Farmers Weekly NZ June 15 2019

7

Best trade/specialist publication and website – Voyager Media Awards 2019

Vol 18 No 27, July 15, 2019

Loss won’t be repeated

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Farmers won’t pay Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz

F

ONTERRA Shareholders’ Council chairman Duncan Coull is adamant farmers will not be bailing out their co-op despite a sliding share value, high debt and challenging asset sales.

And chief financial officer Marc Rivers is equally adamant the co-op will not be retaining money from the milk payout to repay debt, will not change the milk price mechanism and has no immediate plans to reform its capital structure.

In the wake of last week’s farmer vote to sell Westland Milk Products to Chinese dairy giant Yili there is a growing chorus of concern over the likelihood of Fonterra being forced down the same path if it cannot reduce its debts quickly.

Industry analyst Peter Fraser kicked off those concerns describing the Westland sale as a dress rehearsal for Fonterra’s.

He and others have called for Fonterra to pull back on its payout by as much as 50c a kilogram of milksolids for a rapid fix to its debt woes.

But Coull is confident the cooperative can turn around under its present structure without retaining a portion of payout from this year’s milk cheque.

“Part of the issue as I understand with Westland is they extended on a growth strategy that did not align with their capital strategy, having to fund and

?

Not with our money

Fonterra’s

future

borrow for a strategy that was not well executed, which put them behind on the milk price.”

Coull said Fonterra’s issues relate to poor allocation of capital in some instances.

“I guess that is putting pressure on the balance sheet. But the difference between Westland and Fonterra is Fonterra is engaged around the world with many options and avenues to pursue for revenue and assets.”

Fonterra has targeted an $800 million reduction in its $7.2 billion debt this year by selling nonstrategic assets.

Massey University senior management lecturer Dr James Lockhart said Fonterra is not a lost cause but must act quicker to cut debt.

His solution, like Fraser’s, is to hold back 50c a kilo of milksolids from this year’s cheque.

The $800m that would yield would deal to the debt concerns simply and quickly.

“If you go this way, yes, there will be some tears but I suspect considerably less if Fonterra is honest and shares with their shareholder farmers the enormity of what they face.”

But both Coull and Rivers are adamant there will be no retentions of milk cheque payments to help improve Fonterra’s position.

“Despite what Peter Fraser says, milk price is the most important

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FARMERS are unlikely to put any of their milk cheque back into their co-operative in the near future, at least until they get a better idea of where their money will be going, Te Aroha farmer Stuart King says.

He would be angry if asked to do so before he can see

number to us here in New Zealand,” Coull said.

“We have a milk price model in place for good reason and we should not be funding on-going

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operations and propping up the business through retentions.”

Rivers accepts the co-op is over extended but is confident its balance sheet strength can

giving them the kiss of death in recent years.

“Withholding money means we are being asked to pay to fix up everything, but I want to see some evidence the changes needed are being made first.

“It puzzles me why we would be throwing more money at it.

Fonterra seems to have done that too often in the past.”

Photo: Peter Drury

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the co-op turn its financial performance around.

“We are all a bit gun shy at the moment.

“When we look at the situation the co-operative has got itself into it seems to be $2 billion poorer from investments with our money.

“Fonterra seems to have been good at taking quite good performing businesses and

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NEWS

WEATHER OVERVIEW New Zealand is now in a westerly phase of weather which means, generally speaking, we’re seeing more wind from the west, southwest and northwest.

Winds will surge up and down over the coming week with several cold fronts moving in from the west. That means rain accumulation on the western half of the entire country will be significantly greater than along the eastern side.

The heaviest rain will be further to the south, around the lower half of the West Coast. Rain will also fall as heavy snow in the mountains. But eastern areas remain mainly dry with limited rainfall, especially between Gisborne and Dunedin over the coming week or two.

5 Upton issues carbon bill warning The Government’s Zero Carbon Bill could see millions of hectares of land converted to forestry, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton says.

Newsmaker ������������������������������������������������������20

Pasture Growth Index Above normal Near normal Below normal

7-DAY TRENDS

Rain

Wind

Heavy rain on the West Coast with warnings possible. Rain and showers off and on for the western half of the North Island. Drier than average in the east of both islands.

New Thinking ��������������������������������������������������21 Opinion ������������������������������������������������������������22 World �����������������������������������������������������������������30

ON FARM STORY

NZX PASTURE GROWTH INDEX – Next 15 days

Temperature Temperatures vary this week with some colder air brushing the lower half of the South Island and some western areas but many eastern areas look warmer than usual.

Generally speaking, it is warmer than average this week for many regions.

West to northwest winds dominate this week but we get some brief northeast winds around the eastern South Island and a brief colder south to southwest flow affects the lower South Island early this week too. Westerly quarter winds dominate until Saturday.

Highlights/ Extremes More bursts of heavy rain for the West Coast this week but with increasing drier spells. Snow briefly to about 400m around Southland and Otago for a time early this week.

Drier than normal in the east of both islands.

14-DAY OUTLOOK

This new weather pattern is remarkably positive for the depths of winter. Not only are we finally getting normal rainfall returning to dry parts of the North Island, from the west, but we’re also seeing a huge uptick in warmer-than-normal weather, which bodes very well for pasture growth. It’s a bit surreal hearing how much growth is happening, even in the Deep South.

This week is generally positive for pasture growth.

SOIL MOISTURE INDEX – 12/07/2019

28 The nation’s least worst farmers Banks Peninsula farmer and self-confessed radical Roger Beattie is never short of new ideas for the primary sector. Luke Chivers visited him to hear about some of the maverick’s pet projects.

REGULARS Real Estate �������������������������������������������������31-32 Employment ����������������������������������������������������33 Classifieds ��������������������������������������������������������34 Livestock ����������������������������������������������������������35 Markets �������������������������������������������������������36-40 GlobalHQ is a farming family owned business that donates 1% of advertising revenue to the Rural Support Trust.

Thanks to our Farmers Weekly and Dairy Farmer advertisers this week: $602. Need help now? You can talk to someone who understands the pressures of farming by phoning your local Rural Support Trust on 0800 787 254.

Source: WeatherWatch.co.nz

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For more weather information go to farmersweekly.co.nz/weather

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

3

Speculators push lamb prices up Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz SPECULATORS have pushed North Island store lamb prices 35c/kg above the same time last year despite winter slaughter prices being similar to last year.

Affco’s recent $9/kg contract for prime lambs appears to have hyped the store market even though AgriHQ analyst Nicola Dennis says other meat companies are offering winter slaughter prices that mirror last year’s at about $7.50 to $7.80/ kg.

The contract is available only in August to Affco clients who have been regular suppliers and applies only to stock processed at North Island plants.

Dennis says few North Island store lambs can be bought for less than $4 a kilo while South Island store lamb prices are identical to the same time last year at about

NORMAL: Most meat companies are offering winter slaughter prices that mirror last year’s, AgriHQ analyst Nicola Dennis says.

50% of the slaughter price of just over $7.50/kg.

She expects slaughter prices to follow a similar trajectory to last

year and doubts those returns will support prices now being paid for store lambs.

Silver Fern Farms is not offering winter contracts but a spokesman says it has been telling suppliers at its recent road shows it is paying $7.50 to $8/kg for lambs that meet its carcase specifications.

These values are based on market values and SFF expects prices to start easing in mid October as seasonal supply increases.

Alliance livestock and shareholder services manager Heather Stacy says prices are stable and demand in North America and Asia is firm.

“We are focused on aligning returns from the market to procurement pricing. In the United Kingdom there is underlying uncertainty with Brexit but negotiations for our Christmas chilled programme are under way.”

A dry autumn and reports facial eczema might be extending its range appear to have affected ewe scanning rates in parts of the country.

By and large I don’t think it has been a year any worse than any other year.

Will Halliday Beef + Lamb NZ An exceptionally dry March and April reduced scanning rates by about 10% in parts of Otago while facial eczema appears to be in new regions and at higher altitudes of the North Island.

There is no nationwide data

collected on the range of facial eczema infection but Veterinary Association large animal veterinary manager Ash Keown says weekly spore counts supplied by animal health laboratories show infection rates this year are comparable to last year but lower than 2016.

Beef + Lamb NZ senior biosecurity and animal welfare adviser Will Halliday has had reports of the disease appearing in new areas earlier and later in the season than usual and at higher altitude.

That perceived increase in the disease’s range aside the challenge seems about normal.

“By and large I don’t think it has been a year any worse than any other year,” he says.

He has also had reports of lower pregnancy scanning rates and believes that could be caused by facial eczema in some North Island flocks.

Group to help M bovis farmers Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz RURAL communities are optimistic a move to decentralise decision-making and capability in the Mycoplasma bovis eradication programme will bridge a critical gap.

The Waimate and Waitaki District Councils have joined Federated Farmers, the Rural Support Trust, local stakeholders and the Ministry for Primary Industries to form a group to support M bovis affected farmers.

It follows recommendations two separate reviews done by MPI chief science adviser John Roche and disease management expert Roger Paskin for DairyNZ. Both recommended moving some responsibility to regional

control centres and increasing local stakeholder engagement.

The group met for the first time last week. It is jointly chaired by Waitaki mayor Gary Kircher and Waimate mayor Craig Rowley. It was modelled on a similar one set up in Ashburton as a trial following the pre-winter surge in the M bovis programme in April.

“My hope is we can be an effective group that fills the gap currently existing between farmers and MPI,” Kircher said.

“The strength of the group is that it includes knowledgeable and experienced people who are going through or have dealt with M bovis.

“We want to see an improvement in communication and feedback to farmers so that information from MPI is clearer,

as consistent as possible and gives greater certainty in a more timely way.

“Decisions made by people who are seeing the issues directly will save time and angst,” Kircher said.

Rowley said “We’re very much rural service districts, farmers are our ratepayers and it’s really important we help to make the process of dealing with the disease as smooth and as stressfree as possible.”

One of three farmer representatives, Waimate dairy farmer John Gregan believes personal contact for farmers through group will provide the missing link in the chain.

“The group will shine more light on farmers, offer a personal approach and give MPI appropriate feedback, putting

MISSING LINK: A new support group will bridge the gap between farmers and the Primary Industries Ministry, farmer John Gregan says.

support around the farmer when needed.”

Gregan said too many people stirring the pot has potential to slow the processes and feed misinformation.

“This will bridge the gap that’s been there between farmers and MPI and a big part of the gap has been the lack of local knowledge,” Gregan said.

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THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

China wants NZ out of trade deal Nigel Stirling nigel.g.stirling@gmail.com NEW Zealand’s push for free agricultural trade as part of a massive Asian trade deal has led to China calling for it to be booted out of the talks.

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership has been under negotiation since 2012.

The 16 countries involved have made slow-going of it and several end-of-year deadlines have come and gone without a deal.

Frustrations boiled over recently with China calling on India to be booted out of the talks along with Australia and NZ. India has been a handbrake for a while with its refusal to countenance significant opening of its own markets to imports from other RCEP countries.

However, lumping RCEP’s strongest free traders, Australia and NZ, in with protectionist India is a new development.

International media reported Japan and several southeast Asian countries oppose China’s proposal while a spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said NZ will send officials to the next round of talks this month as planned.

The International Business Forum’s Fiona Cooper-Clarke said China sees India as an obstacle to getting the talks wrapped up by the latest deadline of the end of this year.

India and NZ were actually doing very well in their bilateral talks but then India and China got offside with each other.

Fiona Cooper-Clarke International Business Forum The trade war between United States and China is making India even harder to budge from its protectionist position.

“There was a concern that if Chinese exports were going to get blocked from the US where else might they go and my understanding is that India were concerned that they were suddenly going to get a big surge of Chinese exports.”

Paradoxically, China wanted Australia and NZ out because their continued demands for free trade in agriculture are too much for many RCEP countries.

“I view it as a negotiating ploy to try and stop Australia and NZ from getting too far ahead,” CooperClarke said.

The biggest prize for NZ is cracking India’s complex system of tariffs and regulations keeping imports of agricultural products largely out of reach of the country’s 1.3 billion consumers.

NZ has made little progress towards this aim in trade talks with India, begun in 2010.

But reflecting a different negotiating dynamic where each of the countries involved must reach a deal with every other country before an overall deal can be concluded, the talks between NZ and India in RCEP have made more headway.

That’s because India risked derailing the entire negotiation by not concluding talks with NZ in RCEP and losing out on the benefits for its own exporters from the larger agreement.

Cooper-Clarke said that gave NZ more leverage in its RCEP talks with India.

“India and NZ were actually

STRATEGY: China’s call for New Zealand to be booted out of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership trade deal talks is a negotiating ploy, International Business Forum spokeswoman Fiona Cooper-Clarke says.

doing very well in their bilateral talks but then India and China got offside with each other, which is what mucked everything up at the end of last year,” Cooper-Clarke said.

Even if RCEP can be concluded it does not mean India will immediately throw open its borders to NZ agricultural exports.

Given India’s reluctance it is likely tariff reductions will be staged over a longer period than NZ negotiators would ideally like.

Negotiators will meet for the 27th round of talks in Auckland this month.

That will be followed by a meeting of RCEP trade ministers in Beijing in August.

Trade Minister David Parker will be desperate to fend off any further attempts to suspend NZ’s membership.

Who’s in RCEP? THE 10 countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) is Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam as well as China, Japan, South Korea, India and Australia and New Zealand.

Those 16 countries account for 39% of the world economy making RCEP the largest regional trade deal ever to be negotiated. By comparison the 11 countries in the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans Pacific Partnership account for just 13.4% of global GDP.

NZ would have little to gain re-joining the talks later if the remaining countries agree to keep the door shut to more liberal trade in agriculture in the meantime.

Yolk Ferns win world egg-throwing and catching title THE MASSEY University duo representing New Zealand in the world egg-throwing and catching contest have been crowned world champions.

The Massey Young Farmers committee members Ben McColgan, 21, of Tauranga, and Lachie Davidson, 21, of Ashburton, claimed the title at

the 14th World Egg-Throwing Championships in Swaton, England.

The pair pulled off an impressive throw and catch of 60 metres, poaching the title from the Canadians who followed closely behind.

“The Canadians had dropped three and we were on our third

Under the pump?

and final egg, which we caught at 60 metres,” McColgan said.

After qualifying for the world champs at the Hilux Rural Games in Palmerston North they were presented with an all expenses paid trip to compete in the world champs.

The pair spent up to three nights a week practising at a park

in the weeks leading up to the world champs, which McColgan claims probably gave them the edge over other competitors.

There were about 50 teams, including seven experienced international teams, competing.

McColgan, a former cricketer, says getting under the egg as

much as possible is crucial to a successful catch.

“It’s a pretty awesome feeling being the world champs, even if it wasn’t the biggest stage in the world.”

The team has spent the past month travelling around Europe during their university break.

When life gets busy remember to eat well, get quality sleep and keep active.

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News

Dollar spikes on dovish Fed

MSD_Nilvax_FW_02b

THE kiwi dollar rallied quickly when the United States Fed turned more dovish and could reach US$0.67 to 0.68 over the next few weeks, Westpac Bank head of NZ market strategy Imre Speizer says.

Chairman Powell’s comments cement in an interest rate cut at the end of this month, with markets pricing four cuts in total.

“People are asking how many and when,” Speizer said.

Westpac believes there will be only two rate cuts.

“This would mean markets undoing that pricing and I don’t rule out the kiwi revisiting 0.65 later in the year. It’s still on the cards.”

The exchange rate is very much a US-dollar story.

Westpac’s view prices in an expected RBNZ cut to the OCR in August. Powell has dropped references to low inflation being transitory but Speizer expects the US economy to maintain its momentum.

Westpac expects further strength for the kiwi against the Aussie dollar, which is more exposed to global trade wars, with A$0.97 to 0.98 on the cards. The NZ economy is performing better. NZ shares a slowing economy and monetary easing bias with the Euro zone, which points to currencies moving sideways around the €0.59 level. The kiwi has gained on sterling, with the exchange rate tied to Brexit sentiment.

– Alan Williams

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

5

Upton issues carbon bill warning Colin Williscroft colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz THE Government’s Zero Carbon Bill could see millions of hectares of land converted to forestry, Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment Simon Upton says.

Upton told a meeting of the Middle Districts branch of the Farm Forestry Association in Feilding carbon dioxide emitters will pursue forest offsets on a potentially huge scale, which could see millions of hectares of land go into forestry by the second half of the century.

The Bill allows carbon dioxide emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels to be offset by planting trees, an approach that worries him.

“For forests to be a legitimate offset for fossil carbon dioxide emissions there needs to be a broad alignment between the warming caused by emissions and the climate mitigation benefits of the sinks that are meant to be offsetting them. The problem is that there is no such alignment.”

Fossil carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere has a warming effect that lasts for centuries to millennia.

“By contrast, most forests store carbon on timescales that last decades to centuries.

“Furthermore, forests are vulnerable to many threats, including fire, pests and diseases, which will be further exacerbated by climate change itself.”

Allowing fossil fuel emitters to use the landscape as a place to store emissions will put farmers in direct competition with fossil fuel emitters for land, he said.

An Upton report, Farms, Forests and Fossil Fuels, advocates a progressive shift to zero carbon dioxide emissions without relying on forest sinks.

“My report made it clear that to safeguard against dangerous climate change we need to reduce

ADVOCATE: Simon Upton says farmers, not fossil fuel emitters, should be able to use forest offsets.

carbon dioxide emissions as our top priority.

“The Earth’s average temperature will not stabilise at any level until carbon dioxide emissions reach zero.

“Progress on nitrous oxide and biological methane can help to reduce peak warming but only if fossil carbon dioxide emissions are on a trajectory towards zero.

“By contrast, I concluded that the use of forest sinks as one means of mitigating biological emissions was more justifiable because the durations of the warming effects of biological emissions are better aligned with the duration of the climate mitigation benefits of trees and because it makes practical sense to manage land – whether for forestry or for farming – in an integrated way.

“There is no question that we need to reduce our gross emissions of biological gases.

“But to the extent that we can’t, forest offsetting is a much less risky business than it is with respect to carbon dioxide.”

The Earth’s average temperature will not stabilise at any level until carbon dioxide emissions reach zero.

Simon Upton

Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment

Upton said allowing only biological emissions to be offset by trees has the advantage of letting farmers balance sources and sinks across the landscape

and address other environmental and socio-economic concerns in parallel.

“Land-use change would be driven largely by landowners seeking to rebalance the natural capital on which they depend rather than a largely external grab for sink space by the fossil economy.

“That re-balancing would ideally be done across property boundaries to get the right trees in the right place and the right animals on the right land, taking into account the multiple environmental problems we’re trying to fix.”

It’s what he calls the landscape approach, which aims to integrate climate mitigation with efforts to address soil erosion, biodiversity loss and water quality.

The Environment Select Committee is considering the Zero Carbon Bill. Submissions close on July 16.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

7

Young Farmers posts big loss Colin Williscroft colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz

REMOVING RISK: Young Farmers chief executive Lynda Coppersmith says the organisation is looking at changing the structure of its business model so it’s more agile.

industry is looking for and how to best provide for our members.”

In the meantime, changes to the organisation’s business model are being considered to make it more agile.

We’re focused on what the industry is looking for and how to best provide for our members.

Lynda Coppersmith Young Farmers Those changes are aimed at removing financial risk, which Coppersmith said is important for a not-for-profit organisation.

“We need to me more nimble.”

Due to the lower wage bill and proposed structural changes Coppersmith is confident there

will not be a cash loss this financial year though there might be a small book loss.

Chairwoman Ash-Leigh Campbell said the Donald Pearson farm’s loss was caused by lower-than-acceptable milk production because the farm was understocked at the start of the production season and a wet spring, which made the rest of the season difficult.

There was also an unrealised loss on the devaluation of Fonterra shares.

She said low-producing stock that came with the farm have since been replaced with higherproducing cows. A new farm manager has been employed and farm advisers involved to ensure on-farm production is at a much more acceptable level.

Coppersmith said given the farm’s location on the outskirts of Auckland, between Manurewa and Whitford, it will be a wonderful educational tool to continue to promote primary sector careers to Auckland school pupils.

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With the farm legacy member funds increased from $1.5m to $5.76m, putting the funds in the strongest position they have ever been.

However, the organisation still

faces funding challenges and the board and management team is working to reduce the cost structure to align with committed income levels, she said.

Place your bids PGG Wrighton’s bidr is the new online trading platform that allows farmers to list stock, grain and wool ready for buyers.

This virtual sale yard will provide farmers with a quick and easy alternative to selling their stock through sale yards, giving them the ability to complete the entire process online.

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A ONE-OFF gift let Young Farmers record a surplus for its latest financial year instead of a significant loss.

The organisation reported a profit of $4.61 million for the year ending September 30, 2018.

But that was because it was bequeathed a farm valued at $5.5m.

Its trading results show losses of about $900,000 for the year though chief executive Lynda Coppersmith is confident the organisation is on the right track to ensure that won’t happen again.

The latest annual report and financial statements show a loss for the year of $722,000 while the Donald Pearson farm it was given in 2017 lost $170,000.

Coppersmith, who joined the organisation last October, said revenue for the 2017-18 year fell by $965,000, mainly because of the end of Primary Growth Partnership revenue it had been receiving as part of a dairy industry programme where it worked with DairyNZ to showcase and promote career opportunities in the agri-foods sector to hundreds of schools.

Though funding for those projects finished at the start of the 2017-18 year Young Farmers continued to deliver outcomes it had been contracted to provide without being funded for them.

During that time staff were retained while a significant but ultimately unsuccessful funding opportunity was explored with another major industry partner.

Since then staff numbers have reduced by about a third, from 27 to 19, through natural attrition, cutting labour costs by about $500,000 – though that took a few months to achieve.

Coppersmith said Young Farmers is pursuing other industry funding opportunities, some of which are looking promising, while it has a number of other balls in the air.

“We’re focused on what the

8

News

THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

Youngest ever Young Farmer winner Riley Kennedy HISTORY was made when Fonterra business graduate James Robertson, 22, became the youngest person to win the FMG Young Farmer of the Year in its 51year history.

The winner was named at the evening show after three days of theory and practical modules throughout Hawke’s Bay. “It’s actually incredible,” Robertson said.

“It was a three intense days. It’s unbelievable. It feels like a dream.”

There was loud applause and cheering as he made his way through a standing ovation and onto the stage.

“It’s always been a goal of mine to win this title.”

Robertson grew up on a Waikato dairy farm. He recently completed an agricultural commerce degree at Massey University and now works for Fonterra in the trade strategy team in Auckland.

“The opportunities in the agrifood sector are endless, even if you live in the city. You just have to be

YOUNG GUNS: Matthew Halford and Finn Beamish won the Junior Young Farmer of the Year title.

passionate,” he said.

Robertson was one of seven competitors who had to drive a large grape harvester, make sausages, assess health and safety risks using a virtual reality simulator, install an irrigation system for fruit trees, market a line

of sheep and sit an agri-business exam.

He won prizes worth $75,000, including a trip to Ireland in September. He also took out the FMG People’s Choice Award, winning $1000 for his Auckland Young Farmers club.

Robertson’s involvement with Young Farmers began in high school where he started the Teen Ag club.

In 2013 he was in the Hamilton Boys High School team that won the Teen Ag competition.

So, he not only becomes the youngest Young Farmer winner, he is also becomes the first person to take both titles.

“I probably wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for my involvement with Young Farmers early on.”

Central Hawke’s Bay technical field representative Joseph Watts, 28, came second.

He also won the innovation prize, the award for showcasing food production and was named the most tech-savvy contestant.

Waikato vet Emma Dangen, 24, was third and picked up the award for championing environmental best practice.

Alex Field, 25, a stock manager south of Whanganui, won the award for outstanding leadership skills.

In the Junior Young Farmer contest 14 teams of two from secondary schools competed in various modules and farmlets.

The winner was the Napier Boys High School Duds, which was second in Invercargill last year.

Team member Finn Beamish said “We are both stoked to have won it in our hometown.”

His partner Matt Halford said “Competing last year was an advantage because we knew what to expect.”

The year 13 students took home $5000 worth of prizes.

The 2019 AgriKidz winner was Hogget Haggis from Blue Mountain College in Tapanui.

The three boys from Tapanui beat 60 other kids.

“We’re so excited. It’s an awesome result. We’ve been doing a lot of study in the lead-up to the final,” team member Archie Chittock said.

MORE: NEWSMAKER P20

Tough week produces three titles THE Allflex New Zealand shearing and woolhandling team dominated the last day of the 18th World Championships in France by winning three of the six titles.

Pride of place in Le Dorat, central France, went to Canterbury blade shearers Allan Oldfield and Tony Dobbs who scored a double, causing a boil-over by beating previous regular champions South Africa in the teams final then finishing first and fourth respectively in the individual championship with Oldfield beating defending champion Mayenseke Shweni.

Dobbs had previously won the individual title at the 1988 World championships in Masterton but Oldfield, not born till two years later, was at his first World championships and stunned the South Africans and Dobbs by shearing his six sheep in 12 minutes 29 seconds, two minutes and 19 seconds before secondman-off Shweni.

The other triumph was in the team woolhandling final where Sheree Alabaster, of Taihape, and Pagan Karauria, of Alexandra, maintained New Zealand’s stranglehold on the title, following the victory by Joel Henare and Maryanne Baty in Invercargill two years ago.

Karauria was third in the individual final won by Aled

Jones, of Wales, and Alabaster was fourth.

It was, however, only the third time in the 18 championships since the first in 1977 that NZ did not win either of the two machine shearing titles.

The teams win was Alabaster’s fourth world title, after individual and teams wins in Norway in 2008 and a teams win in Wales two years later while Karauria in her first world championship had a big week, winning the French All-Nations warm-up event and making the All-Nations senior shearing final.

Hawke’s Bay shearers Rowland Smith, the 2014 champion, and Cam Ferguson, the 2010 winner, were third in the teams event won by Scottish shearers Gavin Mutch and Calum Shaw, and were second and third in the individual event won by Richard Jones of Wales.

But it was a particularly close call in the individual event after Smith and Ferguson were the first two to finish the 20-sheep contest 10 seconds apart with Northlandraised Smith clocking 14 minutes 32 seconds. Jones was over a sheep in arrears but pulled back crucial points in pen judging and beat Smith to the title by just 0.15 points.

The teams event was a big moment for Scotland, which will host the next championships

A CUT ABOVE: Blades team winners Allan Oldfield, in the pen, and Tony Dobbs shearing.

There were long days, up at 6am and not home before 10pm, and I think everyone had difficulty sleeping because of the heat. It was 32C at 1am on our first night.

Ken Payne NZ Shearing at the 20th anniversary Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh in 2022.

NZ team manager Ken Payne, of Balclutha, said those who work in the woolsheds in NZ are used to tough conditions but the conditions of the competition in France tested them further.

“Although NZ had won four

titles in Invercargill two years ago there were no foregone conclusions about this trip,” he said.

“We always knew the different sheep breeds and types of wool would be a challenge, then there was the heatwave across Europe, about which we heard plenty while we were in Scotland for the Lochearnhead Shears beforehand.”

“There were long days, up at 6am and not home before 10pm, and I think everyone had difficulty sleeping because of the heat,” he said.

“It was 32C at 1am on our first night.”

All the team members were physically drained and exhausted early in the week but it would have been no different for most of the other teams.

“In many ways this was the ultimate test, which is what a World Championships is supposed to be about,” he said.

“Once the team switched onto competition mode and the adrenalin took over NZ became a formidable opponent across all events and the performances seemed to get better as things went along.”

Oldfield’s win followed a rapid rise, having until three years and two months ago never won an event. Taught by father Phil Oldfield, who was third in the 2017 championships, and by Dobbs in a shearing school in 2010, he has since 2016 won a unique grand slam of four major British show titles.

While the trip was the first time he had represented NZ at shearing he had been a national under-20 representative in axe sports.

He plans to shear in Britain till the Royal Welsh Show while Smith and Ferguson are scheduled for one test against England and four against Wales over the next three weeks.

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10 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

Number of farm sales keeps falling Alan Williams alan.williams@globalhq.co.nz LATEST farm sale statistics show a mixed pricing trend heading into winter.

The overall median price for the three months to the end of May was well down on a year earlier but the Real Estate Institute’s allfarm index is marginally positive.

Sales volumes fell, to 380 for the latest period, down from 443, though solid activity in May helped lift the tally from the April period number of 362.

The median price per hectare for all farms sold during the May three-month period was $22,244, a 15.2% fall from the 2018 value of $26,219/ha, institute rural spokesman Brian Peacocke said.

However, the all-farm index rose by 0.2% compared to a year earlier.

The index adjusts for differences in farm size, location and farming type, which the median price does not, and is regarded as the best overall measure of sales pricing.

The number of farms sold during the year to the end of

May was 1409, down 3% on the previous year. There were 34.2% fewer dairy farms sold, 13.8% fewer finishing farms and 6.7% fewer arable farms offset by a 26.3% increase in grazing farm turnover.

Compared to the three-month period in 2018, Gisborne (plus nine) had a solid increase in sales while Waikato (down 21) and Bay of Plenty (down 13) had the greatest declines. Compared to the most recent April threemonth period, Canterbury had the biggest lift in sales, up by 14 during the period.

Peacocke reported a good and much-needed improvement in Canterbury with steady activity on dairy farms, good sales levels for finishing properties at solid prices and a big uplift in sales of grazing units at steady prices, including a surge in sales in the Mackenzie and Waimate districts.

Manawatu-Wanganui had a boomer month for grazing farm sales at good prices, especially in Tararua District, and some finishing block sales.

Across other regions: • Northland had strong sales of grazing units but minimal activity in dairying and light finishing farm turnover.

• Waikato dairy farm sales are at half the level of a year ago but solid activity for finishing farms at some very strong prices.

• Bay of Plenty sales concentrated heavily on horticulture.

• Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay had reasonable sales of horticulture blocks, light grazing farm turnover and zero finishing farm activity.

• Taranaki had solid finishing farm sales at strong prices, only one dairy farm sale recorded in May and reasonable grazing turnover.

• Wairarapa-Wellington had a tough month in May with no pastoral farm sales and just one cropping unit.

• Nelson-Marlborough had healthy turnover for both grazing and finishing farms at some very good prices but just one dairy farm sale

POPULAR: Northland has had strong sales of grzing units.

and acceptable results in horticulture.

• Otago had a continuation of steady sales of both grazing and finishing units.

• Southland had an upturn in dairy farm sales with five recorded in May alone and consistent turnover in the other sectors.

Southland was one of the regions where concern is being expressed about the hardening of lending criteria by the banks, Peacocke said.

It is one of the factors contributing to discontent among farmers, adding to evidence of sales of good pastoral land to forestry interests aided and abetted by the Overseas Investment Office and continuing compliance issues.

Although product prices were solid, the dairy sector is experiencing reassessment of budgets and equity situations, he said.

For the three-months to the end of May, the median sale price for dairy farms was $31,248/ha, higher than the $30,243/ha for the April period but down from $35.901 in May last year, a 13% fall. Year-on-year the institute’s dairy farm index fell 3.7%.

The median price for finishing farms was $30,908/ha, up from $29,093/ha in May last year, a 6.2% rise. The median price for grazing farms slipped 1.1%, to $10,572/ha from $10,687/ha a year earlier.

The median price for horticulture units rose 1.3%, to $281,384/ha from $277,842 in May last year.

“My message to people is ‘health and safety is making sure I don’t have to call your family and tell them you aren’t coming home’. I’ll call them out if I see them doing something unsafe and I expect them to do the same.”

DAVID KIDD farmer, Kaipara Harbour

worksafe.govt.nz

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

11

Hinewai revival worth every cent Tim Fulton timfulton050@gmail.com HINEWAI Reserve was once dismissed as a fantasy of fools and dreamers.

Now, as the 1250ha native sanctuary on Banks Peninsula flourishes it has about $1m of carbon credits plus income from a walking track and public donations.

But Hugh Wilson’s neighbours let rip when his plans for Hinewai Reserve became clear.

The buck-fit botanist was creating nursery cover for natives.

Extensive areas of gorse, broom, bracken and native shrubs served as excellent canopies for regenerating forest.

“I wrote an article in the Akaroa Mail explaining what we were doing. Two weeks later, in the next issue, this letter came from a neighbouring farmer saying ‘Look, I’m all for preserving the little bits of bush that are here but as for letting gorse go and turning it into native forest, that’s fools and dreamers stuff’.”

I can guarantee that Hinewai is making more money now than would ever have been achievable under pastoral farming. So, we are adding to the local economy.

Hugh Wilson Maurice White Native Forest Trust At least pine trees would contribute to the local economy, the farmer said.

Now, farmers are among those praising Wilson’s work in a newlyreleased documentary, aptly named Fools and Dreamers.

Carbon sequestration has earned the landowner, the Maurice White Native Forest Trust, about a million dollars. The

biggest source of income is carbon capture.

“It’s growing all the time and the per tonne/per unit price is going up and up and up.

“So, we’re on a bit of a roll there,” Wilson said.

Some of the up-front costs were covered by supporters like Landcare Research and the Carbon Zero Initiative but Hinewai today is an example of the productive power of conservation, he said.

“I can guarantee that Hinewai is making more money now than would ever have been achievable under pastoral farming. So, we are adding to the local economy.”

Wilson finds it appalling to see good pastoral farmland planted in pines and equally for marginal country, unless it is for timber harvest.

“Planting it for carbon sequestration is a monumental folly.

“All that land could be managed as Hinewai is.

“An individual farm that has some good, productive pastoral land – you keep farming that. But nearly every hill country farm has gullies so you leave it in reserve, you manage it.”

It took work, including fencing, fire prevention and invasive weeds and wild animals control but the job was far less labour-intensive than planting exotics, he said.

Hinewai keeps out cattle, sheep, deer and goats and it hammers the possums but has no predatorproof fence.

Nature is flourishing with minimal interference, Wilson said.

“People get the idea that the only way nature’s going to cope is with this huge manipulative management with highly expensive fencing.

That’s wonderful in small, tiny bits Hinewai is also an example of what happens with what we call minimal interference management.”

Hinewai’s regrowth is startling compared to when Wilson started working there in 1987.

At that time he was doing a botanical survey of Banks Peninsula.

PROUD AS: Hugh Wilson at Hinewai Reserve on Banks Peninsula.

Photo: Tim Fulton

“I just thought the ecology was completely thrashed because it was once forested from side to side. And there’s less than 1% of old forest left now.”

But Wilson’s survey of the peninsula showed native seedlings were itching to come back and regrowth had already started.

“Even the rarest of the plants are mostly just hanging on and just waiting for the opportunity to get away again.”

White originally asked Wilson if he would help with a conservation project.

White grew up on the other side of Akaroa harbour, at Wainui, and by 1987 his trust had accrued enough money to buy a postagestamp sized 109ha off Long Bay

Rd. The farmlet had only pockets of remnant native forest and was home to hares, rabbits, possums, hedgehogs, rats, mice, stoats, weasels and cats.

In 1991 his workload ramped up when the trust bought Otanerito Station, increasing the size of the reserve nearly tenfold.

The reserve is part of the outer flank of the ancient Akaroa Volcano, falling steeply from the sub-alpine top of Tarateruhu/ Stony Bay Peak (806m) down to near sea level at Otanerito homestead. In between there are more than 40 waterfalls and a 16km network of publiclyaccessible tracks.

At a critical moment in the early 1990s Hinewai benefited from

changing attitudes to tourism and conservation. Four eastern bays landowners, including the Maurice White Trust, created a public walking track through their properties, the Banks Peninsula Track. The economic value of the regenerating natives is rising as visitor numbers grow.

The trust earns about $25,000 annually from track guests and a variable amount from visitor donations.

“It’s completely open to the public. You don’t have to ask to come to Hinewai and now it’s like a mini national park on the doorstep of Akaroa.

“And I don’t want to blow my own trumpet but the town – they love us.”

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12 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

Fears for rural telecoms users

WORRIED: Wireless Internet Service Providers Association president Mike Smith says big telecom firms might buy up the 5G spectrum then ignore rural users.

Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz COMPANIES supplying broadband services to rural areas fear they will be pushed aside by big telecommunication firms seeking to dominate ownership of the spectrum that will carry new 5G technology.

The major cell phone companies are lobbying the Government to assign to them the bulk of the soon-to-be-auctioned 3.5GHz radio spectrum that

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will carry 5G, Wireless Internet Service Providers Association (Wispa) president Mike Smith says.

Wispa’s 30 members need the spectrum, which is finite, to service rural communities but Smith fears big telecom firms could dominate spectrum purchasing when the Government sells it next year then sit on those rights.

The spectrum being sold is ideal for wireless systems because it provides wider coverage than the present spectrum, requires little electricity and suits equipment used by wireless providers.

“We want to see spectrum allocation that gets the most use. In this case it is easy to see the spectrum is not going to be utilised.”

Wispa is launching a don’t-waste-the-spectrum campaign to raise awareness of the threat and wants rural users to lobby for the spectrum sale not to undermine the upgrade of regional broadband and data services.

Smith fears 2degrees, Spark and Vodafone will buy most of the spectrum but focus on urban customers, which are cheaper and easier to service than rural NZ. “Our interests and those of our 70,000 mainly rural customers are at risk of being bowled over in the spectrum rush.”

In 2017 the Government-owned Crown Infrastructure Partners calculated 90,000 rural households and businesses could not access broadband at download speeds of 20Mbps or more, a fifth of the speed of the most common ultra-fast fibre broadband download speed available in NZ. Its Rural Broadband Initiative aims to deliver fast broadband to 84,000 of those households and businesses by 2022 by working with the three main telecommunication companies and wireless providers.

Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Minister Kris Faafoi says the Government is committed to addressing the digital urban-rural divide and wireless providers have been crucial in delivering telecommunications to remote and rural parts of NZ. “Seventeen wireless internet service providers have recently been contracted by the Government through Crown Infrastructure Partners to provide some of this additional rural coverage.

“The WISPs are also a significant element in the Government’s thinking about future spectrum needs.”

Faafoi says the Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment is consulting on 5G spectrum bands and allocation along with technical and regulatory issues.

“Wispa representatives have been involved in this process and I hope will continue to be involved.”

Faafoi says the latest quarterly connectivity update reveals 75% of NZ’s population or 1.5 million homes and business can access ultra-fast broadband.

“It showed an increase of 33,804 rural homes and businesses can now access improved broadband services, 166km of state highways have now received new mobile coverage and seven mobile towers are now complete.”

Faafoi says an extra $21 million will be spent to allow regions to access the latest digital and broadband, taking services to 99.8% of the population.

In a February Cabinet paper Faafoi says the spectrum auction will be held next year, which could raise more than $200m.

The 5G network will be rolled out from 2022 but with the agreement of existing rights holders, an operator might be able to use the rights earlier.

The paper said there will be limits on the amount of spectrum allocated to a single national operator and a timeframe in which networks must be built and operating.

Wispa says the technology used by its members ensures rural users have broadband at city speeds.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

13

GE necessary to meet farm goals Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz MANY indicators signal a global slow-down in growth but whether they are a problem or an opportunity is the decision cropping farmers need to make, agriculturalist Andy Macfarlane says.

And New Zealand is at peak milk and meat production, he told 300 people at the Foundation for Arable Research conference.

“Whether that triggers a problem or an opportunity, that’s what I think right now,” Macfarlane said.

While farming’s future is bright farmers will need to adjust to the changing nature of the industry.

Global food demands are driving optimism in the primary sector and while the longer-term forecast is encouraging there is going to be disruption influencing the way of farming in the future.

Environmental regulation and consumer demand will be big issues when defining good and monetising values.

The question is how to produce what we need to produce but with less environmental impact.

Leveraging innovative practice and great technology will be key to better productivity with high value

rather than high volume the focus.

But annual grain legumes will struggle to compete with soya beans on value for money.

Societal expectations for managing human health and wellbeing continue to improve, Macfarlane said.

The global plant protein supply chain is strongly dependent on glyphosate and GE technology, making plant based protein far more vulnerable.

And global grain yield increases will be challenged by climate change, he said.

Many of the world’s most productive arable soils are lowlying and near cities.

Global grain yields look less stable under climate change scenarios and any productivity gains in output will have to be carbon neutral or negative “The type of grains we are going to grow will have to change,” he said.

“Globally, I don’t think we are going to produce a lot more meat or milk.

“The challenge is our opportunity but we are likely to need GM technology or variations developed from it to have any chance of meeting environmental and productivity objectives.

“There’s no need to be afraid

COLLABORATE: Andy Macfarlane suggested at the Foundation for Arable Research conference that New Zealand agriculture needs to co-invest and think holistically rather than have its industries in different buckets.

of synthetic food. It may well be companion food with our raw materials.”

For the arable sector, can we have our cake and eat it to?

“I’m not sure we can,” Macfarlane said.

“What can we brand and monetise more – home grown feed or GM-free.

“Can we increase pulse crop cost yield and cost effectiveness to compete with soya beans or do we

package our pulse crops alongside milk and meat protein.

“How can we better integrate our home-grown crop components alongside our meat and milk based products.”

The long list has major implications for processing form and function, capital allocation, farm systems, brand management and product positioning.

Macfarlane said componentisation of raw material

will be a key to supplying justin-time, just-enough, affordable nutrition with a premium paid for eating whole but that premium will have to be earned.

“Can we redesign, brand and promote our mixed-use, multifaceted farming systems in a new version of mixed cropping.”

Clarity is needed around what differentiates NZ from its international competitors.

“Is it our geographic location or water source, our skill set, our values?

“We have to define, agree on and communicate what differentiates us from the world if we are to earn that premium.”

System integrity, transparency, efficiency, demonstrable ethics with a professionalised mindset will be a key to success.

“The key thing is to hold ourselves to account. Here is the ambition, here’s the science – we tend to look at our feet and not keep our eyes up to the horizon.

“You will never achieve as much as you think in five years but you always achieve more than you thought you would in 20 years.

“We need to co-invest, think holistically rather than our industries in different buckets,” Macfarlane said.

14 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

AIM: Blue Sky Meat is moving to sell branded, fast-moving, direct-toconsumer goods, chief executive Todd Grave says.

News

Sharper Blue Sky boosts earnings Alan Williams alan.williams@globalhq.co.nz TURNING higher processing volumes into highervalue products is the reason for Blue Sky Meat’s latest profit gains, chief executive Todd Grave says.

Lamb processing numbers were up 25% yearon-year as Southland-based Blue Sky increased procurement market share and expanded its

supply catchment into Otago and southern Canterbury.

The company reported revenue up 34% to a record $140 million in the year ended March 31 and pretax profit up 36% to $5m. After-tax profits and other financial information will be released in the annual report.

The operating result is the best in the last eight years, building on the gains achieved last year when the pretax profit was $3.7m, following a loss in 2017.

The strategy to increase chilled and highervalue products is still in its infancy but this year Blue Sky will test value-add products on its way to selling branded, fast-moving, direct-to-consumer products, Grave said.

“We’re a very small company and the amounts are small so we can’t push aggressively too fast.

“We will grow organically and over the next three years will trial and build out our plans.”

As well as procurement and price gains the group is benefiting from greater efficiencies, improving the yield per kilogram from the lamb carcase.

A feature of the latest earnings report is that the small Gore processing plant, shut down at this time last year and slated for sale, is back in use and being used to process offal into pet food ingredients. Further opportunities are being explored for its ongoing use.

There was little buying interest in the small beef plant and as the process dragged on Blue Sky decided the asset should be put to use for the benefit of shareholders, Grave said.

The processing of offal into pet food ingredients had previously been contracted out but has now been brought back in-house. Gore is an obvious site for the work because the main Morton Mains processing site is working at full capacity.

Successfully targeting Otago and southern Canterbury farmers for supply helped achieve growth because it is focused on the shoulders of the processing season when space is available on the company’s single chain, being about 50% to 60% used, complementing the 100% use during the peak kill season in Southland.

It also means a longer processing season, with the winter close-season this year being just five weeks, compared to the usual eight weeks.

Blue Sky achieved greater efficiencies in organising transport, allowing it to source stock from further afield.

A total 742,000 animals were processed, which pleased the directors and management given the sustained high schedule prices and declining total sheep numbers.

While progress was significant across a range of activities and exceeded the targets set for the 20 enhancement projects adopted two years ago there are a lot of improvements remaining, he said.

Despite the Morton Mains infrastructure constraining growth, extra throughput was still achieved.

An $11m capital spending programme, including a new $3.7m wastewater treatment plant, is under way to increase efficiencies and reduce physical hazards.

Chairman Scott O’Donnell said the project will improve the quality of effluent irrigated to land, will address compliance requirements and reduce odour.

The last year was one of significant positive change and improvement.

Grave said many of the gains were made by the workforce, with the company’s injury-frequency rate decreasing by 40% over the last three years and 20% alone in the latest year.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

15

Huge effort for farmers recognised Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz

TOP MAN: Arable Framer of the Year Colin Hurst receives his award from Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor at the awards ceremony in Wellington.

Agency firms to slash share numbers Alan Williams alan.williams@globalhq.co.nz

BOTH listed stock and station agencies – Allied Farmers and PGG Wrightson – are to consolidate their shares to reduce the numbers listed on the NZX. They are planning to convert every 10 shares into a single share.

In ALF’s case, on July 16, the number of shares will be reduced to 17.85 million from 178.54m.

Company chairman Mark Benseman told shareholders the change will not affect their relative percentage shareholding in ALF. It is expected the share price will rise in line with the consolidation.

For ALF, with the shares trading at 7.5c each, the theoretical price following a one-for-10 swap is 75c, when shares resume trading on July 18 after a threeday halt.

PGW has told the NZX its shares will also be consolidated after the completion of its capital return to shareholders of funds resulting from the sale of the PGW seeds business.

Its one-for-10 swap will reduce share numbers to 75.48m from 754.84m. There will be a trading halt while the change is made.

At a share price of 54c the theoretical price of the shares post-consolidation is $5.40.

ALF has also told shareholders its operating earnings for the year ending June 30 will be consistent with the strong result last year.

It is a pleasing result given the far more difficult trading conditions because of farm caution about Mycoplasma bovis, climatic challenges early in second-half trading and some late softening in cattle prices, Benseman said.

ALF’s full 2018 earnings included a one-off gain that won’t be repeated this year so the bottom-line profit will be lower.

SOUTH Canterbury cropping farmer Colin Hurst has been recognised for his immense contribution to the arable industry.

Hurst was crowned Arable Farmer of the Year at the Federated Farmers arable industry group 2019 awards in Wellington.

The South Canterbury Federated Farmers vice president has represented the federation at national, regional and branch level and contributed to the South Canterbury Rural Support Trust, the arable group’s herbage seed growers subsection, United Wheatgrowers and the Foundation for Arable Research.

He has also been a staunch advocate for farmers at the Seed Quality Management Authority and on the Fertiliser Quality Council driving the development of a physical standard for fertiliser.

“It was difficult to know where to start on his immense contribution

to the industry,” Federated Farmers arable chairwoman Karen Williams said.

“This is an award that recognises excellence.

“Without Colin’s hard work, tenacity and leadership we believe farmers and growers wouldn’t have got the right outcomes.

“All of the work undertaken is in a voluntary capacity, which makes his contribution to the industry all the more impressive,” Williams said.

One of Hurst’s wins for the industry involved a plan change proposed by Environment Canterbury that not only would have hit the livelihoods of local farmers but also had consequences for all landowners.

He organised a meeting that attracted more than 80 affected farmers and got them engaged in the process.

“Thank goodness the council saw sense,” Hurst said.

“They didn’t change the nutrient limits but they did change

the way they were allocated.”

Feeling honoured and privileged Hurst said he’s rapt his role and advocacy for farmers over many years has been appreciated.

Despite stepping back from the arable industry group Hurst continues to ensure growers are informed and engaged in the process of reviewing the Plant Variety Rights Act and that they understand crop residue burning, while a vital tool, is a privilege and farmers need to manage it accordingly.

He will continue to advocate for local farmers affected by the Mycoplasma bovis response as a member of the Rural Support Trust in South Canterbury.

Other Federated Farmers arable awards were: Biosecurity Farmer of the Year, Richard Kershaw, Wairarapa; Wheat Grower of the Year, Syd and Earl Worsfold, Canterbury; Seed Grower of the Year, Jim Macartney, Canterbury and Maize Grower of the Year, Peter Kelly, Waikato.

Mystery chopper hangs over stock Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz SOUTHLAND farmers are feeling under siege by campaigns believed to be by animal welfare and environmental activists questioning intensive livestock wintering practices.

There have been multiple reports in recent weeks of a helicopter with a camera on the front hovering over stock being wintered on crops in various parts of the province.

Separately, Waikato businessman Angus Robson has confirmed he plans to travel to Southland as part of a campaign highlighting questionable wintering practices.

Robson, a mechanical engineer who has been active in water quality campaigns in Waikato, refused to be interviewed on his motive or reasons for targeting Southland farmers but said he is not involved in the helicopter activities.

However, both campaigns might fall short with Southland farmers reporting an unseasonably dry winter with many areas recording less than 100mm of rain in the last month.

“You can move fences on crops wearing running shoes on at present,” Federated Farmers Southland provincial meat and fibre chairwoman Bernadette Hunt says.

Who is behind the aerial surveillance is a mystery but Hunt says having a helicopter hover above stock on crop behind an electric fence could stress the animals.

There are potential animal welfare issues should they be spooked and if they break the wire, stock could gorge

NOBODY KNOWS: No one knows who is in a helicopter that hovers over stock break-feeding on Southland farms.

themselves, creating health issues.

In one case a farm worker was shifting a water trough among stock as the unmarked, large white helicopter hovered above, creating a potential health and safety issue should the stock be spooked.

Hunt says reports of similar suspicious behaviour by the helicopter came from throughout the province during one week last month.

There have been no reports in the last two weeks.

Fish and Game NZ, Environment Southland and Save Animals from Exploitation (SAFE) all say they are not involved in the flights.

“The assumption everybody is making is that they are trying to get photographs of things that make intensive grazing really bad,” Hunt said.

Environment Southland said it will make monitoring

flights to check winter grazing management over the next few weeks.

“We are hoping to cover as much of Southland as we can in three flights and staff will follow-up with on-ground inspections if there are any issues seen from the air,” Environment Southland compliance manager Simon Mapp said.

Last year Fish and Game NZ staff took images to publicise what it said were poor wintering practices in Southland.

Chief executive Martin Taylor said the organisation has not ruled out repeating that exercise this winter but it is not involved in any campaign at present.

Hunt says her concern is the ease with which pictures can be used out of context and be made to fit the desired narrative by focusing on a

small portion of a paddock.

Mud is not necessarily bad so long as it is not causing problems to waterways or to the welfare of the animals.

Mud from intensive grazing can be a consequence of ensuring stock are fully fed during winter.

“Even if they were to graze pasture on paddocks they would be in mud most winters in Southland.”

Hunt acknowledged some farmers are not following best wintering practice and people are encouraged to approach them or pass on details to the regional council.

She fears the images will be used to inflame public opinion without any explanation, knowledge or context.

“It would be sad if people pick on the industry based on these images without giving people a say or reasoning why.”

News

16 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

Workshops help tackle succession TAIHAPE farmer Kerry Whale’s family hadn’t even talked about succession.

“We had our heads in the sand really.

“It’s a very complicated subject but now our family has a plan to build on and it’s opened communications among us about what the next 10 years will look like.”

What changed?

Kerry, wife Sue and two of their sons, Luke and Dane, took part in the Red Meat Profit Partnership’s series of Farm Business Transition and Succession workshops.

More than half of Kiwi farmers identify succession planning as an issue for them, their families and their farm businesses.

So RMPP developed the workshops to take farm businesses through the transition and succession process. The family participated in workshops in Feilding, led by facilitator Geordie McCallum.

Former teacher Kerry is the third generation of his family to run the 7000 head sheep and beef farm.

Luke, their eldest son, works with him. Dane is a livestock representative with Silver Fern Farms in Feilding and youngest

son Ben is teaching in Britain.

Participants attend three halfday, facilitator-led workshops over three or four months, followed by a one-on-one clinic.

Kerry learned about the workshops through Beef + Lamb New Zealand while Dane also found out about them via a work email.

“It was just what we needed,” Dane said.

“I’m a big advocate for having a plan in place. It was starting to unsettle me that we didn’t have anything.

“When I saw the email I could see it would apply to quite a few of my clients and also my own family.

“The fact the workshops were free was a big advantage too.

Getting independent advice can be very expensive.”

The first workshop covers the importance of understanding what all family members want and need from the transition and succession process – as an essential first step in developing a plan.

“That was awesome,” Dane said.

“We are a pretty cruisy family and the serious conversations don’t happen too often but we needed to have them. That first

HAPPY FAMILY: Whale family members, from left Dane, Kerry, Leo and Sue are among those happy with their succession plan, something they had never even discussed, thanks to their involvement in the Red Meat Profit Partnership’s workshops.

meeting was about planning the active conversation.

“Until that point we literally hadn’t talked about it at all but that got the ball rolling.”

The second workshop focuses on establishing and maintaining strong management foundations in the family business including identifying what structures and processes you need to investigate and implement to secure the management foundations of the family business.

“Geordie took us through all the different implications,” Kerry said.

“He’s a very capable fellow and excellent in terms of what he brought to the table. It made clear for us that the biggest issue

around succession is about legacy and the need to get succession planning right so it doesn’t all fall over.”

Dane says the group setting was very effective.

“Dad was a very active participant in the conversations – he was really buzzing after the workshops.

“It helped us to recognise there is no right or wrong way of doing things. Every family and business is different and you can’t tell people what to do.

“Luke is already farming and I want to go back onto the farm in some shape or form at a later stage.

“While Ben is teaching overseas

we can’t discount the fact he might want to farm in the future.

“This has taught us to keep all the options open.

“It feels almost exciting to have finally taken these first steps.”

The final one-on-one clinic with the facilitator and experts provides an opportunity for farm families to discuss their individual issues.

“That was also very good,” Kerry said.

“We are now much more aware of all the different implications.

“It is all about legacy and we don’t want things to fall over. This has opened conversations with all the stakeholders and the ideas are steadily forming for us now.”

Wool courses target pressing need Luke Chivers luke.chivers@globalhq.co.nz NEW qualifications will help solve a critical need to train shearers and wool handlers, Primary ITO chief executive Linda Sissons says.

Sissons launched three microcredentials – Introduction to the Woolshed, Learner Wool Handler and Learner Shearer – at the Primary Industries Summit in Wellington.

The courses are bite-sized pieces of learning aimed at recognising or teaching specific workplace skills on the job in a short time.

“What makes the issue so pressing and why the wool industry is one of the first to have micro-credentials being released is that right now there are no recognised industry qualifications available in New Zealand for shearers and wool handlers,” Sissons said.

“This is incredibly important for the wool industry but it’s also an example of one of the future directions of training for all primary industries.”

The number of shearers working

CERTAINTY: The micro-credentials will help provide a base level of skills and a qualification to demonstrate to future employers that they have those skills, Primary ITO business and industry partnerships general manager Andrea Leslie says. in NZ is projected to grow by 3.7%, increasing to around 2428 workers in 2026.

Sissons said with job openings forecast to grow in wool

harvesting in the coming years, training will be critical as NZ faces competition from overseas for shearers and wool handlers.

Micro-credentials are a gamechanger for primary industries, she said.

They are bite-sized but officially recognised and overseen by NZ’s education system.

“One of the things we know about our industries is that they’re all crying out for people, preferably already skilled but if not, they’re prepared to invest to develop the skills they need on the job.

“The real shift we’re working on is the focus on skills rather than big, up-front qualifications.

A micro-credential puts the emphasis on just-in-time learning, rather than a lengthy just-in-case qualification.”

Primary ITO business and industry partnerships general manager Andrea Leslie said despite the absence of recognised entry-level wool harvesting qualifications people do learn on the job from their more experienced colleagues but the micro-credentials will help

provide a base level of skills and a qualification to demonstrate to future employers that they have those skills.

“Formal qualifications will provide sheep farmers with much greater surety.”

Leslie, who runs a 300-hectare sheep and beef farm in South Canterbury, said Primary ITO has worked closely with farmers to ensure the courses align with industry need.

“The micro-credentials target specific skill sets.

“Through our Industry Partner Groups we have talked with farmers about what is most pressing for them and then built courses around that.”

Other Primary ITO microcredentials include one on biosecurity, where pilot programmes have already run.

The wool courses are between 19 and 28 credits at level 2, representing about a month of total learning, practising and assessment.

The cost is $350 a course.

“They mean businesses can bring on new workers and ensure they develop essential skills for

The real shift we’re working on is the focus on skills rather than big up-front qualifications.

Linda Sissons Primary ITO the woolshed before investing in further training,” Sissons said.

“It also recognises that shearing gangs move around a lot – workers can learn wherever they are and fit it in whenever best suits the job.”

Primary ITO is this year developing a full suite of wool harvesting programmes in addition to the micro-credentials, which are expected to be launched in 2020.

“This is just the start,” Leslie said.

“We’d like to hear from anyone who wants to find out more about these programmes or is interested in helping us develop others in the future.”

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News

18 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

Fonterra urged to chop milk price Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz PAYOUT retention is the most powerful and immediate way for Fonterra management to find capital and one that should be used sooner than later to repay more debt, Massey University management senior lecturer Dr James Lockhart says.

Fonterra is now highly vulnerable as its share value continues to slide and asset disposal slows but holding back on payout is a simple mechanism to save it.

“All it would involve is taking 50c a kilogram of milksolids off the payout as retentions.

“They would deal to their debt reduction challenge right there and would still own Tip Top if they had done this earlier instead.”

While the co-ops management might maintain the milk price model dictates the payout he disputes that and points to the cooperative’s practice of stretching milk payments by about 50c from dividends and retentions over the years.

“If you go this way, yes, there will be some tears but I suspect considerably less if Fonterra is honest and shares with their shareholder farmers the enormity of what they face.”

That includes the real risk company value continues to slide, regardless of assets sales.

And vulnerability to overseas

sale becomes a stark reality.

The risk of accelerated value slide could arise as other assets are disposed of and sales occur at a loss against book value.

The sale of Venezuelan assets in that strife-torn country recorded a book loss of $123 million.

Its Chinese dairy farms and Beingmate are touted as next up, with some fearing significant discounts might also occur there.

In the past year alone Fonterra’s share value has slipped from $5.20 a share to $3.68, representing a loss in company value of about $2.28 billion.

“Fonterra is simply too important to NZ Inc to fail, irrespective of what your politics are or what you may or may not think about dairy farming.

“Nor as a nation can we stand by and let Fonterra be sold offshore.

“As it is, I believe we should never have let Westland go either.”

Industry analyst Peter Fraser has cautioned Fonterra is approaching an event horizon where it will go past the point of no return as company value slips against debt levels.

Lockhart is far from convinced Fonterra is a lost cause but agrees action is needed sooner than later.

And the timing to claw back some payment from shareholders might never be better.

Prospects for milk price are relatively positive despite the wide forecast band. The ability of any

?

Fonterra’s

future

disgruntled shareholders to jump ship to competing companies is also limited.

“The immediate threat of local competition is quite diminished right now.

“And we are in the best part of the season to do it.

“It is just the start of the season, their obligation to farmers on how much to pay is still flexible.”

Lockhart ruefully noted earlier action by management, even as late as last year could have seen some money retained then, reducing the amount required now.

“It could have been 25c a kg MS held back late last year and 25c a kg MS held back early this year and it would be sorted.”

The positive payout was buoyed by a weaker dollar, making action sooner than later even more compelling.

With this season’s payout appearing to give farmers about $5.80/kg MS by next May the debt could be moderated by taking 30c/kg out by next June.

“And they would be half way there and then you take the balance out of the retro payments that come in between June and October next year.

“It is far easier to do it with the

SKINT: James Lockhart believes only payout retention will save Fonterra.

forecast we have (about $7) than if it had a five in front.”

He noted while it would hurt some indebted farmers having more payout retained it would be better for the entire co-operative.

“If you were a director at Fonterra right now, surely you are sitting there thinking this.”

Lockhart is concerned Fonterra management might not appreciate the criticism and become defensive but it is far too important to not comment on.

While some farmers don’t view Fonterra’s share value as critical to them that doesn’t make sense.

“It is a direct reflection of the wealth of the business.

“The whole share issue is a monster created through Trading Among Farmers (TAF).

“You can’t run away from the share price unless you want to buy those shares back and Fonterra does not have the funds to do that.”

He suspects Fonterra’s bankers will be more actively involved as

Fonterra is simply too important to NZ Inc to fail, irrespective of what your politics are or what you may or may not think about dairy farming.

Dr James Lockhart Massey University they witness the share slide.

“It seems in the past the shareholders (farmers) have been rewarded at the co-op’s expense.”

He agrees with Fraser’s description that Westland’s sale was a dress rehearsal for Fonterra’s main act if things get worse but believes there is still time to act to avoid it becoming reality.

“Sitting out there is this enormous lever called milk price and they need to pull it.”

Dress rehearsal spooks analyst Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz WESTLAND Milk’s sale overseas is a dress rehearsal for the main act of selling Fonterra to foreigners, industry analyst Peter Fraser says.

Fraser has been a critic of Fonterra’s structure, management and direction over the past decade.

His latest critique came the same week as its share price tumbled 5% to $3.55 before recovering to $3.68.

It was the same week Westland Milk suppliers voted to sell to Chinese dairy giant Yili, prompting Fraser to liken Westland as the dress rehearsal and Fonterra being the main act.

He implied a sale to overseas investors would occur over coming years as a capital shortage, debts and lackadaisical performance force the hand of management.

His fear is debts are not quit fast enough against the loss of value in the co-operative.

DRESS REHEARSAL: Industry analyst Peter Fraser believes Westland’s issues are Fonterra’s.

Fraser also outlined his latest concerns publicly in a Victoria University lecture, contrasting the promise made to farmers over a decade ago with today’s position.

He also offered an outline for how the co-op can be pulled back from its precarious debt position.

The heart of his concerns lie in the co-op’s high debt, something acknowledged by management and being addressed through an $800 million debt reduction programme.

In January the co-op had interest-bearing debt of $7.3 billion, putting debt levels close

to 80% of the company value.

In only a year to late May $1.8b was sliced off Fonterra’s sharemarket value and total shareholder value in the company has been marked down $3b in just two years.

Fraser is concerned the management’s ability to shed assets in its debt reduction programme will not be fast or valuable enough to keep up with the value slide, putting it in a race to the bottom.

A woeful level of retentions, the only way to acquire capital other than by debt, means its capital supply has come almost entirely from debt.

“So, Fonterra remained a capital starved, deeply indebted underperforming farmer-owned co-operative.”

But that failure has not resonated with farmer shareholders as much as it would with conventional shareholders.

DIRA regulations mean Fonterra has stretched payments on those shareholders’ main income source, milksolids

?

Fonterra’s

future

payments, somewhat isolating them from the full impact of share value decline.

“It is a transfer pricing story.

“Fonterra takes about 50c from dividends and retentions and pays them instead as a stretched milk price.

“That is about $750m a year of mispriced milk payments.

“That’s sufficient to buy back Tip Top every year, twice, and means Fonterra has to make up the shortfall by crimping its retentions and dividends,” Fraser said.

He likens Fonterra to a private wealth creation scheme for farmers who have capitalised the value into farmland and debt, riding capital gains that have since slowed and even reversed.

“A private firm would have long since sorted its performance out.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

19

Suggestions definitely off agenda

?

Fonterra’s

future Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz

FONTERRA will not retain earnings or change the way it sets the milk price as part of its business reset, chief financial officer Marc Rivers says.

It is confident it can address its debt issue and strengthen its balance sheet without those measures.

The reset is on track to meet its target of $800m this year while reduced spending will boost its profitability.

“We’re both tightening our belts and looking for savings but also looking at our investment portfolio,” Rivers said.

He is unequivocal in rejecting commentators’ suggestions it retain money from the milk payout and change the setting mechanism.

“Categorially no. We are in very different circumstances to Westland.”

Rivers describes the milk pricesetting process as sound. It is independently monitored by the Commerce Commission and must be sacrosanct.

He accepts Fonterra is over-

NO, NO, NO: Fonterra’s reset will not include retaining money from the milk payout, changing the milk price mechanism nor immediately revising the coop’s structure, chief financial officer Marc Rivers says.

extended with debt and therefore its performance needs to improve but the level of debt is not a consequence of it being a cooperative.

There is confidence balance

sheet strength can be restored with the current ownership structure. Being a co-operative offers much that is positive through connections with the owners and suppliers.

“Absolutely, the co-operative model is a strength and not a weakness.”

Rivers says lessons have been learnt.

“We have to treat our capital a lot more preciously and that is definitely the mindset going forward.”

How the $800m in proceeds from asset sales will be spent is up to the board but Rivers says some will be needed to retire debt and some could be reinvested.

There has, in recent months, been a shift in the co-op’s mindset to no longer aspire to dominate the world trade in dairy products.

Rather, it is targeting dairy product categories it believes it can compete in and, importantly, where it thinks it can win.

Once the strategy is reviewed and agreed to the next focus will be Fonterra’s structure.

“The first step is the strategy, what strategy do we need based on the business and operations and then what structure do we need to be successful?”

Fonterra has access to sufficient capital and assets and a strong, well executed strategy will provide access to any extra capital needed.

“It comes back to performance.”

Operational expenses have been reduced to 2017 levels

and capital expenditure cut from $861m last year to $650m, helped in part by no short- term requirement for new processing capacity.

Fonterra believes a valueadded strategy is still relevant, even with the associated cost and commitment.

Categorically no.

We are in very different circumstances to Westland.

Marc Rivers Fonterra While Tip Top is a value-adding company it was Fonterra’s only ice cream business and it used more sugar than milk. Tip Top will remain a Fonterra customer.

Fonterra Shareholder’s Fund shares have fallen from $4.78 on January 9 to $3.75 on July 9, having started 2018 at $6.40.

Rivers said that is a concern for shareholders, putting pressure on their balance sheets but does not directly affect Fonterra’s ability to pay its bills.

“We think we have got a turnaround plan and strategy and that value will be reflected in the share price.”

Management not model to blame Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz THE slump in Westland Milk Products fortunes and possible risks to Fonterra relate to management decisions not the cooperative model the companies were founded on, Co-operative Business New Zealand chief executive Craig Presland says.

He moved quickly to defend the co-operative model amid dismay at Westland’s offshore sale and increasing scrutiny of Fonterra as it tries to reduce its heavy debt.

Presland shied from any direct criticism of Westland’s unwinding.

Instead he pointed to Keith Woodford’s analysis earlier this year that highlighted management decisions at the co-operative including not pursuing A2 milk, expanding into Canterbury and a cheap-in, cheap-out share price of $1.50 a kilogram of milksolids.

Woodford cited those as key planks of the co-operative’s demise.

“And history shows that with competent management the cooperative model has stood the test of time.

“Here in NZ, of the top 10

?

Fonterra’s

future

co-operatives eight are directly involved in agriculture and horticultural sectors,” Presland said.

He acknowledged the higher capital demands that accompany dairy and meat processors compared to co-operative retail outlets like Mitre 10 and Foodstuffs.

“The challenge is to balance capital retentions with annual payouts appropriately.

“It is simpler with retail outlets where members receive a pro-rata dividend at the end of the year based on turnover contributed.

“Retail facilities are also cheaper to construct than dairy plants and there is more complexity in balancing against milk prices.”

He agreed with the growing chorus of analysts calling for Fonterra to increase its retentions to reduce debt.

“But any poor performance

But any poor performance from co-operatives due to capital investments made, abandonment of retained earnings policies and poor market investment decisions has no relationship with the co-op business model.

Craig Presland Co-operative Business NZ

MODEL FINE: Craig Presland maintains it is management not the model that trips up co-operatives.

from co-operatives due to capital investments made, abandonment of retained earnings policies and poor market investment decisions has no relationship with the co-op business model.

“It’s more to do with wise decision making, good governance and effective leadership.”

He pointed to Tatua Dairy Cooperative as an example of how the model, with all those factors

in play, can be outstandingly successful.

Presland also said more than 1000 NZ businesses have been delisted since 2001 because of receiverships, administration or closures.

“Fewer than five of these were co-operatives, mutuals or societies.”

Presland maintained a large, single, co-operative model in NZ’s dairy sector remains vital

to give farmers price strength for products overseas.

“I think Fonterra’s focus on core business is pretty key to the future and selling Tip Top is a good move.

“They have a new strategy plan paper due out in September. It will be interesting to see what is in that.”

He said it was a shame there was no way for Fonterra to buy Westland Milk Products to retain 100% co-operative ownership.

Newsmaker

20 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

Contest winner sold on agri work This year’s FMG Young Farmer of the Year winner James Robertson lives in Auckland but told Colin Williscroft he still sees his future in the primary sector.

T

HE primary sector sometimes struggles to attract talented young people to the variety of career opportunities it offers but James Robertson says building awareness of what is available in the wider agri-foods field can help change that.

And he’s in a pretty good place to play a part.

Last weekend Robertson, 22, became the youngest ever winner of the FMG Young Farmer of the Year competition.

He grew up on a 200-cow Waikato dairy farm and, after completing an agri commerce degree at Massey University, is part of Fonterra’s business graduate programme.

The programme is split into four six-month rotations, giving graduates a taste of the variety of the co-op’s operations.

Robertson’s first six months were spent as part of the dairy giant’s sustainable dairying team in Hamilton before moving to Auckland to be part of a venture capital team working on an internal start-up. In February he joined the trade strategy team.

“The trade strategy team supports and advises the business on approaches to changing geopolitical activity and tariff opportunities,” he said.

“It’s a crazy world of technical terms and acronyms and the policy side involves a lot of reading.

“I was lucky enough to study international agribusiness while I was at university so it’s made the transition a lot easier.

“It’s an area I have always been interested in and I’m really enjoying it,” he said, though moving to Auckland, which is teeming with people and cars, was a massive lifestyle change.

“It wasn’t something I ever saw myself doing but it was an amazing opportunity to push me outside of my comfort zone.”

The exposure to different aspects of the Fonterra business the graduate programme provides is a great platform to help develop skills and knowledge while increasing his awareness of further opportunities to learn.

More than ever, Robertson is confident of an exciting future ahead in the primary sector, with a wide range of options available.

He’s keen for other young people to be more aware of what the sector offers.

In the past there has always been the perception that primary industry jobs mean always having gumboots on, he said.

Though that might be true in some jobs, there’s a whole range of other opportunities for rewarding careers in the sector.

For those who don’t want to operate a chainsaw, drive a tractor or move stock there’s plenty of

FOCUSED: Young Farmer of the Year winner James Robertson sees a career in agriculture as exciting and fulfilling.

You can have a great career in the city but you can have a more fulfilling life in the regions.

James Robertson Young Farmer of the Year scope in the expanding area of agri-foods.

The challenge is promoting those possibilities to the best and brightest young people looking for fulfilling careers, something Young Farmers is focused on, Robertson said.

Reminding or making people aware of the advantages of living in regional or rural areas is part of that equation.

“You can have a great career in the city but you can have a more fulfilling life in the regions.

“The lifestyle it offers is a massive factor,” he says, adding that growing up he got a lot out of being able to watch his parents work on the farm.

Young Farmers has a proud history of providing influential rural leaders and Robertson has plenty of potential to add to that tradition.

While he was at Massey he joined its Young Farmers club, which is the largest in the country.

He went on to chair the club, building his governance and strategic thinking skills.

However, his connection with Young Farmers began a few years earlier.

In 2013 Robertson and his Hamilton Boys’ High School team mate Regan Kidd won the Young Farmers TeenAg grand final.

“I can guarantee I probably wouldn’t be in this position if it wasn’t for my involvement with NZ Young Farmers early on,” he said.

“I was the founding chair of the TeenAg club at Hamilton

Boys’ High School. It provided an awesome opportunity to start building my leadership skills.”

He is the first person to go on and win the Young Farmer grand final after earlier winning the TeenAg final.

These days he’s a member of Auckland Young Farmers, which has helped him adjust to his new home while remaining connected to his rural roots.

“It’s nice to be able to go along to club meetings and have a chat about how rain in February is a good thing.

“The club’s a hub for young people who work in the agri-food sector and find themselves living in the big smoke.”

As well as his Young Farmers membership Robertson has maintained his physical connection to farming, still getting his gumboots dirty even though his parents sold the family farm and semi-retired while he was at university in Palmerston North.

These days mum and dad own a block of land near Karapiro and he gets there as often as he can while also spending as much time on mates’ farms as possible.

“I like to balance that with the corporate lifestyle because I don’t want to lose the (on-farm) connection.”

Though he works in an Auckland office returning to the land is always on the cards.

His ideal job would be milking or shifting cows in the morning then spending the afternoon in an office.

In the meantime, he wants to learn as much as he can, though given how hectic the last few months have been, taking time out to stop and think for a moment is also a priority.

“When you’ve climbed to the top of a mountain it gives you the opportunity to stop for a moment and have a look at the view then take a deep breath and see where to head to next.”

New thinking

THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

21

BUBBLING: CIP Tech founder Roger Gough’s bubble technology is likely to save farmers thousands.

Bubbles blow hygiene headaches An afternoon National Geographic programme about technology to degrease steel coils is not the most riveting entertainment. But it did inspire Rotorua businessman Roger Gough to take the technology and apply it as a dairy hygiene tool, improving dairy shed sanitation and milk quality while saving farmers thousands in operating costs. He spoke to Richard Rennie about a device helping reduce one of the biggest headaches in farm dairies – hygiene grades.

T

HE use of microbubble nozzle technology to remove fat and protein from milking plant during the wash process has just had the tick of approval from Ministry for Primary Industries after exceeding national standards on hygiene.

The approval marks four years of work by Roger Gough of CIP Tech who learned about the micro-bubble technology on a documentary about its use to remove protective grease from newly milled steel in Japan.

Micro-bubbles are typically smaller than one hundredth of a millimetre and the technology is finding application in numerous areas including ultra-sounding, drug delivery and water treatment.

“After seeing that I really had something of a light-bulb moment driving through Reporoa, thinking about how it could be applied here on dairy farms.”

Gough’s background in dairy hygiene also helped him see the potential and he was prompted to seek out the manufacturer of the nozzle used to generate the bubbles and look at applying it to dairy hygiene.

Overseas research in areas of food processing has shown the technology can

be used to reduce E coli and salmonella contamination when incorporating it into a washing process, requiring lower levels of heat, chemicals and energy to achieve the desired health standards.

Typically, dairy farmers have to run hot water through the plant after milking every day, often using an alternate alkali-acid wash routine, making electricity costs to provide the hot water a substantial part of most farm dairy operating bills.

But the action of the microbubbles and their ability to effectively lift protein and fat residues has resulted in MPI approving a reduction in the use of hot washes from seven a week to three.

“Essentially, the micro-bubbles injected by the nozzle create a huge level of turbulence down the milk line, bouncing off the stainless steel pipe.

“As the bubble collapses it forms a hydroxyl radical, proven to play a key part in the destruction of organic compounds, while also creating heat at a critical point of their collapse, lifting off the protein and fat compounds on the stainless steel’s surface.”

The technology has had extensive testing to prove it is

at least equal to existing best practice for dairy hygiene. Gough said the results have exceeded expectations.

“We now have 15 units installed on commercial dairy farms, including five Pamu Landcorp units.

After seeing that I really had something of a light-bulb moment driving through Reporoa, thinking about how it could be applied here on dairy farms.

Roger Gough CIP Tech “Fonterra has been extremely helpful in the trials, providing aggregated and confidential milk test data from over 500 farms for comparison. When combined with the trial farm data this was a total of close to 30,000 milk samples to compare across the 2018-19 season.”

The micro-bubble technology resulted in only 1.1% of samples taken grading B or worse,

compared to 7.3% of the farms using conventional cleaning systems.

The top A and A+ grades were achieved in 98.9% of the microbubble treated dairies, compared to 92.7% on the conventionally sanitised dairies.

“This is a very robust and significant sample base to compare it to and has meant the new micro-bubble system can now be used legally when done so alongside the recommended cleaning routine or wash programme that comes with it.”

This routine requires the same amount of chemical as used conventionally but has a 50% reduction in the amount of hot washes now required.

And with no moving parts the stainless steel nozzle technology can outlast a dairy shed.

The technology also applies to dairy farm milk silo cleaning.

“For a 500 cow dairy unit with hot water heating costs of about $12,000 a year you would conservatively expect to cut that cost in half. The payback period for larger operators with 1000 cows would be less than one year.

For 250-300 cow operations you would expect three to four years.”

Gough has been given advice and financial support from

Waikato agri-businessman Ross Hyland who believes the technology has come at an opportune time for dairy farmers under the hammer on farm costs.

“Dairy processors also like it because it reduces the initial seeding bacteria that arrives in milk at the plant from the farm.

That lower bacteria level provides processors with a larger production window for the manufacture of high-value products.”

While taking a softly-softly approach to the farm dairy hygiene market both men also see the potential for applying the micro-bubble technology to other areas of food processing including breweries and the wine industry.

Gough and Hyland believe the technology will deliver a welcome step change in the conventional and energy hungry process of keeping farm dairies sanitary.

“Farmers are under pressure to make more from the platform they have, reduce their carbon footprint, use fewer resources and cut back on costs.

“CIP Tech’s micro-bubble technology meets all those needs, delivering a win-win for everyone,” Hyland said.

Opinion

22 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

EDITORIAL

Shareholders must front up

T

HE decision by Westland Milk shareholders to accept a takeover offer from China’s Yili Group raises deeper questions about the accountability of governors and management of co-operatives and the engagement of shareholders. Shareholder apathy and lack of accountability was evident with Westland but, according to economists and academics, a similar scenario could also be playing out with Fonterra and the financial state it now finds itself in.

They say more decisive action is needed to address Fonterra’s burgeoning debt, plummeting share price and profitability – the consequence of years of rapid expansion.

They suggest Fonterra should retain earnings and create an independent mechanism for setting the milk price but those moves have been rejected by the co-operative’s management and the Fonterra Shareholder’s Council.

While Fonterra has a new leadership team, shareholders need to question their role in the co-operative getting into this state. It is too late for Westland shareholders to ask how they allowed an overly ambitious board and management to take a proud 150-year-old company down a path far removed from what was a successful formula. More broadly, the question must be asked whether co-operative shareholders are too disengaged, bestowing too much trust and responsibility in the hands of directors and managers, especially when it comes to decisions on big ticket expenditure items or strategic direction.

Engagement requires more than turning up for road shows and annual meetings.

Co-operatives were formed to, among other things, collectively advance the interests of like-minded producers. That requires input from the owners and accountability from management and governors.

Fonterra says it has a plan to address its financial issues that does not require retaining earnings or changing the way it sets the milk price. We certainly hope it does.

Much of what Fonterra’s new managers and governors are doing is to be applauded but surely a more rapid and decisive rebalancing of the books is financially advantageous.

Significantly, retaining earnings also sends a message the board wants shareholder involvement. Equally, for shareholders it illustrates they value their investment and are engaged.

Neal Wallace

LETTERS

Are vegans too idle to breed?

CAN going vegan save the planet?

Possibly, but not in the way the vegans might expect.

Around 1992 and between 2000 and 2006 we hosted close to 300 Willing Workers on Organic Farms (Wwoofers).

In a household where a lot but certainly not all our meals were based around meat or fish and always included generous quantities of a wide selection of fruit and veges, most homegrown, catering for vegans was never going to be easy. Without exception they lacked stamina, strength and energy.

The vegetarians, aside from those who had obviously swapped marijuana for meat, were fitter but many still had trouble lifting a cast iron frying pan There has been an exponential rise in infertility in recent years. A number of university studies have

established statistical links with both vegan and vegetarian diets, low sperm counts and poor sperm motility. In short, the sperm are just as lacking in energy as their owners. Female infertility has similar links.

For some people, their genetics are certainly more suited to a whole or partial vegetarian diet, just as others can thrive on a diet of meat and spuds. The rest of us fit somewhere between the extremes.

If you want to be a vegan and spend the entire day meditating, be my guest. On second thoughts, go be some else’s guest. Go off to India for a bit, live in an Ashram and discover the meaning of the old proverb Talk does not cook rice nor does meditation make it grow.

Apparently, the Hindu religious ban on eating beef might, like a great many religious taboos, be based

on practicality. In rural India oxen were used to plough the fields. In times of crop failure there would be starvation for a season and some people might have died but if a farmer ate his ox then next year he would not be able to plough his field nor plant a crop and real famine would occur.

I once saw a documentary on a northern Indian village where they had a cowslaughtering ceremony, slowly stretching the beast on a rack until it died, thus retaining all the blood. Now, to our western sensitivities that would seem cruel, though given the rituals involved it is possible the animal did not experience any real pain. I bet though, if wellmeaning westerners managed to ban a practice that has happened for generations that within a decade the entire village population would cease to exist.

So, which is worse, eating a cow in its entirety or seeing

cattle slowly starve to death because a religion forbids their consumption?

Is it really any of our business what other people do as long as no one expects us to behave the same way?

Just as having more children is no guarantee a family will get rich, increasing the population does not necessarily equate with a rise of GDP of the nation.

All it does is put more pressure on the land and the infrastructure. What would we really gain if all the arable land was used for crops and our stock were all slaughtered or forced to live on factory feed lots?

Which brings me back to the vegans. More vegans with poorer fertility rates, therefore fewer people and more room for the farmer and his stock.

Everyone wins.

Marie Lepper Morere

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Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

23

Farmers must face the future Nick Hume

F

ARMERS are facing some of the biggest non nature-related challenges they have seen in many years.

Environmental concerns, changes in consumer preferences and new regulations seem to be adding an extra level of complication to an already complex sector.

As an accountant and business adviser who works largely with farming clients I see people every week who are stressed about the raft of upcoming developments and what it’s going to mean for their businesses.

It’s not an easy time but, as I explain to them, it’s not all doom and gloom if you face it all headon rather than burying your head in the sand and hope it will all go away.

I’ve recently joined BFA, a business advisory and accounting firm in Taupo but I previously managed Wairarapa Moana Incorporation, one of the country’s largest dairy firms for five years and before that worked at Crowe Horwath in its agribusiness team.

In all of those roles working in different sectors of farming and growing up on farms myself I’ve seen just how hard people in this industry work and how some days it seems almost too much to add all the concerns of running an environmentally friendly, profitable business to a physical schedule that starts at dawn and ends well after the sun has set.

I think for many years it was okay to just roll from year to year but challenges like synthetic proteins, new human resources regulations, environmental compliance, fluctuating commodity prices and changes in banking regulations mean a strong business head and some serious forward planning are required to thrive in this new climate.

Farmers, in my opinion, are some of the most resilient business people out there and I think they will adapt and thrive.

Here are some of my thoughts for anyone who is feeling overwhelmed by the business of farming right now.

Be honest with yourself. I see far too many farming clients in total denial about the size of their debt and the practical steps needed to work themselves out of it.

Talk to someone rather than keeping all that worry to yourself.

So many times I have a client come in to talk numbers but it ends up being much more than that.

The stress of how the farm is doing has started to affect their relationships with family and friends and the relative isolation of the job means they are keeping it all bottled up.

Don’t try to deal with it all alone. Talk to professional and personal support people and tackle the challenges together.

BOOTS N ALL: Farmers do have a sustainable and profitable future and despite all the pressures weighing heavily on their businesses the wheels are not about to fall off, Taupo accountant Nick Hume says.

The

Pulpit

Synthetic proteins are coming but don’t let that scare you.

Many people still want to eat the premium, naturallygrown protein you produce and as the world population grows New Zealand products will become niche and continue to fetch a premium with trade partners.

However, we need to make sure we meet consumer expectations when it comes

to being sustainable, not only environmentally but also in our treatment of the people who work in the industry.

If we can meet that ethical expectation, we can warrant our premium.

Take control of your budgeting.

There was a time when it was fine to let the bank or your accountant do it all but now you really need to understand it and produce it yourself – with help if you need it.

Look at the changes that are coming and have a plan for how you’re going to deal with them rather than waiting until it’s too late.

Having a plan is a road map for success and knowing where you want to be in 10-15 years’ time is important.

Any decisions you make today should help you track towards that goal.

Take advantage of the developments in business software to reduce your office time.

Most people are aware of software programmes like CashManager or Xero and now Figured (a Xero add-on) appears to be growing in market share too. It can budget, forecast and

develop scenarios planning 10 years ahead.

Keep your business under review.

One thing is for sure, change will occur in your lifetime.

Have faith that solutions will be found to these pressing industry issues.

Those who adapt to change the quickest are the most successful.

Also, challenge the status quo in your business. One thing NZ farmers are great at is adapting to a changing landscape.

Succession planning is important, even if it means some tough family conversations.

Have faith that solutions will be found to these pressing industry issues.

While there are some huge challenges facing farming there is a lot of investment by the Government, the co-operatives and third parties and it will turn into solutions.

With deadlines looming, solutions will have to come fast.

Good environmental management and sustainable profit are not mutually exclusive concepts.

It can and will be possible to do both.

While it’s undoubtedly a time of flux for many primary industries this current climate doesn’t have to spell disaster for farmers.

With good planning, total transparency and creative solutions I am seeing businesses thrive where they were struggling, after taking control of their circumstances and finding innovative ways to step into this new industry future.

Who am I? Nick Hume is a Beker Findlay Allan client adviser in Taupo. He’s a chartered accountant with a Massey University business studies degree.

Much of his 17-year career has been spent working with agribusiness clients.

Your View Got a view on some aspect of farming you would like to get across?

The Pulpit offers readers the chance to have their say. farmers.weekly@globalhq.co.nz Phone 06 323 1519

Opinion

24 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

Hypocrisy defines Taupo pollution Alternative View

Alan Emerson

I AM absolutely amazed at the reaction to the sewerage spill into Lake Taupo.

If it was farmers they would be pilloried relentlessly in the media, taken to court and fined excessively.

That it is a local body appears to mean it can pollute with impunity.

I shouldn’t be surprised.

Auckland lets the equivalent of 400 Olympic swimming pools of unprocessed crap onto Auckland beaches each year and will be doing it for years to come.

Wellington has regular discharges into the harbour and no-one gives it a mention.

In addition, Nelson, Porirua and Dunedin have polluted with no penalties and never a harsh word.

When the Palmerston North City Council polluted the Manawatu River the ManawatuWanganui Regional Council, which trades as Horizons, didn’t take it to court because it would be costing its own ratepayers.

So, farmers either aren’t considered as ratepayers or they don’t count.

I’m sure we can all remember the Hastings water pollution where farmers were accused relentlessly of causing the

problem. Dirty dairying was the issue even though there was little dairying in the area.

That it was a local body issue fair and square did little to stem the criticism.

Now we have the Lake Taupo sewerage incident where 800,000 litres of sewerage went into the pristine lake and the Waikato River.

Was there a word of condemnation from anyone? In a word, no?

I’d have expected Associate Environment Minister Eugenie Sage to cry pollution with the theatrical indignation of Juliet’s nurse.

Greenpeace, which has a finger on the trigger whenever farmers do anything it thinks is wrong, factual or not, was strangely silent.

My take on that is you can’t farm donations from sewerage polluting a pristine lake no matter what the rights and wrongs are.

Fish and Game, having spent good money on a survey with leading questions, piously told us 77% of Kiwi’s want clean waterways.

Lake Taupo and the Waikato River are huge fishing areas but they’re just not interested in taking on local government.

Farmers must be an easier target no matter what the reality of the issues are.

You might also remember the Choose Clean Water Tour with Marnie Prickett that was funded by the Tourism Export Council and came across as anti-farmer.

Interestingly, the tourism industry, again happy slagging farmers, didn’t seem to worry

SCOT FREE: Taupo has got away with polluting the lake and Waikato River while farmers face hefty fines for much lesser crimes.

about the Taupo problem.

It was all a massive exercise in hypocrisy.

It is worse than that.

In 2017 there were two Taupo wastewater spillages in a week because of pipe failure and a blocked pipe so it’s happened before.

As a result the council told the nation it checked and maintained its pipes.

In January last year wastewater again entered the lake. It was blamed on contractors failing to restart a pump following routine checks.

The council chief executive was upset human error was the problem but confessed it did happen from time to time.

Can you imagine a farmer getting away with that excuse?

The problem of 800,000 litres

of raw sewerage flowing into the lake and river for a full 12 hours was the result of a burst pipe. A massive 70% of Taupo’s sewerage was flowing into the lake.

Have we heard even a whisper of censure? No. The Department of Internal Affairs website is explicit. “It is an offence under the Resource Management Act 1991 to discharge contaminants such as treated or untreated sewerage into Lake Taupo.”

Has it done anything? Again, no.

Laughingly, in my view, the Taupo mayor blamed the contamination on earthquakes.

He suggested a swarm of earthquakes could have done the damage.

There were no reports of any earthquake swarms that I could find.

The Waikato Regional Council, always litigious when it comes to farmers, was full of bonhomie over the Taupo pollution doing its best to assure people everything was all right and it was business as usual.

In 2016 that organisation told us farming needed to change to restore the Waikato River.

It seems to me farming is the least of its problems.

Consider the reality.

Farmers have been fined and considerably so for a minor leak caused by a pump breaking down.

In March this year the WRC had a farmer fined over $130,000 for over-irrigating effluent.

Reprehensibly, in my view, DairyNZ then did a Pontius Pilate on the farmer.

In October last year the WRC took another farmer to court for an overflowing sewerage pond. It resulted in a conviction and fine of $30,000.

There are many more examples.

My point is farmers are environmentally conscious. They use their own money to mitigate pollution, tens of millions of dollars of it.

Local government, using other people’s money, should be called to the same high standards farmers are.

Anything less is rampant hypocrisy and proves, beyond all doubt, clean waterways aren’t the issue, bashing farmers is.

Your View Alan Emerson is a semi-retired Wairarapa farmer and businessman: dath-emerson@wizbiz.net.nz

Guptill heroics emulate Wyn-Harris career From the Ridge

Steve Wyn-Harris

I DON’T like cricket, I love it.

That of course a line from 10cc’s song Dreadlock Holiday.

It is based on a line of conversation by a Jamaican fellow in Jamaica to Graham Gouldman who sang lead on this track.

An earlier visit to Barbados by another band member Eric Stewart resulted in another line from the song. He and Justin Hayward of the Moody Blues were holidaying together and thought they would have a go at parasailing.

Stewart was towed behind a speedboat at high speed. He took off and waved goodbye to Hayward. Hayward was left on the raft with three guys, one Jamaican and two from Barbados.

The Jamaican guy told Hayward, “I like your silver chain, man, I’ll give you a dollar for it.” Hayward replied “Come on, it’s worth a lot more than that and it’s a present from my mother”.

And this guy said “If this was Jamaica, I would cut your hand off for that.” Stewart came back and asked Hayward if he wanted to have a go. He said, “No, let’s get off this raft as quick as we can, I have had some problems.” When Stewart got back to England, he relayed the story to Gouldman and they wrote a song around it.

A good digression but let’s get back to cricket.

I’m uncharacteristically writing this during daylight hours, which are usually reserved for farming, because I didn’t get it done last night.

I watched cricket instead until 2.30am so I’m also a bit slow out of the blocks, thus tapping away at the keyboard was a better option than fencing.

What a game.

Like everyone else I’d been disappointed by the Black Caps’ last three games in the roundrobin of the Cricket World Cup. They were against three top sides but they just seemed to capitulate.

However, I’ve always been a great optimist.

I was telling anyone who would listen on my radio show that the team was just two wins away from winning the world cup.

Get off Kane Williamson’s and the team’s backs. They had still got us to the semi-finals. Again.

The Indian batsmen had been in such top form they were due for failure.

The Indians had a lot more to lose than us. The prospect of returning to a billion very grumpy cricket fanatics is a lot worse than coming home to a small nation that is well used to dealing with failure on the world stage.

And a miracle can happen.

And it did.

A miracle at Manchester.

Jane even stayed up with me and saw the Black Caps get those last precious runs on the second day of what was meant to be a one-day game.

She stuck it out to midnight so I was able to scream my delight at those four early wickets but had to stay muffled after that when she went to the bed.

I was so pleased for Martin Guptill when he got us into the final with that throwdown of Dhoni’s wickets as he was looking like he might actually get them over the line.

Guppy has had such a miserable time with the bat. It was like watching a rerun of my own cricket career.

The only other sporting event I’ve found as nail-biting and exciting was exactly four years ago when we beat South Africa to get into the last World Cup final.

LIKE ME: Martin Guptill’s run-out of Indian batsman M S Dhoni to secure New Zealand a place in the world cup final reminded Steve Wyn-Harris of his own cricketing career.

That time, Jeremy and I immediately leapt online and bought cheap flights and later match tickets to watch what was a disappointing final in Melbourne.

I won’t be going to next week’s game but lucky Jeremy happens to be in Europe anyway and we were Skyping during the game and

I told him he just had to go to that final at Lords.

But I’ll be watching through the night next week.

Go the Black Caps.

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

Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

25

It’s now time for M bovis stock take The Braided Trail

Keith Woodford

IT IS now two years since Mycoplasma bovis was identified in New Zealand.

In those two years there have been 178 farms with confirmed infections.

In the last six months the cumulative number of confirmed infections has doubled.

The big question is whether eradication is still feasible.

It is now clear the number of infected properties is going to rise beyond the Government’s estimates prepared in May 2018.

At that time the Government committed to a heavyweight eradication campaign. At that same time the expected total number of infected properties was estimated at 192, extending out over five to 10 years.

By the end of 2018 the public messaging was the Primary Industries Ministry was running faster than the disease and that MPI was catching up with the transmission paths.

MPI was expressing high confidence eradication would be achieved. DairyNZ echoed those sentiments even more strongly.

Now, in July 2019, there has been a big shift of sentiment at MPI. An internal report, prepared by MPI’s office of the chief science adviser Dr John Roche and now released to the public, acknowledges MPI’s senior managers were mistaken about

the progress they were making.

MPI now acknowledges its internal information systems were inadequate. As a consequence, and prior to mid-April, senior management had no appreciation as to the backlog of well over 1000 properties that needed tracing nor that the backlog was increasing rapidly.

This is a remarkable situation.

Some of us working outside the official system and in close contact with events in the field knew MPI was struggling greatly with the tracing.

We knew it was taking up to six months and more for MPI to follow up on specific traces.

We tried to alert senior management in MPI to the implications of what was happening.

Quite simply, the MPI system has not been fit for purpose and that is what MPI is now acknowledging. Director-general Ray Smith has apologised publicly.

It is now time for a stocktake.

Is eradication still feasible or has the disease travelled too far?

This will be a key question for the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) when it next meets.

In situations like this there usually has to be a fall guy.

However, in this case Smith was bequeathed a terrible situation when he took up the job last November. One has to go back and ask who was responsible for the fundamental structure of MPI bioSecurity, largely put in place before Mycoplasma bovis struck.

The immediate question is whether there are enough band aids to allow the eradication programme to get back on track or is eradication a lost cause?

Now, as well as the infected properties there are 236 properties on movement control (NOD) and

UNFIT: The Primary Industries Ministry has acknowledged its system is not fit for purpose with director-general Ray Smith’s public apology.

another 627 properties under active surveillance. The MPI expectation is that between 10% and 15% of the NOD properties will go positive. This will then set up a new series of traces. And so it goes on.

There can be little doubt the tracing backlog has allowed Mycoplasms bovis to once again run ahead of MPI. With hindsight, it is now doubtful if MPI was ever catching up.

So, can MPI now make up for lost ground?

DairyNZ is telling its farmers the new revelations do not threaten the programme. That is simply public relations propaganda to keep up confidence in the programme in the meantime.

Let’s see what the TAG has to say when it meets.

The last report from the TAG was submitted in January, following a November 2018 meeting, and released in February.

A lot of water has gone under the bridge since then.

MPI is flagging big differences in testing procedures. In particular, it will no longer be searching for the

WRONG: A report by Primary Industries Ministry chief science adviser Dr John Roche says senior managers were mistaken about the progress they were making.

organism in milk using the PCR test. Instead, it will do bulk-milk screening with an antibody test then following that up with blood testing of suspect herds, once again searching for antibodies.

DairyNZ is telling its farmers the new revelations do not threaten the programme. That is simply public relations propaganda.

Last spring MPI tested all herds on six occasions using the PCR test. It found only three positive herds and highlighted that in its messaging. What it did not say was that another 43 herds or thereabouts not already on the radar had shown up with antibody testing of the milk.

MPI had hoped most or perhaps all of those bulk-milk antibody tests would be false positives. That has now proven to be incorrect.

MPI was also exceptionally slow, despite claiming it was being transparent, to acknowledge it was determining herds to be positive and not just at risk in situations where high proportions of the herd were showing up as antibody positive on blood tests.

In the early months of this year some of us knew the published numbers and associated story did not tally with what we were seeing in the field. It was only in late March and into April that MPI started to acknowledge what was happening.

It took quite some teasing-out before MPI came clean as to the new assessment procedures and criteria it had been using for many months. Then in mid-April, on the Thursday afternoon just before Easter, came the additional announcement there was going to be a big surge in farms to be tested.

I will give just one example here, of many that I could give, of a farm that has been caught up by the

delays and the further challenges that has created.

This farm is actually three separate herds, with more than 2500 cows in total. It first came to the attention of MPI from a bulk-milk antibody test in August 2018. However, it was not until late January the farmer was informed that he was to be tested. Then in April he was confirmed positive.

There are several key features about what has happened.

First, the farm is Nait-compliant and there is no smoking gun as to how it arrived. Second, there will be many traces to be made.

The farmer estimates there have been about 150 outward movements of animals over the last five years and the progeny from the farms have been widely used as service bulls on other farms. Those 150 outward movements are just the first stage movements. Subsequent movements will have fanned out from there.

In this article I have addressed only issues that directly influence programme feasibility. Alongside this, many farmers are struggling greatly from flaws in the compensation system.

The notion that affected farmers should be neither better nor worse off as a consequence of compensation is not what is happening.

It was all supposed to be a team effort but some members of the team have been deserted and have lost their livelihood and others are in great difficulty. I think Federated Farmers could be doing a lot more in Wellington on behalf of these farmers.

MPI also needs to go back and ask itself whether it really understands the compensation problems that are occurring. Once again, it seems their own internal systems are less than adequate.

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

Opinion

26 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

Let city folk help save the world John Hart WE FARMERS love electricity.

The 7000 volts running through a hot wire keeps the neighbours’ bulls away from your heifers and we can trace the lineage of our electric beer fridges back to the first shipments of frozen lamb heading for Britain in 1882.

So, will this policy really be the end of petrol and diesel utes in rural New Zealand? Not likely.

In more modern times UBCO electric farm bikes have taken the world by storm since their launch in 2014.

So, you’d think farmers would be stoked to see the Government’s new policy to make it cheaper for kiwis including farmers to get their hands on low-emission and electric vehicles to reduce our transport greenhouse gas emissions.

It’s a policy of two halves.

Better fuel efficiency and emissions standards are the first part but that’s something we

won’t see much of because it’s between the Government and car manufacturers.

The second part is making new, cleaner cars and utes cheaper through rebates and that will be funded by charging a fee on new vehicles with bad emission levels.

It’s fiscally neutral to taxpayers and it will help shift buying behaviour to get us to a cleaner vehicle fleet.

But not everyone is thrilled.

According to Federated Farmers’ response we love electricity but draw the line at our Hiluxes and Rangers.

Andrew Hoggard suggested a Nissan Leaf might not be the best vehicle for hauling fence posts around the farm.

Fair point but nobody is saying electric vehicles will be compulsory and farm vehicles like tractors are exempt anyway.

But when farmers see the towing torque available from in-wheel motors in some of the coming electric utes there might just be a few late converts.

So, will this policy really be the end of petrol and diesel utes in rural New Zealand?

Not likely.

Farmers will still have choices.

There are utes on the market now like the Nissan Navara that already qualify as low-enough

THEY’RE HERE: Electric farm bikes have taken the world by storm.

emissions to avoid the fee.

Ford used to have a lowemission version of the Ranger but it disappeared last year.

Globally, electric car makers are gunning for the utility vehicle space with half a dozen manufacturers looking to move into electric or hybrid utes as well as the traditional manufacturers.

Mitsubishi and Nissan nextgeneration utes include plug-in hybrid models and Great Wall Motors is also promising to unveil an electric ute this year.

At the end of the day if you

decide your favourite ute is the best one for the job and it’s not classed as low-emissions nobody is going to stop you buying it but it might cost a few grand more.

Fieldays specials should easily take care of that little issue.

The effect of shifting the fleet to cleaner vehicles and improving fuel efficiency across the board is that those who drive the most kilometres will benefit more in the long run from cheaper transport.

That sounds like a win for rural families and communities to me.

Farmers get that we need

to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions as a whole country and we should be thrilled that for a change we’re talking about emissions from cars, not cows.

If, as we keep saying, we want our urban cousins to do their bit for climate change and not just farmers, we can hardly begrudge them cheaper electric vehicles.

It might mean a few less urban warriors end up buying doublecab utes for inner-city school drop-offs and shopping trips but that’s a price we’re willing to pay to save the world, right?

What is regenerative farming?

Sue Edmonds FOR most of the 18 years I’ve been writing about farming issues the buzzword has been sustainability.

Of late it seems to have morphed into regenerative farming, which aims to do a lot more than sustain, including rebuilding eroded soil and reintroducing the necessary soil life to create the nutritive food humans, plants and animals of the world need.

Regenerative agriculture is a series of changes to farming systems that recognises that nature and its trillions of life forms work on symbiosis, where they all work together.

Man-made chemicals and the ploughing and spreading of them might provide some of what plants need but they destroy all the natural systems in the process.

So, all the extra benefits, such as clean water, healthy aggregated soil, increased water retention and greater growth, are lost to us and we haven’t realised why.

The intent of sustainability was to enable farmers to keep farming safely and profitably for ever.

What it actually turned into was a purely chemically supported system where calculations were constantly made of what the pasture/crop removed of various chemical elements from the soil when grazed/harvested. A similar amount of the relevant element was then considered to be needed to be spread back on the pasture/ soil.

It was great for those who sold such elements.

RECIPE BOOK: Details on regenerative agriculture are in the book Growing a Revolution, cowritten by David R Montgomery.

Earnest reps with calculators were guaranteed regular sales to farmers who had been indoctrinated since about the 1940s that the idea of conventional farming was what would give the biggest yields.

A guy called Justus von Liebig had the bright idea in 1840 but it wasn’t until after World War I, when they stopped using the relevant chemicals to make munitions, that the idea started to catch on.

And after WWII there were enough producers, particularly in the United States, to supply every farmer with lovely chemical fertilisers for land that was well ploughed. And they were used.

Actually, it was all that ploughing that began the downturn.

Nobody knew much about soil life then so chewing it up several times a year wasn’t counted.

And the Great Plains soils, which had taken thousands of years to build topsoil, by then didn’t have soil life to hold them together. Thus, when there were long droughts or big storms, that precious topsoil blew off in great black clouds that covered Chicago then Washington with a black film.

The chemicals did increase yields for a while but then they shrank and shrank and yet more native prairie was ploughed.

Although there were those, such as Sir Albert Howard and J I Rodale, who were investigating soil life and organics in the 1940s it wasn’t until the 1960s and 1970s that science finally caught onto

the idea that whatever occurred naturally in soil must be doing something right because what wasn’t being ploughed and fertilised was still growing as it always had.

Howard’s and Rodale’s efforts will be covered in a later article but there’s a lot more detail in David R Montgomery’s books. The Hidden Half of Nature published in 2016, and Growing a Revolution published in 2017.

It took until the 1990s when enlightened farmers such as Gabe Brown of North Dakota finally began to imitate nature in his farming practices that things really took off.

His book, Dirt to Soil published in 2018, not only explains the systems but defines his ups and downs in achieving them from his

conventional beginnings in 1991 and the hail and droughts that convinced him nature knows best.

So where does New Zealand’s farming fit into all of this?

Well, as in many other countries, our soils are getting depleted in soil life by conventional agriculture and our pasture production is now being quoted at workshops by our rural professionals, such as DairyNZ, at levels lower than were found by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in the 1980s across Waikato.

Reports from government agencies show our water is getting more polluted and we’ve yet to find ways to stop it happening.

We are still eroding an enormous amount of our topsoil and sending it out to sea.

And the nutritive values of our foods have been measured by experts as lower than we used to produce last century.

So, if we are to pro-actively manage our environment, reduce our carbon footprint, clean up our waters and produce food with the nutritive value our customers are going to start asking for, we’ll need to make a few changes.

Our nearest neighbour got involved in international efforts on climate change early and was one of 34 countries in May 2017 signed up to the new four per 1000 initiative to mitigate climate change through increasing soil organic carbon.

NZ is now a member through our Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre and joined later.

Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

27

Keep thinking about the bike Off the Cuff

Andrew Stewart

AT THIS time of year mega amounts of mud make life somewhat more challenging, especially when it comes to riding quad bikes.

A few weeks ago I made the pilgrimage to Mystery Creek like thousands of others to check out the wonderful world of National Feildays.

On the way up I heard on the radio that quad bike roll-over protection systems (ROPS) are going to be partially subsidised, based on Worksafe recommendations.

For me, installing a ROPS on a quad bike is very much a case of the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.

Sure, they might be good at ensuring a bike carries on bouncing to the bottom of the gully or possibly avoiding a crush injury but subsidising an optional attachment not recommended by quad manufacturers sets a dangerous precedent in my mind.

A much more positive and proactive approach would be to subsidise rider training or skills testing for quad bike riders.

And then there is still the old

argument about helmets on quad bikes.

From personal experience, wearing a helmet while driving a quad bike is a no-brainer. About five years back I was still sitting on the fence as the debate raged about whether helmets should be compulsory. Then one day my mind was made up by an incident on the farm.

Our young shepherd was finishing up a week’s work and heading home to his farm cottage on his quad bike. He had received some bad news during the previous 24 hours about the death of an acquaintance in the local community.

The most powerful tool in quad bike safety is the top two inches between the ears.

Despite inquiring whether he was okay and being assured he was, I suspect that might have been playing on his mind.

Combined with the normal tiredness after a busy week and the usual urge to sow his wild oats over the weekend it could be deduced he was mentally distracted from a simple task. The route he was driving was in a flat paddock but a hidden gully to one side remained out of view until the last minute and by then it was too late.

Up at the homestead I received a radio call from a volunteer who was also staying in the cottage with our worker. He said our worker had stumbled in the door in considerable pain, had blood all over his face and was not making much sense.

In the couple of minutes it took me to reach the scene worst-case scenarios were running through my head. What am I going to tell his parents? Is there going to be permanent damage? And of course, is his life in danger?

The accident caused him two broken wrists and some bad bruising.

But the most poignant moment for me was standing beside him in the hospital as a nurse lifted up his hair to examine a wound on his head.

There, as clear as daylight, was a massive black line and lump where his head had obviously been collected by a bull bar or handlebar. It was then I realised how lucky he had been and that if he had been wearing a helmet it would have totally absorbed the impact.

And so, from that day forth our farm policy of being hohum about helmets went to compulsory use for everyone.

And do you know what, they’re not that bloody bad.

There are heaps of options out there for all the bald, mullet, pumpkin or tiny heads that make up our farming communities.

Hell, they even come with air vents, colour choices and ear

BE READY: Preventing accidents is better than protection during crashes.

muffs for multi-tasking if you so require.

And I can’t remember one day when it has been pouring with rain that I have regretted having a truly waterproof structure on top of my head.

But despite being an advocate of wearing a helmet, prevention is a million times better than any cure.

Once you have crashed a quad it is too late to hope a helmet or ROPS is going to save you.

The most powerful tool in quad bike safety is the top two inches between the ears. Some really simple common sense questions can really make a huge difference between safety and the scrap heap.

Is the quad I am going to ride ready for all that I am going to throw at it today? This includes maintenance, tyre grip, tyre pressure, fuel and whether any accessories are going to or should be used.

More often than not a trailer or carrier accessory like a sprayer cause a quad to behave

differently to manufacturers’ recommendations and put the rider at risk.

Am I going to get up/down/ around/through this paddock safely based on my skills and this bike’s performance? It is far better to stop and take some time to consider this than the old she’ll be right and just go for it. Go the other way even if it takes a bit longer.

And it might sound stupidly simple but when you are riding a quad bike, just drive it. The other stuff that is in your mind like the job you are heading to do, the mutt that keeps annoying you, the girl that keeps ignoring your Tinder requests or anything else need to be put to the side to allow you to concentrate on the task at hand.

And don’t stop thinking about the bike.

Your View Andrew Stewart is a sheep and beef farmer and tourism operator in Rangitikei.

Contest is really a talent quest Matthew Herbert THE 2019 FMG Young Farmer of the Year grand final was the most tech and innovation-driven contest to date.

The gruelling three-day event in Hawke’s Bay tested competitors’ fencing and machinery skills but also challenged their techsavviness, critical business thinking and asked how they would market food and innovate for the future.

The focus on technology and agri-business skills has some farmers asking what’s happened to slugging it out with more traditional farming tasks and why contestants spend so much time on technical modules in a farming competition.

For people asking these questions I think it’s important to think about why the contest still exists and what it’s trying to achieve in 2019 and beyond.

Young Farmers membership is becoming increasingly diverse with clubs no longer being just on-farm workers but also agronomists, genetics experts, rural bankers, agricultural

WIDE: Young Farmers is becoming increasingly diverse, farmer Matthew Herbert says.

contractors and many other professions that make farming possible.

To compete in the national grand final these young people first have to get through a series of qualifying events in their regions, where basic, manual farming skills such as fencing, chainsawing, motorbike use, sheep shearing and even correctly fitting saddles

and covers onto horses are tested.

But many of these manual skills are not always relevant in such a diverse contest.

What use is fitting a horse saddle for a fruit grower?

How proficient does a dairy farmer really need to be at shearing a sheep?

Should a beekeeper have expert fencing skills if their business is

one focused on breeding elite honey bees and exporting food products from New Zealand around the world?

That’s when it becomes important to look at the bigger picture, to think about what the competition is there to do and to think about what the future holds for people who are competing in this modern era of agriculture.

The competition exists to build the capability and skills of young people interested in rural NZ. It exists to find, cultivate and challenge the agri-food sector’s leaders of tomorrow.

The competitors are mostly in their 20s. They’re at the start of their careers in an industry that is more diverse than ever, facing more rapid change than ever before.

What will agriculture look like in the year 2040 when today’s winners will be aged only in their 40s?

There are already plenty of farms in NZ that use robots to milk cows or drones to muster their sheep.

Halter, an innovative kiwi company, aims to make physical

fences a thing of the past, instead using GPS-guided cow collars.

Driverless tractors and robotic fruit harvesters are on the verge of going mainstream.

The farmers of 2040 will need to be able to instantly adapt to technology to survive.

The agricultural leaders of tomorrow will need to constantly innovate and run profitable businesses better than anyone before them.

They’ll need to understand the rapidly-changing values of consumers and need forwardthinking ideas for how we will sell our premium produce to the rest of the world.

That’s why it doesn’t matter any more whether the winner is a dairy farmer, a fruit grower or a young professional working for Fonterra with aspirations to learn skills outside of the farm gate before coming back to the land.

What matters is that our industry is finding these young, smart people and challenging them to grow their skills and knowledge so they can be our farming leaders of the future.

On Farm Story

28 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

The nation’s least worst farmers Banks Peninsula farmer and self-confessed radical Roger Beattie is never short of new ideas for the primary sector. Luke Chivers visited him to hear about some of the maverick’s pet projects.

O

N THE south side of Banks Peninsula, where the wind gives the tussocks a permanent bend and the next stop is Antarctica, Roger Beattie is mustering his next big plan.

The wild sheep breeder, blue pearl and kelp harvester and would-be weka farmer wants to explain how unique foods and fibres can be produced by combining the diversity of nature with Kiwi can-do ingenuity.

He takes a bite of seeded slice, sips a freshly brewed tea and for a moment there’s silence.

“How do I put it? If someone says something’s black, I’ll say it’s white.

“I’ve long been a contrarian,” he laughs.

Not far from us, on the slopes of Kowhai Vale, one of three farms that Beattie owns in rolling-tosteep hill country across the water from Akaroa, live Pitt Island wild sheep.

It’s a breed he so admired while working on the Chathams he brought some home.

And now he has his clever scheme, one that pulls together the wild sheep and another of his great, slow-burning projects, wekas.

Beanies, scarves, gloves, socks as well as throws and blankets, a new category of high-end woollen products, are exploiting the unique properties of the Pitt Island fleece, which has a helical crimp and a twist that gives it great bounce and stretch.

“It’s amazing wool.

“It’s very light, it traps a lot of air, it’s so cosy, it doesn’t itch and it has a luxurious feel.

“We get it organically scoured at Washdyke, spun by Wild Earth Yarns in Christchurch and then knitted in Dunedin and the socks done in the North Island.”

They weigh two-thirds of Merino knitwear but they’re far warmer, made from 50% Pitt Island fleece, 30% Bohepe midmicron wool, 20% possum fur and a small amount of nylon for strength, he says.

The brand, known as Wyld, features a logo of a wild horned ram. It was launched in 2016 targeting the main tourism towns.

But the flagship product is the Weka Woo hat, a premium beanie with a feather pinned on it – a weka’s feather, naturally.

The weka is officially an at-risk species, Beattie says.

He has long contended with his antagonist, the Conservation Department, that farming weka commercially can save the species. In the public eye, he became that weka guy, the maverick, business-minded conservationist.

The maverick tag seems inevitable given his background.

His father, the late Doug Beattie, was another inventor, a Marlborough farmer who developed the first plastic

DIVERSIFY: Nicki and Roger Beattie harvest and sell two types of kelp from Akaroa Harbour.

Photos: Struan Purdie

insulator for electric fences and pioneered that industry.

Beattie and his brother Ivan now co-own the Christchurch business, Beattie Insulators.

Doug left school early and it was the making of him, Beattie says.

“He had about 50-odd patents in his lifetime.

“We used to sell insulators to Gallagher. Really, we were in the electric fence insulators game before they were.

“In fact, after three days of trial and error my father developed insulators out of low-density polyethylene. He was the first person in the world to develop thick, sectioned polyethylene moulding.”

If his father set the tone for Beattie’s life of innovation, entrepreneurship and hard graft, the Chatham Islands was his finishing school.

He moved there after a year of university studies – political science and economics in 1975 – to shear sheep.

From shearing, he went into the freezing works then possum hunting, paua diving, culling for the Wildlife Service and shearing for Pitt Island farmer Jim Moffett, where he was introduced to those wild sheep. In one year Beattie shot more than 1500, mostly from the back of a horse, and shore about 300 Romneys a day.

That was in 1976, the days of subsidies.

The more he culled, however,

the more he admired the so-called pest.

“I learned a lot about stock, sheep, animals and nature just by spending a lot of time observing.

“I thought ‘By heck, these sheep are tough. They’re being hunted by man, they’re running on 3500 acres of land competing with bigger Romneys, cattle and pigs, a wild environment, and yet every single hogget has a lamb’. They had no dags, no fly strike, no foot or mouth problems. I decided I really needed to try to farm these sheep.”

Before he could pursue the idea, however, things on the Chathams suddenly went sour. A farming venture with his brother and friends crashed, leaving a pile of debt. So, he returned to paua diving.

“Getting back into paua coincided with the quota system coming back in so I was issued with a whole lot of quota. And because I could see the writing on the wall I bought a whole lot more. At one stage I was the single largest paua quota holder in New Zealand, with 34 tonnes.”

Eventually, he swapped diving for farming paua, exporting the meat to Asia and establishing NZ’s first ocean-based blue pearl farm at Whangamoe Inlet on the Chathams.

So, is he a conservationist or businessman?

Beattie favours the label environpreneur, which describes

an entrepreneur who seeks to turn an environmental problem into a profitable venture.

Which brings us back to now.

Beattie and his wife, Nicki, a British doctor-turned-Kiwi farmer, first saw Kowhai Vale, a 322-hectare coastal property, in 1992 while looking for areas in which to establish a mainlandbased paua farm. They later bought it as a place to release the wild sheep and do some hunting.

The first 10 wild sheep from the Chathams have, over time, become 3000, the largest Pitt Island wild sheep flock in mainland NZ, spread between Kowhai Vale and a 353ha certified organic property further down the peninsula at Lucas Bay while Bohepe are run on a 296ha block called Ataahua near Lake Ellesmere/Te Waihora.

The couple also own a 13ha inland lifestyle block at Lansdowne, Canterbury, home to the family’s flock of four generations of Pihepe sheep.

The property is also used for intensive farming practices and experimental trials.

The Beatties keep their coastal land well-grazed with about 250 Murray Grey cattle, which were introduced to the South Island from Australia’s New South WalesVictoria border by Doug.

From 1994 onwards they bought any and every Pitt Island wild sheep they saw advertised for sale in mainland NZ. “Any animal where I had the slightest bit of concern about purity of the genetics was culled.

The numbers bred up every

year and for the next five years I introduced new rams to the mob.

“We don’t think we know what a good sheep is but we do think we know what a bad sheep is.

“So, the approach is to get rid of the worst ones.

“I think we’re the least worst farmers in NZ.

Nature has been around far longer than modern chemical farming practices and has a way of ensuring its own survival. It would be truly remarkable if we thought we had more wisdom than nature.

Roger Beattie Farmer “We’re culling for body score and dags – and we’re finding that harder and harder because we’ve been doing it for so long now and it’s not a very high hereditary trait. We’ve made magnificent progress.”

The wild sheep might have some tricky characteristics – they’re a handful to muster – but they make wonderful eating.

The Beatties are chasing the gourmet meat market using the Wyld brand and emphasising the family’s chemical-free approach to farming.

NEW WORLD: Roger and Nicki Beattie regard themselves as environpreneurs – people who seek to turn an environmental problem into a profitable venture.

On Farm Story

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

BOLD: Roger and Nicki Beattie aren’t afraid of trying new things in their efforts to run sustainable farming systems.

Kowhai Vale is not certified organic because the Beatties spray the gorse but is otherwise run naturally.

A growing number of high-end restaurants – The Sugar Club on the 53rd floor of the Sky Tower, for instance – are using the meat.

“The head chef was interviewed before Christmas and said Wyld meat was so good he didn’t even have to cook it.

“So, he dry-ages it, slices it thin and then serves it,” Beattie says.

“We have to sell products to people who are as far from rural New Zealand as possible, people who live in cities but want to enjoy that experience of far-flung lands.

Give them food and fibre that they can love.”

There are other uses for the sheep. Some are sold to lifestyle blocks.

But changes are afoot. In 2004 the Beatties bought an experimental flock of fine wool, bare breech sheep from AgResearch, which he named Bohepe and has been vigorously breeding ever since.

More recently, they’ve taken on larger, coarse-wool sheep called Scobie from another trial.

“We now have about 350 of them,” Nicki says.

“They’re hard case things that are quite big, have short little tails and have a different personality.

They’re going well on the property.”

The common theme is the way they are all farmed.

The Beatties haven’t tailed a sheep for 18 years. And even on

the non-organic properties they don’t use chemicals on their animals. The same applies to the small herd of Murray Grey cattle.

Not only is it the right thing to do but it makes commercial sense, Beattie says.

“The false premise here is that chemical farming and unethical farming – that is, doing painful and unnecessary things to animals – are sustainable. They’re not and will eventually be done away with by consumer pressure.”

There’s a link there to their approach to breeding.

You are what your food eats.

Nicki Beattie Farmer

VARIETY: Nicki and Roger Beattie run wild Pitt Island and Bohepe and Pihepe sheep.

“Our whole operation is based around low-cost, easy-care, ethical farming, the minimum amount of stress for the animals and letting them express genetically whatever it is they want to express, whether that is wildness in the wild sheep or contentedness with the Murray Greys.”

Nicki says most of the diseases sheep and cattle get are stressrelated.

“They’re either an imbalance in diet or they’re grazed for too long or they’ve got a worm-burden that’s been management-induced.

“We haven’t drenched an animal in 15 years and you know what, we hardly lose a sheep or cow in

29

the winter. Our death rate would probably be in the top 1% of the country.

“More farmers need to ask themselves ‘Is this animal good enough to eat even though I drenched it just two weeks ago?’

“Why would anyone want to eat animals with chemicals in them?”

She can certainly make a case, having worked in the medical field for more than two decades and farmed for about the same length of time.

“To me, really, the farming sector and the health sector should be absolutely in parallel.

We should be in the same field. If it’s not in the soil then you aren’t going to get it in your food. You are what your food eats.”

Meanwhile, in the shadowy waters of the Akaroa Harbour is giant bladder kelp, or Macrocystis pyrifera, one of two species of kelp the Beatties harvest. The other, known as wakame, is commonly used in Japanese cooking and Beattie long ago identified it as a viable export.

Nicki runs the kelp operation, marketing it as a healthy pepperlike condiment high in nutrients.

But in recent years the Beatties have shifted their focus to the agriculture, horticulture and animal production markets under a new brand, Zelp.

They also farm paua for their jewellery business, Blue Pearls.

Wild sheep, giant kelp, native birds – what’s the common thread to the Beatties ventures?

“They’re all dealing with native or near-native species, all adding value where none existed before, all creating something unique and marketable and brandable,” Beattie says.

They’re nowhere near finished, either.

“We want to become a more profitable organisation and be a catalyst for changing away from heavy chemical use farming,” he said.

“Farmers can do it,” Nicki says.

“The reason why we can do what we do – and we have a lot of businesses on the go – is because our farming system is so low-cost, easy-care.

“Really, we have zero inputs apart from buying pink Himalayan salt for using on our kelp.”

The couple feel good about their business and say other farmers should, too.

“We don’t have to put masks on.

“I genuinely feel the way we farm is the right way.”

They believe modern chemical farming is only a blip in the sector’s history.

“Farmers have only been using chemicals for the past 50 years.

This is not the norm.”

You can only for so long sustain a degenerating system, Beattie says.

We pause and reflect.

Beattie takes another bite of slice and downs his now-cold tea.

“Nature has been around far longer than modern chemical farming practices and has a way of ensuring its own survival. It would be truly remarkable if we thought we had more wisdom than nature,” he says. >> Video link: bit.ly/OFSbeattie

World

30 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

Tariffs will deter carbon imports soils are already in a good state should not lose out to those who make the greatest improvements because of their past damage to the soil.

Helm also stressed the need to provide protection at the borders, acknowledging farmers will be chucked to the wolves if the government moves to a system of zero tariffs without taking account of lower standards in terms of animal welfare or climate change.

The level playing field in carbon terms is all about carbon consumption, not carbon production, he said, explaining the UK has achieved national reductions in carbon levels only by de-industrialising – closing industries such as steel production and importing instead.

The same argument could apply to agriculture.

“It is pretty easy to see how we could reduce emissions from the farming sector but still increase global warming by closing it down,” he said.

“We must not see a substitution of relatively lowcarbon, British product with high-carbon imports because we have penalised Tuesday 30/07/2019 domestic Women’s Enviro Evening – Connecting, Inspiring and production and Empowering not dealt with the Speakers: Penny Clark-Hall, Kate Scott, Sinead Leahy and Janet Gregory border.

Time: 6.30-9.30pm “It could be that Venue: Clinton Town Hall, Clinton we simply hike Free event – Supper – Raffles – Cash bar up the costs and RSVP: By Friday 26 July to Libby, Clutha Development then we sacrifice libby@cluthanz.com farming to a deal with Trump or AWDT Understanding Your Farming Business 3 full-day workshops and an evening graduation ceremony Latin America and run over four months. Equips and supports women involved import the carbon in sheep and beef farming to lift business performance. instead.”

Registrations for 2019 programmes are now open, visit the Helm also

FARMERS have a crucial role to play in reducing global warming but must also be protected from cheap imports from countries that continue to abuse the planet, a senior British government adviser says.

Agriculture contributes at least 10% to greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom yet accounts for only 0.7% of national output, Professor Dieter Helm, who chairs the Natural Capital Committee, told the National Farmers Union-Sustainable Food Trust conference.

“If you don’t crack agriculture, you won’t crack the (reduction) targets you wish to achieve,” he said.

“As of now agriculture is a serious net emitter of greenhouse gases, whereas in the future it’s going to have to be a net sequestrator.”

As well as penalising emissions, the government will have to incentivise sequestration.

But it is crucial farmers whose

agrievents

website for more information and to register.

Locations and dates (3 modules & graduation): Takaka: 21 Aug, 18 Sep, 16 Oct & 13 Nov Kaikoura: 28 Aug, 25 Sep, 23 Oct & 20 Nov Pukehou, Hawke’s Bay: 4 Sep, 2 Oct, 30 Oct & 27 Nov Masterton: 5 Sep, 3 Oct, 31 Oct & 28 Nov Clinton: 11 Sep, 9 Oct, 6 Nov & 4 Dec Lawrence: 12 Sep, 10 Oct, 7 Nov & 5 Dec Website: To register visit www.awdt.org.nz/uyfb/ Contact: keri@awdt.org.nz or 06 375 8180 for more information

Should your important event be listed here?

Phone 0800 85 25 80 or email adcopy@globalhq.co.nz

stressed the need for the polluterpays principle to apply to British agriculture.

Fertilisers, petrochemicals, cement, steel and aluminium are the five worst products in terms of carbon production globally and all are used on farms, mostly from imported supplies.

“These inputs need to attract a price to deter people from using them and level the playing field between intensive farming and some of the farming that is not so economically successful.”

On the upside, however, Helm said farming is extraordinarily important in terms of sequestrating carbon.

The trick is to establish the natural capital baseline of a farm then measure whether carbon emissions have gone up or down.

With carbon valued at £16£18/t, farmers should benefit from

sequestration gains so long as it is independently assured, he said.

Trust chief executive Patrick Holden said addressing the climate change challenge will require a fundamental shift in farming practices.

That will mean a return to mixed farming that avoids the use of chemical inputs and builds fertility through pastures and a diversification of enterprises.

“There’s also a very important role for grass-fed and mainly grass-fed livestock cattle and sheep in sustainable farming systems, something that may surprise people who believe eating red meat is part of the problem,” he said.

“If managed in the right way, it’s part of the solution.”

NFU president Minette Batters agreed farmers needed to tackle the climate challenge head on –

adapting the way they produce food to help deliver a greener planet.

“The British farming industry is pushing itself to become net zero in carbon by 2040.

“This does not need to impact net farm income and certainly doesn’t mean downsizing production or exporting our production abroad.

“Instead, we need to implement a portfolio of methods to improve our production efficiency, capture more carbon on farmland and boost our production of bio-energy and land-based renewables.

“Effective incentives are going to be vital in each of these areas.”

Both leaders said a system of tariffs is needed to offset the lower costs of production in parts of the world failing to address global warming.

Aussie plant to make plant protein

LK0096008©

Thursday 8/8/2019 - Friday 9/8/2019 It’s all about YOU A two-day personal development programme for women involved in the primary sector or rural communities.

Discover your true value, refocus on what is important, explore possibilities and create new networks.

Visit the website for more information and to register for Blenheim Website: To register visit www.awdt.org.nz/its-all-about-you/ Contact: contact@awdt.org.nz or 06 375 8180 for more information Red Meat Profit Partnership (RMPP) – facilitation training workshops For rural professionals looking to facilitate an RMPP Action Network Action Group.

Lead Facilitator 2019 workshop dates: Alexandra 13-14 August Palmerston North 4-5 September Action Network Fundamentals and Extension Design 2019 workshop dates: Havelock North 24-25 July Christchurch 20-21 August For more information or to register go to www.rmpp.co.nz or email training@rmpp.co.nz

DETERRENT: Import tariffs on food are needed to protect British farmers from imports from parts of the world that are not addressing climate change, National Farmers Union president Minette Batters says.

AUSTRALIA’S first plant protein extraction plant will be running early next year.

Work on the $20 million fit-out Australian Plant Proteins (APP) plant at Horsham in Victoria will begin this month.

Commercial production will start in the first quarter of next year with investment from Melbourne based Scalzo Foods.

APP, formed by investment firm EAT Group in 2016, has developed a proprietary extraction process for pulses to create high-protein powders that can be used across a broad range of food and beverage categories.

The company already operates a small production and research and development facility in Werribee in Melbourne’s west.

Company director and cofounder Brendan McKeegan said the investment from

Scalzo Foods provides both the capital and distribution capabilities to meet APP’s target of full commercial production in early 2020.

Scalzo Foods is a familyowned and run food manufacturing business with operations in Australia and New Zealand.

“APP’s process yields an extract containing more than 85% protein.

“This is far higher than many other alternative protein sources and combined with favourable sensory and taste elements has enabled APP to generate significant local and international demand for the product as a key ingredient for a range of foods and beverages including meat alternatives, protein bars and shakes, snack foods and non-dairy beverages.

“Since we created this business the global demand for high-quality, alternative

sources of protein has exploded off the back of people’s desire for greater sustainability in the development of the food and beverage products they consume.”

APP’s initial focus for commercial manufacturing will be on faba beans, which are commonly used by grain growers as rotational crops to replenish nitrogen in soil.

“This is a great story at both ends of the food supply chain,” McKeegan said.

“For farmers we create an alternative to the global pulse and legume commodity markets while for consumers we generate a value-added food ingredient which is 100% grown and manufactured in Australia.”

Scalzo Foods managing director Michael Scalzo said plant proteins are a vital mix in Australian agricultural food production

and APP provides an ideal investment in valueadded manufacturing of a commodity that is grown in abundance in Australia.

“Plant proteins are becoming increasingly important in global food supply chains, not just to cater for increased popularity of vegan and vegetarian preferences, but as a sustainable option to feed the world’s growing population.

“It also provides a viable and immediately available secondary income stream to farmers who use pulses and legumes as a vital part of rotational cropping.

“Most importantly, it is vital for Australian businesses to develop these value-add industries to establish our reputation as an innovative and significant provider of food and high quality ingredients to global markets.”

FARMERS WEEKLY – July 15, 2019

Real Estate

farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate 0800 85 25 80

31

FINAL NOTICE

Ngatapa 136 Smith Road

First class production capability

4

In the desirable Ngatapa farming community, roughly 15 minutes to Gisborne city, is this coveted 275ha (more or less) finishing farm. Incredibly well positioned with a very favourable mix of contour and production capability this farm is poised to drive performance and capitalise on a range of income streams. Comprising of 65ha of fertile flat land, with capacity for intensive finishing, cropping and further horticulture development of which 35ha are on separate titles. The flats are complemented by strong, clean hill country, equipped with a robust reticulated water system supporting thriving stock performance. The farming profitability is further enhanced by the 8ha citrus orchard. Boasting a secluded, elevated four bedroom home and supported by quality farm infrastructure including the 3+1 stand woolshed. This is a profitable, high performing farm not to be missed.

Tender (unless sold prior) Closing 4pm, Wed 31 Jul 2019 10 Reads Quay, Gisborne View by appointment Simon Bousfield 027 665 8778 simon.bousfield@bayleys.co.nz James Bolton-Riley 06 868 5188

bayleys.co.nz/2751384

MACPHERSON MORICE LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

1

2

1

FOR SALE WAINGARO QUARRY NGARUAWAHIA, Waikato

THE DESTINATION FOR RURAL REAL ESTATE

Land is the biggest asset to any farming business so it pays to stay up to date with the market.

Connect with the right audience at

farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate

PRODUCTIVE PRIMARY SECTOR OPPORTUNITY Located in the North Waikato and known as the supplier of choice for long-standing customers including farmers, forestry contractors and civil construction companies, this easy to manage ‘one-man operation’ provides a cost effective and attractive opportunity for a wide range of purchasers.

+ 12.6926 ha freehold*

This sale includes the freehold title and the transfer of current consents.

+ Surplus to vendor’s requirements - will be sold

Call today for more information or data room access.

ASKING PRICE $800,000 + GST

+ Waikato District consents in place + 23,453m³ annual production* + 18 years of resource remaining* + “Preferred provider” for the Waikato District Alliance

JEREMY KEATING 021 461 210

WYATT JOHNSTON 027 815 1303

*Approximate www.cbre.co.nz/180149Q39 CBRE (Agency) Limited, Licensed Real Estate Agent (REAA 2008)

32

farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate 0800 85 25 80

Real Estate

FARMERS WEEKLY – July 15, 2019

RURAL | LIFESTYLE | RESIDENTIAL

Blundell and Mark Realty Ltd Licensed REAA 2008

463A MOONSHINE HILL ROAD, MOONSHINE, UPPER HUTT

LARGE BLOCK: MANY USE POSSIBILITIES This large parcel of land is on two titles of approximately 43ha (106 acres) and 150ha (372 acres). Just 12 minutes from Upper Hutt and 40 minutes from Wellington, this property lends itself to entrepreneurs who could be looking at establishing a forestry regime or maybe planting Manuka for the popular honey trade. Being close to markets and the airport it could be also ideal for trekking, off-roading or conventional grazing – this holding ticks many boxes.

Currently run as a beef stud, the land is approximately 90% clean and subdivided into 20 paddocks with central fenced vehicle track to yards. Water is supplied by dams and springs to most paddocks.

Buildings on the property include a 3-stand woodshed with overnighting shelter, substantial cattle yards, and load out facilities. State Highway 2 only 10 minutes away and truck access available from Highway 58. Transmission Gully is due for completion in 2020 increasing accessibility to Wellington City to the south, and regions to the north.

OPOTIKI, BOP Queen Sells 300 Acres

Whilst there is no house currently on the property, the barn with “overnight” accommodation has been improved to include a high spec solar power system (fully “off grid” power) servicing farm hotwiring and allowing for motorhome / caravan / pod accommodation.

123.5 hectares of pine trees and wilderness. Forestry, carbon credits, hunting, manuka honey, off grid getaway, motorbike or horse riding heaven.

Around 30ha of 25 year old Radiata (mostly unmanaged) on flat to easy contour (pre 1990 was mostly grazed farmland). Balance is regenerating manuka scrub and natives. Remnants of fences and tracks mostly blocked by windfalls. Bring your boots.

To access 4WD is essential to get through four stream fords. One and a half hours drive from Opotiki. Great neighbourhood.

Be a pioneer and live your dreams.

Unforeseen circumstances are forcing the vendor’s change of direction: Make this your opportunity.

Contact Grant Campbell on 027 442 0343: email grantc@bamre.co.nz or Lana Knaapen on 0221 88 0221: email lana@bamre.co.nz Text 463amoon to 3324 for your webbook of this property.

Viewing: Private Inspection Only Lana Knaapen 022 188 0221 04 527 2804 lana@bamre.co.nz

Grant Campbell 027 442 0343 04 527 2808 grantc@bamre.co.nz

Closes 4.00pm, Tuesday 30 July

VIEW

By Appointment Only

Andrew Fowler M 027 275 2244 E afowler@pggwrightson.co.nz Amanda Edwards M 027 463 3502 E amanda.edwards@pggwrightson.co.nz

pggwre.co.nz/TAR30593 PGG Wrightson Real Estate Limited, licensed under REAA 2008

England, United Kingdom Joint Venture Farming Opportunity Copys Green Farm, Wighton, Wells-next-the-Sea, North Norfolk

The farming business includes: A Dairy Herd of 130 Brown Swiss milking cows, 230 hectares of Agricultural Land, Anaerobic Digester with an output of approximately 170k W per annum and a Cheese Business producing a number of local well known cheeses.

Looking for the complete package?

We’ve got you covered with digital and print options.

Applicants, ideally with both farming and engineering experience, are invited to apply for a prospectus for further information on joining the farming business. jgf@crusowilkin.co.uk / akl@crusowilkin.co.uk

00441553 691691

Contact Shirley Howard phone 06 323 0760, email shirley.howard@globalhq.co.nz 2480REHP

LK0098519©

Website: bamre.co.nz/BAM00268

TENDER

farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate

Helping grow the country

NZ’s #1 Agri Job Board

FARMERS WEEKLY – July 15, 2019

2IC

AN EXCITING OPPORTUNITY

Livestock Specialist

The person we require will have: • A passion for sheep and beef farming • Experience in a team environment and staff management • Excellent stockmanship • A good team of dogs • Attention to detail and accurate record keeping • Good animal health knowledge and be technology savvy • Environmental awareness • Integrity

Written applications and CV to: Kim Robinson – kim@lochielfarmlands.co.nz or Lochiel Farmlands Limited, Private Bag Tuakau 2342 Phone 09 233 3155

HILL STOCK MANAGER This rare opportunity is available at Glenaray Station, Northern Southland. Glenaray is in the stunning Waikaia Valley, where there is a strong local community. There are 12 permanent staff.

The hill area is 12,000ha (4500 intensive and 7500 extensive) and the successful applicant will be responsible for day-to-day management of 13,000 Perendale ewes and replacements plus 1600 cows. Leading up to four shepherds is an important aspect of the job. The paddock area and the deer farm are under separate management.

We now wish to appoint an experienced Waikato or Bay of Plenty based TSR. We are looking for someone with a long-term commitment to the maize industry, who is keen to build enduring relationships with farmers.

NZ Farmers Livestock are currently seeking an experienced Livestock Specialist in order to extend our coverage of the Wanganui/Manawatu region.

• Competitive remuneration package • Supportive team environment • Immediate start • Unique opportunity for a change of career direction • Health Insurance • Life/Terminal Illness Insurance

In this role, you will provide advice about the nutritional benefits of including maize in production animal feeding programmes plus give maize agronomy advice to farmers and contractors. Your focus will be within key maize-growing areas in the North Island.

There is a strong focus on growing the HSR customer base in New Zealand, so you will also allocate time to business development activities. You will also lead, develop and manage our on-farm trial programmes, collating trial results for our customers.

We would like to speak with people who have 3+ years’ relevant in-field sales experience and a willingness to spend around four nights away from home each month.

Key skills and attributes the successful candidate should have are: • Energy & Vitality • Sales experience • Extensive Sheep & Beef knowledge • Superior relationship building and communication skills • Ability to work in an autonomous manner • High levels of drive and self motivation • Computer literate

This is a senior and self-managing role, which requires you to have high energy levels and the desire to provide robust nutritional solutions which help improve on farm productivity and profitability.

A position description and further information about both HSR and the role is available by request.

To inquire about this position, please phone Deb Francis from AgRecruit on +64 21 224 5000. Otherwise, forward your CV with covering letter via www.agrecruit.co.nz by 25th July 2019.

Operations Manager Rakaia Island Limited

NEED

For further detail contact: Bill Sweeney, General Manager 027 451 5310 bill.sweeney@nzfll.co.nz

STAFF?

The Business

PH DEBBIE 0800 85 25 80

Rakaia Island Limited is a proud family owned dairy and dry stock operation that is dedicated to farming for the future, being at the forefront of innovation and efficiency and promoting a culture of continuous learning.

Sheep and Beef Farm Manager – 1390ha LK00/8491©

For more information please contact Mike O’Donoghue, Manager Ph 03 202 7720 evenings

farmersweeklyjobs.co.nz

JOBS BOARD 2IC Agribusiness

Our client operates a sheep and beef operation located in the heart of the King Country just 20 minutes north of Taumarunui. Due to the Manager of some 40 years moving into retirement the opportunity has arisen for someone new to step into this role and take a great farm to the next level.

The Role You will be in charge of leading the team of three staff to maximise the performance of the 16,500su property. The operation has a 55:45 sheep to cattle ratio based primarily around strong genetic performance from the breeding stock.

You will have a supportive team at all levels from governance, advisory and administration to work with to ensure that the operation can achieve its goals.

This role would suit someone looking to take an opportunity in fine tuning a strong performing farm. You will have strengths in team management, maximising stock performance, utilising the latest technology, planning, organisation and communication with the wider team.

In return our client offers excellent remuneration commensurate with your skills, a solid three bedroom home, a great team environment and a fantastic location close to key services.

Agronomy CEO Livestock Specialist

Applications with reference #500DM including CV can be sent to AgFirst, PO Box 976, Rotorua or to rotorua@agfirst.co.nz

Operations Manager Shepherd

Applications close Friday 26th July 2019

Station Manager Stock Manager Technical Sales Representative

“

Tractor/Truck/Machinery Operator LK0096815©

*conditions apply

By far the most effective campaign was with Farmers Weekly Jobs.

The Farmers Weekly advertisement attracted agriculturalists. The successful applicant and all those shortlisted were from the Farmers Weekly response pool.

Jennifer Chesterman, Koanui Poll Hereford (Advertised for a skilled and practical agricultural worker)

“

*FREE upload to Farmers Weekly jobs: farmersweeklyjobs.co.nz

We got noticed!

We advertised our employment vacancy across multi-media, including Trade-Me Jobs and Fence Post.

Contact Debbie Brown 06 323 0765 or email classifieds@globalhq.co.nz

Call Debbie to advertise your vacancy Ph: 06 323 0765 Email: classifieds@globalhq.co.nz

LK0098556©

Applicants for this position should have NZ residency or a valid NZ work visa and will be required to have a clear pre-employment drug test.

Farm Manager

The farm milks 9000 cows across six dairy units with dry stock land fully supporting the dairy business. Rakaia Island Limited employs a diverse team of over 50 people with a culture based around strong and supportive family values. For more information see www.rakaiaisland.co.nz

The Role The Operations Manager is a critical part of a small senior leadership team and responsible for managing all six dairy units across the Rakaia Island (near Southbridge) and Woodstock (near Oxford) properties. You’ll be leading a team of five Unit Managers and one Senior Farm Manager to deliver operational performance excellence in this industry leading business.

In addition to ensuring the delivery of the annual operational plan and the achievement of key performance indicators, this unique role focuses on developing the capability of Rakaia Island’s people. We’re looking for someone who understands performance is delivered by an empowered team. Someone with the leadership skills to inspire top performance and coach and mentor a team to keep them motivated, engaged and growing their skills and capability with a focus on continuous improvement.

You’ll be supported by a senior leadership team including the CEO, Business Manager and Management Accountant together with an administration team who share Rakaia Island’s strong and supportive family values.

To succeed in this role you will: • Be a top dairy farmer with the technical skill to deliver excellent farm production and best practice management • Have experienced previous success with coaching and developing people to successfully reach their potential • Be an excellent communicator who can set expectations, share a vision, get people excited about what is on the horizon and hold them accountable for their actions • Have experience managing diverse large scale dairy operations across multiple platforms and relating to culturally diverse teams • Share Rakaia Island’s family values and model these through your personal leadership • Be a team player, able to collaborate, build successful relationships, share knowledge and information and contribute positively to the wider business.

This is a really exciting opportunity with the possibility of growth and progression.

A full position description for this role can be viewed at www.peoplemad.co.nz/current-jobs

To apply If you possess the passion, drive and competency required for this role and are drawn by the opportunity to make a difference to this successful family owned New Zealand business, submit your resume and cover letter by email to info@peoplemad.co.nz Applications close Wednesday 24th July 2019

LK0098508©

LK0098552©

Or post to: Administration Manager NZ Farmers Livestock PO Box 304, Stratford 4352

An excellent remuneration package is offered and a very comfortable 3-bedroom house with primary school bus at gate.

Applications close Friday 2nd August

HSR has global breeding and research partners, providing access to unique and highly competitive maize genetics. Varieties are tested in our New Zealand trial sites to ensure delivery of hybrids that significantly contribute to improved animal health and productivity. Our ongoing goal is to introduce new high-quality varieties that can better withstand the challenges thrown at them by our changing farming conditions. We are strongly supported by the HSR business based in Australia.

Please email CV’s to: headoffice@nzfll.co.nz

Key attributes required: • A team player who leads by example • Organised and a good planner • Observant with stock and pasture management • A good team of dogs • Fit and active • Experience with horses would be an advantage

To apply please email CV to: office@glenaray.co.nz

We focus on robust, reliable, low risk varieties that deliver competitive yields in a wide range of environments.

All applications will be treated in the strictest confidence and will close Friday 2nd August 2019.

This is an outstanding opportunity to work in a supportive management environment with a strong emphasis on employee well-being.

In New Zealand, HSR Seeds is 100% maize focused. We distribute maize seed to our farmer and contractor clients throughout New Zealand’s maize growing regions.

This is your opportunity to join an experienced 100% owned and operated Livestock Company, NZ Farmers Livestock are leaders in their industry operating across New Zealand. We define ourselves on the strength of our expertise and commitment to working with farmers for farmers. We are continually making grounds in the industry and positioning ourselves as the leader in the online space of livestock trading with the successful and ever growing MyLiveStock.co.nz.

LK0098470©

The position is a key role and would suit a person seeking to further their ambition on an intensive fattening property.

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Maize Technical Sales Representative

LOCHIEL FARMLANDS LTD 3700ha North Waikato Sheep and Beef Station. The property is running 40,000-45,000su, finishing all stock.

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

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

PIGS PIGS PIGS

ANIMAL HANDLING

www.fromthefarm.co.nz

FLY OR LICE problem?

Electrodip - The magic eye sheepjetter since 1989 with unique self adjusting sides.

Incredible chemical and time savings with proven effectiveness.

Phone 07 573 8512 w w w. e l e c t r o d i p . c o m

DOLOMITE

These are descendants of USA bloodlines.

NZ’s finest BioGro certified Mg fertiliser For a delivered price call ....

LK0098541©

Mated to our AI bred boars.

POWER CABLE

0800 436 566

STEEL TANK SPECIALISTS Fuelcon Farm and Trailer Tanks by:

We could save you hundreds of $$

HOMES FARM SHEDS SUBDIVISIONS PUMPS

“Your Fuel Storage Solutions”

0800 383 5266

Prices include delivery to your door!

www.petrotec.co.nz/ products LK0098189©

For friendly & professional advice CALL 0800 843 0987 Fax: 07 843 0992 Email: power@thecableshop.co.nz THE CABLE SHOP WAIKATO www.thecableshop.co.nz

Tamarillos 8kg ctn direct ex-grower

Young for litter sows, these are surplus to our 300 sow herd.

Phone: 021 166 0888 NZ PURE BRED PIG GENETICS LTD

Noticeboard

LK0098276©

34

CLASSIFIEDS ADVERTISING

FARMERS WEEKLY – July 15, 2019

ANIMAL HEALTH

BIRDS/POULTRY

www.drench.co.nz farmer owned, very competitive prices. Phone 0800 4 DRENCH (437 362).

PULLETS HY-LINE brown, great layers.

07 824 1762. Website: eurekapoultryfarm.weebly. com – Have fresh eggs each day!!!

ATTENTION FARMERS

CALF TRAILER MATS

FAST GRASS www.gibb-gro.co.nz GROWTH PROMOTANT Only $6.00 per hectare + GST delivered Brian Mace 0274 389 822 brianmace@xtra.co.nz

CRAIGCO SHEEP JETTERS. Sensor Jet. Deal to fly and Lice now. Guaranteed performance.

Unbeatable pricing.

Phone 06 835 6863. www.craigcojetters.com

SOFT, DURABLE, FREE draining rubber mats. Easy to clean. Call to order on 0800 686 287 – www. numat.co.nz

DOGS FOR SALE

DAGS .25c PER KG. Replacement woolpacks.

PV Weber Wools.

Kawakawa Road, Feilding. Phone 06 323 9550.

20-MONTH HEADING dog.

Suit cattle work. Phone 022 698 8195.

HUNTAWAY BITCH, brindle, 2½ years. Fully broken in, good natural farm dog. Phone 07 925 2599.

VIEW SIXTY DOGS. Deliver NZ wide, trial, guaranteed. www. youtube.com/user/ mikehughesworkingdog/ videos 07 315 5553.

PURCHASING FERAL DEER (FROM PRIVATE BLOCKS)

Our aerial operation can selectively cull your feral deer population and pay a royalty.

WHATATUTU DOG SALE. Saturday 24th August at Otara Station, 319 Whatatutu Road. Te Karaka, Gisborne. Sale starts 12 noon. Entries close 18th August.

Dosing clearance required.

Enquiries to Allen Irwin. Phone 06 862 3618. Email: toromirostation@gmail. com

Contact Lance McNicholas PHONE 027 294 7504 EMAIL mcnicholas@xtra.co.nz

T H IN K PRE BU IL T

Do you have something to sell?

0800 85 25 80

WELL INSULATED – AFFORDABLE

Our homes are built using the same materials & quality as an onsite build. Easily transported to almost anywhere in the North Island. Plans range from one bedroom to four bedroom First Home – Farm House Investment – Beach Bach

FARM MAPPING

The latest in Pest Control …

FOCUS ON YOUR strengths with a farm map showing paddock sizes.

Contact us for a free quote at farmmapping.co.nz or call us on 0800 433 855.

The game changer that will redefine the future of our forests.

GOATS WANTED

TM

LK0098111©

www.ecoland.co.nz

Call or email us for your free copy of our plans Email: info@ezylinehomes.co.nz Phone: 07 572 0230 Web: www.ezylinehomes.co.nz

GOATS. 40 YEARS experience mustering feral cattle and feral goats anywhere in NZ. 50% owner (no costs).

50% musterer (all costs).

Phone Kerry Coulter 027 494 4194.

LK0098119©

enviroMate 100

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

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

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

PROPERTY WANTED HOUSE FOR REMOVAL wanted.

North Island.

Phone 021 0274 5654.

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

STOCK FEED HAY 12 EQUIVALENT squares $70. 15 equivalent rounds $75. STRAW 12 equivalent squares $55.

BALEAGE at $80. Unit loads available. Phone 021 455 787.

WORK WANTED FARM MANAGER / Stock Manager. Looking for a new change and challenge in life. Competent in all farming aspects. Willing to move anywhere. Phone Jim 027 529 0005.

FOR SALE

QUICK SALE! No one buys or pays more! 07 315 5553. Mike Hughes.

SOLID – PRACTICAL

TM

HORTICULTURE

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

NEW HOMES

classifieds@globalhq.co.nz

enviroMate 100 is now available from Eco-Land.

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.

DOGS WANTED

Call Debbie

All it requires now is your help to make this change happen.

GOATS WANTED

FERAL GOATS WANTED. All head counted, payment on pick-up, pick-up within 24 hours. Prices based on works schedule.

Experienced musterers available.

Phone Bill and Vicky Le Feuvre 07 893 8916.

SELLING

SOMETHING? Have something to sell?

Advertise in Farmers Weekly Phone Debbie Brown 0800 85 25 80 or email classifieds@globalhq.co.nz

Livestock

HAVE YOUR BULLS GOT GREAT PACKAGES?

Take a look at ours to promote them . . .

Deliver your bull sale messaging to every farm letterbox nationwide with publications that farmers choose first for news, opinion, market updates and even their own advertising.

Spring 2019 Bull Combo

Book two advertisements in Farmers Weekly and one advertisement in Dairy Farmer over spring and receive a complimentary Dairy Farmer Bull Directory advertisement over the same period.

Dairy Farmer spring publications: • August 5 • September 2 – Better Bulls Better Calves Feature • October 7 Bull Directory publishes August, September and October. Terms and conditions apply.

1

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Awards and website – Voyager Media Best trade/specialist publication farmersweekly.co.nz Vol 18 No 23, June 17, 2019

2019

Emptiness worries meat man $3.95

Incl GST

April 2019

Outlook is rosy those commodity prices will continue to stay up unless we coordinate and collaborate our sales N A global environment efforts. characterised by increasing “And farmers must still work uncertainty the primary hard to make sure they get a good sectors are continuing to profit.” deliver, Agriculture Minister Despite economic and political Damien O’Connor says. uncertainty affecting world Joined by 100 farmers and markets, New Zealand’s returns industry leaders at the National have remained solid and though Fieldays O’Connor launched there is continuing risk it is offset the latest Situation and Outlook to some extent by the weak report for Primary Industries dollar.

(SOPI) produced by MPI. “This export performance by sector the across news great “It’s NZ’s primary sector producers with headline figures showing is all the more impressive continued growth.” the weakening global considering risen have Agricultural exports economic environment and $7.5 billion in the last two years the high degree of uncertainty but returns are expected to soften creating tensions across his year before growing again, international markets,” MPI O’Connor said. director-general Ray Smith Export returns for primary said. produce in the year to June 30 are However, given the uncertain expected to be $45.7b. international backdrop The report also predicts a slight and despite strong export fall in the coming year before performance the downside risks returns start climbing again, to to the forecast are heightened reach $48.5b in 2023. over the next few years.

“Horticulture has continued Production and returns are to be the star performer with its the in expected to fall slightly in focus on the customer resulting next year before resuming its success,” O’Connor said. moderate momentum in the “The meat sector is solid and is medium term in meat, dairy and likely to continue that way given horticulture. the challenges in China with their Sustained Chinese and pork production. southeast Asian demand is aquaculture seeing also “We’re supporting strong prices and grow which is a real positive. the weak dollar is expected to “But farmers can’t assume

THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME$8.95 THEME Bree THEME THEMEdingTHEME & THEME THEME THEME THEME gene THEME THEME THEME ticsTHEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME Gyp THEME THEME sy Day THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME THEME

Incl GST

Luke Chivers and Stephen Bell

I

than 7% this year to $45.6 billion, Agriculture revenue is expected to jump by more CHALLENGING: Primary industry export he attended with Prime Minister Jacinda leaders at the National Fieldays when Minister Damien O’Connor told industry Ardern.

We are moving into challenging economic environments and trade is being kicked around like a football.

Damien O’Connor Agriculture Minister continue supporting export returns.

“Strength in prices supported by an increasing proportion of higher-value products is expected

to sustain growth in dairy export revenue despite constraints on milk production growth,” Smith said.

“NZ’s current run of export success over the past two years has occurred despite a rising sense of uncertainty in global markets.

“This is in part because the products we trade in haven’t been directly affected so are and in part because the NZ dollar has fallen over the past two years.

“However, these issues do provide an increasingly uncertain backdrop to the otherwise positive outlook.”

global economic growth expectations, rising protectionist sentiment and uncertainty caused

by Brexit, United States-China trade tensions and outbreaks of African swine fever.

But the bigger concern for NZ is their potential impact on consumer demand in Britain, America and China.

“We are moving into challenging economic environments and trade is being kicked around like a football,” O’Connor said.

“Our sector shouldn’t assume anything and will need to

Breeding top bulls for NZ

Still going strong after 50 years

Continued page 5

Moving on and up

Our New Brand Is Coming Soon while now we’ve

to But we’re changing our name DTS.

farmersweekly.co.nz

2516FW

For further information contact Nigel Ramsden 06 323 0761, 027 602 4925 or livestock@globalhq.co.nz

Livestock

SALE TALK An elderly farmer George has a horse for sale. A buyer arrives to inspect the animal and George says to him “It doesn’t look too good”.

AUSTREX NZ LTD L I V E TO C K E X P O RT E R S

BUYING NOW HOLSTEIN FRIESIAN Yearling Heifers FOR CHINA EXPORT

The buyer replies, “It looks excellent to me,” buys the horse and takes it home.

Enquiries to: Paul Tippett 027 438 1623 Colin Jordan 027 667 0903 David Kelk 027 644 1285 or contact your Agent www.austrex.com

A couple of days later the buyer rings George complaining the horse keeps running into gates and fences.

George replies, “I told you the horse didn’t LOOK too good.”

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@ globalhq.co.nz with Sale Talk in the subject line and we’ll print it and credit it to you.

Conditions apply

STOCK REQUIRED

R1YR FRIESIAN BULLS 160-240kg R2YR TRADITIONAL STEERS 400-500kg R2YR FRIESIAN BULLS 420-480kg

STORE LAMBS 30-40kg

www.dyerlivestock.co.nz

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

FOUR-DAY-OLD FRIESIAN BULL CALVES We will have early calves available in large numbers from 25th July.

We deliver.

Phone Steve 027 44 22 429

Breeding the difference

MONDAY 19TH AUGUST 2019 @ 1PM OFFERING TO INCLUDE:

Weekly Auctions

starting 2 July 2019 from 7.00pm

Matings to and progeny of Cane 4yr Master Sire. 753 IOA 2nd Rising Stars 4yr Hard Antler 2019

CANE

ALSO: FITZROY, ORLANDO, MUNRO, BRUSNIS, COGNAC, HUDROCK, ARDLEIGH MCCAW, MALSON, APEX, HUNTER, RIGBY AND ABSALOOT Catalogues will be posted out in July ALL ENQUIRIES: Barry Gard 021 222 8964, a/h 03 431 2803 bgard@foverandeerpark.co.nz www.foverandeerpark.co.nz

Advertise your stock sales in Farmers Weekly

farmersweekly.co.nz

Beef

Sheep

CAPITAL STOCK BREEDING HERD 30 MA Murray Grey Cows R3 & Older Due 1st September 40 Rising 2 yr Murray Grey Heifers Due 20th August All Scanned in Calf Murray Grey Bulls (Torindale Bloodlines x Gore) 2 Sire Bulls Available.

TB Status: C10 For Sale due to Sale of property Enquiries: Rob Harvey 021 331 519

The Bull Sales Specialists View upcoming bull sales pggwrightson.co.nz/bullsales

Other PRELIMINARY NOTICE MACHINERY & PLANT CLEARING SALE Friday 23rd August 19, 1pm Hawksbury Village, Waikouaiti A/C Clive Contracting Ltd Full range of well maintained plant suitable for farmers or contractors, major items include: • John Deere 6195M 4WD Tractor (1300hrs) • John Deere 7430 Premium 4WD Tractor (5670hrs) • John Deere 7810 4WD Tractor (11,000hrs) • Duncan Renovator AS3500 Air Seeder • 1968 Chevrolet Impala Car 307 V8 (original)

To view photos and full list of plant and machinery go to www.agonline. co.nz and click on upcoming sales.

Gerard Shea 027 442 5379

Freephone 0800 10 22 76 | www.pggwrightson.co.nz

Tuesday night - Lower North Island Wednesday night - Upper North Island Thursday night – South Island

For more information go to bidr.co.nz or contact the team on 0800 TO BIDR

Bid, buy, sell all things rural

LIVESTOCK ADVERTISING

Key: Dairy

500 SIL SINGLE ROM 2 TOOTH EWES (Texel 06/03) 120 AUT FRIESIAN BULL CALVES 115kg

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36TH ANNUAL ELITE HIND & WEANER SALE

Helping grow the country

35

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STOCK FOR SALE

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Supplied by Bill Harding

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

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

LK0098515©

FARMERS WEEKLY – July 15, 2019

MARKET SNAPSHOT

36

Market Snapshot brought to you by the AgriHQ analysts.

Suz Bremner

Mel Croad

Nicola Dennis

Cattle

Reece Brick

Caitlin Pemberton

Sheep

BEEF

William Hickson

Deer

SHEEP MEAT

VENISON

Last week

Prior week

Last year

NI Steer (300kg)

5.70

5.65

5.45

NI lamb (17kg)

7.90

7.85

7.90

NI Stag (60kg)

9.00

9.00

11.30

NI Bull (300kg)

5.40

5.35

5.35

NI mutton (20kg)

5.45

5.40

5.15

SI Stag (60kg)

8.95

8.95

11.30

NI Cow (200kg)

4.40

4.30

4.40

SI lamb (17kg)

7.70

7.65

7.80

SI Steer (300kg)

5.50

5.45

5.40

SI mutton (20kg)

5.45

5.40

5.30

SI Bull (300kg)

5.10

5.10

5.20

Export markets (NZ$/kg)

SI Cow (200kg)

3.95

3.95

4.15

UK CKT lamb leg

9.99

9.99

9.14

US imported 95CL bull

8.08

7.94

6.74

US domestic 90CL cow

7.46

7.36

7.19

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

Last week Prior week

Last year

Export markets (NZ$/kg) 8.5 $/kg CW

North Island steer slaughter price

6.0

North Island lamb slaughter price

$/kg CW

South Island steer slaughter price

6.5

$/kg CW

South Island lamb slaughter price

Feb

Apr 2017-18

Dairy

Jun

Aug 2018-19

Oct

Dec 5-yr ave

Feb

Apr 2017-18

Jun

MILK PRICE FUTURES

7.5 Oct

Dec 5-yr ave

Feb

Apr 2017-18

Prior week

Last year

Coarse xbred ind.

-

-

3.26

37 micron ewe

-

-

30 micron lamb

-

-

7.25

480

6.75

440

NZ average (NZ$/t)

Last week

Prior week

Last year

Urea

625

625

483

3.35

Super

321

321

302

4.75

DAP

833

833

750

Top 10 by Market Cap Company

Close

YTD High

Meridian Energy Limited (NS)

4.88

5.03

3.38

The a2 Milk Company Limited

16.48

16.98

10.42 7.065

$/tonne

$/kg MS

Auckland International Airport Limited

400 360

5.75

Aug-18

Oct-18 Dec-18 Sept. 2019

Feb-19

Nearby contract

Last price*

320

Apr-19 Jun-19 Sept. 2020

DAIRY FUTURES (US$/T)

Jun-18

Aug-18

Oct-18

Dec-18

Feb-19

Apr-19

vs 4 weeks ago

YTD Low

9.5

9.85

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Ltd

15.86

16.69

12.3

Spark New Zealand Limited

3.895

4.18

3.54

Ryman Healthcare Limited

12.65

12.8

10.4

Mercury NZ Limited (NS)

4.63

4.75

3.51

Contact Energy Limited

7.8

8.08

5.82

Fletcher Building Limited

5.1

5.55

4.57

Port of Tauranga Limited (NS)

6.17

6.4

4.9

Jun-19

Listed Agri Shares

CANTERBURY FEED BARLEY Prior week

Aug 2018-19

FERTILISER Last week

CANTERBURY FEED WHEAT

6.25

Jun

Fertiliser

Aug 2018-19

Grain

Data provided by

8.5

5.5

(NZ$/kg) Dec 5-yr ave

9.5

6.5

WOOL

Oct

South Island stag slaughter price

6.5

4.5

4.5

8.5

10.5

7.5

5.5 5.0

9.5

11.5

$/kg CW

$/kg CW

6.0

10.5

6.5

8.5

4.5

Last year

North Island stag slaughter price

11.5

7.5

4.5

5.0

Last week Prior week

7.5

5.5 5.5

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

$/kg CW

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

Ingrid Usherwood

5pm, close of market, Thursday

Company

Close

YTD High

YTD Low

440

The a2 Milk Company Limited

16.480

16.980

10.420

3.200

5.420

2.920

Delegat Group Limited

11.700

12.000

9.400

2940

2925

3070

420

SMP

2425

2455

2530

400

Fonterra Shareholders' Fund (NS)

3.950

4.850

3.450

Foley Wines Limited

1.870

2.000

1.470

AMF

5620

5830

5900

380

Livestock Improvement Corporation Ltd (NS)

0.900

1.050

0.750

New Zealand King Salmon Investments Ltd

1.900

2.980

1.760

PGG Wrightson Limited

0.540

0.580

0.470

Sanford Limited (NS)

6.730

7.060

6.350

Scales Corporation Limited

4.680

5.130

4.340

SeaDragon Limited

0.001

0.003

0.001

Seeka Limited

4.850

5.350

4.200

Synlait Milk Limited (NS)

9.380

11.350

8.450

Butter

4750

4955

5100

Milk Price

6.40

6.40

6.40

$/tonne

WMP

Comvita Limited

340 320

Jun-18

* price as at close of business on Thursday

WMP FUTURES - VS FOUR WEEKS AGO

Oct-18

Dec-18

Feb-19

Apr-19

Jun-19

350

$/tonne

3000 US$/t

Aug-18

WAIKATO PALM KERNEL

3100

2900 2800

360

Aug

Sep Oct Latest price

Nov

Dec 4 weeks ago

Jan

300

T&G Global Limited

2.700

2.810

2.600

S&P/NZX Primary Sector Equity

16308

17434

15063

S&P/NZX 50 Index

10687

10687

8732

S&P/NZX 10 Index

10419

10419

8280

250 200

Jun-18

S&P/FW PRIMARY SECTOR EQUITY

Aug-18

Oct-18

Dec-18

Feb-19

Apr-19

Jun-19

16308

S&P/NZX 50 INDEX

10687

S&P/NZX 10 INDEX

10419

37

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019 NI SLAUGHTER BULL ( $/KG)

5.40

SI SLAUGHTER STEER ( $/KG)

5.50

SI SLAUGHTER MUTTON ( $/KG)

5.45

R2 HEREFORD-FRIESIAN STEERS, 385-460KG, AT FRANKTON ( $/KG LW)

3.07

Not cold enough for some NORTH ISLAND

N

ORTHLAND has had a couple of brilliant, sunny days and it’s still extremely dry underfoot despite rain.

Kaitaia had 50mm of rain, its biggest fall this year. Conditions are generally superb for calving, however, it’s so unusually firm it’s making farmers a bit worried about soil moisture levels heading into summer.

Around Pukekohe conditions have been very changeable. Temperatures have risen, fog has turned up and there’s been sun, showers and more rain. Growers of indoor tomatoes are struggling with over-production and very low prices at the time of year when their expenses are the highest. Outdoor crops of greens are in heavy supply, too, because of the mild winter. The situation is much better for onion growers who are still exporting their stored crops and are receiving good prices though that’s unlikely to be repeated this coming season.

Waikato has had fog and more fog. There’s been a little rain, mild temperatures and, with soil temperatures higher than usual for the time of year, good grass growth. Calving’s off to its staggered start. The closer you get to Auckland the sooner calving kicks off.

More southerly areas won’t begin until closer to August.

Bay of Plenty farmers have had a kind winter. It’s not too wet and they have very good pasture covers and still have good amounts of supplementary feed on hand.

Calving should begin in earnest next week so many farmers have been enjoying a bit of a break before they’re plunged into the busiest time of the year.

King Country and Ruapehu have had a bit of rain and, unusually, it hasn’t been too cold. Grass is growing. People are scanning their ewes and the scanning rates aren’t that great. That’s being put down to the animals having a touch of facial eczema along with poor quality feed at tupping.

Cattle scanning results are okay because they’re better at foraging for feed. The farmer we spoke to has heard of farms being bought for forestry near Piopio and on the west coast near Kawhia.

She works with Rural Support and says they’re helping a few farmers liaise with banks. Quite a few farmers have been on interest-only loans for a long time and now banks expect them to pay back principal and the farmers don’t feel they’re in a position to do that.

Taranaki has had mixed weather with a bit of rain and a bit of sun. The grass is still growing and cows are being well fed.

Farms are well set up for calving.

In Gisborne big swells have been holding up logging boats. They can’t get into port. Six have been just sitting there waiting for conditions to improve. There’s not much room left to stockpile logs coming in on trucks. The region’s been grateful for rain. Feed supplies are still quite good given that it’s winter. A bit of urea’s going on to give lambing paddocks a boost. Some mandarins will have been left on trees because of an oversupply this year. Investment’s going into blueberries with planting under way. Maori blocks are

Bull sales, Field Days and big tallies end 2018/19 livestock season with a flourish Livestock sales ended the 2018/19 season with a flourish that set the seal on an excellent year, says PGG Wrightson Livestock national sales manager Matt Macfie.

“This year’s bull sales characterised the sector’s positive sentiment. Stands at the on-farm sales were typically full of people, total clearances were the norm, and high levels of interest from all regions saw the most sought-after genetics moved freely around the country.

“Breeders are doing a fantastic job building their own brands. These sales become an annual family highlight, and most studs can justifiably take pride in what they have achieved, which is frequently intergenerational.

“Taimate Angus is just one stud among many achieving tremendous outputs. In the Hickman family in Ward, Marlborough since 1905, their sale in late June included a two-year-old bull, weighing in at 870 kilograms that sold under the hammer for $85,000, believed to be a record for a South Island Angus bull,” said Matt.

Throughout the whole bull sale season nationwide, Angus bulls averaged slightly more than $10,000 per head.

Meanwhile, Matt Macfie says activity at National Field Days, in Mid-June, also reflected the sheep and beef sector’s optimistic outlook.

CIRCLING: The mob enjoyed the sun last week at Stortford Lodge.

looking at potential crops. Hemp’s on the radar.

Some Wairarapa farmers are hoping for a bit of moisture. It’s a bit dry and that’s making them nervous about spring. The weather’s been great for fencing though and getting jobs done before lambing and calving. There have been a couple of frosts and some disappointing ewe scanning results.

Horowhenua’s had very mild weather and warm nights and some rain.

Vegetables have been in good supply and have been very cheap but now, because of the rain, harvesting is a bit of a struggle.

For pastoral farmers, soil seems to be running out of nitrogen. Growth has been slowing despite the good conditions and grass looks a little yellow. They’re having to put nitrogen on three or four weeks earlier than usual. And speaking of early, calving has started one to two weeks earlier than expected on most farms. No one’s sure why.

SOUTH ISLAND In Nelson and Motueka apple and grape pruning is going full steam ahead and everyone’s busy planting apple trees while the ground’s firm. Our contact at Richmond is packing pears for the local market. He also grows peonies and says there have been a couple of light frosts but the mild winter hasn’t been ideal because they need 500 hours below 5C temperatures to initiate flowering. He says it’s the same in orchards, with some apple trees needing 1500 hours below 5C to make the buds want to open.

It’s been mainly overcast with a few showers in Marlborough so survival rates for lambs that have come early should be good. Sheep are grazing behind wires and in vineyards, where pruning continues.

The province could do with some more rain to build up soil moisture levels.

A dairy farmer at Rununga on the West Coast says it’s been the coldest it’s been for weeks but the grass is still growing well. There’s a lot of grass for cows to eat. Some herds were drenched last week and with calving not due to start until early August some farmers are enjoying school holidays off-farm with the family.

It’s been another stunning week in Canterbury with dry and mild conditions that have allowed some farmers to get onto paddocks and start preparing them for spring crops. The first calves have arrived on dairy farms with many farms milking a handful of cows already.

South Otago’s already had half the usual rainfall its gets in winter and it’s been mild too. With calving just around the corner people are getting calf sheds ready and cleaning calf feeders. Most milking sheds are ready to go now technicians have checked vacuum pressure, pulsation rates and have changed rubberwear.

Apart from a few colds and flu Southland farmers are getting through winter well. Ewes are being scanned and according to one farmer the results are averaging about 160%. Some cows are on kale, fodder beet and chowmolia. A real cold snaps is yet to hit the region and as a result, grass growth’s been amazing.

Courtesy of Radio New Zealand Country Life You can listen to Country Life on RNZ at 9pm every Friday and 7am on Saturday or on podcast at rnz.co.nz/countrylife

“Our livestock team was busy onsite. Bidr, the new online sale yard, providing a realtime virtual auction facility, attracted huge interest from farmers, including many still farming well beyond retirement age. They have heard about bidr and came to see us wanting to know more. It reminded me that we cannot pre-judge which farmers will be interested in a particular service or product, and reinforces how much more farming business will be transacted online in the future,” he said.

In addition, the 2018/19 season concluded with some big tallies around the country.

“Demand for sheep, beef cattle, and boner cattle has outstripped supply in several districts, pushing up livestock prices. Most districts recovered well from last summer’s drought. Farmers seem pleasantly surprised at how much feed they have to take them through winter, and have been keen to purchase stock to take advantage.

Prices rose accordingly,” he said.

Get in touch: 0800 10 22 76 www.pggwrightson.co.nz

Helping grow the country

38

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

Friesian bulls feature at Matawhero sale A special entry of 200 Friesian bulls was the first of this class seen in volume this side of autumn.

Given that this class are few and far between there was plenty of inquiry, both before and after hammer fall, from people looking to buy but also those wanting to see where the market found itself.

Interested parties travelled from Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu and King Country but a very competitive local bench meant the stock stayed in the area. They had been farmed in big mobs on hard hill country for the last year, which added to the attraction and were sold on an empty weight. The main two lines weighed 365-425kg and sold above market values at $2.97-$3.01/kg while the balance at 265-330kg were comparable with recent levels at $2.75-$2.79/kg.

NORTHLAND Wellsford store cattle • R3 Hereford-Friesian steers, 483-511kg, improved to $2.87-$2.94/ kg • R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 397-430kg, lifted to $3.01-$3.12/kg • R2 beef-dairy heifers, 275-425kg, held at $2.67-$2.84/kg • R1 Angus steers, 213kg, held at $790 • R1 traditional heifers, 169-243kg, earned $625-$755 A chilly winter’s day did not deter local and outside buyers at WELLSFORD last Monday, where a smaller mixed quality yarding was penned. There was strong competition for older cattle. R2 beef-dairy were well sought with AngusFriesian steers, 378-410kg, steady at $2.76-$2.93/kg, and Hereford-dairy, 367-456kg, lifted to $2.80-$2.93/kg. Exoticcross heifers, 358-361kg, held at $2.82-$2.85/kg.

Good quality R1 cattle were offered, including Murray Grey-cross, 240kg, at $760, while the balance of beef-dairy steers, 168-233kg, traded at $485-$675. All R1 bulls had more weight at 275-300kg and managed $2.80-$2.90/kg.

Autumn-born weaner heifers, 121-139kg, traded at $350$520. Six medium-good Hereford-dairy cows and calves earned $1020 per unit, and twelve Hereford-Friesian vettedin-calf cows, 477kg, $1240.

Kaikohe sale • 2-year Friesian bulls, sold for $2.60/kg • Vetted-in-calf Angus cows earned $2.12/kg • Vetted-in-calf Friesian cows sold around $2.00/kg There was a smaller yarding of 450 head at last week’s KAIKOHE sale PGG Wrightson agent Vaughan Vujcich reported. R2 Angus and Angus-Hereford steers, 360-360kg, earned $2.80-$2.85/kg, with dairy-beef at around $2.75/kg.

Yearling beef type steers made around $3.10-$3.44/kg, with beef-cross yearling bulls at $2.50-$2.60/kg. Two-year beefcross heifers were a little easier to move this week at $2.60/ kg, with yearling beef-cross heifers $2.50-$2.65.kg.

AUCKLAND Pukekohe • Best prime steers made $2.81-$2.83/kg • Best prime heifers sold for $2.79-$2.88/kg • Boner cows earned $2.13-$2.21/kg Last week’s PUKEKOHE sale saw a good yarding of mainly forward steers and heifers, with very few true prime cattle coming forward due to the tough autumn. Prices are expected to hold in coming weeks as supply of both prime and store cattle tighten though this is also weather dependant. Prime steers mostly held at the top end and good forward types earned $2.78-$2.81/kg, with light crossbred steers good buying $2.69-$2.78/kg. Top prime heifers sold very well, and boner cows also strengthened.

Weaner steers were mostly bought for $580-$600, while medium weaner heifers were $470-$560.

COUNTIES Tuakau sales • R1 Friesian bulls, 241kg, made $720 • Prime heifers sold up to $3.06/kg • Top prime lambs fetched $211 • Light-medium store lambs returned $76-$101 Most classes of store cattle held value at TUAKAU last Thursday, Karl Chitham of Carrfields Livestock reported.

The 580-head yarding included R2 steers at 380-480kg, which made $2.92-$3.04/kg. Quality was lacking in the

yearling section, but Hereford-Friesian weaners at 174kg made $720. R2 heifers sold well, with many in the 380450kg range fetching $2.86-$2.92/kg. Red-bodied whiteface heifers at 305kg made $830 while autumn-born weaner Hereford-Friesian, 101kg, $450. Last Wednesday’s prime cattle market lifted by 10c/kg, with heavy steers trading at $3.00-$3.08/kg while heavy heifers made $2.95-$3.06/ kg. Well-conditioned Friesian cows sold at $1.91-$2.05/kg, with medium Friesians fetching $1.88-$1.92/kg and lighter boners, $1.63-$1.69/kg. Top prime lambs earned $174-$211 on Monday. Medium primes made $137-$159 and good stores, $107-$122. Heavy ewes fetched $168-$200, with medium returning $137-$151 and light, $41-$95.

WAIKATO Frankton cattle • R2 Shorthorn steers, 323kg, returned $3.33/kg • R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 385-460kg, improved to $3.05-$3.09/ kg • R2 Angus-Friesian heifers, 351-398kg, held at $2.83-$2.99/kg • R1 Angus-cross heifers, 154-176kg, strengthened to $500-$575 • R1 Shorthorn heifers were well received at $500-$650 Older cattle and good quality lines sold well at FRANKTON last Wednesday, with lesser types variable.

Most R2 Angus-cross steers, 331-375kg, held at $2.92-$2.96/ kg, as did Hereford-dairy, 321-445kg, up to $2.89-$3.03/kg.

Angus-Friesian, 397kg, improved to $3.07/kg.

R2 Angus heifers varied with eighteen, 360kg, strengthening to $3.06/kg, while 341kg, held at $2.87/kg.

Hereford-dairy, 319-352kg, improved to $2.84-$2.97/kg.

All R1 steers, 181-218kg, eased to $570-$600. Beef-dairy heifers, 184-268kg, held at $570-$770, as did Friesian bulls, 236-255kg, at $720-$730. Autumn-born weaner beef-dairy heifers, 87-104kg, improved to $400-$520, with all bulls, 96-133kg, up to $410-$625. The prime market was steady to improving for most, with medium to medium-good beefdairy steers and heifers mainly trading at $2.84-$2.95/kg.

BAY OF PLENTY Rangiuru cattle and sheep sale • Prime Hereford-cross steers, 650kg, sold for $3.04-$3.05/kg • Prime Hereford-cross steers, 555-607kg, were $2.85-$2.92/kg • Top prime lambs made $161.50, with store lambs maxing out at $126 Mild winter weather continued around RANGIURU last Tuesday, reducing the store cattle yarding to 169. Strong demand lifted competition for heavier classes of stock.

R2 Angus steers, 421-434kg, earned $2.84-$2.88/kg, and Hereford-Friesian, 420-423kg, $2.84-2.89/kg. Other beefcross lines were mostly $2.61-$2.74/kg. Traditional and heavier R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers were in demand, selling to $2.87-$2.98/kg, with the next cut down making $2.80-$2.87/kg. Younger stock was a mixed bag. R1 Hereford heifers, 256kg, sold for $810, whereas 280kg HerefordFriesian made $420. Boner cows varied as a line of 464kg Ayrshire earned $2.56/kg, while Friesian, 508-570kg, rose to $2.46-$2.52/kg.

TARANAKI Taranaki cattle • R3 Hereford-Friesian steers, 561kg, made $3.12/kg • R2 Angus-cross, 395kg, returned $3.14/kg • R1 Charolais-cross heifers, 263kg, earned $750 Last week’s TARANAKI cattle fair had a good numbers on

offer, where steers in particular sold well. R2 steers varied, although the top end lifted with good quality types sought after and the majority sold in a range of $2.91-$2.99/kg. R2 heifers lifted at the top end with better types at $2.80-$2.86/ kg. R1 steers sold well, with a large portion of beef types and good dairy-cross, 228-279kg, earning $830-$900. R1 heifers struggled a little with the lift in numbers, anything above 225kg typically earned $600-$690.

POVERTY BAY Matawhero store sale • R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 455-460kg, earned $2.63-$2.74/kg • R2 Angus heifers, 320kg, made $3.00/kg • R2 Hereford bulls, 485kg, sold for $1550 • R1 exotic bulls, 260kg, fetched $745 Last week’s store cattle sale at MATAWHERO delivered strong results, with the market strengthening. R2 Angus steers all sold above $3.03/kg with a large portion strengthening to $3.28-$3.29/kg. Angus also dominated the R2 heifer pens, with the bulk at 270-285kg and earning $755-$825, $2.80-$2.89/kg. R2 bulls were a highlight and a special entry of well-grown Friesian sold to keen interest, with 365kg earning $3.01/kg. R1 heifers lifted with traditional and exotic, 210-225kg, making $610-$680.

One-year steers were mostly Angus, 240kg, and these made $900-$915 with Angus heifers of same age and weight at $645.

Matawhero sheep • Very heavy store ewe lambs made $156-$160.50 • Medium store lambs sold for $130-$140 • Prime lambs mostly earned $161-$186 • Top prime ewes fetched $160 Store lamb numbers at MATAWHERO last week dropped to 1506 head, although these sold well with the better-quality lambs sought after by local buyers and heavy male rams made up to $165. In-lamb ewes were a highlight and good competition meant strong prices. A number of scannedin-lamb ewes to Poll Dorset and Hampshire were on offer and 4-5yr Coopworth ewes scanned-in-lamb with singles ranged from $140 to $170. Mixed aged Romney ewes scanned-in-lamb with singles earned $186, while Romney ewes scanned-in-lamb with twins sold very well at $226.

Prime numbers were limited although this market also performed well.

HAWKE’S BAY Stortford Lodge prime cattle and sheep sale • Angus steers, 530-578kg, sold well at $3.07-$3.12/kg • Angus heifers, 528-555kg, held at $2.86-$2.91/kg • Very heavy cryptorchid lambs strengthened to $193-$205 • Top two-tooth ewes improved to $148-$158.50 Top end very heavy mixed-age ewes eased to $170-$171Quality cattle were strong at STORTFORD LODGE last Monday. Angus made up the lion’s share and the market improved for these. Angus cows, 568-727kg, returned $2.23-$2.28/kg. Throughput dropped in the sheep section and the market lifted for most. All remaining lambs were good to heavy types and they improved to $147.50$185. Very good two-tooth ewes lifted to $138-$145, though medium and medium-good types softened to $120-$126.

Most very heavy mixed-age held at $163.50-$164, while medium-good and heavy ewes improved to $135.50 and $146.50-$156 respectively, with the tail end also up to $90$100.

Stortford Lodge store cattle and sheep • Good to heavy cryptorchid and male lambs held at $146-$170 • Heavy ewe lambs held at $143-$164 • Good ewe lambs eased to $135-$139 • Angus cows, in-calf to Angus bull and 570-652kg, made $1405$1585 • Angus cows, in-calf to Angus bull and 490-575kg, made $1165$1360 Word of high store lamb prices is spreading, and volume grew to just over 9900 at STORTFORD LODGE last Wednesday. The cattle offered were also bumped up by consignments of in-calf traditional cows. Short term lambs continued to sell to strong competition, with prices holding. Mixed sex were mainly from the Chatham Islands and were wether and ewe lamb lines. Top lines made $142$162, but most were lighter types which varied from $89 to $135. In-calf cows featured, with prices up on fair levels in March. The rest of the yarding met expectations and R3 traditional steers, 564-595kg, made $3.04-$3.11/kg, while R2 beef-dairy heifers, 370-420kg, firmed to $2.74/kg.

MANAWATU Feilding prime cattle and sheep • Eight boner heifers, 431kg, traded at $2.42/kg • Mixed-sex lambs sold to $233 • Heavy male lambs firmed to $162-$177

SALE YARD WRAP

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019

39

sold well, with the tops reaching $140-$142. Better prime lambs sold for $201-$218, with medium-good fetching $180-$198. Ewes with lambs-at-foot have started appearing with two small lines selling for $50-$72 all counted. The cattle tally totalled only 29, with 13 store cattle and 16 prime presented.

SOUTH-CANTERBURY Temuka prime and boner cattle; all sheep • Charolais-cross heifers, 439kg, sold for $2.64/kg • All prime bulls sold for $2.00-$2.58/kg • Medium Corriedale mixed sex lambs made $115-$122 • Most prime ewes earned $130-$198 There was a small yarding of cattle at TEMUKA last Monday, with the overall tally down to 162 head. The steer pens were well contested; Hereford, 540-700kg, sold for $2.82/kg and most other pens, $2.75-$2.80/kg. Four Friesian, 612-705kg, traded at $2.60-$2.65/kg.

Boner heifers were mostly Friesian and varied from 2.06/ kg to $2.59/kg for 505-508kg. Lighter types traded at $1.61/ kg to $2.00/kg. Boner cows softened as most very good condition 500-705kg lines made $1.56-$1.70/kg, and good condition, $1.56-$1.66/kg.

Store lamb throughput dropped to 4500 and the average price was $136. Good mixed sex firmed to $136-$147, and medium, $118-$140.

Prime lambs sold well as the top pens held at $225-$226, and the next cut down $182-$206.

Medium lines sold for $165-$179, and lighter, $141-$156.

Heavy prime ewes were $200-$220.

Temuka store cattle sale • R2 Angus-Friesian steers, 376kg, made $2.79/kg • R2 Friesian steers, 364kg, lifted to $2.34/kg • R2 traditional heifers, 366kg, sold well at $2.91/kg It was a mixed result at last week’s TEMUKA STORE CATTLE sale and buyers were selective. The R2 steers sold on a softer market with quality lower, and Hereford-Friesian mostly earned $2.66-$2.73/kg with off-types at $2.51-$2.55/ kg. Traditional heifers were sought after, and the better Hereford-Friesian made similar values to steers at $2.74$2.78/kg. R1 cattle were mixed with Red Devon steers, 160kg, at $580, while heavier same breed heifers and bulls were $680-$700.

HI THERE: This pen of lambs sold for $170 at Stortford Lodge last week.

5572 head last Monday provided the largest yarding of prime lambs at FEILDING so far this year, and a good buying bench were in place.

Demand for prime lambs remained high. Very-heavy males sold for $203, with the balance of these types at $182-$197. Mixed-sex of similar type made $192.50-$214, though most traded at $184-$187 and $150-$178. Prime ewe quality was still biased towards the smaller lines. Very-good lines sold for $160-$180, with good types firm at $144-$159.

Medium-good mostly sold for $127-$139. Boner cows continue to provide good returns as 475-525kg lines rose 8c to $2.38/kg, with in-calf at $2.40-$2.44/kg.

Feilding store • Traditional R2 steers, 415-435kg, were $3.13-$3.23/kg • Traditional R2 heifers, 405-440kg, made $3.00-$3.19/kg • R1 Friesian bulls, 185-235kg, were $750-$800 • Good two-tooth ewes, SIL 170%, went for $222 • Good ewe lambs were mainly $145-$157 Around a thousand cattle were available, mainly either dairy or beef-dairy breeds. Generally straight beef R2 steers were $2.95-$3.15/kg, with the beef-Friesians around $2.60-$2.85/kg depending on quality and line sizes. A single large line of 515kg R2 Friesian bulls were $2.85/kg. Quite a few R2 heifers were traded, the beefies beginning at $2.90/ kg and the better beef-Friesians making $2.80-$2.85/kg.

Big numbers of R1 Friesian bulls mainly went for $3.70$3.90/kg below 200kg and $3.40-$3.60/kg nearer to 250kg.

R1 beef-Friesian steers, 165-200kg, made $3.05-$3.25/kg.

The store lamb market maintained a strong pace, lifting another small step as a whole. Quality was better through the male lambs with the good types at $158-$178 and little below the $140-$156.50 range. For ewe lambs, around half where $145-$157, the next step down were $130-$142.50, and barely anything went below $120. Small lines of good quality filled the ewe pens, finding good interest. The better mixed age ewes, SIL 170% plus, were $191-$204, with anything a step lower in quality or scanning percentage at $170.

Rongotea cattle • Two-year Friesian and Friesian-cross steers, 390-460kg, made $2.28-$2.43/kg • Yearling Hereford-Friesian bulls, 327kg, sold for $800 • Weaner Friesian bulls, 172kg, fetched $420

• Friesian-cross boner cows, 460kg, made $1.63/kg Fine weather kept the cattle away at RONGOTEA last week as the mild weather and adequate feed supplies keep stock on the farm in anticipation of good spring prices New Zealand Farmers Livestock agent Darryl Harwood reported.

Two-year Hereford-Friesian heifers, 370-445kg, were mostly steady at $2.22-$2.65/kg. Yearling Hereford-Friesian steers, 162-172kg, made $3.78-$3.82/kg and Angus-cross, 250315kg, earned $2.38-$2.54/kg. Yearling Hereford-Friesian heifers, 233kg sold for $620 with Angus-cross, 267kg, well sought at $730. In the calf pens, Friesian bull calves made $215-$305, Hereford-Friesian bull calves earned $130-$270 and Hereford-Friesian heifer calves returned $150-$250.

CANTERBURY Canterbury Park • R2 mixed sex Speckle Park, 314kg, sold for $2.88/kg • Boner heifers, 500kg+, mostly earned $2.24-$2.56/kg • Medium ewe lambs made up to $125 • Top prime ewes earned $238-$251 Store cattle at last week’s CANTERBURY PARK sale softened with quality lacking. R2 traditional and Simmental-cross steers, 385-426kg, eased to $2.65-$2.75/ kg, while Hereford-Friesian, 355-391kg, were more resilient at $2.59-$2.65/kg. R2 heifers eased to $2.49-$2.59/kg for the majority, while bulls mostly earned $850-$930. R1 steers, 248-375kg, sold well at $815-$845, with autumn born weaners $460 and under. Prime steers, 545-665kg, lifted to $2.80-$2.90/kg, while heifers were steady to softening at $2.60-$2.69/kg. Store lamb tallies dropped to 810 head and medium to heavy mixed sex, male and ram lambs all made an average of $121-$125, with lighter lambs good buying.

Merino-cross mixed sex store lambs traded at $60 for lights and heavies $127. Prime ewes mostly held at $166-$200.

Coalgate cattle and sheep • Most prime ewes made $120-$198 • R2 Angus-Friesian steers, 443kg, were $2.28/kg • Prime heifers, 426-478kg, were $2.48-$2.54/kg The store lamb pens last Thursday featured the largest July yarding at COALGATE since 2013, with special entries boosting numbers to 1527. Store lamb prices lifted $2-$3, and the best sold to $140-$145, with the balance at $90$137. A consignment of mixed ewe and wether lamb lines

Temuka in-lamb ewe fair • Capital stock one-shear Coopdale ewes to Coopdale ram made $216-$240 • Capital stock two-shear Coopdale ewes to Coopdale ram made $215-$234 • Capital stock three-shear Coopdale ewes to Southdown ram made $210-$214 • Annual draft ewes largely sold for $150-$175 • Most mixed age ewes earned $173-$200 Dry conditions impacted demand and prices at the inlamb ewe fair at TEMUKA last Wednesday. Volume grew significantly to 9600 head, and prices were down on 2018 levels. One-shear ewes mainly traded at $185-$225, and four-shear, $182-$206. The top lines of four and five-year ewes reached $198-$204, though a big line of Corriedale of that age made just $142.

OTAGO Balclutha sale • Heavy prime lambs, made $170-$200 • Heavy prime ewes earned $180-$200 • Top store lambs held at $120-$140 A quality line up of prime lambs at last week’s BALCLUTHA sale lifted prices with all selling above $120.

Prime ewes also strengthened at the top end and even lights made over $100. Store lambs had good demand, with new buyers entering the market which pushed prices upwards with light and mediums lifting to $90-$120.

SOUTHLAND Lorneville cattle and sheep • Heavy prime lambs lifted to $163-$180 • Heavy prime ewes sold for $150-$182 • Top store lambs fetched $120-$135 • Prime heifers, 500kg, made $2.64/kg • Two-year beef-cross store heifers, 390kg, were $2.60/kg At LORNEVILLE last week prime lambs lifted, with even light lambs making $140 and above. While the top end of the two-tooths softened to $136-$140. Prime ewes mostly held and heavy local trade rams were sold for $80-$90. A number of capital stock Perendale breeding ewes were on offer, where two-tooth, 2-shear and 3-shear made $230$240, and 4-shear and 5-shear returned $212 and $193 respectively.

A very small yarding of prime cattle was on offer, good heifers lifted and 400-430kg made $2.00-$2.30/kg, while steers softened to $2.26/kg. Cows, 450kg, sold for $1.60/kg.

Markets

40 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – July 15, 2019 NI SLAUGHTER STEER

SI SLAUGHTER LAMB

SI SLAUGHTER LAMB

($/KG)

($/KG)

GOOD TO HEAVY STORE MALE LAMBS AT STORTFORD LODGE

($/KG)

($/HD LW)

7.90

5.70

7.70

$2.97-$3.01/kg high $216-$240 R2 Friesian bulls, 365Coopdale lights One-shear ewes, SIL 177% to Coop- 402kg, at Matawhero

163

dale, at Temuka Ewe Fair

Dry pasture affects ewe prices Alan Williams alan.williams@globalhq.co.nz

D

RY on-farm conditions in some areas and a big yarding of stock led to a soft sale of inlamb ewes at Temuka on Wednesday.

About 9500 ewes were up for sale compared with the normal number of about 3500 to 4000 expected at this time of year, PGG Wrightson agent Rod Sands said.

Capital stock added to the tally and the number of five- and six-shear annual draft ewes was higher than previously.

Nearly 2000 capital stock ewes yarded sold well with younger ewes fetching up to $240 each but that trade affected the annual draft ewes.

A pen of 113 good quality, younger, in-lamb Romney ewes made $224 a head but generally that part of the sale topped out at $200, with a lot of sales above $180 for ewes with good condition and teeth.

“The market was a bit subdued, not getting the value we expected though there was a total clearance,” Sands said.

A lot of medium to lighter animals were yarded among the annual drafts and they struggled to reach high bids.

“Feed-wise in parts of Canterbury and North Otago there’s been little rain and farmers are cautious about getting more stock in.

“There has been very good feed utilisation, including from winter feed crops but rain is needed now.”

The main market support was from central and north Canterbury buyers with other stock going as far north as Nelson, good numbers to central Otago and some into Southland.

Younger ewes would have made better prices in January

NUMBERS: North Island yards have been overflowing with lambs like these at Stortford Lodge and there was a full clearance at Temuka on Wednesday of in-lamb ewes.

and February, Sands said.

Across the ewes offered the inlamb scanning rate was good, with the capital stock sold scanning at about 180%.

Some of the capital stock ewes had excellent genetics and were in outstanding condition but the market for them was okay, not extraordinary, he said.

Jasama Farm at Mt Hutt had nearly 2000 Coopworth capital ewes, in-lamb to Coopworth or Southdown rams, in the market because of a change in farming policy.

Selling agent John Harrison, of Peter Walsh and Associates, said there was good positivity in the bidding for them.

About half the ewes were one or two-shear stock and they sold for $215 to $240.

“They were in heavy, forward condition with lambing scan at 183% and we had a good gallery of buyers.

“They were good capital stock with good genetics.”

Retiring Mid Canterbury farmers Keith and Betty Grice sold nearly 1000 capital stock Romney ewes, mainly mixed age, for more than $200 a head.

Wobbly start to wool trade THE new wool auction season started in volatile fashion in Napier on Thursday.

The sale began conservatively, lifted then fell away and finally regained the lost ground during the last session, PGG Wrightson’s North Island auctioneer Steve Fussell said.

But vegetable matter is a real concern in the wool sent in from farms.

Any reading 0.3 or greater met resistance from buyers with prices falling away, including for finer micron types.

Full fleece, good style 35 micron was 4% to 5% cheaper but goodstyle 37 micron and stronger was ahead 2% to 4%.

Second-shear wool was also mixed with

3-4 inches good style 2% to 3% dearer and good-average style up by as much as 17%. The gains were similar for 2-to-4-inch good style and average-to-good style.

Lambs’ wool was mostly cheaper with just 28 micron unchanged while 29-31 micron was weaker.

The pass-in rate was 12%.

Sales, by micron, price/kg clean: Full wool, good-to-average colour: 36, $2.97; 37, $2.93. Crossbred second shear: 35, 2-3 inches, $2.65; 37, 3-4 inches, $2.91, up 6c; 2-3 inches, $2.46, down 1c; 39, 3-5 inches, $3.03, up 4c; 3-4 inches, $2.91, up 6c; 2-3 inches, $2.45, down 7c.

– Alan Williams

ACROSS THE RAILS SUZ BREMNER

Word of strong lamb prices is spreading fast WORD of strong prices for lambs at auction is spreading like wildfire and is responsible for larger than normal volumes trading through the sale yards at this time of year. It is more obvious in the North Island where plenty of lamb fatteners call home in Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay and the yards in these areas have been overflowing. Store lamb volume has been consistently high since late March and there has been little let-up to date.

The high volume is doing little to dampen prices, especially for short-term lambs. Those in this market are killing each week and reentering the store market weekly. They have the capacity to attract contracts, meaning their budgets rarely change week-on-week. It more comes down to who is there to compete against them on the day. Heavy male lambs are trading at $160-$170 and next cut $145-$160 and it’s likely the supply of these types will run out before the demand does given how late in the season it is.

There’s a bit more give and take for mediumterm lambs, especially ewe lambs. They need to be farmed longer to finish and so re-entry into the market for buyers is not as frequent.

And, after a few weeks of frenzied buying, this market has eased as most appear to be full for the time being. They will be back though and some significant rain through Hawke’s Bay will only add more fuel to the fire so I expect to see that market rebound. Good ewe lambs are averaging about $145 while medium types sit at $130-$135.

The question on everyone’s lips, though, is how many old season lambs are left in the system? A lot of the male lambs coming to the yards have changed owners at least once, which does give a false sense of volume available. Ewe lambs tend to be directly from the breeder as replacements are drafted out and any surplus offloaded. But whatever their origin, the throughput levels are not sustainable given the lateness of the season.

There was a noted drop in volume at South Island yards last week and it is only a matter of time before North Island follows suit. suz.bremner@globalhq.co.nz

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