dog food that gives their pups the best start,” says Andrew
As part of their dedication to supporting the farmers of the future and fostering a thriving rural community, Black Hawk also visits regularly to discuss feeding guidelines and monitors the pups’ progress through regular weigh-ins and their transition to adult food.
Given that many of the students are experiencing farm-dog ownership for the first time, Black Hawk also passes on fundamental advice on responsible dog ownership such as worming, flea control and appropriate bedding
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The protein is derived from high-quality lamb and beef, rich in zinc and vitamin B12 which may help dog’s heart health and boost vitality. Black Hawk Working Dog also contains supplementary L-Carnitine to maintain lean muscles.
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Growing Future Farmers student Philippa Stratford, with Glenaray farm manager Simon Lee & Nicky Thompson
Philippa Stratford & Simon Lee, Glenaray Station
Acland works to parry US trade threats
BEEF + Lamb New Zealand
chair Kate Acland is gearing up for her second visit this year to the United States as calls from American farmers grow louder for US President Donald Trump to hit Australian and NZ meat exports with tariffs.
Acland will depart “in a few months” to make the case for continued uninterrupted access to the US market after the Ranchers Cattlemen Action Legal Fund United Stockgrowers of America (R-CALF) became the second US agricultural lobby to call for tariffs to stem surging sheepmeat imports from Australia and NZ.
R-CALF also called for a 25% tariff on South American, Australian and NZ beef imports.
“The theory and practice of free trade, as exemplified by zero tariffs, has all but destroyed the US commercial sheep industry and is causing the rapid contraction of the domestic beef supply chain,” R-CALF said.
The lobby said lower environmental and production standards, and lower exchange rates, have given foreign rivals an edge, forcing “hundreds of thousands” of US farmers out of business “over the past few decades”.
Meanwhile beef imports in 2024 surged to record levels, 37% above the five-year average as US producers struggled to match consumer demand, it said.
“America needs more cattle and sheep farmers and ranchers and more cattle and sheep.
“Tariffs and tariff-rate quotas are the economic tool that will incentivise domestic market forces to make this happen,” R-CALF said.
We are closely monitoring developments.
Acland said R-CALF’s views contrasted with those of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA), whose annual convention she attended last month in San Antonio.
The NCBA considers NZ to be a “consistent, reliable trading partner”, Acland said.
Not represented at the conference was R-CALF or the American Sheep Industry Association (ASI), which in December said it intended to raise with the Trump transition team the matter of tariffs on Australian and NZ lamb imports.
Acland said “many of the ranchers” she spoke to in San Antonio expressed concerns about
the potential for Trump’s trade policies to disrupt North American beef and cattle supply chains.
Last year Mexico supplied 1.5 million cattle, and Canada 150,000, for finishing on US farms and feedlots but that trade is under threat from proposed US tariffs.
“We are closely monitoring developments, including recent statements made by R-CALF, and will continue advocating for NZ producers and the complementary nature of our beef and lamb exports,” Acland said.
“I am intending to make another trip to the US in a few months where I’ll meet with key stakeholders to ensure the vital contribution of NZ beef and lamb imports to American rangers, producers and consumers is well understood.”
Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ) has previously argued NZ lamb complements local production by keeping lamb in front of US consumers during seasonal lulls. Likewise, NZ lean beef complements US beef as a key ingredient in hamburger patties.
Before Acland leaves again for the US, BLNZ will continue to make its case to US industry groups and government officials through its Washington DC-based representative, Jason Frost.
Snowstorms prevented Acland from travelling to Washington DC in February.
Global beef prices set to stay high
Neal Wallace MARKETS Production
INTERNATIONAL beef prices are expected to remain elevated through the rest of this year, driven by continued demand out of the United States, according to analysis by Rabobank.
RaboResearch senior agricultural analyst Jen Corkran said February farmgate prices were ahead of the five-year average, off the back of stronger export demand and low cattle inventory.
US imported beef prices for 95 CL bull rose to $NZ12.66/kg in late February 2025, more than 40% above the five-year average.
“Despite current uncertainty around tariffs, we expect the US will continue to dominate exports in Quarter 1 2025 and throughout 2025, and this will drive strong returns for New Zealand producers and exporters of beef,” she said.
Prices would be supported by lower NZ beef production, which Corkran estimates to be 5% to 6% below Quarter 1 in 2024 and reflective of fewer beef calves reared two years ago.
“What is unusual for the start of this year is that pricing continues to sit above the spring peak and, as of yet, no decline has been seen.”
NZ beef exports in 2024 were down 5% on 2023 volumes but the value was almost exactly the same, at $NZ4.394 billion, with the US unseating China as the
Farmers want work-based learning, govt told
Annette Scott NEWS Education
FARMERS have delivered a clear message to industry that workbased learning is essential for the sheep, beef and deer sectors.
Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ) and Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ) tendered a joint submission on the future of work-based learning in response to the government’s vocational education reforms.
The submission is aimed at helping to ensure the needs of sheep, beef and deer farmers are considered as the system is redesigned.
The consultation sought industry input on two proposed models for work-based learning.
In developing the submission, BLNZ and DINZ engaged with businesses, industry training organisations, Federated Farmers, farm owners and managers, the Ministry for Primary Industries and cadet farms working in the sheep, beef and deer sector to understand their needs when it comes to work-based on-farm training.
The joint submission outlined key areas requiring further clarification, including ensuring
training accessibility, securing sustainable funding, and maintaining strong pastoral care tailored to primary industries.
“We received a clear message from farmers; work-based learning is essential for the sector,” BLNZ national programme manager Olivia Weatherburn said.
“Changes to the vocational education system will have a significant impact on training and career pathways for our farmers.”
Changes to the vocational education system will have a significant impact on training and career pathways.
Olivia Weatherburn BLNZ
The submission emphasised that any new system must support farmers in all regions with dedicated funding and learner support structures that reflect the unique needs of the primary sector.
leading market in both volume and value.
Corkran said cattle prices in the US and Canada are about double what NZ and Australia producers are receiving, due to low domestic numbers, strong consumer demand and likely herd rebuilding.
Meanwhile, Australia is forecasting record beef production this year due to higher carcase weights, which will compensate for a 1.4% decline in its beef herd.
A Meat and Livestock Australia report said Australia produced the most beef ever despite 7% fewer animals slaughtered in the previous record production year, 2014.
“Producers are growing more
efficient and productive cattle compared to 10 years ago,” said MLA managing director, Michael Crowley.
The Australian herd is forecast to fall to 30.1 million this year due to dry conditions in southern Australia.
Global beef production is expected to contract this year with Rabobank forecasting first quarter production 2% lower than the same period in 2024, and Quarter 2 volumes 3% lower.
The Rabobank report said production in the four largest South American beef-producing countries, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, is also expected to contract this year.
MESSAGE:
BLNZ and DINZ believe that the independent model outlined by the government may best meet the needs of sheep, beef, and deer farmers but have called for more clarity and still have some concerns around proposed transitions, establishment assistance and delivery.
DINZ industry capability manager John Ladley said there is a high degree of alignment across the agricultural sector.
“We have continued to work closely with stakeholders across the wider food and fibre sector as we have prepared this submission.”
The government is expected to make final decisions on the work-based learning model midyear, including the design of the training system, the role of Industry Skills Boards, and funding structures.
Nigel Stirling MARKETS Beef and lamb
Kate Acland Beef + Lamb NZ
ACCESS: Kate Acland will head back to the United States in a few months to make the case for continued uninterrupted access to the US market.
Photo: Pexels
BLNZ national programme manager Olivia Weatherburn says farmers delivered a clear message.
DOUBLE: RaboResearch senior agricultural analyst Jen Corkran says cattle prices in the US and Canada are about double what NZ and Australia producers are receiving, due to low domestic numbers, strong consumer demand and likely herd rebuilding.
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Aus lamb quality to get hand-held boost
Richard Rennie TECHNOLOGY Production
AUSTRALIA is doubling down on efforts to ensure its boosted lamb crop will offer a more consistent, high-quality eating experience.
Dr Peter McGilchrist, associate professor in meat and animal science at the University of New England in New South Wales, outlined latest moves across the Tasman to delegates at the Agrifutures evokeAG conference in Brisbane.
“We developed some good parameters in the ’90s for beef evaluation but are still relying upon human graders for sheepmeat.”
Beef grading systems enable good differentiation, but lamb has been “all boxed up as just lamb”. However, the need for increased productivity and improved cooked lamb outcome has seen more technology developed to help achieve both.
Australia’s latest livestock statistics indicate 2024 was the largest year for lamb and sheep slaughter in decades. The
Australian Bureau of Statistics says that 26.6 million lambs were slaughtered in the last calendar year, and 11.7 million sheep.
Total lamb production was a record 634,000 tonnes, up 6% on 2023. Unlike past surges in sheep slaughter, the surge was not prompted by severe drought and feed shortages across the continent.
We are at a tipping point, we are up with the tech, we just need to get it in place.
Michael Crowley MLA
The Australian domestic market remains its largest sheep meat market, with Japan, the United States and China the three big export markets.
“Now with the tools available to us we can look at where we capture value and can differentiate from our competitors. We are at a tipping point, we are up with the tech, we just need to get it in place,” said Meat and Livestock Australia head Michael Crowley.
The tech includes a medical imaging needle adapted from sampling intramuscular fat (IMF) levels in tuna at market, and capable of identifying premium quality lamb carcases prior to chilling.
IMF is a key parameter influencing lamb eating quality and fits with the MLA programme that has developed a cuts-based model to predict eating quality for nine cut-by-cook options.
Other tech, known as optical coherence tomography (OCT), is commonly used in hospitals for human in vivo use. But repurposing it means it can distinguish between fat and muscle. It has proven to be highly accurate, with an average error rate of only 1.1%.
These devices are now accredited by Australian meat authorities to use, and developers are seeking out processors to partner with.
“All lamb is good but some is amazing, and we are not making any extra money out of that at the moment,” said McGilchrist.
While the devices are accredited, Crowley acknowledged they do not have many lining up for them, yet.
“Those brands that have built brand equity have worked closer
with their suppliers, the data is shared and goes back to the breeder too, not just the last stock owner.
“Lamb is in such a strong position in the market already, we
Dr Peter McGilchrist, associate professor of meat and animal science at University of New England, NSW, says hand-held tech adopted from the human health sector will play a big role in lifting lamb meat quality standards.
have run out of excuses for not doing this.”
WoolWorks launches its own ‘direct’ selling option
Staff reporter MARKETS
Food and fibre
SHEEP farmers have a new low-cost supply option for their wool, with processor WoolWorks accepting wool at its Timaru store directly from growers.
It has launched WoolWorks Grower Direct, a division that manager Jason Everson said offers growers a shorter supply chain to market through a streamlined, efficient, low-cost process.
In hand with this development, WoolWorks is also developing new wool market opportunities for attributes such as acknowledging NZ Farm Assurance Plans (NZFAP), NZFAP-Plus Gold, low carbon and RegenAG.
WoolWorks is the world’s
largest wool processor, annually processing about 100 million/kg greasy, or 80% of the New Zealand wool clip.
Wool of all types can now be
delivered directly from farm to the company’s Timaru store, Everson said.
Lots offered for sale on the spot market will be promoted via a
weekly online auction platform that is supported by all major buyers of NZ wool, many of which are long-standing wool scouring customers.
“Selling wool online means we are able to make direct comparisons to the prices that farmers are getting selling ex-Timaru.
“Buying wool ex-WoolWorks Timaru store has commercial benefits to buyers as they do not have to factor freight costs into their pricing to get the wool to WoolWorks for scouring, and they can get the wool scoured and shipped a lot quicker.”
WoolWorks Grower Direct operations manager Breanna Hayes said the industry is ripe for change.
“We currently have limited
influence over wool markets, but we can control the cost to get wool to the market. It’s about improving efficiencies,” Hayes said.
Southland sheep and beef farmer Allan Marshall said he intends supplying WoolWorks directly, adding that as most of New Zealand’s wool is scoured locally before export, it makes sense to sell it through a scouring plant.
The WoolWorks launch follows news last month that Wools of NZ is starting an online global wool trading platform based on the Global Dairy Trade system.
The first of what will be monthly auctions hosted by the new Natural Fibre Exchange (NFX) is being held on April 2. Wools of NZ chief executive John McWhirter said it will be open to wool buyers from around the world.
• Rennie travelled to the Agrifutures evokeAG conference in Brisbane with support from Plant & Food Research.
HANDHELD:
CHANGE: Jason Everson, WoolWorks Grower Direct manager and Breanna Hayes, the company’s wool operations manager. Hayes says the industry is ripe for change.
Photo: Supplied
Paris: should we stay or should we go?
Any withdrawal from the climate agreement would no doubt be short-lived, but the reputational damage would endure.
OVER the past few weeks, I’ve had several conversations with farmers about the Paris Agreement and whether New Zealand should remain a signatory.
With a couple of countries, including some of our largest trading partners, reconsidering their commitments, it’s understandable farmers are asking this question.
The Paris Agreement is an international treaty on climate change, under which countries have committed to reducing emissions and working together to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
The goal of the agreement is to limit global temperature increases to 1.5degC. New Zealand is a signatory, and as an exporting nation, our economic future depends heavily on international trade and our ability to respond to climate challenges.
Agriculture is the backbone of our economy, contributing eight out of 10 goods export dollars. So, what would happen to our exports if we pulled out of Paris?
A number of our free trade agreements (FTAs) are built on the expectation that we play our part in global climate commitments,
returns on average more than double those from China.
Our reputation as a responsible trading partner matters.
such as our FTAs with the European Union and United Kingdom that specifically state we must refrain from any action or omission that materially defeats the object and purpose of the Paris Agreement.
The EU is also considering the introduction of a tax at its border on imports that are carbon heavy.
Our reputation as a responsible trading partner matters and withdrawing from Paris could impact our key international relationships.
Last year, around 42% of our lamb exports went to the UK and EU markets, more than three times the volume we sent to the United States, and significantly more than we sent to China.
Lamb exports to the UK and Europe attract a premium with
Both the UK and the EU are high-value markets with prices significantly higher than other key markets for many products. The average value per tonne for beef to the EU is about $21,000 compared to $9000, which is the average for all beef exports. Under the FTA, $200 million worth of leather products are exported annually to the EU tariff-free to be used for luxury products like highend handbags and upholstery for Ferraris.
If we were to lose access to these high-value markets, how would this impact farm profitability in these increasingly uncertain times?
The past two years have clearly demonstrated the importance of diversified trade relationships.
With China’s economic slowdown affecting demand for New Zealand beef and lamb, the relief we’re feeling currently with an uptick in the lamb schedule is largely due to our ability as a country to divert
Farm advisory teams here to bridge the information gap
THE return of a government-run farm advisory service is intended to fill an information and assistance vacuum, said John Roche, the Ministry for Primary Industries director of On Farm Support.
Roche said in his personal opinion the farm extension sector lacks leadership, with existing advice largely what people want to hear rather than what they need to hear, which is leading to farmers becoming disengaged.
“We see that with a lot of organisations in New Zealand –they give advice people want to know rather than what they need to hear.”
Farmers have to pay private advisory services for knowledge and advice, and Roche said that means many have become disengaged and, by default, most have no interaction with
scientists and those who have the information and knowledge needed to solve problems.
“We have had a No 8 mentality but that has been built on the relationship between farmers and scientists and a key part of that was the Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry advisory teams, who would talk to farmers about innovation.”
Speaking at the Wānaka A&P Show, Roche said those MAF advisory teams were disbanded in the 1980s and while there is currently no shortage of information, the science sector is not as actively involved with farmers as previously.
Roche said farmers are no longer the centre of the conversation and he lamented the loss of the annual Ruakura Farming Conference, a must-attend for dairy farmers seeking the latest research and new techniques.
Bridging that information gap was part of the reason the MPI
All we want to be is part of a team to support farmers to be the most efficient, profitable and sustainable in the world.
John Roche On Farm Support
established On Farm Support. It currently has a network of about 60 regional managers and advisers providing extension resources and knowledge to farmers. Roche said the intention is to provide a similar role for the horticulture sector.
That network is administered by 1.5 managers in Wellington.
Roche said On Farm Support staff are available for either onfarm visits or a telephone call and can then use their networks to link farmers to specialists who have solutions.
need to be reduced as drastically as CO2 to achieve meaningful climate goals.
Rather than pulling out of the Paris Agreement, New Zealand should amend its domestic methane targets based on the principle of “no additional warming”. This brings us in line with what is expected of longlived gas emitters. We can then take a split-gas approach to our international targets under Paris that aligns with our domestic approach.
A split-gas target would recognise the importance of food production and the different impact of Methane to CO2 on warming.
product into higher value markets.
If we were to weaken our environmental commitments, would our ability to access and sustain diverse, high-value markets be compromised? In my mind, yes.
After the US pulled out of the Paris Agreement in 2020, the subsequent administration quickly rejoined. I suggest that a similar thing would happen in New Zealand if we were to withdraw.
Our departure from Paris would likely be short-lived but the damage to our broader trading relationships could be long lasting.
However, the Paris Agreement explicitly acknowledges the importance of food production, and as a nation that feeds millions globally, this is significant.
Methane emissions from agriculture are emissions from food production.
Methane has a shorter life cycle than carbon dioxide, meaning its impact on warming differs. The science that supports this is well established; methane does not
New Zealand’s red meat sector is committed to doing its part to address climate change, alongside the rest of NZ, but this requires fair targets that reflect methane’s actual warming impact.
The government’s own independent science review has already provided insight that the current methane targets are not scientifically justified when considering equal warming impacts. We are calling on the government to review our domestic targets and align them with global commitments.
Exiting the Paris Agreement might sound like an easy solution, but it comes with considerable risk.
Instead, NZ should focus on advancing realistic and fair climate targets that acknowledge the importance of food production and the distinct nature of methane emissions.
By staying engaged, we protect our international trade relationships, maintain market access, and ensure our agricultural sector remains world-leading in a rapidly evolving and uncertain global market.
“All we want to be is part of a team to support farmers to be the most efficient, profitable and sustainable in the world.” Additional benefits will be providing MPI with closer links to the sector’s grassroots, providing early insight into potentially serious issues and the
ability to determine if there is an issue needing further action.
Roche said having on-theground eyes and ears will also provide an early rural lens on proposed legislation and for managing disasters such as Cyclone Gabrielle.
Kate Acland
Acland is chair of Beef + Lamb New Zealand Sector perspective
IN WRITING: Beef + Lamb NZ chair Kate Acland points out that New Zealand’s FTAs with the European Union and United Kingdom specifically state we must refrain from any action that materially defeats the object and purpose of the Paris Agreement Photo: Clare Toia-Bailey
Neal Wallace NEWS Governance
TEAMS: John Roche, the Ministry for Primary Industries director of On Farm Support, outlines the reasons for re-establishing farm advisory teams.
Ramp up your efficiency
What if there was a way to rein in costs this season without compromising production?
No matter where or what you farm, it can be done.
The answer lies in every thin, weedy or tired pasture on your farm.
Upgrade even one or two of them in coming weeks, and watch the same amount of land drive higher animal performance.
Pick the right proven pasture seed, and those benefits will continue for three to five years, strengthening your business going forward.
We all know the golden rule of New Zealand pastoral farming – the more feed you grow and harvest with your animals,
the cheaper that feed per kilogram of dry matter.
Few grasses grow more than Forge NEA.
Compared to a high performance perennial ryegrass, for example, this tetraploid hybrid will produce about 1.4 tonnes of extra dry matter per ha, per year.
Latest National Forage Variety Trial results tell the story – Forge NEA has topped the national hybrid ryegrass category.
Use it to renew poor-performing pastures this autumn, and you’ll generate significantly more feed from the same area of land, immediately improving farm efficiency.
“Extra dry matter is great. But extra high quality dry matter across all seasons gives farmers more flexibility in growing stock, and Forge excels in this regard,” Barenbrug
pasture specialist Graham Kerr says.
“We’re particularly excited about its growth in autumn, winter and early spring. These are times when high quality, home-grown feed has most value in our farm systems.”
In regions where milder winters and hotter summers are becoming the norm, this growth pattern offers better opportunity to maximise cool season production, Graham says.
Yield is one thing, however; quality is another, as any farmer who has ever tried to get their animals to graze an unpalatable pasture knows.
Forge is a tetraploid, so that extra growth is soft, juicy and delicious for cattle, sheep and deer.
This in itself benefits not only animal care, nutrition and performance, but farm
system management, and environmental outcomes.
“Animals love tetraploids. They’re soft, rich in energy and easy to eat. Forge’s high metabolisable energy and palatability encourage high intakes, optimal per head performance and also means easier grazing management.
“That’s good for the environment too, because it enables farmers to finish stock quicker which reduces greenhouse gas emissions.”
Forge NEA has the potential to turn your worst paddock or paddocks into your best, so that even if you have to scale back on renewal or under-sowing this season, you can still improve productivity from a smaller area of land.
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Sector Focus Deer
Gains from genetic database update
Gerhard Uys TECHNOLOGY Deer
DEER Industry New Zealand has launched Deer Select 2, a major update to the national deer genetics records database.
This is the first significant update since 2005.
Deer Select 2 is made up of both new and updated features, including separate evaluations for red deer and wapiti, genetic groups in growth and meat traits, new reproduction breeding values (BV) and updated velvet heritabilities based on 40,000 New Zealand velvet records, and new economic indexes.
A new software platform provides farmers with direct access to their data.
DINZ Deer Select manager Sharon McIntyre said the system will run in parallel with the current Deer Select system through the summer, before replacing it in autumn.
The original Deer Select has served the industry well to date, McIntyre said.
“We now have stags with live weight at 12 months (W12) values of 35kg more than what we had in 1995.”
W12 is a breeding value that refers to the average weight of a deer at 12 months old.
She said there were also large gains in velvet production.
“There are animals with velvet breed values 2.5kg above the average.”
Extensive progeny testing has been conducted since 2010.
The offspring of these industry sires were slaughtered, with slaughter traits for thousands of animals recorded.
This data helped inform a
completely new deer-specific meat module for Deer Select 2, McIntyre said.
Deer Select 2 has two new reproduction breeding values, helping identify genetic lines of animals with high conception rates.
It also features new breeding indexes with updated economic weights reflecting current values and costs.
“Instead of having breeding values with four decimal places, we can have a dollar value for growth, meat and reproduction. Indexes are expressed as a dollar value per fawn or calf born.”
McIntyre said AgResearch is working on a genomics evaluation for deer.
“This will add more value to the current DNA testing breeders do, particularly for traits measured later in life or in one sex, such as reproduction, velvet or advanced meat traits.”
She said an animal inherits 50% of its genetics from both parents, and hence 25% from each grandparent.
However, it is now clear from genomics that an animal can inherit between 17% to 37% of its genetics from a grandparent.
If an animal inherits, for example, more genetics from a grandparent that was very good for a trait, the BV would be increased above the parent average, she said.
Genomic data will show which animal is better, depending on how much it inherited from a specific grandparent.
The BV for a specific trait could then be adjusted for that animal.
“Having a sound genetic programme underpinning your industry is a fundamental foundation to building productivity and profitability,” McIntyre said.
DINZ survey shows mixed results
Annette Scott NEWS Trends
AN INDUSTRY survey has revealed mixed sentiment among deer farmers, who are cautiously optimistic about the future.
The Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ) survey was aimed at gauging farmer sentiment and intentions for the future, their attitudes towards farm planning, and also at quantifying the current structure of the industry.
The results were mixed but leaned towards cautious optimism, DINZ policy and research manager Emil Murphy said.
“To make good decisions, you need access to the right information, and that was the underlying driver of the survey.
TROPHY STAG TRANSPORT YOU CAN TRUST
“We needed to get the information we didn’t have, then add that to what we did have to form a better understanding of where we are now and where the industry is heading.”
Survey results were based on feedback from 144 farmers randomly selected.
The survey shed more light on a topic of much discussion – how to interpret the number of deer processed.
At the end of last year, venison processors reported that 19,000 fewer animals were processed than had been projected
The reduction was in both stags and hinds with the number of hinds slaughtered falling at a faster rate than stags.
“We believe that there is a modest firming of herd numbers,
based on future intention feedback from farmers,” Murphy said.
The survey provided updated information on the structure of the industry, highlighting the diversity in farm sizes and the distribution of deer across different operations.
Data showed that an averagesized deer farm stocks around 350 deer, with venison-focused operations on average farming slightly fewer animals.
About 75% of farms with deer also farmed other livestock species, which Murphy said is less than what was originally thought. While velvet-focused farms were the main ones that had increased numbers over the past three years, there was no difference between the future intent for venison or velvet operations going forward.
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TRAITS: DINZ Deer Select manager Sharon McIntyre says an update to the national deer genetics records database will help farmers with decision making as more and more breed values and traits are tested for.
Photo: Gerhard Uys
Feds push Southland duck licence boycott
Federated Farmers Southland is encouraging anyone wanting to shoot ducks in Southland this season to buy their licence from another region.
“We want to send a very clear message to Southland Fish & Game that we’re sick of their nonsense,” says Federated Farmers Southland’s president Jason Herrick.
“Farmers have had an absolute guts-full of their anti-farming rhetoric and activism. We need them to start working with farmers instead of actively working against us.
“That’s why we’re encouraging all Southland shooters – not just farmers – to buy their licences outside of the district this season.”
Herrick wants to see shooters buy their game bird licences from regions working constructively with farmers, like Hawke’s Bay and Greater Wellington.
“So, if you’ve got mates coming down for duck shooting this season, tell them they’re only welcome in the maimai on opening morning if they’ve supported the boycott.”
The licence boycott is the latest effort from Federated Farmers Southland to pull Southland Fish & Game back in line, Herrick says.
Last year he called for local farmers to stop buying fishing licences from Southland Fish & Game, and to remove fishing access by taking down access signs.
He also encouraged farmers to
replace Fish & Game access signs with an orange ribbon to show their frustration.
“This latest boycott is sparked by the fact that we have a massive problem with ducks down here,” Herrick says.
“Southland Fish & Game have contributed to that problem. They’ve spent too much time trying to control farmers and not enough time controlling duck populations.
If you’ve got mates coming down for duck shooting this season, tell them they’re only welcome in the maimai on opening morning if they’ve supported the boycott.
Jason Herrick Federated Farmers Southland’s president
“Last spring’s constant rain has seen our mallard population explode and they’re absolutely hammering farmers’ winter crops. It’s a total disaster.
“Southland Fish & Game have been denying farmers’ applications for permits to cull the ducks out of season, and they also didn’t let us have an early summer duck shooting weekend like other regions have done.”
Had farmers been allowed a weekend in February to cull ducks, the problem would have been alleviated, he says.
“I’ve sent Southland Fish & Game a letter this week asking for action to be taken, but action should have come far sooner.
“All they’ve done until now is up the bag limits after opening weekend from 10 to 15, which won’t even come close to solving the issue.
“We needed to be taking the pressure off at the start of summer.”
One farmer who’s seen his crops chopped down by mallards this year is Ben Dooley, who says he’s been seeing up to a couple of thousand ducks at a time on his 250ha farm this summer.
“Our duck numbers are out of control this season – they’re everywhere,” the Wyndham sheep and beef farmer says.
In early February Dooley discovered one of his swede crops had been decimated by a mob of Mallards.
“They came through and absolutely annihilated one of our winter crops just as it was just coming out of the ground.”
Dooley, the organisation’s local meat and wool vice chair, agrees with Herrick that farmers need more options for duck control that are legal.
He believes farmers should be
allowed to shoot ducks at any time of year when they’re feeding on crops, especially when crops are just emerging.
Herrick says an estimated 5000 hunters come to Southland over duck shooting weekend in May.
“So, if all those people buy their licences out of the region – an adult game bird licence for the whole season costs $113 – that’ll take a fair chunk of money out of Southland Fish & Game’s pockets.”
He says he wants to be very clear that he’s not asking shooters to boycott buying licences altogether.
“We 100% want farmers to hunt and shoot legally by buying their
licences, but we have an aversion to funding an activist group that’s actively working against farmers.
“Southland Fish & Game has been unnecessarily obstructive in so many areas, like opposing farmers from removing gravel that’s built up to dangerous levels in rivers.”
Licences for the 2025 game bird season are on sale now ahead of the season starting in early May.
“If everyone backs us on this boycott, hopefully it’ll give Southland Fish & Game’s local board a serious wake-up call,” Herrick says.
“We need them to start engaging with farmers and stop their extreme anti-farming activism.”
RUFFLED FEATHERS: Jason Herrick says Southland Fish & Game’s antifarming rhetoric has put them well offside with farmers, and he’s now calling for shooters to take a stand.
Farm loans not as risky as banks claim
Federated Farmers will be holding banks to their word that farm loans will be cheaper if they don’t have to hold as much capital, banking spokesperson Richard McIntyre says.
This week the bosses of New Zealand’s biggest banks we’re hauled back in front of Parliament’s banking inquiry for further scrutiny.
A key line of questioning focused on whether the Reserve Bank’s capital holding rules – among the strictest in the world – are unnecessarily driving up borrowing costs for farmers.
“The committee chair’s final question to every bank appearing was: ‘What would happen if we reverted back to pre-2019 settings?’,” McIntyre says.
“Every bank said the exact same thing in response: that they’d pass the savings back on to their clients –which in this case would be farmers.” Banks must currently hold enough
capital to withstand a one-in-200year financial event, which adds between 50 to 120 basis points to agricultural loans.
“Federated Farmers say this is far too conservative and far stricter than international counterparts, and agricultural loans are hit even harder with higher risk weightings than any other loan category,” McIntyre explains.
From everything I’ve seen, I don’t believe farm loans present a significantly greater risk than other forms of lending – yet we’re still charged a huge risk premium to access capital.
Richard McIntyre Federated Farmers banking spokesperson
Adrian Orr’s exit a
“We’re advocating strongly for the rules to revert to a one-in-100-year standard.
“That would mean up to around $750 million in interest savings for the agriculture sector every year, money that could be easing financial stress and helping to grow the rural economy.”
McIntyre says Reserve Bank
Governor Adrian Orr’s resignation presents an opportunity to appoint someone less conservative and open to unlocking economic growth.
“From everything I’ve seen, I don’t believe farm loans present a significantly greater risk than other forms of lending – yet we’re still charged a huge risk premium to access capital.
“We’ve been through a tumultuous cycle in the last decade with recessions, droughts, M. bovis, a global pandemic, high interest rates, low commodity prices, and everything else in between.
costs for farmers.
“This begs the question: how much money have the banks actually lost on their rural lending during that period?”
All of the banks who presented to the inquiry said they’ve averaged
less than one farm a year going into receivership.
“I think that shows us pretty clearly that farm loans are nowhere near as risky as the banks have made out,” McIntyre says.
turning point for farmers?
Richard McIntyre
Federated Farmers banking spokesperson
The big news out of Wellington a few weeks ago was the resignation of Reserve Bank Governor Adrian Orr –effective almost immediately.
While we still don’t know whether he’s fallen on his sword or been cut down by Minister of Finance Nicola Willis, the result remains the same. There will be a change in leadership at the Reserve Bank of New Zealand, and Federated Farmers have welcomed this as positive news for farmers and rural communities.
During his time as Governor, Orr has taken an overly conservative and restrictive approach to managing the New Zealand economy,
which has put a drag on growth.
The capital-holding requirements he introduced for banks in 2019 were intended to protect against a one-in200-year shock, but in reality they’ve come at a huge economic cost.
These rules are among the toughest in the world.
According to the RBNZ’s own advice, these rules alone would have added between 0.5-1.2% to the interest rates farmers are paying.
When you apply that to the $62 billion of farm lending we have in New Zealand, we’re talking about $310 million to $744 million in additional interest payments for farmers each year.
That’s a hell of a lot of money being sucked out of a productive sector, and farmers’ back pockets,
that otherwise would have been spent in our rural communities. These capital rules have been a real focus for Federated Farmers throughout the banking inquiry. In fact, they’re one of the main reasons we called for an inquiry in the first place.
All the rules have done is driven up the cost of borrowing and made it harder for farmers to get loans when they need them.
Federated Farmers will keep pushing hard for a fairer banking system for farmers – and with a change of leadership at the RBNZ, the door is certainly open to achieving that.
Let’s hope Orr’s departure at the end of this month brings a muchneeded turning point.
UNJUSTIFIED: Richard McIntyre says the Reserve Bank’s current capital holding rules are too strict and are unnecessarily driving up borrowing
REINED IN: During his time as Governor, Orr has taken an overly conservative and restrictive approach to managing the New Zealand economy, Richard McIntyre says.
Farmers to celebrate stewardship
High country farmers will come together later this month for a field day that promises to celebrate their work caring for some of New Zealand’s most iconic landscapes.
Molesworth Station manager Jim Ward says the Federated Farmers 2025 High Country Field Day in North Canterbury will be all about recognition and positivity.
“The whole theme of the day is stewardship: we want to celebrate the good things high country farmers are doing around the country.
“Rather than sitting down and having a moan, we want to pat these guys on the back for being good stewards of the land,” says Ward, Federated Farmers High Country vice chair.
“High country farmers are playing a key role in preserving the land for future generations, controlling pests and wilding pines, and helping preserve our precious native biodiversity.”
Ward says a highlight of the event, in Hurunui Basin on March 28, will be a farm tour of three unique properties: Glens of Tekoa Station, Grampians Angus Stud, and Lochiel Station.
“These stations might be right beside each other, but they showcase very different approaches to high country farming.
“We’ll be going from a highperformance extensive merino operation, running in conjunction with forestry operations, to an Angus stud, and then on to a crossbreed finishing operation next door.
“We’ve also chosen these stations because, while most people consider high country farming to be at the more traditional end, these farms are using just as much technology as the dairy farm down the road.”
Federated Farmers High Country chair Ian Anderson says it’s been
a few years since a field day of this scale was run, so he’s looking forward to bringing the sector together again.
“These opportunities to gather are quite rare, so it’ll be great to get them off the farm, network, and find out what everyone is doing,” says Anderson.
“Everyone’s got challenges and there are different ways of responding to them, so it’ll be good to discuss those and share ideas.”
Like Ward, he wants the day to be about celebrating all things to do with high country farming.
“It’s about showing good stewardship of land and promoting
CONVERSATION: Federated Farmers
High Country
chair Ian Anderson says everyone’s got challenges and there are different ways of responding to them, so the field day will be a good place to discuss those and share ideas.
that. A lot of the time, farmers –especially high country farmers –don’t get the credit they deserve.
“We have these different groups going around almost saying we shouldn’t be here because we’re encroaching on the landscape, but in actual fact every farmer I know wants to leave the land in better shape than they found it, and nurture it as much as possible.”
Another highlight of the field day will be the presence of senior politicians from across the spectrum, including Chris Hipkins, Andrew Hoggard, Jo Luxton, Steve Abel, and Stuart Smith.
“We’re very fortunate to have these MPs attending – we think that’s very special,” says Ward.
“It’s good to have senior politicians showing up so farmers will have an opportunity to talk with them in person.”
Instead of delivering pre-prepared speeches, the Ministers will engage directly with farmers in open discussions.
“That’s going to be a very positive thing. The Ministers will go away thinking, ‘these guys really know their stuff,’” Ward adds.
In addition to political leaders, agribusiness professionals will share
insights on topics such as wilding conifers, tourism in the high country, and genetics and breeding.
“We want farmers to come away from this with some fresh ideas,” Ward says.
“For example, the tourism session might show that you don’t necessarily have to start some kind of luxury accommodation, but maybe a cycleway or a walking track.” Ward and Anderson say special thanks must go to the farm tour hosts: Beau and Georgie McRae (Glens of Tekoa), Graham and Ann, Jono and Sarah Reed (Grampians Angus), and Hamish and MaryAnn McRae (Lochiel Station).
“We really couldn’t do it without them, and we’re extremely grateful they’re opening their gates to what will be a decent-sized party,” Anderson says.
MORE:
The High Country Field Day will run from 7:30am to 5:30 pm, finishing with a light BBQ at the Amuri Collie Club grounds at Lochiel Station around 5:30pm.
Farmers interested need to pre-register, with access limited to 50 vehicles (4WD only). Call Laura Sanford on 027 551 1639.
HIGH POINT: Federated Farmers’ high country field days, like this one at Mt Arrowsmith Station in 2018, are always a popular event on the calendar for farmers.
Otago farmer’s push for practical solutions
Logan Wallace has spent years balancing environmental stewardship with running a successful farm — but he’s not afraid to fight back when regulations threaten to tip the scales.
As Federated Farmers Otago meat and wool chair, Wallace has been at the forefront of battles against unworkable freshwater rules, all while leading by example on his own environmental-award-winning farm.
Are those two standpoints compatible?
“They’re incredibly compatible,” he says.
“All top farmers have the environment in their mind as they tackle things on farm.
“If we destroy the environment, we don’t have a business.”
With his parents Ross and Alexa, Wallace was 2018 supreme winner of the Otago-Southland Ballance Farm Environment Award, and he’s been on the Pomohaka Water Care group executive for four years.
Yet last year he was a leading figure in Federated Farmers’ scrap with Otago Regional Council (ORC) over proposed freshwater rules and the Regional Policy Statement (RPS).
“Keeping farming and food production viable, while ensuring there are methods and regulations to protect land and water, also needs pragmatism,” Wallace says.
Advocacy to get the right balance has cost Wallace many hours out of running the family’s Beacon Hill Farming business at Waipahi, South
All top farmers have the environment in their mind as they tackle things on farm. If we destroy the environment, we don’t have a business.
Logan Wallace Federated Farmers Otago meat and wool chair
Otago, during two extended rounds of ORC planning processes last year.
Federated Farmers’ advocacy saw the Government step in and block ORC from bringing in unworkable parts of its Land and Water Plan.
However, the council had already passed its RPS, the only one in the country with Te Mana o te Wai obligations running through it.
“We’re still fighting that through mediation,” Wallace says.
If anyone doubts how complicated farming businesses are, and the challenges of working with nature, they should read Wallace’s 60 pages of detailed evidence to ORC on nitrogen capture, stock genetics and sediment traps.
Logan finds elected councillors more open than some council staff on arguments around pragmatism and catchment-based solutions.
“There’s a fair few staff who seem to have predetermined ideas on where they want things to go.
“We had a meeting yesterday on the RPS and stock water. If farmers lose the right to take water from mainstream flow, there will be all sorts of negative effects as takes will come from small tributaries that don’t have the flow to support that.
“That’s why the mainstream flow systems were set up in the first place, 40, 50 and 60 years ago.”
Wallace agrees with Federated Farmers’ call for Farm Plans based on good farm practice, and catchment group action, versus blanket national rules.
“With the community working together at catchment level, you can work on the changes that are compatible with your soil types, rainfall, and so on.
“Some things that work in one part of Otago won’t work in another.”
A Telford graduate, Wallace went overseas to work on cropping farms in Australia and growing potatoes and grain in the UK.
MAKING A DIFFERENCE: Logan Wallace enjoys the fact Federated Farmers has real influence, ‘and I can be a part of it’.
His family have been farming in South Otago for more than 70 years, and on his return he and wife Penny took over operating Beacon Hill Farming in 2013, and full ownership five years later.
In his first year back, he was grazing some of then-provincial president Stephen Korteweg’s dairy heifers. The Feds Otago executive must have seen Wallace’s potential because the province sponsored him for the Federated Farmers 101 course.
“It was amazing; that course really helped me,” Wallace says.
“Among other things, we did goal setting, and two of us – me and Matt Bell – said we wanted to win Young Farmer of the Year. We both achieved that.
“Others on the same course also achieved some pretty amazing things. Dan Hodgen became Federated Farmers North Canterbury president through the droughts; Kirsty McGregor now owns Sherpherdess magazine.”
Wallace must have a trophy cabinet that’s bursting at the seams.
He’s been Otago/Southland FMG Young Farmer of the Year twice. He made the national final in 2016, and two years later claimed top honours.
As well as the Ballance Farm Environment Award, Beacon Hill Farming has won the Beef+Lamb NZ Livestock Farm Award and the Massey University Innovation Award.
The farm carries 2600 Romney Texel ewes, and 670 breeding hoggets, chosen for their meat yield and production efficiency.
While Wallace is as keen as anyone to see the wool industry’s structural issues sorted, “there’s only so long farmers can carry that red line through their budget”.
Wallace says Federated Farmers involvement has been good for him.
“I like that the federation is having real influence, and I can be part of it.
“We can help make sure that rules coming into place are ones we can farm to and achieve.”
ON TOP: Logan Wallace set a goal to win the Young Farmer of the Year title and achieved it in 2018.
Here are three prime Coromandel properties that have come to the market – 57 Hall Road offers a 61.93ha (more or less) dairy farm with a modern milking shed and a 3-bedroom home plus an adjoining 74 36ha (more or less) grazing block with excellent infrastructure and reliable pasture growth 2511 Kopu Hikuai Road sits on 81.45ha (more or less) of land and is a well-maintained dairy support block with quality fencing water systems and potential for a family home Whether you’re interested in one or all three, these properties provide fantastic farming and coastal living opportunities These properties are being sold by way of receivership, so don't miss out!
bayleys co nz/2630039
Here's your chance to acquire a highly productive 104-hectare (more or less) dairy farm, located in the heart of the Hauraki District (subject to survey - copy of approved scheme plan available) This property offers a fantastic combination of flat contour, fertile soils, and functional infrastructure with an excellent history of production performance This is ideal as a first farm property or welcome addition to existing portfolio, offering simplicity and potential in its easy to manage system Divided into well-maintained paddocks, the farm offers easy access with a good central race system Infrastructure includes a 24-aside herringbone dairy shed, 5-bay lean to shed & calf sheds Water is sourced from a council supply There is the ability to tap into a reliable council connection currently servicing farmhouses and the dairy shed Call today!
bayleys co nz/2630037
3pm, Thu 10 Apr 2025 96 Ulster Street, Hamilton Karl Davis 027 496 4633
karl davis@bayleys co nz
Glenn Tanner 027 486 2399 glenn tanner@bayleys co nz
For Sale by Deadline Private Treaty (unless sold prior) 4pm, Thu 3 Apr 2025 96 Ulster Street, Hamilton View 12 30-1.30pm
Receivership dairy farm
Paeroa 272 Rotokohu Road 103 3 ha For Sale by Deadline Private Treaty (unless sold prior)
103-hectare (more or less) dairy farm located in the heart of the Hauraki District with quality and quantity of infrastructure and a proposed subdivision already underway this property presents a compelling strategic business investment Whether it is an easy way to get into your first farm or adding a farm to your portfolio you can't help but be impressed with the infrastructure already in place The farm offers easy access with a good central race system Improvements include a 34-aside herringbone dairy shed, plus over 600sqm of additional shedding Good quality council drinking water is provided to the farm Accommodation includes two dwellings, as well as two additional accommodation options in the form of a converted cowshed and a American barn Only 3 2km away from the Paeroa L&P bottle, this one you don't want to miss! Call us today bayleys co nz/2630036
Receivership dairy farm
Here's your chance to acquire a highly productive 87-hectare (more or less) dairy farm, located in the heart of the Hauraki District This property offers a fantastic combination of primarily flat contour, fertile soils, and functional infrastructure with an excellent history of production performance This is ideal as a first farm property or welcome additional to existing portfolio, offering simplicity and potential in its easy to manage system Divided into well-maintained paddocks, the farm offers easy access with a good central race system Infrastructure includes a 28-aside herringbone dairy shed, calf shed & two implement sheds The main home is a sturdy 1960s residence, offering 120 sqm of comfortable living space ideal for a family Call today! bayleys co nz/2630044
3pm, Fri 28 Mar 2025 Bayleys Hamilton, 96 Ulster Street, Hamilton View 11am-12pm Tue 18 Mar
Karl Davis 027 496 4633
karl davis@bayleys co nz
Aislabie 027 429 5410
davis@bayleys co nz
Maraekakaho 719 Aorangi Road
Tahara Farm - 308 ha of prime farming land
For the first time in 118 years, this exceptional 308 ha property, Tahara is being offered to the market by our retiring vendor. Located just 35 km west of Hastings, in the renowned farming district of Maraekakaho, this property is currently operated as a highly productive intensive cattle and lamb finishing farm. With over 250 ha of flat to undulating land all in superior pastures, Tahara is extensively subdivided into 28 main paddocks with conventional fencing all serviced by a central laneway for ease of stock movement and access The excellent reticulated water system throughout the property has enabled it to carry in excess of 600 cattle and up to 1500 trade lambs Accommodation is provided by a modernised homestead set in mature, well-kept grounds, offering encompassing views over the property. A threebedroom cottage and shearers accommodation provide ample staff housing or secondary income opportunities
Tender closes 2.00pm, Tue 15th Apr, 2025, Property Brokers, 306 Saint Aubyn Street West, Hastings View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/HR201856
Mike Heard M 027 641 9007 E mike.heard@pb.co.nz
Jared Brock M 027 449 5496 E jared@pb.co.nz
If you’re looking for a lifestyle property with views, 158 Finnis Road can be your new home. Breathtaking views of rural farmland. Located 15 minutes to Feilding 7 paddocks and modern 16x7m shed all set in attractive landscaped grounds.
IN-MILK MIXED BREED HERD AUCTION
(50 yrs of breeding) with YOUNGSTOCK & MACHINERY
A/c Glenholme Farms Ltd
Date: Thursday 3rd April 2025
Address: Glenholme Rd, Nukuhou North B.O.P
Start Time: 10.30am (Machinery), 11:30am (Herd) will be available for online bidding
COMPRISING: Herd 11.30am
315 x Mixed Breed DNA tested, In-Calf, In-milk Cows. Including in-milk MT’s.
BW318, PW358, LW571, RA93%, DTC from 17th July. AI mated to LIC Forward Pack Xbred then SGL Hereford and SGL Xbreed semen for 10 weeks. PWs up to 754 (47 x Cows with PWs above 500) LWs up to1231
System 2, Herd Tested 9th Jan, 16.76Ltrs/cow, 1.57Kgs/MS/cow, SCC 181,000
TB C10, BVD Tested (no PI’s detected), Lepto 4-Way vaccinated.
68 x Mixed Breed In-Calf Heifers (Most in-calf to AI)
Genomic Tested, BW446 PW433, DTC from 17th July. AI mated to LIC Forward Pack Xbred with Cydr Program, remated returns over 4 days & tailed with Jersey bulls
DELIVERY: Within 3 days post auction (later by prior arrangement).
CARRFIELDS AGENT: Andrew Gordon: 027 4872044
IN-MILK CROSS BREED HERD & MACHINERY AUCTION
(Owner Bred for 27 years)
A/c H and S MacDonald
Date: Tuesday 8th April 2025
Address: 1226 Kairanga Bunnythorpe Road
Palmerston North OCD 26229
Viewing from: 9.00am
Start Time: 10.30am (Machinery & Sundries), 12:30pm (Herd) will be available for online bidding
COMPRISING: Herd 12.30am
100 x 2- 8yr Xbred Cows
Approx 25 % Jrsy, 15 % Frsn, 60 % Xbred
BW334 PW392, (BWs up to 415, PWs up to 749) RA 99%
Traditionally 450 MS System 2 Cows, 106000SCC
HB Shed, Milked OAD From Xmas this season
DTC 25th July to LIC Premier Sires Xbred and Fsn (6 weeks)
Tailed with Hereford Bull, (out 3rd Jan)
Owner Bred for 27 years
29 Xbred In-Calf Heifers
BW392 PW388
DTC 20th July to Jsy Bull, (out 3rd Jan)
MACHINERY: 10.30am
A comprehensive list will be available closer to the auction day.
AUCTIONEERS NOTE:
A very tidy, smaller genuine herd available due to our retiring vendors. The herd has been owner operated and managed for the past 27 years. An offering of a mixed breed herd, low input, quiet cows that have proven to produce on a simple system.
PAYMENT TERMS: 14 days after the auction
DELVERY: Within 3 days post auction (later by prior arrangement).
CARRFIELDS LIVESTOCK AGENTS:
David Haworth 027 450 4133
Hamish Manthel 027 432 0298
FOR SALE
80 MA Simmental
To
YOUR DAIRY LISTINGS NOW
Due to excessive demand and strong buyer interest Carrfields is actively looking for more herds and heifers to market on your behalf. We have orders to fill right now!
Contact your local Carrfields Livestock Representative, or visit www.carrfieldslivestock.co.nz to view our current listings
ELITE IN-MILK AUCTION HIGH INDEXED FRIESIAN/ FRIESIAN CROSS HERD & IN-CALF HEIFERS A/c Awhitu Valley Farms Ltd (Andrew & Liisa Hamilton)
Thursday 20th March 2025
Matamata Sale Yards Dairy Pavilion Start Time: 11:30am will be available for online bidding
COMPRISING:
175 x Friesian & Friesian Cross In-Calf, In-milk Cows BW340, PW452, LW707, RA99%, DTC from 10th July
Mated to a mixture of both Sexed Semen and Premier Sires, tailed with Hereford bulls.
A low 6% empty rate, all R3yrs back in-calf. Herd Tested 9th Jan, 25.42Ltrs/cow, 2.23Kgs/MS/cow – SCC 131,000 PWs up to 1045 LWs up to1462 System 4 with PKE (800kgs/cow)
TB C10 – The cows are BVD Bulk Milk tested and Lepto Vaccinated
AUCTIONEERS NOTES: This second-generation elite herd has been bred for 35 years. Farmed on a challenging property on the Awhitu Peninsula. A system 4 herd, these cows have plenty more potential. Production for January was 15% ahead of last season. On target for 575ms/cow this season. Cows will be presented in great condition to milk on.
PAYMENT TERMS: Deferred payment due on 15th April 2025
DELIVERY: Immediate delivery after the sale
CONTACT:
MOYOLA FARM SMOOTHIES
GLEN LYON & HUXLEY GORGE
96TH ANNUAL CALF SALE
Wednesday 26th March 12 noon start at Temuka Saleyards
On offer will be 705 Calves:
> 290 Hereford Steer Calves
> 170 Angus/Hereford x Steer Calves
> 75 Hereford Heifer Calves
> 170 Angus/Hereford x Heifer Calves
All calves being offered are October born SI High Country Station-Bred Calves.
They will have been mustered and weaned a good week prior to the sale. They will be trucked to Temuka Saleyards, drafted and sorted into sale lines. Due to time weaned and pre-sale handling these calves are renowned for their quietness and good temperament.
All bulls purchased in recent years are polled.
Our vendors regularly purchase 15-20 Sire Bulls per year from renowned beef studs throughout the South Island. Doing this ensures continuous improvement and genetic gains. Calves will be weighed prior to sale and the weights will be displayed in the catalogue.
TB Status: C10
This sale will be conducted purchase price plus GST Light luncheon provided at conclusion of sale.
Further enquiries: Ken Wigley (Vendor)
Uren (PGW) 027 431 4051
FEILDING WEANER FAIR
and
One day they decided to go bicycling, but when they got to the rental shop, all that was left was a tandem. They decided to take it anyway, and Patrick got on in front. They rode for a while down the scenic country roads until they came to a steep hill.
They stopped and looked up. “Begorrah, that’s the tallest hill In all Ireland!” exclaimed Patrick. “It is, so it is” replied Michael “We’ll have our work cut out for us, sure.” And so they started up the hill, each pedalling as hard as he could. Soon the sweat was pouring off and they were gasping for breath. “Faith, this is a steep hill” gasped Patrick. “It is, so it is” exclaimed Michael, and they pedaled even harder.
At last they reached the top, and stopped to catch their breath. “Saints preserve us, that was the steepest, tallest and hardest hill in all Ireland!” said Patrick. “It was, so it was” said Michael. “and if I hadn’t kept the brakes on we’d have rolled right back down!”
MILK THE MEAT
Come and hear how a ‘no bobby calf policy ’ has increased cash f low, prof i tabili t y and equi t y for Chris Will and Anna Hunter at their dair y farm in the Manawatu.
Gain f irst hand insight s into
• The benef i t s of using registered Hereford bulls .
• Hear Chris Will share his experiences wi th using registered Hereford bulls over his dair y herd, and how that has led to f inancial rewards .
• Jim Inglis B+L S trategy and Operations, will provide a summar y of the B+L Dair y Beef progeny test resul t s and impac t
farming.
• Guy Coleman, AFFCO National Key Account Manager will discuss the strong beef
and oppor tuni ties for
SALE TALK
Patrick
Michael were the best of friends.
Proudly sponsored by
Gravy for NZ in US beef shortage
There are still constraining factors, but the predicted beef shortage in the United States bodes well for Kiwi exporters.
EARLY last year, the United States beef herd dropped to multi-decade lows because of drought. A year on, the latest herd tallies show they’ve not even begun rebuilding yet, with fewer cattle reported in every category except dairy cows.
The US went through a big drought in the mid-2010s too, and it also led to the destocking of breeding cattle, sending the market into a beef shortage not long afterwards and pushing prices sky high. But it took only two to three years before they had more than rebuilt their herd and everything settled down. This time around is different.
The lack of herd rebuilding is especially obvious in the number of replacement beef heifers being kept for breeding, which eased another 1% on last year to the lowest since 1949. This is in addition to the beef cow herd shrinking another 0.5% to a 64-year low.
In other words, the current US beef shortages aren’t likely to go away for a good while yet, and supplies will likely tighten further before they start to recover.
But there are two big unanswered questions. Firstly, how much more can US beef prices rise before they start to feel pushback from US consumers? This was one of the big issues
in late 2015, when the market became over-cooked and collapsed as consumers and fast-food retailers switched away from beef to pork and chicken due to the price difference.
Over the short term, the risk of this scenario repeating is relatively low. One red flag that something was about to break in 2015 was combined US beef, pork and chicken inventories surging by 24% in only six months. This year, those inventories were the lowest for the end of January in 15 years and have hardly changed for nine months, with low pork stocks being the main contributor to the minimal overall total.
The other big question mark is US President Donald Trump and his tariffs. Canada and Mexico have had 25% tariffs applied and retracted at short notice. China’s tariffs have increased by 10% twice since the start of February, and Trump has threatened additional tariffs on all imported “agriculture products” from April 2.
For beef, the Canada/Mexico situation is interesting. Over the past five years, an annual average of 1.9 million cattle were imported from these countries into the US for either fattening or direct processing, usually the former. That’s not a huge number in the context of the whole US cattle system but is equivalent to around 6% of the annual beef kill.
Close to half of US beef imports have arrived via Canada or Mexico over the past five years too,
There is no doubt that the higher the tariffs, the lower the trade – and the larger the beef shortages.
though that dropped last year due to high volumes coming in from Australia and Brazil.
Whether Trump decides to reinstate 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico once his latest exemption period expires on April 2 is anyone’s guess. However, there is no doubt that the higher the tariffs, the lower the trade, and the larger the beef shortages in the US.
US tariffs on Canadian/Mexican beef may seem like a direct bonus for New Zealand, but both mainly sell fresh beef into the US rather than frozen like New Zealand,
which mostly hits a different set of buyers/markets. It could also mean more of this beef being sold into our various Asian markets, although China has banned Canadian beef since 2021 due to an atypical mad cow disease case.
All in all, the US beef market is all but guaranteed to be
undersupplied for the rest of the year and likely well into 2026 too. How much beef Australia ships to the US will continue to set a cap on what New Zealand exporters can squeeze out of the market, but we should be well positioned to take advantage of these shortages.
Assuming we don’t get too caught up in Trump’s trade war.
UNDERSUPPLIED: The US beef market is all but guaranteed to be undersupplied for the rest of the year and likely well into 2026 too, says Reece Brick.
Photo: Pexels
Reece Brick MARKETS Exports
Cattle Sheep Deer
Weekly saleyard results
These weekly saleyard results are collated by the AgriHQ LivestockEye team. Cattle weights and prices are averages and sheep prices are ranges. For more detailed results and analysis subscribe to your selection of LivestockEye reports. Scan the QR code or visit www.agrihq.co.nz/livestock-reports
FEW EWES: These Coopdale ewe lambs at Temuka last Monday were the top cut from a Cannington-based vendor. They earned $126.
| March 7 | 1288
| March
It’s dry out there – and only getting drier
Philip Duncan NEWS Weather
MARCH is proving to be a very dry month for most regions as high pressure successfully blocks most rainmakers from entering New Zealand. Firstly, let’s make sense of which parts of NZ are driest – then we’ll try and cover the weather pattern for the remainder of March.
Keep in mind this is what is showing up meteorologically as drought – this just means a lack of moisture over a certain amount of time. Local official drought announcements factor in more, but this gives you a general understanding as to which areas most need rain courtesy of the NZ Drought Index:
Drought Northland and Auckland both share the large Kaipara Harbour and the western sides of this are now in technical meteorological drought.
Extremely Dry
This area has expanded in recent
weeks and now covers large parts of Auckland, Northland, Waikato, Taranaki, Whanganui and some parts of Westland and western Otago.
The South Island dry is more limited to valleys, whereas the North Island dry is much more widespread with hills/mountains also missing out on rain. It’s also worth noting that Stewart Island is mostly in this category too.
Very Dry
Northland, remaining parts of Auckland, eastern Waikato, Whanganui/Manawatū, Wellington and Wairarapa, West Coast.
Dry
Southland and Coastal Otago, Marlborough (Coastal), Wairarapa, Manawatū, some of Hawke’s Bay, Central Plateau, Bay Of Plenty, Coromandel Peninsula, Great Barrier Island, inland Northland.
Keeping it simple, it’s the western side of NZ that is driest, especially the western North Island, which has been too far north to get any of the wet weather clipping Fiordland, and too far west to get showers
brought in by regular southerlies and southeasterlies.
High pressure exiting the Indian Ocean, tracking along the southern side of Australia and moving over the Tasman Sea to reach New Zealand looks to continue for at least the rest of the month of March.
These high pressure zones have been large and fairly powerful –and don’t look to change much in the coming weeks. But they do have some weaker areas between them, and that’s where we get our best shot at cold fronts for the South Island and sub-tropical rainmakers for the North Island. This week we have a classic autumnal set-up with windy nor’westers followed by a classic cold front coming into the southwest of the South Island. While it does make it to the North Island on Tuesday, it brings only brief patchy rain, or even just a few showers to the extremely dry western side.
High pressure then dominates NZ until Saturday March 22, when a sub-tropical low tries to bring wet weather to the upper North Island. Depending on how the high reacts, this will affect rainfall
for the rest of the month.
For most regions, showers look more likely than rain. High pressure dominates – but shows
some cracks. If you need rain, remain optimistic – but you may become drier before any relief arrives.
DRIEST: The New Zealand Drought Index shows western NZ is driest, especially in the North Island. Image: MPI/NIWA
