Farmers Weekly NZ February 12 2024

1

4 China opens wide for red meat exports Vol 22 No 5, February 12, 2024

View online at farmersweekly.co.nz

$4.95 Incl GST

Healing after Gabrielle is no ‘1-year sprint’ Neal Wallace & Richard Rennie

NEWS

Weather

O

N ONE level Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti are back to normal one year after being devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle.

The grass is growing, fruit and crops are ripening and a sense of normality was reinforced by the recent Hawke’s Bay Fruitgrowers Association awards night earlier this month and the return of the Napier Port Primary Sector Awards in Hawke’s Bay. On another level it is obvious the region is still recovering.

There are still 1.2 million cubic metres of silt to be removed in Hawke’s Bay, 100 Wairoa homes are still uninhabitable and thousands of kilometres of fencing and tracks need to be repaired or replaced.

Farming and community leaders say the region has been changed forever.

Tairāwhiti farmer and Federated Farmers board member Toby Williams predicts fewer sheep and more cattle will be farmed on the east coast for ease of management.

Forestry companies may be less active in the property market due to the economics and rules dealing with slash, but Williams said landowners may have to lower their pricing expectations.

Apple growers have learnt from the 2010 PSA outbreak in kiwifruit, when growers replanted with the virus-resistant Gold variety.

Apple growers are replanting with new Rockit, Envy and Dazzle varieties.

Hawke’s Bay Fruit Growers chair Brydon Nisbet said about 610ha of apples – about 10% of the region’s crop – was lost to the cyclone, but growers were pleasantly surprised at how trees survived the storm.

“We’ve got a good crop. What we need now are good returns to growers,” he said.

Rural communities will be a lot better prepared with what they need to have, need to know and need to do.

The unwelcome gift that keeps on giving Napier kiwifruit grower Gary Davies says Hawke’s Bay growers still have some hard yards ahead a year after Cyclone Gabrielle as even apparently undamaged vines keep manifesting cyclone-related issues.

Photo: John Cowpland/alphapix

SPECIAL REPORT 5-12

Will Foley Hawke’s Bay regional councillor

A trusty pigtail and a Rod of iron

Hastings District Council mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said they are still restoring roading access, with 10 temporary bridges built and hundreds of kilometres of roads and numerous culverts repaired.

There is still plenty to do.

Hawke’s Bay regional councillor and Waipukurau farmer Will Foley described progress in the past year as remarkable.

“In the first couple of days post cyclone, we were wondering how we were ever going to recover.

“While there is a still a massive amount of work still to be done,

Alliance, SFF review processing capacity and working week as farmers hold back stock.

Are modern, woolly hill country sheep still suited to the environment they are farmed in?

New Zealand lacks the political courage and vision to do the extraordinary, says Daniel Eb.

Continued page 3

NEWS 3

NEWS 13

OPINION 18

Hawke’s Bay farmer Rod Vowles climbed out of a steep gully cradling his broken neck after being caught in the cyclone’s aftermath.

SPECIAL REPORT 9

Farm efficiency starts here…

0% INTEREST 1/3

DEPOSIT

1/3

IN 12 MONTHS

SCAN THE QR CODE TO LEARN MORE!

1/3

IN 24 MONTHS

Maximize your farm’s productivity with Te Pari Handling Equipment!

www.tepari.com

2

New Zealand’s most trusted source of agricultural news and information

Get in touch

Advertise

News in brief

EDITORIAL

SALES CONTACTS

Bryan Gibson | 06 323 1519 Managing Editor bryan.gibson@agrihq.co.nz

Andy Whitson | 027 626 2269 Sales & Marketing Manager andy.whitson@agrihq.co.nz

News . . . . . . . . . . 1-4, 13-14

Craig Page | 03 470 2469 Deputy Editor craig.page@agrihq.co.nz

Andrew Fraser | 027 706 7877 Auckland/Northland Partnership Manager andrew.fraser@agrihq.co.nz

National Lamb Day . . . . 15

Claire Robertson Sub-Editor claire.robertson@agrihq.co.nz

Jody Anderson | 027 474 6094 Waikato/Bay of Plenty Partnership Manager jody.anderson@agrihq.co.nz

People . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

Neal Wallace | 03 474 9240 Journalist neal.wallace@agrihq.co.nz

Palak Arora | 027 474 6095 Lower North Island Partnership Manager palak.arora@agrihq.co.nz

Federated Farmers . 22-25

The New Zealand Veterinary Association says more funding is needed for the government’s voluntary bonding scheme to better reflect the increased costs students are facing.

The scheme was set up to help ease the shortage of veterinarians working with production animals and working dogs. Acting NZ Veterinary Association chief executive Kevin Anderson said the programme has not increased the payment since 2009, despite the cost of the BVSc programme having significantly increased.

Gerald Piddock | 027 486 8346 Journalist gerald.piddock@agrihq.co.nz

Real Estate . . . . . . . . 26-30

Omid Rafyee | 027 474 6091 South Island Partnership Manager omid.rafyee@agrihq.co.nz

Smiler stands down

Marketplace . . . . . . . 31-32

Annette Scott | 021 908 400 Journalist annette.scott@agrihq.co.nz

Julie Gibson | 06 323 0765 Marketplace Partnership Manager classifieds@agrihq.co.nz

Hugh Stringleman | 09 432 8594 Journalist hugh.stringleman@agrihq.co.nz

Andrea Mansfield | 027 602 4925 National Livestock Manager livestock@agrihq.co.nz

Kingi Smiler has stepped down as Miraka chair after 12 years in the role.

The founding chair of the dairy company based just north of Taupō retired from the role along with fellow founding directors Maxwell Parkin and Mai Kieu Lien at its recent annual meeting. Smiler was the driving force behind the establishment of Miraka as the chair of Wairarapa Moana, cornerstone shareholders in the business.

Richard Rennie | 027 475 4256 Journalist richard.rennie@agrihq.co.nz

Real Estate | 0800 85 25 80 realestate@agrihq.co.nz

Contents

Vet funding

Gabrielle, a year on . . 5-12 Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . 16-19 Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Livestock . . . . . . . . . . 32-33 Markets . . . . . . . . . . . 34-39 Weather . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Young farmers More than 800 contestants are gearing up to be one of New Zealand’s top young farmers. Season 56 of the annual FMG Young Farmer of the Year competition began on February 9-10 in Dunedin – the first in a series of regional finals. Only the top contestants from each regional final will qualify for a spot at July’s grand final in Hamilton.

Word Only Advertising | 0800 85 25 80 Marketplace wordads@agrihq.co.nz

Nigel Stirling | 021 136 5570 Journalist nigel.g.stirling@gmail.com

PUBLISHERS

PRODUCTION

Dean and Cushla Williamson Phone: 027 323 9407 dean.williamson@agrihq.co.nz cushla.williamson@agrihq.co.nz

Lana Kieselbach | 027 739 4295 production@agrihq.co.nz

ADVERTISING MATERIAL

Having a laugh Farmstrong is taking its comedy shows on the road to flood-affected Pukekohe and Te Aroha.

Comedians John Carr, Pax Assadi, Courtney Dawson and Tarun Mohanbhai line up for a night of entertainment in front of a crowd of farmers and growers. The two shows are on Wednesday February 21: Silver Fern Farms Event Centre, Te Aroha; and Thursday February 22: Franklin Club, Pukekohe.

Supply to: adcopy@agrihq.co.nz

SUBSCRIPTIONS 0800 85 25 80 subs@agrihq.co.nz

Farmers Weekly is Published by AgriHQ PO Box 529, Feilding 4740, New Zealand Phone: 0800 85 25 80 Website: www.farmersweekly.co.nz

TIME OUT: Lisa Sims has left Agri-Women’s Development Trust after 13 years and is taking time out to decide where she can next contribute to the growth of rural communities.

ISSN 2463-6002 (Print) ISSN 2463-6010 (Online)

STORY P20

PRINTER Printed by Stuff Ltd Delivered by Reach Media Ltd

our pioneering

spirit tells us

nothing’s

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

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

WAVE200472

out of

reach

AFFJ200472 NZ Farmers Weekly Strip Ad FA.indd 1

WWW.AFFCO.CO.NZ | 0800 233 2669

24/08/22 3:22 PM

News

3

3

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

Pressure on processors as stock flow slows Neal Wallace

MARKETS

A

Production

LLIANCE and Silver Fern Farms are reviewing processing capacity and working week to week to fill orders due to slow stock flows as farmers utilise an abundance of feed to take lambs to heavier weights.

The slow season is affecting all processors, with many plants working short weeks and some companies airfreighting lamb to meet chilled orders that could not be filled in time to meet shipping deadlines.

Silver Fern Farms chief executive Dan Boulton said the company is adjusting processing capacity.

“We have to adjust our operational footprints accordingly and have had some shorter weeks with reduced operating capacity.

“This is challenging, but SFF is focused on preserving our workforce through to the bovine processing peak, particularly as our labour situation is positive compared to the same time last year.”

Continued from page 1

everyone is surprised by what has been achieved so far.”

Foley said the cyclone was a reminder to rural communities to be better prepared for when extreme weather events destroy roads, bridges, electricity and telecommunications.

“It’s brought rural communities a lot closer together and they will be a lot better prepared with what they need to have, need to know and need to do.”

Foley said persistent wet weather since the cyclone meant farmers have been busy over

“If we can’t efficiently fill capacity and we have to base it on the flow of livestock, then we may have to take capacity out.”

AgriHQ senior analyst Mel Croad said the North Island lamb kill to January 13 is 177,000 behind the same point last year and 380,000 below the five-year average.

The South Island kill is 5% or 140,000 ahead of last season.

Alliance took a financial hit in its last financial year when it employed staff early at its Lorneville plant due to forecast dry weather, which never eventuated.

Croad said some plants that are working short weeks are struggling to retain staff who are leaving for more reliable jobs.

She said questions are being asked if the forecast lambs are out there.

New Zealand is heavily reliant on China, which takes about half our lamb, compared to Australia where, she said, its top four lamb markets take about equal volume.

NZ has been waiting eight to nine months for China to rebound and Croad is asking whether exporters have a backup plan should demand remain weak.

Wiese said lamb prices in NZ’s key markets have bottomed out, but he is not expecting any rapid improvement.

“It’s going to be a slow period of increases. I don’t see any big jumps at all.”

Prices for some select cuts are rising in China but a 40% decline in the price of pork has created stiff competition.

summer with delayed repairs.

There was audible relief that the forecast El Niño weather pattern has not caused a drought.

“Farmers are mentally stressed by the cyclone and general farming sentiment, so thank God summer has been a bit more favourable.”

Federated Farmers Hawke’s Bay president Jim Galloway said farmers are looking at land use options such as planting trees, restoring wetlands or looking at stock types.

Rural people are also looking at their emergency preparedness, such as having more fuel and access to generators.

Williams said parts of Tairāwhiti are still too wet for heavy machinery to access, with water bubbling out of the ground and new slips appearing over Christmas after a rain event.

“For us it is not a one-year sprint. For some it will be five to 10 years to get back where we were prior to the storm.”

The storm has also prompted discussion about practical ways to protect waterways and the use of trees to stabilise erodible land.

Wairoa mayor Craig Little is struggling to stay positive given the slow progress rebuilding his community.

Alliance chief executive Willie Wiese said he understands why farmers are retaining lambs, but they are gambling there will be sufficient capacity later in the season.

He said this season is a challenging balance of matching processing capacity with stock flows and filling orders.

This is challenging, but SFF is focused on preserving our workforce through to the bovine processing peak.

Dan Boulton Silver Fern Farms chief executive

A GAMBLE: Alliance chief executive Willie Wiese said he understands why farmers are retaining lambs, but they are gambling there will be sufficient capacity later in the season.

Wiese has just returned from the United Kingdom and Europe and said 50%-plus increases in energy costs are soaking up disposable income.

UK food service and hospitality are also under pressure, with the number of restaurants declining 3.6% in the past year and expected to shrink further this year.

On the positive side, Wiese said UK and European Union stocks are low and Easter demand for lamb from wholesalers and retailers has been strong.

In his market analysis, outgoing SFF chief executive Simon Limmer said lower kills in Australia and NZ

have lowered inventory, which has helped prices to firm “slightly”.

The Chinese market remains largely unchanged.

“These are small signals but [these] may indicate some green shoots for lamb, with markets starting to make all the right noises.

“Recent conversations with customers have indicated they may soon be keen to buy volumes but this is dependent on the two key upcoming consumption periods – Easter in the UK, and Chinese New Year.”

A year after the cyclone, Little said, 100 homes in the town are still uninhabitable and farmers are still trying to repair fences and tracks.

“We have a long way to go. It will be 10 or 15 years but if we keep going at this rate, it could be 20 years.”

Gisborne mayor Rehette Stoltz is calling for a rethink about how road networks are funded in the wake of disasters.

She wants less red tape and ways to hasten the use of local contractors to immediately respond to a crisis.

Farmers in the region remain

stuck with poor access and an inability to get stock in or out via truck.

In the hinterland lies the ticking time bomb of legacy slash still not washed down through river systems, with decisions on how to fund its removal still pending.

But there is also an acceptance that forestry continues to play a vital role in the region’s economy, and a shift in planting patterns rather than wholesale banning may see greater interspersion of farm-based native plantings alongside more considered exotic re-plantings in coming years.

MORE:

See page 13

Nudie Auction February 28, Masterton, 1pm Solway Showgrounds Purebred Nudie two tooth rams, January 2024

Approx 90 Nudies, 20 Brazilians (3/4 cross), 40 Streakers (1/2 cross)

Purchasers of Nudie ram lambs last year have had outstanding results in scanning, lamb survival and growth.

Pierre Syben 027 625 9977 Wairere Office 06 372 5784

Streaker (half Nudie) two tooth rams, January 2024

0800 924 7373

Wairere

4

4

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

China opens wide for red meat exports Nigel Stirling

MARKETS

E

Food and fibre

XPORTERS are wasting no time in getting products on the water after the biggest opening of the Chinese market to meat exports in the best part of a decade.

The Ministry for Primary Industries confirmed that four meat plants have been granted new access for chilled exports to China and another 18 for frozen tripe.

It is the biggest market access gain for meat exporters in their biggest single market since Chinese authorities rubberstamped 10 plants for chilled exports in 2017.

At the time exporters reported a 10-20% premium for chilled sales to China above the price paid for frozen meat.

More plants were to have been added but none were, and the high-value chilled trade has struggled to gain momentum until now.

The latest round of approvals came after an overhaul last year of the paper-based certification systems used by the General Administration of Customs for the People’s Republic of China (GACC).

The shift to an electronic system necessitated every one of the more than 60 processing plants registered for export to China having to re-register existing products with GACC as the agency rolled out the new system to every food exporting country in the world.

As part of this process exporters were allowed to apply for certification of products they were blocked from selling to China.

Hamilton-based Greenlea Premier Meats was one of the six exporters granted chilled access in 2017.

Seven years later chief executive

Tony Egan said the company has now been given additional access for chilled beef exports from its Morrinsville plant.

“We have already done a couple of trial loads on chilled from the Morrinsville plant.”

Egan said the company already has buyers for its chilled output but the new access will increase its range of selling options.

“It does take a while to build a profile once you get new access but we are working on that.

“It gives us options.”

The more-than-doubling of the number of processing plants registered for frozen tripe from 17 to 35 is also a major win for exporters previously unable to take advantage of higher returns in the Chinese market.

According to an industry report, tripe and casings fetched $14 per kg in China in 2022, compared to the global average of $4 per kg.

ANZCO general manager of sales and marketing Rick Walker said the exporter gained provisional approvals for plants for tripe and one for chilled beef late last year.

Manufacturing of products had been underway for some time but shipping was delayed until GACC auditors signed off the company’s plants last week.

Walker said it also wanted to be sure port authorities in China had been notified of the new approvals

by GACC. “The problem with China is there is more than one authority to deal with.

“Even from port to port there are different levels of administration and you need to make sure everyone is on the same track.

“We made the choice not to ship anything until we had every box ticked.

“You do not want to put yourself in the position where Chinese authorities are asking questions or rejecting things.”

Walker said the approvals are an undoubted boost to the industry at a time of depressed returns.

However, New Zealand exporters are not alone in being granted new access to high-value markets in China.

Australian and South American rivals had also been given the chance to apply for new access as a result of the administrative shake-up.

“A lot of that value we have had in those specific markets in China up to this point in time will be diluted because supply is going to be far more balanced with the demand opportunities,” Walker said.

A spokesperson for the MPI said the new plant approvals were for five years, after which time exporters will need to re-apply to GACC for them to be rolled over for another five years.

GAINS: The new approvals represent the biggest market access gain for meat exporters in China since authorities there approved 10 plants for chilled exports in 2017.

All eyes on Fonterra as GDT surges Hugh Stringleman

MARKETS

Dairy

GLOBAL dairy prices rose substantially this week, up 4.2% overall. This was the fifth consecutive rise and the ninth market rise in the past six months, in which there were 12 auctions.

Butter jumped 10.3%, cheddar 6.3%, skim milk powder 4.6% and whole milk powder 3.4%.

Since that last major market downturn in mid-August, the GDT index has risen 30%, butter prices are up 43% and WMP up 36%.

Dairy farmers will now expect a response from Fonterra in the farmgate milk price forecast, which sits at $7.50/kg milksolids mid-point after hitting a seasonal low point of $6.75 in September.

There is scope for Fonterra to increase to $8/kg, where it started the 2024 season’s predictions back in late May.

“

This already happens in a number of jurisdictions around the world … so New Zealand is really being left behind Dr John Caradus, Grasslanz

ASB Bank economists have moved their milk price expectation to $8, saying that Fonterra will be fully hedged and have perhaps only 20-25% of its products yet to be priced.

“We have commented many times before on our surprise that WMP prices have continued to prove so robust despite the continued weakness in China, our key market.”

Westpac Bank has upgraded its milk price forecast to $7.90, at the upper end of Fonterra’s range of $7 to $8.

Chief economist Kelly Eckhold said the results were a little surprising and ran counter to their prediction of price consolidation at this time.

“Overall prices continue to sit at their highest since June 2023 and have lifted by around 29% since last year’s low in August.

“On a longer horizon though, prices are only a touch above long-term averages.

“This demonstrates that these are hardly bumper years for

dairy farmers even though the worst fears of 2023 haven’t been realised.”

Eckhold said Westpac economists would be releasing their opening outlook for the 2024-25 dairy season in a couple of weeks.

“Based on current trends it looks like next year should be a touch better than this year – albeit not especially stellar.

“We see improving global demand helping lift prices and a further improvement in costs balanced with a firmer NZ dollar over the year ahead.”

NZX dairy analyst Rosalind Crickett said the results of the auction comfortably surpassed most expectations going into it.

The NZX-SGX dairy derivatives market were predicting flat to bearish results all round.

“This was attributed to perceived weakening demand from Asia and better than predicted southern hemisphere production with the effects of El Niño leaving the industry relatively unscathed.”

Growing call to revisit NZ’s gene tech laws LISTEN NOW

Gabrielle, a year on

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

5

Tairāwhiti farmers not out of woods yet Richard Rennie

NEWS

T

Weather

HE sense of belonging among European and Māori alike to Tairāwhiti, already strong prior to events of the past two years, has only strengthened since Cyclone Gabrielle laid waste to forest, crops and farmland a year ago.

“If anything would prompt people to leave here, they would have been gone by now. They are here for a reason, they want to be here, and they are committed to staying here,” said long time farm adviser Peter Andrew of AgFirst.

He has overseen many clients, both iwi and European, as they have grappled with the challenges of recovery from Gabrielle over the past year.

You do get the ones who will say ‘I am over this bullsh*t.’ But usually, they cannot exit because they owe too much, and land prices are in no-man’s land at present.

Peter Andrew AgFirst farm consultant For some it has been even longer, given the severe weather events experienced before Gabrielle.

Gabrielle is what put Tairāwhiti on the map, but Andrew knows better than most that the cyclone was only an untimely exclamation point amid many months of foul weather language. The region had

endured a full year’s wretched weather even before Gabrielle came knocking, and for most that weather continued until well into late spring last year.

In recent weeks the sun has finally come out, shrugging off La Niña’s gloom to ripen crops, dry soaked land, and welcome holidaymakers back to a true Tairāwhiti summer.

“This has been a big test of people’s resilience, and to get stuff done.

“And if a war should ever break out, I would take an army of Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay farmers with me.”

Despite their stoicism, however, Andrew acknowledges the huge mental toll the past 24-plus months have taken upon them.

“But the good thing is the number of community groups there to bounce things off.”

He believes farmers are always more at ease talking to the people they see and trust every day, the stock agent, the vet, the farm adviser, than they are to some well-intentioned but ultimately unfamiliar counsellor.

“I do have clients who have unloaded on me. But they also recognise there are some really good things about farming, being with their animals, out with their dogs on the land, and learning to celebrate the small wins.”

Those ‘small wins’ may be as simple as fixing the broken gate post that one passes every morning.

“You do get the ones who will say ‘I am over this bullsh*t.’ But usually, they cannot exit because they owe too much, and land prices are in no-man’s land at present.”

MUNTED: Farm adviser Peter Andrew says there are still a number of farmers who will be only 50% recovered, facing high interest rates and a reduced ability to earn enough off their damaged properties to meet costs.

Photo: Phil Yeo Stress levels remain high in rural areas, and it can be easy for an outside visitor to make a comment in jest that is taken the wrong way.

For many farmers inland from the coast, the ongoing wet weather through to late spring means it has taken until summer to fully access and appreciate the work that needs to be done on races, waterlines and fences.

“Guys that were rally badly munted would only be 50% of the way back. They are spending more, earning less and interest rates are up.”

Some had to sell their stock at fire-sale prices after Gabrielle, simply to get them off their damaged properties. Beyond the farm gate, roading infrastructure is the most frustrating factor

SAVE OVER

affecting most communities.

Andrew is concerned central government attention is waning and funding opportunities have been lost as a result.

He points to the Mangatokerau bridge on Tolaga Bay’s Paroa Road, which gained notoriety for the high-profile photo with tonnes of logs, a boat and a container piled against its flanks.

“That bridge is still not fixed. It’s not seen as a priority but it’s cost a client of mine $100,000 in extra costs.

“Forestry operators could have fixed that bridge in two days. I have showed it to ministers but it’s been a year, and nothing has changed.”

While land use change has been much talked about, Andrew is reserved about the benefits a

return to more native plantings would deliver.

Expense in establishment and difficulties in getting people to maintain the plantings for years ahead are two issues, but deer incursion is by far and away the biggest headache.

“People are on board with the idea, but deer will really strip it all back.”

Were government funding to be made available to facilitate planting of a range of species, both exotic and native, including redwoods, redgum and poplar, he believes landowners would take it up, establishing small, manageable woodlots.

“We need those alternative species. You are not going to sell many pines to farmers out here, for lots of reasons.”

$20,000 $129,000 +GST CLAAS ARION 430CIS & FRONT LOADER FL100C Bucket not included

$119,000 +GST CLAAS ARION 410CIS & FRONT LOADER FL100C

Huge savings on a versatile multi-purpose farming tractor.

Find your local CLAAS Harvest Centre at claasharvestcentre.com Standard CLAAS Financial Services lending criteria, terms, and conditions apply. 0% pa requires a minimum 30% deposit followed by monthly repayments over 36 months, GST back in month 3. If finance base rates move by more than 0.25%, CLAAS Financial Service reserve the right to re-quote. Offer applies to all new CLAAS ARION 410 CIS & 430 CIS tractors in stock. Offer valid until 31/03/2024 or while stocks last. Finance must be applied for by 31/03/2024 and settle no later than 30/04/2024. Images illustrative only.

6

R

S EDER I R R O E D R A S W R FO

ORDER NOW FOR NEX T SEASON WITH CONFIDENCE.

brandt.ca/nz 0800 TRACTOR *T&C’s Apply. Orders may be subject to delays. Images used are for illustrative purposes only and may not reflect the product on offer. Unless amended or withdrawn early, offer ends 29/02/24.

29/02

Gabrielle, a year on

7 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

7

A trusty pigtail and

a Rod of iron They don’t breed them tougher than Rod Vowles, a Hawke’s Bay farmer who climbed out of a steep gully cradling his broken neck after being caught in the aftermath of the cyclone. Steve WynHarris reports.

W

HEN the water started to flow into his mouth, Rod Vowles regained

consciousness.

The Hawke’s Bay farmer was still half in the side-by-side, but he knew he needed to get out before he drowned.

His chin was on his chest and he couldn’t lift his head. He knew his neck must be broken.

But his legs and arms still worked so the spinal cord remained intact.

By holding his left shoulder blade with his right hand, he was able to prop his chin onto his bicep to raise his head enough to see how to get out of the bike and creek.

You’d be the toughest old bastard I’ve ever met given you’ve got a broken neck,’ was the doctor’s verdict on the flight to Wellington.

Rod Vowles Hawke‘s Bay Once out of the water, his overriding concern was for his three dogs, but they didn’t appear to be under the side-by-side which miraculously was back on its wheels in the creek having tumbled into this steep gully.

Rod had survived a nasty accident, but he was still in serious trouble.

Cyclone Gabrielle had occurred two days earlier at dawn on Thursday, February 13 2023.

Rod’s farm is on the Pourere

Road in the Tamumu district, only 3km from the Tukituki River.

The farm had over 300mm in this brief event, which was less than the rainfall further north, but the intensity had damaged a lot of tracks, wrecked several nearby council bridges and taken out power and communications.

He had spent some of Friday on the bulldozer trying to open up track access around the farm, but it was slushy, and he hadn’t been able to clear a culvert.

Early Saturday morning after shifting lambs, Rod travelled back to the problematic culvert but decided he wouldn’t chance going through the water and slush that was still covering the track.

He reversed the side-by-side 20m up the track where it was a bit wider, and backed up to turn back in the direction he had come from.

He felt the vehicle going over the edge and instantly knew he was in serious trouble.

He gripped the steering wheel with all his might.

It catapulted end over end several times, 50m down into the sharp gully, and that’s where he found himself some time later when he came to.

Once out of the side-by-side, Rod searched for the personal locator beacon that had been in the bike, but it was gone, probably down the creek.

His cell phone was in his pocket but wet having been in the water – and even if it had worked, there would be no service in this gully.

There was no sign of his beloved dogs, and their wellbeing was front of mind despite his pain and predicament.

Rod lives on his own and with

TOUGH ENOUGH: Rod Vowles relives the ordeal he faced for more than 27 hours after crashing his side-by-side down a 50m gully in the wake of Cyclone Gabrielle. no one else due at the farm for a couple of days. Even if they were on farm, they would likely assume he was out working and have no idea where he could be found. The bike wasn’t visible from the track.

He knew that if he was to survive this, it was going to be by his own means.

For now though, because of the pain and shock, all he could do was lie there in the gully and rest. He felt absolutely buggered, but he was unable to fall asleep and the day passed.

Later his heading dog reappeared and stayed with him, which soothed him and gave him great comfort.

It was hot all day and his legs got burnt but the sun dried him and kept him warm.

Then it was night and he slept fitfully through the night but didn’t get too cold.

Sunday morning dawned and it was coming up to 24 hours since his accident.

He hadn’t eaten or drunk anything in that time.

Rod knew that if he stayed there he would die.

KNOCKED OUT: Rod Vowles’ side-by-side fell end over end several times, down into the steep gully. That’s where he found himself some time later when he came to.

The slope he had crashed down was very steep and he wasn’t able to walk forward as he needed one arm to try to support his head due to the broken neck.

However, he was never aware of the acute peril he was in with an unsupported and exposed spinal cord.

All he had to hand was a pigtail.

“I couldn’t walk forward because of my neck. And so I had to sort of turn around and on my back and crawl up backwards.”

He finally got back to the track and found that now he was on level ground, he could walk – still clutching his shoulder to cradle his head – and be able to see where he was going.

It was extremely slow progress and required regular stops to sit and rest.

At the closed gate, he was relieved to find his other two dogs still safe and sound.

Rod estimates it took some five hours to travel the two or three kilometres from the accident site to his home.

Perhaps as an indication he still didn’t quite appreciate his dire situation, he stopped at the house to get the generator back on to keep the freezer operating while the power was off. He didn’t want his food to spoil.

Driving with difficulty because he struggled to keep his head up, he travelled the two or three kilometres to neighbours Sam and Chrissy Spencer and asked them to call an ambulance to fetch him from his house.

They took one look at the state he was in and pointed out the roads were impassable and that he would be wise to lie down while they got help.

Chrissy drove to cell phone service and within 30 minutes, the Lowe Corporation Rescue Helicopter arrived. Twenty-seven hours since the accident.

The doctor wanted to put a needle into Rod, but he resisted as he said he’d prefer the pain.

He’s no fan of needles. The doctor asked him what his level of pain was and doubted that Rod’s estimate that it was five out of 10.

After some negotiation, the doctor

was finally able to give him some pain relief.

“You’d be the toughest old bastard I’ve ever met given you’ve got a broken neck,” was the doctor’s verdict on the flight to Wellington.

Another helicopter collected him from there and he was flown to Burwood in Christchurch.

What followed was months of recovery in Christchurch and then in Hawke’s Bay Hospital.

Rod has nothing but praise for the health system, ACC and all the folk involved in his rescue.

He is now very wary of backing his side-by-side anywhere and advocates that the personal locator beacon be worn on your belt.

“That’s been a good lesson for me – anyone who’s got a beacon make sure it’s on you. Physically on you.”

That’s been a good lesson for me – anyone who’s got a beacon make sure it’s on you. Physically on you.

Rod Vowles Hawke‘s Bay The seasons have been kind to the farm since the cyclone, although Rod says it’s getting harder to plan that it used to be.

“It’s been a funny season. We all thought there was going to be a drought. And look at us, we had a huge amount of rain yesterday.

And it just it makes farming very difficult because your seasons are not what they used to be in my time. I’m pleased my son’s doing it now.”

In the movie Cast Away, the character played by Tom Hanks has only one companion for the four years he is stranded on an island.

Wilson the volleyball helps Hanks’ character get through the torment.

That heading dog was a great comfort to Rod during his own ordeal and the now-beloved pigtail sits in pride of place in the corner of his living room.

8

8

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

Gabrielle, a year on

Gabrielle’s cruel touch continues to knock growers Richard Rennie

WEATHER

T

Horticulture

HE water is well gone and much of the silt that came with it, but kiwifruit growers in Hawke’s Bay still have some hard yards ahead a year after Cyclone Gabrielle.

The region is far from being New Zealand’s largest kiwifruit growing area, accounting for just 135 hectares in 2022, but has been growing strongly from its small base thanks to good winter chill temperatures.

In some vines it was well after fruit set before we saw what would happen. We have been finding on some the fruit has shrivelled up or not made it to size.

Gary Davies Kiwifruit grower NZ Kiwifruit Growers board member Gary Davies said he is still witnessing the rolling effects of the floods, even in his own relatively small .75ha canopy Green orchard.

He estimates he lost a third of his vines after Gabrielle, but losses are continuing to manifest in some that had seemed to survive the initial flooding well.

He said it remains hard to determine just how many more could be lost.

“We did not get hit by silt but did get a lot of water.

“We are all Bruno rootstock, and

I have been finding it takes a while for the damage to come through.

“In some vines it was well after fruit set before we saw what would happen.

“We have been finding on some the fruit has shrivelled up or not made it to size.”

There is evidence the newer Bounty rootstock has stood up better to the silt and water inundation, but work continues to determine the longer term impacts and options to shift rootstock type.

Gabrielle was a double whammy for Davies, also taking out about 20% of the hives in his honey business.

For some growers Gabrielle’s bruises run deep and will for some years yet.

Davies has been working with one grower who was just about to have his first full Green harvest off his 5ha orchard, only to lose the lot to Gabrielle.

“But he is determined to get it back again and is starting from scratch. So he is looking at an orchard that will have taken 11 years to reach its full production.”

While he will benefit from the government loans made available, these will still ultimately have to be paid back.

Another grower Davies is working with is still 12 months away from reinstating posts, wires and irrigation to get his orchard back on track.

Silt deposits remain a real problem for the region, with hundreds of truckloads a day removed and more remaining.

However, Davies remains optimistic about kiwifruit’s place

SOAKED: Napier kiwifruit grower Gary Davies says his orchard was affected by floodwaters rather than silt, but the full impact is still revealing itself.

Photo: John Cowpland/alphapix in Hawke’s Bay, seeing a number of unaffected growers continuing with their expansion plans.

Colin Bond, NZ Kiwifruit

Growers Incorporated CEO, said it is estimated around 80% of orchards in Hawke’s Bay were initially impacted to some extent,

although the impact on vine health is still ongoing and so the full extent may not be known for some time yet.

More speed needed on roading recovery efforts Richard Rennie

NEWS

D

Weather

ESPITE the region enduring two years of devastating weather events, Gisborne’s mayor remains highly optimistic about Tairāwhiti’s future as a high value horticultural hub serving New Zealand and the rest of the world.

But she said there remains an urgent need to review how regions like hers receive roading recovery funding to ensure they are reconnected sooner to the rest of that world.

Mayor Rehette Stoltz has a mayoral role that competes with Auckland’s Wayne Brown’s for

media profile since her region was shoved into the national limelight

by Gabrielle’s wrath.

For her and her ratepayers, the key priority remains roading infrastructure repair and access.

“I have opened many new bridges in the past year, but there is still much that needs to be done.

Right now, I am actively dealing with farmers who have to move stock off their farms, but still have no access. The council is working on it, but funds are limited.”

She said Gabrielle has highlighted the need for a completely new look at NZ’s road funding legislation.

Despite only 200km out of 2000km of roads in the district being Waka Kotahi state highways, the agency is still also responsible

for oversight on funding for the local roads.

“We need more bespoke legislation to make emergency funding available faster after such events, to get the repairs done that are needed so urgently.

“Waka Kotahi are doing the best they can, but we need this change as a nation to respond to future events like this.”

One year on from Gabrielle, Stoltz acknowledged the region remains in recovery mode and faces connecting with new government ministers to keep the momentum of that recovery running at full pace.

“We have found some tasks, like silt removal, have proven to Continued next page

Gabrielle, a year on

9 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

9

Native plants may help heal Tairāwhiti Richard Rennie

NEWS

A

Weather

TAIRĀWHITI community leader accepts that spending millions on roads is important in the Gabrielle recovery programme – but so too, he says, is ensuring those roads lead to communities with a prosperous future before them.

Ruatoria local Manu Caddie said there is a real risk of a “road to nowhere” scenario if steps are not taken to ensure remote coastal communities have sustainable, economic income alternatives to exotic forestry.

Like the exotics, those alternatives grow well on the coast but also have the ability to heal humans and the land alike.

He wants to see some of the millions spent on roading also committed to co-investment into companies establishing

sustainable businesses based on indigenous plants and organisms on the coast.

For him the first contender is the plant kānuka, and kānuka oil extraction.

“We’ve got a product that has been through successful clinical trials in Aotearoa and Florida, the results have been published in The Lancet medical journal and we now have global pharmaceutical companies signing up for licencing deals.

“This will require significant kānuka forests to be sustainably managed, jobs in kānuka cultivation, harvesting of the foliage, transportation and oil extraction.

“Kānuka is awesome for erosion control and over time we can transition pasture to kānuka and then kānuka monocrop forests to transition to more diverse indigenous species if we develop a market for, say, sustainably produced tōtara and matai timber.”

OPEN FOR BUSINESS: Roading infrastructure repair funding after events like Cyclone Gabrielle needs to be reviewed to get regions like Gisborne back and running far quicker, says Gisborne mayor Rehette Stoltz.

Continued from previous page be significantly greater than first realised, with some major costs being faced by growers.”

Some kiwifruit orchards have faced bills of $100,000 a hectare for the judicious removal of meters of silt between vine bays.

Legacy slash removal is another

• • •

can have more say in how forests are planted and managed in their districts.

“It is a start. But we also now have a new government, with different priorities, so we have to share the same desired outcomes otherwise we will be working against each other.”

She said forestry will always have a place on the coast and can’t be demonised when it also plays a role on so many farms in reducing erosion.

But any future remediation funding for either exotic or native plantings is likely to remain some way off as the region remains in recovery mode.

Over $200 million of funding has already been received to help with road restoration, house removal and further flood protection, on top of a pre-budgeted $30m scheme.

This, along with a $15m project to elevate existing homes against future floods, will all provide reasons for people to stay or move to a region more capable of facing future events – and keep it one of the nation’s key produce growing regions.

and dozens of businesses with deep experience in fencing, hunting, trapping, spraying, tree-planting and maintenance.

These skills are all transferable to indigenous restoration programmes on land unsustainable for pasture or pine.”

Caddie was instrumental in leading a community petition just prior to Cyclone Gabrielle, pushing for a review and halt to forestry on parts of the coast particularly vulnerable to forest debris and waste damage.

The petition proved prescient, launched only days before Gabrielle dumped millions of tonnes of waste on Tairāwhiti homes, beaches and farms, adding another layer to existing piles and growing community anguish.

He understands decisions are also already underway to determine if some of the region’s local roads will remain open or will closed for good.

“I know some places where there may be only one house down a 20km road, and it is being asked just how viable those roads will be.

This also includes the powerlines down there too.”

Surveys he has conducted with community groups are also providing some insights into locals’ tolerance for future weather

events, given the sketchy roading network.

“We did a ‘stay or go’ survey on families and some did say they will go, but most said they intend to stay for the long haul.

I know some places where there may be only one house down a 20km road, and it is being asked just how viable those roads will be.

Manu Caddie Ruatoria “It is possible, though, we may see life here become more seasonal, and some places just become summer destinations maybe only accessible by water.”

Caddie admits the recent weather events have challenged even his usually optimistic view of Tairāwhiti’s future.

However, with the sun out and some normality returned he still believes the coast has huge opportunities ahead, creating new markets for products connected to diverse indigenous forests and plantations, including kānuka, mānuka honey and native timber products.

GOING NATIVE: Ruatoria local and community leader Manu Caddie maintains there is significant opportunity for indigenous plants with proven medicinal value that can also help transition from pasture to indigenous forest over time.

Spraying pasture weeds – gorse, broom, blackberry Fertiliser spreading – liquid and solid, bulk delivery or bagged • Lifting Facial eczema • Scenics/Charter Wand spraying • Filming/Photography Frost control

Book your services before 30 April 2024 and go in the draw to win return flights to the 2024 New Zealand National Fieldays. * Conditions apply

LK0117455©

• •

area also requiring ongoing funding to ensure it is completed as fully as possible.

“We are waiting for the new government to indicate what they want their priorities to be.”

In the wake of the postGabrielle forestry and land use inquiry, Stoltz has welcomed the recommendation that councils

However, he is aware that any developments using native plants will be highly dependent on a programme managing the huge deer and possum populations in the region.

“Deer populations have been out of control in the Raukūmaras.

A five-year government-funded project on pest control in the ranges is proving successful but needs a 20-year funding window to deliver full results.”

The Tane Tree Trust is also working with local forestry companies on projects to study the transition of pine forests to natives, given the lack of evidence to date on how to achieve this successfully.

Such projects also have a pool of skilled, forest-familiar labour available among workers who feel the exotic forestry sector has left them short-changed, but who want to remain living in Tairāwhiti.

“There are hundreds of whanau

Allan Bodman OWNER/CHIEF PILOT

Under NEW Ownership

Mobile: 0274 912 443 allan@heliworxwaikato.co.nz

heliworxwaikato.co.nz

10

10

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

Gabrielle, a year on

Hastings eyes massive repair funding deficit Neal Wallace

NEWS

T

Horticulture

HE economics do not add up.

The Hastings District Council estimates it faces an $800 million bill to restore road and bridge access following Cyclone Gabrielle, of which the government has provided $228m.

Council Mayor Sandra Hazlehurst said the question of who will fund the $582m balance is still be negotiated with the government, but she warns that it is beyond the council.

It still has to fund the removal of a further 1.2 million cubic metres of silt, in addition to the 1.4 million cu m already shifted, and repair another 300 slips.

Council contracts have been let for the replacement of four bridges and it has started the process of buying out 165 damaged properties.

Hawke’s Bay regional councillor and Waipukurau farmer Will Foley said recovery costs are overwhelming some councils, and this highlights the need for change in how councils are funded.

The cyclone is a reminder to rural communities of the need to be prepared for weatherinduced disruption to roads, bridges, electricity supply and telecommunications.

“It’s brought rural communities a lot closer together and they will be a lot better prepared with what they need to have, need to know and need to do,” he said Foley said while recovery is not complete, there has been progress.

“In the first couple of days post

cyclone, we were wondering how we were ever going to recover.

“Look now and while there is a still a massive amount of work still to be done, everyone is surprised by what has been achieved so far.”

A review of the Civil Defence response is underway and Foley hopes one finding will be that the storage of emergency resources will no longer be centralised but dispersed among communities.

Persistent wet weather since the cyclone means farmers have been busy this summer with delayed repairs and there has been universal relief the forecast El Niño weather pattern has not caused a drought.

“Farmers are mentally stressed by the cyclone and general farming sentiment so thank God summer has been a bit more favourable,” he said.

Hawke’s Bay Fruit Growers chair Brydon Nisbet said growers were

SURVIVAL: Hawke’s Bay Fruit Growers chair Brydon Nisbet says growers were surprised at how trees survived the storm deluge.

Photos: John Cowpland/alphapix surprised at how trees survived the storm deluge, and subsequent favourable growing conditions have created an excellent crop.

“We’ve got a good crop. What we need now are good returns to growers,” he said.

Despite that, hundreds of thousands of trees need replacing and it could be three years before

FUTURE: Hundreds of thousands of trees need replacing after Cyclone Gabrielle and it could be three years before sufficient new seedlings are propagated.

Strategic leadership development for Food and Fibre now.

Applications for Lincoln Programme Two 2024, 18 June start, close 14 April.

Grow as a leader and as a person in 2024.

To register your interest, head to ruralleaders.co.nz/application-kellogg/

sufficient new seedlings are propagated.

Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Nadine Tunley is urging the government to press ahead with plans to meet councils and communities to determine requirements and to make good on a pledge to use additional Orders in Council to speed up cyclone and flood recovery efforts.

“The industry and the communities across these regions have made remarkable progress but more help is needed.”

Tunley wants as a priority the protection of highly productive land for primary production and a whole-of-catchment approach to flood protection and water use for primary production.

“This approach would see more bush on hill country, fewer houses in flood-prone valleys, and more water storage throughout the catchment,” she said.

Wairoa mayor Craig Little said parts of the town are still in a state of disrepair, yet for $6m, the 100 still-uninhabitable homes could be repaired and residents able to return.

Adding insult to injury is the

discovery that $13m raised in a special Cyclone Gabrielle lottery held last year is sitting in a bank account instead of being distributed.

“That is a disgrace,” said Little.

A visit to the town by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and senior ministers before Christmas has not yet resulted in any material benefits.

“We have got solutions but not the finance to do this stuff and councils are quickly running out of money,” he said.

Little is also perplexed by some of the repair priorities initiated by Land Transport NZ. While communities are waiting for basic services to be restored, LTNZ is demolishing the damaged Waikare Bridge on State Highway 2 and is considering replacing it with a 160m over-pass and 4km realignment.

Little said this will extend disruption for the community.

MORE:

Want to share your thoughts on this issue? Text us on 027 226 8553 with the keyword Funding followed by your comments.

Gabrielle, a year on

11 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

11

Green for go on Land for Life Richard Rennie

NEWS

A

Land

LMOST a year after Cyclone Gabrielle passed through, the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council has given the green light to support a major land remediation project to repair damaged and eroded catchments in the region.

The Land for Life project is a collaborative initiative between HBRC, the Ministry for Primary Industries and United States-based not-for-profit Nature Conservancy (TNC).

The programme aims to help farmers shift land use practices to ensure they can continue to farm in a more resilient fashion in the face of climate change impacts.

It comes in a region where over 250,000 hectares of its most erodible country contributes 6.2 million tonnes of silt a year to river systems, or about 1000t per square kilometre a year.

Today the project has 12 farms trialling its techniques, and granting it the green light means another 90 properties can be engaged in the project over the next two years.

The Nature Conservancy has a portfolio of international projects aimed at remediating environments across 76 countries that focus on both land and water.

Its focus in Hawke’s Bay will include a “flood plains by design” process, reshaping land to enable broader river passages during flood events, slowing water flow down while also aiming to reduce water losses off sloped areas through revegetation and planting.

and this includes building a larger team to manage the numbers.

“We are not quite at the point of seeking expressions of interest yet,” Bassett-Foss said.

However, he was confident about farmer interest in the initiative, recognising many farmers are also still fatigued by Gabrielle’s aftermath and have yet to address their farm’s ability to become more resilient to future events.

Ultimately there will be 300 farms on Land for Life farm plans, with a further 300 adopting tree-planting programmes.

Nature Conservancy Aotearoa country

manager Abbie Reynolds said TNC is excited to be involved in a new approach to support heartland farming communities to improve their business resilience and ensure they remain for the long haul, while also delivering significant benefits to nature.

HBRC’s rural recovery programme leader Richard Wakelin said he is encouraged by data showing farmers are ranking hill country recovery as a priority in the coming years.

He said Land for Life is a mechanism to achieve that, and help unlock some of the farm’s wealth without having to sell it.

GREEN LIGHT: The Hawke’s Bay Regional Council’s green light to Land for Life to expand to 90 farms provides the region’s farmers with a pathway to remediate farms hit hard by Gabrielle, and remain farming upon them, says Michael Bassett-Foss.

GET MORE DONE

Farmers have found they can approach their banks for green loan financing. Their banks have recognised the Land for Life process is a good independent and expert approach and they have given it the thumbs-up.

Michael Bassett-Foss Hawke’s Bay Regional Council One trial farm is owned by Elsthorpe couple Evan and Linda Potter, who ultimately intend to retire 200ha of their property, leaving 520ha in pasture.

The project aims to support farmers to plant the right trees in the right place to protect existing native forests and wetlands to reduce erosion, improve freshwater quality and build resilient farms.

It will also support improvements in pastoral farm systems and regenerative farming practices that are good for farmers’ bottom lines and the environment.

Over $4 million has already been set aside for the project.

Michael Bassett-Foss, HBRC’s Land for Life project director, said the council is receiving reasonable signals from the government for a positive funding reception.

He said alongside government funding, the Nature Conservancy will be turning its expertise to attracting private philanthropic funding to the project.

“We have also learnt a lot from the initial farms involved in the pilot project.

“Farmers have found they can approach their banks for green loan financing.

Their banks have recognised the Land for Life process is a good independent and expert approach and they have given it the thumbs-up.”

The next stage is initiating the scaling up to 90 farms over the next two years,

FREE * DeWalt 18V XR Brushless Circular Saw, 18V XR Impact Driver or a LED Worklight Torch with qualifying cattle products.

For high quality and convenience you can trust, talk to your vet clinic about Boehringer Ingelheim cattle products to keep your stock at their best and we’ll add these DeWalt cordless tools to your tool box.

For more information talk to your vet or visit:

futureproducers.co.nz

*Batteries & charger are not included. Promo ends 30th April 2024. Ask in clinic for qualifying products.

PROUDLY AVAILABLE FROM YOUR LOCAL PARTICIPATING VETERINARY CLINIC. ECLIPSE® and MATRIX® are registered trademarks of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH, used under license. ACVM Registration Nos. A0101131, A009270, A011151 © Copyright 2024 Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health New Zealand Limited. All rights reserved. NZ-BOV-0051-2023.

12

12

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

Gabrielle, a year on

Finding yourself downstream of a dam-burst With the water rising fast, it was time to remember how to swim.

Steve Wyn-Harris speaks to a retired Hawke’s Bay farmer.

W

HEN Chris Ward saw that the heifer trapped in the hallway blocking their escape was now desperately thrashing around as it drowned, he decided it was time he and his house guest, Julie, got out of the house.

They were crouching on the supertub in the laundry with water up to their necks and only a foot of headroom to the ceiling. Chris broke the window, the dog bolted out and was swept away with the current, then Julie and Chris followed.

Chris’s house is on Dartmoor Road beside the Tutaekuri River, two minutes’ drive from the iconic Puketapu Hotel in Hawke’s Bay. He had retired from sheep and beef farming to this idyllic horticultural and lifestyle community 20 minutes from Napier.

Cyclone Gabrielle had brought heavy rain all night into the early hours of February 14 2023.

Chris was woken by the unusual sound of the toilet bubbling, and he looked out in the dark to see that there was water around the house.

He went out to get his huntaway Bucko from his kennel and by the time he got to him, the water was up to the dog’s neck.

He put the dog onto a couch on the deck and went back inside to wake Julie, then started putting

items onto tables and benches.

He saw the couch floating off the deck with the dog and went back into the water while it was still dark and retrieved him.

The water was coming up very quickly and Chris realised that the river must have breached.

He went back outside and was able to throw the two fox terriers and cat up onto the roof.

Back in the house he procrastinated for several minutes as he knew that during Bola water hadn’t flowed through the house.

He was waiting to see if it would begin to drop.

There was so much silt in the water that the doors in the house became impossible to open or shut.

The water was pouring in through the cat flap. The pressure finally broke the ranchslider when it was halfway up and the level inside the house began rising rapidly.

Suddenly it was at chest height, and not long later at neck height.

It was still only 30 minutes since he had woken.

Dawn was breaking and they saw cattle being swept past the house in the flood.

One managed to find its footing on the raised gardens and climbed the house steps and came through the back door into the hallway, which Chris and Julie had already eyed as their escape route.

The 300kg heifer jammed in the

FLOODED OUT: His house on Dartmoor Road in Hawke’s Bay a write-off, Chris Ward has been living in a caravan park since Cyclone Gabrielle. hallway then began panicking as the water level rose.

They could hear Julie’s horses drowning in the nearby shed.

Chris was able to reach a meat cleaver in a cupboard and smashed the window.

He went back outside and was able to throw the two fox terriers and cat up onto the roof.

Bucko swam straight out and was carried off. He turned up the following day “clean as a whistle”.

Chris yelled to Julie to ask if she could swim.

“Not for years,” she said.

“You’d better remember quick,” he told her.

They now had to go under the water to get out the window. They both got mouthfuls of water – “It was like a spoonful of sand,” said Chris.

Outside he got her to climb onto

his shoulders and onto the roof.

By the time it was his turn to get on the roof, the water had risen so rapidly, he was floating at gutter height and just slid onto it.

So there they were with two fox terriers and a cat on the ridgeline surrounded by a large, fast-flowing river. Chris noticed the cockroaches pouring out from under the garage roofing iron to take their chances in the current.

The water started moving up the roof and large trees were being swept past.

Then just as fast as it came up it started to go down.

He was to learn later that a dam had burst further upstream in the Mangaone River above the Puketitiri Bridge, which, like the Puketapu Bridge below them, was swept away in the deluge.

Chris got off the roof when the water was back to chest height and managed to find a ladder. He helped Julie and the animals off the roof.

They had to stay on the platform

of the house because the mud and silt was like quicksand and impossible to get through without getting stuck.

Helicopters went over them throughout the day but without landing. Chris discovered the header tank in the ceiling still had some clean water in it and that evening was able to find uncontaminated sealed food in the water-filled deep freeze, which he heated over the resurrected BBQ with one burner still operating.

It was a surreal experience as they ate their dinner of bacon and eggs while gazing at the destruction around them.

That night was a grim experience as they attempted to sleep on wet couches with wet bedding. They were cold, filthy, and plagued by mosquitoes, along with headaches from lack of fluids.

Early next morning a helicopter from Dunedin signalled for them to move to an area where it could land but they both got stuck in the process.

Chris finally managed to extract himself by making like a starfish on the surface of the mud but the rescuer from the helicopter also became stuck when he got to Julie.

The helicopter hovered above those two and lowered a cable and eventually all three of them were extracted and delivered to Scott and Jenny Wedd’s home on a hill.

They had no electricity or water and a lot of people to care for.

Some hours later another chopper came for six of them and evacuated them, along with several dogs, to Hastings.

A few days later Chris met up with good Samaritan Vance Mackie, who dug his way with his digger to the house and with great difficulty extracted the dead heifer from the hallway.

Chris for now lives in a caravan park in Hastings and travels to his property as he puts it and his life back together.

The house is a write-off.

Gabrielle pushes climate to top of worry list Richard Rennie

NEWS

Climate change A YEAR after Cyclone Gabrielle’s devastating impact, the ripples continue with climate change and extreme weather events being the two biggest issues keeping the New Zealand primary sector up at night.

Our Land and Water questioned almost 300 primary sector experts, including farmers, policy makers, Māori and academics, to get a handle on what they see as the biggest challenges affecting NZ’s land use in the coming decade.

Asked to rank a list of issues, almost all uniformly cited climate change and extreme weather events as the two most critical, closely followed by water quality and agricultural policy issues.

Other pressing issues at an international level include greenhouse gas emissions and international trade agreements.

Asked about their concerns unprompted, the experts again

EYES WIDE OPEN: Gabrielle’s impact helped move awareness of climate change and extreme weather events to the No 1 spot for NZ’s primary sector. put climate change over twice as high on their list as the next major unprompted concern, government policy.

Research leader Dr Tim Driver

of Lincoln University said the work captures the zeitgeist of the primary sector at present very well.

He noted the work has captured significant world and domestic

issues even without prompting, revealing how they play upon the minds of those in the primary sector.

The researchers concluded Gabrielle’s devastating impact bought climate change and extreme weather into sharper focus for the sector.

Driver said the study reflects both Gabrielle’s immediacy, and an emerging awareness of the need to plan and adapt to climate change, along with the extreme weather events that accompany it.

The ranking of water quality was also notable, and similar to last year’s study results.

“Producers have got this dual pressure of maintaining production versus reducing the environmental impacts, particularly in more intensive sectors such as dairy.”

He cited the conflict between having an ongoing need for water resources to continue production on one hand, while on the other there was greater concern about agricultural runoff entering local water sources and impacts

on biodiversity and ecosystem services.

Artificial Intelligence, or AI – named the most notable new word of 2023 by dictionary publishers Collins – was also captured among respondents’ feedback in the survey this year.

It also provided some solutions to the dire concerns raised by climate change and extreme weather.

The report saw AI as an emerging game changer in helping farmers adapt their farming practices, with it being used in the United Kingdom to identify the right seeds to grow in specific weather conditions.

“It can potentially provide farmers and land managers with information they would not normally have access to. The knowledge and expertise of NZ producers is immense but AI could be a useful too to complement that.”

His hope is that with improved 5G connectivity, its use will become far wider in the rural sector.

13

News

13

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

Are our woolly sheep still fit for purpose?

Gerald Piddock

NEWS

V

Sheep and beef

ETERINARIAN and consultant Trevor Cook has questioned whether modern, woolly hill country sheep are suited to the environment they are farmed in.

Farmers are dagging, crutching, drenching and shearing these animals on the basis that if they do this work, they will get a good return, he told farmers at a Beef+ Lamb New Zealand (BLNZ) field day in North Waikato.

But that return has been very poor in recent years, he said.

“A lot of the sheep we have on hill country do not fit the environment we have got them in.

“If we want sustainable sheep, from a profitability point of view, from a chemical point of view, sheep have to be in this form where we don’t have to dag them, we don’t have to yard them – where we don’t have to do that stuff around wool.

“There’s a massive cost to that and we just put up with it. We have put up with it for a long time without getting a return on it and we can’t carry on.”

The field day was held at Lochiel Station at Glen Murray in North Waikato, and looked at the future of wool. Station manager Kim Robinson had switched breeds

from Coopworth to the woolshedding Wiltshire breed.

Cook said this change needed to be put in the context of a farmer wanting productive sheep that cost less to run and are more suited to the environment.

Farmers are also change-adverse despite it being years since farmers were properly paid for wool, he said.

“It’s a long time since we were paid enough for wool to cover the costs of what we have to do with sheep to keep them alive and productive because they have got wool.

“I don’t know of any other sector of society that lives on hope as much as farmers live on it.”

Farmers had also been burned in the past by poor composite breeds produced in the 1990s and having a poor previous experience with “horrible-looking” shedding sheep farmed by “people in green cardigans and sandals”, he said.

What has made it more challenging is that a lot of those maintenance costs have risen in recent years.

“In my opinion in a lot of cases, the tools we are using are failing us and if we look ahead, they will absolutely fail us and we will not be able to keen using them.”

The focus has to be on sheep that cost less to produce while at the same time retaining the highperforming traits that already exist within the industry.

farm wool and still see it as an important part of their business and there are some who don’t.”

BLNZ Genetics ran a project to collate trait information around low input sheep, animals with shorter tails and clean breaches.

From a profitability point of view ... sheep have to be in this form where we don’t have to dag them, we don’t have to yard them.

Trevor Cook Veterinarian and consultant

COSTLY: Veterinarian and consultant Trevor Cook says a lot of the sheep being farmed on hill country no longer fit the economic environment farmers are finding themselves in.

Cook said this is achievable through genetics.

BLNZ Genetics general manager Dan Brier agreed with Cook on the effect the low wool price is having on farmers’ businesses.

“There’s no question that people

have to look at their businesses and say, ‘What role is it playing?’”

He said BLNZ Genetics’ job is to make sure farmers have the right tools to do what they want when it comes to sheep selection.

“There are farmers who

Farmers can use this to help select sheep for the future that are right for them, Brier said.

“I agree with Trevor. Sheep that will require less inputs are absolutely an important part of the future for us.”

Farmers are clever business people and are looking at different ways to achieve that. Some are choosing sheep with no wool, others are looking at marketing initiatives and some are looking at growing finer wool to lift its value.

“There are a number of ways in which farmers are trying to deal with the crux of the problem, which is that wool isn’t worth very much.

“This wouldn’t be a conversation if wool was $10/kg.”

US sharpens appetite for New Zealand meat Annette Scott

MARKETS

Beef and sheep SIGNIFICANT opportunities have been identified for market growth in New Zealand sheepmeat exports to the United States, with high quality chilled beef also finding a niche market among US consumers.

This positive news for farmers comes from the trade policy team of Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ), which provides regular updates on the US trade market for farmers, ongoing work with US counterparts and potential US trade action.

The US is a key market for both beef and sheepmeat exports, with 36% of NZ beef exports by value heading to the US in 2023, and 15% of sheepmeat exports.

NZ’s beef exports are mainly frozen manufacturing beef, which is blended with US fatty trim and mixed into hamburger meat.

BLNZ general manager policy and advocacy Dave Harrison said this provides a consistent and valuable market for lean beef originating from the dairy industry.

NZ’s high quality chilled beef is also finding a niche market among US consumers who are searching for grass-fed, high animal welfare products.

Over the past few years exports of chilled beef to the US have increased from NZ$52 million in 2019 to $133m in 2023.

Harrison said while sheepmeat consumption per capita in the US is relatively low, it is growing quickly and there are significant opportunities identified for market growth.

In 2023, NZ exported 27,500 tonnes of sheepmeat to the US, worth NZ$544m. This was down slightly from a record level of exports in 2022.

Many of the challenges that the US sheep industry faces are also common to NZ farmers and we should be working together to address them.

Dave Harrison Beef + Lamb NZ But still the US remains one of NZ’s highest value markets in 2023, with exports worth $18.04/ kg (FoB), compared to an average of $9.67/kg across all NZ exports markets this year.

BLNZ engages directly with its US counterparts in the sheep and beef industries and recently attended the American Sheep

Industry Association (ASI) convention held in early January in Colorado.

At this year’s convention, BLNZ and Sheep Producers Australia were invited to present to the American Lamb Board on sustainability.

BLNZ senior environmental policy analyst Madeline Hall and BLNZ’s US relationship manager, Jason Frost, attended the event and provided an overview of the industry’s activities and outlined the challenges and opportunities the sector is facing domestically.

Meanwhile one of two recent trade actions that were launched by separate US producer organisations to restrict NZ lamb imports into America has been dropped.

Last year, the ASI engaged a law firm to explore its allegations of harm from NZ and Australian sheepmeat imports.

At the ASI convention and then in subsequent media reports, ASI leadership indicated that they would not further pursue any action against Australia and NZ as the costs of action were deemed to outweigh any benefit the US industry would gain.

While this is a welcome development, Harrison said, BLNZ and the Meat Industry Association

ROOM TO GROW: Dave Harrison says there is plenty of room to grow the US market for both imported and domestically produced lamb.

(MIA) are keeping abreast of developments.

The second trade action from R-CALF, an organisation that represents both US sheepmeat and cattle producers, separately petitioned the US Trade Representative (USTR) to launch an investigation into NZ and Australian sheepmeat imports.

To date there has not been any commitment from USTR on whether or not it will proceed with an investigation.

“Despite this, we continue to work closely with NZ officials and MIA to reduce the risk to NZ farmers and processors,” Harrison said.

“Our view on both of the trade issues is that many of the challenges that the US sheep industry faces, such as internal

parasites, rising input costs, and competition from other land uses, are also common to NZ farmers and we should be working together to address them.”

The US currently has a low per capita consumption of lamb, although this is rapidly changing and provides opportunities for both domestic and imported sheepmeat.

Harrison said by working collaboratively to grow the market for lamb in the US, there is plenty of room for both imported and domestically produced lamb.

“BLNZ’s trade policy team will continue to monitor the situation and look to further increase cooperation with US sheep producers on areas where we have mutual interest.”

14

14

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

News

Stay strong, wool farmers encouraged Gerald Piddock

NEWS

T

Food and fibre

WO strong wool industry leaders are urging farmers to keep the faith, saying there are signs of a reversal of fortunes within the beleaguered sector after years of poor pricing.

Wool Impact chief executive Andy Caughey and Bremworth chief executive Greg Smith shared with farmers at a Beef + Lamb field day in North Waikato their vision of how the strong wool sector can be resurrected.

The day – titled What’s the Future of Wool: Two sides to the story – was held at Lochiel Station near Glen Murray and attracted close to 80 farmers.

Lochiel Station manager Kim

Robinson told farmers earlier in the day that he had switched sheep breeds from Coopworth to the wool-shedding Wiltshire because it was costing him more to shear the sheep than the returns he was receiving for the wool.

He was also getting penalised for colouring in the wool, which he said was caused by the wet, humid climate the sheep were farmed in.

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was we had 258 bales of wool – $67,000 for the wool and $87,000 to shear them.”

He is now in his third season farming Wiltshire genetics with his ewe flock comprising 2500 pure Wiltshire, 3500 first cross Wiltshire and 4800 Coopworth ewes.

Caughey told farmers there was reason for optimism despite the poor prices they are receiving.

“There’s good reason to skip and

OUT: Lochiel Station manager Kim Robinson says he switched to Wiltshire genetics because the cost of shearing his previous flock of Coopworth sheep was more than the returns he was receiving for his wool bales.

have confidence that, through the initiatives that we are starting to undertake, the next couple of years could start to see new and emerging opportunities for strong wool and help in resurrecting the strong wool sector.”

Local farmer and Coopworth breeder Kate Broadbent said the “burning question” in the room was that if strong wool innovation is happening and it is a product that the world needs, then these companies are currently getting their wool for free because the price is so low.

She said plastic alternatives should be taxed to help the wool sector.

“We’re all excited with what you have to say and we’re all on board, but there’s a huge gap in what we’re getting now and what we need.”

Caughey told her that, globally, countries are bringing in legislation that will account for the environmental impact of the disposal of synthetic carpet at the end of its life.

This will have a significant impact on companies using this type of carpet.

King Country Wiltshire breeder Peter Foss was more sceptical, telling Caughey he had no reason to believe him.

“I believed someone 30 years ago and thought things were going to improve so I hung in with my Romneys. Here we are 30 years later and you’re telling me the same story. What incentive have I got to believe you?”

Broadbent told him it was not the same story because the world is changing – but he understood his cynicism.

“We are still living in hope, none of us are cashing a big wool cheque yet, but I like to think that

UPBEAT: Wool Impact chief executive Andy Caughey told farmers there was reason for optimism despite the poor prices they are receiving.

The next couple of years could start to see new and emerging opportunities for strong wool and help in resurrecting the strong wool sector.

Andy Caughey Wool Impact we have good people working and supporting us until we get there.”

Another farmer said a wool price of $10/kg is “where it needs to be”.

Caughey said they are engaging with brands and are in discussions about sustainable, long-term pricing for growers.

“Our challenge is to decommodify our strong wool clip.

We only have 100,000 tonnes, we are a very small market, we are less than 1% of the global fibre market.

“We need to treat it differently than just trying to sell it through an auction.”

Bremworth chief executive Greg Smith thanked the “stubborn buggers” who had stuck with wool.

“I’m not here to say stick with strong wool because we would not have a business without it – I’m here to say that we believe there will be a business with it – and you’re not wrong, you’re not making any money off it.

“Regardless of the choices you make, we’re all in on strong wool.”

He outlined the work Bremworth is doing in the sector, saying it shows the support they have for the sector.

“We’re trying our best and as part of that, we expect the fortunes for you all to change as well, as our fortunes change. As the business becomes more profitable, we can pay more for the wool.”

‘Urgent’ water reform in minister’s in-tray Neal Wallace

POLITICS

Environment MINISTRY for the Environment officials have told the government there are opportunities to simplify regulations on the primary sector’s use and management of land and freshwater.

The ministry’s briefing for incoming ministers states that for the past decade the government has used national direction and regulations to manage urban and rural water and land use, which farmers resisted claiming they were cumbersome and illogical.

Officials said those policies can be simplified.

The briefing says this top-down approach has had little impact.

“Climate change and the effect of existing land use and management practices – both urban and rural – are placing severe pressure on our freshwater and coastal environments,” the briefing says.

The coalition agreement is to replace the National Policy Statement for Freshwater and

rebalance the objectives of the water quality agency, Te Mana o te Wai, to better reflect the interests of all water users.

The agreement is to also stop implementation of the new Significant Natural Areas policy while advice is sought to include its aims as part of the Resource Management Act reforms.

Officials said implementation of these policies has not always been considered in a strategic way.

Minister for the Environment Penny Simmonds faces “increasing urgent policy issues” on the allocation of freshwater resources, the brief states.

This includes overallocation and management of water within environmental limits along with Māori rights and interests in its management.

The new minister faces decisions on the role of freshwater farm plans to support farmers at farm and catchment levels and the need to roll out those plans throughout the country.

She will need to decide on how to achieve biodiversity goals and

targets to which New Zealand recently committed by signing the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework for land and marine environments.

That international agreement sets a pathway to reach the global vision of a world living in harmony with nature by 2050 by committing parties to setting national targets to implement it.

It was signed late last year in Montreal as part of the 15th meeting of the conference of the Parties (COP-15) and follows four years of consultation and negotiations.

Other challenges awaiting the minister are the likely failure of NZ to meet its target of reducing net emissions to 50% below 2005 levels by 2030.

NOT SUITABLE: Between 2016 and 2020, officials said in their briefing, 66% of monitored river sites were not suitable for swimming.

Officials have calculated that climate change means the agricultural drought frequency has increased at 15 of 30 monitored sites across the country.

Between 2002 and 2019 37,000 hectares of highly productive land was lost to residential housing. NZ has just 3.830 million hectares of this class of land.

Increased land intensification has degraded soils, with 80% of sites measured between 2014 and 2018 failing to meet targets for at least one of the seven soil indicators.

Between 2016 and 2020, officials state, 62% of 101 monitored lakes were in very poor health and the water quality at 84% of monitored rivers had median concentrations for at least one form of nitrogen and 25% had severe organic pollution or nutrient enrichment.

Over the same period, 66% of monitored river sites were not suitable for swimming and between 2014 and 2018, 68% of monitored groundwater sites failed the meet E coli drinking water standards on at least one occasion.

National Lamb Day

Nat Lamb Day 15 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

15

Brave visionaries behind Lamb Day Annette Scott

MARKETS

T

Lamb

HIS year’s National Lamb Day is being celebrated on February 15, the day the ship Dunedin left Port Chalmers for London in 1882 carrying the first frozen shipment of sheep meat.

The day is a celebration of food, the hard work of Kiwi farmers and the significant economic contribution the red meat sector makes to New Zealand.

AgProud has taken the lead on organising events in collaboration with Beef + Lamb NZ. Normally celebrated in May, National Lamb Day has been moved to February this year to allow more farmers and producers to actively participate.

People are encouraged to celebrate the day by enjoying lamb, hosting a barbecue or a roast.

NZ’s first successful shipment of frozen meat had a huge impact

on the colony, paving the way for the trade in frozen meat and dairy products that became the cornerstone of NZ’s 20th century economy.

The Dunedin’s voyage was organised by William Soltau Davidson, the British-based general manager of the NZ and Australian Land Company, whose landholdings in the two countries exceeded a million hectares.

To save his historic cargo, Captain John Whitson crawled inside and sawed extra air holes, almost freezing to death in the process.

Davidson had taken a keen interest in experiments from 1876, which had proved the concept, if not yet the economic viability, of shipping frozen meat around the globe.

He decided to fit out a passenger sailing ship, the Albion

Line’s Dunedin, with a coalpowered Bell Coleman freezing plant, which cooled the entire hold to 22degC below the outside temperature.

Company employee Thomas Brydone was sent to Britain to study refrigeration technology and then handled the experiment in NZ. Most of the first cargo originated from Brydone’s slaughterhouse at Totara Estate, near Oamaru.

Cooled on site and then sent by rail to Port Chalmers, the mutton and lamb carcases were frozen aboard the Dunedin.

Despite mechanical problems, the plant froze nearly 10,000 carcases in two months.

About 5000 carcases were on board the Dunedin when it sailed on February 15.

When the vessel became becalmed in the tropics, the crew noticed that the cold air in the hold was not circulating properly.

To save his historic cargo, Captain John Whitson crawled

ALL ABOARD: A model of the ship Dunedin, which left Port Chalmers for London in 1882 with New Zealand’s first frozen shipment of sheepmeat. inside and sawed extra air holes, almost freezing to death in the process.

Crew members managed to pull him out by a rope and resuscitated him.

When the Dunedin arrived in London in late May, only one carcase had to be condemned and the cargo’s superiority over Australian shipments was noted.

More than a single successful shipment was needed to create a

new industry, so Davidson set to work creating a marketing and insurance structure to underpin refrigerated shipping.

The new technology ultimately enabled the owner-operated family farm to become the standard economic unit in rural NZ for the next century.

The Dunedin made another nine successful voyages before disappearing in the Southern Ocean in 1890.

Welcome cheer for a sector doing it hard Annette Scott

MARKETS

Lamb

NATIONAL Lamb Day is about the determination of the pioneers of New Zealand’s sheepmeat exports, says one sheep and beef farmer.

“The determination of those in the past is pretty incredible.

National Lamb Day is about digging into special history that helped shaped our industry,” Central Otago farmer Emma Crutchley said.

Crutchley and her husband Kyle Hagen farm Puketoi Station, a 2885 hectare sheep and beef farm

in the Maniatoto. The farm has been in the Crutchley family since 1939.

Running 6500 Romney crossbred ewes and finishing 9000 lambs for the export market as part of the mixed sheep, beef and arable farming operation, gives real reason to celebrate National Lamb Day. “It is about celebrating our heritage, those that came before us, that played a role in building NZ’s primary sector and food systems from farmers, supporting industries, all aspects of the supply chain, our chefs, retailers and importantly our consumers.

“Everybody that makes it happen, in the past and today.

“It’s about grabbing a mate, your neighbours and family and celebrating with a dish of lamb.

“Let’s make this date, February 15, a pivotal part of our history,” Crutchley said.

North Canterbury Federated Farmers meat and wool chair Sara Black said it’s been a good year for their 4000 Corriedale ewes on Marble Point Station “It’s been bumper year, we’ve had a few extra lambs on the ground, really good survivability, spring and summer has been kind to us, but our take-home pay is

Made with quality whole milk powder

Nutritious formula, NZ sourced and made.

The right choice for you and your lambs.

N E W Z EA LA N D’ S FAVO UR ITE L AM B M I LK R E P L AC E R

N Z AG B I Z .CO. N Z

with added BioSupport probiotic

going to be well back given the lamb schedule.”

She is all for National Lamb Day. “Lamb is a great product. NZ farmers work hard to produce this superior quality protein under very high animal welfare standards.

“We as New Zealanders should be proud of what we produce and we need to promote that to increase demand in both the domestic and export markets.

“National Lamb Day is a great day for celebrating history and recognising farmers for what they produce as well as promoting and growing demand for lamb.”

Black said El Niño is setting in, feed is drying up, it’s uncertain times for finishing lambs, farmers are hurting and the lamb schedule is not acknowledging the quality product that they are producing.

She said that “$150 a lamb has been set in concrete for a very long time, it’s been swings and roundabouts, costs have gone up, the schedule has gone down”.

“We need to promote lamb, grow demand and get New Zealanders eating more lamb.

“A spike in sales would be much appreciated as would a lift in prices from the meat companies.”

16 Editorial

16

Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

Letters of the week Farmers got what they wanted Neil Walker Taranaki I READ Allan Barber’s “Has Fonterra been an unqualified good?” (January 29) with interest. The article, by a meat industry commentator I note, has a revisionist quality about it.

Looking backward in life is perfect sight.

Saying we could have taken the left path rather than right or vice versa is mere speculation about the alternative history.

Mr Barber wasn’t there and misses a number of factors. I was there at Kiwi HQ in 2000 and Mr Barber probably knows nothing about the dysfunctionality of the Dairy Board and the intense rivalry between the companies in 2000.

He does not mention the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act, which has been one of the major factors over the last 20 years. He does not talk about the whole corporate and co-operative approach debates, which all dairy farmers participated in and not just a few directors at play.

He doesn’t seem to understand that Fonterra’s presence controls the minimum payment the corporates will pay. He doesn’t compare the dog-eat-dog at New Zealand farmers’ expense that can occur when rival companies sell overseas.

In comparing the meat industry to the dairy industry, I am glad to be in the dairy industry. Yes, there have been failures and treks down the wrong path and Fonterra could have done better, but dairy suppliers are the masters of their own destiny and can put in new administrations that respond to them.

In the end farmers want a co-operative that can always pick up their milk and can do a sound job in processing and selling it without bleeding their profits to outsiders, and by and large that’s what they have.

From the Editor

the capacity of the affected regions. They they may see in the water from above. are bereft of ratepayer funds for standard Uncertainty was rife about the road and infrastructure maintenance, let whereabouts of dozens of people still alone major disaster recovery. unaccounted for in communities such as In contrast to Christchurch’s earthquake, Wairoa. which included a high proportion of insured What followed were weeks of intense building assets, Gabrielle’s damage spanned initial recovery by residents, fuelled by equal extensive catchments of uninsurable assets parts of adrenaline and desperation to claw like farmland and orchards, bridges and back some of their lost lives. culverts.

And once again, New Zealanders did The affected regions are simply too what they do so well, stepping up for those productive to leave them to recoup stricken, offering millions of dollars in haphazardly. donations alongside tonnes of food and Richard Rennie Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay are the supplies.

Senior reporter country’s high value, highly productive fruit Since those intense days, the mechanics and produce bowls. It is in the interests of of disaster recovery have cranked up and NZ Inc that the central government does along.

HE evening of February 13 2023 Bestof letter not include their recovery in its budgetary It is a testament to the talent in local is likely to be a night many along the WINS a quality cuts. councils and agencies and their repeated the North Island’s east coast will Victorinox Hiker Knife Farmers Weekly is published by GlobalHQ, PO Box 529, Feilding 4740. New Zealand ISSN 2463-6002 (Print) For rural communities, the phrase grim experience that those hit the hardest share memories of.

ISSN 2463-6010 (Online) Phone: 0800 85 25 80 Website: www.farmersweekly.co.nz Best letter each week wins “resilient” is likely to be met with an eye roll at least had their basic ADVERTISING needs and dignity As Cyclone Gabrielle chainsawed its way EDITOR Debbie Brown 06 323 0765 a quality Victorinox Gibson 323 1519 today.Noticeboard/Word Only/Primary Pathways maintained in06Gabrielle’s down the coast, things went from bad to Bryan Andyaftermath.

Whitson 027 626 2269 bryan.gibson@globalhq.co.nz classifieds@globalhq.co.nz Mediafor & Business Development Lead But many will agree that communities A year on, the angry New blame forestry’s worse and only patchy news filtered in. EDITORIAL Hiker knife andy.whitson@globalhq.co.nz Grant Marshall 027 887 5568 Mentor-Fredericks that risked drifting apart before have been contribution to Gabrielle’s impact has Gisborne-Tairāwhiti went off the air asCarmelita Real Estate Partnership Manager Steve McLaren 027 205 1456 editorial@globalhq.co.nz Auckland/Northland Partnership Manager brought realestate@globalhq.co.nz 03 474 9240 closer together. its entire cell phone network failed. It wasNeal Wallacesomewhat subsided. steve.mclaren@globalhq.co.nz neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz Andrea Mansfield 027 446 6002 has helped many reforge their inquiry has at least provided an unheard-of state, a chilling radio silence Colin Williscroft A ministerial 027 298 6127 Jody Anderson 027 474 6094Gabrielle Salesforce director colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz Waikato/Bay of Plenty Partnership Manager links to each other, keeping a closer eye out may enable the sector and that only served to punctuate Gabrielle’s Annette Scottguidelines that andrea.mansfi eld@globalhq.co.nz 021 908 400 jody.anderson@globalhq.co.nz annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz on the neighbour, taking the time out to the region to co-exist in a more sustainable enormity.

Donna Hirst 027 474 6095 PRODUCTION Hugh Stringleman 09 432 8594 Lower North Island/international hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz Kieselbach 027 739 4295 drop Lana by and see where help can be given. manner.

Professionally, Gabrielle was an emotive Partnership Manager Gerald Piddock 027 486 8346 production@globalhq.co.nz donna.hirst@globalhq.co.nz A year on, the rear view has not buried What is not answered is the ticking time step up from the usual challenges facing agerald.piddock@globalhq.co.nz Advertising material adcopy@globalhq.co.nz Richard Rennie 07 552 6176 Grant Marshall 027 887 5568 Send your letter to the Gabrielle’s legacy by any means. But those bomb of legacy slash lurking in the steep rural journalist, where getting your car stuck richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz South Island and AgriHQ WRITE TO The Editor, SUBSCRIPTIONS 0800 85 25 80 Nigel Stirlingcountry and 021 136 5570 only Partnership Manager Editor at Farmers Weekly who remain on the land as farmers and needing another severe on a farm track may be classed as a difficult subs@globalhq.co.nz Farmers Weekly nigel.g.stirling@gmail.com grant.marshall@globalhq.co.nz P.0.

Box 529,Feilding Feilding growers may prove to be those who care journey to the06 323 0761 day.

P.O. Box 529, PUBLISHER event to trigger its damaging Javier Roca Williamson 027 323 9407 Livestock Partnership Manager 027 602 4925 Printed

by Ovato NZ Ltd as much as for how or email us at more for each other, coast.

Reality bit, as media members flying Dean EMAIL farmers.weekly@globalhq.co.nz • FAX 06 323 7101 Delivered by Reach Media Ltd dean.williamson@globalhq.co.nz livestock@globalhq.co.nz their land can be adapted to survive another It has also been firmly established that farmers.weekly@agrihq.co.nz into isolated coastal communities were Gabrielle. recovery from such events is simply beyond cautioned not to photograph any bodies

Gabrielle’s bruises are still fading

T

Letter

Week

LK0107425©

So go on!

Stick the knife in

You Matter, Let’s Natter

Know someone having a tough time?

Make time to listen.

Sam Whitelock Farmstrong Ambassador

For tips and ideas,

visit farmstrong.co.nz

Opinion

In My View 17

17

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

In my view ...

Making more room on the dairy shelf Li Day

Day is AgResearch’s food, fibre and international sector manager

A

FLURRY of recent media coverage about the progress of animalfree protein purports to raise doubts about the future of New Zealand’s dairy industry.

Some speculation has gone so far as to predict that if precision fermentation processes to produce dairy proteins without animals do succeed at scale, much of NZ’s animal-based industry could be wiped out in the coming years.

However, the available evidence simply does not support such a conclusion.

The growing global population will continue to increase demand for quality food proteins into the foreseeable future. This increased demand cannot be met by the existing agriculture production system, nor by new technologies alone.

There is no question that there have been significant advances in technologies such as those in the precision fermentation and alternative protein spaces, and they hold exciting possibilities, including potentially for NZ. However, there are still huge scientific and technological

challenges in achieving the nutritional profile and functionality to match those proteins from animal systems.

Typically, in precision fermentation, proteins such as casein or whey obtained from animals are produced instead by encoding dairy protein DNA sequences into microorganisms like yeast or fungi, and then fermenting these in vats or tanks with the relevant nutrients and sugars.

Just as plant-based milks have found a place in the market, proteins from precision fermentation methods are likely gain a foothold.

Climate change and other challenges are adding pressure to the global food system.

Technology-based solutions therefore can support a global transition towards more sustainable production of protein sources and reduced environmental impact.

Just as plant-based milks have found a place in the market, proteins from precision fermentation methods are likely

to gain a foothold alongside products from traditional agriculture sources, to provide consumers with alternative choices.

NZ has an excellent reputation internationally for supplying safe and quality protein products. Its pasture-based system has a lower carbon footprint and requires less energy input compared to the intensive production systems employed in much of the world.

A study by AgResearch into the carbon footprint of milk production released in 2020 confirmed that NZ is among the most efficient producers in the world.

The bigger issue right now, rather than one method displacing another, is the urgency to keep making strides to continue improving the sustainability of animal agriculture by reducing its impact on the environment, so that social licence is maintained.

Researchers are working closely with the existing industry to develop new practices and tools to further improve on their environmental performance, and there is promise with new approaches to lower greenhouse gas emissions and nitrogen loss that can impact on freshwater quality.

MILKING IT: AgResearch’s food, fibre and international sector manager Li Day says there is no evidence to support predictions that much of NZ’s animal-based dairy industry could be wiped out in the coming years.

Importantly, what we are seeing is that those in both the conventional protein industry and those working towards new plantbased or animal-free proteins are coming at these issues with an open mind. They are looking for future opportunities and embracing new technologies alongside our existing capacity of producing high quality food and ingredients.

At AgResearch, we are looking ahead to working with industry partners on how we can build the science and technology to support and adapt to these new developments in proteins in a NZ context.

We have an eye to future possibilities and challenges with the intention, alongside Massey University, to appoint a Professorial Chair in Alternative Proteins to join the Riddet

Institute Centre of Research Excellence in Palmerston North.

The successful applicant will help build a new internationally recognised research capability for NZ in the rapidly emerging field of alternative protein biotechnologies, with an emphasis on precision fermentation, synthetic biology or cellular agriculture.

If we approach these global shifts with the right mindset, there are many opportunities we may be able to seize upon.

MORE:

AgResearch has produced a white paper entitled Fermentation for future food systems – What are the opportunities for New Zealand? which can be viewed at: https:// www.agresearch.co.nz/our-research/ fermentation-for-future-food-systemswhat-are-the-opportunities-for-newzealand/

Broken logic at the heart of GE plans Rod Clarke

Clarke is an Auckland sheep and cattle farmer.

A

S A part-time, average farmer, I marvel at the real skills and abilities of New Zealand farmers in general and under increasingly trying conditions these days.

However, I am also amazed at how little farmers know about the implications of modifying genes in the food they produce and the plants and animals they farm.

I am starting to wonder if, for a majority, the overriding farming psyche is not centred on three things: production, field days and the latest farm equipment.

Are farmers really paying attention, concerning themselves with very key scientific issues that, if enabled, would result in complete import bans by many majorly important trading partner countries of the goods NZ produces?

Have farmers taken a look at key trading partner countries’ regulatory stance on genetically altered foods or checked out the perception and attitudes of customers in those countries to buying gene-altered food?

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realise that if countries start banning and not wanting our produce and mums decide “No,

I’m not buying that”, we are in serious trouble!

What has prompted me to reach this point? During the election campaign I saw Christopher Luxon and the National Party announcing that if they were to be the next government, they would introduce genetic engineering technology into our food production and into our landscape.

Do they not remember “Corngate” in 2001? Do they not know New Zealand’s history?

That, 20 years ago, 15,000 to 30,000 genetically engineered corn plants were accidentally released into the NZ environment and countries such as Japan closed their markets immediately?

And what would we be allowing GE into NZ for? We are missing out on production benefits, they say. Well, what’s the point of increasing production of something that customers are averse to, don’t really want and certainly won’t pay a premium for? They don’t want it.

MARKETS: Alarmed by National Party plans to revisit the issue of GE, Rod Clarke issues a reminder of how key markets view gene-altered food.

Where does it make sense to farm produce that customers won’t pay a premium for or even buy at all because of concerns about adverse health effects?

It’s all about market perception.

That’s all that matters.

Do you realise the huge implications that GE could and is having on human and animal health?

And don’t relax and think scientists will have it all under control. Combine that with corporate interests, rubbing their hands with delight, rushing to get their GE products into new markets with, let’s say, “manipulated scientific interpretation as to safety” .

We would be allowing the release of organisms that the scientists admit they do not fully understand.

Twenty years ago, I personally paid for full pages in newspapers to explain why this would be disastrous for NZ. In my writings I specifically mentioned Horizontal Gene Transfer, where microbes in the soil can transfer genetic material from one plant or animal species to another.

Back then, virtually nobody was paying attention or understood what this was about and the huge implications.

I noted then and I note again now the unbridled enthusiasm by

What’s the point of increasing production of something that customers are averse to and certainly won’t pay a premium for?

Federated Farmers to have this technology allowed into NZ. But I think everybody needs to stop, take a real deep dive into why this could be the biggest mistake NZ agriculture has ever made.

It might be a strange phenomena but methinks the politicians don’t really know what they’re talking about.

And they won’t be the ones bearing the consequences in the future.

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

Contact us and have yours. farmers.weekly@agrihq.co.nz Phone 06 323 1519

18 Opinion

18

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

Opinion

Nation invited to flip over some lamb Alternative view

Alan Emerson

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

P

EOPLE who know me quickly realise I have a simple dietary requirement and that’s plenty of red meat. It doesn’t have to be steak or a roast; I’m quite happy with mince and sausages provided they’re made with real meat from animals.

For the record, I’m not big on greens. My simple belief is that if the good Lord wanted me to eat greens, he’d have given me big ears and whiskers which I don’t have meaning meat is where it’s at.

Also, as the Bard was quoted as saying, “intelligent people eat lots of meat”, which I’m sure is true. I put my intelligence down to meat consumption and I believe the country can too as only 1% of us are vegans and that percentage is decreasing.

In addition, my sometime colleague and friend Professor

Jacqueline Rowarth told The Country that eating red meat is better for your health and the environment.

She went on to explain how the Australian scientific organisation the CSIRO has recommended increasing red meat consumption.

It is better for your general health and your heart.

It was also important to acknowledge that grains, seeds, nuts fruit and vegetables need flattish land that can be cultivated plus they require chemicals and water. Pasture doesn’t.

All that means is that eating naturally produced red meat is an absolute no brainer for good health and welfare.

With all that in mind I was really pleased to learn about New Zealand’s National Lamb Day. It is to run on February 15 with celebrations throughout the country.

I’ve been in Australia for its National Lamb Day and it is huge, with sports personalities, entertainers and civic leaders all getting behind farmers and lamb.

The good news is that local coordinator Jon Pemberton wants the end goal to be “to do what the Aussies do, only better”.

That is music to my somewhat cynical ears.

Pemberton adds that Lamb Day is about “reflection and celebration”, adding “sometimes we have to give ourselves a wee pat on the back and say we’ve come a long way”. I totally agree.

The day, February 15, is poignant as it is the 142nd anniversary of our first shipment of frozen lamb departing Port Chalmers. The voyage took three months and

A TOAST TO THE ROAST: Lamb will be on the menu when barbecues are fired up around Aotearoa to mark National Lamb Day on February 15.

I’ve been in Australia for its National Lamb Day and it is huge, with sports personalities, entertainers and civic leaders all getting behind farmers and lamb. the 5000 carcases, we are told, arrived in perfect condition. It also coincides with the Southern Field Days at Waimumu.

It is an initiative of the farmer group Ag Proud, which comes across as a relevant and muchneeded part of NZ’s landscape.

Its aim with Lamb Day is to boost the profile of NZ lamb. To get some clear messages out on the importance of lamb to the NZ economy.

Mediaworks is on board as are Port Otago, Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ) and FMG. BLNZ makes the point that “the day is a celebration of food and the

significant economic contribution NZ’s red meat sector generates for Kiwis”.

It then gives credit for “the hard work of our dedicated farmers”.

I spoke with Pemberton, who is a really interesting character.

He was a driving force behind Ag Proud NZ, which is an organisation I support.

It has just three core objectives, which get to the heart of rural NZ. The first is “to create awareness around mental health and wellbeing for those in the ag sector and their families”.

The second is to promote positive agricultural practices, and the third to strengthen the relationship between urban and ag communities.

You can’t argue with any of them.

Ag Proud is based in Southland but has a network throughout NZ. Pemberton is a Southland dairy farmer milking 1200 cows over two farms.

As well as Ag Proud he is part of the Three Rivers Catchment Group, on the Board of Thriving Southland and on the Board of Environment Southland.

Last week I wrote about forming a single voice for our sector and welcomed the dialogue between Federated Farmers and Groundswell.

Having Ag Proud in the mix as well with its clearly defined objectives I believe is extremely positive.

Anyone who agrees with their three objectives can join Ag Proud.

I can’t imagine anyone in the provinces who doesn’t.

It isn’t in conflict with any of our current farming organisations but a welcome and relevant addition to them.

So, fellow farmers, we expect you all to be serving lamb on Thursday. Deliciously cooked, with a cheeky NZ chardonnay or pinot. Greens are optional but not necessary.

The danger in treating research as proven fact Meaty matters

Allan Barber

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

W

HEN scientific research reaches an interim conclusion and the publication of a study, it is important to see this for what it is: a theory apparently supported by a series of results, but still requiring extensive peer review and reconciliation with all known facts before it can be generally accepted

as completely accurate.

It is important to fully understand the underpinnings of the research and interrogate and test to ensure that the conclusions it reaches are sound.

The constant changes and additions to the science around climate change bear out the extreme challenges of arriving at absolute certainty about what is right or wrong while different governments take contrasting positions on how to address the issue.

In case readers think I have gone off on an irrelevant tangent, my interest was spiked by a recent article in Beef Central by United States-based meat and livestock commentator Steve Kay, who I believe to be a New Zealander by birth. He refers to what he calls “groundbreaking research” by Californian think tank Breakthrough Institute, which claims conventional wisdom about the lower carbon footprint of grassfed versus grain fed beef may be misplaced.

The study covers 100 beef

operations from 16 countries (not NZ) and, using a new approach of calculating soil sequestration and the carbon opportunity cost of using land for production, finds the carbon footprint of grassfed cattle to be 42% higher than grain fed.

Rather than discussing the merits of grain fed versus grassfed beef, the study simply concludes “the lowest-carbon beef typically comes from the most productive operations; that is those that produce the most beef per acre of land”.

The authors introduce a new argument, that carbon footprints should take account of land use when considering beef’s carbon footprint – and improving the productivity of beef production globally could have outsized climate benefits.

With all due respect to the academic credentials of the report’s authors, they appear to have assumed the world’s beef production should and can be concentrated in the most fertile areas, regardless of the needs and

STUDY: New research by Californian think tank Breakthrough Institute claims conventional wisdom about the lower carbon footprint of grassfed versus grain fed beef may be misplaced. ambitions of producers in lessproductive regions, like Africa or India.

They also take a narrow view of what is good for the environment and animals from a climate perspective, focusing on producing as much as possible on the smallest possible amount of land; this ignores the less profit-focused benefits of free-range production such as biodiversity and animal welfare, quite apart from reducing the stress on farmers of constantly

striving to maximise rather than optimise production.

Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ) previously commissioned a study by AgResearch that used the current globally accepted methodology to provide the lifecycle assessment of all inputs involved in the production, transport, sale and consumption of beef and sheep meat on the average NZ farm.

Continued next page

Opinion

19

19

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

The courage to punch above your weight Eating the elephant

Daniel Eb

Daniel Eb helps Kiwis connect with farming through his agency Dirt Road Comms and Open Farms. His family farms in Kaipara. eating.the.elephant.nz@gmail.com In this series, the lads consider New Zealand’s place in the world.

T

HERE are countries that punch above their weight. They stand out because they either grow fast, do things differently or earn respect and admiration.

Despite many examples across history, there is no “how to” book on punching up. You would think that there were some prerequisites – like valuable natural resources, defensible borders or comfortable climates. But it seems that small countries really only need one thing to achieve greatness: political courage.

Take, for instance, those countries that hit rock-bottom and rise. By 1953, South Korea had suffered almost a million civilian casualties and had an economy on par with sub-Saharan Africa. The Forgotten War was brutal. Lacking natural resources, the nation relied Continued from previous page Andre Mazzetto is the scientist at AgResearch who is working closely with BLNZ to identify the main factors that differentiate NZ grassfed production from both grain fed and other countries’ production methods.

The study covers 100 beef operations from 16 countries (not NZ) and ... finds the carbon footprint of grassfed cattle to be 42% higher than grain fed.

Mazzetto says our agricultural production has a lower environmental footprint than the US, for example, because 90% of the emissions are incurred on farm, where NZ’s soils are heavy in carbon for which our farmers should be given credit because they are not depleting the carbon

on a frankly schizophrenic mix of economic policies to recover.

These were often at odds with the doctrines of the day and even each other.

World-leading R&D investment (at around 4% of GDP) was dished out by a government that also blatantly picked winners – giving preferential treatment to the often-inefficient mega national businesses called Chaebols (Samsung being the most recognisable of these).

There was a massive education drive, but few provisions for worker rights or social safety nets. A focus on exports alongside deep protectionism for the Chaebols. Post-war South Korea didn’t have the luxury of ideological consistency. Freemarket capitalism, centrallyplanned socialism, dictatorial powers – it didn’t matter. They just needed stuff to work. And work it did. Their transformation from utter destruction to regional powerhouse in just a few decades is nothing short of a miracle.

Existential crisis is an incredible national motivator, but it isn’t a prerequisite for punching-up.

Bold strategy works too. Estonia is now the third-fastest growing tech centre in the world. This is by design – the result of a 30-year digitisation strategy to build e-Estonia. Think of it as an online society.

Through the digital platform, citizens can vote, learn, pay tax or start businesses. A paramedic can access your medical records instantly. Birth and child benefits are registered automatically.

Parliament runs an e-cabinet meeting system to cut out bureaucracy. Anyone, anywhere in the world can become an e-resident of Estonia – thus the content, whereas in the US soils must constantly be replenished.

Mazzetto suggested that, although the Breakthrough Institute study had been peer reviewed and validated, it was not entirely reliable for several reasons: the sample base was too small, there was inadequate allowance for regional variations, there was no discussion of short-lived gases like methane which are prevalent in grassfed production, and it introduced a new concept to the calculation, the carbon opportunity cost of land use for beef production and soil sequestration.

The study’s grassfed production conclusions were based on conditions in northern Australia, where it is very dry with little vegetation, diametrically opposed to conditions in NZ. Also, there was no counting of sequestration from woody vegetation. As research by the Ministry for the Environment

OPTIONS: Costa Rica’s commitment to its natural world has opened up new opportunities in eco-tourism and emerging carbon and ecosystem services global capital markets.

If we’re honest with ourselves, we’re playing our excellent hand pretty safe. influx of tech entrepreneurs.

This is what punching above your weight through digital transformation looks like.

A country can even punch above its weight by just being the first to do the right thing. Costa Rica is considered a world leader in the green transition. By pioneering an ecosystem services scheme that pays farmers to protect watersheds, conserve biodiversity or capture carbon, it became the first tropical country to reverse deforestation. Today, more than a third of its land is permanent, regenerating forest – protected by the 18,000 farming families who participate in the scheme.

Costa Rica’s commitment to its natural world has opened up new opportunities in eco-tourism (now 8% of GDP) and emerging carbon and ecosystem services global capital markets. It even developed a debt-for-nature swap – agreeing with intentional lenders to re-direct their debts to nature conservation with thirdshows, the woody vegetation on NZ sheep and beef farms is sequestering at least 30% of total emissions from on farm.

The approach of the Breakthrough Institute’s study team compared with that of AgResearch illustrates the different motivations of two organisations from different countries. One has used a new approach to the methodology, but only taken some aspects into account – like land use and soil sequestration potential – without including critical aspects like existing soil stocks and the sequestration potential of woody vegetation.

This area of research and the conversation will continue to evolve. It is important that organisations like BLNZ work closely with AgResearch, which is well plugged into the conversation to make sure the full picture is examined when researching new methodologies.

party oversight. It pays to be the first mover.

Does New Zealand punch above its weight? There are many things we do well and should be proud of – kicking a rugby ball and stunning landscapes notwithstanding.

The world saw leadership in our health- and people-first covid response. It sees inspiration in our race relations. It admired our commitment to justice in the nuclear-free and anti-apartheid eras. It learns from Te ao Māori’s relationship with nature and our mission to be predator free by 20250.

It likes the low key form of soft power that is uniquely us – that mix of John Key self-deprecating confidence, Jacinda Ardern assertive kindness, Sir Ed humble courage, Lorde creativity and Taiki Waititi offbeat humour. We’re known around the world for great farming and nourishing food.

But if we’re honest with ourselves, we’re playing our excellent hand pretty safe. For a nation with a great climate, welleducated people, geopolitical safety, a stable government and strong social cohesion, we lack the political courage and vision to do the truly extraordinary.

The world didn’t admire John F

Kennedy because of his focus on trimming government spending and tax cuts. We remember him because he asked his countrymen to do the impossible and go to the moon. His challenge kicked off the kind of mass government investment and picking of winners (made possible by a top income tax rate of 91%) that would give today’s neo-liberal politicians a heart attack. The economic rewards for that vision are still being reaped today and the moon landing stands as one of humanity’s greatest achievements.

In the interest of providing solutions, here are a few great missions NZ could pathfind for humanity. A nature-positive economy. Eliminating diet and lifestyle health conditions.

Achieving genuine equity for indigenous citizens. Pioneering democracy 2.0 reforms like citizen assemblies. A zero-waste economy.

Universal access to mental health services. Mainstream ecology and farming in the school curriculum.

Building more soil than we lose.

As a blessed nation, I think we have a responsibility to take some risks – to set seemingly impossible goals, and galvanise our people to find the way for the world can follow.

Do you know someone who deserves a story in Farmers Weekly?

Why not write it yourself?

We’re keen to hear local stories about the innovators, inspirations and characters that keep our communities ticking over.

Farmers tell the best stories and we want to hear yours. yourstory@agrihq.co.nz

20 People

20

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

People

Sims bows out after 13 years at AWDT Her years at the Agri-Women’s Development Trust are a story of growth and transformation, writes Annette Scott.

T

HE new year started with an ending for Lisa Sims, who has concluded a long association with the Agri-Women’s Development Trust.

After 13 years working with AWDT, the past five as general manager, Sims said “it’s time for me to step away”.

Sims has been instrumental in empowering women to lead positive change in their lives, businesses, communities, organisations, sectors and New Zealand Inc. “Much progress has been made,” she said.

Our hard work and can-do attitude has been vital and rewarding through some unimaginably tumultuous times.

Lisa Sims AWDT “It’s been a privilege to work alongside committed people whose professionalism, grace and agility made a genuine difference and impact on the world when it mattered.

“I’m proud of our incredible team and what’s been achieved.

“Our hard work and cando attitude have been vital and rewarding through some

unimaginably tumultuous times.

“Over five years, we dug in and delivered more than 200 development programmes that impacted the lives of more than 3600 people, with another 1500 being connected through webinars and forums.”

Sims said she has been constantly humbled and inspired by the people who signed up for programmes, turned up, finished up, then stepped up to lead themselves and others, leading by their actions, however small, and building networks and connections that ripple throughout Aotearoa.

“There are countless stories of growth and transformation.”

Women who stood for election to big board positions, experienced failure, began again, succeeded and created positive change were an example of this, she said.

Another was the manaakitanga of the Wāhine o te Whenua graduate and her whānau who hosted the next year’s ropu and wānanga at her marae.

Then there was the courage of the young woman who drove from Wellington to Hamilton for Generation Change and the man who encouraged to explore her potential.

Other stories of growth include: • The woman who bought a farm with her partner because she followed the pathway set on programme a few years earlier.

• The farmer shifting fencing breaks while hooked up to his

TIME OUT: Lisa Sims is taking time out to decide where she can next contribute to the growth of rural communities.

headphones, learning online with the AWDT team and his.

• Women who suffered from the cyclone then had the courage to take time out for themselves, and in doing so, grew from adversity.

• The young shepherd who had the guts to share his struggles online, showing others they were not alone. Then shared his new skills with his team.

• Working with a new generation of AWDT daughters and whānau.

“Thank you AWDT partners and collaborators for your trust, confidence and ongoing support of the kaupapa,” Sims said.

She said she is satisfied that she has left AWDT well placed for whatever comes next, with a

range of sustainable and evolving programmes and a capable, purpose-led team of staff, contractors and facilitators.

“I’m deeply grateful for the support and guidance from my coaches, mentors, friends, and lessons learnt.

For the moment, it’s family time for Sims on their Eketāhuna farm – “rediscovering my kitchen and, if I’m allowed, a last-minute chance to help the boss [husband Tom] here with weaning, before another new chapter when our farm is leased in April”.

“We’re staying put in our family home which means I get to keep my morning farm walks.”

Sims, who was appointed to lead the operations of the AWDT trust

in November 2018, was an integral part of AWDT since day one when the charitable trust was launched at Parliament in 2010.

Previously her business in strategic communications and community leadership spanned international government relations, promoting NZ red meat in Japan and leading communications and engagement for her own diverse range of clients in both the private and public sectors.

“I’ve definitely got more to give,” she said. “I’ll take time over the next couple of months to see what form that takes as I turn my focus and energy to where I can next contribute to the growth of rural communities.”

Two-year journey to build wetland paying dividends Staff reporter

PEOPLE

Environment A SOUTH Waikato farming couple have completed a two-year project create an in-ditch wetland on their property.

The work on Jess and Ev Mardell’s farm near the Arapuni Dam harmonises water quality, biodiversity and aesthetic values without disruption to farming activities.

Their journey began while assessing their Farm Environmental Plan (FEP) when they encountered a boggy area at the bottom of their drainage system (visible from the road as travellers pass by the Arapuni Dam).

Seeking solutions, their Fonterra Sustainable Dairy Adviser (SDA) recommended contracting NZ Landcare Trust’s Nathan Burkepile for assistance.

Burkepile said the couple’s story is important because it highlights the development of a wetland within an active farming system with zero external funding.

The Mardells initially sought support from a local funding body, but were unsuccessful.

However, this unsuccessful application turned into

a significant blessing. It allowed them to retain independence and fostered a substantial learning curve.

After in-depth research and introspection, along with guidance from Burkepile, they opted to cultivate their plants and undertake the project independently.

During the early stages of the project, external advice suggested watercourse diversion for the

wetland. This was completely unnecessary.

Burkepile’s intervention and the couple’s steadfast enthusiasm for the project helped them gracefully bypass this obstacle.

“The initial stages were fraught with uncertainty for the couple, which is typical when you are dealing with numerous unknowns,” Burkepile said.

“When I developed a wetland

FENCED OFF: South Waikato farmers Jess and Ev Mardell constructed an in-ditch wetland on their farm after encountering a boggy area that needed to be fenced off in one of their drainage systems.

creation plan with a native plant list and guided them on plant selection for both wet and drier areas. This empowered them.”

Jess contacted a local native plant nursery, which provided advice and seeds for her to start growing her own plants.

This local knowledge was invaluable.

Digger work started on February 14, 2021, and the first of the plants arrived in May. The creation of the wetland involved widening the drain to create shallow water shelves on both sides of the drain.

The lower section of the wetland had a boggy area that was excavated to create a small wetland basin with a new drain dug slightly higher than the basin.

The original drainage channel was cleaned but was left to act as a wetland bypass during major storms.

“Incorporating wetlands in our drainage systems not only will improve water quality but create biodiversity hotspots in an altered landscape while still retaining production values of the land,” Burkepile said.

The 0.2-hectare wetland required 2000 plants, spaced at 75cm intervals for carex plants and 1.5m for larger trees.

To address the challenge of plant procurement and minimise costs, Jess committed to growing all the requisite plants.

Harnessing local plant knowledge from retiring local nursery-women, she garnered essential knowledge for wetland species cultivation, culminating in a successful and cost-effective approach.

The primary objective was to integrate a fully functional wetland into the farm system, recognising the need to fence off the boggy paddock bottom to prevent livestockinduced damage. What began as a mitigation strategy has now evolved into a valuable farm asset contributing to the farm’s biodiversity and local ecosystem enhancement.

As Jess and Ev continue this transformative path, future challenges may surface, prompting ongoing adaptation and learning.

Their newly acquired knowledge has already spurred further planting initiatives across their farm.

The project has been so successful there are now native endemic leeches, Richardsonianus mauianus (Piriawaawa), in the wetland, which they started noticing in November last year.

Technology

Tech 21

21

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

Tech meets need for less log waste The forestry industry drew much flack for the role of slash in the Cyclone Gabrielle damage, and new regulations swiftly followed. As Richard Rennie reports, the sector has met the challenge with clever use of existing tech.

B

ETTER management of forest felling waste has gained new impetus in Cyclone Gabrielle’s wake, with the sector firmly in the spotlight for the impact such waste has had on communities, ecosystems, and farmland downstream from harvest areas.

Rotorua-based forest management company Interpine Innovation has taken a long-used means of measuring forest residue waste and turned it into a highly accurate, digitised means to help companies lower post-harvest waste levels.

The tool promises to ensure forest felling does not turn sites into time bombs ready to detonate in the wake of future Gabrielle-like events.

The “Wagner Waste method” has been used for almost half a century to estimate volumes of remaining forest waste by sampling along transect lines. It is accurate, simple and quick to use, but its role has been largely to assess felling completeness and reconcile yield estimates.

“But Gabrielle came along, and the focus has now become more

on compliance and what we need to do better as an industry,” says Interpine CEO Te Kapunga Dewes.

The recent release of forest slash rules limiting pieces to no more than 2m long, 10cm wide and under 15 cubic metres total per hectare has put the onus on the sector to help protect downstream land.

Anticipating the need the sector will have for accurate assessment, Interpine has developed a technology package that will take a “whole of site” approach to measuring forest residue waste and evaluating it against the new National Environmental Standards.

“The 15 cubic metre requirement is particularly subjective when you just use a sample-based method, with a high level of variability between sample areas, meaning estimates of volume do not always represent the entire site,” says Dewes.

Utilising drone based LIDAR (light detection and ranging) remote sensing with photogrammetry tech linked to deep learning software enables Interpine’s solution to measure

forest waste across the entire logged site, rather than rely on a variable sample estimate.

“The tech can compare the compliance requirement against what is actually there on site, right down to specific pieces of timber, identifying those that may exceed the regulations. You can walk over and touch the particular piece of timber the technology identifies.”

The technology goes a step further: incorporating slope, soil and watercourse inputs enables it to render a risk profile for the site, highlighting specific areas within its footprint that may require more attention.

The tech can compare the compliance requirement against what is actually there on site, right down to specific pieces of timber, identifying those that may exceed the regulations.

Te Kapunga Dewes Interpine

SPOTTED: The locally developed tech enables foresters to ensure sites meet the new compliance rules, and highlights risk areas in the site’s footprint.

Such debris risk mitigation could be required by a company as part of its quality parameters, or by councils that have control requirements over and above the baseline mitigation regulations.

Two large forestry companies are already trialling the technology, going as far as using the risk mitigation profile to also provide information on the stability and safety of skid site slash piles.

Three other companies are in the wings, while a trial with a regional council is also pending.

Dewes says the technology is a progressive move by his company, recognising the industry has needed to improve the way it cleans up sites, and be more accountable.

“And we are proud that this is home-grown technology and is based on a stand level approach to the site, not a sampled approach.

It’s using locally developed tools for local problems.

“It means operators can go out, hand on heart, and say they are 100% meeting their compliance requirements and can step up further from there.”

Robotic scarecrow could help keep orchards bird free Gerhard Uys

TECHNOLOGY

Horticulture

AN AUTONOMOUS robotic scarecrow named Avvy is being tested in cherry orchards for the first time this year.

Founder of Autonabit Josh McCulloch said the robot is needed because birds cause extensive damage in orchards every season, affecting fruit quality.

Cherries damaged by birds are not exported, and damaged fruit could mean the difference between $60/kg for an export product and $15/kg for locally sold product, he said.

HANDS-OFF: Avvy is run on a battery and can be programmed to complete tasks. It is completely hands-off with robots controlled via a desktop or phone dashboard.

“It’s the difference between good profits and maybe breaking even.”

The robot was tested in vineyards last year, with trials in cherry orchards just being completed in Marlborough and Alexandra.

The robot began partly as a hobby for McCulloch and from research into robotic use in viticulture when he was employed by the University of Canterbury.

“At the moment we’re just using the robots for bird scaring, but we’re hoping that over the next few years they might be able to take on additional roles.

We’re interested in undervine management, particularly for

organic vineyard operators because they can’t use sprays. A robot can mow or cultivate,” he said.

The vehicle is fully electric and autonomously returns to a station for recharging after it’s completed a day’s work. It then goes out again the next day.

Avvy uses a gas gun, or banger, kites, flags, sirens and speakers to scare birds.

All the operators who have tested it in cherry orchards this season wanted more units next season, McCulloch said.

Robots are run from a desktop dashboard that is also phone compatible.

The dashboard shows a map of a farm and shows where the robots are operating, and has a live feed.

The dashboard is also used to deploy robots on “new missions” and to schedule time and locations for them to operate.

This year four robots were used in a 40 hectare block, but usually one is deployed for every 4ha.

“We’re still trying to nail down the ratio,” he said.

The robots have been tested at 8km per hour autonomously, but usually operate at 5km/h long term. The aim is for 10km/h, he said.

GPS and sensors are used to navigate.

The units are leased but will be for sale in future, McCulloch said.

Avvy did unpaid trials last season but will be taking on paid trials in FUTURE: Founder of Autonabit Josh McCulloch hopes a new Marlborough in February. autonomous robot will be the scarecrow of the future.

FEDERATED Fed Farmers

FARMERS Vol 2 No 5, February 12, 2024

fedfarm.org.nz

One year on: rising stronger from cyclone Sandra Faulkner Gisborne farmer and Federated Farmers national board member

A

s farmers, we love what we do and we’re privileged to enjoy a life working on the land.

On a good day, when you’re out on a ridge watching the sun come up, or you’re admiring your cattle grazing a green hillside, there’s nowhere else you’d rather be.

But for those many farmers who’ve spent the past 12 months rebuilding their lives and businesses hammered

by Cyclone Gabrielle – and let’s not forget the multitude of other damaging rain events last year – it’s been a slog.

At the time, it nearly broke us. In our community here in Gisborne, there was so much damage to our homes, farms and infrastructure that there was almost a paralysis about where to begin.

It’s impossible to describe how widely and deeply it affected people.

I was thrust into the role of Federated Farmers’ adverse events spokesperson early on. It was challenging and we all learnt a lot as we went along, building the plane as we flew.

The stories I’ve heard, the tales of courage and human kindness, have reminded me time and time again how strong and pragmatic our rural people are.

One couple walked six hours just to reach a vehicle so they could get to town and let us know what was happening to others in their valley. Then they turned around and repeated the trip home again.

There are people like Pehiri farmers Sam and Gemma Hain, who, although their farms were grievously damaged, graciously opened their home and freely spoke to politicians, reporters and officials to ensure the rest of the country knew what was happening on the ground.

That’s how our communities wrapped their arms around each other – and we just kept walking forward.

Communications, roading, electricity – all these things were taken out by Gabrielle. How do we prevent that happening again when the next ‘big one’ comes along?

Sandra Faulkner Federated Farmers national board member And we’re still walking forward, one foot in front of the other, rebuilding one fence and one farm track at a time. Every farmer or grower you talk to will have a different story and be in a different

space in their recovery, but it’s been long, and it’s been tough.

But now, as we pass the one-year anniversary of Gabrielle and many farming families have returned to some semblance of normality, it’s time for those of us in leadership roles to get truly transformational.

Until now, support has been focused on recovery on a farm-byfarm basis, helping farmers and growers get up and running as quickly as possible.

We now need to take a less piecemeal approach; we need to get big-picture and look at how to build our infrastructure in a way that makes our region resilient for decades to come.

Communications, roading, electricity – all these things were taken out by Gabrielle. How do we prevent that happening again when the next ‘big one’ comes along?

What are the aspirational goals that will make a real difference to our rural communities 10, 30, and 50 years from now?

My focus is on working with other business leaders to champion for smarter-built arterial routes and future-proof infrastructure.

So, we’re asking: why not push for a two-hour road trip from Gisborne to Napier on SH2? What is our electricity demand going to be in 10 or 20 years – actually, how secure is our supply now?

Surely in today’s world we can

FUTURE-PROOF: Sandra Faulkner, Federated Farmers national board member, wants to see smarter-built arterial routes and future-proof infrastructure in the regions. all have reliable communication connectivity.

Equally, we need to strengthen ourselves in the regions so we don’t necessarily need Band Aid support from the Government when things go wrong but, instead, can work together on solutions in a timely manner – a hand up, not a handout.

It’s about making our own way forward, taking this opportunity to make communities more robust, rather than just rebuilding what was already there.

Federated Farmers will be working hard at the Government level to better enable our regions and industries, but we also remain committed to supporting at the grassroots.

‘Commence the Re-fence’, led ably

by Ben Moore, to help rebuild fences

on farms, is one such initiative. It’s such a simple thing – farmers just need somebody to get in, roll their sleeves up and help them build a fence. At the same time, there is social connection, taking time to talk – simple but deeply valuable.

Lastly, I’d like to reach out to all the spouses and partners, children, in-laws, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends – everyone who helped to carry our communities and families over the last 12 months.

We really owe you, and this is just a small chance to say a huge ‘thank you’ for your support.

• Listen to Sandra and Pehiri farmer Sam Hain reflect on how the recovery is going a year since the cyclone in the latest Federated Farmers Podcast episode – fedfarm.org.nz/podcast

A R E YO U A M E M B E R ?

Yes! You're on the team.

Join the conversation.

Become a member today.

NO? Let's talk.

0 8 0 0 327 6 4 6 fedfarm.org.nz

23

Federated Farmers

23

fedfarm.org.nz – February 12, 2024

Unsung heroes shine in wake of cyclone

T

here are so many farmers and rural workers who’d never dare say it themselves, but they were absolute heroes during and after Cyclone Gabrielle, Federated Farmers chief executive Terry Copeland says.

“The sense of community shown in rural areas and the willingness of people to put aside their own priorities to help others in trouble – that’s a very powerful thing,” Copeland said.

Asked for his thoughts on ‘unsung heroes’ of the disaster one year ago, Copeland is quick to praise those who rallied to the Farmy Army’s call for help.

“Some of them travelled many miles across country to get to those in need all around Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti. They didn’t seek recognition; they just quietly got stuck in.

“It was a silver lining in what was a pretty dreadful situation. I’ve seen damage before, but what Gabrielle left in her wake was unprecedented here.”

Copeland is proud of the Federation’s co-ordination roles, and advocacy to Government for funding

and hurried legislation to suspend usual resource consent red tape in the interests of recovery and animal welfare.

“Many of our people showed their worth and mettle.

“Board member Sandra Faulkner put in hours and hours trying to make things happen in Tairāwhiti.

She’ll never admit it, but she’s an unsung hero, for sure.”

Salli Baldock, Federated Farmers Eastern North Island field rep, says all sorts of people stepped up in the cyclone emergency and recovery phases.

Rural Advisory Groups (RAGs) proved their worth, and Federated Farmers Hawke’s Bay president Jim Galloway “was just amazing”, Baldock says.

“At the drop of a hat, if anyone from the media, or a farmer in trouble, wanted to talk to him, he was always available. He never panicked; he just worked his way through the issues,” she says.

Galloway and other RAG members met daily and decided priorities based on the intel gathered through their networks.

Meanwhile, Baldock was

TIRELESS SUPPORT: Federated Farmers eastern North Island field representative Salli Baldock and Hawke’s Bay provincial president Jim Galloway snapped at a rural relief community day in Hastings.

Galloway’s right-hand person throughout, despite her family orchard being inundated, her exhusband and the family dog having to be plucked from floodwaters, and her power being out for a week.

Others who went above and beyond were the Morice family – brothers Greg and Mark are longtime Federated Farmers members.

Greg’s wife Lorna says they watched in disbelief as “a tsunami of brown, log-laden water” from the Tutaekuri River breached stopbanks and flooded the Puketapu area.

“It was like watching a horror movie play out as we stood powerless on the hill above,” Lorna says.

The Morices ended up with more than 40 “traumatised” residents at their house, some who’d been rescued from trees, roofs and floating mattresses.

In the following days, and with the support of Helitranz (Auckland) and good friend Callum McLeod as pilot, Greg and Mark were involved in around 200 supply drop-off, people/stock rescue and general aid missions.

Between brewing endless cups of tea, Lorna was busy with a black marker pen “labelling and organising everything that arrived on our lawn to get dispatched”.

In hard-hit Wairoa, Federated Farmers Gisborne/Wairoa arable chair Allan Newton and wife Sonya played a pivotal role, including helping Rural Support Trust (RST) and MPI to organise 13 community gatherings for rural families to share stories, support and needs.

Newton himself is quick to mention Sue and Fenton Wilson, and RST’s Kylie Brown.

Darren Hill and his son Connor drove their tractor into town to rescue more than 30 people, and Newton says they weren’t the only ones to suffer water damage to machinery during their efforts to help.

In Hauraki-Coromandel, which had already been pummelled by

MUD FOR MILES: Federated Farmers CEO Terry Copeland and his Beef+Lamb NZ counterpart Sam McIvor perched on the tray of this ute prepare to tour the worst-hit Hawke’s Bay sites in the days after Cyclone Gabrielle. the Auckland Anniversary deluge, Federated Farmer president Rob Craw was kept busy chasing the local authorities on what was needed, and organising fuel drops and the like.

He says former Federated Farmers

dairy advisor Kerry Gray, now with MPI, was a gem.

Hannah also mentions former Federated Farmers adverse events manager Julie Gange, Mike Borrie of Fonterra, and MPI on-farm officer Jon Carswell.

Donated tractors need homes Time is running out to nominate worthy recipients for two tractors that will be given away at the end of March.

At Fieldays last June, Case IH and New Holland donated two tractors to the Commence the Re-Fence campaign.

Alongside post-ramming gear from farm machinery specialist Stevenson & Taylor, the tractors have been pivotal to Farmy Army and wider efforts restoring fencelines on farms in Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay hit hardest by Cyclone Gabrielle.

The Re-fence campaign winds up in March but the two tractors

will stay on the East Coast as workhorses for farmers who still have recovery challenges ahead of them.

Stevenson & Taylor general manager Robby Smith says factors such as the severity of damage and the farmer’s need will help guide the selection committee as it decides who should get to keep the tractors. There have been more than 75 nominations so far but there’s still time to put other deserving names in the hat.

MORE:

Visit www.commencetherefence. co.nz for full details.

National Open Farm Day Sunday 10 March, 2024 Reconnecting Kiwis with our land, food and farmers. One open day at a time.

Host an open farm day

OUR LAND AND WATER WA

Toitū te Whenua, Toiora te Wai

Agriculture & Investment Services Ministry for Primary Industries Manatū Ahu Matua

Sign-up to host at WWW.OPENFARMS.CO.NZ

24

24

February 12, 2024 – fedfarm.org.nz

Federated Farmers

Farmers navigate road to recovery

T

here’s barely been a day in the past year that Sam Hain’s digger hasn’t been working to clean up cyclone damage to his farm.

“We bought a digger soon after Cyclone Gabrielle hit, and that digger’s been going every day repairing slips and clearing tracks on our farm,” he says.

“It’s still got probably another six months of working every day to get every track back to the state they were in before the cyclone.”

Like so many farmers hammered

by Cyclone Gabrielle last February, Sam and wife Gemma have made progress in the recovery – but there’s still a very long way to go.

The Hains, who farm on 1050-hectare Waikura Station at Pehiri, inland of Gisborne, say they got “smoked” by Gabrielle.

“What does ‘smoked’ look like?

Well, we’ve got a two-storey shed and the water was up the wall of the second floor,” Sam explains.

“We had upwards of 5000 slips on our property. We lost cattle yards.

We lost a house. Every fenceline on our farm still has a hole in it, some 100-metres long where it’s just been laid flat. “‘Smoked’ costs probably $1.5 to $2 million if I can put a monetary value on it.”

Despite everything, Sam’s one of the most positive people you’ll meet and a word he uses frequently is “opportunity”.

The cyclone – and other damaging rain events last year, including Cyclone Hale – have presented a chance to build their farm better and stronger, he says.

“We’ve learned to fence in smarter places. We’re taking it as an opportunity to put in a big lane because the fences were so badly damaged that there’s a chance there to refence and make the access better than it ever was before.”

Even losing a house is an opportunity, he says.

“Yeah, we lost a house. Fortunately, we’re insured, and so it means when

TIME: Pehiri farmer Sam Hain, pictured with children Lilla and Tom, says it’ll take about another six months before all their tracks are restored to their pre-cyclone state. we build that house back, we build it in such a place that it’s never going to be touched by a flood or a cyclone or anything of that nature again.”

Of course, Sam’s acutely aware of how challenging life remains for many other farmers, growers and rural communities affected by the cyclone, especially on the East Coast and in Hawke’s Bay.

I understand they’re trying their hardest, but we’re not seeing any urgency for the repairs to be done.

Kirsty Playle Hackfalls Station One of those communities is nearby Tiniroto, where locals are still crying out for help to restore its roading access in and out.

Kirsty Playle, who farms with husband Steven on Hackfalls Station,

says locals’ frustration levels couldn’t be higher.

“It’s no one’s fault that a cyclone came and demolished our roads, and five out of six of our bridges, but our frustration is over the inaction and lack of decision-making from the council since then,” she says.

“I understand they’re trying their hardest, but we’re not seeing any urgency for the repairs to be done.”

The main road to Gisborne, through the Hangaroa Bluffs, has been officially closed since last July when Gisborne District Council deemed it too dangerous to use due to rockfall risks.

While the council figures out what to do about reconnecting Tiniroto to Gisborne, it’s asked locals to take a long detour through Wairoa or use an alternative route, Parikanapa Road.

But that road is a “very dangerous goat track”, Kirsty says.

“People have just refused to use it; it adds a lot more time and stress on people. We’re now allowed truck and

RESCUE: After being forced to flee mid-morning on February 14, Meeanee lifestyle block owner Kristin Baylis waded back to her home the next day to rescue her pet cat.

Federated Farmers trailer units through Parikanapa, but it’s unsafe and many truck drivers refuse to do it. We’ve seen some bad accidents on that road.

“As a result, farmers are still droving their stock miles to get to trucks.”

Kirsty says locals have taken it upon themselves to keep the Hangaroa Bluffs road clear.

“Even though it’s condemned, people are still using it. It takes three minutes to drive through those bluffs, rather than risking a long and dangerous drive through Parikanapa.”

Kirsty says the community has become even stronger in their adversity – more social events and dinners together – but they desperately need action from the authorities.

Nurses who work in Gisborne are considering giving up their jobs, and parents are weighing up pulling their kids out of school, she says.

“We’ve all got businesses, we’re pretty much all farmers, we’ve got Airbnbs, and not having roading is really affecting that. We just want decisions made on our road.

“Funding has been given from government to Gisborne District Council for an alternative road, which means they’re going to bypass the Hangaroa Bluffs, but they’re 18 months away from even knowing whether that’s possible. So, in the meantime, what are we meant to do?

“We’re coming up a year and we’re pretty much still in the same position as we were after the cyclone.”

About three hours south of Tiniroto, lifestyle block owner Kristin Baylis is just grateful to finally be living back on her land and have some fences up again.

When the Tutaekuri River broke its banks at about 10am on February 14, it deluged the neighbouring farmland, including Kristin’s five-acre block in Meeanee, outside Napier.

“We had about 1.8 metres of water over the property – it was terrifying,” she says.

Kristin lived in five different places last year while her home was rebuilt, and she finally moved home just before Christmas 2023.

But getting her fences rebuilt by the Federated Farmers ‘Commence

25

GOAT TRACK: With Tiniroto’s main road to Gisborne still closed due to the risk of rockfall from Hangaroa Bluffs, locals are having to take a very long route through Wairoa or use the Parikanapa Road bypass, which Kirsty Playle calls “a goat track”. the Re-fence’ team was almost as big of a milestone in the recovery, she says.

Commence the Re-fence was launched at the Fieldays last June, with Federated Farmers and their ‘Farmy Army’ involved as partners.

Pivotal to its success has been the donation of two tractors by Case IH and New Holland, and post-

ramming gear from Hawke’s Bay farm machinery specialist Stevenson & Taylor.

Money from the North Island Weather Event Fund and the Farmers Adverse Events Fund is paying for professional fencing contractors.

Owners of cyclone-hit farms and lifestyle blocks have been getting up to three days’ help each.

ACCESS DENIED: Doneraille Park Bridge, one of five bridges blown out in Tiniroto when Cyclone Gabrielle flooding tore through the area, leaving locals landlocked. Work on the bridge is due to begin in June this year.

QUICK, AFFORDABLE, PRACTICAL.

25

fedfarm.org.nz – February 12, 2024

“I had the team from JK Fencing in here to rebuild my boundary fence and they were brilliant,” Kristin says.

“I’m so grateful to finally have paddocks again so I can get stock back on. I have so much debris under the grass and sunk into silt that I can’t do much until I get stock in to eat around it all.

“This is one of the final big hurdles I have left on my property, and I was really at a complete loss as to what to do.

“It’s made a huge impact on my recovery and mental health. It’s been nearly a year now, and things are really starting to look up.

“So, still a lot of recovery to go, but that’ll be the last step.”

Another farmer grateful for help from Commence the Re-fence is Scott McNeil, part of McNeil Farming, one of the largest privately owned farming operations on the East Coast.

Scott says the group’s farms – like everyone else’s – took a battering from Gabrielle and other storms last year, but they’ve made progress in the recovery.

“The help we’ve got from getting some of these fences back up has been awesome. It’s sped the whole process up and made it less of a blow.

“I don’t like to make a big deal

of it, or complain, but it was a pretty daunting task trying to get everything back together. To have that little bit of help has been so good.”

Scott says the flooding left a lot of paddocks unusable, but getting fences rebuilt “has meant we can whip some crops back in and utilise the paddocks again”.

He says he’s grateful to Ben Moore, who’s coordinating the Farmy Army on behalf of Federated Farmers, and his dedicated crew.

Sam Hain says “talking” will be important as cyclone-affected farmers head into their second year of recovery, with many still facing a difficult road ahead.

“One thing that’s amazing is none of us view another farmer as a competitor.

“If you’re in the retail industry and you’re selling jeans, you look at the guy selling jeans down the road as the opposition.

“But farmers love to talk, and we love to unburden, and we love to give our opinions, and it all helps.

You know, every conversation you have, it brings you closer, it knits your community.

“And so that would be my advice: get on the phone and talk because you might talk to somebody who really needs it.”

HELPING HAND Kristin Baylis says having the Commence the Re-fence crew in recently to rebuild her boundary fences marked a significant milestone in her journey.

Onli ne train ing ava ilabl e 24/ 7!

Low cost, practical skills training for dairy farm workers. www.agricademy.co.nz

26 Real Estate

Boundary lines are indicative only

Otorohanga 117 Mangamahoe Road, 333 Kawhia Road, 132 Ouruwhero Road, 5 & 6 Redland Road The liquidation of an incomplete milk processing project presents a unique opportunity for an astute buyer to capitalise on the substantial investment already made in acquiring the land, resource consents, and all IP necessary to develop and operate a dairy factory.

The land assets comprise of several properties located on the periphery of Otorohanga township, including the proposed processing plant site of 17.8ha bounding the Waipa River, a 142ha dairy farm and a 155ha finishing farm (totalling 297ha approx.) and a 1.8ha vacant lifestyle lot with expansive rural views and significant ground take water consents. The farms are operated subject to long term market rate leases.

Parties are encouraged to assess all options to utilise the existing consents and investment opportunities. Offers invited for the entire portfolio, or alternatively as separate land holdings.

bayleys.co.nz/1696961

297 ha Tender Closing 2pm, Mon 11 Mar 2024 Bayleys House, 30 Gaunt Street, Auckland View by appointment Dave Peacocke 027 473 2382 dave.peacocke@bayleys.co.nz Duncan Ross 021 663 567 duncan.ross@bayleys.co.nz SUCCESS REALTY LIMITED, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008 BAYLEYS REAL ESTATE LTD, AUCKLAND CENTRAL, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

NEW LISTING

Mangaweka 131 Rangitane Road

'Rangitane' - large Kawhatau Valley breeding unit

569.1471 ha

Rangitane is a strong sheep and beef breeding property located 25 kilometres from Mangaweka and State Highway 1, adjacent to the stunning Kawhatau River and close to the Ruahine Ranges.

Deadline Sale (unless sold prior) 2pm, Thu 28 Mar 2024 View by appointment Pete Stratton 027 484 7078 peter.stratton@bayleys.co.nz

With a high standard of conventional subdivision, the farm features approximately 28 hectares of versatile flats at the front of the farm, with a laneway and well-maintained track network through the medium to steep hill country that offers an excellent balance of sunny and shady. The full range of facilities feature a low maintenance four-bedroom brick home with inbuilt double garage and a large implement shed with four loose boxes and a concrete wash down area. Also featuring three other hay/implement sheds, an older four-stand wool-shed with large covered sheep yards, three sets of satellite sheep yards and a circular cattle yard with loading ramp.

bayleys.co.nz/2900656

bayleys.co.nz

BARTLEY REAL ESTATE LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

Real Estate

27

27

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

NEW LISTING

NEW LISTING

Taihape 214 Wairanu Road

Ohakune 61 Smiths Road

Strong country, great location Just off State Highway 1 and only six kilometres south of Taihape, Torere Farm is located between Wairanu, Torere and Gorge Roads and features strong, easy to medium hill country with a high portion of cultivated country.

Comprising 427 acres across eight titles, the standard of fencing and stock facilities are excellent, offering an impressive three stand wool-shed, large covered yards, adjacent cattle yard and load out, plus a centrally located, covered satellite yard.

Historically a sheep and cattle breeding and finishing operation, with many extra lambs bought in and finished. A future option may be available to purchase the homestead on eight hectares of flat land across Wairanu Road.

172.7875 ha Deadline Sale (unless sold prior) 2pm, Thu 21 Mar 2024 View by appointment Pete Stratton 027 484 7078 peter.stratton@bayleys.co.nz BARTLEY REAL ESTATE LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

Location - contour - water Located only five kilometres from Ohakune, this is a rare opportunity to secure a summer safe, flat to easy hill farm with options for gardening, finishing, dairy grazing and subdivision potential. This small property is very well subdivided into 22 paddocks and features an extraordinary on-farm spring supplying up to 90,000 litres a day, plus bore water adjacent to the Makaranui Stream along the northern boundary. Farm sheds offer a three-stand wool-shed with covered yards on grating, a fourbay implement shed, two hay-barns and solid cattle yards.

Dwellings include a three-bedroom open-plan home with attached garage, plus an older cottage which is currently rented.

69.4795 ha Tender (will not be sold prior) Closing 2pm, Fri 15 Mar 2024 Bayleys, 16 Goldfinch Street, Ohakune View by appointment Pete Stratton 027 484 7078 peter.stratton@bayleys.co.nz BARTLEY REAL ESTATE LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

bayleys.co.nz/2900653

bayleys.co.nz/2900642

Advertise here

$830

NEW LISTING

+ GST promotes your farm to every farmer in New Zealand

Book now and your online listing is free. farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate

06 323 0760 | realestate@agrihq.co.nz

Cust 190 Bennetts Road A versatile bare land holding Conveniently situated 8 kilometres from Cust Village and just 13 kilometres from Oxford township, this 177.485-hectare (more or less) bare land opportunity offers a range of purchasing and farming possibilities. Currently utilized for cropping, the property boasts a 6-hectare pond for water storage with 350 shares through Waimakariri Irrigation Ltd and partly irrigated through a Pivot Irrigator. Also suitable for stock, the property features cattle and sheep yards, an excellent three-stand woolshed, and additional shedding. Available to offer as 50.5857 hectares (more or less) providing quality soils, a woolshed with covered yards, two silos, and a hayshed or 126.8993 hectares (more or less) in three titles, irrigated.

bayleys.co.nz/5522836

177.485 ha Deadline Sale (unless sold prior) 12pm, Wed 6 Mar 2024 3 Deans Avenue, Chch Phone for viewing times Ben Turner 027 530 1400 ben.turner@bayleys.co.nz Peter Foley 021 754 737 peter.foley@bayleys.co.nz WHALAN AND PARTNERS LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

28

28

Real Estate

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

Rerewhakaaitu 366 Yankee Road Tender

Scan for more

Entry level dairy farm or support unit

4

Immaculately presented 69.35 ha first farm or support unit opportunity located in the southeastern corner of the renowned Rerewhakaaitu district. This property is flat to rolling in contour with a small area of steeper sidlings. Housing is well catered for by four bedroom home set within a mature garden environment. Farm infrastructure includes an immaculately 16 ASHB shed with in-shed feeding along with various other implement and calf sheds plus a lined effluent pond that is consented until 2032. The farm is subdivided into 30 paddocks and is milking 150+/- cows on a OAD system with a production average of 56,000 kgMS. This this is a very appealing entry level property that will be hotly contested.

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

2

Tender closes 12.00pm, Wed 14th Feb, 2024 View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/WTR176032

Phillip Berry M 027 478 8892

E phillip.berry@pb.co.nz

Phil Badger M 027 357 5704

E phil.badger@pb.co.nz

Ashburton 1847 Grahams Road Deadline Sale

343.09 ha - Scale with efficiency The bones of this property are there, efficiency is there, it now just needs some fresh hands. With modern infrastructure and further additions being made as late as 2018 the farm is there and waiting for a new owner to take to the next level. Having feed and loafing pads mitigates some of the ongoing environmental challenges and puts the farm ahead of the curve. Come and view a dairy farm with location, scale and efficiency at its heart.

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

Deadline Sale closes Wednesday 28th February, 2024 at 12.00pm, (unless sold prior), Property Brokers Ashburton View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/AR173581

Jason Rickard M 027 245 8495

Advertise with us

Reach hundreds and thousands of rural New Zealanders every week

Call 0800 85 25 80 realestate@agrihq.co.nz

Real Estate

29 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

DEADLINE SALE

Free Range Meat Chicken Farm

4.23 ha

Hamilton Lifestyle, location and return on investment are all important factors when investing in the rural sector. This free-range chicken farm has all of those. Central Waikato location, a relaxed farming lifestyle rearing (SPCA approved) free range meat chickens, generating a consistent ROI. Comprising of 2 rearing sheds, with a total floor area of 2,880 m2. Other buildings include a 3 bay lockable workshop with concrete floor and power, a neat and tidy 3 bedroom home plus office, sleepout, double garage and carport.

Compliance consents are all in place together with a recently negotiated long-term Growing Agreement contracted to Inghams Enterprises. A going concern sale

Deadline Sale Closes Wed 13th March 4pm (unless sold prior) ___________________________________ View

By Appointment Only ___________________________________ Agent Peter Begovich 027 476 5787 Terry Court 021 754 233

inclusive of all land and buildings, consents, and machinery.

ljhooker.co.nz/KHPHR1

LJ Hooker Matamata Link Realty Ltd. Licensed Agent REA 2008

Link Realty Ltd. All information contained herein is gathered from sources we consider to be reliable. However, we cannot guarantee or give any waranty about the information provided. Interested parties must solely rely on their own enquiries.

29

30

30

Real Estate

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

W A I H E K E C O A S TA L L I F E S T Y L E F O R S A L E - 306B Cowes Bay Road | $6,950,000 | nzsothebysrealty.com/WAI11537

A gated coastal lifestyle offering of 5.93 ha (more or less) with access to all tide boat launching, a 49 metre jetty and helipad.

Pakatoa, Rotoroa and Ponui islands punctuate your horizon and beckon with the best fishing spots within just a few minutes of launching. An aquatic recreational playground to cater for all generations.

Pasture, Pohutukawa and a stand of ancient covenanted native forest. An opportunity to downsize to a coastal rural property but with all the convenience to Auckland that Waiheke offers. Two award winning architects and master builder are available for onsite consultation.

Waiheke sits within a 35 minute ferry ride to Auckland CBD yet this outstanding property is a whole world away.

This could be your literal sea change. The scale and scope can only be fully comprehended upon arrival, a legacy land to sea connection rarely ever offered.

For Sale $6,950,000.

LISA HOPEWELL

+64 27 451 8887 lisa.hopewell@nzsir.com

PENE MILNE

+64 21 919 940 pene.milne@nzsir.com

Each Office is Independently Owned and Operated. NZSIR Waiheke and Gulf Islands Limited (licensed under the REAA 2008) MREINZ.

RURAL | LIFESTYLE | RESIDENTIAL

EXCLUSIVE

WAIUKU, AUCKLAND 1047 Awhitu Road

PRICE BY NEGOTIATION Plus GST (if any)

Vendors Have Brought - Instructed to Sell 164ha

VIEW By Appointment Only

Title 1 - Dairy Farms of this quality and size located close to Auckland are few and far between. This 161.33ha farm has been farmed with pride by the owners for over 30 years. Infrastructure includes five bedroom home with four bay shed, two bedroom cottage, 30 aside herringbone shed, inline feed system, rubber matting, multiple silage pits, calf rearing facilities, and large implement shed. Currently milking 400 cows, across the property with well subdivided paddocks via well maintained raceways, with a good standard of fencing throughout.

Title 2 - This executive home on 2.69ha was built with privacy and views in mind. The picturesque rural aspect and the views of the Manukau Harbour are predominant. Set on a large section, with a long tree lined driveway, a large feature pond and flat outdoor grassed area. Large three bay workshop/shed for all the toys. The house itself was designed with room being the key. Each of the four bedrooms are designed with space being the feature, this flows through to the hallways and two bathrooms. Modern kitchen with butler's pantry, open plan design is an entertainer's dream.

Approximately 12km from the township of Waiuku and the Te Toro boat ramp less than 10 minutes away. Our vendors are moving south and want this property sold.

Kane Needham M 027 336 8709 E kane.needham@pggwrightson.co.nz Mark Needham M 027 704 6833 E mneedham@pggwrightson.co.nz

pggwre.co.nz/PUK38389 PGG Wrightson Real Estate Limited, licensed under REAA 2008

Helping grow the country

Marketplace

31

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

HIGH COUNTRY JOURNEYS

Advertise with us

Supplying quality new seasons:

Heavy duty, long lasting incinerators

Drive from station to station and experience the majestic South Island High Country

NOW TAKING BOOKINGS FOR 2025

Limited spaces available for 2024 • South Island High Country Grand Slam Self drive your own 4WD from Blenheim to Cardrona in Central Otago through a network of high country tracks including Molesworth on this 7 day 8 night tour.

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

Call Julie 027 705 7181

Three sizes available

LK0117849©

These Tours are; Fully guided with radio contact; Fully catered and stay in very comfortable lodge and farmstays; Made up of smaller tour groups (6-9 vehicles) and travel at a quieter pace.

LK0117847©

For further information contact: John Mulholland RD1, RANFURLY Phone 03 444 9703 • Mobile 027 228 8152 lnfo@highcountryjourneys.co.nz www.highcountryjourneys.co.nz

QUALITY Feeds You Can TRUST

4X4 TAGALONG TOURS 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 Dates: March 11-14, March 25-28, April 8-11, April 22-25, limited places available on these dates.

Tour: 2 D’Urville Island and Marlborough Farms Tour Tour 3: North Otago Tag-along Tour Dates: March 19-23

LK0117848©

Dates: April 24-28

Ph: 0274 351 955 E: info@southislandtoursnz.com • www.southislandtoursnz.com

SCOTTY’S CONTRACTORS Digging out and remetalling cattle yards and calf sheds.

Also specialising in flood damage and silt removal.

✁

Under Woolshed/Covered Yards Cleaning Specialists www.underthewoolshed.kiwi

✁ Contact Scotty to discuss all that needs to be done Ph 0800 27 26 88 • Mobile 027 26 26 27 2 • scottnewman101@gmail.com New Zealand’s Number 1 service provider since 2004

LK0117837©

NOW BACK AT WORK IN THE TAIHAPE/TAUMARUNUI AREA

LK0117142©

• Meadow Hay • Barley & Wheat Straw • Rye Grass Straw • Meadow & Lucerne Balage For delivered on Farm Pricing Mark 0800 478 729 Tracey 027 554 1841

Marketplace 31

Phone 021 047 9299 irontreeproducts.co.nz

32 Market / Live

Livestock

Marketplace ANIMAL HANDLING 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 ro d i p. c o m

Topper / Finishing Mower

Genuine 11.5HP Briggs & Stratton Motor.

Electric start. Belt driven.

Cutting Height 30mm - 300mm

$4200

ATTENTION FARMERS

GST INCLUSIVE

LK0117738©

DOLOMITE NZ’s finest BioGro certified Mg fertiliser For a delivered price call ....

HAY/BALAGE FOR SALE HAY SQUARE AT $75, Rounds at $85 plus GST. Wheat and barley straw available now.

BALAGE EXCELLENT QUALITY, $75 per bale plus GST. Unit loads available for hay and balage.

Phone 021 455 787.

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

To find out more visit

0800 436 566

LIVESTOCK FOR SALE

Phone 0800 422277 or 028 461 5112 Email: mowermasterltd@gmail.com

DOGS FOR SALE

WILTSHIRE EWES. 4t 230x, Capital stock, Benneydale Wiltshires. King Country.

13yrs established. Clean shedding. $250+gst Ph Joe Hodge 027 2806 747.

www.mowermaster.co

30 DOGS UNDER $995.

Deliver NZ Wide. https:// w w w.youtube.com/@ mikehugheswork ingdog.

Phone 07 315 5553.

BOOK AN AD. For only $3.30 + gst per word you can book a word only ad in Farmers Weekly Classifieds section. Phone 0800 85 25 80 to book in or email wordads@agrihq.co.nz

DOGS WANTED ANY DOGS wasting away in kennels? Ph 07 315 5553. mikehughesworkingdogs@ farmside.co.nz

ELECTRO-TEK ENGINEERING

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

SALE TALK

Glenrobin Stud

A man goes into a pet shop to buy a parrot. The shop owner points to three identical-looking parrots on a perch and says, “The parrot on the left costs $500”.

“Why does the parrot cost so much?” asks the man.

The owner says “Well the parrot knows how to use a computer.”

The man then asks about the next parrot and learns that it costs $1,000 because it can do everything the first parrot can do plus it knows how to use the UNIX operating system.

Naturally, the increasingly startled man asks about the third parrot, only to be told that it costs $2,000.

Needless to say, this begs the question, “What can it do?”

To which the owner replies, “To be honest, I have never seen it do anything, but the other two call him boss!”

Beltex X Ram Lamb Sale Sale Day: Monday 4 March 2024 AUCTION at Gore Showgrounds Viewing from 12pm Sale starts 2pm Also on

– hybrid livestreamed auction

Sale consists of approximately 70 Ram Lambs Sired by top pure Beltex Rams • Beltex X Suffolk Ram Lambs • Beltex X Poll Dorset Ram Lambs This includes some ¾ Beltex X Ram Lambs.

All Ram Lambs are showing the unique double muscling and the higher yielding density characteristics of the Beltex breed.

Michael Robinson 027 210 5977 Brent Robinson 027 206 4958 Callum McDonald PGGW 027 433 6443

Subscribe from only $100* per month agrihq.co.nz/our-industry-reports

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

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

Conditions apply

MANAWAHE WILTSHIRES WILTSHIRE RAMS – PURE BRED

* Prices are GST exclusive

SHEEP & BEEF REPORT

16 years farming and breeding Wiltshires

2 Tooth Rams $1500 + GST (13)

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

Ram Hoggets $375 + GST

STOCK FEED ZON BIRDSCARER

It grows under them.

electro-tek@xtra.co.nz Phone: 06 357 2454

CORK OAK TRUFFLE TREES

FARM MAPPING MEASURE YOUR FARM’S effective area with a practical and cost-effective map. Visit farmmapping.co.nz for a quote.

WORD ONLY ADVERTISING. Phone 0800 85 25 80.

Trees produce truffles at around year 7, producing up to 1kg a year by year 15.

Currently black truffles are selling at $2,500$3,000 per kg, with high demand.

Great stock shade and shelter with 0% loss of grazing land. Stock protector options are available for cattle, sheep & deer.

GOATS WANTED

Fantastic stock feed which is low tannin and high in carbohydrates. Produces up to 1 ton of acorns per tree each year.

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.

Extremely resilient. Fire resistant, stabilises erosion, frost & snow resistant to -9 degrees.

Drought & heat tolerant over 40 degrees.

Add value far into the future. Trees last over 200 years. Cork harvest income at year 25, then every 10 years. Potential carbon credits at 30% with a minimum 1ha canopy cover.

LK0117099©

For tree availability call 021 327 637 or visit truffles.nz

FERAL GOATS WANTED. Pick-up within 24 hours.

Prices based on works schedule. Phone Bill and Vicky Le Feuvre 07 893 8916 / 027 363 2932.

Refer TradeMe listing #4538232793

2024 QUALITY MEADOW Hay $75 Good quality 5ft round, weed free meadow hay. 800 plus available Located Greytown, Wairarapa. Phone 027 446 0774.

Ph Sharon 027 537 7157

2023/2024 RED CLOVER/ ITALIAN Rye Baleage $75.

Top quality, weed free, 4ft round, 6 layers plastic. 800 plus available. Location Greytown, Wairarapa.

Phone 027 446 0774.

BOOK AN AD. For only $3.30 + gst per word you can book a word only ad in Farmers Weekly Classifieds section.

Phone 0800 85 25 80 to book in or email wordads@agrihq. co.nz

WANTED TO BUY SAWN SHED TIMBER including Black Maire.

Matai, Totara and Rimu etc. Also buying salvaged native logs. Phone Richard Uren. NZ Native Timber Supplies. Phone 027 688 2954.

Want to get the most out of your herd?

Start by selecting the best replacement heifers by using DNA powered testing portfolio 9 Straight and

Find primary sector vacancies at:

crossbred animals.

9 17 maternal, performance and carcass traits.

9 Backed by genetic and performance data from over 18 million animals.

farmersweeklyjobs.co.nz

Contact Ella Holland today on

To advertise phone Julie 027 705 7181

LK0117869©

MOWER MASTER TOWABLE MOWERS

LK0117850©

32

Igenity Commercial Females

Stud Bull EBV’s

027 386 2410 or 0800 248 247 or email ella@pbbnz.com

Greater genetic gain & profit

www.pbbnz.com/igenity

Livestock 33

Livestock

33

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

Hursley Downs Southdown Ewe Dispersal

KIKITANGEO SALE OF TOP COMMERCIAL 2th EWES

STOCK REQUIRED Velvet Stags and Hinds

20 February, 12 noon

WELLSFORD SALEYARDS 110 top 2th ewes 2 top 2th rams by Kiki D316-16

"MAXIMISING YOUR RETURN THROUGH PERSONAL LIVESTOCK MANAGEMENT"

Looking for the best? Look no further!

2 exceptional lines of breeding cows coming to the market for March Delivery

Scan the below QR code to go to auction page:

70 x Top Angus MA Cows, in-calf to Stockman Angus Bull (1st Oct-15 Dec Bull date). Very good temperament. TBV

LK0117729©

Further enquiries: Wayne Chisnall – 027 4712 078 Simon Eddington – 027 590 8612

150 x Here/Frs MA Cows, in-calf to top Charolais Bull (20 Oct-10 Dec Bull date).

Weaners ave. over 300kg for both sexes last year!

Chris Kyle, Ph: 027 496 7412 Ph: 0800 827 455

Email: admin@byl.co.nz

None of these have records. Due to new management these capital stock will be sold. These ewes are genetically and physically the equal of the stud sheep sold previously.

■ Totally resistant to any worm challenges ■ FE tolerant – sires tested to 0.60mg/kg A great opportunity to add to, or found a stud For information and photos see PGG Wrightson website www. https://store.pggwrightson.co.nz/

JW0117748©

STOCK FOR SALE

Telephone: G Levet – 09 423 7034 B McGahan – 027 590 2210 Grant Palliser – 027 592 2121 Lance Paganini – 027 201 2515

Website: www.byllivestock.co.nz

CAPITAL STOCK ROMDALE EWE DISPERSAL

Thursday 15 February 7.00pm ONLINE SALE ONLY

• 630 Romdale 3 Shear Ewes

A/c Faraway Ltd D Van Bysterveldt Date: Thursday 15th February Address: Matamata Saleyard Start Time: 11.30am

Start Time: 12.30pm will be available for online bidding

DETAILS:

• 500 Romdale 5 Shear Ewes

BW278 PW303 RA100%

Viewing by appointment only, contact:

Ryan Dowling 027 434 7239

DETAILS: BW: 316 PW: 429 (BWs up to 452, PWs up to 883) All March calving, blanket dry cow. TB Tested.

TB Status C10, Lepto vaccinated.

All in-calf to AI Charolais only, no bulls used.

BVD information:

Scan 182%, Lambing approx 150-155%, Campo toxo 5 in 1.

This is an outstanding opportunity to purchase top quality high performance capital stock Romdale ewes that have been faithfully farmed and are only being offered due to the expiry of their lease. Sheep will be drafted into lines and lots created closer to the sale date.

Short term grazing available.

COMPRISING:

COMPRISING:

• 550 Romdale 4 Shear Ewes

AUCTIONEERS NOTE: This exclusive line of strong Friesian to Friesian cross carryover cows were hand-picked from herds from Waikato to the North.

Were milked through and mated for autumn calving.

Will come forward in excellent condition.

All cows guaranteed sound and in-calf by the vendor.

All calves blood tested, and no PIs detected in over 5 years AUCTIONEERS NOTE: This is a genuine replacement line of 139 quality autumn calving crossbred heifers calving from 11/03/2024 to Pamu Angus.

Available due to a change in land use in Northland. These heifers come forward in great condition and will not disappoint.

PAYMENT TERMS: 14 days after sale

All heifers will carry a 28 day In-calf guarantee from the 13th of February 2024.

NZ’s Virtual Saleyard Watch and bid from anywhere.

For more info go to www.bidr.co.nz Hybrid Livestreamed Auctions

PAYMENT & DELIVERY TERMS:

OUR VENDORS: David Bysterverldt

Payment due 14 days after sale.

P: 021 189 9888

Delivery on day of the auction CARRFIELDS LIVESTOCK AGENT: Noel Baker 027 404 7667

Helping grow the country

will be available for online bidding

207 x Mixed Aged Autumn Calving Cows

139 x Crossbred Autumn In-Calf Heifers

• 400 Romdale AD Ewes

Call Andrea 027 602 4925

A/c Takou Bay Dairies Address: Cambridge Saleyards

• 700 Romdale 2 Shear Ewes (2022 born, lambed as hoggets)

Advertise with us

HIGH INDEXED AUTUMN CALVING DAIRY COW SALE

(At the commencement of the weekly sale)

Approx:

Phone Ross Dyer 0274 333 381 www.dyerlivestock.co.nz

GENUINE AUTUMN IN-CALF HEIFER AUCTION Date: Tuesday 13th February

PK Johnston Limited, Ranfurly

Friesian Bull Calves R2YR Beef or Fries Bulls 330-420kg R2YR Heifers 300-370kg R2YR Ang & Ang X Steers 350-400kg R3YR Ang & Ang X Steers 480-550kg

A Financing Solution For Your Farm www.rdlfinance.co.nz

Or your local Carrfields Agent

CARRFIELDS LIVESTOCK AGENT: JW117834©

Offering Comprises 57 Southdown MA Ewes 36 Southdown Two Tooth Ewes 30 Southdown Ewe Lambs

500 Romney 2 Tooth Ewes

Reuben Wright M: 027 284 6384 Or your local Carrfields Agent

JW117826©

Wayne & Jenny Chisnall 7pm, Tuesday 20th February

W W W . C H E V I O T S H E E P N Z . C O M USE A REGISTERED CHEVIOT RAM FOR: • Better constitution, mobility and longevity • Less labour and costs • High worm tolerance

• Potential for heavy carcase weights with top grade • Unrivalled for hogget lambing survival • Increased stock quality and quantity for sale

Amberley - Beverley Hay - 03 314 9388 Ashburton - Blair Gallagher - 03 303 9819 Cambridge - Katee Herdman - 027 460 3027 Christchurch - Anthony Gray - 03 329 7977 Clinton - Brent Mackie - 03 415 7220

Clinton - Rae Mitchell - 03 415 7187 Dargaville - Ross Pellow - 09 439 5885 Fairlie - Stephen Whittaker - 03 685 4864 Hastings - Deidre Anderson - 027 699 6307 Ngaruawahia - Brenda Coleman - 07 824 5978

Otautau - Andrew Mackie - 027 225 4777 Palmerston North - Gilbert Timms - 06 362 7829 Piopio - Neil Langlands - 07 896 8660 Stratford - John Herlihy - 06 762 5520 Taihape - Brian Coogan - 06 388 7844

Takaka - Ian Alach - 03 525 9038 Te Awamutu - John Spellman - 07 877 8401 Waitara - Wayne Frank - 022 321 2659 Wyndham - Matt McKelvie - 027 491 2503

LK0117777©

For further information contact the Secretary: 03 318 8260 or jcpascoe@xtra.co.nz or any of our Registered breeders:

34 Markets

Markets

Proudly sponsored by

A correction, but girls come to the party

South Island ewe fairs return solid results in the context of the current market as relative scarcity plays its part.

Fiona Quarrie

MARKETS

E

Livestock

ARLY glances at the ewe fair scene usually focus on results in the North Island but in the past few weeks South Island fairs have been steadily ticked off.

There have undoubtedly been drops in returns across the board because of lower lamb and mutton schedules, but on the whole values have been solid.

PGG Wrightson agent Barry McAlister attributes this to there being “not a lot of ewes on the market”.

A solid 2-tooth result at Temuka was followed by its adult ewe fair at the end of January. Throughput was higher than last year, by 1124 head, but this was mostly due to several capital stock lines. A good crowd of buyers with plenty of feed at home kept the market honest.

Top prices in the 2- and 3-shear ewes landed from $150 to $160, the breeding of which included Romney, Coopworth, Border Leicester-Romney and Coopworth-Texel.

Border Leicester-Corriedale reached $126 for 2-shear options and came down to $66 for the older girls.

Balclutha offered some bigger numbers at almost 5500 head.

The bulk of 2-tooth were Romney and the top cut of these made $201-$210.

The next price bracket of $172$190 included a few variations including first-cross RomneyTexel, Romdale and a composite breed known as Textra.

The top 2-tooth return, though, was $214 and went to Owakasourced Coopdale with Braeburn bloodlines. Mixed-age and 5-year options in your more typical Romney or Perendale types came in from $100 to $132.

It took less than two hours to sell the crossbred and fine-wool ewes at Hawarden on Friday, January 26.

At Hawarden, 2500 head of shedding ewes and ewe lambs were predominantly Wiltshire with a few lines of Australian White mixed in.

Keeping in line with other fairs, results for 2-tooth crossbred ewes ranged from $140 to $200.

The outcome for mixed-age ewes was divided on breeding and Corriedale and Halfbred ewes tougher selling over their crossbred counterparts.

The rise of the Wiltshire continues and a series of Wiltshire-specific sales, including Mount Cass, Tarata Hills and Hawarden, chalked up another result.

At Hawarden, 2500 head of shedding ewes and ewe lambs were predominantly Wiltshire

See what sold today Results from the saleyards, including per kilo prices for store lambs, delivered straight to your inbox.

* Prices are GST exclusive

with a few lines of Australian White mixed in. Top 2-tooth Wiltshire managed $210-$250 and mixed-age lines traded up to $168.

The pick of Wiltshire ewe lambs returned $110-$140.

There was almost another 2000 head at Mount Cass Station, Waipara, and results were very similar across 2-tooth and annual draft lines.

Fully shed ewe lambs were a hit, though, and the top cut with a sample weight of 37kg fetched $190. The second draft, 31kg, returned $182 while lighter options traded alongside threequarter shed ewe lambs at $105 or less.

Tarata Hills, located near Centre Bush in Southland, held a Wiltshire ewe and ram sale on Wednesday, February 7.

While there was certainly a price correction since last year, McAlister reported that the result was “still above expectations considering meat schedules”.

There were two lines of 2-tooth ewes available, and these fetched $248-$255 while the three drafts of ewe lambs managed $152-$192.

“A few rams were passed in at auction but by the end of the sale there was a complete clearance of 2-tooth rams and the top price for these was a sound $1900 while the balance traded between $700 and $1600,” said McAlister.

A handful of ram lambs stayed put but they mostly sold for $250-$450.

It is not all over, though, and

OVER IN A FLASH: Buyers didn’t have to hang around long for the Hawarden ewe fair on January 26 as it was all done in under two hours.

Crossbred 2-tooth ewes sold on par with other sales at $140-$200, depending on condition and quality. there are plenty of opportunities left to purchase ewes. Lawrence will be holding its ewe fair right as this newspaper hits mailboxes and there are always a few stock dispersal sales, such as Kingston Station at the tip of Lake Wakatipu.

Capital stock and store lambs will be offered this Friday, February 16, due to the property being leased.

There will be 3800 head of Romdale ewes, 4-shear to 6-year, 50 rams and 4000 ewe and wether lambs to pick from.

LIVESTOCK EYE REPORTS Subscribe from only $35* per month agrihq.co.nz/livestock-reports

Markets

35

35

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

Weekly saleyards Hot days have become the norm across much of the country and this has turned the tables on feed situations.

Quality is going out of the feed and those who have managed to hold onto store lambs for longer are now needing to shift them off. Canterbury Park have offered larger store lamb sections in the last four weeks and the market has been mostly steady. At the February 7 sale there was a notable preference for 32kg-plus lambs which sold on a firm market but the sub-30kg types eased. Values ranged from $56 to $74 for a medium lamb depending on type and condition. Cattle feed is still plentiful, so the store cattle shortage continues.

Kaikohe | February 7 | 250 cattle R3 dairy-beef steers, 520kg

$/kg or $/hd 3.01

R2 dairy-beef heifers

2.90-3.00

Aut-born yearling exotic steers

3.20-3.30

Weaner exotic steers

3.40-3.60

Weaner dairy-beef bulls, 110-120kg

540-600

Wellsford | February 5 | 382 cattle

$/kg or $/hd

R3 traditional steers, 452-491kg

3.15 average

R3 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 369-389kg

3.22-3.23

R2 Angus-Friesian heifers, 334-390kg

3.05

Weaner Angus-Friesian heifers, 118-126kg

490-515

Prime Hereford-dairy steers, 610-671kg

3.05-3.08

Pukekohe | February 3

$/kg or $/hd

R2 steers

2.82-3.38

R2 heifers

2.94-3.36

Weaner steers

860-900

Weaner heifers

570-830

Prime steers

2.95-3.05

Prime heifers

2.90-2.96

Store ewes

48-50

Store lambs

60-98

Prime lambs

JUST THE TICKET: Short-term shorn male lambs tick all the boxes at Feilding and these heavy cryptorchid from the Kawhatau Valley fetched $108 per head

Frankton | February 7 | 319 cattle R3 Hereford-Friesian steers, one line, 520kg

$/kg or $/hd 3.05

Aut-born yearling Hereford-Friesian steers, 258-279kg

3.64-3.75

Aut-born yearling Angus-dairy steers, 254-322kg

3.43-3.47

Aut-born yearling Angus heifers, 181-233kg

3.39-3.43

100-120

Weaner dairy-beef steers, 125kg average

590

Tuakau | February 1 | 170 cattle

$/kg or $/hd

Weaner Hereford-Friesian bulls, 92-123kg

595-645

R3 Hereford-Friesian steers, 620-627kg

3.02-3.05

Weaner Hereford-Friesian heifers, 89-112kg

495-540

R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 400-500kg

3.23-3.32

Prime dairy-beef, exotic-Friesian steers, 536-607kg

2.96-2.97

R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 330-354kg

3.56-3.69

Prime dairy-beef heifers, 488-530kg

2.95-3.07

R2 dairy-beef heifers, 236-298kg

3.26-3.39

Boner Friesian, Friesian-cross cows, 426-516kg

1.74-1.84

Weaner Hereford-Friesian heifers, 107-136kg

560-620

Matawhero | February 2 | 431 sheep

$/kg or $/hd

$/kg or $/hd

2-tooth Romney ewes, one line, good

111

Frankton | February 5 | 347 cattle R2 dairy-beef steers, 291-321kg

3.49-3.57

Store ram lambs, one line, heavy

101

R2 dairy-beef steers, 373-400kg

3.25-3.30

Store ram lambs, medium to good

66-75

3.23

Store ewe lambs, medium to good

71-76

3.06-3.12

Prime ewes, good

72-80

Aut-born yearling Friesian heifers, one line, 318kg

2.61

Prime ram lambs

119

Weaner dairy-beef, exotic-Friesian steers, 91-192kg

475-670

Taranaki | February 7 | 227 cattle

Weaner Hereford-Friesian bulls, 113-131kg

655-700

R3 Hereford bulls, 685-762kg

2290-2550

Weaner Friesian bulls, 90-109kg

410-520

R3 Friesian bulls, 552-577kg

3.24-3.26

Weaner Hereford-Friesian heifers, 106-138kg

570-640

R2 dairy-beef steers, 446-465kg

2.97-3.03

Weaner Hereford-dairy heifers, 88-139kg

475-600

R2 Hereford bulls, 332-430kg

1250-1410

Weaner exotic-Friesian heifers, 97-119kg

520-640

R2 Friesian heifers, 388-397kg

2.34-2.50

Prime Hereford-Friesian heifers, 491-539kg

2.95-3.05

R2 Hereford heifers, RWB Hereford, one line, 367kg

1005

Boner Friesian-cross cows, 463-491kg

1.70-1.86

Boner Friesian cows, 515kg average

1.86

R2 Friesian-cross bulls, one line, 263kg R2 dairy-beef heifers, 345-359kg

$/kg or $/hd

36

36

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

Markets

CHATHAMS CATTLE: A small store cattle sale at Stortford Lodge consisted of 86% Chatham Island’s cattle. That included these R2 Angus heifers, 331kg, which sold for $1005, $3.17/ kg

Stortford Lodge | February 7 | 179 cattle, 3819 sheep R3 beef-cross bulls, one line , 399kg

$/kg or $/hd 2.95

R2 Angus & Angus-Hereford steers, 274-320kg

3.44-3.62

R2 Angus heifers, 307-331kg

3.12-3.17

R2 Angus & Angus-Hereford heifers, 267-376kg

3.00-3.05

Weaner Speckle Park-dairy steers and heifers, 169-173kg

525-620

6-year Perendale ewes, very good

91

Mixed-age Romney ewes, medium to very good

75-116

2-tooth Romney ewes, one line, very good

175

Store whiteface cryptorchid and ram lambs, shorn, medium to heavy

75-117.50

Store blackface ewe lambs, mainly shorn, medium to heavy

68.50-81

Store whiteface ewe lambs, mainly shorn, small to good

59-76

Store blackface mixed-sex lambs, shorn and woolly, good to heavy

84-108

Dannevirke | February 1 | 275 sheep

$/kg or $/hd

Store cryptorchid lambs

91.50

Prime ewes, all

80-104

Prime lambs, all

83-139

Feilding | February 2 | 473 cattle, 3367 sheep

$/kg or $/hd

R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 403-513kg

3.10-3.26

R2 Friesian bulls, 314-374kg

3.31-3.48

R2 traditional heifers, 314-379kg

3.30-3.50

Store male lambs, shorn, heavy

100-108

Store male lambs, shorn, good

87-93

Store blackface mixed-sex lambs, woolly, medium

72-79

Grow your team’s skills

so they can udderly take on anything Learn online with a Dairy Assistant course getmilking.co.nz

Markets Coalgate | February 1 | 113 cattle, 5112 sheep

37

$/kg or $/hd

Prime dairy-beef steers, 575-665kg

2.78-2.90

Prime dairy-beef heifers, 470-605kg

2.72-2.90

Store mixed-sex lambs, good

84-95

Store mixed-sex lambs, shorn, medium

70-80

Store mixed-sex lambs, woolly, small

45-70

Prime ewes, good

78-84

Prime lambs, very good to heavy

117-136

Canterbury Park | February 7 | 230 cattle, 3589 sheep

37

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

$/kg or $/hd

R2 Angus steers, 346-401kg

3.03-3.09

Prime traditional steers, 565-723kg

2.96-3.06

Prime dairy-beef heifers, 465-595kg

2.80-2.92

Boner Friesian, Friesian-cross cows, 547-613kg

2.00-2.18

4-tooth Texel-Romney ewes

167-182

4-6-tooth Perendale ewes, one line

160

5-year Romney, Perendale ewes

107-120

Mixed-age Romney-Wiltshire ewes, one line

93

AD Romney ewes

95-113

AD Perendale ewes

100-120

AD Romdale ewes

110-132

AD Texel-cross ewes, one line

114

$/kg or $/hd

Balclutha | February 7 Store lambs, all

50-104

Prime ewes, all

50-76

Prime lambs, all

100-140

Store mixed-sex lambs, good

71-85

Store mixed-sex lambs, medium

61-74

Prime ewes, good

73-83

Store lambs, all

67-101

Prime lambs, very good

110-129

Prime ewes, all

20-100

$/kg or $/hd

Prime lambs, all

90-137

Temuka | February 1 | 538 cattle R2 dairy-beef steers, 255-342kg

2.78-3.00

R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 295-401kg

2.57-2.78

R2 Devon-Hereford heifers, 328-386kg

2.02-2.23

Weaner Hereford-Friesian steers, 106-113kg

490-520

Weaner Hereford-Friesian heifers, 133-213kg

480-590

Temuka | February 5 | 232 cattle, 2339 sheep Prime Hereford-Friesian steers, 575-633kg Prime Hereford bulls, one line, 629kg

2.75-2.89 2.97 2.70-2.75

Boner Friesian cows, 495-541kg

1.93-1.98

Store mixed-sex lambs, good

70-88

Prime ewes, most

65-79

Prime mixed-sex lambs, most

115-130

$/kg or $/hd

2-tooth Romney ewes, all

154-212

2-tooth Texel-cross ewes

160-188

2-tooth Coopdale ewes, one line

214

NEXT IN LINE: Forward-store lambs are the pick for buyers at Temuka as processors get low on numbers. These heavy store lambs from St Andrews made $104

LONG LIVE THE KING CLASS-LEADING

3 YEAR FACTORY WARRANTY

$/kg or $/hd

$/kg or $/hd

Prime Hereford-Friesian (black) heifers, 540-698kg

Balclutha | February 2 | 5472 sheep

Charlton | February 1 | 3308 sheep

36 MONTHS TO PAY

PLUS NO DEPOSIT We get it, forking out for a new 4x4 right now is a royal pain in the … well, you know! So you want to know it’ll see you right for the next few years without costing you more.

With prices from just $13,522 + GST, its 3-year Factory Warranty and this awesome finance offer, the cost of owning a Suzuki KingQuad has never been better. So get yourself down to your local Suzuki dealer today or visit suzuki.co.nz

T&Cs: Offer is available on new Suzuki KingQuad financed between 1/2/24 and 30/4/24 at participating Suzuki dealers. Finance offer is based on no deposit, 5.99% p.a. interest rate, and is fixed for 36 months. A PPSR fee of $10.35, a monthly maintenance fee of $2, a UDC loan fee of $130 and a dealer origination fee of $250 will apply. The loan is provided by UDC Finance Limited.

UDC’s lending criteria and standard terms and conditions apply. Offer not available in conjunction with any other promotion, while stock lasts.

TRACTA23091_CF

38

38

Markets

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

AgriHQ market trends Cattle

Sheep

Deer

Beef

Sheep Meat

Venison

Slaughter price (NZ$/kgCW)

Last week

Last year

North Island P2 steer (300kg)

5.75

5.80

North Island M2 bull (300kg)

5.75

5.65

North Island M cow (190kg)

3.95

4.10

South Island P2 steer (300kg)

5.25

5.25

South Island M2 bull (300kg)

5.35

5.05

South Island M cow (190kg)

3.75

3.95

US imported 95CL bull

9.25

US domestic 90CL cow

8.65

10.88

8.88

NOTE: Slaughter values are weighted average gross operating prices including premiums but excluding breed premiums for cattle.

Steer slaughter price ($/kgCW)

6.0

5.5

5.0 Jun Aug North Island

Last year

North Island AP stag (60kg)

8.65

8.95

3.70

South Island AP stag (60kg)

8.70

8.95

5.90

6.65

2.20

3.40

Fertiliser Last week

Last year

DAP

1264

1794

Super

474

442

Urea

897

1240

Urea (Coated)

946

1189

Dec

Last year

Last year

North Island lamb (18kg)

6.10

6.95

North Island mutton (25kg)

2.60

South Island lamb (18kg) South Island mutton (25kg)

China lamb flaps

8.72

10.29

(NZ$/kg clean)

02-Feb

Last year

Crossbred fleece

3.27

2.46

Crossbred lamb

3.18

2.88

Courtesy of www.fusca.co.nz

NZ Log Exports (tonnes)

7.5

China

1,545,682

1,459,745

7.0

Rest of world

148,528

135,003

6.5

Carbon price (NZ$/tonne)

Last week

Last year

6.0

NZU

73.2

72.1

Apr

Jun

Aug

North Island

Oct

Dec South Island

Australia lamb exports (Nov - Jan, thous. tonnes)

15

40

8.5

10

20

5

0

0 China

Japan

S. Korea

Rest of Last year Asia

US This year

Other

10.0

9.0

20

60

Stag Slaughter price ($/kgCW)

9.5

25

80

Forestry

8.0

Feb

Australia beef exports (Nov - Jan, thous. tonnes)

NZ average (NZ$/tonne)

Exports

5.5

Oct Dec South Island

Slaughter price (NZ$/kgCW)

Fertiliser

Export markets (NZ$/kg)

Lamb slaughter price ($/kgCW)

6.5

Apr

Last week

Last week

Wool

Export markets (NZ$/kg)

Feb

Slaughter price (NZ$/kgCW)

8.0

Asia (xcl.

Chin a)

Chin a

Mid. Eas t Last year

Feb

US Other This year

Apr

Jun North Island

Aug

Oct Dec South Island

Data provided by

Get ahead of the market Keep track of saleyard data, key market indicators and livestock news from across the country, with the only reports that have people onsite collecting data daily.

Subscribe from only $35 per month agrihq.co.nz/livestock-reports

39

Markets

39

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – February 12, 2024

NZX market trends Dairy

Grain

Data provided by

Milk price futures ($/kgMS)

Close of market

Canterbury feed wheat ($/tonne)

5pm, Wednesday

700

9.5

650 8.5

S&P/FW PRIMARY SECTOR EQUITY

600

10271

550 7.5

450 Jan

Mar

May

Jul

Sep

Nov

Sep-2024

Jan

400 Jan

Sep-2025

Dairy Futures (US$/t)

Mar

May

Jul

Sep

Nov

Jan

Canterbury feed barley ($/tonne)

Nearest contract Last price*

S&P/NZX 10 INDEX

11952

12251

Listed Agri shares

500

6.5

S&P/NZX 50 INDEX

Company

Close

YTD High YTD Low

ArborGen Holdings Limited

0.165

0.172

0.155

The a2 Milk Company Limited

5.53

5.55

4.25

Cannasouth Limited

0.125

0.152

0.099

Prior week

4 weeks prior

700

Comvita Limited

1.82

2.62

1.79

WMP

3270

3335

3325

650

Delegat Group Limited

6.03

6.9

6.02

SMP

2730

2690

2700

600

Fonterra Shareholders' Fund (NS)

3.38

3.5

3.34

AMF

5800

5800

5700

550

Foley Wines Limited

1.17

1.2

1.11

Butter

5850

5900

5680

500

Greenfern Industries Limited

0.042

0.058

0.042

Milk Price

7.85

7.83

7.78

Livestock Improvement Corporation Ltd (NS)

1.11

1.11

0.98

450

Marlborough Wine Estates Group Limited

0.165

0.18

0.155

NZ King Salmon Investments Limited

0.3

0.305

0.225

PGG Wrightson Limited

3.2

3.44

3.09

Rua Bioscience Limited

0.099

0.121

0.094

Sanford Limited (NS)

3.9

4.14

3.76

Scales Corporation Limited

3.25

3.49

3.21

Seeka Limited

2.68

2.75

2.42

Synlait Milk Limited (NS)

0.83

1

0.78

T&G Global Limited

1.89

2

1.81

S&P/NZX Primary Sector Equity Index

10271

10370

10094

S&P/NZX 50 Index

11952

11952

11666

S&P/NZX 10 Index

12251

12254

12007

* price as at close of business on Wednesday

400

WMP futures - vs four weeks ago (US$/tonne)

Jan

Mar

May

Jul

Sep

Nov

Jan

Waikato palm kernel ($/tonne)

3500

450

3450 3400 400

3350 3300 3250

350

3200 3150

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Latest price

Jun

300 Jan

4 weeks ago

Mar

May

Jul

Sep

Nov

Jan

SEPTEMBER 2, 2022

LIVESTOCK OUTLOOK

LIVESTOCKEYE FEILDING STORE CATTLE

2-YEAR STEER

2-YEAR STEER

TRADITIONAL 540 - 555KG

HERE/FR 385 - 470KG

3.69

3.59

YEARLING STEER

YEARLING HEIFER

TRADITIONAL 315 - 330KG

M2 BULL -JUL

YEARLING BULL

TRADITIONAL 215 - 240KG

4.32

FRIESIAN 325 - 390KG

3.67

$/KG

6.05

3.62

P2 STEER - JUL

$/KG

6.15

M COW - JUL

$/KG

4.65

SOUTH ISLAND JULY 2022 KEY POINTS

➔ Export prices follow traditional trends ➔ Processing numbers head to winter levels ➔ Chinese demand for lamb softer

LAMB - JUL

NZD:USD

9.20

0.61

$/KG 20KGCW

VIEWPOINT

Spring market has sprung A strange glowing ball has been spotted in the Manawatu skies the past few days apparently it’s called “the sun” - which added more fuel to the flames that have powered the store cattle market since the start of August. Or maybe it was the official rolling of the calendar into spring that has awoken even more buyers.

Either way, there were plenty of punters having a shot at cattle this week.

Vendors were clearly feeling optimistic about their odds as the yarding shot up to the biggest in eight weeks. This was mostly due to a wave of yearlings coming out of the woodwork, who ended up being the main stars of the show. Not that the 2-year lines didn’t go well.

Despite their big numbers, there were few special entry consignments through the 2-year steers, but the market wasn’t affected by this.

Almost everything with traditional breeding was bought between $3.55/kg and $3.76/ kg, a subtle increase on a week ago. The less standard lines were where the main gains were made though, especially the 360-425kg dairybeef pens which paid essentially the same per kilo rate as above, while some light Hereford from the Wairarapa got up to $3.89/kg.

It would have been quiet on the 2-year heifers if it weren’t for two vendors. One from Blenheim sold two pens of 450kg traditional heifers for $3.58-$3.61/kg, while a southernTaranaki vendor sold a single, large line of 370kg Angus for $3.66/kg.

Few 2-year bulls were offered, but the 533kg Friesian were at least a good benchmark at $3.62/kg.

Demand for yearling cattle was strong from the beginning and never really slowed through the rest of the sale. Bidding was so competitive that it was rare for any buyer to take home more than two pens in each section.

For those wanting steers, anything with a bit of quality was out of reach unless they were willing to go above $4/kg. The obvious highlights were three 315-335kg traditional pens at the start, all going to different homes for $4.24-$4.37/kg. Four back-to-back lines of 252-307kg Hereford-Friesian followed too long afterwards, again each pen finding a different buyer at $4.04/kg to $4.34/kg.

Yearling bulls were out in force but that only seemed to attract even more buyers who added more onto last week’s money. Good quality throughout helped prices too. A dozen lines of Friesian were auctioned at consistent prices, heavy cuts performing especially well at $3.61-$3.64/kg for 327-391kg. Almost all others of the same breed were $3.44-$3.64/kg for 250kg and above.

Weights were generally on the lower-side through the yearling heifers but anything that wasn’t too mixed-bred looking sold well regardless. Traditional pens at 190-246kg were all $3.56-$3.75/kg. Heavier dairy-beef options, 264-296kg, were only a little off that pace at $3.49-$3.59/kg.

2000

Ave. KG

2.0 3-Jun

Average Sale Prices Age/Class

Breed

Ave. $/hd

Ave. $/kg

2-year Steer

Traditional

460

1680

3.67

2-year Steer

Dairy-beef

400

1445

3.61

2-year Heifer

Traditional

385

1375

3.55

2-year Heifer

Dairy-beef

395

1300

3.30

Reece Brick

Store cattle tallies Wnr/R1

314

551

240

108

355

Bull

5

228

34

267

Cow

-

-

-

39

Total

12

705

461

1239

1000 500 0

4.0

4.27 3.82

3.0

Yearling Heifer

Traditional

220

805

3.64

Yearling Heifer

Dairy-beef

250

810

3.26

2.5

3.58 2.54

+64 6 323 6393 | info@agrihq.co.nz | agrihq.co.nz

Traditional steer 425-475kg ($/kg)

3-Aug 5-yr ave

3-Oct Last year

3-Dec This year

Friesian bull 325-375kg ($/kg)

3.5

1230

1055

23-Sep This year

2.5

1030

1325

9-Sep Last year

3.5

290

295

26-Aug 5-yr ave

3.0

270

520

12-Aug

4.0

Traditional

Friesian

Store cattle tallies

1500

Dairy-beef

Traditional

Total

237

7

Yearling Steer

MA Cow

2yr +

-

Heifer

Yearling Steer

Yearling Bull

1yr/R2

Steer

2.0 3-Jun

3-Aug 5-yr ave

3-Oct Last year

3-Dec This year

VIEWPOINT

Confidence in beef job remains solid A good old-fashioned winter has returned this year, making life a little busier on-farm.

Many are being quickly reminded about the amount of feed stock require when the wet weather doesn’t give up.

It’s early days but if these winter weather patterns continue, then chances are it could dampen store spirits and potentially create some pressure at a processing level, especially for those with extra trade lambs on. That has certainly been the case in the North Island in recent weeks where feed reserves have disappeared and a more cautious approach to taking on any more mouths has developed.

Due to timing the beef job is likely to be less impacted. A solid store market still exists which is beneficial given these are making up the bulk of cattle trading lately.

Stable market conditions this year have

created confidence in the beef job. Bull and prime beef prices have tracked in a tight range all year and are now starting to find momentum. The lack of negativity in market direction has been welcoming. Although the US imported beef market has headed in the wrong direction, we have yet to truly feel any downside with the NZD supporting returns.

There is still some fat in the beef game according to our latest forecasts. This will continue to support the store market whilst still allowing for decent margins at the other end.

The likelihood of further upside seems more plausible for beef than lamb. While supplies are ample in key markets now – its coinciding with our offseason. As our spring kill gets underway, in-market demand is expected to pick up as markets look for supply.

Confidence in the direction of lamb

+64 6 323 6393 | info@agrihq.co.nz | agrihq.co.nz

Mel Croad

As our spring beef kill gets underway, in-market demand is expected to pick up as markets look for supply. prices is a little less black and white. Lamb prices have been teetering at the top for most of the season, having bottomed out at $8.10/ kg. Prior to late 2019 that was considered almost peak money. Being a niche product also increases the risk profile for lamb, especially when global food inflation is rampant, and consumers are starting to downgrade protein choices. Procurement will continue to drive farmgate prices, but that has a limited life span.

Re-energised export market activity will be key to keeping pricing strong.

40

Weather

ruralweather.co.nz

Here comes everyone’s favourite season Philip Duncan

NEWS

I

Weather

T’S the middle of February and no matter how you slice it or dice it, we’re now approaching the next turning point – the season of autumn.

Every poll WeatherWatch has ever run on which season New Zealanders love most has ended with the same answer: autumn.

Especially the first half of the season in March and early April, where we often have summer-like daytime weather but longer and cooler nights for sleeping.

The mornings have a healthier crispness to them with heavier dews underfoot. I remember as a child walking up to the school (we lived in the school house, so I can’t tell those dramatic stories of long walks to school where it was uphill in both directions!) and I remember at this time of year my shoes being wet from the morning dew or the cut grass from the rugby field being stuck underfoot in wet clumps.

There’s a good chance we have reached the general peak of summer heat, and while many

SPORE: The national facial eczema spore counts as at February 8 – less than half last year’s at this time.

We reach our hottest weather in late January to mid-February, but the oceans take longer and reach their warmest in March. more hot days will likely be on the way, the overnight lows should start to slowly drop and the morning dew should start to increase.

This year our much drier summer

(generally speaking) compared to last year has seen a drop in facial eczema spore counts. The 2024 spore counts are more than half those of 2023 at this same time (national trend). They are also below 2022 at this same time ... but we’re up on 2021. The next 10 to 15 weeks will be the main risk time.

We’re also in the peak of the cyclone season. Normally El Niño would silence much of the chatter around the tropics for our part of the world, but not this year. Just last Thursday there

MID-MONTH: The potential weather set up across Australia and New Zealand on February 19. were two tropical cyclones in the South Pacific and we’ve already had two cyclones this season (Jasper and Kirrily, which both hit Queensland).

There’s a thermal lag when it comes to summer; we reach our hottest weather in late January to mid-February, but the oceans take longer and reach their warmest in March, which is why we often still see tropical storms through to April. The forecast for the rest of February is busy when you look at the big picture – with the chance

of a severe cyclone wanting to form directly north of NZ for weeks and long range modelling still showing this possibility at the time of writing this.

It adds the isolated chance of tropical rain reaching NZ. But it’s worth noting we have big powerful high-pressure zones coming our way too. It’s a really unusual El Niño where the big highs are correctly now in our part of the world – but the tropics has energy rarely seen during an El Niño summer.

Who has a deeper understanding of what your crops need?

With its smart coating, N-Protect reduces N-loss volatilisation by up to 50% so your crops get more nitrogen to their roots. That’s why more than 58% of our farmers use it to boost growth and reduce N Loss.

Talk to our team about boosting your yields with N-Protect on 0800 100 123.