Farmers Weekly NZ August 8 2022 by AgriHQ

11 Ready to face foot-and-mouth Vol 20 No 30, August 8, 2022

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More room for rivers Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz

OME riverbeds could be widened as part of an overhaul of flood protection management should the country’s regional councils secure a co-funding arrangement with the government. The councils are seeking $150 million of co-investment to assist with the maintenance and construction of flood schemes and to address what they calculate needs to be spent on protection works. Councils are spending about $200m a year on maintaining and building new flood defences, but with peri-urban expansion and aging infrastructure, more investment is needed. Graeme Campbell, the convener of the NZ River Managers Special Interest Group for Local Government NZ said that, if successful, the money will not just be spent on new or upgraded stock banks but in some cases on widening riverbeds, land use change and spatial planning. Some rivers have been strangled by flood protection works and will not deal with the more frequent heavy rain events expected in the future. Schemes designed to protect farmland are now required to provide protection for periurban development, such as those adjacent to the Ashley, Waimakariri and Selwyn rivers in Canterbury. “If we are to deal with flooding challenges in the future, our rivers

REALIGNMENT: Councillor Ian Mackenzie on the north branch of the Ashburton River, at the spot where Environment Canterbury is looking to reclaim land to widen the riverbed.

are going to need more room and that is part of what we have got to address,” Campbell said. Meeting higher water quality standards also requires a new approach to flood protection works. ECan councillor Ian Mackenzie said council engineers are considering the merits of widening the north branch of the Ashburton River, which 20 years ago was narrowed so the force of

water would wash gravel deposits downstream. Options being considered include using 60ha of leased land and acquiring 40ha of private farmland to redevelop the stop bank further back from the river, widening the bed to slow the speed of the water and allow gravel to be dispersed over a wider but more accessible area. Mackenzie said flood schemes have been piecemeal and not

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kept pace with peri-urban developments, so need extension or strengthening to provide protection. “The level of protection is not sufficient to protect urban expansion, there is a different level of expectation,” Mackenzie said. Campbell said the government stopped funding flood protection work in the 1980s, even though schemes protect government assets and infrastructure.

A report on the proposal by regional councils for the government estimates an extra $10m-$20m of flood protection would have saved $100m in damage in and around Westport from recent flooding. “The 2021 Canterbury, Westport

Continued page 5

MORE: CLOSER EYE ON GRAVEL

K E V I N H A L L O F H O L LY VA L E F A R M S , SOUTHLAND

COVERED WINTERING REAPS BENEFITS FOR SOUTHLAND COWS Using off-paddock wintering facilities is generating huge benefits for this 250ha Waimahaka dairy grazing farm, in terms of animal health, land and water. Hollyvale Farms winters almost 1000 cows, plus has 270 heifer grazers and fattens 80 beef cattle. Since purchasing the farms in 2008, the Halls invested significant capital in tunnel houses for about 700 cows, complete with sawdust bedding and silage feeding facilities. This means cows stay in good condition regardless of the winter weather, plus all nutrients are stored for summer application - significantly reducing nitrogen loss. For the heifers being wintered on grass, baleage grazing is carefully managed so soil is protected, and the cows enjoy pleasant conditions. To further capture the potential of the farm, the Halls have extensively re-grassed paddocks, improved the water supply, and invested in lanes

and fencing. As part of the long-term sustainability strategy, waterways have been fenced off, natives planted, and detainment bunds installed.

“We’re replacing lost soil nutrients with recycled effluent.” In 1982, one of the country’s first QEII National Trust covenants was created across about 60ha of the property. Seeing the now well-established native bush inspires Kevin to plant more natives across Hollyvale. Good management practices influenced by science are evident, including when it comes to effluent, which is collected and stored. Liquid effluent is analysed for nutrient content and used to replace nutrients removed by silage harvest.

When ground conditions are suitable, effluent is applied meticulously to ensure soil retains the nutrients. Kevin has a good understanding of their greenhouse gas emissions, using modelling to ensure they meet industry reporting targets now and into the future. As Kevin continues striving to make Hollyvale a sustainable, stand-alone business, they’re embracing change by thinking long-term, making plans and being positive about farming ending up in a better place. As well as receiving this year’s Regional Supreme Award, Kevin also received the: • Ballance Agri-Nutrients Soil Management Award • Hill Laboratories Agri-Science Award

Congratulations to our 2022 Regional Supreme Winners

BY R O N VO L LW E I L E R AN D AMAN DA S NOW O F B E R R I E DA L E FA R M , O TAG O

LAMB FARMING AND FORESTRY GO HAND-IN-HAND AT BERRIEDALE

SUBHEAD TO GO HERE, IT CAN BE A MEDIUM LENGTH ONE TOO

This family farm is an excellent example of how Illuptatibus cus iumque maxima cum con rerorrumet pastoral farming can be integrated with forestry autat fuga. At aliberae velluptatia volo eum aut lam production, resulting in a balanced, hitibusdae. Em il enistinum as quesustainable, pra dolecullore and profitable business. qui autem ab id eaquam et que ma pernatistiis modio. Nequi ipsaped undam con prehenis et quos The Vollweiler family has owned Berriedale dis excea eturest, non nitatust et ipsant Farm since 1953, during which time itquid has quis more aliquo int qui utem qui dit, sin es sunt explant. than doubled in size to 1100ha. Today, under the guidance of Byron Vollweiler and Amanda Snow, sheep graze across 800ha, while 200ha is planted in productive trees and a further 100ha is regenerating native bush and wetland.

sequestration. They also provideplatia stockdolendunt shelter and Nam del iderfere porepudaes reduce erosion. lignimp oritatur? Quist, sum fugiae volliquas aute ea eostem dellectatur, optamenem landem ilis as ad Soilqui conservation management is a strong con parumand et volor aliqui doluptae. Fugitfocus ullacias at Berriedale which is progressively moving toward re prae mod quia sequia consecat. a no-till approach, while planting sensitive, erosionImporum, omniscidis perenihite voluptat hicaboria prone areas in ornamental and productive forestry. velestis aut ex ex eum

Illuptatibus cus iumque maxima cum con rerorrumet “Tree planting fuga. At aliberae velluptatia volo eum aut lam “Imporum, omniscidis autat hitibusdae. Em il enistinum as que pra dolecullore qui autem ab id eaquam et que ma pernatistiis been carefully perenihite voluptat.” has Hicabor eicaes verianditius eum aute moluptatur modio. Nequi ipsaped undam con prehenis et quos The family puts their success down to a focus on good re dolore reium in perum vel im rero beaqui corehen dis excea eturest, non et quid quis ipsant matched tonitatust soil type.” stock husbandry. They run a high-performance Romney tionsed magnimu stemquam in commos aliquias aliquo int qui utem qui dit, sin es sunt explant.

flock and derive 80 per cent of income from the lambs, excestio eost voluptaquo et explaboriae. Ita quid while the comes from forestry. quobalance beaqui di ommolorrovid quae velenisquam

ratemoluptis dolupta estincto bea volecae cuptur? Tree planting has been carefully matched to soil type to ensure they’re getting the best from the land. As well as forestry production, the trees generate social and economic value through carbon

Te niminci torerro vidionsequo with debitaque nonecto They’re successfully experimenting a mixed-species tatempo rendam, seque et as solor rentium replace quid winter crop and plan to expand this to partially maio. Si occusdam, simincietur? the traditional monoculture swede crop.

striving to eicaes enhance the natural environment. Today Hicabor verianditius eum aute moluptatur this is evident in the areas protected by QEII National re dolore reium in perum vel im rero beaqui corehen Trust covenants, and the extensive fencingaliquias and tionsed magnimu stemquam in commos riparian planting of waterways. excestio eost voluptaquo et explaboriae. Ita quid quo beaqui di ommolorrovid quae velenisquam Being both an inter-generational home and the family’s ratemoluptis dolupta estincto bea volecae cuptur? livelihood means that Berriedale Farm is engrained del iderferelife. porepudaes platia dolendunt inNam the Vollweiler’s They appreciate the financial lignimp oritatur? Quist, sum fugiae security it gives them and make surevolliquas they takeaute timeea eostem dellectatur, optamenem landem ilis as ad to enjoy plenty of activities outside the farm gate. qui con parum et volor aliqui doluptae. Fugit ullacias As receiving this consecat. year’s Regional Supreme re well praeas mod quia sequia Award, Byron and Amanda also received the: Imporum, omniscidis perenihite voluptat hicaboria • Ballance Agri-Nutrients Soil Management Award velestis aut ex ex eum • Imporum, Beef + Lamb New Zealand Livestock Award omniscidis perenihite voluptatFarm hicaboria • velestis Hill Laboratories Agri-Science Award hicaboria aut ex ex eum perenihite voluptat velestis aut ex ex eum voluptat hicaboria • Otago Regional Council Quality Watervelestis aut ex ex eum Pudae. Neque etur sequodis as minctis is Enhancement Award

• NZFFA Otago Farm Forestry Award

There’s been a long-term commitment to conservation at Berriedale, and Byron and Amanda are continually

Visit nzfeawards.org.nz for more information on the finalists and to enter next year’s awards.

NEWS

ON FARM STORY

34 Seeding the future at Smedley

Within a few weeks all 13 of this year’s graduates from the Smedley Station cadet training farm will have secured jobs for next year. Neal Wallace discovers this reflects not only an insatiable demand for shepherds and farm workers, but also the high esteem in which Smedley graduates are held.

REGULARS Newsmaker �� 28 New Thinking �� 29

20 Milestone for travelling woolsheds

Editorial �� 30

Wool in Schools, a project that educates Kiwi school children about the wonders of wool, will see the 25,000th student pass through its woolsheds this month.

Pulpit �� 31 Opinion �� 32 On Farm Story �� 34-35 Real Estate �� 36-40 Employment �� 41 Classifieds �� 41 Travel �� 42 Livestock �� 42-43 Weather �� 45

24 Smokin’ butcheries bring

The government’s decision to push pause on changes to rules around permanent exotic forest plantings has been met with dismay by iwi and the pastoral industry, concerned about the level of uncertainty it introduces into long-term forestry decisions.

New Zealand’s best ham and bacon have been found, with two butcheries from the Auckland region taking top honours at the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards.

Iwi push back on forestry pause

home the bacon

Markets �� 44-48 GlobalHQ is a farming family owned business that donates 1% of all advertising revenue in Farmers Weekly and Dairy Farmer to farmer health and well-being initiatives. Thank you for your prompt payment.

Secure your space in the upcoming Bayleys’ Country portfolio, New Zealand’s multi-channel leading campaign showcasing the latest rural and lifestyle properties for sale. Get in front of motivated buyers and have a well-seasoned nationwide team of rural agents put in the hard yards for you. For over 22 years, Bayleys has delivered our customers an extensive network of qualified buyers, more audience reach and ultimately better results in a highly cost-effective marketing campaign. That’s why we’re New Zealand’s #1 rural real estate brand. Whether you’re moving on from a farm, orchard, forestry block, vineyard or lifestyle property, or growing your rural property portfolio, securing your spot in Country will ensure your property is among the pick of the bunch this spring. Marketing options

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FARM, SPECIALTY AND LIFESTYLE COLLECTION 2022

FEATURE PROPERTY

Southland organic dairy farm portfolio with scale The forthcoming sale of a substantial dairy farm portfolio provides the opportunity for a like-minded entity to acquire one of the largest scaled dairying operations in Southland, as a going concern.

Four of the six Aquila portfolio farms were converted to A2 organic in 2020, with Aquila one of the largest single suppliers of certified organic A2 milk in New Zealand today. The AsureQuality-certified organic Aquila farms are located close to the Open Country Dairy (OCD) Awarua plant, allowing the organic milk to be received, checked and processed within hours of milking.

Overseen by Aquila Sustainable Farming Ltd (ASF) as portfolio farm manager, the offering in its entirety has built-in efficiencies and meets rigorous compliance thresholds across animal welfare, health and safety, environmental and organic production.

Market-leading operator ASF is the only specialised organic dairy farm management company in New Zealand. It has more than 25 years of collective knowledge of organic farming, leveraging learnings from its European farms long before entering the New Zealand market giving it a tangible advantage over other organic operations in this country.

Total land area 2,970.94 hectares

Address Southland, New Zealand

Portfolio breakdown • six productive organic dairy units • two leased organic support blocks

Peak cows 21/22 5,043

Kowhai

94 1

It has also developed rigorous systems and standard operating procedures, including ISO 9001:2015 certification, to secure compliance with organic and future environmental standards. ASF is the only asset management company of its kind with this internationally recognised certification.

Owned by Aquila Capital, one of Germany’s first alternative investment management companies, the portfolio has an amalgamated farm footprint of 2,970.94 hectares across six dairy units, and 871 hectares from two supporting lease blocks. The portfolio represents a best-practice organic dairying operation with a proven overarching management structure, experienced on-farm teams and established relationships throughout the supply chain as part of the offer.

Fact File

Lumsden

Glencairn

One of the largest organic dairying portfolios in the Southern Hemisphere is now on the market, providing sustainability options for astute buyers.

Tahawai

Winton

Kaiwera

Stevenson

Peak cows 21/22

Open Country Dairy

Duncan Ross of Bayleys says while the Aquila portfolio as a holistic investment proposition in its existing goingconcern capacity has obvious benefits from scale and efficiencies generated through the ASF management model, he also anticipates wider enquiry from the rural market.

Properties are not to scale

Glencairn

“The pandemic climate appears to be consolidating this further, as the food chain is in the spotlight and individuals are taking greater responsibility for their health and the environment. “New Zealand’s organic sector is growing steadily, averaging a growth rate of 6.4 percent a year since 2016.”

Aligning with Aquila Capital’s goal to be a responsible investor and company, the day-to-day operations of the farm portfolio are underpinned by sound environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles around animal welfare,

McIntosh

Ota

Tahawai

Total

753

884

410

580

406

5,043

796,975

292,504

365,479

177,361

230,362

170,053

2,032,734

Actual production 20/21 (kgMS)

715,279

221,137

314,454

167,147

221,614

158,010

1,797,641

190,000

2,442,000

Average efficient production (kgMS) traditional system*

Bluff

1,022,000

280,000

3,800

No consent required Otago region

Land size total area (Hectares)

Ross says the portfolio of properties leverages the experienced on-farm teams, their integrated intelligence via ASF across the scaled offering, and the established relationships forged with OCD, providing a guaranteed organic premium to the milk price. “Global demand for organic milk products and growth in the wider organic sector nationwide, is founded on rising consumer sentiment for sustainable and ethically produced food,” he explains.

Staff** 39

+ 26 casual

Kowhai

2,010

Forecast production 21/22 (kgMS)

Cows consented

“There are potentially numerous scenarios for genuinely interested parties looking to secure productive farmland in the Southland region,” he explains.

Kaiwera

Ota

Invercargill

“Across the portfolio, the farms have benefitted from significant capital investment made over 10 years, to provide good quality farm infrastructure and improvements.”

Actual production 20/21 1,797,641kgMS

Housing 27

+650 (ORC)***

Farm operation: Overseen by Aquila Sustainable Farming Limited, the ownership structure is operated under a Limited Partnership model specific to each farm.

Aquila Office

McIntosh

Forecast production 21/22 2,032,734kgMS

Cows consented 7,199

Gore

Otautau

Happy Valley

“A moderate climate with good yearsustainable environmental practices and the development and well-being round rainfall, including reliable summer of its staff. rain, and highly-productive rich soils, allow consistent grass growth for Resilience to climate change is an optimum returns or yield. important advantage of the organic farming system, amplified by the “Southland farming systems are relatively benign outcomes of the predominately grass based, with the use Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Glencairn Farm of supplementary feed in the shoulders Change scenarios on the future effects of the season to ensure more consistent of climate change on Southland. milk supply year-round and allowing for flexibility of farm systems to capitalise Director and farm salesperson Pip Ryan on high milk prices for higher returns.” of Country & Co in partnership with Bayleys, says the Aquila offering is the largest Southland portfolio to come to the market since around 2000, and he’s expecting interest from outside of Southland given the properties' credentials and opportunity.

“In addition, the gently-contoured and easily-managed land in Southland supports good animal health, consistent production, and the region benefits from having multiple dairy processing options.”

Ryan agrees that the easy-contoured Southland Plains may not be on dairy farm investor radars and consequently, land in the region could be underestimated as a prospective addition to an investment portfolio.

Ryan says as a significant employer in the Southland region, ASF has integrated itself with the Southland community, regularly contributing to local initiatives such as the Meat the Need fund, the SdE Bale Wrap Recycling Fundraiser and being recognised as finalists for several Southland Business Excellence Awards in 2019 and 2021.

“In comparison to higher profile areas, Southland is a relatively affordable dairying proposition with dependable fundamentals,” he explains.

1,398

458

Infrastructure

Three rotary cowsheds (50, 64 and 80 bail)

54 bail rotary shed

Irrigation

91ha (pivot)

Housing Staff**

+ 4 casual

448,000

209,000

1,300

650

293,000

850

599

418

221

284

192

54 bail rotary shed and older 50 bail rotary

Double pit 26 aside HB shed (52 cups)

54 bail rotary shed

7,849

2,971

249ha (pods)

+ 2 casual

+ 3 casual

+ 14 casual

+ 1 casual

+ 26 casual

*Average Efficient Production based on traditional farming practice (Valuation) **Casual staff are employed as seasonal requirements demand ***Otago Regional Council - no consent required in the Otago region

Sale details: Expressions of Interest (unless sold prior) Thursday, 18th November 2021 Country & Co Realty Ltd, 33 Arena Avenue, Invercargill, New Zealand Agent details:

Duncan Ross +64 21 663 567 duncan.ross@bayleys.co.nz

Pip Ryan +64 27 432 5770 philip.ryan@countrandco.nz

BAYLEYS REAL ESTATE LTD, AUCKLAND CENTRAL, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

COUNTRY & CO REALTY LTD, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 20088

Paula Laughton +64 27 533 1268 paula.laughton@countryandco.nz

Shay Moseby +64 27 268 6879 shay.moseby@countryandco.nz

COUNTRY & CO REALTY LTD, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

aquilafarms.co.nz | bayleys.co.nz/1693054

Note: The booking deadline for a Premium Feature property is 7 days prior to the deadlines noted below.

We’re altogether better at rural real estate – so put your stake in Country to get the best result for the sale of your property. Double Page Advert + Digital Package $5,800 + GST • Double page spread advertisement in Country magazine and e-book • Country digital listing package Full Page Advert + Digital Package $3,800 + GST • Full page advertisement in Country magazine and e-book • Country digital listing package

Half Page Advert* + Digital Package $2,200 + GST • Half page advertisement in Country magazine and e-book • Country digital listing package *Lifestyle only

Country Digital Listing Package Your advertisement in the Country magazine is complemented by a comprehensive digital listing campaign. Your property will receive listings on the below websites: • bayleys.co.nz feature • realestate.co.nz gold package • interest.co.nz listing • hougarden.com listing • Facebook dynamic carousel listing

Call 0800 BAYLEYS or visit bayleys.co.nz/country-portfolio

Key dates Booking and material deadlines 2022 release dates

Issue 1

Issue 2

5pm, Friday 4th March 2022 Friday 18th March 2022

5pm, Friday 23rd September 2022 Friday 7th October 2022

Contact your local salesperson today, or get in touch on 0800 BAYLEYS | bayleys.co.nz/country

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Closer eye on gravel Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz CHRIS Allen has calculated that 60,000t of gravel has been naturally deposited in the north branch of the Ashburton River in the past year, adding to the 900,000t already there that needs removing. He knows first-hand how naturally deposited gravel accentuates flooding events but, farming adjacent to the river, he has also discovered that solutions are far from simple. Allen is part of the Ashburton River Liaison Group, which advises Environment Canterbury on river management. Consent to remove gravel has become harder to get and logistically it is difficult to extract, but clogged rivers put pressure on flood protection works as happened on the Ashburton River in 2021 when flood banks failed in several spots. Allen said there can be unintended consequences when removing gravel, with concerns in the Ashburton River it could expose the foundations of the pillars of bridges and electricity transmission pylons in riverbeds. He wants a nationally coordinated approach to funding work programmes. “We need a management plan for the whole river, a plan that tells us who is doing what, and

Continued from page 1 and Marlborough floods are all examples of an increasing series of recent major flood events experienced throughout New Zealand,” the report states. The councils propose a costshare formula of 75% towards the cost of whole-catchment climate change adaption work, 50% for upgrading capital works for existing river management and flood protection schemes, 33%

In recent weeks 3000m3 has been deposited in the Mataura River near his home, and he said when it forms islands it diverts the river flow, eroding banks and releasing sediment. Dillon spent $2500 “and an enormous amount of time” renewing his consent and pays a royalty for every cubic metre excavated. Being granted resource consent

to extract gravel has become tougher, but Wayne Scott, the chief executive of the Aggregate and Quarry Association, said that is only part of the problem. Because aggregate is a lowvalue, high-volume product, it is not economically viable to truck great distances, which is limiting for areas like Ashburton that do not have large, accessible markets. Gravel is also difficult to store. It cannot be stockpiled in riverbeds due of the risk of being dispersed during high flows, and takes up a vast amount of area on farm or waste land. Traditionally regional councils survey the amount of gravel in rivers, but Scott said some have let that role lapse. Consent to extract river gravel is becoming more difficult to get, but data from regional councils indicates volumes have increased, not reduced. Environment Canterbury rivers manager Leigh Griffiths said reported gravel extraction from Canterbury rivers averaged about 1 million cubic meters per year in the late 1990s, and now averages about 1.6 million cubic meters per year. ECan is closely monitoring takes to avoid overextraction in rivers such as the Ashley, Waimakariri, Opihi, Pareora and Waihao. Griffiths said demand is

towards maintenance of existing schemes and 75% for emergency repairs. It estimates that NZ averages one major flooding event every eight months, with existing flood protection schemes providing an annual benefit of more than $11 billion each year, five times the capital cost of replacement. “They provide protection to around 1.5 million hectares of our most intensely populated and used land,” the report says.

In 2020 councils received a one-off $215m grant for 55 shovel-ready climate resilient flood protection schemes. Mackenzie said ECan collects about $15m from river rates and is in discussion with the Selwyn District Council about a new funding model. It would be a district-wide targeted rate with all the money raised invested back in the catchment and related water systems.

everyone knows their role from farmers to ratepayers, insurers, councils, Transit NZ and anyone else affected.” Southland Federated Farmers president Chris Dillon said getting consent to extract gravel has become complex and heavily bureaucratic.

Gravel removal is undertaken in a way which has potential to improve the natural character of the river, with the potential benefits of increased flood capacity. Randal Beal Environment Southland

DISRUPTION: Flooding last year caused mayhem throughout Canterbury’s road network.

exceeding supply in more places. “We are paying increasing attention to the state the riverbed is left in when extractors leave the river, with regards to habitat values, natural character, ecosystem health and the potential for exacerbating coastal erosion.” Randal Beal, Environment Southland catchment operations manager, said the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management created additional requirements for scrutiny of any activity involving freshwater, including gravel extraction. “Historically, there has been overextraction of gravel from our Southland rivers,” Beal said. Extraction has moved to

“This is a more comprehensive approach to managing the system.” If accepted, ECan could take the model to other district councils. Regional councils are hoping to get government support for the co-funding model in time for consideration for the 2023 budget round. Associate Minister for local Government Kieran McAnulty said the government

off-channel extraction to a form of habitat ponds, and new consented activities are shifting to beach-skimming type extractions. “Due to the nature of beach extraction, less gravel can be removed, but it is undertaken in a way which has potential to improve the natural character of the river, with the potential benefits of increased flood capacity and reduced bank erosion,” he said. Performed in an appropriate manner, gravel extraction is a useful river management tool. Incidents of annual flooding occurrences in four of Southland’s major rivers from 1982 to 2002 and from 2002 to 2022 were about the same.

is considering what support for flood protection could be available to councils through its Climate Emergency Response Fund. This covers existing natural flood risks, the increasing number and value of assets that are vulnerable to flooding, climate change resilience and adaptation and how flood protection will be covered by work such as the Future of Local Government review.

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Rearers exit as numbers don’t add up for calves Neal Wallace & Gerald Piddock FEWER Friesian bull calves will be reared this year as more rearers exit the industry because the financial risks involved in taking on the animals has become too high. The lack of profitability, with rearers unable to secure contracts with finishers, is driving the exodus, Hawke’s Bay calf-rearing researcher Paul Muir said. Not having these contracts means the rearers carry all of the risks when growing the calves. “Rearers rear calves because they enjoy it but they make fine margins at the best of times. If they can’t sell their calves for a sum that allows them to make a reasonable profit then eventually they lose interest in rearing,” Muir said. Bull beef finishers are reluctant to sign contracts because they prefer to take a risk on the spot market. If the season is dry and there is an oversupply, a finisher can often buy a calf for a much lower price than they could if they had a contract.

High input prices have also pushed up rearing costs. The high milk price has lifted the cost of milk powder 10%-20%. Increases in grain prices have lifted the cost of a meal by a similar percentage.

We want to be positive, but I can see in two years’ time there’ll be nothing left to kill and every year our national beef herd is coming down. Jeff See PGG Wrightson Muir said it would not be unreasonable for a rearer to price their calves at $560 for a reared calf in December. It would cost the rearer about $430 to rear the calf, along with its purchasing costs. With meat prices sitting at $6.20/kg for a 300kg bull in the North Island, in two years’ time

when it hits its finishing weight, that $560 calf will be worth about $1860 – a $1300 margin for the finisher, he said. Taranaki-based PGG Wrightson stock agent Jeff See said he knows of at least four rearers who have pulled out this season because of the increases in rearing costs and financial risk. Some rearers are also starting later – if they start at all, he said. Some are skipping Friesian bulls and waiting for the dairy-beef crossed calves to start appearing. He believed these issues are being replicated across the North Island. “We want to be positive, but I can see in two years’ time there’ll be nothing left to kill and every year our national beef herd is coming down. If we can’t find anyone to rear these calves, we’ll have nothing to trade. “We really have to help the rearers and find a way to help them out.” He said the four-day-old calf market so far has been very slow, with the calves selling for $80$120, averaging $100. Numbers coming forward for sale are also back, along with demand.

FINISHED: The financial risk of rearing calves is increasingly being borne entirely by rearers, more and more of whom are leaving the industry.

SLENDER MARGINS: Rearing bull calves is only marginally profitable at the best of times, says researcher Paul Muir.

The lukewarm market means some are considering putting their calves on the bobby truck. But the meat companies are struggling to keep up with the collection because of staffing shortages, he said. Taranaki dairy farmer Paul Johnston said instead of having calves picked up every second day as was normal practice, this season they are collected on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, have to be pre-booked, and only the number designated will be picked up. It has become a race with other farmers to get space booked, and holding the extra calves on farm requires careful management. PGG Wrightson national dairy specialist Jamie Cunningham said it is too early in the season to get an accurate read on calf prices and the number being reared. Early sales indicate Friesian bulls are selling relatively well, albeit at prices about 10%-15%

back on last year, and beef-cross are selling well. Alliance livestock and shareholder services manager Danny Hailes said they are processing more bobby calves than usual this season, requiring three days’ notice when booking calves and only accepting calves from existing suppliers and shareholders due to plant processing capacity constraints. Silver Fern Farms chief supply chain officer Dan Boulton said it is also faced with tight capacity constraints and is managing calf intake to optimise processing. This could mean farmers waiting longer for calf collection at the peak of the season. “We are anticipating pressure will start easing over the next few weeks,” Boulton said. “The company has rolled out a Calf Booking App for farmers to help control intake and avoid animal welfare risks or animals left behind.”

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Seed growers ‘consider options’ Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz THE Arable Industry Marketing Initiative (AIMI) July report highlights a 4% decline in final harvest yields as growers send a clear message that they have options if contracts are not offering decent prices. Milling wheat yields were back 3% with the total tonnage down 37% at 59,900 tonnes while feed wheat yields were down 1% with total tonnage increasing 4% at 341,000t. The harvest area for milling wheat is predicted to decline 10% over the 2021-2023 period. Malting barley and feed barley yields were down 13% and 4% respectively, and feed barley increased 14% on a final tonnage basis with 304,500t harvested. Malting barley on the other hand was down 31%, to 39,300t. Unsold stocks of feed wheat have remained steady from last year, though prices paid for feed wheat have gone up in the past year with the national average increasing 49% to a spot price of $625 a tonne. More significant is the average contract price of feed wheat sitting $35/t higher at $660/t,

Let them know that we have our options if they don’t offer decent prices. OPTIONS: Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers arable chair Darrell Hydes says soaring inputs costs have many growers considering options.

up $25/t more than the current contract price for milling wheat. Despite unsold stocks having not moved much since the previous year, farmers are holding onto their product to get the best price after a year of input cost inflation. Mid Canterbury Federated Farmers arable chair Darrell Hydes said soaring input costs have many growers considering options.

Darrell Hydes Feds arable

“With diesel, fertilisers and chemical prices soaring, interest rates looking to be around 5% soon and other costs still rising, unless we get a significant rise in seed contract prices for next autumn’s sowing, I along with many others will be looking at some of the options we have available,” Hydes said. Grain, growing winter feed for lamb finishing or dairy support all look better than seed crops at current prices.

need to carefully consider their options for next autumn’s sowing. “We need to do our sums on what prices we need to get to stay viable.” One number cruncher has come up with at least $3.50/kg for perennial ryegrass seed to be sustainable. “Please do some figures using your own costs and yields to see what sort of prices you need to make a decent return,” Hydes urged fellow growers. “The firms will no doubt be out early this season trying to secure areas because they have serious shortfalls in contracts for the past three years compounded by a poor harvest. “Remember to let them know that we have our options if they don’t offer decent prices.”

Hydes said an independent group of local growers has met with seed firms and presented them with the details of the true full production costs. The herbage sub-section of Feds is in discussions with all major seed firms with a similar message and is preparing a presentation of the figures to the New Zealand Grain and Seed Trade Association at its annual meeting in November. Meantime, Hydes said growers

Firms commit to new ag emissions centre Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz THE new Centre for Climate Action on Agricultural Emissions is taking shape with seven primary sector companies discussing a joint venture with the government, first announced in the Budget in May. Ministry for Primary Industries director-general Ray Smith said the industry partners are Fonterra, Silver Fern Farms, Ravensdown, ANZCO, LIC, Ngāitahu Holdings and Synlait.

How much they have committed was not disclosed but Smith told the China Business Summit in Auckland this week that joint venture funding for the centre will approach $100 million a year. New Zealand will be the first country to establish a pricing system for agricultural emissions after setting greenhouse gas reduction targets. “If we are the first to cut the emissions profile then we will also have the intellectual property to take to the rest of the world,”

said Smith. The Ministry for Primary Industries confirmed that it is in discussions with joint venture partners and referred back to the Budget announcement about the centre. In it the government allocated $339m for the development of high-impact technologies and practices to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, including the establishment of the centre. At the time Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor said the centre

would do applied research that drives product development. “The sooner tools are ready for farmers the sooner we move on our goal of biogenic methane reduction of 10% by 2030 and 24% to 47% by 2050,” he said. Dr Naomi Parker, head of the MPI establishment team, said the centre will have two components: the new public-private joint venture and an enhanced NZ Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre. The intention is to have the centre up and running by the end of 2022.

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An update from Andrew Morrison, Beef + Lamb New Zealand Chair Key advocacy focus areas: biodiversity, sequestration, climate change

By Farmers. For Farmers™

August 2022

Farmers are grappling with an unprecedented amount of new and proposed environmental rules. Here’s an update on what B+LNZ is doing to get the best outcomes for farmers. What’s B+LNZ doing about the proposed biodiversity legislation? We recently provided a submission jointly with Deer Industry New Zealand as part of the consultation on the exposure draft of the National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity (NPSIB). Thanks to the 300 or so farmers who answered our survey – the input was really valuable. While minor changes have been made to the NPSIB, fundamental issues remain. Of key concern is the fact that the criteria for a Significant Natural Area (SNA) is still too broad and will capture all areas of native biodiversity on a farm. SNAs have the potential to seriously impact what farmers can do on their land and with huge swathes of farmland covered in native biodiversity this has enormous ramifications for our industry.

What else are you doing about the biodiversity legislation and what can I do? B+LNZ continues to raise awareness of farmer concerns outside of the consultation process, including inviting Ministers and officials on-farm to see the practical implications of the NPSIB. We’ll keep pressuring the Government to reconsider the legislation and have not taken any option off the table. You can also contact your local MP to let them know the criteria for SNAs is still too broad and that more time and analysis is needed to get the rules right. You could also note that farmers are proud custodians of native biodiversity but the proposed legislation will potentially make this a liability.

They suggested the non-ETS sequestration included in the He Waka Eke Noa proposal could receive recognition through a separate system. They believed this would reduce complexity and could create inequality with other sectors that are not able to get similar sequestration recognised.

Why are you advocating for sequestration to remain in the proposed system? Our key priority is ensuring that when farmers start to face a price on their emissions in 2025, they get proper recognition for their sequestration from day one. We strongly believe the best way to achieve this is through He Waka Eke Noa as we don’t think the regulatory change needed to give effect to the Climate Change Commission’s proposal could be ready in time and we can’t risk a gap. • Farmers told us it’s currently very difficult to get post-1990 native vegetation in the ETS. • While ultimately we’d like to improve the ETS, the reality is it will take many years to do this and there is a risk that the ETS would never include all the additional sequestration covered in He Waka Eke Noa. • The Climate Change Commission has suggested setting up an alternative system to reward the wider environmental benefits of native vegetation like biodiversity. Again, while this would be great, we can’t see how this could be in place by 2025. • We believe it would be much simpler and less costly overall to include sequestration in He Waka Eke Noa as this is already being set up – rather than trying to build a whole new separate system. There are tools out there already that allow farmers to measure their emissions and sequestration.

What else are you doing on sequestration and what can I do?

Why is sequestration a focus?

We’re continuing to build awareness about why sequestration should remain within the system proposed by He Waka Eke Noa. We’re also lobbying the Government to invest more in better measurement methods for sequestration on farm.

Simply put, farmers are sequestering carbon through trees on farms and should be rewarded for that.

We encourage you to contact your local MP to emphasise that farmers should be rewarded for their sequestration.

The Climate Change Commission recently provided advice to the Government on the primary sector’s recommendation (through the He Waka Eke Noa partnership) for an emissions pricing system as an alternative to agriculture going into the ETS. While the Commission ultimately supported a farm-level pricing system outside the ETS and felt this was the best approach to pricing agricultural emissions in the long term, they challenged the inclusion of sequestration within the He Waka Eke Noa pricing system.

What else are you doing on climate change? B+LNZ’s priority over the last six months has been trying to keep agriculture out of the ETS and to set up a separate framework that, while not perfect, can be improved over time. We’re now working with Federated Farmers and DairyNZ on a strategy to tackle the methane reduction targets in the Climate Change Response (Zero Carbon) Amendment Act, which will be reviewed in 2024. The targets are too high and we will be looking to get them revised based on the latest science.

For the latest news on these issues head to our website www.beeflambnz.com

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Tables undersell carbon efforts

DODGY: Euan Mason, professor of forestry at Canterbury University, says the look-up tables are far from adequate, and need to allow for site quality, location, management and species type.

values, and the value of putting the right tree in the right place. Graham West, president of the NZ Farm Forestry Association, said there would be many small wood lot owners and farmers in NZ who are receiving significantly less than they should for their forestry planting efforts due to the discrepancy.

The tables are incredibly conservative and for some species like exotic softwoods (including redwoods) they are miles out. It behoves government to get on and fix this. Graham West Farm Forestry Association “The tables are incredibly conservative and for some species like exotic softwoods (including

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that does not allow for those variances,” he said. “The risk is people will learn to game the system, choosing poorer land that can’t meet the average carbon storage, but being able to claim the average that is set out.” Meantime those in better growing areas will not receive full payment for their above average sequestering forest’s ability. Dave Janett of Forest Management Group said he was hopeful the government will be upgrading the tables based on the flood of new forest assessment data now pouring in. “The question will come, are we

going to have a national average, or regional averages. This will have to be mulled over,” Janett said. MPI acknowledged the “significant variation” within each species and forest type in the measured data, and how this variance was a major driver for government investment in the budget bid. Officials pointed to the government-funded initiative in this year’s budget for research to link forest carbon storage to management actions and enable changes to ETS look-up tables to reflect carbon stock changes more accurately.

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STORE MORE: Scion researcher Dr Michael Watt says the look-up tables are too conservative in their estimates of redwoods’ sequestration.

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FARMERS and small wood lot owners are missing out on thousands of dollars in carbon payments due to carbon estimation or “look up” tables falling well short on trees’ actual carbon storage ability. Forest owners with over 100ha use Field Measurement Assessment (FMA) data, an actual in-forest sampled measurement to assess carbon sequestration. But those with less than 100ha use Ministry of Primary Industries look-up tables that offer estimates of carbon storage by species. MPI’s latest FMA data averaged across the country highlights the significant disparities between actual averages and the look-up tables. For example, at year 28 Douglas fir averages 636 tonnes of carbon per hectare based on FMA data, compared to look-up tables’ estimate of 468t/ha, leaving foresters well short of what their carbon payments should be. Common Pinus radiata averages only 700t/ha in the lookup tables, compared to averaged FMA data of 1041t/ha, a variance of almost 50%. Recent work by Scion researcher Dr Michael Watt (see New Thinking August 1) also highlights the contrast between how much redwood trees sequester, based on modelled multi-data sources compared to look-up tables. “The look-up tables are too conservative in their estimates of redwoods’ sequestration. Our study found carbon to be at least twice as high as the values in the look-up tables for all North Island regions,” he said. The look-up data for redwoods, cypress and some other exotic species is not regionalised to allow for the climatic differences that exist along New Zealand’s 1600km length. For woodlot owners and farmers planting less than 100ha, the look-up tables’ data is central for estimating carbon sequestration, therefore cashflow

redwoods) they are miles out. It behoves government to get on and fix this.” He said the association has made submissions to the government’s ETS review process to have the tables updated. The government’s climate emergency response fund released earlier this year includes an allocation of $30 million over four years to forestry to specifically include changes to the ETS lookup tables, to reflect carbon stock changes more accurately. But West is concerned that the government’s focus is mainly on understanding native tree carbon sequestration, when it is exotic softwoods that are going to do more of the early work in carbon capture, and will be more popular with farmers. “Our data shows the tables are conservative for exotics, but overly optimistic for natives, and these are only based off mānuka and kānuka data.” Native forest sequestration at year 28 is put at 242t/ha in the tables – but the FMA data puts it at only 178t/ha. Further into the forest’s life, at year 50 the tables estimate stored carbon at 323t/ha in native stands, against the FMA data of only 239t/ ha. Euan Mason, professor of forestry at Canterbury University, said the tables’ disparities need to be addressed sooner rather than later and will require greater exactness than a simple average for the entire country. “The idea there can be a table for any given species that applies across the country is ridiculous. “The three factors influencing carbon sequestration that have to be considered are species, site quality, and management. You need to be able to account for all three in any evaluation of sequestered carbon ability,” said Mason. In Canterbury, Mason’s own work has found a divergence of 60% between what pines actually sequester in carbon and what the look-up tables claim. “There will be winners and losers if you use an average

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Younger Chinese prefer to buy local dairy foods Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz FONTERRA expects firm demand from China for its dairy products in the medium to long term but it doesn’t expect sales volumes to grow beyond the present 30% of all dairy exports. Chief executive Miles Hurrell told the annual China Business Seminar in Auckland that younger Chinese consumers are preferring to buy locally produced dairy products. “I take my hat off to the Chinese government for the way they have built that reputation for confidence in food safety in domestically produced dairy. “Who would have thought 10 or 15 years ago that consumers would prefer national brands over international ones.” Answering a question about over-reliance on China as a market, Hurrell said he doesn’t

expect that market to continue to grow in volume. New Zealand has flat or declining milk production and other markets are coming to the Chinese understanding of the provenance of NZ dairy products. “I have just been to South Korea, which is one of our fastest growing markets off a smaller base,” Hurrell said. “Our volumes into China are not expected to increase, but I don’t see them falling away any time soon.” In the 2022 financial year Fonterra’s ingredients business continued to benefit from strong demand and good margins, especially for proteins. Food service products expanded across China into second- and third-tier cities, now numbering more than 400 in total. “We are growing value in China by focusing on innovation, sustainability and our NZ provenance.”

Innovation has taken the form of new ways of using Fonterra products in local cuisine. Hurrell mentioned a Cheese-Pro combination of cheese and cream for use in tea macchiatos. Fernleaf fresh milk was recently launched, along with new probiotics for the health and wellness market, which has been growing strongly in covid times. Fonterra worked with the Chinese government in boosting the intake of dairy products and working toward emissions reduction targets. It launched carbon-zero butter at the 2021 China International Import Expo and will attend the 2022 expo in November, its fifth participation. Fonterra was a sponsor of the China Business Seminar, which was addressed by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Trade Minister Damien O’Connor and Chinese Ambassador Wang Xiaolong.

CONCENTRATION: Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell says the China market is huge and diverse, but he doesn’t expect overall volume to continue to grow.

Selling kiwifruit back to China Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz

DEVELOPMENT: Zespri chief executive Dan Mathieson says NZ producers need to work with Chinese kiwifruit growers to grow the fruit category.

ZESPRI chief executive Dan Mathieson says when he first worked in China 20 years ago that market took 2% of New Zealand’s kiwifruit exports, and it now takes 20%. He told the China Business Seminar that China is one of Zespri’s highest-returning markets and one that is very important. “We have a very strong position in China with healthy, nutritious foods that their consumers want,” Mathieson said. In recent times more Chinese consumers have also wanted to support local production, so NZ producers need to find ways of contributing to China’s supply in the season that works for them. After an uncertain beginning

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in which mistakes were made, Zespri now has 100 people in China having conversations with officials and partners. “Choosing the right partners in China has been a challenge and now that we have done so we are keen to share our assessments with other fresh fruit producers. “Cross-reference what you are hearing with a whole lot of other players,” he said. “If there are challenges, they must be out on the table. “You may not always find the solution but everyone at the meeting is thinking about the same challenges and trying to find solutions.” For example, Zespri had to deal with covid finds on fruit two years ago and the need to move the entry port away from Shanghai. In 2016 it became importer of record to ensure it had greater

knowledge of everything involved in getting products to market. Growers here are concerned with the spread of locally grown Sungold kiwifruit in China and want to see more IP protection. “It is a huge market and there is room to co-exist with the locally produced kiwifruit. “While we want strong Zespri brand awareness, we also want to grow the category alongside strong domestic brands.” Zespri’s sale projections to 2030 include doubling the volume going to China, and 50% of sales being made online. Using digital platforms in China provides lessons on how to sell that way in other markets. For instance, European and British consumers are among the world’s most digitally connected but they do not buy the foods online like the Chinese do.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Battle-hardened by bovis challenge Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz DEALING with Mycoplasma bovis has helped prepare New Zealand should it face an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease (FMD), says Ray Smith, the director general of the Ministry for Primary Industries. He told the China Business Seminar last week that five years of dealing with M bovis, NZ’s largest biosecurity incursion, has built capability and traceability. Australia and NZ have heightened border protection after FMD was discovered in Indonesia. Responding to a question from the audience, Smith said MPI’s importing standards are focused on keeping the disease out with imports assessed and treated according to the biosecurity status of the country from which they originate. Despite that, Smith said there is no guarantee FMD will not arrive, but lessons learnt from M bovis will be useful if it does. “We have built a capability and workforce in tracing including a new laboratory in Wallaceville capable of doing 7000 test a day,” he said. An effective response relies on people with experience in

The best way to find the disease is through animal inspection. Then we narrow down the circle and start culling and disinfecting – that’s how you deal with it. It will be ghastly.

READY: MPI director general Ray Smith told the China Business Seminar last week that five years of dealing with M bovis, NZ’s largest biosecurity incursion, has built capability and traceability.

biosecurity incursions. “You can write as many plans as you like, but if you have never done one, then you will struggle.” Smith said the first 72 hours are critical. “If it is found on a farm then we circle that farm with a 10km radius and stop all animal movements for 72hrs in that circle. “Every farmer will be sent out with their rural advisor or vet professional to check their animals.” The best way to find the disease is through animal inspection. “Then we narrow down the

Ray Smith Ministry for Primary Industries circle and start culling and disinfecting – that’s how you deal with it. “It will be ghastly.” The biggest challenge will be restoring trade and consumer confidence. Smith said fast lanes through customs and immigration at airports were removed during covid travel restrictions and remain closed. There are no exemptions. “Every bag goes through xray to see if someone has a food product they shouldn’t have. “We have also cut down

the types and volume of food products people can bring.” Travellers from Indonesia will have already been checked in Australia but on arrival in NZ are subject to a full baggage check and sent through foot baths. Recent reports of MPI staff visiting saleyards is business as usual for animal welfare NAIT inspection, according to a ministry spokesperson. Mary van Andel, the MPI’s chief veterinary officer, said since the outbreak there have been offers of support including from hundreds of people from across the primary

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sector willing to join any response effort. She likened an FMD outbreak to the covid-19 pandemic. MPI employs about 300 vets, with the majority attached to meat processing premises, so these and other vets within MPI would be available to help. “We work closely with private vets around NZ, and in the event of an FMD outbreak, we would look to enhance that relationship,” she said. NZ also has agreements to access vets from Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom if needed.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Iwi push back on forestry pause Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz THE government’s decision to push pause on changes to rules around permanent exotic forest plantings has been met with dismay by iwi and the pastoral industry, concerned about the level of uncertainty it introduces into long-term forestry decisions. In late July Climate Change Minister James Shaw and Forestry Minister Stuart Nash sent a joint letter to forest owners and industry advising them of the government’s intention to take more time to fully consider options for the future direction of the Emissions Trading Scheme’s (ETS) “permanent forest” category. This was particular to the planting of exotic forests for long-term carbon sequestration. The ministers stated that it would be “unlikely” that they would propose closing the permanent category to exotic plantings on January 1 2023. Previously the government had intimated a preference to see exotics dropped as a long-term planting option, amid fears that forests would degrade over time, causing environmental issues after storm events. Nash has openly stated a preference for a “natives only” permanent carbon forestry plantings. The proposal had drawn strong criticism from iwi groups, concerned that their ability to generate income from largely poor-quality land would be further diminished by disallowing exotic plantations. In a letter to members, Ngā Pou a Tāne, the National Māori Forestry Association chair Te Kapunga Dewes said the ministers’ statement offers some positive progression but is not the outcome being sought by iwi. “Advising us it is ‘unlikely’ government will close the

permanent category to exotics by January 1 2023 is different from a final decision and until that is given investment uncertainty remains,” he said. He said the group also contends the science and evidence used by Nash to validate the change banning exotics was erroneous and will continue to show up in regulations.

Advising us it is ‘unlikely’ government will close the permanent category to exotics by January 1 2023 is different from a final decision and until that is given investment uncertainty remains. Te Kapunga Dewes Ngā Pou a Tāne Calculations by Ngā Pou a Tāne set the net present value of exotic carbon forest at $30,000 a hectare, compared to $4500-$20,000/ha for dry stock farming, and the potential earning value from carbon credits is estimated in the billions for iwi. But if forestry is banned, the estimated value loss per hectare to iwi ranges from 33% to 650%. With 80% of iwi land in the poorer Class 6-8 range, that is likely to be at the higher end of the 650% value loss, across at least 1.3 million hectares. Dewes said it is mischievous of Nash to imply that pines are an environmental threat because exotic plantings are likely to die off at age 90. He labelled the minister’s claims sensationalist and based on

tenuous assumptions. Beef + Lamb NZ said the ministers’ announcement is a step back from addressing the issue of sheep and beef farms converting to carbon forests. Chief executive Sam McIvor called on the government to urgently clarify its plans on the issue. “While we didn’t think their proposal to change the permanent category in the ETS would fix the problem, at least it was a step in the right direction,” he said. McIvor said it seemed the government may be concerned about issues raised during the consultation process. “There were legitimate concerns raised, including by BLNZ, about missed opportunities under the proposals, but we strongly believe these could have been addressed through an exemptions regime,” said McIvor. He said BLNZ is urgently seeking limits on the number of forestry offsets available in New Zealand to fossil fuel emitters, in line with other countries. Forest Owners Association president Grant Dodson said the association welcomes a more considered approach to the regulations. “We understand the need for permanent forestry if it is well managed. We do not want large areas of unmanaged pine in NZ. “But we also recognise the role exotic forests play in addressing NZ’s zero emissions goal, with their ability to sequester significantly more than natives can. Having a blanket ‘no exotics’ rule is not an effective way to deal with the challenge.” The association has iwi members, and Dodson said the association is very aware of the challenges iwi have in getting a return off land that is often less than ideal. “This was where they were

MISCHIEF: It is mischievous of Stuart Nash to imply that pines are an environmental threat because exotic plantings are likely to die off at age 90, says Te Kapunga Dewes.

UNCERTAINTY: Te Kapunga Dewes, head of the National Māori Forestry Association, says the government’s pause on policy affecting exotic forests only generates uncertainty for iwi.

getting very frustrated with that rule. We do have some sympathies about exotics getting out of control, but that is just not happening.” Colin Jacobs, general manager for Lewis Tucker, which oversees the Forest Partners forestry fund, said he is concerned the ministers’ letter signals all aspects of the ETS forest regulation changes are now on hold. With some carbon forest estate, his company has submitted for forest rotation periods to be pushed out to 50 years from their current 30. “We just hope they don’t say

that it’s all too hard and leave things the way they are. A long rotation period lengthens the period of carbon returns out to 26 years. It means more carbon is sequestered by 2050 and the land required to achieve it is less,” said Jacobs. His company has written to the Ministry for Primary Industries seeking clarification on what aspects of the proposals will continue to be considered.

MORE: MEGA CHANGES ON THEIR WAY FOR FORESTRY P33

Fonterra to close Brightwater milk powder plant BusinessDesk FONTERRA is closing its milk powder plant at its Brightwater site near Nelson in April 2023, with a loss of 30 jobs, as it grapples with declining milk supply. The small, ageing plant processes about 0.25% of Fonterra’s overall milk supply into whole milk powder. The move, which will mean the milk is processed at Fonterra’s Darfield site near Christchurch, is in line with Fonterra’s long-term strategy, said Fonterra chief operating officer Fraser Whineray. “We know milk supply is declining over time, flat at best, so we need to make sure we’re getting the most out of every drop of milk and optimising our plants to match both consumer demand and available milk supply,” he said. According to Fonterra, NZ’s milk supply has peaked and will now decline or remain flat as farmers grapple with climate change impacts, regulatory changes and

alternative land uses. Recent changes to its capital structure, which reduced the amount incoming farmers need to invest to supply Fonterra, are aimed at protecting its market share. Also, its long-term strategy is to direct more milk into its food-service and consumer business, less into ingredients, and in some cases, to divert product away from the Global Dairy Trade auctions. “This, along with forecast capital and maintenance costs, means we’ve made the tough decision to close our milk powder plant at Brightwater,” said Whineray. Milk collection and associated activities will continue at Brightwater as Fonterra moves its milk transfer activities there from Tuamarina. “It’s no doubt tough news for some of the Brightwater team and we’ll be working with them in the coming months on their future options, including redeployment opportunities within the co-op,” he said.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

All systems go for nitrogen reporting Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz FARMERS have an extra few months to report their synthetic nitrogen fertiliser use for the previous year due to delays in developing systems to handle the data. The policy requires dairy farmers to report by July 31 each year their synthetic nitrogen use in the previous year to June 30, but this deadline has now been extended to allow time for new reporting systems to be operative. Richard Saunders, the Otago Regional Council’s regulatory and communication manager and project lead for Te Uru Kahika, the newly established Regional and Unitary Councils body, said farmers will not face action for the late lodging of submissions. This year fertiliser use to June 30 is required to be registered from August 29, but farmers will have until at least October to submit the data. “This approach recognises the short delay in the delivery of the new reporting tools,” Saunders said. Councils and the two largest fertiliser companies have developed three internet-based reporting tools to record synthetic

A calculation spreadsheet is available for download which guides you through how to create the required records. REPORTING: The mandatory reporting of synthetic nitrogen use by dairy farmers gets under way at the end of August, with a few months’ grace built in.

Richard Saunders Otago Regional Council nitrogen use on grazed land: Ravensdown’s HawkEye, Ballance’s MyBallance and the regional sector’s N-cap. The fertiliser companies have had additional functionality added to existing web-based sites to record fertiliser applications. When putting in nitrogen use data, farmers will have to give permission for the information to be forwarded to their relevant council. The regional sector’s N-Cap web portal requires manual calculation of the same information. “A calculation spreadsheet is available for download which guides you through how to create the required records,” said Saunders. “This includes information

such as the farm business entity, fertiliser purchases, landholding, land use along with dates, volume, and types of synthetic nitrogen application.” This information is entered into a form in the web portal and the data is then submitted securely to the appropriate regional and unitary council. “Councils have taken a

pragmatic approach to the issue of compliance. Our focus is on supporting farmers to comply with the new regulations,” said Saunders. Federated Farmers board member Colin Hurst described the situation as “confusing” and the organisation is seeking clarity from the government and Ministry for the Environment (MFE).

Hurst said it is another example of legislation being rushed through Parliament before tools and systems are ready to make it work. An MFE spokesperson said the ministry has been informed of the delay and has taken “a neutral position” as this is a matter for councils and farmers to manage.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Fertiliser co-ops hang on to profits

FLUSH: Ravensdown chief executive Garry Diack says the company needs capacity to enable it to capitalise on procurement opportunities.

Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz THE BIG fertiliser co-operatives, Ravensdown and Ballance, have substantially increased profits in the 2022 financial year but reduced their rebates to farmers. Directors elected to retain profits and strengthen balance sheets to face continuing volatility in commodity prices and supply chain challenges. Ravensdown’s profit from continuing operations before rebate, bonus shares and tax was $95 million, compared with $52m the financial year before. Ballance made $112m, up 77% from $63m in FY21. Their rebates to farmers and growers will be $25/ tonne from Ravensdown and $30/t from Ballance, down from $30 and $50 respectively. Because of the rapidly rising prices of overseas-sourced fertilisers during the past year, the revenues of the co-operatives increased considerably. Ballance went up from $897m to $1.195 billion, and Ravensdown from $712m to $922m. Ravensdown’s chair, Bruce Wills, said it was one of the best-ever results achieved in a year dominated by volatile pricing and global supply challenges. Total tonnage of fertiliser sold was 1.22m tonnes, slightly ahead of the previous year. Ballance sold 1.583m tonnes, some 30,000t higher than in FY21. Ravensdown said it had reduced product margins and returned a group margin percentage lower than FY21, in order to leave more cash in the hands of farmers. It also carried over more fertiliser stocks to provide more confidence for farmers in spring. Ballance claimed to have eased the impact of rapidly rising commodity prices on its farmers by $54m, along with the gross rebate figure of $37m, up from $33m the year before. But it also retained $56m or half of the profit to “future-proof the co-operative as we transition to a low emissions carbon-neutral future for locally manufactured nutrients”. Ravensdown chief executive Garry Diack said market volatility is not going away and the company needs capacity to capitalise on procurement pricing opportunities. “We need to continue investment in technological support to reduce New Zealand’s fertiliser footprint. “The need for a capital buffer for the increasing risk a co-operative structure faces compels a conservative approach to shareholder rebate for 2022,” Diack said. Ballance chief executive Mark Wynne said his company had assured affordability in a global context and reliability of supply in reasonably challenging circumstances. “Our long-standing and trusted relationships with our global suppliers helped to mitigate ongoing supply disruptions and the unpredictable price of raw material, product and freight. “However, by far the biggest advantage we had was our strategy to focus on local manufacture.”

Have your say on this issue: farmersweekly.co.nz

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Fonterra chewing over 22-23 payout forecast

SLIPPERY SLOPE: Butter prices fell 6.1% at the latest auction.

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Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz THE latest Global Dairy Trade auction saw the price index fall 5%, the second consecutive fall of that magnitude and enough to suggest that Fonterra may be revising its 2023 milk price forecast, analysts say. The index has fallen nine times in the past 10 bimonthly auctions, a total market decline of 27% over the past five months. Whole milk powder prices fell 6.1% and are now down 25% since the start of March. Butter prices also fell 6.1% and are now off 26% in total. Prices fell for all six products offered in the latest auction, including butter milk powder down 9.2% and skim milk powder down 5.3%. “Global dairy demand has clearly weakened over recent weeks, although at the same time, so too has the global dairy production outlook,” Westpac senior agri economist Nathan Penny said. “Two weaks don’t make a wrong,” was his catchy summation. Penny expects 2022 milk production in New Zealand, Europe and the United States to fall when compared with 2021, an unusual overlap. As China’s covid restrictions ease its economic engine should start revving and the weak New Zealand dollar is helping lift our export revenue. “There are downside risks to our milk price forecast of $9.25 but we still expect a healthy price this season,” Penny said. ASB analysts said global dairy demand is likely to remain relatively inelastic, and keep prices well supported. They, too, are sticking with a milk price forecast of $10 – and that hinges on stronger prices in spring and summer. “But an outcome within Fonterra’s wide range ($8.75 to $10.25) is still very achievable.” The GDT auction tested the limits of demand but there was good participation from all buying regions, indicating that demand hasn’t gone away completely, NZX dairy analyst Stu Davison said. His summary of the auction was “a continuation of the wait-and-see pattern of the past five auctions”. “Large numbers of bidders are participating so demand isn’t completely dead, just limp,” he said. “This result could see Fonterra updating their milk price forecast for the current season, considering the scale of the price slide over the last two auctions.” ANZ agricultural economist Susan Kilsby said global demand for dairy remains strong but the ability to continue to pay exceptionally high prices is diminishing as economic conditions tighten. “NZ exporters are in a relatively weak selling position at this time of the season as production starts to increase,” she said. Across all products dairy prices fell 2.9% monthon-month in July and that trend is expected to continue in August. ANZ said the world commodities price index fell 2.2% in July but the soft NZ dollar helped moderate the NZD price index to 0.5% downward movement.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Confidence dives, despite good returns Staff reporter WORRIES about regulation, costs and biosecurity have seen farmer confidence drop sharply in the latest Federated Farmers survey. More than 1200 farmers responded to the July survey and a net 47.8% of them considered current economic conditions to be bad, down 55.6 points from January when a net 7.8% considered conditions to be good. “That’s a huge drop in six months,” Federated Farmers president and trade/economy spokesperson Andrew Hoggard said. “Obviously inflation and supply chain disruption fallout from covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine are part of it, but continued concern over the pace and direction of government reform and regulation, not to mention staff shortages, are also contributing to uncertainty and gloom,” he said. A net 80.9% of respondents expect general economic conditions to worsen over the next

12 months, up 16.9 points on the January survey. “That’s not inconsistent with the results from other business confidence surveys,” Hoggard said. Farmers identified their top concerns as climate change policy and the ETS; regulation and compliance costs; input costs; and debt, interest, banks.

What’s worrying is that for the first time in our survey’s history we’ve recorded a net negative score for production expectations.

And with raised awareness of foot-and-mouth disease in Indonesia and Malaysia, biosecurity has rocketed up the list of top concerns that farmers want the government to address. Despite the slide in confidence,

farmers’ profitability expectations haven’t taken as big a hit as might have been indicated. A net 55% of respondents said they are currently making a profit – six points down on the January survey. Looking out over the next 12 months, a net 53.1% of respondents expect their profitability to decline, up 11.9 points on the January 2022 survey, when a net 41.2% expected it to decline. This is perhaps to be expected given the squeeze from higher input costs and a retreat from high commodity prices, Hoggard said. “What’s also worrying is that for the first time in our survey’s history we’ve recorded a net negative score for production expectations. A net 0.5% of farmers who answered our questions expect their production to decline over the next 12 months, down 2.3 points on the January result.” A net 54.6% of respondents expect their spending to increase over the next 12 months, slightly up on January, “but this will be

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UNCERTAINTY AND GLOOM: Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard says the latest survey shows a ‘huge drop’ in sentiment in just six months.

due to inflation of input prices rather than spending on more goods and services”, Hoggard said. With farmers – like other New Zealanders – having to pay more interest, a net 15.3% of survey respondents expect their debt to reduce over the next 12 months, down 15.6 points from the January

survey when the figure was 30.9%. The Feds survey indicates a slight easing in the labour market “but it’s still very tight”, Hoggard said. A net 44.3% of respondents reported it has been harder to recruit skilled and motivated staff over the past six months, down 4.3 points on the January survey.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

New leadership at Young Farmers Staff reporter INGLEWOOD Young Farmer Jessie Waite has been named chair of New Zealand Young Farmers (NZYF). Waite, 30, was elected to the position at the organisation’s latest board meeting, replacing Kent Weir, who ended his 12-month term as chair. “I’m really looking forward to the next 12 months working with the board, NZYF national office and members, who are our key stakeholders. It’s going to be exciting but also quite challenging, which I think is a good balance,” Waite said. South Waikato Young Farmer Chloe Belfield and Mackenzie Young Farmer Nicola Blowey have also taken their seats as board members, after being elected at the NZYF AGM in July. Two board positions are filled each year on a three-year term, and four NZYF members vied for these. Waite, who was a board member for two years prior to being elected chair, said she is also excited to work with Belfield and Blowey, who have hit the ground running. “I was super impressed with their ability to get into the board meeting and have a good grasp on the discussions. They both have different skill sets and are each bringing something different and diverse to the board table, which will benefit us hugely,” Waite said. “We’ve seen them grow from members to National Committee representatives and now board members, and I know they will flourish in those roles.” Blowey, 28, is a former dairy farmer, currently working as a Dairy New Zealand extension officer. Originally from the United Kingdom, she landed in Aotearoa in 2016 and brings membership experience from other Young

ON BOARD: New Zealand Young Farmers elected directors (from left) Nicola Blowey, Sammy Bills, chair Jessie Waite and Chloe Belfield, and independent director Malcolm Nitschke.

Farmer organisations across the globe, including in the UK, Canada and Europe. “My experience is in on-farm, grassroots members and my focus is on delivering for the membership to ensure the longterm success of our organisation,” Blowey said. She has held executive positions at club and regional level and also sat on the National Committee as the Aorangi delegate. Belfield, 24, has been a member since the tender age of 17. She works for Fonterra as a business improvement lead and has also started her own business, Jones Agri Fencing. “Young Farmers has provided me with a lot at a young age,

and within an organisation that equally shares my passion for our rural communities and sector,” Belfield said. She has held a number of roles at club, district and regional level, most recently as the Otago Southland chair, which she said has helped to build her confidence, leadership, and governance capabilities. Waite said her key focus over the next 12 months as chair will be to continue the organisation’s growth and keep up the momentum. “We’ve recently launched some key projects to make the future of the organisation sustainable with the NZYF community, and to benefit our members with the new digital platform. I am really

looking forward to hitting those targets and goals and also being part of other projects that are going to see our members thrive,” she said. An OSPRI Regional Partner in Taranaki, Waite has been an NZYF member for nine years. “The biggest benefit of being an NZYF member is the friends and connections you make right across the country, which has been a huge highlight for me,” she said. “People are the heart of this organisation and its legacy. Our members both former and present have made New Zealand Young Farmers what it is today and I feel beyond privileged to represent them.”

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We’ve launched some key projects to make the future of the organisation sustainable with the NZYF community, and to benefit our members with the new digital platform. Jessie Waite New Zealand Young Farmers

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Milestone for travelling woolsheds Staff reporter WOOL in Schools, a project that educates Kiwi school children about the wonders of wool, will see the 25,000th student pass through its woolsheds this month. The two sheds are converted 20-foot shipping containers that travel the country visiting schools and sharing knowledge about wool – inspiring students to use the sustainable, natural fibre in the future. Wool in Schools was set up by Campaign for Wool, a global initiative spearheaded by HRH The Prince of Wales to raise awareness about the uses and benefits of wool. His Royal Highness opened the first woolshed at Tawa Intermediate in 2015 and interest from schools snowballed from there. The visits are free of charge for

the schools – the project is funded by Campaign for Wool with sponsorship from PGG Wrightson Wool. Campaign for Wool NZ chair Tom O’Sullivan said being able to educate 25,000 New Zealand school students has been a real privilege. “We’re so pleased with the response to the woolshed project. It’s a fantastic milestone to have reached 25,000 pupils – my own two daughters have been through the woolshed themselves, and still talk about it at home. But we still have a long way to go and would like every school student in New Zealand to have the opportunity to experience the woolshed and learn about wool in this way.” The experience takes about 30 minutes. Children pass through a series of interactive stations where they learn about wool processes,

‘PRIMARY’ INDUSTRY: Children from Havelock North Primary get hands-on during a visit from the Wool in Schools woolsheds.

Zealand wool is chosen for the tennis balls at Wimbledon due to its ‘crimp’ factor, which gives the balls the best bounce. “It’s fantastic to see young minds starting to think more broadly about wool as a truly versatile fibre, with far greater uses and benefits than just making their clothes.” Each experience usually includes a visit from a local PGG Wrightson team member, to add even greater depth of knowledge and provide inspiration to the students.

and the different uses and benefits of wool, in fun and engaging ways. There is even a mini loom in the container so they can have a go at weaving. Wool in Schools project manager Vicki Linstrom said there’s one exhibit that seems to really stand out. “The station that gets the most reaction from the students – and the adults for that matter – is the tennis ball exhibit. Many people don’t realise that wool is used to cover tennis balls and are delighted to learn that New

PGG Wrightson general manager of wool Grant Edwards said the initiative is “wonderful” and “something we are delighted to be involved with”. And the children’s wool education doesn’t end in the shed. Campaign for Wool recently partnered with Geraldine farmer and author Christine Taylor, whose children’s book Jock Visits the Neighbours is sent to schools for their libraries. It follows the adventures of a highland terrier who visits a nearby sheep farm.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Getting the jump on wallabies Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz WATCH out for wallabies is the message as Environment Canterbury considers the viability of fencing to stop the spread of the pests across the Tekapo River. ECan and the Otago Regional Council have joined forces to control wallabies as the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) warns that, left unchecked, they could cover a third of New Zealand over the next 50 years. MPI estimates the economic impact of wallaby spread, including lost farm production, could reach $84 million by 2025. Wallabies are considered a pest under regional pest management plans because of the harm they cause to biodiversity and productive land. Both councils have erected signs along their borders urging anyone has seen a wallaby outside the containment area to report the sighting. Canterbury has a containment area for wallabies that includes 900,000ha of land in South Canterbury. In Otago, wallabies are listed as an eradication species with all efforts focused on the complete removal of them from the region. To do this, the regional councils need the public to report sightings outside of the Canterbury containment area, ECan wallaby programme leader Brent Glentworth said. This refers to all locations south of the Waitaki River, north of the Rangitata River and westwards from the Lake Tekapo River system.

We have told ECan we don’t want Tekapo cut in half. Graham Smith Mackenzie District Council Glentworth said the regional council is exploring the feasibility of up to 55 km of wallaby fencing to stop the spread of the pests across the Tekapo River system into the Mackenzie Basin. The fencing would also be rabbit proof. “We have got to get good facts around the cost and what the fence would look like and for that we are seeking registrations of interest to get a more accurate idea,” he said. Initially the council is looking at the cost of materials and construction for 15km of fencing with the fence extended each year as fund permit. The fencing, while only marginally bigger than a stock fence, will require consent. Mackenzie Mayor Graham Smith applauded the fencing proposal. “Our council is right behind this. Wallaby is a pretty troublesome pest, they eat a lot of

RAT ON A WALLABY: MPI estimates the economic impact of wallaby spread, including lost farm production, could reach $84 million by 2025.

food and are very destructive to farming,” he said. The number of wallabies in the Mackenzie district has risen substantially and it is important to protect the Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park from the spread, Smith said. “There has been a fence in the past, a rabbit fence, but it has fallen into disrepair and is no good for wallaby so we are keen to see a new fence going forward and one that is both wallaby and rabbit proof makes good sense.” The Mackenzie District Council is hopeful the fence will run up the eastern side of Tekapo up to 6,000 feet, between Lake Benmore and Tekapo. “We have told ECan we don’t want Tekapo cut in half.” Smith said currently wallaby is a risk not a problem in the region “but we don’t want the problem”. “If we have a chance with the river as the boundary, and a fence to reinforce that, with our focus being to protect our national parks and the Mackenzie Basin, then we are right behind that chance,” Smith said. “Obviously, it has got to fit our district plan and will require consent accordingly.” The Bennett wallaby, the species that is the focus of eradication efforts, was introduced into New Zealand for recreational hunting in the 1870s. The animals have been steadily increasing in density and geographic range since user-pays control was adopted in 1992. The $27m MPI-led, four-year National Wallaby Eradication Programme (NWEP) launched in July 2020 is a partnership programme that includes regional councils, the Department of Conservation, Land Information NZ, iwi and Federated Farmers. ECan holds the funds for the control work within the Canterbury region, but the number of wallabies spotted beyond the containment area is growing rapidly. Last year there were 630 reported sightings, up from 405 in 2020 and 307 in 2019.

Meantime Glentworth said programme control continues, with the primary control measures being ground hunters and dogs, thermally equipped drones and aerial surveillance with dog

teams and shooting. “However, longer-term solutions will require some deeper thought with the farming community at the heart of these discussions.”

Seen a Wallaby? Submit your report at reportwallabies.nz

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Zanda McDonald award entries open YOUNG agricultural professionals with passion and drive are being encouraged to apply for the most coveted prize of its kind in Australasian agribusiness. The Zanda McDonald Award, open to Australian and New Zealand residents aged 2135 working in agribusiness, provides unrivalled development opportunities for personal and professional growth.

Winners get face to face with some of the most successful agricultural operators in Australasia, to really elevate their thinking and take their career forward faster than they could imagine. Richard Rains Zanda McDonald Award One winner will be chosen from each country, with the successful recipients receiving a fully personalised education, training

and mentoring package across both Australia and New Zealand, spending time with leaders across all areas of the primary sector. “This award recognises and celebrates determined and passionate young Kiwis and Aussies with strong leadership skills, and the programme provides winners with opportunities that money simply cannot buy,” Zanda McDonald Award chair Richard Rains said. “They will get face to face with some of the biggest and most successful agricultural operators in Australasia, to really elevate their thinking, and take their career in agriculture forward faster than they could imagine. Our previous winners have told us that the award is lifechanging, through the ability to learn from successful leaders and peers, network, and experience things first hand as part of their mentoring programme. “If you are making a difference in agriculture, are passionate about what you are doing and are keen to further develop your skills, we strongly encourage you to apply.” The programme is tailored to the recipient, designed to meet their desired areas of

ON TOP: New Zealand finalists Rhys Roberts (2022 winner), Olivia Weatherburn, Katie Vickers and Adam Thompson.

interest and growth. All travel and accommodation costs are covered, including flights by private plane to remote and varied locations. The 2022 Zanda McDonald recipients were Rhys Roberts from Westerfield, Mid Canterbury, CEO of Align Group, which operates eight farms and a market garden, and Charlie Perry, who manages his family-owned and operated wagyu beef farm at Gurya in northern New South Wales.

Roberts said: “An overwhelming highlight of winning the award is the mentoring trip. I’ve already drawn a huge amount of inspiration from the people I’ve spent time with, and I still have the Australian part of the trip to go. I just can’t recommend the award highly enough.” The award is now in its ninth year. It was launched in 2014 in memory of Australian cattle industry leader Zanda McDonald, who died after a tragic accident at

his Queensland farm in 2013. The award programme reflects his values and passionate commitment to excellence in the agricultural industry and to promoting it to the next generation. Applications open on Monday, August 1 and close on Wednesday, August 31.

For details of how to apply, see www.zandamcdonaldaward.com

Land reform’s leftover leases Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz

ONGOING: LINZ head of crown property Sonya Wikitera says implementing the final seven pastoral leases in the tenure review process will take some time.

SEVEN pastoral leases remain in the tenure review process following the May 18 introduction of the Crown Pastoral Land Reform Act. The act ended tenure review, a system whereby pastoral lessees can freehold productive land in return for surrendering land of conservation value, but these seven were already in the process and will allowed to complete it. In its latest newsletter, LINZ Head of Crown Property Sonya Wikitera said implementing those

tenure reviews will take some time. The policy change has also altered the relationship between those continuing as pastoral lessees and their landlord, Land Information NZ (LINZ). As a requirement of the act, LINZ staff are making more regular inspections of pastoral lessees. In the past two years 220 visits have been made to 144 properties. Wikitera said as a further requirement of the act, LINZ is seeking feedback on proposed new regulations and standards. These include outlining the information required for consent applications or what the

Commissioner of Crown Lands (CCL) must consider in deciding the level of adverse effects of a pastoral activity on inherent values, and any infringements. LINZ is also seeking input on two proposed new standards. These include a standard for the CCL when accessing applications for easements, transfers or subleases of pastoral land. The final standard relates to what is required of LINZ management when considering applications for discretionary pastoral activities, commercial recreation permits and stock exemptions.

Seeding the future at Smedley Station For more than nine decades Smedley Station has been training up some of the finest young farmers in the country. Kim Rorrison, a student in 2014-15, now manages Parks Peak farm, which shares a boundary with Smedley. Watch the video now at youtube.com/OnFarmStory This episode was made possible with support from Rabobank On Farm Story

On Farm Story

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

US giant drops damages claim Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz EIGHT years after their last court encounter, there’s been a twist in another court battle between Godfrey Hirst and Bremworth, with the US-based company abandoning its claim for damages. After adopting a “wool only” carpet strategy in late 2020, Bremworth had a case brought against it by rival company Godfrey Hirst, alleging Bremworth’s claims of woollen carpets being more environmentally friendly were misleading and damaging to that company’s products. At the time Bremworth’s allwool move was heralded as a significant shift in direction for the company, sourcing wool solely from New Zealand flocks and helping buoy an underperforming coarse-wool market. Godfrey Hirst’s parent company reported gross revenue of US$10 billion a year in 2019, against Bremworth’s $NZ111 million. Godfrey Hirst, NZ’s largest carpet company, produces both wool and synthetic carpets. The case was brought against Bremworth only a short time after the switch to all-wool carpets. The US-owned company cried foul over Bremworth’s claims all-wool is “better for the environment”. The company also took exception to the claim by Bremworth that making the switch from synthetics was “changing for good”, and said both claims were misleading. Meantime Bremworth claimed Godfrey Hirst had been making similar claims about its own carpets and the NZ company requested copies of Hirst’s advertising, along with details of Godfrey Hirst’s engagement with the Commerce Commission prior to bringing the claim. Godfrey Hirst acknowledged at the latest hearing that it had failed to provide all of its relevant advertising and said it would do so at a later date. Meantime it will be dropping the damages claims against Bremworth, it said, to give the company a chance to correct what it called its “greenwashing

Rabobank seeks grads Staff reporter

CARPET STAND: Bremworth chief executive Greg Smith says the company stands by its “Let’s Go Good Together” campaign, which he says does not in any way mislead NZ consumers.

New Zealand’s wool industry has struggled in recent decades against the backdrop of cheaper synthetic alternatives, but the world is changing, and we are confident our homegrown wool is the natural solution to imported synthetic carpet fibres. Greg Smith Bremworth

marketing” without there being a financial sanction attached. The court case is not the first time the two companies have gone head-to-head in court

on claims about their carpets’ durability and provenance. Ironically, the previous claim involved claims Bremworth had made about a synthetic carpet range. In 2014 the Court of Appeal released a decision in favour of Godfrey Hirst NZ, against Cavalier Bremworth about advertising that was likely to be misleading or deceptive and in breach of the Fair Trading Act. The appeal decision came after Bremworth had made warranty claims about a range of synthetic carpets’ fade and stain resistance, and their durability. Godfrey Hirst complained the warranties breached the act and were likely to mislead and deceive consumers. The Court of Appeal largely agreed with the High Court’s decision, finding the representations were misleading. The court found the Cavalier carpets’ terms and conditions were too detailed and complex. The decision required its Ts

and Cs to be written in more comprehensive manner. After this latest stoush Bremworth chief executive Greg Smith said the company, which has been voted NZ’s most trusted carpet brand, stands by its “Let’s Go Good Together” campaign, which does not in any way mislead NZ consumers. Smith said he believes wool carpets are not only the best for design and performance on the floor, but wool fibre is also NZ grown, natural, biodegradable and renewable. “New Zealand’s wool industry has struggled in recent decades against the backdrop of cheaper synthetic alternatives, but the world is changing, and we are confident our homegrown wool is the natural solution to imported synthetic carpet fibres,” said Smith. Wool export revenue has declined by 44% in the past six years, but latest trade data shows signs of a turnaround with a lift of 10% for the latest export year.

APPLICATIONS for the 2023 intake of the Rabobank New Zealand graduate programme are now open. The 18-month programme offers university graduates with an interest in agriculture the opportunity to begin their careers with the global specialist agribusiness bank. Up to 10 graduates will get employment experience and career development support across various divisions of the bank including Operations, Country Banking, Risk, Products and Deposits and Human Resources. Applications for the programme close on Sunday, August 14 and the new intake of graduates will start the programme early next year. Rabobank New Zealand CEO Todd Charteris said the bank officially launched its graduate programme late last year and the first intake of graduates have now been with the bank six months. This followed a successful pilot programme that saw a number of graduates join the bank in early 2019 and a further group in early 2021.

ARE YOU EXPERIENCED? Jack Macfarlane was in the pilot programme’s first intake of graduates in 2019.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Labour and weather hit meat and dairy exports BusinessDesk DEMAND for New Zealand goods is likely to remain soft for some time to come but the biggest challenge for NZ exporters is constrained output, ASB Bank says in its latest trade disruptions report. Export volumes are “steeply lower for most of NZ’s major export commodities relative to where we’d usually expect at this point in the year”, economists Mark Smith and Nathaniel Keall said. The outlook isn’t great either. Export volumes are likely to end 2022 sharply below 2021 and not return to their 2021 peak until 2024, they said. Whole milk powder exporters are down 10%-25% on a yearto-date basis and skim powder exports are down by roughly 10%. Beef exports are 3%-7% lower and lamb exports are down 12%15%. “Widespread labour shortages have been an issue plaguing both agriculture and manufacturing for

more than 12 months now,” the economists said. Some export-orientated industries – such as beef and lamb processors – are reportedly still working through production backlogs from last year’s lockdown and this year’s omicron outbreak, ASB said. Wage inflation is also expected to hit businesses with a larger bill. For the agri-sector, poor weather in many parts of the country over the past nine months has hit hard, with dairy output running well behind the previous season despite much higher prices. “Rising input costs and difficulty securing key farm inputs are adding an additional complication to that challenge,” Smith and Keall said. Capital investment designed to automate systems, streamline processes and boost productivity would be welcome but “with interest rates rising sharply and credit conditions tightening, we are not in an environment conducive to capex”, they said. However, higher prices are still

CONSTRAINTS: Export volumes are expected to end the year sharply below 2021 say ASB Bank economists.

With interest rates rising sharply and credit conditions tightening, we are not in an environment conducive to capex to boost productivity. ASB Bank economists

offsetting the weaker volumes as many of NZ’s competitors struggle with the same constraints that local exporters are dealing with. The ASB Commodities Index

was about 12% above its 10-year average in underlying US dollar terms. Smith and Keall said they expect meat and dairy to continue to be the stronger performers in terms of revenue growth as “demand is likely to remain relatively inelastic for key food staples, particularly proteins”. Forestry, seafood, wine and some horticulture are likely to continue underperforming, they said. On the forestry front, demand for logs is likely to be hard hit by the looming slowdown. The latest forecasts by the International Monetary Fund are for global growth to hit just over 3% after posting close to 6%

growth last year, and forecasts for world trade growth have also been scaled back by the World Trade Organisation. “The economic outlook is still uncertain, but it seems more likely than not global prospects will weaken before they improve,” the ASB economists said. Meanwhile, weak demand for wine and seafood meant prices are also likely to underperform. Both tend to be higher-end rather than staples. Horticulture, meanwhile, remained in the middle of the pack. Apple exports have tumbled 20% year-to-date on predisruption levels but kiwifruit is bucking the trend.

Smokin’ butcheries bring home the bacon Mark Copeland LLB, CMInstD

Rural Disputes Expert

Available to assist with resolving rural disputes, or for appointment as a Sharemilking Conciliator, Rural Arbitrator or Farm Debt Mediator throughout New Zealand.

Ph: 07 345 9050

e-mail: copeland@copelandlawyers.com

NEW Zealand’s best ham and bacon have been found, with two butcheries from the Auckland region taking top honours at the 100% New Zealand Bacon & Ham Awards. Warkworth Butchery won NZ’s top bacon award with its dry-cured middle bacon entry, and Auckland’s Westmere Butchery won best ham award for its bone-in leg ham. Warkworth Butchery has been a part of the local community since 1905, with current owners Rob and Renee Lee taking over eight years ago and seeing the business go from strength to strength. Westmere Butchery’s David Rossiter has more than 45 years in the butchery business and a team of passionate, experienced butchers working onsite. Rob Lees said he’s stoked with his win. “Good meat comes from a good home, and time well spent and consistency are key to producing amazing

products,” he said. Glenn McKendry of Westmere Butchery said it was “a team effort to produce an award-winning ham – time, patience and the right amount of cure are the key ingredients, and that effort has paid off tonight”. Judging took place over two days, with a team of butchers and culinary experts inspecting and sampling bacon and ham products, all produced from

100% NZ-born and -raised pork. Gold, silver and bronze medals were awarded in each of the bacon and ham categories. From there, all gold medal winners were re-judged against each other to choose the two supreme winners. Competition judge Hannah Miller Childs said choosing the winning ham is largely about finding something with great smoky characteristics as well as

good texture. “You want it to be nice and meaty but still be moist and have enough fat content,” she said. The judges found picking the winning ham fairly easy as Westmere Butchery’s bone-in leg ham was “insanely delicious”. The bacon, though, was a very close competition, and the judges had to re-taste some of the products to ensure they picked the right one.

THE CURE: Rob Lee, Warkworth Butchery, Glenn McKendry and Dave Rossiter, Westmere Butchery, and Michael Irving, Warkworth Butchery, celebrate their success.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Researchers map land for lucerne Staff reporter RESEARCH undertaken through the Hill Country Futures Partnership programme has led to the development of national suitability maps showing where lucerne crops can be grown. The research involved a collaboration between scientists from Plant & Food Research (PFR), Lincoln University, Manaaki Whenua-Landcare (MW-LC) and NIWA. The maps, developed by a team led by senior scientist Dr Edmar Teixeira of PFR, also provide an estimate of potential yields for lucerne crops across different regions. Lucerne was used in the study with the aim of developing a method to identify other suitable legumes and growing areas in New Zealand, and factors that could affect yield. The goal now is to extend the programme to other legumes. The $8.1 million Hill Country Futures Partnership programme is co-funded by Beef + Lamb New Zealand, the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, PGG Wrightson Seeds and Seed Force New Zealand. The programme is focused on future-proofing the profitability, sustainability and wellbeing of NZ’s hill country farmers, their farm systems, the environment

NATIONAL MAP: Forage legumes are an important resource, particularly in the hill country, Dr Edmar Teixeira says.

and rural communities. Teixeira’s research focus is biophysical processes in cropping systems. He uses biophysical modelling to simulate crop performance across different locations and time periods. The goal is to provide new insights to help manage cropping systems. For this project, the team has been spatially simulating lucerne growth across climates and soils in NZ to map its suitability as a forage crop. The research used historical

daily weather data from NIWA and soil types from MW-LC using the Agricultural Production Systems sIMulator (APSIM), co-developed by PFR, to simulate crop growth. “Forage legumes are important resources in New Zealand hill country and agricultural areas in general,” said Teixeira. “They fix nitrogen from the atmosphere and provide a high-quality feed for livestock – a combination of positive environmental and economic outcomes. “For farmers, it is important to know the potential of production of different legume crop options within a given region and understand how yields change under different climate, soil and management combinations. “Our programme aimed to develop new methods to simulate yield potentials of legumes across New Zealand at large – landscape – scale. This knowledge creates benchmarks and helps identify main limiting factors and causes of yield gaps. Also, yield variability across many years can be assessed across environments with this method, which is a measure of risk of production.” Lucerne crops were used as the team’s proof of concept because of the more abundant data for the crop available in NZ. This included developing the models and also running APSIM-lucerne within a spatial framework called

ATLAS, developed at PFR in a high-performance computing environment. “The method enables the team to link the agricultural models with long-term NIWA climate data at 5km resolution across NZ and also represent different soils, such as from the S-map digital soil database developed at MW-LC. “In this specific application, we created a first set of national suitability and yield maps for lucerne, which show where lucerne crops can grow and provide an estimate of their potential productivity across different regions.” The prototype created in the programme can now be used to ask specific questions through virtual experiments, such as the effects of changing defoliation management in different regions. It also enables the team to explore crop responses to new climates – for instance, using NIWA climate change projections instead of historical climate – and it can also be expanded to represent other legume species. Work is ongoing to test and improve the models. “It is important to note that such models are simplified representations of reality and results must be interpreted accordingly, within the scope where they were developed,” said Teixeira.

For farmers, it is important to understand how yields change under different climate, soil and management combinations. Dr Edmar Teixeira Plant & Food Research “Fit-for-purpose models can be seen as useful resources to extend our understanding beyond what empirical data provides. They are built upon field datasets, which have to continue to be collected with high quality to help testing and improving models in the future.” Dr Suzi Keeling, sector science strategy manager at Beef + Lamb New Zealand, said: “The modelling work led by Dr Teixeira shows the value of collaboration across research institutes. It also shows the power of what can be achieved when robust data that has been collected over a number of years is combined. “Whilst it is important to remember that models may never be exact replicas of what may occur in the field, they do provide valuable insight into possibilities and ultimately support informed decision making.”

Pāmu builds its emissions record BusinessDesk NEW Zealand’s largest farming group, Landcorp, which trades as Pāmu, has achieved Toitū carbonreduce certification across 20 farms and aims to have all 110 certified by 2024. To achieve certification, an organisation must measure all operational greenhouse gas emissions required under the international standard for carbon footprints, ISO 140641, including vehicles, business travel, fuel and electricity, paper and waste. The emissions are measured

each year, and the inventory is independently verified to make sure it is accurate and complete. Toitū Envirocare is a whollyowned subsidiary of Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, a government-owned Crown Research Institute. State-owned Pāmu manages 110 farms over 364,000ha, with revenue primarily coming from dairy and livestock farming. In 2021, these contributed close to 0.75 million gross metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent and sequestered about 0.33 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent.

Pāmu is committed to reducing its carbon emissions by 4% a year to 2024. “The geographic diversity and range of our livestock farming systems enables Pāmu to trial mitigations and improvements under different conditions,” said chief executive Mark Leslie. “There are some big challenges ahead, and we are starting to develop concrete plans to reduce our emissions. We also expect to have each of our farms certified by 2024,” he said. According to Pāmu sustainability manager Sam Bridgman, Pāmu’s Focus

Genetics subsidiary is breeding animals with lower methane levels, and several dairy farms are now organic. To further reduce emissions and maintain the standards required by its Toitū carbonreduce certification, Pāmu has also started businesswide training and planning sessions. “We’re working to develop tailored emission reduction solutions for each farm. At the same time, we’re working with our suppliers to identify more carbon-friendly practices,” said Bridgman.

TARGET: Pāmu CEO Mark Leslie says the state-owned farmer aims to achieve certification on all 110 of its farms by 2024.

MORE: MAKING SIZE COUNT AT PĀMU P28

Wanting to make the step into a rural career? The Road to Rural podcast connects you with young people already working in the sector, to give you an insight into how to get there, and why they love it. This week Olivia talks with Cameron Ravenwood from Wairarapa, to find out what life is like as a sheep dairy farmer, and entrepreneur. To listen scan the QR Code

Or head to: https://spoti.fi/3yiY63M

PODCAST WITH

Olivia Weatherburn

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Ministry doubles in just four years Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz THE Ministry for the Environment is expected by the end of this financial year to have more than doubled its staff in just four years. In 2017-18 it employed 370 full-time equivalents, but this is forecast to reach 860 at the end of the 2021-22 year. Information released the Ministry for the Environment (MFE) reveals salaries and wages over that period increased from $36 million to more than $80m. An MFE spokesperson said the extra staff are needed to deliver the Government’s environmental objectives. “The reforms have increased the ministry’s responsibilities. This includes administering new funds and supporting implementation of policy,” said the spokesperson. Farmers Weekly has reported on a scathing internal MFE report about the implementation of intensive winter grazing

GREEN JOBS: A range of issues have sharpened the need for staff, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chief executive James Palmer says.

regulations, part of new freshwater regulations. The MFE report found this was caused by overworked staff, junior staff doing roles in which they lacked experience and interference from Environment Minister David Parker. The ministry departments that have the greatest growth in fulltime equivalent staff from 2017-18 to 2021-22 include climate, which increased from zero to 88.9; natural and build systems, from 46.4 to 110.5; resource efficiency, from zero to 69.9; and policy implementation and delivery, which went from zero to 108.2. The number of staff employed by regional councils is also increasing, but they say competition from Government departments for skilled workers is pushing up salaries and creating a shortage. ECan acting chief executive David Perenara-O’Connell said in 2020-21 it had 695 employees, up from 678 in the 2019/20. This is budgeted to increase to 774 for 2021-22. “The reforms have had an impact across our organisation but are not the only reason our workload has increased,” he said in a press statement. A shortage of appropriate staff is pushing up salaries, he said, accentuated by the reopening of borders allowing people to travel overseas. The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council had more than 340 employees in the year ended June 30, up from 292 the year before and 275 in 2019-20. Hawke’s Bay Regional Council chief executive James Palmer said the staff increases are not only in response to climate change and indigenous biodiversity legislation, but aim to deliver upgrades to flood control schemes, coastal hazards and water security interventions. Palmer said rates will increase 15% this year and a 14.5% increase

WE’RE HIRING: The number of staff employed by regional councils is increasing, but they say competition from government departments for skilled workers is pushing up salaries and creating a shortage. Photo: NZ Story

We have shifted our focus from trying to recruit experienced scientists and engineers to graduates, cadets and early-career professionals. James Palmer Hawke’s Bay Regional Council is proposed for 2023-24. The council is short of experienced engineers, scientists, information technology, freshwater ecologists and hydrologists. “We have shifted our focus from trying to recruit experienced scientists and engineers to graduates, cadets and early-career

professionals and developing capability internally. “We are working with other regional councils and central government on workforce supply issues.” He said Government departments are offering competitive salaries, which is contributing to higher wages in general. The Waikato Regional Council said competition for skilled staff is being driven by all sectors, not just the Government. Wage expectation has also increased and is expected to continue to grow over the next year. Environment Southland chief executive Wilma Falconer said more legislation is coming and it is more complex. This includes the NPS Indigenous Biodiversity (NPS-IB). “Further analysis is required of the proposed NPS-IB, and Environment Southland will

be making submissions to Government on its workability,” said Falconer. She said it is still to determine the workload it will generate. “It is likely that a significant number of jobs will be required. “There is a national shortage of ecologists to meet the current draft significant natural areas and monitoring requirements proposed by the NPS-IB. “It is too early to know how this will be addressed.” Environment Southland’s longterm plan sets its general rates increase at an average of 20% in 2021, followed by a maximum of 5% per annum for the next three years. “Our workload pressures come as a result of both community and government expectations, particularly in relation to freshwater and climate change, while the covid-19 pandemic and investment uncertainty have had an impact on our income.”

AUGUST 202 2 | $8.95

Have you read Dairy Farmer yet? The latest Dairy Farmer hit letterboxes on August 1. Our On Farm this month features Pouarua Farms, comprising 10 farms owned by local iwi on the Hauraki Plains. We also catch up with the Dairy Industry Awards Farm Manager of the Year on his South Canterbury farm and talk with the farmer who runs a beauty salon on-farm. Rural mental health and wellbeing are also a key topics.

Treasuring the land

Iwi-owned farms are a taonga fo r their peop le

PLUS:

Switch to da iry pays off

➜ Top farm

manager ➜ Health an d beauty on the farm ➜ Challenge s and oppo rtunities in dairy

Volume 117 I August 8th, 2022 I email: agined@globalHQ.co.nz I www.farmersweekly.co.nz/agined Are you a parent or teacher and want to receive AginED every week directly to your email inbox? Send us an email to sign up at agined@globalhq.co.nz

NZ PROVIDES GREENER PASTURES FOR WILL GREEN

This graph shows the North Island mutton slaughter price

Check out https://www.farmersweekly.co.nz/ all-pasture-no-supplement/ to read more about Will and Sally's journey and then answer the following questions.

Where here is Will originally from?

2 Where in NZ are Will and Sally based? 3 What is sharemilking?

STRETCH YOURSELF: 1

Why did Will come to NZ? What made him want to stay?

2 How many cows do they milk? 3 What was their annual MS production last year? What is their target for this year? What have they done/changed to meet this target? 4 Do some research, what is the average annual rainfall in Canterbury? From the beginning of 2022 how much rain has Canterbury had? What effect has this had on local farming this year?

5 Why does Will believe that pasture based production with minimal supplementation is the best option for them?

3 In what month/s did last year's levels match current results?

What year/month were returns at the highest level on this graph?

2 What year/month were they at the lowest level?

STRETCH YOURSELF: 1

Strawberries are a delicious summer treat that most of us love. Dainty juicy red portions of delight, right?

Returns from both last year and this year are well above the 5-year average. Can you explain why this may be?

2 Early July results have been tracking below the same time last year. What do you think this is due to? 3 Looking at last year's results and the five-year average, what would you expect this year's returns to do between now and October. Why do you think this?

IS ON FARM POWER PRODUCTION AND SHARING THE WAY FORWARD? Check out https://www. farmersweekly.co.nz/farm-sharespositive-energy-vibe-in-project/? fbclid=IwAR2SqogpqVAMF9IlemO GlTPZSFiaIqKxk3mUpSvetforTigvf 711s0KduLE to read more about this idea and see if you can answer the following questions. 1

Why did the Wilson’s decide to implement solar energy on their farm?

2 The Wilson’s have engaged in an energy sharing project with Ara Ake. What is Ara Ake and what do they do? 3 What is “MTR”? What are the goals of MTR? 4 What is the Electricity Participation Code? 5 Why could there be a need for a change of this code if this project is successful? 6 Do you think schemes and technology development like this project are important? Why or why not?

Maybe not, did you know that across the ditch varieties of pink and white strawberries have been developed! Follow this link to read the full story https://www.farmersweekly. co.nz/aus-takes-strawberrygrowing-to-new-heights-and-colo urs/?fbclid=IwAR2r6gcbZOvEXTgu KiwLZGy71F4fjpPpa8aByDNnG2hX9 NELL84yWUOUIEI 1

Who developed these new varieties of strawberries?

2 From 2020-2021 how many tonnes of strawberries were produced in Australia? 3 Do you think that there will be a big demand for the new white and pink varieties? Why or why not? 4 Would you like to try these new varieties? Explain why?

There is much division regarding carbon sequestration and carbon credits with growing concern over the number of farms being sold for blanket planting of pines and "carbon farming". Follow this link https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=xPn6yF _ mobo to watch the Onfarn story of Jon and Fiona Sherlock, “Right tree, right place”. They are hill country sheep and beef farmers that have included carbon farming into their portfolio. 1

Do you think blanket planting of pines and this form of carbon farming is the way to go? Why or why not?

2 When Jon talks about Class 7 country, what does he mean? (This document may be of some help if you need it https://www.mpi. govt.nz/dmsdocument/3719-Target-landand-land-use-capability-classes )

Newsmaker

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Making size count at Pāmu New chief executive Mark Leslie says the state-owned farmer can use its size and scale to be the testing ground for new science and technologies that could help reduce farming’s environmental footprint. He spoke to Gerald Piddock about his plans for Pāmu.

HE Hamilton-based chief executive of New Zealand’s biggest farmer believes it can play a critical role in this space as the nation’s farmers grapple with pending legislation around climate change and biodiversity as well as coming to terms with freshwater regulations. It is here Leslie sees Pāmu playing a vital role for the country. “The opportunity for me, whether it’s He Waka Eke Noa, water regulations, biodiversity – whatever those are – the opportunity for Pāmu is to not only manage it on our own behalf, but provide a bit of leadership in the ag sector.

Yes, they might have a larger corporate sitting in behind them, but they’re passionate farmers and they get impacted like anybody else with the weather and regulatory changes. “We have scale, we have size, we can trial a few more things that the average farmer can’t. “It’s something that I’m passionate about, our ability to be not only a profitable farming business but to be able to say, ‘we’re going to trial these one or two things. If it’s successful it will be good and we can share that with all farmers,’ ” Leslie says.

Leslie has been Pāmu chief executive for four months, having taken over from Steve Carden, who drove a lot of changes within the government-owned entity’s strategic direction. He says he wants to continue on that path while adapting to farming’s changing environment. If a trial works on a sheep and beef farm in the East Coast of the North Island as well as in Southland, it is likely it would work elsewhere in the country. This is going to be a core principle that will drive Pāmu over the next three to five years, he says. “We need to be profitable, but we need to make sure we are supporting those changes.” There are also consumer opportunities within all of these new regulations, such as supplying Silver Fern Farms with zero carbon beef. It will also mean Pāmu will keep monitoring its land use and adapt to changes. Pāmu owns 110 farms, producing milk, beef, sheep meat, wool, venison, deer velvet, carbon credits and timber, and speciality crops. Near Kerikeri, for example, a Pāmu-owned farm is being converted to grow avocados, land within some of the beef farms may be utilised to run dairy beef cattle and there will continue to be some areas on some poorer land classes that are converted for forestry. Prior to becoming Pāmu chief executive, Leslie spent three years at Silver Fern Farm as its chief operating officer and more than two decades at Fonterra in various roles, including head of

SCALE: Pāmu chief executive Mark Leslie says the government-owned farmer can use its scale to trial new techniques and technologies that may reduce the primary sector’s environmental footprint.

the operations and supply chain component of the brands business in NZ. He also previously had responsibility for the operation of the 94 ingredients plants across Fonterra’s 27 sites along with the associated milk collection activities. He has held several board and ministerial advisory roles and chaired the Fonterra and Silver Fern Farms joint venture company Kotahi, which provides freight logistics solutions to a number of key NZ exporters and

ROAD AHEAD: Pāmu shares in the challenges of the rest of the sector, but has the scale to test new strategies to cope with these, CEO Mark Leslie says.

importers, for six years and the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium. He holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Hons) and a Master’s of Business Administration (with Distinction), both from Massey University, and grew up on a dairy farm in Reporoa on the North Island’s Central Plateau. He says Pāmu’s size and scale and the quality of its stock has long made it stand out in the meat industry. “With their scale they were a very good supplier,” Leslie says. Pāmu’s farms are facing the same issues that have affected the rest of the primary sector over the past 12-18 months – covidinduced worker shortages and high input costs. But it has also enjoyed equally high returns. “Labour and recruitment is challenging, but in saying that we have a good team in place to start the season with,” Leslie says, noting that some of its farms have not been affected by covid. Pāmu’s fertiliser bill has doubled over the past 18 months and its also been affected by the lack of meat processing space. This forced Pāmu to sell more of its stock as store in autumn because it knew it would be struggling to get that processing space. Pāmu’s dairy farms are having issues securing space with processors for its bobby calf collection with calving well under way. “We are nervous,” Leslie says. Many of the plants that process calves are three to four months

on since the first covid wave went through them, and if it goes through those plants again while calving is still occurring, it is going to be challenging. “We are rearing an extra 30004000 four-day-old calves down on our Wairakei unit, but there’s still a number that will be sold and we’re relying on the processors being able to operate plants.” But he readily acknowledges Pāmu has the advantage of scale ,which other farmers do not have – “and my challenge is to make sure we do use that scale”. For example, if a particular region has challenges such as a climatic event, Pāmu has the ability to shift stock and feed around to manage it. “We run a lot of dairy beef animals and how do we connect up the dairy and the livestock operations to seamlessly flow those calves from our dairy to our beef operations? And that’s the advantage of scale.” What has stood out for him so far is the calibre of the people in the business. “There are some amazing people in there and if I look at the farm managers we have, there’s some real talent there in terms of their day-to-day farming skills.” The staff sometime cop a hard time from their peers because of who they are employed by, but they are as commercially focused as any other farmer, Leslie says. “Yes, they might have a larger corporate sitting in behind them, but they’re passionate farmers and they get impacted like anybody else with the weather and regulatory changes.”

New thinking

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

New role shifts from paddock to cell For generations New Zealand’s agricultural academies have had a pastoral focus, usually with dairy and meat production at their heart. The decision by AgResearch and the Riddet Institute to recruit a professor for cellular agriculture research highlights how times are changing. Richard Rennie spoke to Stefan Clerens, AgResearch’s science group manager, who is tasked with finding a candidate for the new role.

HE past decade has brought a number of conflicting food descriptors to the vernacular of consumers and farmers, including non-meat “meat”, non-mammal “milk” and even non-feathered “chicken”. For many people this is their first contact with the burgeoning business of cellular agriculture, what Stefan Clerens describes as the lab-based production of food. The new chair in cellular agriculture research is being jointly funded by AgResearch and the Riddet Institute. Like AgResearch, Riddet is focused on advanced food research and will host the new position. Clerens acknowledges that the position description conjures up images of bubbling vats of synthesised proteins and yeasts, when in fact it calls upon many of the skills the New Zealand pastoral research community already has, and can apply to this disruptive technology. Many of the cellular food companies in the sector may not quite be household names in the way more traditional branded food items are. But firms such as Beyond Meat, Nothing Naughty or Impossible Foods have garnered a high profile in a short period, to at least stick in the minds of many consumers for novelty, if not as committed meal options. Clerens agrees it could be seen as ironic for pastorally focused organisations to be seeking a professor to head such a disruptive sector. “It could come

across as head in the clouds academics telling us what to do, how to farm etcetera.” But he says the trend is not likely to fade away as some sort of food fad, with estimates that the entire alternative proteins sector could be worth almost US$1 trillion by 2040 as the world moves to try to increase its food production by 60%. “As a Crown Research Institute, we would not be doing our jobs if we did not prepare for it and understand it better,” Clerens says. The jury is still out on to what extent the sector will make conventional food production redundant, he says. However, after an initial melee between conventional producers and new disrupters, it appears more parties are coming to the conclusion there will be enough room for new and conventional production systems in light of growing demand, particularly for protein. “It is likely traditionally produced food will always have a place, maybe more for special occasions, whereas cellular type products maybe more for your everyday meals.” An area of particular interest for Clerens is the level of processing non-meat products undergo, and to what extent this affects their nutritional value. “These are all firms that have moved just out of the start-up phase, and are still working hard to generate cashflow. Issues around the impact of processing and nutritive value on what are often heavily processed products

NON-MEAT: Stefan Clerens of AgResearch says a better understanding of cellular agriculture fits well with NZ’s conventional food production science.

As a Crown Research Institute, we would not be doing our jobs if we did not prepare for it and understand it better. Stefan Clerens AgResearch are worth looking at. “We are interested in whether it would be possible to turn the dial in some way to reduce the impact that processing may have upon the product’s final food value.” He says some intriguing processes are evolving in attempts

to emulate genuine cows’ milk synthetically. “With milk’s nutritional and functional nature determined by casein structures and whey proteins that only animals can produce, it would be good to know to what extent are these cellular milks real, to the extent they can re-create those compounds, or if it will ever really be possible.” One high-profile example is the non-dairy “dairy”-based Perfect Day ice-cream. Clerens says NZ’s conventional farming systems could provide some of the raw feedstock for cellular food production. One example is supplying foetal bovine serum as the startup base to “grow” lab-produced muscle meat cells. “But there is the issue of

economic viability, and just how acceptable that would be to consumers.” The potential to look at how pasture itself could contribute is another area the professorship may touch on. Work has been done in NZ on extracting proteins from forage crops to develop alternative proteins for human food, and to create low-emission biofuels. “Depending on who gets appointed, emissions reduction could also feature in the work. This is an opportunity to put the entire subject into a New Zealand context.” The brief for the research professorship role is broad within the cellular agriculture subject and Clerens says the partners have an open mind about the ideal candidate.

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Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

EDITORIAL

Floods are everyone’s problem to solve

T COULD be ageing infrastructure, urban creep or heavier and more frequent rain events or a combination of all three – regardless, a rethink is needed in the way we fund and manage our flood-protection schemes. As we report this week, thankfully regional councils are doing just that, asking the government to establish a $150 million fund to co-invest in capital works and maintenance of flood-protection infrastructure. Last year Canterbury, Westport and Marlborough were hit hard by extensive flooding and councils argue that even a modest increase in protection could have saved some of those communities from crippling clean-up bills and the social upheaval. They argue that climate change means heavy rain events will become more common, and while extending flood protection is an appropriate response, construction can no longer be ignored or delayed. The proposed response could be a contrast to the way we have previously managed rivers, with engineers considering widening riverbeds by pushing back stop banks to reduce the energy of rising water. The Ashburton River was narrowed with stop banks several decades ago, but in last year’s floods pressure from rising water caused several spots to fail, exacerbating the damage. Rural ratepayers have logically carried most of the financial burden, as they have the most to lose, but the issue is broader. Peri-urban development in Canterbury has been permitted alongside rivers and now those structures are exposed to flooding. Inevitably, competing demands for ratepayers’ dollars and their ability to pay has contributed to underinvestment in flood protection. Astonishingly, the government has not regularly contributed to the costs of flood protection since the late 1980s, even though Crown assets – roads, railway lines and other infrastructure – benefit from those schemes. Councils estimate an extra $150m a year needs to be invested in our flood schemes, a cost that is prohibitive for ratepayers. As is regularly reinforced, floods are incredibly damaging and disruptive to communities, so it is welcome news that councils are looking to address financial anomalies as well as considering engineering solutions. More of the same does not appear a long-term answer.

Neal Wallace

LETTERS

FMD: tough memories and hard lessons ALL the talk of foot-andmouth disease is bringing back some unhappy memories. I was working on a large mixed farm in the UK which got FMD and we had over 4000 head of various stock slaughtered. It was a very tough time and one I never want to experience again. I think the greatest risk of an outbreak in New Zealand comes from feeding swill to pigs, which was the source of the UK’s outbreak. It only takes one person on a lifestyle block to feed some scraps to their few pigs and it could all start from there. With over 20 years’ UK and 10 years’ NZ farming experience, I think the systems here are much more vulnerable. Here in the Waikato, we have a very large

area with nothing but cattle. It would spread like wild fire. The UK had a lot more mixed farms with cropping covering large areas, also there are more towns and non-agricultural parts that provided a natural fire break to the spread. If FMD arrived in autumn and stock movement restrictions were put in place for several months, it could mean dairy heifers having to calve at the graziers and not be able to be milked. I only hope the NZ government reacts fast to an outbreak, unlike the UK government, which was always chasing it and totally underestimated its impact on arrival. The Dutch had FMD in March 2001. They culled around the infected farms, but vaccinated all stock within 2km of the

infection. This strategy saw the outbreak eradicated in two months. I just hope NZ follows the Dutch example and not the UK’s if FMD ever arrives on these shores. David Leng Morrinsville

Shelter from the hot sun WE ARE concerned about dairy cows standing out in excessive heat next summer. On a trip to Levin from Whanganui last summer on a very hot day, I saw many herds of dairy cows standing, not grazing, in high midday sun. There was no evidence of shelter of any kind in any of the numerous paddocks I passed. Before retirement we owned a small farm in the King country with sheep,

goats and cows. There was a lot of natural shade and shelter for winter. Every animal sought shade during the hottest months as expected. My understanding from my study of once-a-day milking for my animal management course is that a heat-stressed cow will produce less milk. So it is counterintuitive to remove shelter from cow paddocks to grow a bit more grass. Isn’t it time to plough some of dairying’s profits into greater consideration of the welfare of the animals that provide that income, such as shade and shelter for the millions of golden geese (sorry, cows) that graze the pastures of New Zealand? Wendy & Dick Ward Whanganui

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Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

New regs? Bring them on, we can’t wait

AVING just returned from a trip to the UK, where I visited several farms, I was rightly challenged by a retired Kiwi farmer when I pronounced: “Environmentally speaking, NZ agriculture is at least 20 years behind the UK.” He asked me for examples so I said that stubble burning was banned there in 1985 and would he like me to carry on from there? Now, right up to the present moment, I have just got a recommendation from my agronomist to apply the herbicide actives paraquat and atrazine to my lucerne. These chemicals have long since been banned in the UK and many countries in Europe, and rightly so. The former is a deadly poison and the latter a serious aquatic polluter. She also tentatively suggested applying chlorpyrifos, an organophosphate, to my wheat for porina moth. “What would be the damage to my earthworm population and other beneficial bugs and beasties in the soil?” I asked. “Terrible,” she said. This active is banned in the UK, Canada and even certain states in the United States. But here in NZ we can do these things. Our exports to the rest of the world, which have kept our economy afloat during this pandemic, are to a considerable extent reliant on our clean green image. But do we really deserve that reputation? To me the answer is probably not. Where there is change there is opportunity, as they say, and where it’s at today is a need for agriculture to change, to find a kinder, friendlier way in terms of animal and social welfare and environmental improvement (as opposed to just stopping environmental degradation), all while remaining profitable. Sadly, we read in these very pages that we are all too resistant to change. While many of us now talk the talk, those who are actually walking the walk are too few. Currently they are the pioneers and I salute them. Worldwide, diversity loss

The

Pulpit

and climate change as direct results of our activities are an existential danger, worse in the long run than having Russia as a neighbour, even. I read that Karen Williams of the Feds is retiring because of “many factors – the avalanche of regulatory change is just one of them”. Well, how weak.

This plethora of rules coming our way: they are not too hard, nor are they unaffordable, nor are they unworkable. You just need to travel elsewhere to see how they have been adopted.

I listen to the Feds’ relentless moaning that it’s all too hard, and Groundswell braying like a demented donkey, with spokesman Jamie McFadden questioning why we should pay an emissions tax at all. The simple reason is this: we all, that’s everyone in the world, need to start paying an emissions tax where emissions are created or the inevitable result will be the planet fighting back against its human aggressor. The planet will win, there will be chaos on its surface and we will all be blaming and fighting each other. A farming friend lent me his car during my UK trip. A 2007 Range Rover Sport HSE. I drove it in London and was pleasantly surprised to

learn that the congestion charge and Ultra Low Emissions charge amounted to £45, or about $85, a day. Makes the ute tax seem quite benign, really. The tax has not caused Range Rover drivers to go holding London to ransom. Instead the city has been improved, with less fumes produced. And my farming pal picked up a magnificent full-on luxury vehicle for an absolute bargain price; he uses it as a farm hack. Those who think life will stop because of the ute tax must remember there is always another way around. So this plethora of rules and regs coming our way: they are not too hard, nor are they unaffordable, nor are they unworkable. You just need to travel elsewhere to see how they have been adopted. The English countryside is so much better now than it was 20 years ago. It has life, joy, diversity, profitability, birdsong and blossom. The picture shows a friend of mine, volunteer worker and eco warrior Rachel Byrnes, overjoyed to discover a sunflower growing in a notfor-profit wildflower mixture on my farm at Rakaia. On the stark Canterbury Plains such a thing is as rare as hens’ teeth. In Europe such a thing is now commonplace. But it is supported by European governments. Mike Joy, our outspoken freshwater ecologist, says our government could copy the European way and support or even improve such initiatives on our farms here. It’s certainly an option. And affordability? This strip was 1.3 hectares and cost $700 to do. Negligible. I like “Clarkson’s Farm” (streaming on Amazon Prime) because he says how it really is. So I’m going to be brave and say how it is on my farm. My net farm profit, which includes all costs before drawings, was the best ever from harvest February 2021, at $87,458. Not bad for 153 hectares. This year, assuming that I will get paid for the last two loads of wheat that have just left the farm at a storming $610 per tonne, that figure will be $167,892. That is despite 13 hectares of clover being a bit of a disaster. And all of this is from dry land

SHINING EXAMPLE: Eco warrior Rachel Byrnes is overjoyed to have found a rare sunflower growing in a meadow on Andrew Luddington’s farm at Rakaia.

managed inexpensively. Quite frankly I have never known dealing with regulations as they are – and indeed improving on them while being immensely profitable – to be just so bloody easy. And I only go farming for two days a week. The remaining time I either give to conservation projects or I pedal madly around on a bicycle. I look forward to tackling these new regs as they arrive because they are 20 years overdue and I know I can deal with them and could even find opportunities within them. So in the words of Damien O’Connor, “the rest of NZ is waiting for us to play our part. Our customers abroad are demanding high quality food and fibre produced with low emissions and high sustainability. Let’s get on with the job.”

Who am I? Andrew Luddington is a crop and sheep farmer in Rakaia, Canterbury.

Your View Got a view on some aspect of farming you would like to get across? The Pulpit offers readers the chance to have their say. farmers.weekly@globalhq.co.nz Phone 06 323 1519

Agrievents It’s all about YOU Calling all primary sector women! Is 2022 your time to uncover your true value, purpose and identity? Run by our friends at @AgriWomensDevelopmentTrust, ‘It’s all about YOU’ is a popular two-day personal development programme that re-prioritises you. Registrations are now open! Find your nearest programme at: https://www.awdt.org.nz/programmes/its-all-aboutyou/ You’re not your farm, your job or your kids. You, are you. In your search for confidence and self-worth - your values, strengths, goals and experiences will show you the way. It’s all about YOU is a two-day personal development programme that uncovers your true value and identity. Guiding your group are professional facilitators who will both cultivate a culture of trust, and support you one-on-one. It’s all about YOU runs on a two-tier fee model. If you are from a farm, from a rural community, or running a small business, you are eligible for a subsidy. Thanks to generous support from AWDT and DairyNZ the fee is $420 + GST. Where women are sponsored by their primary sector business or organisation, the full programme fee of $1,000 + GST applies. Wednesday 30/11/2022 – Saturday 3/12/2022 NZ National Agricultural Field Days Visit the traditional Fieldays favourites, like Tractor Pull competitions and the Fencing Championships. Or experience something a little different at the Ag Art Wear show, the innovation Centre, or the Festival of Logging. Witness extreme air displays, cuisine demonstrations, machinery exhibitions, stock handling and many more in one of the demonstrations areas. If you’d like to learn something new, join one of the many seminars, and enhance your presence in the rural sector. Venue: Mystery Creek Events Centre 125 Mystery Creek Rd, Ohaupo, Hamilton For more info: www.fieldays.co.nz/welcome

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Andrew Luddington

Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Rural deliveries still lost in the mail Alternative View

Alan Emerson

EARLIER this year I wrote a Farmers Weekly article on the incompetence of NZ Post. To reiterate, we were in Cairns flying back to NZ and had to fill in an online immigration form. When it came to the address it wouldn’t accept any we tried. Our address is RD12 Masterton 5872. Put that in the system and it tells you there is no such address. Further, we have a fire number as rural addresses do. We put in our fire number, the road and the RD number, to be told again there was no such address. We then inserted the general area, for the same result. At this stage the plane is about to depart and we’re sweating. Finally it came to us: it was our name, the fire number and the road – with the suburb required the beach some distance away. That took an hour of stressful playing around and anything with our RD number in it wouldn’t work. Obviously some clown at NZ Post HQ doesn’t have the faintest clue there’s a rural mail service

they’re supposed to be serving. It creates a larger problem when you order a parcel to be delivered. You tell the enterprise you are RD12 and they tell you there is no such address. Quite a few FW readers contacted me with similar problems. One in Canterbury had their address changed by NZ Post with no notification. Another from the Bay of Plenty told me that their address had been changed from Whakatāne to Rotomā by NZ Post, which was crazy as Rotomā was some distance away. A Hawke’s Bay couple received their Christmas cards that were postmarked December 15 on January 15. They had previously made a claim to NZ Post for damaged goods in transit but heard nothing. A Waikato couple had their address changed after 45 years when NZ Post removed the RD number. Another had their address moved from Te Puna to Wairoa. These are only examples. My inbox was full. As I mentioned, I tried every way I could to contact NZ Post without success. In frustration I sent them an Official Information Act (OIA) request and heard nothing. In extreme frustration I contacted the Ombudsman, after which I received a response from NZ Post. My OIA was sent on February 18. By law NZ Post has

20 working days to file a response. My response was dated May 16, which didn’t improve my sense of humour. The NZ Post response, in the believe it or not category, was to tell me that “NZ Post has not changed the Rural delivery addresses”. That’s despite both my experience and all those who communicated with me saying that they had.

Why would an OIA request sit on an executive’s desk being ignored for three months? Is this standard practice at NZ Post?

When I asked about consultation they told me that as they hadn’t changed any addresses “there had been no consultation”. Unsurprisingly I have a major problem with that, but it gets worse. They told me that RD12 was only a partial address and it needed a street name and number as well. I’ve tried that, to be told there is no such address. The only way I can get my address accepted is to entirely drop the RD number and add Riversdale Beach, which is some kilometres down the road. Whareama is the area where I live

but that obviously doesn’t appear on NZ Post’s approved lists. With my OIA to NZ Post I couriered it to their head office and tracked it. It arrived on February 19. Why would an OIA request sit on an executive’s desk being ignored for three months? Is this standard practice at NZ Post? Why did I have to complain to the Ombudsman’s office to get any reaction at all? We don’t live in a third world country and have the right to demand a professional and reliable postal system. Being a country that is sparsely populated by international standards, it is pivotal we have a system that works. Ours doesn’t. Recently I had a friend phone thanking me for the Christmas card. I sent it pre-Christmas and it arrived in Auckland late May. The problem seems to be a complete disconnect at NZ Post HQ. Going to their website, they have executives for everything with some extremely fancy titles. My issue is that it is impossible to physically contact any of them. Email and postal addresses or phone numbers don’t appear. Google “NZ Post board members” and you’ll find nine distinguished personnel with qualifications coming out of their ears. It tells me the “NZ Post Board of Directors is responsible for the overall direction, objectives and

PILLAR TO POST: Trying to register a complaint with NZ Post is almost as hard as getting its website to accept your rural address.

strategies of the group”. If that is indeed the case my firm personal opinion is that they either don’t know what’s going on or don’t care. It would be great to take NZ Post back to the time of the late Sir Michael Cullen.

Your View Alan Emerson is a semi-retired Wairarapa farmer and businessman: dath.emerson@gmail.com

US could use a little farmyard diplomacy From the Ridge

Steve Wyn-Harris

OVER my time farming, I’ve worked out that if you have a stroppy bull, the best thing is not to provoke or goad it. Good chance it would end badly for you and eventually for the bull itself. The United States House Speaker decided to make a quick visit to Taiwan last week. Nancy Pelosi was determined to visit to let the Taiwanese know that the US won’t abandon its commitment to Taiwan and is intent on preserving democracy in Taiwan and around the world. She is the highest-ranking US politician to visit in 25 years. On the surface, that all seems fine, but obviously it got right up the nose of the Chinese. She could easily have given the Taiwanese a phone call to deliver the same message but that would have lacked the platform and coverage her visit produced. This comes at a time when the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a major problem for geopolitics and could still escalate into something even worse.

China has carefully watched the West’s strong response to this invasion and that will be a factor in how far it is prepared to go to claim Taiwan as its own. A ramping-up in tensions or even some form of eventual conflict between China and the US is not in the interests of New Zealand as a trading nation. China is our biggest trading partner, the US our third, with Australia, Japan and South Korea rounding out our top five, so we have nothing to gain from aggravation in this part of the Pacific. To understand why this is such a geopolitical flashpoint, let’s have a foray into history. Taiwan is officially known as the Republic of China, whereas China is officially the People’s Republic of China. However, as a compromise with China, the country participates in most international forums and organisations as Chinese Taipei. Humans have inhabited Taiwan for 30,000 years, and 6000 years ago farmers settled it, likely from southeast China. They became the Indigenous people. In 1683 China’s Qing Dynasty annexed the island and ruled for the next 212 years until 1895, when the Japanese took control. With the defeat of Japan in 1945, the Republic of China took control of Taiwan, but the Chinese Civil War resumed as the Nationalists fought with the Chinese

COUNTRY SIDES: Taiwan – this is its capital Taipei, by night – is not recognised as a country by the UN as China on the Security Council uses its veto to block this. Photo: Wikimedia Commons

Communist Party, who defeated the Republic of China Nationalists in 1949. The ROC government of Chiang Kai-shek evacuated to Taiwan. Two million people left mainland China and effectively subjugated the six million already in Taiwan. With them they took many national treasures and much of China’s gold and foreign currency reserves, which gives some idea why Communist China remains unhappy with them. The ROC still claims to be the government of all of China, though it has downplayed this historical claim in recent years. The Communist government in China claims Taiwan as a breakaway province that is still part of China.

The Chinese Civil War continued between these two groupings, with armed conflicts right up until 1979 – and still no armistice or peace treaty has been signed. Chiang’s government had ruled with an iron fist in a period known as the White Terror, and it wasn’t until the late 1980s that reforms and a developing democracy were established. This has improved to the point that Taiwan now ranks eighth in the world democracy index, behind us at second and the Scandinavian countries, and ahead of the likes of Australia, Canada, the UK and – ironically – well ahead of the US, which sits at 26th and is currently described as a flawed democracy. Despite this, Taiwan is not

recognised as a country by the UN, as China on the Security Council uses its veto to block this. China runs the line of the One China Policy, where other nations must choose between one or the other. Only 13 minor nations recognise Taiwan as a country as the rest of us bow to political and trading imperatives with China. The US might not recognise it as a country, but it maintains a positive relationship and offers the island military assistance and protection. So, it’s a complicated situation and a potential global flashpoint. That’s why Pelosi’s visit is akin to goading the bull. China is not at all happy and had already warned Biden that if the US plays with fire, it might well get burnt. China immediately leapt into military exercises that have encircled Taiwan and effectively blockaded the island. It has imposed various sanctions and made it quite clear how angry it is. Hopefully, this sabre rattling remains just that, and the issue settles down and reverts back to a simmer.

Your View Steve Wyn-Harris is a Central Hawke’s Bay sheep and beef farmer. swyn@xtra.co.nz

Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Mega changes on their way for forestry, climate policies The Braided Trail

Keith Woodford

THERE were two big announcements by government entities in the last week of July affecting forestry rules and carbon pricing. To a large extent, the announcements escaped media scrutiny. That lack of scrutiny was because explanations require an understanding of complex issues on which the general media is not knowledgeable. But let me be clear: the announcements were of huge importance. They encompass mega movements of both climate change and forestry policies, with long-term implications. The first announcement was the release by the Climate Change Commission (CCC) of a report that exceeded 80 pages, providing advice to the government on the auctioning of carbon credits for the period 2023 through to 2027. The CCC is now advising considerably lower auction volumes, much higher minimum prices at auction, and much higher maximum prices before the cost-containment reserve comes into play. These three proposals all feed into an aim of increasing the price of carbon. The second announcement came one day later. It was a letter signed by ministers James Shaw and Stuart Nash, saying they were stepping back from their proposal of earlier this year that long-term and so-called permanent exotic forests should be excluded from the Emission Trading Scheme (ETS). The letter was sent to those of us who had submitted written responses to the proposals. With the ministers now stepping back, these forests will once again become eligible to enter the ETS, as had previously been flagged in legislation due to be operationalised on January 1, 2023. This announcement by the ministers represents a big aboutface. It was made at least in part as a consequence of very forceful statements from within the Māori community, led by advocacy from forestry expert Te Kapunga Dewes. I have been saying privately for some months that in a fight between Minister of Economic Development Nash and Māori Forestry Association chair Dewes there could only be one winner, and with an election only just over a year away, it would not be Nash.

Someone within the government would have realised that all North Island Māori seats would become unwinnable if that fight continued. And so, the ministers have had to step back. However, there were other factors at play. Both I and others who provided submissions to the ministers on their discussion paper pointed out that the proposals were a knee-jerk reaction that was going to create more problems than it would solve. Also, the Ministry for Primary Industries’ own underlying advice was that the implications of the proposals were profound but difficult to quantify. Essentially, this was a politely worded message, using coded civil-service language, saying “Beware”. First, I will explain some implications of the CCC advice, before returning to the change of heart by the ministers. The CCC has expressed three concerns about both the carbon market and the overall ETS being currently out of kilter. The first concern is that current prices are sufficient to drive large-scale afforestation – that is, conversion of farmland to forests – at a much greater rate than is considered desirable. However, the prices are insufficient to encourage a reduction in gross emissions – less use of fossil fuels – within the broader community.

There is now a lot of work to be done to sort out forestry policy as it affects all landholder groups, not just Māori, and also to give reconsideration to wider aspects of the ETS.

Second, the CCC is concerned that although the government has said it plans to buy some carbon units overseas, it has not explained how it plans to do this. There is no obvious way as to how the government will find these credits to purchase. Third, the CCC is concerned that too many unit holders are holding their units as investments rather than cashing them in. None of these concerns are surprising. I have raised all of them in forestry articles I have been writing for Farmers Weekly and at interest.co.nz over the last year. I will also be talking about them at the Carbon Forestry Conference in Rotorua in the

TREELINE: A major about-face by two ministers on so-called permanent exotic forests – at least in part because of forceful statements from within the Māori community – means these forests will once again become eligible to enter the ETS.

coming week. Given the current situation, the CCC thinks that the price of carbon needs to rise more quickly, thereby encouraging fossil-fuel users to change their behaviour more quickly and also supposedly encouraging unit holders to cash in their credits earned from forestry. However, the effect of these carbon price rises on afforestation rates does not seem to have been addressed directly in the report. The measures that the CCC is suggesting will, if the government accepts the commission’s advice, certainly raise the price of carbon rather quickly. Not accepting the advice would have big political implications. But whether or not the CCC proposal will encourage unitholders to cash in their existing units is another matter. In isolation from any other measures, it certainly has potential to drive even more afforestation. Taking 2023 as an example, the proposed plan is to limit the four 2023 auctions to a combined total of 16.3 million tonnes compared to the previous plan to auction 18.6 million tonnes. Also, the minimum auction reserve price is proposed to be $60 instead of $32.10. Further, the initial trigger price at which the 2023 cost containment reserve comes into play is recommended to be $171 instead of $78.40, with a further trigger being pulled if the price rises to $214. To put that in perspective, the 2022 trigger price is $70 and the market price prior to this CCC announcement was $72. The price then jumped to just over $82 within hours of the announcement, but then came back over the next 24 hours to around $80. Explaining this in different terms, the government has tried in 2022 to hold the price to $70 but

has failed to do so, having pulled the trigger and already expended all of its 2022 cost containment ammunition in the first two auctions, with two more auctions still to go. The law does not allow any more cost containment carbon to be added to the auctions this year. But the CCC is now saying that no new ammo should be loaded into the 2023 cost containment gun unless the carbon price rises above $171. And then, if that first firing fails to hold the price at that level, the government can load more ammo and pull the trigger again if the price reaches $214. These prices are just for 2023, with the limits rising further thereafter. The CCC is explicit that these are not target prices, but they are certainly indicative of where the price might head. All of this advice was developed on the assumption that Shaw and Nash would proceed with their proposal to exclude long-term exotic forests from the ETS. With that situation now changing, the cats really are loose among the pigeons. My own opinion is that ministers Shaw and Nash have done the right thing to step back from their exclusion proposal. Their exclusion policy was a big mistake and they got out of that just in time. However, there are massive problems ahead as to how to get the ETS on track, both in terms of getting consumers to change their behaviours and also controlling the march of the pine trees across New Zealand. The fundamental forestry problem is that the economics of carbon farming has made forestry look more attractive than sheep and beef on almost all classes of current sheep and beef land. This eventual outcome should have been apparent to the officials who designed the ETS back in 2008,

but apparently it wasn’t. I can only assume the ETS was designed by desk economists who did not understand the interacting nodes of farming, forestry and consumer behaviour. The question now is what will the government do next? My assessment is that the only reason the market price of carbon is currently (as of August 2) only just over $80 is that the financial folk who determine the market price through their buy-and-sell decisions reckon the government will have no option but to have another go at changing the rules. Those changes may relate both to the specifics of forestry and also a fundamental rejig of the ETS itself. I note that Te Kapunga Dewes in his role as chair of the Māori Forestry Association has communicated within his wide network that he thinks the government is still not well informed on the relevant forestry science. On that point, based on what I have heard government ministers claim to be the forestry science, I agree with him rather strongly. Dewes also thinks the government may now use regulations and perhaps other legislation to still thwart the wishes of Māori on these forestry matters. There is now a lot of work to be done to sort out forestry policy as it affects all landholder groups, not just Māori, and also to give reconsideration to wider aspects of the ETS. Hold on tight as the ground keeps shifting. It is going to be some ride.

Your View Keith Woodford was Professor of farm management and agribusiness at Lincoln University for 15 years to 2015. He is now principal consultant at AgriFood Systems. He can be contacted at kbwoodford@gmail.com

On Farm Story

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Seeding the future at Smedley Within a few weeks all 13 of this year’s graduates from the Smedley Station cadet training farm will have secured jobs for next year. Neal Wallace discovers this reflects not only an insatiable demand for shepherds and farm workers, but also the high esteem in which Smedley graduates are held.

OME things have changed at Smedley Station in the past 91 years, but one thing remains the same: the high standards required of students who want one of the treasured training spots. Smedley Station has grown substantially in size since it its first cadets arrived in 1931, and now covers 5660ha. Production has greatly increased and the stock management and technology used are vastly different. But the standards required of cadets still hold true to the values outlined by founder Josiah Howard when he bequeathed the Central Hawke’s Bay farm to the Crown in 1919 for the purposes of training young people in agriculture. He stated that Smedley’s goal would be “to teach young people, so as to give them a wide knowledge and practice of better standards of farming and of raising, buying and selling stock”. Smedley has never been about bums on seats, but from the start has sought to attract trainees who have the right attitude and culture to live and work as a team. “You must find out whether these young people have the aptitude, energy and ambition. If they have not, Smedley might as well be planted in a garden,” Howard wrote. Each year there are up to 26 trainees on the property, 13 in the first year of the course and 13 in their second. Station manager Rob Evans says

CLASS OF 2021: Smedley Station graduating cadets (left to right) Jack Olsen, Lucy Neverman, Bronson Repko, Josh Black, Matt Norman, Finn Beamish, George Kerr, Lochie Beattie, Alex Lawson, Jack Bradley, Michael Pearson, Harry Smith.

the station remains true to those values when selecting the annual intake of 13 cadets for the twoyear course. This was lifted from 11 a few years ago when the neighbouring Parks Peak property was purchased. Between 60 and 100 applications for a position are received each year. About half of those applicants are interviewed for one of the 13 places. In his seven years, Evans says, only two cadets have failed to complete the course. Evans says applicants are expected to have spent time working on farm to ensure it is the career they want, but the primary selection criteria are character and the ability to work in a team, rather than a background in farming. “It’s about trying to find who these young men are, not if they have knowledge of farming,” says Evans. And not just young men – a

ON POST. Smedley Station cadets learn to fence.

number of female cadets have graduated over the years too. “We don’t want individuals but team players that will fit into a team,” says Evans. In the past few years, cadets have come from Auckland city as well – welcomed as long as they have the right attitude, character and aptitude. For two years cadets live in a hostel with 25 others and work on the farm with fellow cadets, managers and tutors, so selection is crucial. “My theory is that you can teach a good person anything, but sometimes it is harder to do it the other way round,” says Evans. To increase the number of cadets would potentially threaten that culture. “We have a tight group at present. If it were to get too big, we could end up with groups within the group, therefore splitting up the cadets.” Evans says all training is linked to the actual managing of a

commercial farm, another reason enrolments are capped at 13 a year. A fence is built because it is needed for stock management, rather than erected to teach trainees and then dismantled. Shearing is taught when shearing is required to be done, and stock management is also linked to seasonal requirements. Cadets must be school-leavers who have reached either Year 12 or Year 13, and once at Smedley they study towards a Certificate in Agriculture in levels three, four and five. The academic part of the programme is provided by the Eastern Institute of Technology and delivered on farm by training manager Tom Goodger. First-year cadets are introduced to the property and spend most of the year learning skills such as fencing, building, engineering driving, operating machinery and some stock work. Also in their first year, cadets start using horses, which they learn to break-in in their second year. The second year’s education begins in the first week of January with weaning, a precursor to a year that is mostly spent working with livestock. Later they get introduced to more farm management functions, such as compiling regular farm reports, finance, feed budgets, breeding plans and livestock reconciliation. Second-year cadets come back with a broken-in huntaway for the start of the year, then in midFebruary they bring in a young heading dog, which they train with the aim of having it ready to trial at the Hawke’s Bay A and P Show in late October. Evans says tutors and managers need patience, and instruction requires consistency, the maintenance of standards, and repetition.

“You don’t put three or four posts in, you put in whole fence lines.” Regardless of a cadet’s previous experience, the teaching of skills to all of them begins with the basics. Evans says the use of horses is a homage to the station’s past but also serves a purpose by teaching the cadets to look after, understand and care for animals. Mustering from the back of a horse provides a different perspective, focuses cadets on the task, teaches stockmanship, discipline, respect for animals, patience and how to work dogs. “It’s different to riding a quad bike or side-by-side which, at the end of the day, you park in a shed,” says Evans. “After a day’s work with a horse you have to wash and feed it, make sure it has got water and is in a paddock before you can finish.” Likewise, learning to shear serves several purposes. Other than lamb and winter shearing, cadets do the rest. When cadets are learning to shear, their days start at 5am with a run before breakfast. The early start is so those cadets rostered to other tasks around the station can come and spend time in the shed too. Shearing also satisfies the natural competitive edge among the cadets, with plenty of encouragement to perform between cadets and staff, who also pick up a hand piece. A shearing school at the start of the year includes instruction on nutrition, hydration, how to physically prepare and look after themselves as well as the mechanics of tuning cutters, combs and handpieces. Fence posts are dug in by hand, part of a general philosophy of teaching the basics to give cadets an understanding, rather than

On Farm Story teaching them what is convenient. “They need to know what to do if they are faced with a broken post, strainer or stay. They need to know how to replace it.” Smedley Station, at Tikokino, 40km west of Waipukurau, incorporates four adjacent properties covering 5660ha, 3600ha effective, running breeding cattle, sheep and deer, velveting stags, trading bulls and heifers. The home property is a 1200ha breeding unit. Ridgelands is 540ha running velveting stags, lambs and bulls. Parks Peak is a 1450ha breeding unit and Onepoto a 640ha breeding and finishing property. The combined business runs 12,000 ewes, 500 hinds, 850 velveting stags and 500 Angus and Hereford cows along with trading bulls, heifers and finishing lambs. All up it runs about 30,000 stock units. Evans attributes part of its success and strong financial performance to the property’s scale – as well as utilising its size with policies and management that suit the class of stock and type of country. Attracting high-performing staff and managers and allowing them to do what they are trained to do is also key. “My role is overseeing and ensuring they have what they need to do their jobs,” he says. Rather than just accepting something has to be done, Evans says, young people want to be involved and want to know why. “If they don’t get an answer, they are not as engaged.” Funds generated by the farm cover the approximately $500,000 in training and living costs for the cadets. A small grant from the Tertiary Education Commission covers some of the theory training costs. “The business has to perform well,” says Evans. “But because we have scale, it means we don’t dabble in things.” Twelve staff are employed: an overall manager, an administrator, two cooks, a fencer and deer manager, a builder and managers for training, the workshop, three farms and livestock. Individual block managers each week confirm their work schedule with lodge requests for how many

cadets are required to help out. Performing those tasks becomes their practical training. Kim Rorrison, a Smedley student in 2014-15, now manages Parks Peak, which was bought three years ago and shares a boundary with Smedley. Rorrison was born and raised near Hastings, but, other than having grandparents who farmed in the United Kingdom, had little to do with the sector. That did not diminish his desire to work in agriculture. “It seems to have missed a generation but I always wanted to go farming,” he says. Local Hastings farmer Rob Savage gave him work at weekends and holidays, which confirmed his desire to pursue a farming career. After graduating from Smedley, Rorrison headed to the South Island’s Mackenzie Country to work on Grampians Station, a 22,000ha high-country property running Merino sheep. “It was hard country, extreme weather but an extensive breeding property, everything I love.” Four years ago, Rorrison, then aged 22, returned to Smedley to run Ridgelands for a year before moving to Parks Peak when it was purchased. Cadets spend the working week on Parks Peak, a 30-minute drive from the home station, so a threebedroom hostel was built on the property. Being a former Smedley cadet, Rorrison says he has an advantage as a tutor. “I’ve been through the system. I know how I learnt, what I missed and what cadets respond well to, so I can tailor it from the perspective that I have been there and done that.” For a lengthy task such as dipping, Rorrison gradually shifts responsibility to the cadets as the job progresses, so by the end they are effectively managing the process. He says Smedley provides cadets with hands-on experience and, rather than produce experts, it ensures its graduates leave with sound, practical, all-round farming skills. “As a cadet it was the grounding I needed and it set me up,” says Rorrison. Evans was raised on a family

MAKING THE CUT: Shearing school at Smedley Station.

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

GRADUATE: Parks Peak farm manager Kim Rorrison was as Smedley student in 2014-15.

You must find out whether these young people have the aptitude, energy and ambition. Josiah Howard Smedley Station founder farm near Taihape before attending Smedley in 1998-99. On graduating he was torn between a promising rugby career and becoming a full-time shepherd. Initially, rugby won. Selected to the 1999 NZ Under 19 rugby side and later a NZ Divisional side, he worked casually on Central Hawke’s Bay farms before a broken leg meant he had to choose between sport and fulltime farming. He and wife Jenn leased a block of land and worked casually before managing a 600ha deer, sheep and beef property at Takapau. In 2015 the manager’s role at

Smedley came up and Evans successful applied for it. He says the property is embracing technology not only for the benefit of the business, but to pass on to the cadets. FarmIQ, Farmax and electronic ear tags are an integral part of the business. Electronic ear tags are being used on two-tooth ewes that produce multiple lambs, to create a high-performing flock from which replacements will come. This will allow them to reduce the number of replacements they currently have from about 9000 to 6000. Cadets are encouraged to have FarmIQ on their phones and to enter real-time data and information, such as when stock are moved, drenched or shorn. Evans has also introduced mental health skills using a sport psychologist to equip cadets with the ability to deal with mental health challenges. Another change has been an increase in the number of velveting stags to a current herd of 850. Not all the cadet training is hands-on farming. Under the guidance of builder

Mark Winlove, cadets are helping to construct an education centre, about 90% of whose timber – both native (for which they got the required approval) and exotic – has been felled and milled on the property. The centre includes a lecture room, administration centre and board room. The hope is that primary industry groups can use it for meetings when they are shown around the property. Logan Blackburn’s parents farm sheep and beef near Ohakune, but he came to Smedley to broaden his skills. He hopes to one day take over the family farm, and after he graduates at the end of this year intends to go shearing for a few years before working as a shepherd. Fellow second-year student Reuben Crawford is off a Dargaville dairy farm and came to Smedley to expand his knowledge. He also intends to go shearing next year as a way to see the country. Both say they enjoy using horses and can see why they play a central role in stock work, and also enjoy working with and training dogs. For Crawford, sheep dogs were completely foreign before he came to Smedley. Graduates also find work on farms or in agribusiness, and some go on to tertiary studies. But only one or two of the 90 cadets who graduated in the past seven years are no longer farming, Evans says. Smedley tries to create a family atmosphere, involving the cadets, staff and their families in cricket matches, barbecues and an annual horse sports event. Cadets can hunt, fish and play rugby for the Onga-Tiko Rugby club. Looking to the future, Evans says Smedley has to remain relevant, given the growing awareness of environment and climate change issues, and farm forestry. But no change will compromise the teaching of practical farming skills or the culture or history of Smedley Station.

Meeanee 39 Awatoto Road

Ashburton 956 Christys Road Deadline Sale

Vendors instructions are clear - sell it! What more could you ask for out of a property? There are TWO dwellings, a large family home AND a cottage, great for family members if you want to keep them close by. It has fantastic usable land, and it's in a prime location with many awesome amenities close to your gate such as cafes, cidery, small dairy and schools in many directions. • 6.3 ha of very useable land. Certified organic apple orchard with Fuji, Royal Gala, Lady in Red & Galaxy • Water consent and excellent irrigation system across the entire property • Main dwelling being a large family home 3 plus bedrooms, open living and a large north facing deck with pool. Secondary dwelling located near the main home

Tender

214.52 ha - 'Avonlea' Deadline Sale closes Tuesday 30th August, 2022 at 4.00pm, (unless sold prior) View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/HL14110

Mike Heard M 027 641 9007

Avonlea has been an intergenerational farm acquired in 1962. In more recent years the property has been developed into an intensive irrigated arable/dairy support/lamb finishing unit. Soils have progressed with large deposits of humus from the ANZCO Wakanui beef feedlot which combined with the irrigation has seen record maize yields. With proprietary seed contracts in place for both grain and pasture seeds, dairy support history and good quality improvements this farm stands out as "opportunity plus" in a keenly sought after location. Maybe a once in a lifetime opportunity in a tightly held area. Genuine Vendors leave the farm in excellent heart.

Tender closes 3.00pm, Mon 22nd Aug, 2022 (unless sold prior), Property Brokers Ashburton View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/AR102293

Paul Cunneen M 027 432 3382

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Proud to be here

Tom Lane 489 Paritu Road, Wharerata, Gisborne Tender

Paritu Station - 1,109 ha • Gisborne 45 km • Coastal farm • Mixture of contour • Traditional breeding country

Tender closes 2.00pm, Thu 22nd Sep, 2022, 66 Reads Quay, Gisborne View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/GIR105480

Paritu Station is located southwest of Gisborne in the Wharerata district with an estimated 650 ha of effective grazing. This is an opportunity to secure a large coastal freehold property in the Gisborne region. Altitude ranges from sea level to 480 m. The property is subdivided into 15 main paddocks and 6 holding paddocks. There is no home on the farm. Improvements consist of a five stand woolshed and covered yards, cattle yards and loading facilities, two sets of satellite sheep yards and shearers quarters. This is an opportunity you need to sea.

Property Brokers Ltd Licensed REAA 2008 | pb.co.nz

Tom Lane M 021 058 7018 P 06 869 0091 E toml@pb.co.nz Proud to be here

New Braybrook - Little farm, big outlook

61.2046 hectares

Lake Road, Patutahi, Gisborne ‘Braybrook’ consists of approx. 61ha of well-balanced contour, one tier above the Gisborne flats. This scenic landholding is a proven performer and offers many options for those looking for a sound and sought-after rural investment. The northerly aspect provides warm early country consisting of approximately 40ha of medium hill country and a further 20 hectares of flat to undulating contour, with 11ha (approx.) being tiledrained reaching down to Lake Repongaere.

The property comes complete with sheep and cattle yards, a hayshed, reticulated water, good fertiliser history, is well tracked and benefits from subdivision into 13 main paddocks via a high standard of conventional fencing. ‘Braybrook’ is well set up to be run as a stand alone farmlet, an extension to an existing farming operation or as a premium lifestyle/ farming opportunity with a number of potential sites to build a home.

Tender (unless sold prior) 4pm Tues 30th Aug ‘22 NZR Gisborne, 177 Gaddums Hill Road Web nzr.nz/RX3378781 View by appointment James Bolton-Riley 027 739 1011 Jamie Proude 027 448 5162 Angela Newman 0274 523 200

New Waituhi - First on the finishing line

150.4728 hectares

Lavenham Road, Patutahi, Gisborne ‘Waituhi’ offers 150ha of superbly located and balanced contour. It has been well farmed offering clean, fertile grazing and cropping land 15 minutes from Gisborne. Consisting of approx 49ha of flats (30ha being tile -drained) and the balance being medium contour. Subdivision provides 21 main paddocks which are well watered via natural and reticulated water via solar powered pumps. Access via Lavenham and Lake Roads and solid internal tracks allow for good workability. Tairāwhiti Real Estate Ltd. Licensed REAA 2008

The primary infrastructure is a central set of cattle/sheep yards. The property has been integral for finishing stock but further opportunity could be found in permanent horticulture. ‘Waituhi’ has spectacular views across the flats as well as Lake Repongaere. Beautiful vantage points exist to build your dream home. We can’t wait to show you this property. Inspections by appointment.

Tender (unless sold prior) 4pm Thurs 15th Sep ‘22 NZR Gisborne, 177 Gaddums Hill Road Web nzr.nz/RX3379052 View by appointment James Bolton-Riley 027 739 1011 Jamie Proude 027 448 5162 Ange Newman 027 4523 200

nzr.nz

New Fulfil your legacy at ‘Lavenham’

infrastructure, led by the character home, a 4-stand woolshed, yards, load outs and a multitude of sheds. A small navel orchard seeds the potential of this properties future in permanent horticulture. The surrounding landscape has a wide range of horticulture including apples, avocadoes, citrus, kiwifruit and grapes. Start fulfilling your legacy at ‘Lavenham’ by getting in touch with Jamie, Ange and James to view today.

Scale, soils and cashflow

Tairāwhiti Real Estate Ltd. Licensed REAA 2008

Tender (unless sold prior) 4pm Tues 13th Sep ‘22, NZR Gisborne, 177 Gaddums Hill Road Web nzr.nz/RX3379054 View by appointment James Bolton-Riley 027 739 1011 Jamie Proude 027 448 5162 Ange Newman 027 4523 200

24.6 hectares

401 Kirkpatrick Road, Patutahi, Gisborne 24.6ha of superbly located fertile land with an award winning and profitable orchard. This well managed, large scale citrus orchard of 24.6ha is positioned on the Waipaoa River end of Kirkpatrick Road. The current owners have spent over 30 years developing the profitable landholding with an emphasis on quality fruit, achieved by an intelligent focus on healthy soils and innovative crop management.

36.5882ha (more or less)

132 Lavenham Road, Patutahi, Gisborne This 36 hectares of fertile productive land with a privately set homestead is poised for further development. Located only 10 minutes from Gisborne city, the tightly held ‘Lavenham’, being the namesake of the nearest road, remains true to its traditional roots as a cropping and finishing block, although its boundaries are silhouetted by a diverse range of permanent horticulture. The flat land is complemented by a wide array of

The privately set block is well-located, being only 10 minutes from the city. The scale, shape and location of the block are all enough to set this as a prized landholding for further development, but the documented returns from the citrus sales makes the current operation an exciting proposition. This orchard won’t disappoint. Call James or Ange today.

By Negotiation Web nzr.nz/RX3288584 View by appointment James Bolton-Riley 027 739 1011 Angela Newman 0274 523 200

nzr.nz

farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate 0800 85 25 80

Real Estate

KIRIKAU A FARM LAND

FOR SALE

Taumarunui Manawatū-Whanganui

SMALLER SCALE FARMING OR AFFORESTATION OPPORTUNITY

Boundary lines are approximate only.

A unique smaller scale farming or afforestation opportunity, being a ½ share in 120 hectares* total land area. Located in the established farming district of Kirikau, 20km* south-west of Taumarunui, the property includes attractive native bush, flat to medium hill country contour and approximately 65*ha of farm land currently grazed. The Kirikau district benefits from favorable climatic conditions, including high sunshine hours and rainfall in excess of 1500mm per annum.

Deadline Offers:

+ +

Chan Singh

+ +

Thursday 15 September 2022 at 4pm (NZST) +64 27 767 7113

+ +

½ share of 120ha* freehold land 65*ha farm land suitable for afforestation or ongoing grazing Flat to medium hill country contour Attractive native bush with potential for hive income CV of $390,000 (whole property) Attractive setting near Whanganui river

*Approximately Arotahi Agribusiness Limited, Licensed Real Estate Agent REA Act

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FARMERS WEEKLY – August 8, 2022

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DOGS FOR SALE

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Applications close 31st August 2022 (unless position filled earlier) Applicants may apply via the Dairy Farm Management Services Ltd website: www.dfms.co.nz or email Jackie at admin@dfms.co.nz with a CV & cover letter.

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WINTER DOG SALE! $499-$3,499. 30 day trial. Deliver NZ wide. www.youtube.com/user/ mikehughesworkingdog/ videos 07 315 5553.

DOGS WANTED

GOATS WANTED

FARM MAPPING

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.

12 MONTHS TO 5½-yearold Heading dogs and Huntaways wanted. Phone 022 698 8195.

ACCURATE AND PRACTICAL farm maps showing area sizes of paddocks and vegetation. Visit farmmapping.co.nz for a free quote.

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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 NATIVE TIMBER SUPPLIERS (WGTN) LIMITED 04 293 2097 Richard.

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.” BOOK AN AD. For only $2.30 + gst per word you can book a word only ad in Farmers Weekly Classifieds section. Phone Debbie on 0800 85 25 80 to book in or email classifieds@ globalhq.co.nz

HORTICULTURE 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 FARMLAND WANTED to lease in Rangitikei and Manawatu areas. Phone 027 212 5646.

LIVESTOCK FOR SALE RED DEVON BULLS. Well grown, purebred. Feilding. Phone 027 224 3838.

RAMS FOR SALE

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

WANTED TO BUY WHAT’S SITTING IN your barn? Don’t leave it to rust away! We pay cash for tractors, excavators, small crawler tractors and surplus farm machinery. Ford – Ferguson – Hitachi – Komatsu – John Deere and more. Tell us what you have no matter where it is in NZ. You never know.. what’s resting in your barn could be fattening up your wallet! Email admin@ loaderparts.co.nz or phone Colin on 0274 426 936 (No texts please)

Kitset Sheds & Fencing Supplies.

farmersweeklyjobs.co.nz

JOBS BOARD

Phone: 027 963 5396 Email: trutimbernz@gmail.com

2IC

Notice of Election

Data and Customer Specialist

- DairyNZ Board of Directors - DairyNZ Directors Remuneration Invitation for 2022 candidate nominations – three positions available In October, an election will take place for two farmer-elected directors for the Board of DairyNZ Incorporated and a second election for one member of DairyNZ’s Directors’ Remuneration Committee.

Farm Business Manager Farm Technician Field Support

Current levy-paying dairy farmers are invited to nominate candidates to fill these three positions.

Labourer

All farmers paying a levy on milksolids to DairyNZ are eligible to stand for election. An information pack outlining desired criteria and nomination requirements for the position can be obtained from the Returning Officer.

Livestock Talent Programme

Nominations must be received by the Returning Officer by 12 noon on Monday 5 September 2022.

Operations Manager

Elections

Sales Manager

If more than the required nominations are received, an election will be carried out by internet voting using the STV (single transferable vote) voting method. Votes will be weighted by annual milksolids production. Voting credentials will be emailed to all registered DairyNZ levy payers on 19 September 2022, with voting closing at 12 noon on Monday, 17 October 2022.

Shepherd General Stock Manager Tractor/Truck/Machinery Operator

The DairyNZ Annual General Meeting will be held on Tuesday, 18 October 2022. Election results will be announced at the meeting. For further details contact the Returning Officer below. LK0112240©

Key Responsibilities: • Leading company culture and performance • Strategic planning for both individual farms and integrated farm business/group • Business and financial management • Financial management of revenue, expenditure and cashflow • Staff, contractors, and subcontractors’ management and recruitment • Farm development activities and planning • Compliance obligations including environmental, people (H&S) and animal welfare • Reporting on activities, lead indicators and business performance as per owners expectations • Asset management and capex planning

PURINA PROPLAN WHATATUTU dog sale. Saturday 10th September. At Otara Station, 319 Whatatutu Road, Te Karaka, Gisborne. Sales start at 12 noon. Dosing clearance required. Enquiries and to enter go to: Whatatutu Dog Sale Facebook page or phone 027 443 8350. WELL BRED HEADING pups, 3 to 8 months. Phone 027 243 8541. Taihape.

• More than 300 sheep needed Enquiries 027 258 0246

ATTENTION FARMERS CONTRACT PIG CULLING. Stock proof dogs. SI. Can travel. Phone 027 353 0661.

VETMARKER

Operations Manager – P&E Ltd

FLY OR LICE problem? Electrodip – the magic eye sheepjetter since 1989 with unique self adjusting sides. Incredible chemical and time savings with proven effectiveness. Phone 07 573 8512 w w w. e l e c t r o d i p . c o m CRAIGCO SHEEP JETTERS. Sensor Jet. Deal to fly and Lice now. Guaranteed performance. Unbeatable pricing. Phone 06 835 6863. www.craigcojetters.com

Become self-sufficient

Our Livestock Talent Programme will help you kick-start a bright agricultural career where you will learn, develop and build your skillset on the job. You’ll be provided with development and mentorship opportunities to support you grow your career, with the pathway to become a Livestock Rep.

ANIMAL HANDLING

Anthony Morton Returning Officer – DairyNZ Incorporated 0800 666 935 iro@electionz.com

LK0112596©

Enjoy an office outdoors.

The position, commences on 1st October 2022 (or beforehand) and includes a highly competitive salary package. This is a rare opportunity for a stimulating and multifaceted leadership role in the dairy industry.

Noticeboard

classifieds@globalhq.co.nz – 0800 85 25 80

FARMERS WEEKLY – August 8, 2022

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Travel & Tourism

classifieds@globalhq.co.nz – 0800 85 25 80

4X4 TAGALONG TOURS

FARMERS WEEKLY – August 8, 2022

HIGH COUNTRY JOURNEYS

info@nzadventures.co.nz Ph: 03 218 8569 027 550 6727 or 027 435 4267

Drive from station to station and experience the majestic South Island High Country TWO STUNNING 4WD SELF DRIVE OPTIONS with spaces still available

Spaces available on

Roll on Waitaki Tour Bring your own 4X4 on a guided tour to discover more of the South Island.

Tour 1: Molesworth Station, St James, Mailings Pass & Rainbow Stations

Heart of the High Country Self drive your own 4WD from North Canterbury to Cardona in Central Otago through a network of high country tracks on this 6 day 7 night tour.

May 2023

The Great Explorer Self drive from Lake Ohau to Cardrona through the majestic high country and Tussockslands of the Mackenzie Basin, Central Otago and Northern Southland with this 5 day 6 night tour.

Dates: Nov 27-30, Jan 22-25, Feb 19-22, March 5-8, March 12-15, March 19-22, March 26-29, April 16-19

Tour: 2 D’Urville Island and Marlborough High Country LK0111587©

Both these tours are; Fully guided with radio contact; Fully catered and stay in very comfortable lodges, farmstays and historic hotels; Made up of smaller tour groups (7-9 vehicles) and travel at a quieter pace.

Ph: 0274 351 955 Email info@southislandtoursnz.com www.southislandtoursnz.com

www.nzadventures.co.nz

SPECIALISING IN EASE OF CALVING AND HEIFER MATING

Contact John Mullholland Phone 027 228 8152 • RANFURLY info@highcountryjourneys.co.nz

www.highcountryjourneys.co.nz

CROSS HERD

STOCK REQUIRED

On Farm Sale & Bidr Auction teatarangi.co.nz

MALE or EWE LAMBS 36-42kg SIL Pere or Pere X EWES Due Sept/Oct R2YR FRSN/FRSN X BULLS 350-400kg R1YR FRSN BULLS 180 - 250kgs R3YR ANG or EX X STEERS 500-550kg • R2YR ANG & EXOTIC STEERS 400-500kg

STOCK FOR SALE

•

BULL CALVES FRSN OR CHAROLAIS 100kg •

www.dyerlivestock.co.nz

•

Ross Dyer 0274 333 381 A Financing Solution For Your Farm E info@rdlfinance.co.nz

2021 Holstein Friesian Heifers

•

F12+ $1800 F8-F11 $1700

TE KUITI YEARLING CATTLE FAIR

Check out Poll Dorset NZ on Facebook

BW 143/50 PW 161/67 RA 100% Friday, August (in 12th top 10 All Breeds for NZ ) at 12pm

660 Cattle Comprising: • 100 Autumn Ang/ Frsn Steers • 50 Autumn Frsn Steers • 100 1yr Ang & A/ Sim X Steers • 160 1yr Exotic X Steers • 40 1yr Hrfd/Frsn & Ang/Frsn X Steers • 10 1yr Hrfd Bulls • 100 1yr Ang & Hrfd Heifers • 80 1yr Exotic & Exotic X Heifers • 30 1yr Hrfd/Frsn & Ang/Frsn X Heifers Carrfields Livestock: Andrew Jardine 027 397 7005

Many cows contracted to LIC for 2011 matings Dairy Yearling Heifers Due to calve from 16-7-12, 6.5 weeks For Sale AB Jersey and Kiwi cross 10 Jersey heifers, fully recorded, by natural Estimated to be 420 cows after non mating, DNA profiled, well bred, dams very good pregnant, culls, older cows & 5% rejection producers. Production last season 347kgs ms/cow, 7 Ayrshire heifers, fully recorded, very well 1000kgs ms/ha,grown, onby ABrolling to steeper sires, dams last season production contoured farm, noaverage meal, palm 458kg ms. kernel or maize fed. 20 Ayrshire heifers, fully recorded, some Autumn Young replacement stock also available 2021 born, well bred, shift well from steep farm.

Please contact your local agent

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October pre mating delivery.

the dairy industry for years to come. Full details

BEEFGEN : Brian Pearson : 021 0907 1688

farmersweekly.co.nz/enewsletters LK0112593©

BEEFGEN : Jess Crow : 022 074 1210

Complete line of up to 25 Ayrshire heifers, fully recorded by AB.

sole marketing agents:

All enquiries to: Brian Robinson PGG Wrightsons: Brian Kevin Robinson Livestock Ltd Mortensen BRLL 027 473 5858 PH: 0272 410051 or Ph 070272 8583132 410 051 Brett Wallbank 027 488 1299

LK0112614©

Subscribe to our bull sales available. eNewsletters to receive updates with the latest results from across the NZ Farmers: country direct to your inbox. Enquiries to the

for further information.

BEEFGEN Office : 06 927 7154

NOW TAKING BOOKINGS FOR 2023/24 SEASON

Livestock NoticeboardHIGH INDEXING JERSEY & JERSEY

livestock@globalhq.co.nz– 0800 85 25 80

SALE DATE: Tuesday 6th Sept 2022, 12.30pm

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Farmer specific, talking with farmers.

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Dates: Nov 20-24, Jan 8-12, Feb 5-9, April 23-27 Other dates available for groups of 6 or more people on request

Livestock Noticeboard

FARMERS WEEKLY – August 8, 2022

livestock@globalhq.co.nz – 0800 85 25 80

SALE TALK

A guy walks into the rooftop bar of a posh hotel and sees a woman drinking on her own who is very attractive.

TE KUITI SALEYARDS

He walks up, takes the stool next to her and says “Hi, I’m John. What are you drinking?”

THURSDAY 11TH AUGUST 2022 On A/c: WAIPAPA STATION (Farm Sold) 98 x VIC Angus Mixed Age Cows (R4Yr & R9Yr) Stokman, Shian and Kapiro Angus Bull (Calving from 5th October for 2½ cycles) 73 x VIC Crossbred Beef M/A Cows (R3Yr to R9Yr) Kerrah Simmental Bull (Calving from 11th October for 2½ cycles)

LK0112542©

FRIDAY 19 AUGUST 1.30pm Machinery Clearing Sale - Greenvale Pastures Ltd

40 x 200kg R1 Angus Heifers 20 x 450kg Beef Heifers with Scope Chris Kyle, Ph: 027 496 7412

WEDNESDAY 24 AUGUST 7pm PGG Wrightson Genetics Hereford Semen Sale

STOCK FOR SALE 60 x 135-140kg Here/Frs Bulls $650 70 x R2 Here/Frs Hfrs VIC to Ang Bull $1,200 Chris Kyle, Ph: 027 496 7412

“Wow! I’ll have magic beer too!” says John. He necks it in one, walks over to the parapet, jumps off and plunges 40 storeys to his death. The bartender says...”Wow Superwoman, you are one mean drunk!”

WEDNESDAY 10 AUGUST 7pm Black Forest Deer 2022 Hind Sale

STOCK WANTED 180-250kg Friesian Bulls 60 x 240kg approx. Here/Frs Steers Richard Seavill, Ph: 021 169 8276

“I’ll show you.” The woman gets up, walks to the parapet, jumps over and flies round the building twice before landing on his stool.

For Further details contact: Vaughan Rogers 0274 521 568 Brent Bougen 027 210 4698

TUESDAY 9 AUGUST 1pm Cambridge saleyard - Calf Sale 7pm Brock Deer 2022 Hind & Weaner Sale

"MAXIMISING YOUR RETURN THROUGH PERSONAL LIVESTOCK MANAGEMENT"

“Magic beer? Magic how?”

On A/c: TE TARATA TRUST 100 x VIC Hereford Mixed Age Cows Riverlea Hereford Bull (Bull date 20th November until 18th February)

UPCOMING AUCTIONS

NZ’s Virtual Saleyard

“Hi. It’s Magic beer.”

130kg Friesian Bulls $600 40 x MA In-calf Here Cows $1,250 ono Richard Seavill, Ph: 021 169 8276 Ph: 0800 827 455

Email: admin@byl.co.nz

PGG Wrightson Genetics Angus Semen Sale

Regular Livestream coverage of five North Island Saleyards Head to bidr.co.nz to find out more.

Website: www.byllivestock.co.nz

BULL

POWER PLAN

EXPORT WANTED

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BUY NOW AND PAY NOTHING UP-FRONT

Late September 2022 delivery

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Bull Sale

Call for pricing Contact your local agent or call

South Island Richard Harley 021 765 430 Burke Patching 027 441 1515

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North Island Wayne Doran 027 493 8957 Harry Van De Ven 027 486 9866 Luke McBride 027 304 0533

Thursday 8th September 2022 at 1pm FLEXIBLE FINANCE SOLUTION

PROGRAMMED TO PERFORM

• Buy bulls now and pay nothing up front, with the balance due 20th February 2023

Our bulls consistantly wean over 60% of cow weight 40 Years of Proven Performance • Top Quality Yearling Bulls

Open Day 24th August 2pm

• Fixed administration fee of $65+gst/head payable on settlement • Ability to sell your cull cows or other livestock to offset the balance due

McFadzean Meat Maker 8398 Refernce Sire with 3 bulls in the 2022 sale.

216 Wiltons Road, Carterton www.mcfadzeancattlecompany.co.nz Johnie McFadzean 0274295777 | Andrew Jennings PGG Wrightsons 0275946820

MCFADZEAN CRUIZY CALVE 100% Registered Angus Positive for calving ease Short gestation Positive fats & good growth Suited for heifer mating

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At least 75% Angus Moderate framed hill country cattle Excellent growth rates and superior muscling Positive fats & high IMF % Strong milking & maternal traits

SERVICE BULL AUCTIONS / PADDOCK SALES • Purchase your bulls in the paddock or at one of our service bull auctions

Contact the One Stock® team or your local Carrfields Livestock Representative

MCFADZEAN MEAT MAKER Superior weaning weight % Instant impact on calf size, growth & muscling Higher carcass yields High EMA scores Strong milking & maternal traits

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www.carrfieldslivestock.co.nz

Subject to Dairy Bull Plan Terms and Conditions

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Market Snapshot brought to you by the AgriHQ analysts.

Mel Croad

Suz Bremner

Reece Brick

Fiona Quarrie

Hayley O’Driscoll

Caitlin Pemberton

Deer

Sheep

Cattle BEEF

SHEEP MEAT

VENISON

Last week

Prior week

Last year

NI Steer (300kg)

6.30

6.10

NI lamb (17kg)

9.25

9.15

9.05

NI Stag (60kg)

8.15

8.05

5.70

NI Bull (300kg)

6.20

6.00

NI mutton (20kg)

6.10

6.50

SI Stag (60kg)

8.25

8.20

5.90

NI Cow (200kg)

4.65

4.50

SI lamb (17kg)

9.30

9.25

8.80

SI Steer (300kg)

6.25

6.20

5.75

SI mutton (20kg)

6.05

6.60

SI Bull (300kg)

6.10

5.65

Export markets (NZ$/kg)

SI Cow (200kg)

4.65

4.60

UK CKT lamb leg

12.33

12.26

12.08

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

Export markets (NZ$/kg) 9.37

9.40

8.92

US domestic 90CL cow

9.50

9.62

8.63

North Island steer slaughter price

9.0 8.0 7.0 6.0 5.0

8.0 7.0

6.0

5.0

10.0

5.5

$/kg CW

11.0

South Island lamb slaughter price

8.0

10.0

4.5

9.0

6.0

8.0

5.0

Oct

5.0

WOOL

4.5

(NZ$/kg) Feb

Apr

5-yr ave

Jun

2020-21

Dairy

Dec

Feb

5-yr ave

Dec 5-yr ave

5.5

Dec

Oct

7.0

6.0

Oct

7.0

Apr

Feb

2021-22

Apr 2020-21

Jun

FERTILISER Prior week

Last year

2.62

2.87

37 micron ewe

30 micron lamb

Last week

Prior week

Last year

Urea

1340

821

Super

495

339

DAP

1794

1103

Grain

Data provided by

NZ average (NZ$/t)

Top 10 by Market Cap Company

CANTERBURY FEED WHEAT 650

$/tonne

$/kg MS

600 550 500 450 400

Jul-21

Sep-21

Nov-21 Jan-22 Sept. 2021

Mar-22 May-22 Sept. 2022

350

Jul-22

Jul-21

Sep-21

Nov-21

Jan-22

Mar-22

May-22

Jul-22

DAIRY FUTURES (US$/T) vs 4 weeks ago

WMP

3675

3655

4190

SMP

3580

3680

4175

AMF

5530

6000

Butter

5520

5870

Milk Price

9.60

9.35

10.63

$/tonne

Prior week

5.215

5.36

21.49

33.4

Auckland International Airport Limited

7.6

7.95

6.88

Spark New Zealand Limited

5.18

4.3

Mercury NZ Limited (NS)

6.3

6.36

5.2

Mainfreight Limited

78.68

94.4

66.11

Ebos Group Limited

39.4

44.3

36.11

Infratil Limited

8.89

9.06

7.33

Contact Energy Limited

7.73

8.42

6.82

Port of Tauranga Limited

7.2

5.96

Listed Agri Shares

YTD High

YTD Low

0.27

0.205

The a2 Milk Company Limited

5.47

6.39

4.2

600

Comvita Limited

3.19

3.78

2.98

550

Delegat Group Limited

11.8

14.45

Fonterra Shareholders' Fund (NS)

2.95

3.78

2.75

500

Foley Wines Limited

1.44

1.57

1.38

Greenfern Industries Limited

0.16

0.25

0.089

450

Livestock Improvement Corporation Ltd (NS)

1.55

1.73

1.3

Marlborough Wine Estates Group Limited

0.158

0.26

0.155 0.187

Jul-21

4500

$/tonne

US$/t

Nov-21

Jan-22

Mar-22

May-22

Jul-22

Sep Oct Latest price

Nov

Dec 4 weeks ago

Jan

0.215

1.38

4.28

5.76

3.93

Rua Bioscience Limited

0.315

0.53

0.29

Sanford Limited (NS)

4.1

5.07

4.03

4.54

5.59

4.07

Seeka Limited

4.67

5.36

4.45

Synlait Milk Limited (NS)

3.31

3.54

3.04

T&G Global Limited

2.73

3.01

2.65

500

S&P/NZX Primary Sector Equity Index

12385

14293

11724

S&P/NZX 50 Index

11705

13150

10588

450

S&P/NZX 10 Index

11398

12725

10291

400 350

Aug

New Zealand King Salmon Investments Ltd PGG Wrightson Limited

Scales Corporation Limited

550

3500 3000

Sep-21

WAIKATO PALM KERNEL

4000

5pm, close of market, Wednesday

0.23

350

WMP FUTURES - VS FOUR WEEKS AGO

4.32

Meridian Energy Limited (NS)

400

* price as at close of business on Wednesday

YTD Low

ArborGen Holdings Limited

CANTERBURY FEED BARLEY

Last price*

YTD High

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Ltd

Company

Nearby contract

Aug 2021-22

Fertiliser

Aug 2021-22

Two weeks ago

Coarse xbred ind.

Aug

MILK PRICE FUTURES 11.00 10.50 10.00 9.50 9.00 8.50 8.00 7.50 7.00

Jun

2020-21

6.0

6.5

4.0

South Island stag slaughter price

9.0

5.0

South Island steer slaughter price

Last year

10.0

6.0

7.0

Last week Prior week

North Island stag slaughter price

11.0

6.5

4.0

$/kg CW

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

9.0

$/kg CW

7.0

Last year

North Island lamb slaughter price

10.0 $/kg CW

US imported 95CL bull

Last week Prior week

$/kg CW

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

Sara Hilhorst

Ingrid Usherwood

300

Jul-21

S&P/FW PRIMARY SECTOR EQUITY

Sep-21

Nov-21

Jan-22

Mar-22

May-22

Jul-22

12385

S&P/NZX 50 INDEX

11705

S&P/NZX 10 INDEX

11398

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

Analyst intel

WEATHER

Overview A southeasterly airflow lies over New Zealand today with rain or showers in the east. The western North Island has showers too, but the West Coast is dry. Tuesday we have southerlies for the South Island and northerlies further north, so the eastern North Island is dry and the West Coast is dry, wet elsewhere. South to southwesterly winds on Wednesday and Thursday, showers in the east, showers for the western North Island eventually clear away. High pressure moves in for the South Island from Friday with conditions becoming settled and frosty. Further north we have southerlies, which gradually ease with showers in the east and mainly dry sunny weather out west.

14-day outlook Unsettled with a low pressure system bringing wet weather for most of New Zealand this week. The West Coast is looking to be dry though, thanks to the Southern Alps blocking wet weather coming over from the east. The eastern North Island may be dry on Tuesday though. Also to note is there is some very cold air lurking about the eastern South Island this week, so snow in the ranges is likely, possibly as low as 300m or 200m at times. Typically most snow will be above about 400m though. As a high starts to push in from Friday we calm down but it will become frosty. Quite a bit of high pressure next week at this stage.

Mel Croad mel.croad@globalhq.co.nz

Soil Moisture

Highlights

02/08/2022

Wind

Expect strong to gale southeasterlies for the lower North Island and upper South Island today, strong to gale southerlies for the Banks Peninsula northwards in the east and about the lower North Island on Tuesday and Wednesday, easing Thursday. Southerlies a little gusty for the North Island Friday then easing. Source: NIWA Data

Temperature

7-day rainfall forecast

Basically if you are in the South Island it is cold this week although the West Coast may see temperatures approach 12degC to 13degC. The upper North Island is going to be the warmest area and the eastern North Island, for a time on Tuesday.

Most regions should see rain or showers this week but the West Coast stands out as the place that will be driest of all. Eastern regions get the heaviest rain, today for the eastern North Island then Tuesday for the east coast of the South Island. On Friday as a high moves in for the South Island, showers clear away then we just have showers remaining but gradually thinning out for Wairarapa through to Gisborne. 0

Highlights/ Extremes

Nearing the pointy end of the season

100

200

400

Rainfall accumulation over seven days starting from 6am Sunday, August 7 through to 6am Sunday, August 14, forecast generated at 12am Thursday, August 4.

Cold air for the eastern South Island may bring some fairly low snow. Precipitation levels don’t look too heavy so no heavy snow is expected apart from Tuesday, when there may be heavy snow for Canterbury through to southern Marlborough in the hills. The Kaikoura area stands to get the heaviest snow in the ranges to 500m or maybe 400m.

Weather brought to you in partnership with WeatherWatch.co.nz

IT’S been an interesting season for lamb. For those in the finishing game it’s been a long, drawn-out season starting with subpar growth rates in spring. Then came processing delays early in the year due to omicron. Since then both factors have jostled for bragging rights. Now as we enter the pointy end of the processing season, it’s worth coming up for air and taking a look at how far the lamb kill has come. The beauty of this is that it gives those holding onto winter trade lambs a bit of an insight into how the remaining months of this season might pan out. Slaughter data covering the first 40 weeks of the processing season to July 9 shows this season’s lamb kill has clawed back come ground against last season. In the North Island, lamb numbers have just ticked over seven million head. This compares with last year’s tally of 7.59m head but remains well off the pace of the five-year average by at least 860,000 head. The South Island takes line honours overall, having processed over 1m more lambs than the North Island this season, at 8.1m head. Again, this is off the pace of last season and the five-year average, but the gap isn’t as wide as the North Island’s. Current slaughter stats to July 9, combined with Beef + Lamb NZ projections for this season, provide a glimpse of what the remaining lamb kill could look like. On this basis, the remaining lamb kill in the North Island to the end of September is looking very top heavy, and potentially unachievable based on ongoing staffing challenges. This could lead to even longer delays in getting lambs away for processing than we are already facing. In the South Island, the issue doesn’t seem so pointy. The remaining lamb kill, based on the above method, suggests numbers left to process are in line with recent years and look achievable. Over the remainder of July, lamb

slaughter rates reportedly remained higher than 12 months ago. Red-hot market conditions a year ago kept lambs out of the processing plants as finishers eyed up better returns further down the track. One could argue the merits of doing that again this year, but that needs to be weighed up against the risk of having more lambs left to process than in recent years. And an export market that has very little more to give. Through the first few weeks of August lamb processing rates will again reduce, this time due to the need to process peak bobby calf numbers.

The remaining lamb kill in the North Island to the end of September is looking very top heavy, and potentially unachievable based on ongoing staffing challenges.

This will right itself towards the end of the month. But that will leave roughly four to five weeks of the current processing season to go, tightening the window to get lambs off farm and into processing plants. The spillover of winter trade lambs for processing into October continues to grow each year as traders look to maximise margins. While this helps spread the flow of lambs, the risk of lambs cutting their teeth increases. This occurs even in a normal processing year void of staffing challenges and restricted capacity. So, the risk this year could be even greater, especially if some come up against unexpected delays in getting lambs away. It has been stressed plenty of times that lambs that aren’t already attached to any sort of supply agreement with their processor could be sitting ducks ian terms of securing space once we start to see a rush of lambs from late August. One would question the need to test this theory.

TURANGANUI ROMNEYS “The team behind the sheep”

Michael Warren 06 307 7841 or 0274 465 312 Guy Warren 027 848 0164 William Warren 027 824 9327

Ron Lett

Mike Warren

Guy Warren

William Warren

TURANGANUI ROMNEYS RD 2 Featherston 5772

LK0112172©

Kieran Brown

SALE YARD WRAP

Springing into cattle fairs As August ticks over the yards are very quick to get into spring fair action, and Wellsford got the ball rolling, holding the first of three spring sales on Monday, August 1. Grown steers were in the spotlight and with the support of bidr the buying bench stretched as far as Waikato. R2 dairy-beef steers made up the lion’s share of the yarding and as farmers target this fair and farm to it there was a good entry of quality lines in good condition on offer. For this class, prices lifted on average $175 or 34c/kg on last year’s levels. This sale was backed up by a strong R2 heifer market on Wednesday. Bigger sales continued further down the island as well, and if the early prices are anything to go by the season is already shaping up to be a strong one. NORTHLAND Kaikohe cattle • R2 beef-cross steers made $2.90-$3.00/kg • R1 Angus steers earned $3.30/kg to $3.50/kg • R2 Hereford bulls returned $2.90/kg There was a smaller sale of 250 well-bred cattle at KAIKOHE last Wednesday, PGG Wrightson agent Vaughan Vujcich reported. R2 whiteface heifers earned $3.00-$3.08/ kg. Nice R1 whiteface heifers made $3.15/kg while lighter types traded at $2.80-$2.90/kg. Angus-cross cows made $1.98/kg. Wellsford grown steer and all heifers’ fairs 1.8, 3.8 • R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 476-540kg, lifted to $3.18-$3.23/kg • R2 Angus-Friesian steers, 408-487kg, sold well at $3.16-$3.21/kg • R2 dairy-beef heifers over 400kg generally fetched $3.06-$3.16/kg • R2 traditional heifers, 285-320kg, returned $3.08-$3.18/kg WELLSFORD was the first yard to get into early spring fairs and sold grown steers last Monday and all-aged heifers last Wednesday. R3 dairy-beef steers were limited and most sold on a firm market at $3.10/kg to $3.23/kg. The R2 section was the main feature and traditional lines averaged 375kg and $3.12/kg and dairy-beef, 430kg and $3.14/kg. Friesian and Friesian-cross were off that pace and mostly traded from $2.35/kg to $2.64/kg. At the heifer fair last Wednesday most R2 were dairy-beef which weighed 250-350kg and traded within a range of $2.93/kg to $3.12/kg. There were the odd well-marked lines that stretched higher with $3.43/ kg achieved by a pen of nine Hereford-Friesian at 252kg. Angus-Friesian comprised half of the R1 section and 162184kg fetched $3.37/kg to $3.54/kg. The top pen of Angus, 259kg, pushed to $3.75/kg while the only Hereford line, 214kg, earned $3.55/kg. Read more in your LivestockEye.

AUCKLAND Pukekohe cattle • Prime steers lifted to $3.20/kg • Weaner crossbred steers sold well at $430-$575 • Prime heifers returned $3.09/kg Cattle of varied condition sold on a strong market at PUKEKOHE on Saturday, July 30 with light crossbred steers able to achieve $1140-$1230, $2.85-$2.95/kg. Light prime heifers earned $3.03-$3.10/kg and small weaner crossbred heifers realized $365-$470, $4.21/kg to $4.89/kg.

COUNTIES Tuakau prime cattle 3.8, sheep 1.8, store cattle 28.7 • Prime steers and heifers sold up to $3.40/kg • In-calf Hereford cows made $3.02/kg • Belgian Blue steers at 366kg fetched $3.23/kg • Weaner Hereford-Friesian steers, 200kg, managed $720 Prices for a yarding of 350 prime cattle lifted 5c/kg at TUAKAU last week, Carrfields Livestock agent Karl Chitham reported. Heavy steers, 590-700kg, returned $3.32-$3.40/ kg and 540-630kg heifers made the same rate. Steers at 500-590kg earned $3.26-$3.33/kg and 430-500kg heifers managed $3.11/kg to $3.28/kg. Well-conditioned Friesian cows, 600-700kg, fetched $2.52-$2.58/kg and 400-500kg boners traded from $1.77/kg to $2.24/kg. Heavy prime lambs reached $220 last Monday while light-medium primes realised $143-$177 and forward store lambs, $139$153. Medium store lambs made $108-$126 and light, $66-$90. Heavy ewes fetched $180-$206, medium $152-$174 and light, $68 to $103. About 500 cattle were yarded at the store sale on Friday, July 28 and the market was firm. Most 350-450kg steers traded from $3.05/kg to $3.26/kg and 350400kg heifers, $3.02/kg to $3.19/kg.

WAIKATO PGG Wrightson Frankton cattle • R2 exotic-cross and dairy beef steers, 327-385kg, traded at $3.23/ kg to $3.36/kg • R2 Simmental-cross heifers, 324-358kg, fetched $3.27/kg • R2 Angus-Friesian heifers, 411-418kg, earned $3.13-$3.18/kg

• In-calf Friesian cows, 470-583kg, traded at $2.46-$2.54/kg The favourable winter continued to play into vendor’s hands at PGG Wrightson’s FRANKTON cattle sale last Tuesday. Buyers were spoilt for choice if they were looking for Hereford-Friesian in the R1 pens and they all sold well. The steers largely sold in two cuts as the best pens of 225251kg were priced at $3.92-$3.98/kg, followed by second cuts at $3.68-$3.78/kg. Most heifers of this breed, 156-250kg, generally returned $3.30/kg to $3.45/kg. Prime volume was low and included some heavy heifers over 700kg that made $3.10-$3.13/kg despite their weight. NZFL Frankton cattle • Prime Hereford-Friesian heifers, 514-528kg, reached $3.06-$3.07/ kg • Boner Friesian and Friesian-cross cows, 471-510kg, made $2.31$2.46/kg • R2 Angus-Friesian heifers, 400kg, earned $3.33/kg • R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 397kg, fetched $3.36/kg • Autumn-born weaner Hereford-Friesian steers, 147kg, reached $750, $5.10/kg A high-quality line-up of prime steers was put forward at New Zealand Farmers Livestock’s FRANKTON sale last Wednesday. This was reflected in their returns as $3.33$3.43/kg was paid for all offered. Just over 300 store cattle were penned and R1 and autumn-born weaners made up the majority. R1 dairy-beef and beef-cross heifers were mixed and all sold for $430-$560 while autumn-born lines managed $320-$405. Read more in your LivestockEye.

KING COUNTRY Te Kuiti sheep • Prime ewes made $130-$134 • Prime lambs sold well at $208-$221 • Scanned-in-lamb ewes earned $118-$149 Sheep sold on a firmer market at TE KUITI last Wednesday and prime ewes realized $118-$171. Store male lambs made $132-$158 while ewe lambs earned $162. Lighter mixed-sex lambs traded at $100-$147.

BAY OF PLENTY Rangiuru cattle and sheep • Angus steers which weighed 568kg fetched $3.33/kg • R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 433kg, collected $3.23/kg Markets strengthened again at RANGIURU last Tuesday and the addition of bidr increased competition. Prime steers were all of sound quality and sold upwards from $3.23/kg while the pick of the heifers were 540kg Hereford-Friesian that made $3.20/kg. A mixture of boner cows generally traded from $2.25/kg to $2.42/kg. Promising R3 steers and heifers realised $3.10-$3.14/kg, while those with horns and lighter weights received discounts. R2 heifers mostly earned $3.00/kg or more and Stabilizer-Friesian steers were the winners of a mixed R1 section at $3.22/kg. Better autumnborn dairy-beef heifers and bulls returned $460-$520. In a small yarding of sheep, the heaviest lambs earned $143 and top ewes made $120. Read more in your LivestockEye.

POVERTY BAY Matawhero sheep • Heavy ewe lambs made $170-$171 Ewe lambs were heavily represented in the store lamb sale at MATAWHERO on Friday July 29 due to final cuts being made to replacement mobs. Good types earned $146.50$154 and returns of $131-$145 covered any medium pens. Late lambing 2-tooth and mixed-age Romney ewes, 153% and 174% to Coopworth respectively, both returned $180. Prime options sold on a steady market and heavy ram lambs collected $223 while most ewes realised $161-$187. Read more in your LivestockEye. Matawhero cattle • R2 Hereford-Devon steers, 484-523kg, fetched $3.30-$3.39/kg • R2 Angus heifers, 323-392kg, reached $3.08-$3.09/kg • R1 Angus heifers, 169-220kg, collected $530-$695

After a late entry at MATAWHERO last Tuesday, store cattle numbers managed to reach 621-head and the yarding was heavy on R2 cattle with only 195 yearlings offered. Some extra competition lifted returns for heavy traditional steers so that most at 380kg or more earned $3.29-$3.34/kg. Heifer returns also made a solid improvement on last month and the mostly traditional line-up averaged $3.02/kg. Charolaiscross bulls, 379kg, were not to be sniffed at and returned $3.32/kg. Yearling heifers were dominated by Angus and heavier pens, 250kg or more, made $850-$915 while a large consignment on Belgian Blue-Friesian and Speckle ParkFriesian heifers at 204kg sold in two cuts at $585-$615. Two pens of traditional steers weighed 310-311kg and returned $1010-$1020. Read more in your LivestockEye.

TARANAKI Taranaki cattle • R2 dairy-beef steers all weighed 417-485kg and sold from $2.95/ kg to $3.09/kg Just 75 cattle were penned at TARANAKI last Wednesday and half were R2 steers. Two small pens of R1 Friesian steers, 235-250kg, returned $620-$650 for varied per kilogram values. Read more in your LivestockEye.

HAWKE’S BAY Stortford Lodge prime sheep • Very heavy prime lambs earned $217-$234 • Medium to heavy prime lambs fetched $161-$177.50 Ewe throughput doubled on the previous sale at STORTFORD LODGE last Monday and there was plenty of quality amongst their number. Very heavy ewes returned $193-$198.50 followed by heavy pens close behind at $185$190. Most of the balance were either in very good or good condition and traded at $149-$175, while lighter pens were valued at $100-$136 for the most part. Read more in your LivestockEye. Stortford Lodge store cattle and sheep • R2 Devon-Hereford bulls, 428kg, reached $3.65/kg • R2 Angus and exotic heifers, 368-495kg, reached $3.28-$3.38/kg • R1 Angus steers, 226-279kg, sold well at $890-$1070, $3.84-$3.93/ kg • Heavy male lambs made $183-$205 and one pen reached $233.50 • Good to heavy ewe lambs lifted to average $156-$165 Spring started early at STORTFORD LODGE last Wednesday as nearly 730 cattle were offered. R3 Angus-cross and Hereford-Friesian heifers with calves-at-foot sold for $1690-$1700 per unit and cows with calves, $1250-$1550. The balance of the R2 Devon-Hereford bulls from Pitt Island were divided into per kilogram ranges due to weight and type and the tops in the 338-465kg range made $3.43-$3.44/ kg and second cuts, $3.28-$3.29/kg. Lighter pens at 259291kg and in light-medium condition returned $3.09-$3.13/ kg. Two outlier pens of R1 Angus steers at 225kg and 285kg made a premium of $3.98-$4.00/kg. Empty Friesian and Angus cows, 521-623kg, traded at $2.34-$2.46/kg and vettedin-calf Angus, $2.63/kg. Finishers re-entered the store lamb market and gave it a boost with good male lambs up $9 though lesser lines eased. Ewe lambs improved and medium types returned $133-$147. Read more in your LivestockEye. Dannevirke sheep • Prime lambs reached $222 • Wether lambs varied from $90 up to $148 Male lambs continued to outnumber ewe lambs in the store pens at DANNEVIRKE on Thursday, July 27 for a total yarding of 1750. Cryptorchid lambs sold for $112-$157. Just over 800 ewe lambs traded at similar values as the wethers to average $125. Prime lambs started at $149.50 and averaged $164 while 700 prime ewes ranged from $70 to $153 at an average of $125.

MANAWATŪ Feilding store cattle and sheep • R2 Simmental-cross steers, 636-644kg, made $3.43/kg, $2180-

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022

• Angus-Hereford steers, 590-596kg, fetched $3.49-$3.55/kg • Top lambs reached $266 • Mixed-age Romney ewes, scanned at 156%, made $170 Low supply resulted in a strong sale for prime cattle at COALGATE on Thursday, July 28 and Hereford-Friesian steers started the sale at $3.29-$3.30/kg for 534-571kg. Heifers over 500kg returned $3.34-$3.38/kg and local trade Angus, 457kg, realised $3.20/kg. Ex-service Hereford bulls, 890-915kg, made $1.50/kg and Angus cows, 586kg, earned $2.38/kg. Of the four pens of store cattle offered, R2 Murray Grey-Friesian, 424kg, were the pick and made $2.85/kg. Prime lambs mostly made $160 to $239, and the bulk of the ewes returned $100-$191 on steady markets. Top drafts of West Coast-sourced male and ewe lambs collected $151 and $147 respectively while anything else of reasonable quality traded over $115. Read more in your LivestockEye. DRY FEET, FINALLY: A big yarding of 530 steers came out of waterlogged paddocks and into the Wellsford sale yards for the start of a three-sale spring fair. $2210 • R2 and R3 Angus heifers, 502-525kg, lifted to $3.37-$3.43/kg • R1 traditional steers, 218-260kg, consistently returned $3.77$3.85/kg • Store male lambs averaged $147 • Store ewe lambs averaged $129 Almost 700 store cattle sold on a sound market at FEILDING on Friday, July 29. R3 Angus steers, 526-591kg, made $3.35-$3.40/kg with 374-518kg R2 Angus at $3.30$3.43/kg. Autumn-born Hereford-Friesian bulls, 340kg, sold for $3.26/kg. Many pens of 398-480kg R2 traditional and Simmental-cross heifers bounced anywhere from $3.20/ kg to $3.41/kg with lighter and dairy-beef lines $3.14-$3.19/ kg. R1 Friesian bulls, 271-293kg, made $3.24-$3.35/kg. It was a weaker market on the yarding of more than 6000 store lambs. Prime males were $173.50-$174, followed by forwardstore $159-$172, good $141-$153 and medium-to-light, $101-$111. For ewe lambs, forward-store made $149-$156, good $135-$149, medium $121-$145 and light, $87-$116. Good mixed-age ewes, scanned-in-lamb twins to a terminal ram, jumped to $260. However, several medium-to-light conditioned pens were discounted to $100-$152. Read more in your LivestockEye. Feilding prime cattle and sheep • A well-finished Hereford-Friesian heifer, 575kg, collected $3.11/kg • Hereford bulls, 544-695kg, made $3.18-$3.20/kg Lamb throughput dipped at FEILDING last Monday and many of the 1312-head yarding earned $187-$229, though there were still plenty at $140-$181. Ewe numbers were also down but better quality resulted in a top tier of $190-$198 and others ranged from $112 to $178. Steers were in more forward condition and returns of $2.61/kg and $2.89/kg showed this. Hereford heifers had size but lacked perfect condition and made $2.90-$3.00/kg while Friesian reached $2.76/kg at 455kg. Heavier beef cows collected $2.41-$2.55/ kg and a second tier realised $2.22-$2.25/kg. Friesian cows were generally in good condition and those at 598-710kg earned $2.53-$2.58/kg. Read more in your LivestockEye. Rongotea cattle • R2 Hereford-Friesian and Simmental-cross steers, 384-484kg, made $3.11/kg to $3.24/kg • R2 Angus-cross and cross-bred heifers, 323-485kg, ranged from $2.05/kg to $3.07/kg • R1 Friesian bulls, 158-175 kg, made $2.06/kg to $2.27/kg Heavier cattle sold well at RONGOTEA last Tuesday, New Zealand Farmers Livestock agent Darryl Harwood reported. R2 Angus-cross steers, 391kg, were able to achieve $2.92/ kg. Weaner Hereford-Friesian and Angus-cross steers, 123195kg, made $390-$410. Read more in your LivestockEye.

CANTERBURY Coalgate cattle and sheep

Canterbury Park cattle and sheep • Angus steers, 536kg, soared to $3.71/kg • Charolais-cross heifers, 588kg, fetched 43.70/kg • Mixed-age Romney ewes, scanned with twins to Romney and Suffolk, collected $202 Demand spiked again at CANTERBURY PARK last Tuesday and Angus steers, 485kg to 730kg, all collected upwards of $3.66/kg and another tier of quality beef and beef-cross settled at $3.53-$3.64/kg. Better dairy-beef earned $3.39$3.49/kg and all others traded at $3.00/kg or more. Wellfinished beef type heifers started at $3.46/kg and the pick of dairy-beef collected $3.30-$3.41/kg. Heavy beef cows earned $2.49-$2.50/kg and boner cows ranged from $1.74/kg to $2.23/kg. A top price of $149 was paid for some mediumgood lambs in a limited yarding and aside from a few outliers, prime lambs settled between $140 and $250 on an unchanged market. A lighter offering of ewes mostly earned $136-$139 and $151-$156. Read more in your LivestockEye.

SOUTH-CANTERBURY Temuka prime and boner cattle; all sheep • Angus heifers, 493-537kg, made $3.25/kg • Boner Friesian cows, 520-640kg, increased to $2.23/kg • Top store ewe lambs made $189 Ongoing wet weather didn’t result in huge tallies of cattle at TEMUKA last Monday. A small yarding of Angus steers, 490-615kg, made solid returns of $3.22/kg to $3.41/kg. Less selection tightened up prime cow demand which caused the market to strengthen. The best was Simmental-cross, 683kg, that returned $2.81/kg. Boner cow tallies dropped to 118head and Friesian cows sold at an average of $2.14/kg, an increase of 19c/kg. Dealing with sheep in boggy yards didn’t help create a big sheep sale but those that did send sheep in were rewarded with a stronger market. Overall, quality improved and most of the store lamb section was made up of Romney and Coopworth ewe lambs in forward condition from Pleasant Point. Ewe lambs ranged from $151 to $189. Most prime lambs held at $160-$230 and $120-$210 covered most of the ewes. Read more in your LivestockEye.

OTAGO Balclutha sheep • The best of the store lambs reached $139 • Prime lambs lifted to $148-$272 Prime ewes offered by PGG Wrightson at BALCLUTHA on Wednesday, July 27 ranged from $56 to $200. Prime rams averaged $47. Read more in your LivestockEye.

SOUTHLAND Charlton sheep • Better store lambs achieved $150 • Prime rams varied from $70 to $145 There were 110 prime ewes offered by PGG Wrightson at CHARLTON on Thursday, July 28, which averaged $147 and reached $210. Prime lambs averaged $171 and reached $232. Read more in your LivestockEye.

Feeder calf sales Demand for feeder calves wavered and most sales reported softer markets as the trading week went on. A yarding of 300 were offered at MANFEILD PARK last Monday and Friesian bulls with age attracted extra attention to reach $160. Top Hereford-Friesian collected $300, matched by Belgian Blue-Friesian, and medium-type calves made $170-$200 for Hereford-Friesian and Angus-Friesian bulls. The pick of Hereford-Friesian heifer calves earned $110-$150 after which $30-$80 covered the remainder. That sale was backed up with a further 350 calves last Thursday where Friesian bull supply was higher than demand and prices eased, especially for small bulls. Good Friesian bulls eased to $100-$130 and small to medium, $40-$80. Dairy-beef bulls held at $210-$275 for the top pens and Angus-cross ranged from $70 to $220. Heifers made similar values to the Monday sale. There were 300 feeder calves offered at REPOROA last Monday and quality options continued to sell at the top end of the market. Friesian bulls reached $140 and medium types earned $90-$120. Heavy and wellmarked Hereford-Friesian fetched $290 and medium weights returned $190-$240 where red colours realised $147 along with Angus-Friesian. Medium HerefordFriesian heifers made $135 and red types earned $60-$80. The total tally grew by 55-head last Thursday and sellers met the market. Friesian bulls firmed $5 to $135-$145 for tops and medium $100-$125 and small, $40-$50. Hereford-Friesian bulls came back to $190$250 and those with red factor and Speckly Park-cross returned $180-$195. A better top end of the black Hereford-Friesian heifers reached $170 and the balance sold for $137-$150 with red factor calves at $50. Calf numbers nudged above the 1200 mark at FRANKTON last Tuesday. Top Friesian bulls reached $160 but a large portion traded in the $90-$130 range and lesser lines returned $40-$70. Buyers were noticeably more conservative amongst the HerefordFriesian bulls that topped out at $230-$260 while medium pens made $180-$200 and small, $90-$110. Bulls with red factor reached $130-$180, medium $80-$110 and small, $60-$70 with crossbred calves covered in that range too. Speckle Park-cross bulls were also a tougher sell than previous weeks at $70-$100 and heifers, $50-$60. Hereford-Friesian heifer prices improved slightly to $90-$160 for the top and medium lines and the balance sold for $40-$70. At INGLEWOOD 150 calves were penned and a good bench of buyers meant a solid market. Top Friesian bulls made $95-$130 and medium, $80-$100. Black Hereford-Friesian returned $150-$305 and those with red factor, $150-$180. Shorthorn-cross made $150$175, Angus-cross $90-$180 and Speckle Park-cross, $140. Top Hereford-Friesian heifers matched the Friesian bulls at $125-$130 while Angus-cross and Speckle Park-cross traded at $90-$125. Lorneville cattle and sheep • Good prime steers, 450-550kg, made $3.20-3.25/kg • R2 Angus steers, 330-347kg, earned $880-$900 • R1 Beef-cross heifers, 153-236kg, fetched $530-$800 • Top store lambs realized $120-$140 There was a large yarding of store cattle which sold on a strong market at LORNEVILLE last Tuesday. R2 HerefordFriesian steers, 459kg, were able to achieve $1500. R1 Beef-cross steers, 290kg, earned $890. Prime ewes fetched $160-$195 while light to medium types earned $80-$156. Heavy prime lambs eased to $174-$181. 1500 scanned-inlamb ewes were on offer that ranged from $170 for lighter types and up to $230 for good condition ewes. Read more in your LivestockEye.

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Markets

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 8, 2022 NI SLAUGHTER STEER

NI SLAUGHTER LAMB

SI SLAUGHTER STAG

($/KG)

AVERAGE STORE EWE LAMB PRICE AT STORTFORD LODGE

($/KG)

($/HD)

9.25

6.30

8.25

154

high $3.27/kg traditional steers, lights R2 415kg average, at Matawhero

$2.91-$3.01/kg R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 306-391kg, at Wellsford

A lot of calves but not many rearers Suz Bremner suz.bremner@globalhq.co.nz

ECREASING numbers of calf rearers has been a growing issue as margins diminish and costs increase, and the feeder calf season this year exemplifies that. North Island yards, and to a lesser extent those on the South Island, have hosted dairy and dairy-beef calves over the past few weeks and while changes have been made over the years on what calves are sold and how they are offered, that isn’t bringing any more buyers to the fore. PGG Wrightson agent Neil Lyons is in the thick of calf sales in Waikato and has noted a few changes this year. “It was an early start to the selling season in Waikato as dairy farmers started calving earlier,” he said. “We have seen big tallies for the last few weeks and we are already

well through the Friesian bulls, and the whitehead calves are starting to come out more readily.” Last week alone more than 2000 sold via sale yards in the region and more would have moved direct from farmer to rearer but there are still more to come out and Lyons reported demand waning already. “There are a lot of calves but not many rearers and we are starting to see those that are there filling up already.” Lyons said that new regulations around what can come to the yards has made a big difference to the bottom end of the sales. “We have encouraged farmers not to send in any small crossbred off-types and have turned away some trailers due to this. “That has meant that we haven’t had those $10-$20 type calves coming through that we have seen in previous years.” Without those calves on the market, but a softer year for prices, the smallest calves have still been selling down to $30-$40 as demand falls away rapidly and

sellers meet the market. Right now, top-end Friesian bull prices are trading around $10-$15 back on last year and demand is expected to fall away quickly. These calves are trading at $100$160 with the odd line pushing higher. Hereford-Friesian traditionally sell for a premium over Friesian, and that fact hasn’t changed. The season started off peaking at similar levels to last year as a few pens pushed past $300, yet in the previous week $230-$260 was more common. The heifer calf market is also deflated, and the top-tier Hereford-Friesian have been trading at $100-$150 compared to $140-$200 in 2021. Concern has been aired over the years about what the future bullbeef industry is going to look like if the calves are not being reared. And, as each year goes by and more rearers drop off, that concern only grows, yet there does not seem to be any plan in place to stem the flow. The simple fact is that Friesian bull supply will

FEW BUYERS: Changes made over the years on what calves are sold and how they are offered have not brought more buyers to the fore at sales like that at Frankton this week.

reflect the diminishing number of calves being reared and make it harder to source the older bulls to finish going forward, at a time when the number of farmers finishing Friesian bulls has significantly grown.

The equation just doesn’t add up.

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