Farmers Weekly NZ May 8 2023

China-US tensions loom large for SFF

Govt urged to phase in HWEN costs

that by monitoring and reporting emissions, farmers will meet the requirements of processors and consumers.

FARMING leaders are calling for the phasing in of the He Waka Eke Noa agricultural pricing process, saying rushing legislation through before the general election will create issues and undermine the system’s credibility.

Several sector leaders said the policy’s complexity is causing delays that make it unlikely the farm-level emissions pricing scheme will be law before the October 14 election.

As at May 1, Parliament was scheduled to sit for 31 days.

Farmers Weekly has been told that a policy paper on He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) is yet to be considered by a cabinet committee, which acts as a forum to discuss and consider issues before they go before the cabinet.

Farming leaders are asking the government to agree to a dry run to test the process – a period when farmers monitor and record their greenhouse gas emissions but are not required to pay for them.

“Our position is that because of that uncertainty and complex detail still to be worked through, it is not appropriate to start pricing emissions by 2025,” Beef + Lamb NZ chair Kate Acland said.

Other industry leaders said

Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said he remains committed to HWEN and to getting an effective emissions pricing system in place.

He said in a statement that decisions on emissions pricing are still being considered by the cabinet, that he is aware of the legislative timeframe and is working with farming leaders.

His focus has been on the response to Cyclone Gabrielle.

Climate Change Minister James Shaw said in a statement that he understands the frustration with the uncertainty around the process, but the government remains fully committed to the partnership.

Farmers Weekly has been told that O’Connor and Shaw are split on 10 to 12 issues within the HWEN policy.

The industry is seeking further details on how sequestration will work and aspects of emissions pricing.

Sources close to the issue, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said former prime minister Jacinda Ardern had a thorough grasp of HWEN and acted as a referee in disputes between the two ministers.

Her successor, Prime Minister

Continued page 3

YOUR LOCAL EXPERTS

Farming big wheels of tomorrow

Fun was had by Asher Macdonald, Carter Kewish and Theo Smith when Kiwitahi School in Waikato held a Young Farmer Competition last week. Kids as young as five years old had a go on real and scaled-down farming kit, learning how enjoyable life on the land can be.

New pallet wrap has landfill covered

An Australian company has produced a world-first compostable plastic wrap made from food waste. Now it’s working towards one that is marine biodegradable.

TECHNOLOGY 21

The New Zealand meat industry has been called out for a lack of presence in South Korea.

NEWS 9

Most of the 150 empty posts for doctors in rural medical practices have been vacant for 12 months or more.

NEWS 12

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Steve Wyn-Harris says some of the heads that wear the crown have lain uneasily right from coronation day.

OPINION 18

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Neal Wallace and Gerald Piddock NEWS He Waka Eke Noa

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News in brief

Cyclone costs

The flooding caused by torrential rain and Cyclone Gabrielle in January and February wiped out about half a billion dollars’ worth of production in the first half of the year, largely in the agriculture and horticulture sectors, the Treasury said. It said the sectors are expected to continue to suffer with the flooding wiping out capital assets such as orchards, with a further $100m drag per year as a result.

SFF appointments

Anna Nelson and Rodney Booth have been elected to the Silver Fern Farms Cooperative board.

Nelson and her husband Blair farm a 1450ha breeding and finishing farm at Aria in King Country.

She has a veterinary degree and in 2016 completed the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme.

Booth and wife Sonia run a 400ha beef unit at Darfield in Canterbury, finishing 20,000 stock units a year.

ASSURANCES: National Party leader Christopher Luxon assured a 500-strong crowd at a recent Ashburton meeting that his party will stop punishing farmers and rural communities.

Long-serving DairyNZ farmer director Colin Glass will not be seeking re-election at the upcoming DairyNZ board of director elections in October.

“Colin has explained to the board that ... he wants to focus more of his time on his leadership role at Dairy Holdings and growing his family’s dairy operations,” DairyNZ chair Jim van der Poel said. DairyNZ’s board comprises five farmerelected directors and three board-appointed directors.

Standing down Food awards

The 2023 New Zealand Food Awards are open for entries. There are 10 categories and each has set criteria.

Only entrants exhibiting the highest levels of innovation, sustainability and excellence will progress to being named a finalist, winner, or supreme winner, organisers said. The winners will be announced on October 19.

Back in 1860, exporting meat to the other side of the world seemed about as easy as nailing gravy to the ceiling. But a few determined kiwis took the bull by the horns and now our grass-fed beef and lamb is sought-after all around the globe.

At AFFCO, we see the same pioneering spirit alive and well in farmers today. We’re playing our part too – exploring every opportunity to take New Zealand’s finest farm-raised products to the world.

pioneering spirit tells us nothing’s out of reach

Climate change sharpens weed and pest threat

Richard Rennie NEWS Pests

AT the forefront of the global megatrends coming to bear on New Zealand’s foodproducing future is climate change as it starts to impact how and where crops and proteins can be grown.

A report by the Better Border Biosecurity (B3) sector group, which consists of the best minds in border protection and invasive species, also underscores how weeds and diseases are likely to spread further, accompanied by new “alien” pests and diseases enabled by the changing climate.

But the report also highlights the upside of climate change and how it may enable viable new crops, including sorghum, peanuts and chickpeas.

Dairying and forestry are tapped to do better under climate change’s impact, while beef and sheep are less favoured.

The study aims to better understand and inform the primary sector on how it can handle the changes, both to prepare for them and to take advantage of the opportunities they may present for a food-producing country at the edge of the South Pacific.

Continued from page 1

Chris Hipkins, has not had time to get fully up to speed.

There are also concerns within the government at the impact of an emissions charge on already high food prices.

Another issue is the variable accuracy of the 11 emission calculators currently available. There is some speculation that the government may

“Biological invasions are already a big concern for NZ with its unique insular ecosystems and being home to one of the highest proportions of threatened indigenous species in the world. Our economy is also very dependent upon our primary sector,” project leader Dr Nicolas Meurisse said.

Climate change is by far the biggest megatrend identified by the report’s authors, with changes in trade routes, international conflict and extreme weather all ultimately leading back to the predictable rising of CO2 levels.

The context of climate change in NZ has lowered rainfall across Northland and the eastern regions of both islands, with production declining in those regions. In contrast, western areas are set to benefit from lower frosts and more water availability.

The report’s authors project that, based on existing emissions pricing, dairying could increase 9.6% by 2050 while sheep and beef decline by 13% and horticulture remains relatively unchanged.

However, the authors qualify this, citing market conditions and irrigation that will have a significant effect on actual outcomes.

The report notes that the incidence of non-native species

introduce a tax, such as that on fertiliser, to fund the development of a more robust and accurate calculator.

O’Connor declined to answer questions on these claims.

DairyNZ chair Jim van der Poel said while HWEN looks unlikely to be in place by 2025, legislation needs to be passed preventing farming emissions from being folded into the emissions trading scheme (ETS).

living beyond their native ranges has substantially increased in recent decades, with little sign of slowing, while agriculture and ornamental plant industries have pushed expansion faster.

The hundreds of non-native pest species already in NZ are also only likely to increase further over coming decades, and there is a need to understand which are likely to arrive, establish and become harmful.

“Natural environments, such as native forests, may be especially vulnerable to invading biosecurity threats. These could be adversely impacted by the combined effects of biological invasions, climate warming and other human-related pressures,” Meurisse said.

Dr Trevor James, NZ’s leading weed expert, said while he had not yet read the report, he has mixed feelings about how much climate change contributes to the spread of invasive species, and how much is from weeds’ adaptive ability to move beyond their usual habitat.

“When I think about kikuyu grass, no one thought it would ever move beyond Northland, where it was introduced, but it has got down to Waikato despite there being quite strong frosts, and I have personally seen it in the top of the South Island.”

Far from being a climate change

“There is legislation drafted at the moment that will have us in the ETS in 2025 and we have to get that changed,” Van der Poel said.

That legislation – the Climate Change Response (Emissions Trading Reform) Amendment Bill – puts agriculture into the ETS at farm level for livestock emissions and processor level for fertiliser emissions in 2025.

“We had an agreement in place

CRAFTY: AgResearch senior scientist Dr Trevor James says with or without climate change, weeds have proven themselves to be highly adaptable when it comes to spreading beyond their usual habitats.

denier, James said invasive species often have a habit of turning up in areas where they are least expected.

He cited work on the dock weed from Europe and comparisons to where it grows in NZ.

“When they mapped its home zones in Europe, then compared to NZ, they found it did not really match up, it was growing here in areas that were not in its home zone. Sometimes some real curve balls are thrown up by weed species. NZ is a land with many microclimates.”

He suspects insects may be more likely to respond directly to climate change, such as increased

before Christmas and the industry has met all of its deadlines and now we’re waiting for the government to say whether they still support that or that they have a different view,” he said.

Beef + Lamb NZ chief executive Sam McIvor concurred.

“The government has acknowledged that agriculture shouldn’t be in the ETS, and our sector has done its part, so it’s up to the government now.”

levels of black beetle in areas that have warmed over the years. He believes the greatest future weed threat to NZ is from plants that are already here.

There was a reserve of 25,00035,000 plants in NZ not yet established outside gardens. But James said many experts are anticipating this reservoir of plants will likely be the source for NZ’s next surge in invasive species.

“They could be triggered by climate change, or even a slight change in conditions. We have a programme underway to assess which of these thousands of plants pose the greatest risk.”

Our position is that because of that uncertainty and complex detail still to be worked through, it is not appropriate to start pricing emissions by 2025.

Kate Acland Beef + Lamb NZ

BNZ says tough 12-18 months ahead for dairy

Gerald Piddock NEWS Dairy

THERE are plenty of reasons for dairy farmers to have an optimistic long-term outlook, but things will not get easier over the short to medium term, a leading sector researcher says.

But nor should they get dramatically harder, BNZ Markets head of research Stephen Toplis told agricultural industry leaders at an open day held by dairy farming company Southern Pastures in South Waikato.

In May last year, BNZ forecast a recession for the second half of this year based on the Reserve Bank’s efforts to control inflation, and that thinking has not changed.

“We were always going to have a recession. The question is, how high do interest rates have to go to get us there?” he said.

The impact of those rate increases have not flowed fully through the economy and he predicted household mortgages to hit 6.5%.

In the rural sector, a disproportionate number of farmers have floating rates. According to new data from the Reserve Bank, the dairy sector is currently paying $1.20/kg milk solids in interest rates.

“What’s even more distressing is that in 2021 that number was 50 cents,” Toplis said.

Global and domestic factors are putting the milk payout under pressure in the short term.

“We would be surprised that on the basis of current information … we are going to see a dairy payout – not in the season ahead but the season ahead of that – any bigger than the one you’re going to get in the next 12 months.”

At the moment in the next 12-18 months, there’s no way of avoiding it being a really difficult time to operate. It’s just a given.

The bigger issue for farmers is not the payout, but the dollar value of their cost structure, he said.

Those costs will ease, eventually putting farmers in a much better position.

“But at the moment in the next 12-18 months, there’s no way of avoiding it being a really difficult time to operate. It’s just a given.”

The global economy is slowing, which will impact New Zealand because 90% of what occurs in NZ from an economic perspective is driven by the rest of the world.

As much as people blame the

Reserve Bank and the government for inflationary pressure, these are global issues and NZ’s rates have peaked at lower levels compared to other countries, he said.

“Every developed country in the world has been raising interest rates. We’re no different in that regard.”

As a result, global demand is going to be at its weakest over the next six to nine months.

“As a consequence of that, commodity prices have come under some pressure and that will continue to be the case.”

However, it is looking more buoyant over the medium term, he said.

China’s lockdown took the heart out of its economy, but it is now back as a genuine force. Chinese demand is starting to stabilise global commodity prices.

China as a nation has the single biggest impact on NZ products and it is good news that China is turning that corner.

However, he said, NZ exporters have to start thinking about China as a developed economy rather than a developing economy.

Its per annum growth rate is now sitting around 3-4% after averaging 14% 20 years ago. This is now the expectation because the more developed a country is, the less it grows, he said.

“While we can rely on China in

totality, we can’t rely on China to keep growing in the manner that it has done over the last few decades.”

Looking further out, Toplis said NZ will be a beneficiary of climate change.

This is because the rest of the world will be worse affected. Once the impacts of it become more widespread, NZ will have no issues attracting migrants as the

country is seen as an oasis. “In 10 years, our biggest problem is going to be keeping them out.”

It will also cement NZ’s importance as a food producer in the global economy, because of the likelihood of decreases in supply, he said – though it still requires flexibility to meet consumers’ preferences.

“We are very, very well positioned.”

Dairy prices finish season with an uptick

CHINA’S purchasing of whole milk powder lifted the price index for that commodity 5% in the latest Global Dairy Trade auction.

It was the biggest positive move for WMP prices since last September and restored the average price paid above US$3200/ tonne, where it had been sitting since before Christmas.

The whole GDT market rose by 2.5%, following the plus 3.2% increase in the second fortnightly April auction.

That combined 5%-plus lift in the market has come late in the New Zealand dairy season – too late to move the expectation of the final farmgate milk price. Fonterra and most other processors said they will end the

season around $8.30/kg milksolids.

Speculation has shifted to the opening forecasts for the next season, which begins on June 1. Fonterra won’t publish until around May 25 and is expected to use a wide range centred on something in the mid to low $8. Dairy analysts differ considerably at present – Westpac $10, ANZ $8.50, BNZ $7.60 and ASB $7. Fonterra’s well-informed forecast may cause the bank analysts to move closer to the centre.

In arguing for his very optimistic starting point, Westpac senior agri economist Nathan Penny said

Dutch firm

Neal Wallace NEWS Forestry

global milk supply is very subdued and Chinese demand is expected to return strongly later this year.

“This season has been a matter of starting high and ending low, whereas I expect next season to start low and end high.

“That said, we are still in the preseason period, and it is still very early days for a price prediction.”

ASB analyst Nat Keall said there is now upside risk to his low milk price forecast for 2023-24.

“Signals from this auction were mostly positive.

“China continues to purchase more WMP than it has done for more than 18 months.

“The WMP contract curve is not only elevated, but showing a robust upward slope in a signal that buyers are prepared to pay more to secure supply into the first half of next season.”

Keall thinks milk supplies from European countries and NZ are set for modest growth and the global economy is still set to slow and produce a headwind to dairy consumption.

“High levels of Chinese WMP production combined with subdued consumption mean we are unlikely to see aggressive bidding by Chinese processors any time soon,” Keall said.

grows NZ forestry interests

Western Southland, and a 379ha Wairarapa forestry block from Tunakino Forestry Ltd.

and 2015. The intention is to continue operating it as a commercial plantation forest.

NETHERLANDS-based Ingka Investments has increased its New Zealand forestry investment, with the government approving its purchase of a Southland livestock farm and existing Wairarapa forestry.

The Overseas Investment Office (OIO) is allowing Ingka, under the special forestry provision, to purchase a 597ha sheep and beef farm at Happy Valley near Tūātapere in

Ingka’s intention for the Southland farm is to establish and maintain forests on about 535ha and to subdivide and sell two homes.

The European company – the largest franchisee of IKEA stores internationally – already owns or manages about 16,000ha spread over eight properties in NZ.

It paid $2.8 million for the Wairarapa forestry block, a second rotation forest established between 2012

The OIO has also approved the sale for forestry of a 1133ha sheep and beef farm at Taumarunui.

Austrian buyer Johannes Trauttmansdorff-Weinsberg, who has extensive NZ forestry interests, paid $9.2m for the property.

All sales were approved under the special forestry one-off purchase provisions, which have been replaced by a new, higherstandard NZ benefit test.

PRESSURE: BNZ Markets head of research Stephen Toplis expects the dairy payout to come under pressure in the short term.

Hugh Stringleman NEWS Dairy

BOUNCE BACK: Global milk supply is very subdued and Chinese demand is expected to return strongly later this year, says Westpac senior agri economist Nathan Penny.

We are still in the preseason period and it is still very early days for a price prediction.

Nathan Penny Westpac

NZ is an offsetting outlier, says BLNZ

Neal Wallace NEWS Emissions

NEW ZEALAND and Kazakhstan are the only countries in the world that allow the forestry offsetting of fossil fuel emissions.

That is the finding of new report commissioned by Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ), which said this anomaly puts NZ at odds with the rest of the world and damages the agricultural sector and rural communities.

BLNZ chief executive Sam McIvor said 175,000ha of sheep and beef farmland was bought for conversion to forestry between 2017 and 2021.

The impact of this, said McIvor, was the loss of 1 million stock units and 8000 jobs, with $170 million less spent in communities annually and $245 million less earned in export revenue annually.

McIvor said because NZ allows firms to offset 100% of their emissions and allows the full participation of forests in the NZ Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS),

the carbon market and forestry sectors are intricately linked and can impact each other.

He labelled forestry offsetting fossil fuel emissions a shortterm fix that creates long-term problems and called for limits to slow the conversion of sheep and beef land to forestry.

“We are absolutely not antiforestry and there is a place for some carbon offsetting, but we are very concerned about the volume of carbon offsetting,” McIvor said.

Other countries manage the risks of carbon forests by limiting their use in carbon markets, requiring additional social benefits and

seeking ministerial approval for exotic forest projects.

BLNZ concerns have support from the Climate Change Commission (CCC).

In its latest advice to the government, the commission said the ETS wrongly gives equal treatment to gross emission reductions and carbon dioxide removal by forests.

The CCC report says this creates strong economic drivers for afforestation, which raises social licence issues for the forestry sector given its impact on the environment and rural communities.

“The purpose of the NZ ETS needs to shift from focusing only on net emissions to ensuring gross emissions also reduce.

“This requires decoupling the incentives for gross emissions reductions and afforestation, so the amount of gross reductions driven by the NZ ETS is no longer dependent on the amount of removals achieved by forests.”

The commission still sees a role for forestry sequestration, and estimates 500,000ha of new plantings will be needed by 2035.

McIvor said integrating forestry and farming could meet much of NZ’s sequestration needs while allowing food production to continue, maintaining rural employment and preserving export revenue.

The European Union and the United Kingdom do not allow

carbon offsetting in their ETS, while China, South Korea, and the US states of Washington, North Carolina and California allow for 5%.

Mexico and Taiwan, along with Canadian province Quebec, allow for 10% and areas such as Tokyo permit up to 33% offsetting.

China-US tensions loom large for SFF

Neal Wallace NEWS Exports

THE chair of New Zealand’s largest meat exporter says foreign affairs officials have done an exceptional job navigating sensitive global tensions between its two largest customers.

Silver Fern Farms (SFF) Co-op chair Rob Hewett praised the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade for traversing tensions between the United States and China, who together account for about 65% of the company’s sales.

“It will be a tough day for NZ if

we have to choose sides,” Hewett told the co-op’s annual meeting in Dunedin.

CEO Simon Limmer visited both countries in recent weeks and said the situation is complex.

“It feels like the two nations are talking across each other, but for us we need them both.”

China remains a growth market and Limmer said it is well ahead of others in terms of volume and value.

As an example of its importance, SFF now has 30 people in the Chinese market compared to two five years ago.

The US is its largest beef market.

SFF Co-op is a 50% shareholder

with China’s Shanghai Maling in SFF Ltd, a processing and marketing business.

SFF Co-op announced a record net profit after tax for the year to December 31 of $94 million ($51.5m in 2021) and equity of $438m ($369m).

Hewett said an analysis of prime stock prices paid last year found about half the increase was driven by what he called “fair winds that benefited all”.

The other half was attributed to the market gains from the company’s plate-to-pasture strategy.

Lamb prices for the first three quarters of 2022 peaked at 23%

ahead of the five-year average, and beef at 14% ahead, before a major correction late in the year.

For the sixth successive year the co-op has paid a dividend or made patronage rewards to shareholders. This year it was $33.5m.

In addition, qualifying suppliers shared $10m of livestock premiums, a 50% increase on the previous year.

Hewett said changes to farming practice prioritising environmental issues and addressing greenhouse gas emissions are being demanded by consumers and will provide tangible rewards for producers.

The record financial performance

of 2022 will be difficult to repeat, but Limmer said the new financial year has started according to budget.

SFF Ltd announced record revenue of $3.3billion ($2.8bn); earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation of $301m ($179.7m); and a net profit before tax of $262.6m ($143.5m).

He said he is optimistic for product prices and business performance in the coming year, though there are still market, global economic and geopolitical challenges.

“Disruption is a constant,” he told the meeting.

ISSUES: Using forestry to offset fossil fuel emissions is a short-term fix which creates long-term problems, says Beef + Lamb NZ chief executive Sam McIvor.

We are absolutely not anti-forestry and there is a place for some carbon offsetting, but we are very concerned about the volume of carbon offsetting.

Sam McIvor BLNZ chief executive

HARNESS THE POWER OF HYBRID VIGOUR

- 12% increase in profitability with hybrid vigour

- Quicker finish and increased carcass weight

- Eliminate “tubby pure bred heifers” and animals that go prime too small

- Cross bred animals have greater marbling scores and better access to premiums

- Increased fertility, production and longevity from hybrid vigour

- Hybrid vigour is the true answer to feed efficiency and sustainability

To find your local registered Hereford bull sale view the calendar at www.herefords.co.nz

To purchase a registered Hereford Bull, talk to your stock agent or visit www.herefords.co.nz

National ‘to go back to drawing board’

Annette Scott NEWS Politics

THE National Party has pledged to get back to the drawing board, stop punishing farmers and turn the mindset of farming and agriculture around.

In a packed Ashburton events centre, National Party leader Christopher Luxon told the gathering of around 500 people that National’s Getting Back to Farming policy is an indicator of the importance a National government would place on the primary sector.

“I am here to get things done, I am sick of inactions, and I make no apology for that,” Luxon said.

“Agriculture is the backbone of this country. We need to get the mindset of farming and agriculture turned around. I want New Zealanders to understand farmers are not villains and we want them to be deeply, deeply respected,” Luxon said.

We will still need regulation, but badly drafted, poorly executed legislation driving perverse outcomes will go out the back door.

Christopher Luxon National Party

He said National would invest in technology to enable better decision-making and deliver smarter rules.

“There are fantastic examples of technology making a difference to changing farming practices.

“There are great stories of innovation synthesising agriculture with economics and the environment.

“There is research and science of the environmental benefits from changes on farms. Farmers need credit for that and we will acknowledge that work farmers are doing.

“We will get Wellington out of

farming and let farmers farm.

“We will go back to the drawing board as a priority to work with the farming sector. We believe in local solutions for local problems, we will replace one-size-fits-all with local decision-making.”

Cumbersome, ineffective and impractical regulation “will no longer be a thing”.

“We will still need regulation but badly drafted, poorly executed legislation driving perverse outcomes will go out the back door.

“We will stop, reset and pace regulation.

“We will invest in technology, not bankruptcy and destroying livelihoods.”

A National government would drive for incentives that craft good smart regulation, he said.

“No more of this vomiting up regulation from half-baked ideas, developing and passing policy and throwing it at farmers.

“We want incentives that craft new good smart rules, which means less regulation and where the two-for-one rule over the next three years will prioritise and prompt a culture change in developing smart regulation to stop unnecessary multiple regulation and cross purpose creating conflict.”

National is proposing a Rural Regulation Review Panel of people with agriculture experience and a background in understanding farming activity.

“Appointments to the panel and to reference and advisory groups will be based on skills and experience, not politics,” Luxon said.

The role of the review panel would include ensuring regulation fits local challenges with local catchment-level rules.

The review panel would consider every local and central government regulation affecting farmers and advise the central government on solutions.

“We are about delivering lesser but smarter rules to supercharge the rural economy for the future. We believe in local solutions – decision-making should be a partnership, not dictatorship.”

As for the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), “pricing has to be in our agriculture policy, the world expects that, but we have to make sure what is measured is fair, that there is no leakage and that production doesn’t go offshore”.

“It’s a case of slower to go faster. We have more coming out [on the ETS]. It’s a watch this space.

“We have some work to do, we have to go to work and bring back trust in farmers so that Wellington is no longer trying to run farms from an office in the Beehive.

“This policy [Getting Back to Farming] is only a start. We will make further announcements in coming weeks on emissions pricing, agriculture R&D, our Water Done Well policy and a comprehensive primary industries policy.

“A government I lead will greet the world with purpose and confidence. We can compete and we need to be more active in pursuing the opportunities to do so,” Luxon said.

This includes reinstating the live export trade, albeit with “gold standard” conditions that incorporate purpose-built ships at $100 million apiece, and ensuring the countries that NZ sends animals to are licensed for the same standard of animal welfare as NZ.

National’s health policy will see more money spent on the frontline, he said.

“We understand the challenges, we are clear about health outcomes and targets, we will run a system focused on patient outcomes, including more rural specific needs.

“We will open up immigration and move to get the money out of central control being sucked up in Wellington, out to the frontline to invest in frontline services.”

Infrastructure was also top of mind, with Luxon announcing in Ashburton that construction would start on the town’s much needed new bridge in National’s first term at the helm.

“It is as an economic must that we keep the South Island reliably connected in our vision for taking NZ forward,” he said.

Nats pledge to protect legal gun user rights

Staff reporter NEWS Politics

THE National Party says its new firearms policy will give police greater power to clamp down on gangs while protecting the rights of New Zealanders to use guns for legitimate reasons.

National has released its firearms policy ahead of October’s election, claiming it will make NZ a safer place to live. The policy would give police greater powers to search for illegal firearms and confiscate them from gangs and criminals.

It would provide more firearms safety and outdoor training courses for those legally using firearms and involve the Council of Licensed Firearms Owners (COLFO) in developing firearms policy.

National’s hunting and fishing spokesperson, Todd McClay, said firearms are important for many, particularly in rural areas, where

people depend on guns for their livelihoods, enjoy social benefits like hunting and shooting sports and, in some cases, to put food on the table.

“There is a real difference between those Kiwis who are licensed and have a duty to use firearms responsibly and safely, and those who do not hold a licence and use firearms for crime,” he said.

National’s police spokesperson, Mark Mitchell, said the party will ensure police are focused on ensuring gangs and criminals do not illegally obtain and misuse firearms. Mitchell said gang-related gun crime has increased, with driveby shootings orchestrated by gangs on the rise.

“National will give police greater powers to proactively search for illegal firearms and remove them from the hands of gangs and criminals who pose a real risk to public safety,” Mitchell said.

ASSURANCES: Addressing a meeting in Ashburton, National Party leader Christopher Luxon assured the 500-strong crowd that National will stop punishing farmers and rural communities.

Velvet’s superpower growing in Korea

Richard Rennie in South Korea MARKETS Deer

BLENDING traditional medicinal uses for New Zealand deer velvet with an emerging health and wellness market is opening the sometimes lesser-known export to a wider audience in South Korea.

Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ) is working with a Seoulbased brand marketing company in a first-time partnership between the sector and South Korea’s largest pharmaceutical company, Yuhan Corporation.

Yuhan’s subsidiary brand New Origin has taken a unique approach to boosting its health and wellness range in the intensely competitive South Korean health and wellness sector by creating a chain of healthfocused cafes throughout the country.

Now totalling 18, the cafes combine the traditional products of velvet and ginseng in beverages, and retail assorted supplements and tonics containing the same.

Latitude director JongKyu

Jang said the move comes at a critical juncture for the sector as New Origin awaits a ruling from the country’s food and drug administration that will grant velvet the right to be claimed a “functional” ingredient in food.

“It is not so much a huge shift in the market away from the important traditional market, but is definitely marks more of an opportunity that could provide a very good platform to in turn influence other markets like Taiwan and China to do the same,” he said.

New Origin Café’s offerings

include a ginseng and deer velvet tonic. A full screen video promoting the product includes sweeping vistas of New Zealand high country and deer farms.

Jang said the deal between NZ and Yuhan is a first in that the big corporation agreed to source from only one supplier, rather than opting to bargain across multiple suppliers to drive price down.

The original memorandum of understanding extends back to 2017 and included AgResearch as a partner, committing to more research into velvet’s efficacy, treatment uses and dose rates.

Yuhan also committed to $1.5 million for the R&D bill, and to

wear the costs involved in the lengthy process of having velvet registered as a functional food, and taking it to market.

At the time Yuhan’s head of marketing, Ashley Kyung-in Chung, said Yuhan’s objective was to successfully develop, register and market a health food product containing scientifically validated components of NZ deer velvet.

She said Yuhan had chosen NZ as the source of velvet because of the country’s transparency on three fronts – the farming environment, animal welfare and the traceable, hygienic supply chain.

“People will often give deer velvet as a gift and see its origins

as something that also makes them a better person. This is especially so for the generation who use Instagram for telling their story,” said Jang.

“It has been a long journey to get this far, and NZ can claim to have been there from the start.”

He was optimistic the “functional” label’s approval will be granted this year.

Latitude has bought significant experience and local knowledge to bear in helping NZ companies access the South Korean market.

The company was founded by Kiwi Lewis Paterson, who spent much time trying to formalise the trade in velvet with Korea, at a time when it was dominated by a grey trade through China.

The company has represented several NZ companies in Korea, including Avanza avocados, Leader Brand for squash and NZ blackcurrant growers.

As valuable as the tonic/wellness market may come to be, the traditional market continues to claim 70% of velvet sales, and Jang said it needs to continue to play a healthy role in sales.

Traditional markets like Yangnyeongsi, South Korea’s largest medicinal herb market, have strong patronage from an aging demographic accustomed to traditional practices.

“In administering traditional prescriptions, you tend to get a higher volume prescribed so we want to keep the traditional sector supplied, given any addition to foods and products tends to be in very low levels.”

However, expectations are that volumes going into the high value tonic/wellness market may also get a boost, thanks to new regulations requiring a certain minimum amount.

South Korea is the first country that DINZ chose to localise and launch Nature’s Superpower. Nature’s Superpower is a single proposition to unite NZ’s global stories on venison and velvet in a clear, ownable position for the industry.

Rhys Griffiths, marketing manager for DINZ, said Yuhan’s science approach and its ambition to develop health functional food velvet extracts fits well with the Nature’s Superpower supplement proposition.

“We will continue to work, where appropriate, to provide assistance that will help Yuhan achieve its success with its New Zealand velvet products,” Griffiths said. Richard Rennie travelled to Seoul thanks to funding from the Asian New Zealand Foundation.

Coffee and cheese blend for Chinese success

Richard Rennie in South Korea MARKETS Food

A RAW cheese latte may not enter the repertoire of many Kiwi baristas, but it is one of multiple products Fonterra is assisting food companies in China to perfect in a market starting to find a taste for coffee.

The food co-operative has just opened its fifth China-based application centre, with the latest focusing specifically upon beverage development.

As with previous centres the Guangzhou facility provides Fonterra with the opportunity to interact with food service companies developing and finetuning products that include dairy-based ingredients, and add value to a food company’s offerings.

Justin Dai, Fonterra’s vicepresident for food service in greater China, said the beverage sector in China only really started to emerge six years ago with the huge popularity in bubble teas.

“We saw this move from readyto-drink products to this ‘handcrafted’ street vendor-style drinks sector, and the beverages channel

has become an established channel now for our food service sector.”

Lessons from that product’s growth are now playing into the giant market’s next beverage obsession, coffee drinking.

Dai said Shanghai has become the city with the most cafes of any city in the world, totalling 7000 after years when Starbucks almost had the market to itself.

“We are seeing signs of replication in the coffee market, with cream and even cream cheese being used in coffees to provide additional taste.

“A couple of years ago cream was more of an option, but it is included more often now.”

mouth like a cheese cake”.

The “raw cheese” translation is a literal one, with more general translations labelling it a “cheeseflavoured latte.”

The developers worked with Fonterra’s Palmerston North staff to tune up the development, and Dai said there are plenty more beverage types in the pipeline to kick the new beverages centre off with.

“We are not investing into any new technology, we have the products right here.”

Other recipes include a coffee with cream and avocado blend. Fonterra’s newest application centre is its second facility in the Pearl River Delta region, home to some 86 million people and representing 12% of the country’s GDP.

CHEESY: The Fonterra-developed ‘raw cheese latte’ proved to be a launch success in China, selling over 6 million cups in its first week.

In October last year Fonterra development staff worked with giant Chinese coffee chain Luckin Coffee, which operates more than 7000 coffee houses across China. They developed a “raw cheese latte” and the drink bolted out cafe doors, selling 6.59 million cups in only one week.

Promotional material touted the drink as containing pure New Zealand-sourced cheese to deliver “silky and smoothness to your

“Our food service client customers come to us and we work with R&D and chefs and marketing, and provide them with the ability to touch, taste and see the product before a launch, and even determine where it would be placed in store.”

He said client investment at scale is greater than Fonterra’s, with the co-operative providing the focus on dairy components.

“Our IP investment is relatively limited.

The other application centre in the area, located in the city of Guangzhou and only a short distance from Shenzhen, is mainly focused on bakery applications.

A total of 1434 new kinds of nonalcoholic beverages were launched by key tea and beverage brands in China last year.

“The beverages market is a blank slate for product development,” said Dai.

WIDENING: JongKyu Jang, right, and Fintan Cannon of Latitude say the New Origin café chain represents a step change in how retail and foodready velvet is marketed in Korea.

TONIC: The New Origin café chain serves beverages like this that contain ginseng and deer velvet, alongside its retail offerings of velvet for the health and wellness market.

Fonterra’s vice-president for Food Service in China, Justin Dai.

NZ meat needs to step up in South Korea

“Other than the efforts from Silver Fern Farms, there is almost no presence here in NZ. There is no industry promotion.

THE head of South Korea’s largest meat importer and distributor has called New Zealand out for its lack of presence in her country, warning that the industry risks falling off consumers’ radar unless more investment is made.

Youngmi Youn, founder and CEO of Highland Group, heads up a company that sources over 150,000t of meat annually from 14 supply countries, generating turnover approaching US$1 billion ($1.62bn) this year.

The company is in a very strong growth phase, having more than doubled the amount it handles since 2019.

Highland has enjoyed a decadeslong relationship with Silver Fern Farms (SFF), the only major New Zealand supplier of beef to the South Korean market.

With annual South Korean beef consumption moving from 8kg per capita a decade ago to 13kg today, she said there is plenty of opportunity for growth, but is concerned NZ may miss out.

“Meantime the United States spends US$8million a year in promotion, Australia $US3m to $US4m and the domestic industry about US$20m, and that is in beef only.

“This makes it very difficult for us to support NZ beef here.”

Beef + Lamb NZ exited South Korea, along with Japan and the United Kingdom, eight years ago, in a shift of focus that left marketing promotion to meat companies.

The South Korean market is dominated by the US and Australia, with the grain-fed chilled trade between them accounting for almost 95% of total imports.

The two dominate hypermarket chiller space, with Australia offering a top-tier Wagyu brand alongside a lower-priced standard grain-fed product.

SFF made good inroads to the grass-fed chilled trade before covid hit, but expansion has since been stymied by a lack of timely shipping links between NZ and Korea.

SFF’s country manager, Jay Shin, sees plenty of potential to develop the grass-fed niche, as consumers look to consume a red meat product that is lower in fat than the traditional grain-fed options on offer from both domestic and overseas suppliers.

Changes in eating habits and smaller households are also prompting a need for leaner, smaller cuts.

Youn said all the components for a strong marketing platform are already in place for NZ.

“New Zealand’s image is one of a safe, clean, trusted place. It’s all there.”

She lamented a decline in engagement between trade officials from NZ and South Korean companies like hers, something that appeared to have been exacerbated by NZ’s complete closure to the rest of the world during the covid pandemic.

Meantime her company has started to import lamb, with tonnages ramping up 87% in only four years from 11,000t to 20,000t and largely dominated by Australian product.

She said the premium that NZ lamb fetches from China and Japan puts it out of reach for

South Korea, not helped by NZ product still wearing a 2.2% tariff. The tariff will ultimately drop off entirely by 2030.

NZ beef to South Korea still retains a 16.6% tariff, also due to decline to zero by 2030. Australian beef enjoys a lower 13.3% tariff.

Clearly having her sights set on becoming a major player across other food groups, Youn has recently invested in a multimillion-dollar cold chain warehouse and distribution centre at Busan on the coast, and is particularly keen to invest in dairy food distribution once the centre is commissioned.

“We need to import about 100%

of cheese for the food service sector. At the moment there is a lot of US and Australian product there and NZ could potentially be a big supplier.”

She has also purchased a 20% share in a fruit company that has a licence for Envy apples.

With NZ’s “big three” food exporters – Zespri, Fonterra and SFF – all positioned in Korea, Youn said she can see plenty of potential for collaborative efforts.

“It is simple really: you need to export and we need to import.”

Richard Rennie travelled to Seoul thanks to funding from the Asian New Zealand Foundation.

MADE IN NEW ZEALAND

Richard Rennie in South Korea MARKETS Food

PRESENCE: Highland CEO and founder Youngmi Youn says New Zealand risks falling o consumers’ shopping lists unless more market investment is made collectively.

Cyclone farmers desperate for certainty

Page NEWS Weather

ALACK of direction is causing uncertainty and hindering recovery for cyclone-ravaged farmers, said Federated Farmers Gisborne Wairoa acting president Charlie Reynolds.

More than two months since Cyclone Gabrielle battered the region, many of those severely impacted are still dealing with slips, blocked roads, damaged fencing and a multitude of other repairs on and around their properties.

Reynolds said many farmers in the region are feeling abandoned as they wait for news about repairs to key roads, bridges and what long-term support is on offer.

“We don’t know which direction we are supposed to be going in,” Reynolds said.

“It’s not really the money, although money is going to be needed. But we just need some direction. We need to be told ‘We’re going to replace these roads and rebuild these bridges, we don’t know when but this is the game plan.’”

Parts of State Highway 2 remain closed or with restrictions to

traffic, which continues to cause issues for farmers transporting stock around the region and growers wanting to access Napier Port.

Reynolds has spoken to Transport Minister Michael Wood, who has offered to front a meeting to discuss options.

The government has earmarked an initial $250 million for Waka Kotahi and local councils to assess and fix roads, and $74m for affected farmers and growers to clean up and re-establish their businesses.

But many questions remain unanswered, such as, should farmers be expected to replace damaged riparian fencing?

Reynolds said with more trees likely to be waiting upstream, the fencing will only be destroyed again in another flood event.

“It’s those basic things that put your brain in a better place because you’ve got certainty. I think that’s the biggest thing, the lack of certainty for farmers.”

A shortage of contractors is also affecting the ability of some farmers to get repairs done at their properties.

Those who can afford it have purchased heavy machinery and learnt to use it themselves, while “people who can’t afford to do that are just having to wait”.

Reynolds said those in the horticulture industry are no different. Banks have been supportive in offering shortterm loans to help cover damage, but many growers are facing unaffordable long-term, expensive

debt and an uncertain future.

The pressure is impacting mental wellbeing, though support is in place for those who need it, he said.

“There are a few that need a lot more support than others.

“Once the sun starts shining you do feel a bit better. You start knocking off little things such as fixing a hole in a fence, and suddenly it’s ‘Right, that job’s done.’

“But sometimes it’s hard to help others when you’re trying to deal with your own mess.”

The Federated Farmers initiative Farmy Army has done a great

ANZCO Foods invites our farmers A cut above the rest with

SELF HELP: Some farmers purchased their own heavy machinery to carry out earthworks, while others have had to wait for contractors.

job helping provide labour for the clean-up, Reynolds said, but numbers can be hit and miss.

“One weekend you might get 30 people who come in to help and next weekend you might get two. And it’s so weather-dependent.”

Reynolds said ultimately it is failed infrastructure in the region that needs to be addressed.

“How are we going to become more resilient so this doesn’t happen again? Obviously we are going to get cyclones, but we need to prevent the situation where people are losing everything in one night.

“Something needs to be done.”

Craig

It’s those basic things that put your brain in a better place because you’ve got certainty.

Charlie Reynolds Federated Farmers

100 rural GP posts empty for a year

Neal Wallace NEWS Health

RURAL medical practices have vacancies for about 150 doctors, with two thirds of those positions being unfilled for 12 months or more.

The data, released by Hauora Taiwhenua Rural Health Network, is not definitive and based on demand for locums.

It reveals that in addition to those 100 posts that have been vacant for a year or more, there are 20 posts that have been vacant for three to 12 months and 27 for up to three months.

Gill Naylor, the president of Rural Women New Zealand, described the workload facing rural general practitioners and midwives in particular as dire and said the two biggest issues facing rural health are workforce capacity and equity of access to services.

“There is plenty that needs to be done.”

Attracting medical professionals to rural areas and retaining them requires a package suited to the whole family, including schools, services and lifestyle.

“If the rest of the family is not happy, they’re not going to stay,” Naylor said.

Improved access and funding for telehealth services would help reduce the travel burden on families and improve treatment, while also making GP positions more attractive.

Having to travel long distances

for healthcare “puts a huge burden on people. They’re away from work, face the cost of travel and need to ensure plans are in place for family, people at home.”

In the interim, communities have found their own solutions such as the Woman’s Health Bus in Otago and Southland, a mobile healthcare facility to assist women.

“There are local solutions being developed because they could see these issues weren’t being met by the public system.”

The NZ Nurses Organisation Kaiwhakahaere, Kerri Nuku, said the health sector needs a long-

term workforce plan and those with knowledge and expertise of rural health issues need to be at the forefront of any such initiative.

“Often those planning developments are removed from the reality of those who live in those areas.”

Part of the problem facing the sector is the lack of government data to identify the scale of staffing shortages.

The extreme weather that hit parts of the North Island this summer highlighted the peculiarities and challenges of meeting the health needs of rural communities.

She said nurses had to clamber over fallen trees, traverse flood waters and in some case fly by helicopter to access patients.

Nurses employed by private GPs have been excluded from the government pay parity settlement, which means they are paid at least 10% less than those in the public sector.

Nuke said the government believes private businesses should address that discrepancy and have not provided additional funding to achieve it.

The complexity of the problems facing rural health is illustrated by midwifery services.

The exact number of rural midwives the sector is short is unknown, but NZ College of Midwives chief executive Alison Eddy said in some areas they are struggling to maintain services.

This is especially relevant for pregnant migrant women living in rural areas, for whom midwives provide support and are a crucial link to access to services.

There are multiple challenges facing rural midwifery services.

Providing a 24/7 service requires collegial support so midwives have cover, which is not always available in rural areas.

CALL THE MIDWIFE: Gill Naylor, the president of Rural Women New Zealand, says attracting medical professionals to rural areas and retaining them requires a package suited to the whole family, including schools, services and lifestyle.

Recruiting medical professionals to work in rural areas has always been difficult, but one option is to upskill nurses to nursing practitioners where they can prescribe some medicines and perform some GP roles. Another is to incentivise nurses to move to rural areas to work. Pay parity also needs to be resolved.

She said rural communities need to start lobbying and making noise about the rural health issues.

Nuku said the government’s health reforms were designed to remove post code inequities, but that does not seem to be happening in rural areas.

“It takes communities to make change.”

Remuneration has failed to keep pace with inflation, especially for the costs faced by self-employed midwives.

Eddy said trainee midwives tend to be older women rather than school leavers, so retraining means giving up wages for four years of study.

She said they are finding some success using satellite schools in rural centres to target rural women for training as midwives.

Country practice delivers joys and trials

Neal Wallace NEWS Health

KEITH Buswell has no regrets about spending 36 years as a general practitioner in Te Kuiti. Professionally and socially, for Dr Buswell and his fellow GP and wife, Dr Elly Kroef, their time in Te Kuiti was so rewarding and challenging, they never considered leaving King Country. Buswell, who has been semiretired since February, said while there are fewer health professionals wanting to work in rural practices, the rural lifestyle and the variety of work enticed the couple to stay.

Rural health means dealing with the full scope of medical challenges, of being able, where possible, to treat people from diagnosis through their complete treatment.

It is in part a case of necessity.

“In rural areas you have to because there is no one else on the ground.”

Buswell said the other rewarding feature of rural practice was dealing with consecutive generations of the same family.

“You get to know people as patients and get closely connected.”

Having access to a local hospital meant he had the facilities and scope to challenge his medical skills.

“If you want to be challenged you can because we have a hospital here so you can follow through cases at a more advanced level.”

More needs to be done to give trainee GPs rural experience and to expose them to living in rural areas, he said.

Buswell said he had city-raised staff who trained at Tu Kuiti and loved the lifestyle and challenges

so much they moved there.

“People are surprised at how enjoyable it is to live here.”

The Te Kuiti Medical Centre services a community of about 10,000 with medical staff also looking after emergency and after-hours care and a 12-bed rural hospital.

This was underlined in a survey by the Royal College of GPs, which also revealed that a majority of rural GPs have suffered from some degree of burnout.

The 2018 recipient of the NZ Rural General Practice Network’s Peter Snow Memorial Award for his innovation and services to rural health, Buswell worked about 55 hours a week including shift and obstetrics work for much of his career.

As the economics of owning and running a rural GP practice become more difficult, Buswell said the ownership of practices and skills of healthcare workers need to be diversified to take pressure off GPs.

Buswell said finding young doctors prepared to work as rural GPs is becoming more difficult, with many preferring to work in hospitals.

As numbers reduce, the pressure will fall on fewer people. Recruiting people who do not live in the community in which they work also fractures that sense of community, he said.

INFORMATION: Part of the problem facing the rural health sector is the lack of government data to identify the scale of staffing shortages.

LONG-SERVING: Te Kuiti general practitioner Dr Keith Buswell worked in the King Country practice for 36 years.

If you want to be challenged you can because we have a hospital here so you can follow through cases at a more advanced level.

Dr Keith Buswell Te Kuiti

Often those planning workforce development are removed from the reality of those who live in those areas.

Kerri Nuku NZ Nurses Organisation

Passion for rural NZ key to Farmlands Board success

You don’t have to be perfect, but you should be passionate about contributing to the future success of rural New Zealand –that’s the message from Dr Warren Parker as Farmlands board elections approach.

Warren has brought his passion for and belief in the role the rural supplies co-op plays to his five and half years serving as a shareholderelected board member.

“I‘ve had the opportunity and privilege to contribute to the development of the co-op over this period and support the growth of Aotearoa’s agriculture and horticulture sectors,” says Warren.

“It’s time for me to hand the baton to a new director with fresh ideas on how Farmlands can continue to move forward. I hope to see some high calibre candidates, with diverse backgrounds and strong connections to our industry, put themselves forward – whether farm owners, managers or rural experts.”

Farmers and growers are wrestling with some significant economic, market and environmental challenges right now, adds Warren. This means directors with backgrounds in or knowledge of emergent sectors like horticulture, Māori agribusiness and integrated land use could bring value to the board. Equally, breadth of experience and different perspectives from our core pastoral farming sectors such as dairy, or sheep and beef cattle farming are always valuable.

It’s an exciting time to be part of the co-op – with its clear strategy of supporting on-farm profitability by being the strongest buying group it can be.

Warren says, “We’re being true to the foundations of why Farmlands was founded, as I personally understand well with my Hawke’s Bay-based father-in-law being an early member and enthusiastic supporter.

“Our challenge, like that for our forebears, is to continue to be more innovative and quicker to adapt than others in order to deliver on our role, as the world has changed and will continue to.”

Warren is leaving the co-op in a stronger position than he joined it –with some huge change programmes now in the rear-vision mirror. These include establishing the co-op’s nationwide IT infrastructure for the future, reshaping the organisational structure, updating the constitution, and setting a strong financial base – as demonstrated by last year’s shareholder distribution.

Farmlands is now well down the track of leveraging this hard work, with the benefits set to be realised in future years as it executes its enhanced procurement and supply chain management strategy – truly delivering what its customers and shareholders need in the most effective and efficient way.

“I have confidence in the future of Farmlands and, while there is always more to do, I’m pleased with where it’s now positioned. I’m also sure that there is a great opportunity for incoming directors to stamp their mark,” says Warren.

As a former educator, Warren would be pleased to see rural sector governance experts who have been part of some of the governance development programmes Farmlands is directly involved in putting themselves forward.

Farmlands works to grow potential

future directors through programmes like “To The Core” and its own board Observer programme.

Warren is retiring from the Farmlands board to enjoy more of the good life in Rotorua and fulfil other governance roles. During his long career as a scientist, teacher, leader and adviser, he has been deeply involved in governance of technology-related ventures and in agri-education, all of which laid solid groundwork for his contribution to the Farmlands board.

Farmlands chair Rob Hewett says, “I’d like to personally thank Warren for all his insight and expertise that he has offered up to Farmlands over

his period on the board. It’s been a pleasure to work with him on the Farmlands board in support of Kiwi farmers and growers.”

Shareholders wanting to learn more about becoming a Farmlands shareholder director can take a look here – www.farmlands.co.nz/ directorelections2023

You can request a nomination pack by calling the election helpline on 0800 666 047 or emailing iro@electionz.com

Nominations close at 5pm on Tuesday 6 June 2023. Voting packs will be sent by email once the nominees are confirmed.

NOTICE OF FARMLANDS ANNUAL DIRECTOR ELECTION

Farmlands is calling for nominations for two Elected Shareholder Directors by 6 June 2023, with the date fixed for the annual election being 1 August 2023.

For more information please visit: farmlands.co.nz/directorelections2023

“I have confidence in the future of Farmlands and, while there is always more to do, I’m pleased with where it’s now positioned. I’m also sure that there is a great opportunity for incoming directors to stamp their mark.

WARREN PARKER

Dr Warren Parker speaks to To The Core governance programme participants.

Arable yields looking up as harvest wraps

cross-section of Canterbury seed growers with large and small operations, irrigated and non-irrigated.

THE arable harvest has wrapped up with much improved results from the previous season.

“This time last year most arable farmers were under a fair bit of pressure, coming out of a very difficult and generally poor harvest,” Federated Farmers’ Mid Canterbury arable chair, Darrell Hydes, said.

“The profitability of most arable operations was looking very poor due to skyrocketing costs, many years of static returns for our crops and a poor harvest, so the season’s end this year with much improved results is very welcome.”

Looking back over the past 12 months, Hydes said the industry has been proactive about improving farmgate returns.

“A group of Mid Canterbury seed growers met with seed firms and presented them with our actual cost of production for seed crops and this had a fairly positive reception.”

Following up from this, herbage sub-section chair John McCaw facilitated a group of growers to produce a robust set of figures for the cost of production of perennial ryegrass and white clover.

The group represented a wide

“This proved very interesting as, although we were all running different systems with different cost structures and yields, the bottom lines were surprisingly similar with either negative returns or tiny positives when overheads were included,” McCaw said.

A spreadsheet was produced and now available to all growers to calculate their own yields and costs.

“I have found this very useful when working out what crops to grow this season.”

Hydes said meetings with several herbage seed firms had also been positive.

“As a result we have had a price increase for this coming harvest –not as much as we had hoped for in the case of ryegrass because there was a very good harvest in Europe last year and they have a surplus of ryegrass seed over there.

“The Chinese have also stopped buying Nui which means the Nui market has collapsed, but white clover has seen a significant price increase due to a world shortage after two very poor harvests here in Canterbury.”

The trying harvest season continued for cropping farmers

who faced challenges finishing lambs through the wet winter and then faced a lack of processing space at the critical time, trying to get lambs away to shut up ryegrass seed crops.

“I found the meat companies’ lack of response very disappointing and it seemed in marked contrast to the discussions we had with the seed companies,” Hydes said.

“All I can suggest is lamb finishers have a back-up plan in case it happens again.

“But generally the mood among

arable farmers seems better this year than last after a better harvest and some better prices. Although grain prices have dropped from last year’s high, fert and fuel prices are also dropping from their peaks.”

Canterbury cropping farmers James and Jo Doyle are reasonably happy with the harvest result off their 400ha property at Mayfield, inland from Ashburton.

The Doyles grow wheat, barley, perennial grass seed, cocksfoot grass, pak choi seed for Asia,

marrowfat peas that go to Korea and radish seed.

“It was a lot better harvest than last year; it was of a good quality but the growing season’s been a bit dull up here the last few years so that’s sacrificed some yield for us.”

Their attention has now turned to sowing autumn wheat and barley as they also prepare for the 1900 dairy cows that winter on their property, ahead of spring plantings that will include both cereal and brassica or radish crops.

For the Henderson family on Limewood Farms, a 450ha cropping farm near Mount Hutt, the harvest has been a similar story for their rapeseed, cocksfoot, ryegrass, wheat, barley, peas, spinach, radishes and carrots.

“The yields have been okay, about average, but a lot better than last year when they were well below. The wheat this year was probably 3t better than the previous year,” Roger Henderson said.

“What we grow is contracted before we put it in. We don’t grow anything on the free market.

“Most of the small seeds are exported, half the wheat goes to dairy cows for feed and half for milling. The spinach, carrots and grasses are exported.

“The prices have been quite good, but it’s always a wait-andsee process.”

Annette Scott NEWS Arable

BETTER: Roger Henderson of Limewood Farms near Mt Hutt says the yields have been average but better than last season, with each year very much ‘a wait-and-see process’.

Going from wedding dresses to work boots

Suz Bremner MARKETS Livestock

LONGFORDS Estate, a hill country property nestled between Lake Okareka and Lake Tarawera in Rotorua, is better known for hosting weddings and corporate functions.

But this amazing venue played host to a slightly different crowd for its first on-farm sale in late April.

Wedding dresses were replaced with work boots and caps as 170 R2 steers, 75 R2 heifers and 2200 lambs went under the hammer.

A change in farm policy led to holding an on-farm sale and, under the guidance of Hazlett agent Richard Johnston and the wider Hazlett team, it proved to be a very successful venture.

“The vendors changed their farm policy to a weaner-to-18-month cattle trade and the on-farm sale completed that cycle. Also, the lambs are all home-bred and, while the tops had been finished, this was a chance to reduce numbers before winter,” Johnston said.

There is definitely a place for on-farm sales in the North Island. They come with a very different vibe.

Richard Johnston Hazlett agent

More than 100 people attended the sale as buyers from Waikato through to Manawatū and Hawke’s Bay brought along their families for a day out. A total of 55 buyers registered and the steers were split between Waikato and Manawatū while most heifers sold to Gisborne. Lambs also sold to Hawke’s Bay, Manawatū and Waikato.

Johnston said that the vendors enjoyed the process and results. “They were over the moon with the seamless process and the results. It exceeded their expectations and they are very keen to do it again next year.

“There is definitely a place for on-farm sales in the North Island. They come with a very different vibe.”

Results (cattle weighed on-farm minus

4%): Steers – 23 R3 Hereford, 566kg, $1850, $3.26/kg; 25 R2 Charolais, 492kg, $1740, $3.59/kg; 82 R2 Angus, 457-466kg, $1540$1580, $3.36-$3.38/kg; 45 R2 Angus, 433kg, $1515, $3.49/kg; 45 R2 Angus-Shorthorn, 441kg, $1500, $3.40/kg. Heifers – 11 R2 Hereford, 460kg, $1480, $3.21/kg; 41 R2 Angus, 428kg, $1400, $3.27/kg; 20 R2 Charolais, 436kg, $1400, $3.21/kg. Lambs –469 prime lambs $152-$157; 890 Romney males, $145-$149; 960 Romney ewe lambs, $130-$139; 350 terminal-cross lambs, $130-$136.

SUCCESS: The rst Longfords Estate on-farm sale was a success and will become a regular event for the estate.

Letters of the week

Destructive species

David Field Rotorua

IN RECENT years I have rarely agreed with Alan Emerson as he doggedly defended farmers and castigated environmentalists for daring to criticise farming practices. However, I totally agree with him on his views about cats, “Hunting feral cats and herding daft opinions” (May 1).

Cats are killers, whether feral or domestic.

I have a background in science, forestry, conservation and now farming, and have a very good idea about native and exotic plants and animals. For many years I have used some Department of Conservation mustelid traps to catch pests, with processed rabbit bait as a lure. I have caught heaps of rats, stoats, hedgehogs, a feral cat and even a little rabbit!

I understand the Rotherham school project in terms of the cat-kill competition but agree with Alan that an appeal for donations would now be a more acceptable approach.

I have just bought the book Footprints on the Land – How humans changed New Zealand, by Richard Wolfe. It is a well-researched, clear but grim account of how both Māori and non-Māori settlers destroyed our native forests, wetlands, river systems, other native flora and especially fauna.

From the Editor

It’s go time for South Korea

Richard Rennie Senior reporter

SEVEN full days spent in a city as foreign to many New Zealanders as Seoul is far from enough to fully grasp the complexities, nuances and layout accompanying an urban area home to 22 million people in a land area half the size of Waikato.

But spend time talking to Kiwis on the ground in South Korea working for New Zealand primary sector exporters and one thing quickly learnt is that this is a market with plenty more potential, and now is the time to get cracking to tap into it.

As China becomes a politically more challenging place to sustain the volume of trade NZ has relied on in the past decade, markets like South Korea deserve a closer look.

With a sound free trade agreement, longstanding historical ties to NZ and a democratically elected government, the market is firmly open for business as the

sophistication of its consumers grows with the wealth they have come to enjoy in only two generations.

Surveying the avenues of towering skyscrapers along Seoul’s hip Gangnam district, it is gobsmacking to think that only 70 years ago, at the end of the Korean War, this was a population claiming to be 80% rural.

Today over 90% is urban.

Yet equally remarkably, South Korea still manages to grow 80% of its own fruit and vegetables and about 40% of its own beef in a country where only 30% of the land is arable.

But those food gaps that need filling are still substantial, and the timing is good.

NZ is poised to enjoy the full benefits of the 2015 FTA that winds down the punishing 40%-plus tariffs by the end of this decade, finally putting us on an equal footing with Australia and the United States.

NZ enjoyed first-mover advantage in having the FTA with China back in 2008. But in South Korea the advantage may be something even greater.

South Koreans have long memories of NZ’s contribution to the Korean War, when 5000 volunteers arrived to help fend off the Chinese invasion in 1951.

With that has come much trust in this country, arguably an even more powerful licence than an FTA when kicking off any kind of relationship.

The much-publicised ageing of South Korea’s population also, somewhat ironically, provides the grounds for future growth in this sophisticated market. Over-65s will be 20% of the population by 2025, and “50 is the new 30” as they look to age healthily.

That includes looking for leaner, grassfed beef, and high-quality protein drinks to stave off muscle loss.

South Koreans have long memories ... and with that has come much trust in this country, arguably an even more powerful licence than a free trade agreement.

Meantime a young, hip generation spurning having children may not be a ready market for infant formula, but they are seeking out energy tonics enhanced with NZ deer velvet to get them through often punishing work demands, then chilling out with a glass of NZ sauvignon blanc in one of Seoul’s many hip bars at day’s end.

With its single-language, dense population and proximity to New Zealand, South Korea deserves more attention from food exporters keen to meet the appetite of this dizzyingly urbanised, sophisticated market.

The recent east coast cyclones have shown the foolishness of clearing forest from unstable upland catchments for farming, the government decision to plant exotic forests instead, and the well-meaning but equally disastrous decision of early European settlers to bring possums, rabbits and bigger “game animals” here.

I would encourage Alan Emerson, fairminded farming advocates and game hunters to read Wolfe’s book.

Old but not out

Gaynor Tierney

Ngāruawāhia farmer

YOUR letter writer bemoaning the age of those in the primary industries who hold senior leadership roles, “Yesterday’s people” (April 24), should possibly step back and evaluate what older farmers may actually bring to the table.

I know many of the older farmers across New Zealand that he is referencing, and in my experience they bring a wealth of knowledge and wisdom to many of the roles they hold. These farmers have worked the land for years and despite their age are still innovative thinkers and incisive advocates for the farming industry.

Yes, absolutely we need to help build the flow of younger generation farmers into leadership roles, but don’t throw the grey-hair brigade out with the bath water quite yet, because the gap may well be too big to fill!

In my view ...

Beat inflation with livestock management

John King

Author of Curiosity – Farmers

Discovering What Works, and facilitator of Beef & Lamb NZsponsored Curious Cockie clubs.

IF INFLATION reaches double digits as it has in the last four recessions, how might farmers paying down debt on high land values based on production figures from purchased inputs that never account for inflation, survive?

Seed, fertiliser, and tractors leave farmers on the inflation cycle, but livestock farmers have an unfair advantage.

I once took a group to a hill property where they hadn’t used fertiliser in decades. With a huge mortgage and interest rates at 23%, they couldn’t afford both fence and fertiliser back in the 1980s. Infrastructure always has a longer return on investment than fertiliser.

They found pasture production did not collapse after the first year, so they kept going. They built their flock around the exceptional ewes that emerged from grazing low-octane feed.

Interestingly, without maintenance fertiliser they purchased better land because they could service more debt, a statement bound to raise the ire of any fertiliser rep and executive. (Many farmers right now will be tempted to drop fertiliser, but this family bought fertile soils with those funds and were not merely clearing bills.)

Fertility leaving livestock farms via products isn’t the huge problem industry promotes it as. Instead, it’s how fertility shifts within farm boundaries. Open gate policies during droughts, low stock densities and set stocking

move fertility from the middle of paddocks to hill tops, gateways, trough sites, shelterbelts, hay and mineral feeders, waterways and stock camps, resulting in weeds, soil compaction and pasture burnout. These outcomes perpetuate maintenance fertiliser. Getting back to basics, especially grazing management, is simple and cheap, but not the easiest skill in times of stress.

Even Sir Bruce Levy, in his book Grasslands of New Zealand, states that soil fertility largely develops from what falls out of the back of an animal, not the few hundredweight of phosphate fertiliser, despite how important that is for clover.

Developing a property this way does not require an engineer’s report, council consent, or a bank loan, nor ongoing subscription fees for water, plumbing and electrical services, all of which are subject to inflation. Instead, it uses a business overhead, the shepherd’s wage.

Yet how many fertiliser reps calculate the cents/kgDM their products deliver without deducting the impact of clover, dung and urine, which, according to historic research, could be as high as 80-100% of pasture production.

I took another group to a sheep and beef property renowned for its investment in irrigation, fencing and pastures.

When touring its dryland we

stopped at a site where the farmer had parked his ewes overnight on a postage stamp and could still see a difference many years later. Upon being asked if he had done it again since or anywhere else, he said no.

While his irrigated pasture pumps out profits, consider this logic: if he had parked his sheep on a different night pen for 150 nights per year over the time since his first attempt, the productive dryland area would now be huge. The impact of night pens lasting so many years testifies that the ROI of concentrating fertility was longer than maintenance fertiliser (three years).

To put in context, developing a property this way does not require an engineer’s report, council consent, or a bank loan, nor ongoing subscription fees for water, plumbing and electrical services, all of which are subject to inflation. Instead, it uses a business overhead, the shepherd’s wage.

There is not another industry that wouldn’t leap at the chance to create inventory (pasture) from an overhead as it requires no additional cash, and in many instances, low-maintenance technology.

So while gross farm income

(GFI) is lower, targeting nutrient transfer through grazing management steps farmers off the inflation cycle. Its appeal to accountants, bankers and farmers remains low because technology provides many more options to fiddle depreciation rates and capital values.

Furthermore, having fewer mobs simplifies grazing management. Hill country farmers shifting mobs of over 10,000 stock units daily make it clear how it reduces labour, subdivision and fertiliser costs. When the farm is all sheep, there is no requirement to fence off waterways reducing water supply costs and associated maintenance.

However, with grazing management, labour is crucial in the spring. It’s clear that, to lift animal performance or if there’s not enough grass, shifting mobs multiple times daily is better for pasture and livestock than set-stocking.

The ability to execute this with any precision is severely compromised by other labourdemanding jobs labelled as best practice, such as making silage and planting fodder crops. To effectively push a wave of feed from spring into mid-late summer requires much more diligence

Blanket your baby in love

and effort than industry advice endorses.

Everybody knows industry organisations promote production because that is how they are funded. For farmers tired of chasing higher GFI, there are ways to be resilient when times get tough.

Calculating how grazing management reduces farm working expenses through placement of fertility is unlikely to be an attractive industry best practice. Yet in a world where growing the cheapest food has always been a winner, this is a livestock farmer’s unfair advantage.

Got a view on some aspect of farming you would like to get across? We offer readers the chance to have their say. Contact us and have yours.

farmers.weekly@agrihq.co.nz

Phone 06 323 1519

Peony Pink Blue Sky

SHIFTING THE MOB: With grazing management, labour is crucial in the spring – and to effectively push a wave of feed from spring into mid-late summer requires much more effort than industry advice endorses, John King cautions.

Tīnui still second to none on Anzac Day

local schoolchildren from Tīnui and Whareama Schools.

Until recently we had locals who served in World War II attending. There are veterans from Korea, Vietnam, Timor and Afghanistan that I’m aware of. In addition we have the local Scouts plus serving soldiers from Queen Alexandra’s Mounted Rifles.

It is everyone’s day and long may it continue.

It was the same in Central Hawke’s Bay at Elsthorpe, where 180 turned up. As we all know, Hawke’s Bay was devastated by the cyclones but the local country folk still made the time to come to the service.

THERE was a great crowd at the small Wairarapa rural village of Tīnui for Anzac Day. It was the first place in the world to have an Anzac Day service, back in 1916, so it was the 107th anniversary of the event.

What was really pleasing is that despite the ravages of Cyclone Gabrielle the locals took some time off from clearing slips and fixing fences to come to the village to remember the fallen.

Tīnui was hit hard, isolated and without power for a period subsequent to Gabrielle. Driving around you can see munted fences, damaged paddocks and slips for Africa. A mate close to the village believes one in five of his paddocks is stock-proof.

Despite the ravages of Cyclone Gabrielle the locals took some time off from clearing slips and fixing fences to come to the village to remember the fallen.

The weather since Gabrielle has been rubbish for most of the time, so taking a fine day off to celebrate Anzac was hugely significant.

In addition there was 2m of water through the school, craft shop and tea rooms and nearer 3m at the hotel.

Tīnui suffered greatly, which was why it was humbling to see so many locals at the service.

In addition to the locals there were those who came from Masterton and the Greater Wairarapa region and visitors that I was aware of from Wellington, Manawatū and Hawke’s Bay.

There were an estimated 400 at the event to hear Brigadier Anne Campbell give a superb address.

I was, therefore, a little surprised to hear that the Royal New Zealand Returned and Services Association (RSA) wanted a separate Veterans Day to Anzac Day. I’m a proud member of that organisation, but I disagree with its position. Anzac Day is for everyone.

At Tīnui the names of the fallen of both world wars are read out by

What did disturb me was the attitude of various councils and central government agencies to the celebration of Anzac Day.

Under instructions from Auckland mayor Wayne Brown to cut budgets, the Franklin Local Board decided to cut the Pukekohe Anzac Parade. The parade had been going on for over 100 years.

The parade would have started at 10am, a time families could come along and honour the fallen.

It would have cost a piddling $7741, which would be less than the depreciation of a mayoral limo. The biggest cost was for traffic management at $3184.

Closer to home, the South Wairarapa District Council decided to stop the traditional Anzac Day march at Featherston.

Mayor Martin Connelly claimed the council couldn’t afford to pay for traffic management, which I find ridiculous. Connolly added that “future funding is unlikely”. So in South Wairarapa it would seem that any event is more important than Anzac Day.

Both areas have been critical of the costs of traffic control charged by Land Transport NZ or Waka Kotahi.

Surely good sense could prevail for a day of such significance.

After all, Waka Kotahi has the money. It has wasted $62 million promoting the ridiculous Road to Zero and if it got rid of just one of its 100 or so spin doctors that would save over $100,000 annually and that’s a lot of traffic control.

If I was the RSA hierarchy I would be doing what I could to preserve the current Anzac Day and not to try for a second Veterans Day.

I find the entire saga ridiculous in the extreme.

Getting back to Tīnui, however, we’re fine now and will be into the future.

The Masterton District Council is both generous and helpful and it was good to see the mayor and councillors at Tīnui.

We had a march-past, which was led by master piper Zavier Boyles. This year he composed a special song for his bagpipes, entitled “The Anzacs March to Tīnui”. It was a poignant composition and much appreciated by the locals. The march included the local Air Scouts, veterans and soldiers from Queen Alexandra’s Mounted Rifles.

officiating

At the conclusion of the service he reminded everyone

of a forthcoming meeting of the Rural Support Trust in which he is heavily involved. He urged people to attend. Such is Anzac Day at Tīnui.

History: it’s just one darn king after another

From the ridge

History of New Zealand.

That book reminds us that NZ was the last country in the world to be discovered and settled by humankind. It was also the first to introduce full democracy.

I’m no great monarchist, but will keep an eye on Charlie’s coronation given my immersion in English history. The coronation will be all over by the time you read this.

Sorry, I got sidetracked by the Tudors.

LONG-TIME readers will be aware I like a bit of history, which I sneak in every now and then. A score of 88% in seventh form history way back in 1977, certainly my greatest academic triumph, supplemented the 50% in the other subjects to gain me a ‘B’ bursary with access to Lincoln University and $150 for the first year to go towards accommodation, food and beer. In that seventh form we were taught about the Tudors of England, the Norman Conquests, and for some reason the unification of Italy under Garibaldi, but little New Zealand history. They have since remedied this remnant of colonialisation and teach NZ history instead. I’ve remedied my own inadequacies by reading Michael King’s Penguin

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, who is the 105th archbishop of Canterbury, will be presiding over the coronation. The first archbishop was Augustine, who was sent by the Pope in Rome to England in AD 597.

Roman Catholicism was present for the next 900 years, until Henry VIII broke with Rome in 1533 to get his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled. He appointed Thomas Cranmer as the first Protestant archbishop.

Things went well for Thomas for 30 years, until Mary Tudor, Henry’s eldest daughter and Catherine’s daughter, succeeded her brother Edward’s brief reign and returned England to Catholicism in 1553. Cranmer’s fate was sealed. He was tried for treason, found guilty and burned at the stake.

Mary died five years after her reign began and her half-sister Elizabeth returned England to Protestantism, where it has remained since.

By introducing Archbishop Welby, I was going to tell you that he is recommending that all of us in the Commonwealth pledge allegiance to the new monarch. He suggests we intone at the appropriate moment during the coronation: “I swear that I will pay true allegiance to Your Majesty, and to your heirs and successors according to law. So help me God.”

I’m sure the coronation will go well, full of the pomp and splendour that the British do so well. But not every coronation has been a roaring success.

Maybe some of you will, and good for you.

I’m sure the coronation will go well, full of the pomp and splendour the British do so well.

But not every coronation has been a roaring success.

There have been 62 English monarchs over 1200 years, starting with Egbert in 827.

William the Conqueror’s coronation on Christmas Day in 1066 went awry when guards outside Westminster Abbey mistook the shouts of approval from the guests as an uprising and went on a rampage, burning

WE WILL REMEMBER THEM: The little Wairarapa village of Tīnui – the first place in the world to have marked Anzac Day – did so for the 107th time last month.

Alan Emerson Semi-retired Wairarapa farmer and businessman: dath.emerson@gmail.com

Steve Wyn-Harris Central Hawke’s Bay sheep and beef farmer: swyn@xtra.co.nz

Our bugler, Michael Chapman, is in a word, superb, as is organist Caryl Forrest and vocalist Emily Wellbrock.

Rev Steve Thomson has been

at Tīnui for years. As a farmer he is feet-on-the-ground and practical.

Minefield as agricultural policy hustings heat up

Meaty matters

climate change continuum from the maximum possible to the minimum necessary. As usual Labour and National threaten to overlap in the middle while the Greens and ACT take more extreme positions.

This will almost certainly be reflected in voting patterns in October when younger voters, including farmers, are more likely to support change than their older counterparts, who may vote for a more conservative option.

extremes of viewpoints on these topics, choosing the right line is almost impossible, especially when no one can predict which coalition will gain a working majority.

Allan Barber Meat industry commentator: allan@barberstrategic.co.nz, http:// allanbarber.wordpress.com

WITH less than six months until the election, the main opposition parties have been busy releasing their agricultural policies, while the government has continued to push the agreement it believes it has reached with the sector as a result of the He Waka Eke Noa negotiations. Both Labour and the Greens have dismissed National’s position as respectively “not innovative” and “ideological nonsense”.

There are no prizes for picking where each party stands on the

Farmer representative organisations like Federated Farmers, DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ) must pick their way carefully through the minefield of farmer attitudes to work out how strongly to back or attack the government and opposition’s policies. BLNZ in particular must assess its position following the robust comments and outcome of remits at its AGM, particularly in respect of emissions pricing and remaining in He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN).

BLNZ must walk an almost impossibly high wire trying to maintain the support of enough of its levy payers while ensuring the current or future government does not abandon negotiations and put agriculture into the Emissions Trading Scheme. Given the

A Green party coalition with Labour would potentially produce a massive move against agricultural production, judging by the Greens’ stated policy to: “Significantly reduce livestock numbers; reduce the proportion of land used for livestock, based on requirements that are informed by soil types, regional climatic conditions and river catchment; phase out synthetic nitrogen fertilisers; and ensure that Aotearoa New Zealand honours its commitment to the International Methane Pledge.”

It also undertakes to phase out palm kernel expeller and other imported animal feeds.

The involvement of Te Paati Māori in any Labour majority coalition would further complicate things, while it is impossible to see how National, let alone ACT, could remotely consider a deal with any combination of the Greens or TPM.

As the leading opposition party, National’s recently released statement signals the likely climate change direction if it takes over, but as a potentially strong and demanding coalition partner,

ACT’s policy differences will become a factor.

National has signalled its clear intent to “Get Wellington out of farming” and reduce the amount of regulation on farmers, but at the same time remains committed to action on the environment and climate change. It has announced farmer-pleasing policies such as doubling the number of Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers, reintroducing live exports, banning overseas investment in farm-to-forestry conversions, improving stock exclusion rules, and ensuring the definition of Significant Natural Areas (SNA) protects the correct areas of biodiversity.

In contrast to Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor’s dismissal of National’s policy as disappointing and lacking leadership to take farmers “into the future that they need”, ACT’s Mark Cameron gives it a six out of ten. In his opinion it has “too much compromise and a glaring lack of policy on HWEN and protecting property rights from SNA”.

He says ACT will campaign to ensure the next government’s agriculture policy is 10/10 “by getting rid of the RSE cap completely, putting an end to virtue-signalling climate policy like HWEN, retaining property rights by repealing SNAs, and going further to ensure regional government has full control over freshwater limits”.

There is a danger it signals an abandonment of some essential elements of progress which, as O’Connor believes, the industry must embrace to ensure it remains connected to the values and demands of its international consumers.

I suspect Groundswell’s support comes predominantly from farmers resistant to too much change, while BLNZ’s levy payers are more likely to run the whole gamut from very progressive to highly conservative. Whatever position BLNZ takes it must not be overtly partisan or influenced unduly by a vocal minority; on the contrary, it must represent the best interests of all its levy payers. This will be easier said than done and will require sage advice from its board.

ACT’s Mark Cameron is adamant a National-led coalition can’t just water down Labour and Greens’ anti-farming policies, but must scrap them altogether.

a shambolic coronation where everything went wrong.

to have been executed, although a good number were murdered.

nearby houses to the ground while the congregation fled, and the newly crowned king was left “trembling from head to foot”.

Making yet another appearance are the Tudors: on the coronation day of Henry’s second wife, Anne Boleyn, the crowd mocked her. Poor old George III, known as the mad king and who probably suffered from a psychiatric illness like bipolar and would have been treated better nowadays, had

Charles is the third king by that name.

The first one didn’t do so well. He was the second Stuart king after the Tudor line fizzled out and was unpopular. He finally went to war against his own subjects in the English Civil War. He was captured, and parliament and Cromwell had his head chopped off.

Charles I and the Nine Days’ Queen, Lady Jane Grey (who was only 16), are the only monarchs

Charles II was the son of the decapitated king, crowned when the monarchy was reinstated in 1660 after Cromwell’s death.

He was known as the Merry Monarch, given the liveliness and hedonism of his court.

I’d be surprised if the current court was that lively. I expect that, unlike some of the stories above, things will run smoothly and there will be disappointingly few executions.

He says it seems like National doesn’t want to talk about HWEN, probably because it backs it. National says there will be announcements to come on emissions pricing, but “farmers deserve to know what their position is now”. Cameron is adamant a National-led coalition can’t just water down Labour and Greens’ anti-farming policies, but must scrap them altogether.

Both BLNZ and Groundswell have welcomed National’s policy announcement, although possibly for slightly different reasons.

Federated Farmers is wary of banking on any specific election result and president Andrew Hoggard says the two main issues for the organisation and its members with HWEN remain gaining commitment on the avoidance of emissions leakage and a fair price-setting mechanism for methane, which recent scientific research suggests has a lower impact than previously thought.

The risk for the agricultural sector is to resist action in the expectation that a change of government will let it off the hook, which is a far-from-guaranteed outcome. If HWEN is not passed into law before the election, it may well come to be seen during the next parliamentary term as an increasingly unachievable preferred option.

NOT COUNTING ON IT: Federated Farmers, led by president Andrew Hoggard, is wary of banking on any specific election result, says Allan Barber.

Continued from previous page

BIG DAY: Archbishop Justin Welby has suggested those of us in the Commonwealth might like to pledge allegiance to King Charles during his coronation.

Students discover the appeal of agri-careers

reporter PEOPLE Education

AS PART of the Rabobank FoodX programme, 20 high school students have recently spent four days learning about career pathways in the food production supply chain.

The all-expense-paid educational camp – held last month for the first time since the inaugural programme in 2019 – was attended by students from 11 high schools across the Canterbury, Otago and West Coast regions.

The programme took in visits to a range of agribusiness operations in the Canterbury region including sheep and beef, cropping and dairy farms, Food and Arable Research (FAR), Fonterra, Lincoln New World, Oakley’s Premium Fresh Vegetables and the New Zealand Merino company.

The idea for the programme was developed by the Rabobank Upper South Island Client Council, a group of Rabobank clients formed after they identified a need for more promotion of agri industry

careers among secondary school students.

Rabobank Upper South Island Client Council Chair Robin Oakley said attracting high calibre young people into agri careers is an ongoing challenge for the sector.

“The Client Council identified improved promotion of agri careers as one of its key focus areas way back in 2012 when the group was first set up,” Oakley said.

Saunders, a Year 12 student from Christchurch Girls’ High School, said she went into the programme with very limited knowledge of the agricultural industry.

“I’m from Christchurch and I’m very much a townie,” she said. “My aunty and uncle from Palmerston North do own a farm, but I don’t really know much about it and, if I’m honest, I went into the programme with a bit of a negative perception of the industry due to some of the stories I’d seen in the media.”

Lily said her experiences at FoodX had completely changed her perception of the industry, and she is now seriously considering a career in the sector.

“I was surprised by just how big the sector is and really impressed by all the things farmers and others working in the industry are doing to create a more sustainable food production system,” she said.

environmental science once she finished up at school, she is now thinking she would like to study a more agricultural-focused course.

day programme and said many of the students were, like Lily, surprised by the range of jobs connected to the sector.

“The first Rabobank FoodX received some fantastic feedback from attendees, and it was great to get the programme back up and running this year after an extended break due to covid.”

Programme participant Lily

“I also thought it was really cool looking inside some of the big agribusiness operations like Fonterra and NZ Merino Company and seeing how they use some pretty sophisticated automation to do different jobs.”

Lily said that although she initially had plans to study

Nil withholding, for when she needs it.

“We heard from a bunch of people across the week who all had different roles, and a lot of them talked about how they spend time in their job out on farm getting their hands dirty, as well as time in the office,” she said.

“And this mix of different tasks within the one role is something that really appeals to me.”

Lincoln University domestic liaison team leader Lucy Grubb joined the students on the four-

“Coming into the programme, a lot of the students associated roles in the agribusiness sector with on-farm positions, but they didn’t necessarily have a good grasp of all the other positions that are linked into the sector,” she said.

“So it was a bit of an eye-opener for some of them to learn about all the potential career paths connected to the sector in areas like marketing, research and development and logistics.”

CHANGED MINDS: Lily Saunders, left, with fellow students at Beaumaris Dairies, says her experiences at FoodX completely changed her perception of the industry.

Staff

It was a bit of an eye-opener for some of them to learn about all the potential career paths connected to the sector in areas like marketing, research and development and logistics.

Lucy Grubb Lincoln University

Greener pallet wrap has landfill covered

An Australian rm has produced a world- rst compostable plastic wrap made from food waste. Now it’s working towards one that is marine biodegradable too. Neal Wallace reports.

MELBOURNE-based Great Wrap has launched what it calls the world’s first compostable pallet wrap made from food waste.

Jordy Kay, a co-founder of Great Wrap, says the product will help combat the global reliance on petroleum-based pallet wrap, a critical part of the global supply chain, and the resulting plastic pollution.

Great Wrap is not yet producing food-grade commercial wrap for meat and dairy, or silage wrap, but has plans to work on those products.

With few facilities to recycle petroleum-based pallet wrap, more than 90% goes to landfill.

Since launching in 2019, Great Wrap has grown significantly, initially launching compostable stretch wrap from food waste and now what Kay says is the world’sfirst compostable pallet wrap also made with food waste.

The company recently opened a 10,000sqm facility in Tullamarine that includes state-of-the-art machinery. It will produce 5000t of stretch wrap this year, rising to 20,000t by 2025, making it Australia’s largest stretch wrap manufacturer.

Kay says Australia each year consigns more than 100,000t of cling wrap, catering wrap, silage

This latest innovation can solve the plastic pollution problem as it can be composted or repurposed to create new materials and returned to the soil to add microbial value.

Jordy Kay Great Wrap

wrap and pallet wrap, all made from fossil fuel, to landfill. He says commercial trials with major Australian retailers, food and beverage manufacturers

compared the stretch and strength of its wrap against traditional plastic wrap, and found it to be stronger.

“This latest innovation can solve the plastic pollution problem as it can be composted or repurposed to create new materials and returned to the soil to add microbial value to agricultural land,” Kay says.

Great Wrap was one of the agricultural innovations to present its product to the 1600 attendees at the Rabobank Farm2Fork conference in Sydney in March.

Prior to its 2019 product launch, Jordy Kay and his wife Julia observed what they called a “materials revolution”, in which change was occurring rapidly in

energy, transport, and agriculture – but not plastic.

“We knew the technology existed to put an end to plastic waste, but there weren’t any products available on the market for us to use,” says Jordy.

“That’s when Great Wrap was born. We invented the products we knew the world was missing so we could dump plastic once and for all.”

They were driven by demand and have since developed a 10-year vision for a world where plastic doesn’t exist.

Great Wrap is also working on a pallet wrap collection service for Australian plastic waste, having launched its direct-to-consumer line in the United States last year.

Co-chief executive Julia Kay says international demand is growing as businesses and governments support climate-positive innovations.

By 2025, Great Wrap will open a biorefinery to convert local potato waste into polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), a marine biodegradable plastic material made from microorganisms created from metabolising potato waste.

“There is a difference between compostable, biodegradable and marine degradable products,” a spokesperson says.

“Biodegradable products aren’t always that good for the environment as they can break down into smaller parts or microplastics.

“What we’re working towards is a material that will not only completely break down in a compost environment, but it will also completely break down in the ocean too. It will be marine degradable.”

Julia spent more than a decade as an architect in Australia and Europe, designing buildings using low-carbon materials.

She was drawn to using materials and designs that had a minimal impact on their environment and concerned at the quantity of building materials wrapped in petroleum-based pallet wrap.

Julia leads design, sales, marketing and branding and was recently instrumental in the design of their latest innovation, Great Mate, a reusable cling wrap dispenser made from 33 recycled PET bottles.

Jordy has a background in organic winemaking and prior to Great Wrap he launched his own international wine label, Chèvre. Given his entrepreneurial ambition, Jordy says he wants to slow down climate change by reducing the reliance on plastic.

Artisan milk may head off threat of lab-produced dairy

that I couldn’t even imagine five years ago,” Clark-Reynolds told dairy farmers at DairyNZ’s Farmers’ Forum at Lake Karapiro.

THE rapid growth of precision fermentation technology that produces dairy products in a laboratory rather than from a cow is going to be a major disrupter for New Zealand’s dairy industry, warns foresight practitioner Melissa Clark-Reynolds.

Be curious and think about what your real advantages are and double down on those advantages in a world where there is a lot of change coming in the next 10 years.

There has been massive growth of investment in this technology over the past five years, which involves dairy products grown from microbes in a vat.

“I truly believe there are now parts of our sector that are going to be disrupted by this in ways

It will be the dairy ingredients market that could be affected the most by this new technology rather than whole milk.

Given that many of these ingredients are derived from milk, it will be interesting to see what this technology does for the milk price as the cost of this new technology falls, she said.

The other major advantage vatproduced milk has is consistency. Cow-produced milk varies in composition depending on the time of the season, whereas vatproduced is the same all the time.

“I think you should think about this product as being your best milk on a good day – and they can do that every day of the year.”

The dairy industry needs to ask itself what it would do in a world where this technology exists.

“I don’t want to scare you but there are some headwinds that we should probably be thinking about and we should be thinking about how do we compete with that,” she said.

The answer is to produce artisan milk at scale.

NZ has the capacity to do this and it would be a way for the country’s dairy industry to compete against these headwinds rather than fight them.

It will mean marketing the milk around it being produced from cows that are grass fed with high

animal welfare requirements, as well as wider social attributes around how the farm supports its staff and the wider community.

Doubling down on these attributes will differentiate this milk from a lab-produced substitute, she said.

“We are going to have to think about how we compete in a world where our product can be made better and cheaper in a different way,” she said.

It could also mean even tighter restrictions on animal welfare and better integration between the dairy and beef industries.

“Be curious and think about what your real advantages are and double down on those advantages in a world where there is a lot of change coming in the next 10 years.”

Clark-Reynolds said the push from customers demanding greater transparency in food production is another emerging trend.

Customers want not just emissions measurements, but proof of what is being done to reduce those emissions.

In the United States, the most expensive milk is from companies that market their product around having multiple attributes such as regenerative farming, carbon neutrality or being cruelty free.

NZ is also going to have to keep a close eye on changing demographics in China, whose birthrate and the sheer scale of its population have driven consumption and demand.

INNOVATORS: Julia and Jordy Kay, co-founders of Great Wrap compostable pallet wrap made from food waste.

NOT FOR LANDFILL: Great Wrap compostable pallet wrap made from food waste.

Gerald Piddock TECHNOLOGY Dairy

THREAT: Foresight practitioner Melissa Clark-Reynolds says the dairy industry needs to ask itself what it will do in a world where it has to compete with technology that can produce milk in a laboratory rather than from a cow.

Melissa Clark-Reynolds Foresight practitioner

Keeping a realistic eye on the India prize

ATRADE lobbyist for some of New Zealand’s biggest primary exporters does not foresee a free trade agreement with India any time soon and is hosing down talk of a limited deal for less sensitive sectors such as meat and horticulture.

Stephen Jacobi, executive director of the International Business Forum, which includes export heavy hitters Fonterra, ANZCO and Zespri among others, said NZ negotiators spent over a decade working on a deal to free up trade with India but got nowhere.

Bilateral talks started in 2011 before being absorbed by the mega regional trade deal the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which concluded in 2019 but only after India pulled out.

“The bilateral negotiation was transferred over to RCEP and it continued actively right until the end when India pulled the plug on that,” Jacobi said.

Reports at the time said India’s principal concern with RCEP was that it risked a flood of cheap manufactured imports from China by signing up.

Opening its large and heavily protected dairy sector to increased competition from NZ and Australia is understood to have been a close second in India’s reasoning for pulling out.

“The point here is that if the other party does not want to do the deal then what are you going to do?” Jacobi said.

The National Party believes Labour has been asleep at the wheel over its two terms in government with limited ministerial travel to India and no prime ministerial trips.

NZ’s sluggish approach is being contrasted with that of Australia, which made its relationship a

priority and was rewarded with a free trade agreement last year.

National Party leader Christopher Luxon has said he will make a deal with India a “strategic priority” if he is elected prime minister later this year.

As such Luxon said he will travel to New Delhi within six months of being sworn in, to resurrect talks. Jacobi, who travelled to India to meet business and government representatives twice in the past eight months, reckons such a trip by Luxon would be only the first step on a long road to a free trade agreement.

“Good on the National Party but they might not find a very

willing partner on the other side.

“The smarter thing at the moment is to focus on building up the relationship, which will indeed require a lot of investment from the government.

“There is a bit of agreement among a number of the business organisations that this needs to be the focus at the moment and not re-starting a FTA negotiation that cannot be concluded, but rather putting the effort into understanding how NZ can contribute to India’s future growth and building up the exchanges and visits and research, which is what we have not been doing and which Australia has.”

NZ will also need to allow in more Indian migrants, as Australia has done.

Where Jacobi sees little profit following Australia, however, is allowing the idea of a limited trade deal to take root with the Indians.

When NZ finally gets back to the negotiating table, dairy market access cannot be off-limits.

“We have just done a FTA with the EU that has the barest fig leaf of inclusion of dairy products and I do not think the government wants to go any further in that direction and nor do I think they should.”

That’s likely to have been a difficult conversation for Jacobi’s meat industry colleagues, who are itching to get rid of a 35% tariff on sheep meat – something Australian rivals no longer face by virtue of their own FTA.

Jacobi, a former trade negotiator, said NZ could not do a deal like that. It would mean all the future ones we wanted to do are going to be prejudiced.

“If you want big numbers and transformational gains from FTAs you have to include dairy products and meat products and horticultural products.

“It is a point of principle that might seem like cutting off our nose to spite our face but these things are important.”

Nigel Stirling MARKETS Export

TREADING WATER: New Zealand negotiators spent over a decade working on a deal to free up trade with India but got nowhere, says Stephen Jacobi.

Dannevirke 672 Weber Road

Deadline Sale

Lepperton 687 Manutahi Road

Premium farm with location

Located in the Waitahora farming district which is under 10 minutes drive from the Dannevirke township and centrally located to the Hawkes Bay and Manawatu is a superb 126 ha finishing farm with balanced contour that will cater to all sectors of the agricultural market. The farm boasts 18 ha of flats in modern pasture species and quality farm infrastructure including three bay and two bay implement sheds, three bay hayshed, three stand woolshed, reticulated water and sheep and cattle yards. A modernised four bedroom home set in established ground provides ample accommodation or future sell down opportunities.

5.04 ha Chicken (Broiler) farm at Lepperton

Deadline Sale closes Wednesday 24th May, 2023 at 2.00pm, (unless sold prior), Property Brokers, 4 Stanley Street, Dannevirke View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/DR119001

Jim Crispin M 027 717 8862

Sam McNair M 027 264 0002

For sale is this large and very well presented and maintained poultry production farm which is contracted to Tegel. Ideally located in the desirable Lepperton district in North Taranaki, the property comprises of eight modernised sheds of varying sizes with a combined total net shed area of 11,290 m2. 5.5 - 6 runs annually with 190,000 birds per run. Substantial investment into fully upgrading and automation to ensure sheds are at the highest standard for their ages. Other improvements include natural energy (solar) and water storage facilities. All supporting plant and equipment is included. Approximately 1.5 ha of grazing land subdivided into five grazing paddocks.

Together Stronger

Gisborne 236 Glenroy Road

'Hands-off' investors dream!

With 1,105ha (subject to survey) currently under lease for a further 17 years from March 2024, to very capable and progressive tenants - this property will attract the investor who wants to see young farmers go forward, while also investing in a quality east coast station. Located in the renowned Whangara farming district, this is a wellbalanced property with circa 88ha of flats, and a modest mix of easy to medium and steep hill country. An adjoining 530ha (subject to survey) forestry block, is available in conjunction with the property to add to the investment appeal.

A unique opportunity for those that have ambition to be station owners without running the business. bayleys.co.nz/2752902

1,105.41ha

International Tender (unless sold prior)

Closing 4pm, Wed 14 Jun 2023

10 Reads Quay, Gisborne

View by appointment

Simon Bousfield 027 665 8778 simon.bousfield@bayleys.co.nz

Stephen Thomson 027 450 6531 stephen.thomson@bayleys.co.nz

44 Brotherhood Road, Te Awamutu

This extensively renovated, four bedroom home on 3.475ha approx of good grazing land, offers large family living areas with fantastic indoor/ outdoor flow to inground pool, where you can soak in the expansive farmland and mountain views. Also great shedding options as well as cattle yards with loadout facility.

For Sale $2.345m

View Sunday 14 May, 1.00 - 2.00pm

Howard Ashmore 027 438 8556

Pauline Love 021 155 4689

rwteawamutu.co.nz/TEA30560

Rosetown

TE KUITI, WAIKATO 3099 State Highway 4 Corriebeg Farm

Located nearly halfway between Te Kuiti and Taumarunui is this very fertile, well tracked, and watered property. The vendors finish all lambs and their Hereford cow herd supplies bulls to their dairy farm clients. 1st June 2022 they wintered 232 MA cows, 104 R1 heifers, 94 R2 heifers, 92 R1 bulls, 46 R2 bulls, 1580 MA ewes, 597 ewe hogget's, 280 wether hogget's and 640 2 tooth ewes. The homestead is a very tidy four bedroom on an elevated position. There is also another two x three bedroom farm cottages in very good condition and fully rental compliant. All the farm buildings are numerous.

Accelerating success.

15 Year Lease with Strong Fixed Growth

TENDER Plus GST (if any)

(Unless Sold By Private Treaty)

Closes 11.00am, Friday 2 June

VIEW 10.00-12.00pm

Wednesday 10 & 17 May

M 027 473 5855

E pwylie@pggwrightson.co.nz

Business

If you are in search of a modern investment with a very long lease term, excellent fixed growth and positioned in a prime location then look no further. This impressive industrial facility, located within the sought-after Ashburton Business

Open

Robert Dabb 027 255 3992 robert@rals.co.nz

Richard Anderson 027 543 1610 richard@rals.co.nz

Peter Wylie

MOEANGIANGI STATION MANAGER

Due to the retirement of our long standing manager, we wish to appoint a successor to this large scale station manager’s role.

Moeangiangi Station is an iconic 3,500ha hill country property, located in the strong farming district of Putorino, Northern Hawke’s Bay, some 40 minutes north of Napier.

The station carries approximately 33,000 stock units, including 12,000 ewes, 1,200 breeding cows and their replacements.

Moeangiangi is operated by the Joan Fernie Charitable Trust which consists of three large stations in Hawke’s Bay with a proportion of profits being distributed to various deserving organisations throughout New Zealand.

The successful manager will require skills and experience that include the following:

● An ability to lead a team of six (6) staff, casuals plus contractors in a manner which will achieve respect, foster high performance and maintain a healthy team culture.

● You will need to also develop and grow the skills of your team.

● The applicant will have a track record of excellent record keeping, reporting and communication skills and be capable of working to budget.

● You will be expected to have input into setting annual budgets.

● A high level of experience in stockmanship with a proven record of achieving above-average livestock performance. This is a critical skill noting the scale of the business and relationship between livestock performance and ongoing profitability.

● The successful applicant would ideally possess a willingness to maintain and develop good computer literacy skills and a desire to utilise the latest technology to support the management of this large station.

ln return you shall receive an excellent remuneration package, reflective of the size and importance of this role. You will be supported by a progressive Board whose members are striving for top financial, livestock and land management performance.

Moeangiangi Station not only wants to contribute to charitable organisations across New Zealand, it now strives to foster and grow the talent across NZ’s sheep and beef industry. lt will do this by proving to be an aspirational place for young shepherds, generals and managers to work and grow. lf this appeals to you, please get in touch.

To apply, please email the chairman of the Joan Fernie Charitable Trust at md.ee.barham@xtra.co.nz with your C.V. which will be treated in the strictest confidence. Upon receipt of the C.V. you shall be sent a job description.

Applications close on the 19th May 2023.

FARM MANAGER CAMBRIDGE

Trelawney Stud is an integral part of the fabric of NZ’s thoroughbred industry; it is the longest running commercial thoroughbred farm in NZ. Covering 175ha of highly fertile farmland, just 10 minutes from Cambridge, the quality pasture and topography are ideal for growing equine athletes. Alongside raising quality horses Trelawney is a working farm and is home to a flock of around 560 breeding ewes and 160 head of cattle. There is also an excess of 2000 lambs which are finished on the farm each year.

As the Farm Manager you will be fully responsible for the sheep and cattle on farm, and you will work closely with the Operations Manager to coordinate the grazing plan for sheep, beef and horses. You will be responsible for the R & M on the property, such as fencing, water and any general repairs, which will require a high level of practical skills. There is an ongoing re-grassing programme; chicory is used for lamb finishing, so a good level of pasture and feed management is ideal to ensure a high level of pasture quality for the mares and foals.

You will be a positive individual, who comes with a high level of attention to detail and integrity, and will bring the following:

• A high level of animal husbandry and stockmanship

• Pasture and feed management experience and knowledge

• Excellent communication and relationship management skills, as you will be working with the horse team along with contractors/suppliers

• Practical skills such as general maintenance and machinery

• Must be a strong team player, with the ability to work autonomously

This is your chance to be an integral part of this show piece property as the Farm Manager. The role comes with an attractive remuneration package including a very tidy, recently refurbished 3-bedroom home. The property is just 10 minutes south of the Cambridge township, and backs on to the Waikato River, where there are plenty of local activities to keep you occupied in your downtime.

Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity – Apply today!

Applicants must be eligible to work in New Zealand and be able to attend an onsite interview.

Please apply by forwarding your C.V. and written references to: Trelawney Stud RD 2, Cambridge Email: brent@trelawneystud.nz

• Approx 5050 stock units, 570 effective hectares

• 3 years from 01 July 2023 with longer term potential

• A very sound, reliable hill country unit with useful calving country

• Well developed with a good dwelling, substantial woolshed and covered yards

• Approx 45 paddocks with good permanent fencing

• First right of refusal offers potential for longer term relationship with compatible Tenant

• Honey opportunity available to Tenant and established hunting operation can be considered

Information pack with basic lease terms & conditions, proposal requirements and inspection dates available from:

Dairy Farm Managers – Come join us in North West Tasmania –

Why?

Prime Value Dairy is set to become the employer of choice in the industry and regions in which it operates because we respect and care for those who choose to work with us.

Our Farms

• Outstanding region for growing pastures

• New 60 Bail Rotary

What’s on Offer

• Pivot Irrigation

• Mild Climate Conditions

On a personal note

• “Tasy” offers excellent Tramping, Hunting and Fishing

• And there maybe options to build your personal wealth

We offer excellent wages and conditions whilst providing a healthy and safe place to work. We take pride in our farms and our people and want to work with people who are as passionate about dairy as we are. By the way, accommodation is on us.

This is an opportunity to use your expertise around managing a Dairy farm in one of the best Dairy Farm regions around.

What you need – If you have:

• A commitment to high animal welfare standards

• An equally strong focus on farm safety and the environment

• A desire to be the best

• Strong technical skills in the Dairy sector

• Demonstrated leadership skills

Yes we will consider relocation costs for the right candidates.

* Please note that only candidates that have the right to work in Australia will be considered for the roles. We may only contact you if your profile is a fit for the role.

Then please send us an expression of interest to Mike Hogan mhogan@primevalue.com.au

12-MONTH HEADING dog and bitch. Fast, strong, good stop, pulling sides. Station and trial potential. Nolan Timmins. Phone calls only 027 932 8839.

TWO ALEX-ROBINSON

monk bred huntaway pups. 8 weeks old. Also young heading dog, just starting. Phone 027 243 8541. BUYING / SELLING. Huntaways. Heading dogs. Deliver NZ wide. https:// www.youtube.com/@ mikehughesworkingdog 07 315 5553.

GIBB-GRO GROWTH PROMOTANT

PROMOTES QUICK PASTURE growth. Only $6.50+gst per hectare delivered. 0508-GIBBGRO [0508 442 247] www. gibbgro.co.nz. “The Proven One.”

GOATS WANTED

FERAL GOATS WANTED. Pick-up within 24 hours. Prices based on works schedule. Phone Bill and Vicky Le Feuvre 07 893 8916 / 027 363 2932.

GOATS WANTED. All weights. All breeds. Prompt service. Payment on pick up. My on farm prices will not be beaten. Phone David Hutchings 07 895 8845 or 0274 519 249. Feral goats mustered on a 50/50 share basis.

HORTICULTURE

PUMPS

HIGH PRESSURE WATER

PUMPS, suitable on high headlifts. Low energy usage for single/3-phase motors, waterwheel and turbine drives. Low maintenance costs and easy to service. Enquiries phone 04 526 4415, email sales@hydra-cell.co.nz

RAMS FOR SALE

WILTSHIRES-ARVIDSON. Self shearing sheep. No1 for Facial Eczema. David 027 2771 556.

RURAL MASSAGE

RELAXING FULL BODY massage in rural Ohaupo. Unwind. De-stress. www. ruralmassage.co.nz or call 027 529 5540.

SHEEP SCANNING AVAILABLE

WORK WANTED

33 YEARS MANAGING Dry Stock, Sheep, Beef, Deer and Dairy from 500-2500ha.

Pro cient in all aspects of hands on farm management and farm tech systems. Calm, easy nature. Good team of dogs. CV and references on request. Phone Steve 027 788 8115.

structural engineer is pursuing parttime/full-time employment. Considerable experience with machinery and argiculturalhusbandry. All proposals and locations considered. Please email the advertiser: planpacengineer@yahoo. com

FARM MAPPING

WORK SMARTER with a farm map based on the latest satellite imagery. Drone photography also available in South Island districts. For more info call Cli Francis 0800 433 855 or visit farmmapping.co.nz

FORESTRY

WANTED NATIVE FOREST FOR MILLING also Macrocarpa and Red Gum New Zealand wide. We can arrange permits and plans. Also after milled timber to purchase. NEW ZEALAND

DOG 16 months.

Running well. Sale due to retirement. Phone 07 378 9977.

NZ KELP. FRESH, wild ocean harvested giant kelp. The world’s richest source of natural iodine. Dried and milled for use in agriculture and horticulture. Growth promotant / stock health food. As seen on Country Calendar. Orders to: 03 322 6115 or info@nzkelp.co.nz

LEASE LAND WANTED

2000-4000SU SHEEP AND beef lease block. Anywhere in New Zealand considered. Mid 40’s couple, approximately 30 years experience. References available. Phone Karyn 027 246 9668.

IS YOUR SHEEP scanning getting ridiculously expensive? My rates might surprise you. Over 20 years quali ed sheep scanning experience. Hassle free, easy system with 3-way draft. I do the marking. $$ saved to you. Wet/dry to all multiples. Lates included. Areas covered Taihape, Hawke’s Bay, Whanganui, Wairoa, Wairarapa. Phone to discuss options. Greg on 0274 588 900.

Lawwal Holsteins, Waikato’s BFEA Regional Supreme Winners

Come along and hear from the Lawwal team how the various parts of their business complement one another to ensure it’s sustainable. Gain an insight into their free-stall barn system and their progressive business model.

Key topics will include:

• Our Business, ‘Farming for the Future’ - To be able to feed cows to their fullest potential, look after our environment and increase production per cow while managing the land to a high standard.

• Cow Management & TMR - Using a Total Mixed Ration approach to provide specialised diets for different lactation stages, with an emphasis on genetics and animal welfare.

• Our People - Creating a culture with open communication and specialist roles to ensure sustainably.

• Effluent Management & Cropping - Using a stateof-the-art umbilical system to apply nutrients to grow high yield and quality crops with zero fertiliser.

WHEN

Thursday 18th May 2023

SCHEDULE 9:30am – 2.30pm BBQ lunch

WHERE 180 Law Road, RD1, Hamilton, OCD542

BIOSECURITY

Please ensure all vehicles and footwear are clean to comply with biosecurity requirements.

POSTPONEMENT

Postponement will be notified at www.nzfetrust.org.nz

A LONG-ESTABLISHED PREMIUM FRIESIAN- CROSS BRED HERD AND HEIFER DISPERSAL SALE

A/c Navillus Farm Ltd

305 Tiwai Rd, Invercargill, Southland

11th May 2023 @ 7:30pm via ONLY

All DNA tested. BW 182; PW 247

COMPRISING:

389 2-8 year old in calf fully recorded in calf cows with 40 years LIC breeding for sale, to be sold in computer splits of 45.

155 x In calf heifers BW 240 PW 268

DETAILS:

• Mated to Kiwi Cross and Friesian Sexed semen.

• No mating intervention has been used.

• PSC 8/8/2023.

• 2021 born heifers in calf to Premier sires

Sexed semen AI: 7-day natural AI mated, then PG shot with AI 4 days. Tailed with Jersey X and Hereford X bulls.

• All heifer replacement calves are born within the first 3 weeks.

• Cows to be minimum BCS 4.5 at delivery.

• All cows to receive blanket long-acting dry cow at dry off.

• Delivery between 25th and 28th May

• Settlement 1st June 2023

These cows come highly recommended and are on target to produce 460kgMS/cow.

CARRFIELDS LIVESTOCK AGENT:

Scott Gibson-Smith 0272558501 scott.gibson-smith@carrfields.co.nz

PGG WRIGHTSON AGENT:

Roddy Bridson 027 458 2775 roddybridson@pggwrightson.co.nz

STONEYFIELD LTD CLEARING SALE

Friday 19th May

Viewing from 10am Auction Starting at 12pm 25 Mackay Pass Road, Rockville, Golden Bay

COMPRISING:

• 2017 John Deere 6140M with FEL (5500hrs)

• 2010 John Deere 6430 with FEL (4400hrs)

• Case 595 with FEL (3500hrs)

• 2019 Kverneland Optima V 7 Row Planter

• 2018 Jen Debru 4.15m offset discs

• 2021 Taege 6m Tine Cultivator

• 2016 4AG Titan CVH6300 Roller Drill

• 2018 Herron Low Bed Transport Trailer

• 2018 McIntosh 18 tonne trailer

• 2017 Claas Disco 3600 Contour Mower

• 2016 Claas Disco 3600 Contour Mower

• 2016 Bergmann Repex 33k Loader Wagon

• 2015 Tow & Fert Multi 1200 Sprayer

• 2017 Hustler Katipo 890 Sprayer

• King Hitter Post Driver with Rock Spike

• Robertson Combi Feeder Wagon

• SAM 4.25 Tonne Spreader

• Hustler SX360 Round Bale Feeder

• Kuhn HR3020 Power Harrow

• 2018 Honda TRX500 Auto (2000hrs)

• Dommett offroad 8m Bale Trailer

• 20ft Shipping Container

• 2 x pair of Hustler Mega Soft hands

ASSORTED SUNDRIES: Tools, Calf Rearing Equipment, Electric Fencing gear, rims, tyres, general fencing equipment, troughs etc.

DETAILS:

List of equipment and specs available at carrfieldslivestock.co.nz

FURTHER

Kia Toa Charolais Kia Toa Charolais

HIGH PRODUCTION HOLSTEIN FRIESIAN SALE

A/c Grovan Pastures Knyvetts Road, Leeston Date: Tuesday 16th May 2023

Start Time: 6.30pm – VIA only

Open Day Date: Monday 15th May 2023, Contact Henry Norris and/or Carrfields Agents to arrange a time.

COMPRISING:

82 x Holstein Friesian I/C + I/M Cows

3 generation pedigrees available with videos on each individual lot on the BIDR website.

Herd test data in catalogue

DETAILS:

• DTC 25th July, In-calf to Hereford AI and tailed natural mated Hereford bulls removed on the 10th January.

• Vetted to dates, cows have also been vetted prior to the auction to ensure in-calf status at sale.

• Cows have produced 542 M/S to the 24th April (on target for 600 M/S+) on a simple pasture based system.

• CM (herd purchased on to farm last year) Lepto vaccinated, BM BVD Tested.

AUCTIONEERS NOTE:

These well structured WWS bred Holstein

Friesian cows were purchased off the breeder Hayden Dorman (Riverstone) late last year when the Groven Pastures herd was established. These cows are bred and will thrive on higher feeding systems and have potential for large production.

PAYMENT TERMS:

Deferred Payments till 1st June 2023. Grazing available for those with no access to farms. Cows will be grazed until required for North Island Transport.

CARRFIELDS LIVESTOCK AGENT:

Ben Deroles 027 702 4196

Luke Gilbert 027 849 2112

VENDOR REPRESENTATIVE:

Henry Norris 027 319 9948

OUTSTANDING IN-CALF HEIFER AUCTION NORTHLAND A/C FOOTEHILLS FARMS (Peter & Trixie Foote)

AUCTION FRIDAY 12TH MAY 2023

70 WORSNOP ROAD, RUATANGATA WEST, WHANGAREI

On Farm & Online with Starting 11.30 am

130x In-calf heifers, BW 362, PW 361 (includes 8 contract mated heifers) All heifers G3 parentage verified & A2/A2 tested, (75% confirmed A2/A2)

Calving to AB, tailed with Jersey bull from 29th June 2023

10 x owner bred carryover cows, BW 308, PW 394, Calving to AB from 1st July 2023

8 x R3 owner bred carryover heifers, BW 259, PW 280, Calving from 6th July 2023 to Hereford Bulls

PAYMENT TERMS:

Deferred until 1 June 2023, payment to Link Livestock

CONTACT FOR MORE INFORMATION:

Link Livestock Agents

Vendor Agent Grant Aiken Ph 027 245 8821

Northland Agent Cory Bellamy Ph 021 113 1968

Head Agent Stewart Cruickshank Ph 027 270 5288

www.linklivestock.co.nz

LK0115460©

NZ Farmers Livestock Ltd, Manawatu offer on behalf of dairy farming client the following equipment at an on-farm clearing sale on Wednesday 17th May from noon.

Venue: 2435 State Highway 1, Marton. 15 minutes north of Bulls, signposted at entrance gate.

Ensol aluminium fuel tank (60/40 diesel/petrol); Claas tractor (530C Arion with bucket. Under 6000hrs); front-end bale forks; Quick-hitch x 2; near new Hustler SL700X bale feeder; McIntosh 600 side-feed forage wagon; McIntosh 700 side-feeder wagon; soft-hands; Rata 1.5m silage grabs; Celli 3.5m crumbler power harrow; grader blade; Duncan 701 Seedliner drill; single-row maize chopper; Aitchison drill; Jaguar 75 silage chopper; Croplands 700lt spray unit; 3m Fella mower; Klough 850 SPL 6-furrow plough; Cambridge roller; old transport tray; Pro-lick 6000Lt stainless feed trough; Platinum ProCrane forks; 2016 Ford Courier flat deck ute; 2017 Toyota SR5 ute (200,000km); 2022 Honda 520 Quad; 2019 Honda 2-wheeler; 100Lt Inex bike tow sprayer; assorted ATV tyres; 70-teat Stallion tandem wheel calf feeder; calf trailer; 30-teat Silvan calf feeder; 2 x causmag bike spreaders; 10-bay individual portable calf feeder; Condor 500Lt electricstart fluid movement pump; home-built light tandem trailer with hoist; 6 x Waste-not feeders; calf meal feeders; 4 x 6m PK feed troughs; calf crush; 6 x hay racks; assorted electric fence gear; assorted farm gates; totara battens; 2 x De-crap-it yard scrapers; 2 x 20kg heavy duty grease; farm chemicals; assorted rubber wear; hosing; steel pipes; 3-phase welder; dairy mat; 20 a-side cowshed/plant dismantled; 3 header milk pump; water cooled vacuum pump; in-shed feed mixer system; 5700 Lt vat; 250Lt hot water cylinder; wash-down pump; 2 x 3500Lt Promax tanks; Promax 450Lt tank; 2 x testing buckets; dog kennels (singles) & run; hip lifters; cow sling; ½ tonne Agvance pre-calving mix; calf water troughs; current season wrapped baleage (both pasture & clover/plantain

11 equivs); docking cradle/tailing iron; left-handed golf clubs; 2yr Mitsubishi Canter truck 35,000km; Hecton grain roller mill; Yardmaster effluent screw press; 2 x Honda 150 2-wheelers; other sundries.

Food and hot drinks available for purchase at the sale.

SALE TALK

Every 10 years, the monks in the monastery are allowed to break their vow of silence to speak two words.

Ten years go by and it’s one monk’s first chance. He thinks for a second before saying, “Food bad.”

Ten years later, he says, “Bed hard.”

It’s the big day, a decade later. He gives the head monk a long stare and says, “I quit.”

“I’m not surprised,” the head monk says. “You’ve been complaining ever since you got here.”

Here at Farmers Weekly we get some pretty funny contributions to our Sale Talk joke from you avid readers, and we’re keen to hear more!

If you’ve got a joke you want to share with the farming community (it must be something you’d share with your grandmother...) then email us at: saletalk@agrihq.co.nz with Sale Talk in the subject line and we’ll print it and credit it to you. Conditions apply

2023 BULL SALES BULL WALK

A great chance to see around 1100 R2 Bulls over four days that will be auctioned this season. Prior viewing would be available by arrangement with Vendors, or the Agents listed below.

Upcoming Auctions

FEILDING COW SALE

XBRED INCALF HERD

CLEARING SALE

Tuesday 16th May 2023 11.30am

A/C Client

To be held at Morrinsville Saleyards

Comprising:

310 Xbred Incalf Cows, BW 157, PW 203, RA 93%

3 -8yr old Cows, Milked on a coastal property, from Opotiki in the Bay of Plenty, with challenging contour and decent walks to the cowshed. System 3.

Calving from 3rd July to 4 weeks AI, then tailed with Hereford bulls. Bulls out 31st Dec.

Great opportunity to secure good top up numbers for next season.

Joe Stewart 027 829 8412

Allan Jones 027 224 0768

NZ’s Virtual Saleyard bidr.co.nz

MASTERTON COW SALE

Wednesday 17th May 2023

Masterton Saleyards 11.30am

Comprising approx.: 230 cows

Glenburn Station

Capital Stock R3 Heifers

Robust strong hill country cattle renowned for their quiet nature, thickness and do ability.

26 Angus R3 Heifers

VIC Angus Bull (August calvers)

65 Angus R3 Heifers

VIC Angus Bull (September calvers)

40 Angus M/A Cows 5-8yrs old

VIC Angus Bull (Bull date 21st Nov)

Enquiries to:

Andrew Jennings 027 594 6820

Taniwha, Masterton

30 Angus & Angus x 4, 5 & 6yr Cows

VIC Angus Bull ( Bull date 5th Dec 22)

Enquiries to:

Brian Diamond 027 283 9600

FEILDING WEANER FAIR

Thursday 18th May 11.30am

We will be offering approx: 1000 Weaner Steers

600 Weaner Heifers

Ricky Alabaster Family Trust & Rangitane Farm

300 Angus & Angus/Hereford Steers

300 Angus & Angus/Hereford Heifers

• No Heifers Retained. Suitable for Replacement Heifers

Carey Alabaster Family Trust & Cross Key

100 Angus & Angus/Hereford Steers

• 100 Angus & Angus/Hereford Heifers

Andrew Coogan 20 Charolais Steers

• 20 Charolais Heifers

Hardrock Station

60 Angus & Angus/Hereford Steers

• 40 Angus & Angus/Hereford Heifers

Contact Maurice Stewart 0272 469 255

Rinii Trust

• 50 Angus Steers

• 50 Charolais x Steers

Brian Coogan Family Trust

50 Angus Steers

50 Hereford Steers

H&J Partnership

42 Angus Steers

20 Angus Heifers

Contact Gareth Williams 0275 264 613

IF&JR Checkley

50 South Devon x Steers

• 20 South Devon x Heifers

Contact Mark Crooks 0275 901 452

Okapua Partnership

• 130 Angus & Angus/Hereford Steers

Contact Harvey Falloon 0274 429 955

Devane Brothers

• 90 Angus Steers

• 90 Angus Heifer (no heifers retained)

Dunloe C/- J McCarthy

• 50 Shorthorn Steers

Contact Phil Transom 0274 420 060

Great opportunity to buy big lines of hill country weaners

Key: Dairy Cattle Sheep Other offers

Taking stock to the people

Saleyard

SHENLEY Station managers

Kate and John Hughes had one of the biggest weeks on their farming calendar recently – the sale of nearly 700 AngusPure steers and heifers at the Temuka saleyards.

The calves came down from the hills of the 4000ha property in South Canterbury to Temuka, and though this year was the fourth offering at the yards, it was the first time the calves sold on a weight basis.

Kate Hughes is the fourth generation on the property, taking over the reins from her parents Rit and Sara Fisher, and it was the second calf sale of their own accord.

“We have a great relationship with our stock agent Greg Shearer [Hazlett] and he suggested weighing the calves this year as a younger buyer audience is coming through who like the numbers. It also gave us the opportunity to utilise online bidding at the yards,” she said.

Most of the calves were born in November, and until weaning ran with their mothers in a mob of 740 cows. Hughes said they are shifted

every 24-48 hours into new blocks, a job that is made easier by the love affair the cows have with a mineral cart.

Hughes believes this early training on the calves is the key to their quiet nature and it is one of the main aspects that regular buyers return for each year. Also a big attraction for buyers is the commitment by the Fisher and Hughes families to breed top quality calves, and they source their bulls mainly from Kakahu Angus in Geraldine, and also Twin Oaks Angus.

After a good growth season, this year’s calves were in top condition coming to market and Hughes was very happy with the weights. The steers averaged 210kg and ranged from 134kg up to 259kg, while the heifers averaged 185kg and ranged from 132kg to 221kg. The top 140 heifers were not offered for sale as they were retained as replacements.

Sale prices were very much in line with recent results.

“It is a bit harder being the last offering of the season, but they sold in line with market values at the other sales,” Hughes said.

“The whole sale was very pleasing, especially the heifers. And it is always a relief to get this sale under our belt.”

Track supply demand&

The mustering occurs on Otago properties that are renowned for some of the best Halfbred breeding in New Zealand and as a result these sales are keenly followed.

The top steers made $920-$1000 and most of the balance $715$890. The heifers sold over a tighter range of $500-$750. The Waipiata saleyards in Central Otago came alive on Tuesday, May 2 for the Maniototo Last Muster lamb sale. Due to popular demand, the once-yearly sale has been split in two over recent years and the two sales are aptly named the Early Muster and Last Muster.

The Last Muster is timed to meet the demand of mainly midCanterbury cropping farmers and this year there was also buying support from east and Central Otago. PGG Wrightson area livestock manager Mark Yeates said that every pen at the yards was full.

“We were working after dark to yard over 17,000 lambs the night prior.

“The popularity of this sale continues to grow and this year we had at least 20 vendors offering up lambs, some of which are annual lines. Buyers appreciate the big lines as well as the quality – some had 400-600 lambs in them.”

The lambs were predominantly Halfbred. Males made up 65-70% of the yarding and ewe lamb lines 15-20%, while the balance were mixed-sex. Yeates said it was expected to be a good sale, given the season.

“The feeling going into the sale was that prices should be pretty good, and returns were fully firm on expectations. It was a very solid market across all classes and there wasn’t much price difference between the Halfbred males and ewe lambs,” he said.

The top Halfbred wethers made $130-$150 and the balance $100-$125. Ewe lambs with good breeding potential returned $140$150 and most other pens sold at similar levels to the wether lambs. A smaller portion of the offering was terminal-cross, and the prime lines made $140-$164 and store types, $90-$135.

FULL TO THE BRIM: The Waipiata saleyards in Central Otago were full to the brim for the Maniototo Last Muster lamb sale, where tallies exceeded 17,000.

action took on a different look at some yards with single-vendor and special breed sales held at Temuka and Waipiata locations.

Suz Bremner MARKETS

Beef and sheep

The mustering occurs on Otago properties that are renowned for some of the best Halfbred breeding in New Zealand and as a result these sales are keenly followed.

Every month, receive in-depth analysis of key trade data, important financial markets, and critical market trends here and around the world.

Weekly saleyards

An autumn that has been wet yet mild and flush with feed has given markets an extra boost as more buyers enter. This has had a noted impact on the store lamb market as well as cull dairy cows nationwide. An influx of buyers looking for grazing cows has meant a lift in values at auction, pushing most above last year’s levels. Most empty cull dairy cows have been trading at $1.52-1.70/kg, while in-calf lines at Frankton were able to achieve $1.65-$1.78/kg.

Lodge | May 1 | 539 sheep

ewe lambs, good to heavy

Store male lambs, good to heavy

Store ewe lambs, medium to good

Dannevirke | April 27 | 1714 sheep $/kg or $/hd

ANGUS, ANYONE? A consignment of 600 Angus steers and heifers from Te Anga, Waitomo District, played a big part in the Taupō Beef Weaner Fair last Monday

| April 27 | 1024

Cattle Sheep Deer

Fertiliser Forestry

Dairy

Grain

Close of market

Listed Agri shares

Records fall as autumn temperatures soar

Philip Duncan NEWS Weather

AS WE reported last week, a large portion of New Zealand was over 2degC above normal in April and now May is kicking off well above normal, temperaturewise, all thanks to an enormous high pressure zone to the east of the country.

Last week places like Otago and Southland were over 8degC above normal for this time of year. On May 3 Invercargill Airport had a high of 22.7degC and Queenstown Airport 22.4degC – making them the warmest May temperatures on record for both those stations. Both records were smashed by over 1degC.

In the upper North Island, overnight lows have been closer to 20degC for the second week running, with humidity in the Auckland region hovering around 85-100% for an entire week.

Last Wednesday, further south, Whanganui reached 25.3degC, breaking the previous May record of 24.7degC set only two days before. MetService says records

there go back to 1978.

If La Niña is over, why does it still feel like La Niña? You have to remember that La Niña is measured in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, well away from NZ. Indicators there are very much out of La Niña and leaning towards El Niño with an official “El Niño Watch” now in force.

But as we’ve been saying for several weeks, La Niña has finished and NZ is in a neutral period –where anything can happen. So,

locally around NZ we have been stuck in our own wetter, warmer, set-up. You only have to go to Australia to notice they are in a more classic autumn weather pattern.

Both nations have one thing in common – huge high pressure zones moving through. The past few big highs have all slowed down east of NZ (more like La Niña) and encouraged windy nor’easters, sub-tropical airflows and “Groundhog Day weather”

(where it feels the same every day when you wake up!).

Sea surface temperatures around NZ also remain above normal by a couple of degrees, which adds a little extra warmth in coastal areas overnight.

But we are in autumn and if Aussie is getting cold changes, NZ will too – and one should arrive this week, bringing a burst of snow to the South Island ranges and finally an end (for now) of those sub-tropical northerlies.

Highlights this week

• Daytime highs may struggle to reach over 10degC in the deep south on Wednesday

• A temperature drop for most of NZ by the end of this week

• Humidity drops below 80% in upper North Island for first time in a week

• Another enormous high pressure zone coming from Aussie by weekend

JENNA SMITH Pouarua NADINE TUNLEY Horticulture NZ TIM DANGEN Farm Owner,

BEARING DOWN: Another enormous high pressure zone will be coming from Australia by the weekend.

ORIGIN STORY: The past few big highs have all slowed down east of NZ and encouraged windy nor’easters and sub-tropical airflows.