10 minute read
Fastest kiwi farmer found
The inaugural Anchor Milk cycle race recently took place near Oamaru. Among the 77 competitors were 28 farmers vying to be recognised as ‘NZ’s Fastest Farmer’. We caught up with the winners.
THE 66.6km (808.5 metre total climb) group handicap road race sent riders round the Devil’s Bridge Circuit in Weston, a suburb of Oamaru.
While the race was open to all road riders, it had a special section for farmers to highlight the work of rural wellbeing programme Farmstrong, which was a major sponsor. Farmstrong encourages farmers to treat themselves, their families and their team as the farm’s number one asset.
The race also had a fun side; a quest to find the ‘fastest’ male and female farmer in New Zealand. The winners were Avril Lane, a 50:50 sharemilker from Waimate and potato grower Kyle Gray from Rakaia.
Avril and her husband have been sharemilking for 11 years and look after 880 cows. “We joined the race because we like the whole idea of Farmstrong and promoting rural wellbeing,” Avril said.
Farmstrong’s about developing habits that increase wellbeing – things like keeping active, trying new things and connecting with mates. Avril says the race embodied all those.
“Just getting off-farm for events like this is great. It helps you destress. Even though you might come back a little more tired than you were, it still gives you that boost of energy,” she said.
“For me it was the last day of freedom before calving. You’ve got to make the most of these opportunities when you can.
“I also enjoyed meeting the different people and other farmers. There was a great sense of camaraderie. You didn’t need to be a great cyclist either, you could just come along and have a go. So, I didn’t train for it, I just went in cold turkey and got behind it because it was supporting Farmstrong. It was a heap of fun. I hope it’s an annual event.”
Avril says she thinks she averaged 27km an hour, but “it felt faster on the downhills”.
“I ended up in a group with a farmer and a lady who wasn’t a farmer, so we had really good banter going, which made the hills more bearable,” she said.
Kyle Gray, a mixed arable farmer, was already keen on his cycling. He says he took it up a year ago.
“I’ve found cycling a great way to let go of a bit of competitive steam and get off the farm. It’s been really good. Cycling with a competitive element is a good off-farm activity because you have to find time to train so that you can be competitive and improve,” Kyle said.
“For example, through the summer I made myself available on Sunday afternoons for my local club race. It’s motivating.
“So, I ride to challenge myself and while I’m doing that for however long the race lasts – one or two hours – I’m thinking about nothing else but the race. It just freshens you up mentally.
“I travelled down with another three farmers who were new to cycling.
“I caught up with other farmers from Southland and Oamaru too, which was great. I thought it was a fantastic course. All the cycling around where I live is very flat, so to ride a few rollers was very enjoyable.
Kyle says while he enjoys his job producing food, it’s also important to get the balance right.
“For me, the main stress is ensuring that the result of a year’s work means we are delivering a quality product. Took me a few years to get the balance right, but I’m starting to learn it now and cycling’s been a big part of that,’ he said.
“So, when I saw there was a farmers section in the race advertised at my local bike shop I decided to enter. The general consensus was that everyone had a very good day.”
One of the event organisers Michelle Carson comes from a farming background (sheep and beef) and sums up the value of the event nicely.
“Farming can be an allconsuming job, with hardships that make it mentally taxing too. Sometimes you just need reasons to get off the farm and do something different,” Carson said.
“The uniqueness of this event was that it was not only giving farmers something to do outside of farming but also helping them to keep physically and mentally fit to deal with its challenges.”
farmstrong.co.nz
BOOT UP: Farmers took their gumboots off-farm to participate in the inaugural Anchor Milk cycle race.
Avril Lane Farmer
is the official media partner of Farmstrong
June red meat exports close to $1b
OVERALL red meat exports reached $937 million in June, up 16% year-on-year, according to the latest analysis from the Meat Industry Association (MIA).
Sheepmeat exports increased by 15% to $345m compared with June 2020, beef exports rose 8% to $411m and co-products by 40% to $181m.
There was also an increase in the value of all categories of co-products, with the largest two categories – prepared meat products and edible offals – increasing by 88% and 30% respectively.
MIA chief executive Sirma Karapeeva says China was once again the largest overall market in June with exports worth $377m, an increase of 37%compared with the same period last year.
“We saw a very significant increase in beef exports to China during June, with a 60% increase year-on-year to $156m,” Karapeeva said.
“China’s domestic pork production continues to be affected by African swine fever, resulting in demand for high volumes of imported meat. Argentina, where the government has imposed restrictions on beef exports.
“Overall, over the past 12 months, New Zealand has exported red meat and coproducts worth $9.1b. While this is 3% lower than 2020, it is still historically very high.”
While global meat prices remained high in 2020-21, they were slightly down on the levels seen in 2019-20, and the value of the NZ dollar has also increased against major currencies like the US dollar over the last year.
China was the largest market for the year with a total of $3.6bn, followed by the United States with $1.9bn and the United Kingdom with $419m.
In total, over the past 12 months, NZ has exported 53,946 tonnes of chilled sheepmeat and 352,632t of frozen, and 38,437t of chilled beef and 442,181t of frozen.
#AginED ED FOR FUTURE AGRIPRENEURS!
Volume 68 I August 9th, 2021 I email: agined@globalHQ.co.nz I www.farmersweekly.co.nz/agined
Have a go:
1 Go to https://farmersweekly.co.nz/section/otherhttps://farmersweekly.co.nz/section/othersectors/on-farm-story/learning-from-experience
Watch the Onfarm Story of Ben and Libby Tosswill
“People, Planet & Production and read the accompanying article “Learning from experience” 2 Where in New Zealand do Ben and Libby farm? 3 What do they produce on their farm? 4 Prior to returning to NZ to farm where were Ben and
Libby based and what industry did they work in?
STRETCH YOURSELF:
1 Having worked in highly pressured environments previously both Ben and Libby understand the importance of having a positive mindset. What do they mean by this and how do they use it to benefit their farming? 2 After being caught short in an extended dry period in 2013 Ben decided to diversify their system by adding what? What does this do for their farming system? 3 Birch Hill sells as many lambs as possible off their ewes before Christmas? What are their reasons for this? 4 What is their sheep breed of choice? Why do they choose this breed? 5 Ben and Libby are working with the Hawke’s Bay
Regional Council on a pole-planting programme.
What is this, how does it work and what are the benefits? 6 Libby has a passion for biodiversity and Birch
Hill is home to a significant block of native bush which is fenced separately from the rest of the farm. They have a predator control programme in place. What types of predators would they need to control and why? 7 They have also diversified with a glamping spot on the farm. They believe that with visitors invariably being from urban lifestyles, staying on the farm can give them a better perspective of the primary sector, including how and where their food comes from. Do you think that this would be effective in helping build knowledge for urban based people?
How else could we start to build this understanding and knowledge of what farming and agriculture do in NZ for those outside of a rural setting?
This graph from Stats NZ shows land use over the past 20 years for the agricultural sector.
Farm land use area in new Zealand, 2002-2019
Beff Cattle Dairy Cattle Forestry Grain Horticultural Sheep Got your own question about how the weather works? Ask Phil! Email phil@ruralweather.co.nz with your question and he could answer it on the Weather Together podcast!
Have a go:
1 What sector uses the most land in New Zealand? 2 What sector uses the smallest amount of land? 3 What sector has had the biggest change in land use over the past 20 years? 4 What could you expect the total land use for forestry to do over the next few years?
STRETCH YOURSELF:
1 Head to www.stats.govt.nz/
indicators/agricultural-andhorticultural-land-use
2 On the interactive graph, compare the change in land use by region for beef cattle. How has the total hectares used for beef cattle changed in your area from 2002 to 2019? Has it increased or decreased? 3 What are the results for dairy cattle and sheep? 4 Sheep farming decreased 1.7 million hectares (29 percent) and beef farming decreased 1.3 million hectares (32 percent) between 2002 and 2019. Meanwhile, dairy farming increased 991,000 hectares (81 percent). What do you think has driven this? 5 In the next 20 plus years, how do you think total land use for agriculture will change in
New Zealand?
WeatherWatch with Phil
STOP PRESSURING ME!!
We have written a few pieces in AginEd about air pressure (what we call barometric pressure) but in today's update we want you to see if there's any connection between low pressure and wetter/windier weather and high pressure and calmer/drier conditions.
High pressure systems don't always equal calm - but at some point as the air pressure grows the central part of the system does become quite settled. We measure air pressure in hectoPascals (hPa). Average air pressure is 1013hPa but 1020 to 1050 is considered high pressure in NZ. For lows/storms the air pressure tends to be 990 and below (usually 960 to 995 for the lows passing near NZ… and most are around 990).
Your challenge is to head to www.RuralWeather.co.nz and halfway down the page you will see ‘Detailed Data’. In this tab you can check out Air Pressure (it’s on the right hand side of the Detailed Data column) and it covers every hour for 10 days out in every single hyper-local part of NZ. Perhaps find four locations to choose from in northern NZ, southern NZ, and the east and west, to see if you can find: 1 How LOW does the air pressure go in the four forecasts you checked? 2 What's the HIGHEST barometric air pressure you can find in the forecasts? 3 Can you find any connections between low pressure/ high pressure and the forecasts around that time?
In 1984, economic reforms by the government changed New Zealand farming forever in the era of ‘Rogernomics’. Do some research on this and how farming was affected.
