From those quietly doing good by their communities to those whose vision helps illuminate the industry, this Land Champions edition celebrates them all.
SERVICE: Volunteers throughout New Zealand work to find loving homes for working dogs who, through age, injury or temperament, have reached the end of the farming careers. Retired Working Dogs fosterer Tania Mapp is pictured with dogs Mate, Ruff, Port and Brown.
Photo: Angela McCoubrie, Raetihi
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From the Editor
A season of champions
Bryan Gibson Managing editor
THIS time last year Fonterra farmers were budgeting to bank $7.83/kg MS for the season. This year they’re banking on $10.
Beef prices have been strong all year and prime lambs sent to the works in November were returning $23/head more than the same time last year.
We’ve gone a year without a major weather event, although every region has faced its challenges, as they always will.
With all this in mind, it seems there is reason to head into the Christmas season with optimism.
Farming has been an obstacle course of storms, rules and restricted cashflow for a few years now.
The pandemic and geopolitical tensions in the world have added to the uncertainty.
But slowly a sense of stability appears to be returning to the pastoral engine room.
It’s been a period of turmoil in the media industry as well, with a new batch of journalists being laid off and mastheads closed seemingly every day.
The Farmers Weekly team has gone about its business, making sure our readers have the information they need, from here and abroad, to make sound decisions and connect with the wider community.
But it has been tough, and our call for support from our readers is something we hope will result in giving us more confidence to grow the offering we produce each and every day.
As always, this final edition of Farmers Weekly for the year highlights the Land Champions who help keep our rural communities humming. Some of them you may know of already; many are those vital people who work without recognition for the good of us all.
We love telling their stories, just as we love telling yours.
Have a happy and safe Christmas and New Year, and we’ll be back in your mailbox on January 13.
Back in 1860, exporting meat to the other side of the world seemed about as easy as nailing gravy to the ceiling But a few determined kiwis took the bull by the horns and now our grass-fed beef and lamb is sought-after all around the globe
At AFFCO, we see the same pioneering spirit alive and well in farmers today We’re playing our part too – exploring every opportunity to take New Zealand’s finest farm-raised products to the world
News in brief
Confidence up
Improved pricing for New Zealand’s dairy and red meat products has lifted farmer confidence to its highest levels since 2017.
Rabobank’s Rural Confidence Survey – completed late last month – found 47% of farmers were expecting the performance of the broader agri economy to improve in the year ahead, while the number expecting conditions to worsen had halved to 13%.
Respected leader
Mid Canterbury farmer and respected community leader Chris Allen has died following an incident at his Ashburton Forks property.
A former Federated Farmers national board member, Allen was acknowledged as a “heavy lifter” for farmers, especially when it came to water and the environment.
Zespri support
Zespri staff are celebrating growers’ support for a move enabling the industry to ensure its kiwifruit remains on shelves all year round by boosting northern hemisphere production.
New Zealand growers voted overwhelmingly in favour of the Zespri Global Supply plan, approving the allocation of an additional 420 hectares of SunGold kiwifruit orchards a year in the northern hemisphere over six years.
Ham over lamb
Ham has edged out lamb to become the top choice for New Zealanders’ festive tables this Christmas, according to an online survey.
It reveals that 34.8% of Kiwis will serve ham as their main protein on December 25, just ahead of lamb at 34.6%.
Farmer sees upside in ETS forestry cuts
Richard Rennie NEWS Land
NEW rules around Emissions Trading Scheme forestry planting are far from perfect but are still welcomed by Central Hawke’s Bay farmer Clem Trotter.
Trotter and his wife Mickey have been very much at ground zero for feeling the full impact ETS carbon prices on their community and their business.
Two years ago they purchased a neighbouring hill country block at the peak of the carbon boom, competing against foresters seeking to convert land to ETS plantings.
Today the rules have tightened up significantly, with full farmto-forestry conversions for ETS purposes essentially off the table.
Trotter knows he is now very much on the other side of the high value peak he scaled when they purchased the property.
“We had these absurd rules
where basically overseas companies could not buy forests but could buy farmland and convert it to forests.”
After purchasing their property at peak prices by competing against forestry operators, he has seen values slip from $11,000$17,000 a hectare to $10,000$12,000/ha this spring, and now likely to drop further.
“What we are hearing is no way anyone will pay that now and the values will fall back to what you can farm it for.”
He believes this puts values far closer the $6000-$8000/ha.
Despite knowing he paid top dollar, Trotter is realistic about a price reset that is more conducive to pastoral economics.
“This is what needed to happen. Our own timing was unfortunate, but I hated seeing so much land around here go into trees.”
He recently calculated that approximately12,000ha of farmland he has worked on from Wairarapa to Gisborne has been planted in the last few years.
“And I don’t entirely trust the
statistics we hear. I think more land has been planted than we are led to believe.”
He now sees land values of $6000-$8000/ha as offering a viable economic future to retain pastoral farming in those regions hit hard by forestry purchases.
His back-of-envelope estimations are that a lift in sheepmeat values means a hill country farm heavily weighted to sheep could now deliver a net operating profit of $500-$600/ha.
“So, at those land values, it all starts to make sense again.”
But, even with lower values likely to play out, he remains uncertain just how quickly pastoral farmers
will jump into the farm buying market.
“I don’t think there is a big appetite out there to take on more debt. Morale’s not great. But overall, it’s a positive thing to happen in what had been a terminal outlook before.”
He is also not sure the new restrictions go far enough.
“I understand it is still open season on LUC 7 and 8 for carbon farmers. A lot of our hill country falls into this category so we are still likely to lose a heap of this land as it comes to market.
“This breeding country is the engine room of our drystock industry.”
Primary sector exports set to hit $58.3bn by 2026
Staff reporter MARKETS Exports
NEW Zealand’s food and fibre exports are projected to climb to $58.3 billion in 2026, according to the latest Situation and Outlook for Primary Industries report.
Exports are forecast to hit
$56.9bn by June 30 next year, a 7% increase from the 2023-2024 year.
The $58.3bn projected for 2025-
2026 would be a 2% increase on the 2024-2025 year. Dairy exports are forecast to grow by 10% to $25.5bn, driven by tight global supply and higher prices for 2024-2025.
Across that period, meat and wool revenues are expected to rise slightly to $11.4bn as demand strengthens and global beef supplies tighten.
Horticulture continues to surge, with export revenue projected to reach a record $8bn, a 12%
increase. Kiwifruit exports are set to exceed $3bn for the first time, reflecting strong international demand for New Zealand’s premium produce.
Forestry export revenue is expected to rebound 4% to $6bn this year, recovering from domestic supply-side disruptions and slow global demand. Renewed engagement and increased building activity in China are set to drive higher demand for logs and processed wood products.
Agriculture and Forestry Minister Todd McClay said the outlook showcases the strength and resilience of the primary sector.
“The hard work and innovation of our world leading farmers, growers, fishers, foresters and processors are driving these exceptional results.
“Strong global demand and healthy prices in key markets are positioning our food and fibre exports for record growth.”
REALISTIC: Central Hawke’s Bay farmer Clem Trotter believes drystock farm land prices will return to a more realistic setting, benefiting the industry.
Photo: File
There’s life when the work is done
Thanks to a charitable trust and its network of volunteers, the working dogs of New Zealand can live out their later years in comfort and ease.
THERE’S Tess who is not so keen on sheep, Oscar who just wants to run around and Pip who simply cannot abide cats.
They are some of the dogs looking for new homes via the Retired Working Dogs NZ Charitable Trust, an organisation founded 12 years ago by veterinary nurse Natalie Smith, after she refused to turn her back on injured farm dog Todd, who was due to be euthanised.
“Natalie was a vet nurse in Pahiatua,” said trust president Marie-Claire Andrews.
“A farm dog came in with a career-ending injury and the farmer handed him over to her. She turned him into the best pet she’s ever had. She thought ‘This is the way forward,’ so that was the start of it all, basically.”
From there, Retired Working Dogs NZ was born. Dog numbers grew, as did the volunteer base keen to help re-home the hundreds of working dogs now surrendered each year.
Andrews was another taken in by the charm of working dogs and found 10-year-old pig dog Eric through the service.
“Farm dogs are loyal, they’re smart, they’re curious. The joy of the ones that have finished work is that they are beautifully trained.
“I found Eric online and that was it for me. I’d never had a dog
before and he is quite huge, 35kg, but he is so well mannered and such a gentleman.”
The criteria for dogs to be rehomed through Retired Working Dogs is that they have to be a working dog breed and have been on farm. Some listed for adoption have sustained injuries that prevent them from working. Some are just too old, and others have never taken to farm life.
The trust offers to take dogs off farmers’ hands and find new homes, sometimes as pets or for a more leisurely life on a lifestyle block.
There are an estimated 200,000 working dogs in the country at any
one time, “so we know we have got a market we need to be serving”. For many farmers it is a relief to have somewhere to send their dogs, knowing they will continue to be loved and looked after in a new home.
Andrews said farm dogs have a job to do and have to take their place in the pack. Dogs come to the end of their working life “like tractors or combine harvesters” but that doesn’t mean they no longer have a use.
“Sometimes when they are
injured it is just too costly for the return the farmer is going to get on that dog. It sounds very mercenary but that’s just farming life, and that’s okay.
“It’s the same when dogs get old. If you have a pack of eight or nine you can’t keep all of them at home by the fire.”
Andrews said the trust wants farmers to know that there is a good option through Retired Working Dogs and “it’s simple, respectful and it costs nothing”.
“We now have 40,000 fans on Facebook who are really keen to have working dogs in their homes. It doesn’t take long to find homes around the country when it’s time to move a dog off farm.”
The trust has no shelter but relies on an established network of foster carers around the country who take in surrendered dogs until permanent homes can be found.
They also list dogs on behalf of farmers, who are then responsible for approving the new owners.
Andrews said foster carers and volunteers are vital to the organisation.
“Fosterers are the really important bridge between the dog’s farm life and pet life. They are involved in socialising, settling dogs in, getting to know them and testing them with cats, children and other dogs.
“Some of the dogs still love the idea of working, they just
physically can’t. They have to be looked after in that transition period and made to feel useful.”
It is an expensive business repairing injured dogs, with the trust spending about $60,000 on vet bills each year. The trust relies heavily on donations to fund its work. It has recently started receiving bequests, which tend to “leave everyone in tears”.
This is how farmers recognise loyalty, by finding the perfect retirement place for their dogs.
Marie-Claire Andrews
Retired Working Dogs Charitable Trust
Andrews said farmers sometimes face criticism for getting rid of their older or injured dogs, but that doesn’t wash with the trust.
“This is how they [farmers] recognise loyalty, by finding the perfect retirement place for their dogs.
“There is no judgment here ... it’s the way farming works. We townies are super proud of what goes on in the rural sector. Sometimes you don’t understand it that well, so to be able to support it in some small way is fantastic. “If we can help out by creating a soft comfy bed and chew toys then it’s a win-win.”
Craig Page PEOPLE Animal welfare
CHECK ME OUT: Trou featured in this year’s Retired Working Dogs calendar, produced as the trust’s main form of fundraising. Calenders for 2025 can be purchased through the organisation’s website.
Photo: Supplied
LIVING THE LIFE: Eric the former pig dog relaxes with owner and Retired Working Dogs Charitable Trust president MarieClaire Andrews.
Photo: Supplied
Champions
A hundred and one salvations
Retired Working Dogs Charitable Trust volunteer Tania Mapp has rehomed, rehabilitated and rejuvenated more than her share of troubled farm dogs.
Craig Page PEOPLE Animal welfare
TANIA Mapp had one stipulation prior to being interviewed:
“Don’t make me sound like a crazy dog lady.”
There is no denying she is passionate about dogs, but Mapp is far from crazy.
The Raetihi-based woman is one of the unsung heroes of Retired Working Dogs NZ, taking in more than 100 dogs for foster care since she teamed up with the organisation about nine years ago. Her interest was sparked when she intervened as a failed working dog was being taken away to be shot by its owner.
“I said I’ll take him.”
That dog was renamed Fred, and even though he’s been dead for four years, Mapp still wells
up with tears while talking about him.
“That really got me started because I realised that with a bit of imagination and care you can actually fix up these dogs that other people have pushed to the side.”
Mapp is different to many of the trust’s foster carers in that she focuses on dogs not considered good enough to work, and trains them to get back working on the farm.
“As a fosterer they try and direct me the ones that either need a farm environment and a knowledgeable person, or we think are going to work.
“We have specific pet fosterers who have the lovely job of teaching those older dogs how to be a pet. My focus is a little bit different but it all ties in.
“I have a farm kennel set up and a farm environment. They are
around machinery, around me and my horses and stock.”
Mapp also has a couple of top local dog triallists to call on for support with training.
Not all dogs want to spend their days as pets because of their strong will to work. Mapp ensures those dogs get the chance to fulfil that passion.
“It’s a lot to start from scratch and work them out, but I like the challenge. I like observing the animals, I like having to use my imagination: ‘How can I get this dog to be confident and happy and want to work again?’”
At any one time Mapp has about 10 dogs on her property, including four of her own. All but one of those are working dog cast-offs.
“We joke about it because as soon as I have an empty kennel it creates a vacuum in the universe and another dog will just appear, normally within 24 hours.
“I have had a couple arrive that were so skinny I thought they were going to die. One just about broke me. He came at in at 24kg and four months later he was 38kg. I thought, ‘You probably would work but I am going to find you the best active pet home I can. He lives at Muriwai beach now.”
Mapp said her involvement with the trust is very rewarding and seeing “big tough farmers” emotional when they send dogs off to a retirement home shows the value of the work they do.
“It’s really about doing right by the dogs, which in turn means you are doing a good service to people.”
And there’s nothing crazy about that.
I like having to use my imagination: ‘How can I get this dog to be confident and happy and want to work again?’
Tania Mapp Raetihi
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AT HOME: Tania Mapp, with dogs Brown, Ruff, Mate and Port, enjoys wandering the paddocks on her Raetihi lifestyle property.
Photos: Angela McCoubrie, Raetihi
OLD TIMER: Tania Mapp and her beloved 15-year-old heading dog Brown.
GOOD ON YA, MATE: Tania Mapp with huntaway Mate. Mapp says she loves the challenge of getting a dog to be confident, happy and wanting to work again.
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‘Your attitude determines your altitude’
Shane and Lynnette McManaway have built a wealth of farms, businesses and philanthropies in New Zealand and Australia, and the jewel in the crown from a community perspective is Five Rivers Medical.
Bryan Gibson PEOPLE Health
IT’S a moment that has stayed with Shane McManaway: when, as a young college student, he sat in an upstairs office at Kuranui College and was told by the careers adviser that school wasn’t for him and agriculture was an option.
Decades later, when deciding where to place the Five Rivers Medical facility he and wife Lynnette built for the south Wairarapa community, it was ironic the site should be across the road from the college.
Shane’s career in the agricultural sector has taken him across the world, yet he’s still right at home in Wairarapa.
He and Lynnette live in their home at Gold Creek Charolais and deer farm west of Carterton, where they have been for many years, although they have a new project to focus on – Ongaha, an extensive historic Wairarapa sheep, beef and cropping farm near Martinborough.
After 17 years as chief executive of Allflex Livestock Intelligence in Asia-Pacific and China, Shane has turned his full attention to the family’s business ventures, including three farms and various commercial ventures in New Zealand and Australia.
But perhaps the jewel in the crown from a community perspective is Five Rivers Medical.
The modern, fully integrated medical facility is the product of Shane and Lynnette’s commitment to a vision for their Wairarapa community.
They funded it and Lynnette was instrumental in designing the
building, interior and beautifully landscaped grounds.
The facility is named for the five rivers that give life to Wairarapa – the Tauherenikau, Waiohine, Waingawa, Waipoua and Ruamahanga rivers – and represents a personal achievement for Shane and Lynnette.
In 2022 Shane was made a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit [MNZM] for his agriculture and community services, an honour he recognises he should share with wife Lynnette – they’re a formidable team.
A visit to Gold Creek, Ongaha and Five Rivers reinforces their unwavering belief that success is down to focus, determination and teamwork.
Ongaha is a relatively recent purchase, with the McManaways having acquired it a little over three years ago as only the second owners in its 175-year history.
It’s a project that shows Shane and Lynnette are a team who can turn vision into reality.
Lynnette manages the renovation of the homestead and the reworking of the grounds,
gardens, and restoring historic working buildings on the farm, while Shane uses his many years of business skill and the expertise of trusted partners to execute the farm business strategy.
“A big focus in our businesses is to build long-term relationships with our valued suppliers and to create a good team culture,” Shane said.
“As a team we’re committed to achieving results by maintaining a strong focus on attitude.
“Your attitude determines your altitude and at Ongaha we want to fly high.”
Those team members are Ongaha farm manager Nico Butler, farm adviser Phil Guscott, local cropping specialists Richard and Thomas Kershaw, David Crawford of Bay Irrigation and Shane Rankin from Silver Fern Farms.
Another key component at Ongaha is water, with the farm diversifying into more arable crops and running five pivots.
The farm is an ecosystem and Shane stresses promotion of biodiversity is a major part of their plan.
Lynnette has been instrumental in the development of new plantings across Ongaha with 75,000 natives being planted over the past two winters and all waterways fenced off.
A restored wetland of 11.3 hectares is home to returning bird life with some endangered species making this sanctuary home.
“We’re absolutely hell-bent on making sure we have everything on this place, from the people to the birds, from the wildlife to the livestock, from the native bush to the fish in the water, all growing and working symbiotically to ensure they’re all enhancing their position with our help.”
A further example of the couple’s commitment to the natural
We’re absolutely hellbent on making sure we have everything on this place ... all growing and working symbiotically.
Shane McManaway Wairarapa
environment and the essential role water plays is their partnership with Eco Detection.
“We measure and monitor our water with a monitor sampling and measuring water every three minutes from our main outflow stream. That data goes to Australia to be analysed so we know what our water quality is in real time. We know what our runoff is, our sediment load and what our sodium nitrate levels are.”
As well as acting as a model farm where transparency is the key, Ongaha is also an education hub, with groups of college pupils visiting regularly to immerse themselves in farm life. Some of these students come from Kuranui College, a proud moment for Shane.
Off the farm, Shane is the founder and driving force behind the Platinum Primary Producers group, now called the Impact Summit Group, which has evolved into a powerful collective of more than 150 of Australia and New Zealand’s top rural leaders, now in its 16th year.
In 2014 Shane also founded the Zanda McDonald Award, in honor of his friend Zanda who was tragically taken in an on-farm accident on his station in outback Queensland. The award is regarded as one of Australasia’s most prestigious badges of honour for young leaders within the primary industry.
Shane said success as a leader doesn’t come from individual endeavour, but rather the shared achievement of a team.
COMMUNITY: Lynnette and Shane McManaway outside Five Rivers Medical Centre.
Photo: Supplied
TEAM: The Ongaha Station team, Nico Butler, David Crawford, Richard Kershaw, Shane McManaway and Lynnette McManaway.
Photo: Bryan Gibson
Helping Puketī ring with birdsong again
The annual Kauri Challenge is back, offering a good tramp for a good cause.
PEOPLE Conservation
PUKETĪ Forest in the central Far North has a group of 700 supporters funding and carrying out what the Department of Conservation has no hope of resourcing among its 800 nationwide sites.
Pest control, track maintenance, wildlife monitoring and forest restoration are all done by Puketī Forest Trust, now in its 22nd year. Since the trust was set up by local landowners and environmentalists in Northland, membership and donations have spread throughout New Zealand and overseas.
People from all walks in life have discovered Puketī’s kauri temples and the echoing bird songs that have become more frequent and accessible.
Not as well-visited or renowned as the Waipoua and Matarāua forest pair to the coastal southwest, with their famous Tāne Mahuta, Puketī and its adjacent brother Ōmahuta Forest are central to the Northland peninsula.
They stretch 20km east-west and 10km north-south and cover a
combined 20,000 hectares.
Puketī Trust started in the southeastern corner, moving its pest control area outwards from the forest headquarters to cover 600ha with intensive trapping, prior to 2020.
From a springboard of three years, $3 million in Jobs for Nature funding and up to 14 kaimahi (employees), the trust has added over 100km of trap lines, bringing the total to around 300km.
It operates 6749 traps, targeting possums, stoats, rats and feral cats.
The 15,000ha management area with a core of 1348ha has more than doubled in size and the trust is now budgeting $300,000 annually to have contractors maintain the traps and bait stations.
They must be visited and reset on frequencies ranging from fortnightly to monthly.
Through the early 2000s the annual income and expenditure was closer to $100,000.
Puketī and Ōmahuta Forests together form one of the largest continuous tracts of native rainforest in Northland.
Both forests have populations of endangered kōkako, toutouwai (North Island robin), native shorttailed bats and giant kauri snails.
Birds that are flourishing include
kiwi, tui, kererū and pīwakawaka (fantail).
When the trust began monitoring, kiwi call rates were low, about two an hour. They are now up to nine or 10 and have been stable in recent years.
Ōmahuta’s largest kauri tree is Hokianga, possibly the tallest kauri in Northland at 53 metres.
Te Tangi o te Tui is Puketī’s giant, the fourth largest in the country with a height of 51m and a diameter of 4m.
The central location means Puketī’s populations support other areas of pest control on picturesque and productive private land all around.
It is also an essential link in the Reconnecting Northland wildlife corridor from the Bay of Islands to the west coast.
Foundation trustee and former trust chair Gary Bramley said when the Puketī trust began, fewer players in the conservation space were competing for funding.
“Of the 80 sites listed on the Sanctuaries NZ website, we are relatively large and one of the few to rely almost exclusively on trapping, whereas baiting is cheaper.
breeding season begins.”
Trustees plan to move from a sustained control model to the remove-and-protect model, where pests are removed from the management area and a perimeter established to catch them as they seek to come back in.
We do use toxin in bait stations in the core area only once a year to assist with seasonal pest knockdown.
Gary Bramley Puketī Trust
The return of kōkako has not gone smoothly, with their requirements for big territories and local dialects, but the trust is working with the other Northland population at Matarāua to bring back more.
Bramley said koromako (bellbirds), pōpokotea (whiteheads), weka and kāka are all possibilities in the future.
fortunately the disease is not yet present. Foot spray stations guard the main track entrances.
In the smaller management area, before Jobs for Nature the trust worked on land where Ngāti Toro have mana whenua and the constitution requires representation.
The enlarged management area will involve a further 10 hapū, so trustees are visiting marae to talk about governance and what people’s aspirations are for Puketī.
Local farmers have been supportive and active from the start, especially founding trustees Ian and June Wilson and forest neighbours Ross and Wendy Magon and Jill Mortenson.
Near neighbours and dairy farmers the Candy family have been very supportive and Scott Candy was one of the first trappers for about eight years.
Contracted trappers have all come from the region and are paid on the numbers of traps they service each time a trail is walked.
At the recent annual meeting three new trustees were welcomed from hapū north and west of Puketī.
“We do use toxin in bait stations in the core area only once a year to assist with seasonal pest knockdown before the bird
Puketī is laced with clear streams and signposted tracks, such that it requires a full day of walking to traverse on the Te Araroa Trail.
Some tracks are closed by the Department of Conservation because of kauri dieback risk, but
OUR SHEEP SWEET
ur region THESE HOLI
Dose all dogs who reside near sheep or goats with Praziquantel monthly or at least 48 hours before visiting sheep, to prevent sheep measles.
Bramley stood down as chair to become the treasurer and Toby Ricketts stepped up to chair.
Continued next page
DEDICATED: Members of the Puketī Forest Trust, Northland, at the headquarters and camping ground for the annual meeting.
Photo: Hugh Stringleman
Hugh Stringleman
CATHEDRAL: Both short and long Kauri Challenge walks in Puketī Forest end with a section of river walk along the Waipapa river to the Forest Pools. Photo: Supplied
Land Champions
HUNT: Tinui pub owner Maurice Turner has become a valued member of the Tinui community, running the local hunt and mounting sporting events.
Flooded mess just the job for army chef
The Tinui pub looked like a write-off after Cyclone Gabrielle, but its energetic new owner had other plans.
Alan Emerson PEOPLE Community
AFTER Cyclone Gabrielle most thought the Tinui pub was gone forever. Even though the pub was well above ground level, water entered it – a metre of it.
Carpets were ruined, as were all the appliances. The bar was also munted. The building was considered a write-off and the owners sold it up for $105,000 and left.
Enter Maurice Turner, an energetic young ex-army chef who earned his money driving heavy-duty trucks in Western Australia. He purchased the Tinui pub (sorry, Bar and Cafe), and spent seven months clearing it out and starting again. The carpet has gone from the floor and the wood has been polished. The walls have been redone as has the bar, and all the appliances are new. While he can get insurance the risk of floods in the future is all his. His insurer isn’t interested.
“It cost a lot to get here, a small fortune in fact, but it was worth it,” Turner said. “I opened the doors and the locals all came back. The support has been amazing.
“It’s all locals during the week with a few tourists heading to Castlepoint on the
Continued from previous page
The annual Kauri Challenge fundraising and tramping will be held on Saturday, January 25, after a few years’ absence. Pre-covid the day was very popular, with over 100 participants.
INSTRUMENTAL:
Re-introduction of kōkako to Puketī Forest has not been as successful as the North Island robin, or toutouwai.
Photo: Hugh Stringleman
weekend. Wednesday night is locals’ night where everyone has a handle with a number on it. If the number is drawn and you’re here you collect the prize pot, it’s currently at $250.
“Tinui is a vibrant rural community and I feel privileged to be part of it. People just don’t understand the magic that is east Wairarapa. I’m here for the long haul,” he said.
Turner has certainly injected himself into the wider Tinui community. He’s a valued friend of the local ANZAC committee. He’s run the local hunt, providing prizes for both the senior and junior competitions. While the seniors concentrate on deer, pigs and goats the youngsters are more varied, with magpies, turkeys, rabbits, hares and possums all qualifying for prizes.
His meals are excellent and there are both dine-in and take away menus. The quality is what you would expect from an armytrained chef.
He has purchased the gear and intends starting up a local social cricket competition and is considering touch. There’s a pool competition every second Friday.
In addition, in an area where employment opportunities are scarce, he employs four locals.
When Cyclone Gabrielle devastated Tinui everyone thought the pub was toast. They couldn’t have imagined the renaissance that has occurred under an energetic young publican who just wants to be considered a local.
Donors have a choice between 21km ($65) or 12km ($75) in spectacular surroundings. Good fitness levels are required for both and they are not suitable for young children.
MORE: Enter at www.puketī.org.nz/kauriwalk
When it comes to clostrid ial vaccines, lam b sur vival is what truly mat ters.
Recent adver tising from MSD Animal H ealth N ew Zealand sugge st s that choosing Ultravac ® 5in1 over their 5in1 produc t for your lambs is a gamble Their claim , based on a small study of 120 lambs , argue s that more lambs re sponded to vaccination with their produc t at docking and weaning based on antitoxin blood titre change s
B ut when it come s to clos tridial vaccine s , lamb sur vival is what truly mat ters Ultravac 5in1 is the clostridial vaccine proven to reduce lamb los se s under N ew Zealand farming conditions
A peer-reviewed trial of over 3 ,4 0 0 lambs showed that vaccinating with Ultravac 5in1 at docking and pre -weaning reduced lamb deaths by 2 3 6% in the first year of life You can read more about it at SheepSolu tion s .co. nz
At Zoetis , we’re commit ted to suppor ting your succe ss with science -backed produc t s and ser vice s We consider that it ’s choosing not to vaccinate which is a gamble, not whether you choose Ultravac 5in1 or another produc t
Veterinarians are animal health exper t s: we strongly recommend you talk to your vet about the par ticular clostridial vaccination needs of your farm and follow their trusted advice
Kind regards ,
Vane ssa Macdonald G eneral Manager Zoetis N
ew Zealand
Low dose, h ig h ef ficac y ewe a n d l a m b vacci n es .
Connecting with the country
These young farmers have big plans for when they take over the family farm – and everyone’s invited.
Alan Emerson PEOPLE Tourism
TOM and Julia Broughton are young farmers poised to take over the family farm in Wairarapa. The issue is that they want to diversify to increase their income streams.
They are both well qualified to do just that. Tom has a B Com (Ag) from Lincoln and Julia a BA and B Com. Tom worked for Rabobank in Melbourne before joining Sovereign Trust in Hong Kong. Julia worked in advertising in Melbourne and Hong Kong. Both are highly accomplished sportspeople.
The Broughtons’ farm is
They have e-bike tours around the farm and an autumn Roar Tour when visitors can enter the forest and listen to the stags roaring.
called Pohatu and their aim is to establish that brand.
They make the point that a generation ago most people had relatives on farms. Now they don’t. The Broughtons’ strategic direction is to “provide a connection to rural life in NZ”. Their Pohatu Partnership will focus on enabling city people to connect with the country.
Their first job was to develop a website, Pohatu Farms, and that has been done.
The activities are many and varied, starting with a day walk on their farm and a neighbouring one. The walk is 17 kilometres long and it isn’t flat. A lunch is provided using local produce.
They have e-bike tours around the farm and an autumn Roar Tour when visitors can enter the forest and listen to the stags roaring.
They plan a four-wheel drive tour around the farm.
Another strand to the diversification process is the marketing of the farm’s lambs. Currently it is only legal to sell lamb on one market day a year but the Broughtons are looking at
being fully certified to market their lamb directly.
Their additional aim is to build accommodation on the farm so that visitors can appreciate the walk, the views and some good home-cooked lamb.
Tom and Julia also want to develop a collegiate approach with other tourism operators in the local area – a tourism hub in the Whareama Riversdale district.
Over Christmas the beach is incredibly popular with visitors largely from Wellington and Palmerston North.
Currently the activities are fishing and golf and the Broughtons’ intention is to provide a host of extra activities. There’s plenty of accommodation available at the Beach.
They are also very much involved with the local community. Tom is the deputy chair of the local community group and they are planning a fund-raising event for the local Whareama school in March.
It will be a fun walk where all proceeds will go to the school. As well as the farm, the tourism business and the potential meat marketing activities they have four children under seven so life isn’t boring.
BUSY LIFE: Julia and Tom Broughton, pictured with children Annabelle, 6, George, 3, Rory under the blanket, 1, and Angus, 5, say having four children aged under seven ensures life is never boring.
Photo: Supplied
Sky’s the limit for this vertical farmer
NZ-born Arama Kukutai is at the forefront of new technologies in food production in the United States.
INDOOR vertical farming changes the agricultural equation.
It removes land dependence, the vagaries of the weather and distance from end users. While agritech like this is no silver bullet, it can be a lever to pull to improve sustainability and profitability in food production, agribusiness entrepreneur Arama Kukutai says.
New Zealand-born Kukutai is the chief executive of southern California-based Plenty, which runs two of the world’s most technologically advanced indoor vertical farms, both in the United States.
The company’s main farm, in Compton, was opened in 2023. It can grow just over 100 hectares worth of greens in a single city block, selling its produce at Whole Foods, Bristol Farms, Gelson’s and most Walmarts in southern California.
“We really mastered how to grow the widest possible range of plants and today [we’re] focused on leafy greens and berries. There’s more than 50 crops that we’ve proved can be grown indoors,” he said, speaking via Zoom.
The company just turned 10 and has been at the forefront of building new technology to grow plants indoors.
Unlike greenhouses, which rely on sunlight to provide growth, vertical farms use artificial lighting.
“We use a pretty high-tech approach to growing plants. We’re using very high levels of light to
get the most grow potential out of the plants. Our yields are much higher than what you can do outside on a hectare of farmland.
“To get the same amount of production on an outdoor farm that we get indoors, you would need 350ha for every hectare of ground we have.
“Our LA farm, primarily we’re shipping within a day’s range of where the farm is. Our newest farm that’s just opened up in Richmond, Virginia, likewise we’re one day away from 100 million consumers.”
There’s more than 50 crops that we’ve proved can be grown indoors.
The new farm is the world’s first vertical farm that grows strawberries, in collaboration with global berry giant Driscoll’s.
The farms require high energy usage, and their locations gave them access to high-quality,
affordable power. But this also makes it challenging to replicate the technology in New Zealand, where there are energy challenges.
“That’s a key factor in where you would build one of these things. You wouldn’t build it where you have got 30 cent kilowatt power. You need an affordable power price to make it work.”
Kukutai is of Ngāti Maniapoto, Tainui and Te Aupouri descent on his father’s side. He is a co-founder and partner at Finistere Ventures, which has invested in at least 40 agritech companies including some in New Zealand over the past 15 years.
He was executive chair of PKW Farms from 2000-2009 and led New Zealand Trade & Enterprise in North America.
PKW had created a great partnership between iwi and farmers and is an example of what can be done in collaboration, he said.
“Dairy has been a critical part of the ag economy for a long time and they are a massive investment in not just in farmland and animals but also technology.”
He points to it as one of the things that got him interested in technology and its application in food production.
One of the investments Finistere made was in Plenty.
Kukutai said he transitioned into the technology world first as an investor and later, over the past three and a half years at Plenty, he went from board member to its chief executive, which he has been since January 2022.
“One of the things I took from my operating experience and early-stage investing experience is figuring out how to build and scale companies.”
Vertical farming technology will grow. A very small percentage of food production is indoors, but climate impact and other sustainability pressures mean year-round access to high quality nutritious food is big business.
“What we have really done with Plenty’s technology is turned the way in which we grow into more of a manufacturing process. It’s not seasonal, it doesn’t depend on the weather and you can grow whether the climate is hot, cold or in between.”
It grows food all year round and just requires access to a town’s water supply and power.
“We view the opportunity for this technology as being truly global.”
By 2050 the global population will need around 70% more protein. This will not come from traditional farming, whether it be for meat, dairy or horticulture, because there is not enough land available.
The primary sector and global leaders will need all of the technological tools they can get to feed this population base, he said.
Technology will increasingly play a role in the NZ farming’s future across all industries and is seen in plant and animal genetics and more recently in the development of new methane reduction technologies, he said.
The biggest risk is for NZ to do nothing in the face of the foodproduction challenges, but he does not believe the primary sector will do that.
NZ’s remote location globally makes it a challenge to stay up to date and connected from a technology and investor perspective but it is possible, Kukutai said, and the success of Rocket Lab and Team NZ proves it.
“The important thing here is getting internationally engaged. To that extent, we’re excited to be doing some work with Plenty on the science side in NZ.”
Having proven that vertical farming works, the challenge now is finding a way to get it into more widespread application.
It takes time and patience to scale up and getting a technology platform that is scalable is a key focus for Plenty.
“To scale up will require partnerships in other countries –which is why we are doing work in the Middle East with some of the biggest investment partners over there; we’re working with partners like Driscoll’s and Wallmart here.”
Gerald Piddock PEOPLE Land champ
GROWTH: Unlike greenhouses, which rely on sunlight to provide growth, vertical farms use artificial lighting. Photos: Supplied
PLENTY: New Zealand-born Arama Kukutai is the chief executive of Plenty, which runs two vertical farms in the United States.
Arama Kukutai Plenty
Chain of command keeps 1200 linked in
Running a large meat processing works is a challenging role – one the manager of the Silver Fern Farms Finegand plant in South Otago, Bronwyn Cairns, relishes.
Neal Wallace PEOPLE Production
BRONWYN Cairns is much happier walking through the vast complex that is the Finegand meat processing works than she is sitting behind her office desk.
Being among and talking to the 1200 peak-season staff gives her grounding and is central to creating the ideal workplace culture, she said, which ultimately enables the plant’s efficient operation.
Cairns manages the Silver Fern Farms Finegand site near Balclutha in South Otago and said each month she tries to visit every part of the sprawling complex to engage with staff.
“I’m in my happy place out there.”
Seeing the boss on the floor encourages staff to approach her with ideas and suggestions that can improve the overall performance.
Cairns has had a 40-year career in the meat industry. It began in the laboratory at what was then Southland Frozen Meat’s Mataura plant.
Eight years later she moved up the road to what was then the Springlands Meat-owned Waitane works near Gore, where she worked in quality control.
PPCS, as it was then known, bought the plant in 1994 and with the change in ownership came opportunities for training and career advancement.
Cairns progressively moved into roles as a technical assistant, plant technologist and section manager before stepping up to production manager and eventually plant manager with responsibility for 180 staff.
On her watch at Waitane, the plant was named Silver Fern Farms site of the year.
“I’ve been incredibly supported by the wider group in Silver Fern Farms,” she said.
“It’s given me opportunities to train and options to advance within the business.”
Five years later, in 2023, Cairns was asked to run Finegand and she has stayed there ever since.
Its size, large workforce, the age of the plant and the complexity of running a multi-species business took her out of her comfort zone.
“I found it nice being uncomfortable and I’ve learnt so much about me, the business and people.”
She said Finegand is a community within a community and her role as plant manager is to ensure staff know what the end goal is, and what their responsibility and purpose are.
“As long as all those things are really clear, the rest will fall into place.
“So long as you treat everybody with respect, then you get the same in return.”
The support of her assistant manager, Phil Prentice, is crucial in developing that workplace culture.
Together with department managers, they reinforce the plant values: always caring, being unstoppable together and improving tomorrow.
These are more than statements.
The efficiency from creating that culture saw Finegand process 100,000 more lambs last season than the previous year and has meant extended seasons and new capital investment.
Finegand’s beef chain was closed for only five weeks this year and lamb for seven.
Earlier this year new robotic
cutting technology was installed.
This season a second beef shift was employed earlier than last year and lamb processing reached full capacity from late November. That culture focus extends to language. Cairns said staff don’t just get paid, they earn their wages.
The meat industry is complex and heavily regulated, with those regulations starting well before stock trucks arrive to unload and continuing until the product is handed over to the buyers.
The regulations include every aspect from stock management and treatment through to water temperature and quality, personal hygiene and health and safety.
Cairns said there is much that can go wrong and it is important staff know the importance of adhering to those requirements. That means making them feel included and valued.
“If you don’t know your role or your part in the process and stop doing it, it has major consequences.”
That includes ensuring the 250 international workers at the plant equally feel valued and aware of their importance.
There was an inevitability Cairns would join the meat industry as her father Doug Lee managed Mataura and got her a job in the plant’s laboratory.
I’ve learnt so much about me, the business and people.
Bronwyn Cairns Silver Fern Farms
Cairns left Gore’s St Peters College for the role and said she has never looked back.
She still lives in Gore and commutes, usually with other staff, up State Highway 1 to Balclutha, arriving on site at 6am every day.
She said it’s important she walks in the door with a smile on her face.
“My day is never normal so it
is important how I arrive at work because everything could change.”
Finegand is South Otago’s largest employer and a huge part of the community. Despite not being comfortable in the public limelight, Cairns flies the flag, supporting sponsorship of local events, teams and structures such as the Crescent Rugby Club team.
When they play the local derby against the Clutha side, Cairns said, she stands on neutral ground on the halfway line, given that players from both teams work at Finegand.
Cairns sees herself as one cog in the complex wheel that takes an animal from a farm, processes it for markets as diverse as burgers in the United States, roasts in the United Kingdom or branded cuts in China.
“We have an incredibly highly skilled workforce.
“Everyone, whether in quality control, on the slaughter board, boner, packaging or support, all have a role to play.”
SHEDLINE®
FINDING EFFICIENCY: Silver Fern Farms Finegand processing plant manager Bronwyn Cairns says her job involves creating the right atmosphere for staff.
Photo: Neal Wallace
Celebrating our world-leading farmers
It has been a tough year, but we have so much to celebrate!
Congratulations
to our
2024 Beef + Lamb New Zealand Award winners
These people, technologies and innovations represent the very best of our sector. We’re so proud of all the farmers, organisations and individuals who were B+LNZ Award nominees, finalists and winners this year.
2024 winners:
• Dr David Hume: Ballance Agri-Nutrients Science & Research Award
• FarmIQ Freshwater Farm Plan Tool: Datamars Livestock Technology Award
Olympic campaign built pride in NZ’s beef and lamb
Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s partnership with the New Zealand Team highlighted the connection between our world-leading product and our farmers who produce it.
Through TV adverts, social media and more, the partnership reached millions and has significantly raised awareness and boosted national pride in New Zealand’s sheep and beef industry
• Fernglen Farm: Gallagher Innovative Farming Award
• Headwaters: Silver Fern Farms Market Leader Award
• Growing Future Farmers: Rabobank People Development Award
• Mitchel Hoare: AgResearch Emerging Achiever Award
• New Zealand Farm Environment Trust: FMG Rural Champion Award
• Ian McIvor: Alliance Significant Contribution Award
• Graeme Gleeson: Beef + Lamb New Zealand Regional Leadership Award
Thank you to all our farmers – we wish you safe and happy holidays.
Proud partner of
From local concerns to livestock leadership
Silver Fern Farms Co-op chair Anna Nelson has been led by a passion for community every step of the way.
Gerald Piddock PEOPLE Sheep and beef
ENSURING rural communities survive and thrive is very personal for Anna Nelson.
The Silver Fern Farms chair and King Country sheep and beef farmer has three children aged 18 to 21, all of whom want farming careers and to live in rural communities.
Safeguarding their future and the future of others living in these communities is what has motivated Nelson to both play a critical role in improving her local catchment and lead the country’s biggest livestock company.
It’s something Nelson talked about to farmers in the roadshows SFF recently wrapped up.
“It’s a really good driver if you have got your own kids. I jump out of bed and get stuck in for them as much as ourselves, but it’s also for our neighbours, your rural communities and your grandkids,” Nelson said.
“That’s 100% when you look at Smithfield, when you look at declining stock numbers, when you look at declining rural services and infrastructure – how we strategically do whatever we can to minimise the negatives and capitalise on the positives and build more positive futures.
“Their aspiration to go farming and live in rural New Zealand is a big part of why I do it.”
Nelson has been chair of the co-operative side of the business for six months and will take over from Rob Hewett as chair of the Shanghai Maling joint venture side of the business in May.
This 12-month transition allows her to work alongside Hewett and fully understand that side of the business to allow for a smooth transition, she said.
Her SFF commitments mean fewer hours doing farmwork, but Nelson is determined to allow for some time during the week to help out her husband – and keep her grounded.
“It’s very important to me to get that balance right because I know I won’t be as effective around the board table if I don’t get my time here.
“It reminds you why you do what you do and what’s important.”
It was always about challenge and people and what we can do better for our rural communities.
Anna runs a 1450 hectare effective breeding and finishing block in Aria with husband Blair (Munta), and in-laws Jon and Kaye.
The farm runs a WiltshireCoopworth flock and 300 Angus cows. All stock are finished unless it is a bad season climatically.
Nelson is originally from Cheviot and has a veterinary degree from Massey University and worked for a decade as a large animal vet in Central Waikato.
Juggling working as a vet as well as motherhood provided a good mental challenge for Nelson as well as allowing her regular people contact.
This was reduced somewhat when she went farming but was
reignited when King Country River Care (KKRC) was created in 2018.
By that stage Nelson had also served on the board of trustees at Aria School. Nelson also points to a Kellogg Rural Leadership course in 2016 as being instrumental in getting her interested in governance.
“It really helped me prioritise what I wanted to do.
“That was the beginning of governance for me and it was always about challenge and people and what we can do better for our rural communities.”
After six years serving as the group’s catchment coordinator, Nelson is now taking more of a back-seat role along with Reon Verry, who was its chair for the past five years and just stood down in September.
The KKRC started after Verry along with other local farmers including Blair Nelson became concerned about the implications that the Waikato Regional Council’s Plan Change 1 would have if that same process and rules were rolled out in their region.
“We rallied the troops, saying we need to understand PC1 and we need to respond but as we did that, we realised there was a bigger opportunity than just PC1 and that was proactively getting ahead of regulations.”
They used government funding to create farm environment plans using their best guesses as to what regulatory change could look like, given that at that stage, the central government had yet to release guidelines.
“We talked a lot about being proactive, getting ahead of regulation and we talked about
practical solutions for local problems.”
They also got money for tree planting and fencing on the catchment’s more erodible areas.
Now with a lot of these rules being repealed, Nelson said the group is in a good place as it starts to prepare for what its plan change, which she calls Plan Change West Coast could look like once it’s revealed.
Taking that proactive approach will help them secure a better future for rural communities, she says.
She believes the governance model KKRC has created to manage catchments can easily be replicated across the country, altered to reflect the challenges specific to the region in question.
“It does need local leaders, people who can stand up in their local communities. It’s definitely replicable – every community, though, has to get behind what they believe is important – a good motivator that brings them together, almost like a call to action.”
CHAIR: Anna Nelson has been chair of the co-operative side of Silver Fern Farms for six months and will take over from Rob Hewett as chair of the Shanghai Maling joint venture side of the business in May.
Photo: Gerald Piddock
Anna Nelson Silver Fern Farms
Community work is the story of his life
For a shy kid from a remote station, Doug Archbold turned out to be very good with people.
Annette Scott PEOPLE Community
MORE than just a farmer, Doug Archbold has been a life-saving safety net, clocking up more than 20 years’ involvement with the North Canterbury Rural Support Trust. His community involvement goes well beyond that, too, and covid saw the beginning of his writing career, albeit it late in life, he jests.
This year he self-published his first “and most probably last” book, from which his community is reaping the profit.
Eighty years of memories, 19432023 – More Than Just A Farmer, authored by Doug Archbold QSM, JP, “grew from a germ of an idea” suggested by his wife, Jill, during the covid pandemic.
“She thought it would give me something productive to do, going through my decades of diaries to write a memoir of my life, for my family.”
What resulted is a story not only of his varied life, but also a snapshot of sometimes tumultuous times in rural New Zealand.
From his humble beginnings on an isolated back country farm in North Canterbury where his farther managed the Ngaroma property, to his time in the corridors of power in the nation’s capital, the book tells a tale of a life well lived.
“I came through my early years far from civilisation. My dad would often look after us kids while Mum, who was a crack shot, would rise early, pick up her .303 rifle and often return with a deer.”
The river was the main access, schooling was by correspondence with those formative years
growing up proving difficult times for a little boy.
“Each Christmas as a special treat our whole family transhipped down the river, started up the Model A and attended a Christmas party at Parnassus School.
“Although this was well intentioned, it was a continuing nightmare for me as trying to meet and play with other children was a frightening experience.”
Moving on, who would have ever thought, given the life Archbold was to lead, that he was ever a shy little boy.
Each Christmas as a special treat our whole family transhipped down the river, started up the Model A and attended a Christmas party at Parnassus School.
Doug Archbold Christchurch
He attended Christchurch Boys High for his secondary school years and later joined his father on the Lowry Hills sheep, beef and forestry farm near Cheviot.
Looking back to 2014 when he received the Queens Service Medal (QSM) for services to farming and the rural community, he said “that blew me away”.
Humble as ever, he said it reflects the Rural Support Trust he had served in his retirement from farming.
Another influencing factor in his life on the land was his involvement with Young Farmers.
“I did a lot of public speaking and debating which was a huge help in building confidence and speaking in public and leadership.
“Sometimes you have got to make really hard decisions to
H E R E F O R W H AT ’ S N E X T
stand up for what you believe in, even though it may not be universally popular.”
He pays a huge tribute to Jill: “I’ve had huge support in all I’ve done and it wouldn’t have been possible without her support.”
From Young Farmers he went on to be a long-serving member of Federated Farmers North Canterbury, including Cheviot branch president and North Canterbury provincial president. He went headfirst into the farming political scene in the
1980s, serving eight years on the Meat and Wool Board’s Electoral Committee as the North Canterbury representative, at a time when the meat and wool boards were being dismantled.
He was appointed by the then minister of agriculture, John Falloon, to a committee to write new rules for board director elections.
The Archbolds sold Lowry Hills in 2001 when Doug’s health was not holding up so well following a string of incidents including a broken neck from a quad bike
accident and a triple bypass after a major cardiac arrest.
“It was one of those tough decisions that I knew I had to make at that time.
“After 30 years on the farm I was ready to say goodbye and leave the land behind.”
With ambitions to be a political scientist, he admits he was always a reluctant farmer but there was pressure to stay on the farm that his father had farmed since 1955.
“In all that I look back and I had 30 satisfying years on the property I began farming on my own account in 1970 and I am pleased I did have the opportunity.”
Retirement hasn’t held him back as Archbold became involved with the North Canterbury RST, serving many years as chair and is currently Trust Patron.
“We certainly saw some challenging and tough periods with drought, earthquakes, and the devastating snow of ’92, to name a few of the more major.
“Again now there are farmers seeking support through another unwelcome Mother Nature delivery of drought.
“It really is tough out there on the land, always has been; that’s farming and it always will be.”
A move to Christchurch and reinventing himself as a townie has not affected his loyalty to farming.
He has learnt in his more than 20 years as a counsellor that while he was not a professional, he could help farmers by listening to then and “chucking around” a few ideas to help then get on with their farming lives.
There’s much more to Archbold’s decades of farming and community involvement and it’s all in his book.
“I haven’t registered it so it can’t be sold commercially but that was never the idea.”
MORE:
Contact dougarchbold@gmail.com to order the book.
MORE: Doug Archbold at the launch of his book, whose cover artwork includes a caricature by North Canterbury artist Ashley Smith that was presented to him when he left Lowry Hills. Photo: Annette Scott
Champions
Fifty years of punching on farmers’ behalf
Doug Edmeades knows the difference between effective fertiliser and a load of bull, and he hasn’t been afraid to speak up about it in his long career.
Richard Rennie PEOPLE Fertiliser
AFTER almost 50 years of researching soils and advising farmers on how to get more out of them, Dr Doug Edmeades can proudly include “scrapping for farmers” on his colorful career’s skill list.
Edmeades is stepping out of a spotlight that has rarely flicked off over a career that kicked off after he completed his PhD at Lincoln in 1976.
After starting with what was then the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (MAF) as a soil scientist, he came to earn the attention and respect of farmers for his ability to communicate in clear, down-to-earth terms.
It was at a time when many were in the process of developing their farms and Edmeades’ advice helped them optimise production from the soils they had been dealt.
“I have always had the view that research was important. It was just as important farmers knew what was being done, and that we as scientists got out there to learn what their problems were, and how we could help,” Edmeades said.
His no-nonsense, fully calibrated bullshit detector meant it was almost inevitable he would at some point walk into a clash the scale of the much-publicised Maxicrop seaweed fertiliser controversy in 1989.
Edmeades sparked legal action from the Bell Booth group after he appeared on Fair Go, expressing his view that Maxicrop did not work.
He had spoken up out of frustration after the media, as he saw it, shied away from reporting the failings of the product.
The plaintiffs, seeking $10 million in damages, lost the case, and lost the ensuing Court of Appeal ruling too. The Maxicrop saga became New Zealand’s longest-running civil court case.
“We were able to prove the product could not work and had the field trials to show it did not work. It also set a wonderful legal precedent I have been able to call upon to this day.”
Years after the event he still casts it as one of the defining aspects of his career.
It was a clash that fuelled years of challenging questionable products that appeared on the lucrative fertiliser market to tempt farmers.
He has regularly appeared as an expert witness in prosecutions intended to bring down such products.
But between the headlines and the court cases Edmeades continued to be a proficient researcher and communicator to those who mattered most to him – farmers.
His research included improving knowledge around lime use on NZ’s typically acidic volcanic soils. His work countered earlier MAF recommendations not to use lime
It also set a wonderful legal precedent I have been able to call upon to this day.
Dr Doug Edmeades AgKnowledge
on such soils when in fact it was highly necessary.
“We also looked at the effect of aluminum toxicity, common in low pH soils.
“This resulted in work looking at selecting pasture plants that had tolerance for aluminum.”
He was disappointed to see momentum in the work die off, despite it being an issue farmers still deal with today, one that increases incrementally with lowering pH levels.
Edmeades acknowledges his desire to out the truth on dodgy products put him firmly on the radar of Wellington-based bosses keen to see a lower profile from their scientific minions in the provinces.
His take-no-prisoners approach to defining effectiveness with scientific results put him in a “clash of titans” with his previous boss, Dr Bert Quin, in the early 2000s.
It arose from Edmeades’ concerns about the effectiveness of RPR fertiliser. Ironically, he had expressed his issues with RPR in his book Science Friction, which recounted the Maxicrop saga.
“The research was clear it was not effective, and Bert and I have fought tooth and nail ever since on it.”
Ultimately, Edmeades was instructed by MAF’s directorgeneral not to talk about RPR, which was akin to a red rag to a bull.
“I came to see I would be unable to fight back if I stayed in the system, so we parted ways.”
Disillusionment with the dollar-focused research model that evolved after Rogernomics convinced Edmeades to return to what he loved about science –putting farmers at the centre of the business model.
From that he established AgKnowledge.
“It was really similar to what I did with the MAF extension service, charging for my time.”
He built that business into a profitable, long-term enterprise recently acquired by his nephew Hadleigh Putt.
Proudly, Edmeades also points to having just published his 52nd biannual Fertiliser Review, a characteristically punchy, nononsense analysis of any and all aspects of soils, fertilisers and farm profitability.
Stepping into retirement, Edmeades is keeping a keen eye on the science model reforms being overseen by Professor Peter Gluckman, in the hope that a more flexible, less commercially focused approach evolves.
“The best thing they can do is drop the CRI [Crown Research Institute] model and bundle all the centers together.
“Failing to do anything will mean agricultural research will disappear completely down the gurgler.”
Ponsonby,
SCIENCE: Dr Doug Edmeades’ career has been characterised by his determination to ensure the integrity of science is not compromised by commercial imperatives.
Photo: Richard Rennie
Where the only constant is change
Southland arable farmers Blair and Jody Drysdale say the world is your oyster if you keep an eye open for opportunities.
Gerhard Uys PEOPLE Environment
SOUTHLAND arable
farmers Blair and Jody Drysdale walked away with the environmental leadership in farming award at the Environment Southland Community Awards this year.
The pair farm on 320 hectares, with 295ha effective.
Under this umbrella, 180ha is in arable, with wheat, barley and peas standard crops every season.
Most seasons they contract grow tulips, and are known around the country for growing hemp and selling hemp products under the Hopefield Hemp banner.
Although hemp is only a small component of their operation they are both extremely passionate about the business and the technical side of extracting oil and more.
From May to May, about 55ha holds dairy heifers.
They also run about 300 Wiltshire ewes and hoggets.
Blair said they run a flexible system and like to keep an eye
Increase profits from trees
on what the market wants or what adaptations the season requires.
The couple also won the Arable Awards of New Zealand in 2023.
Both Blair and Jody said they are not intimidated by change and have the philosophy of never saying no to anything until they’ve “looked through the door and seen what’s on the other side”.
Winning the awards put them in contact with other agri-startups from across the country who also share this view.
Jody said their first real awareness of the fact that they have an impact on the land was when they began farming and grazed dairy cows.
When they planted spring barley in paddocks after it was winter grazed, the yields were markedly lower compared to paddocks that were not grazed.
Soil damage was having a knockon effect, they said.
Although they needed the cash flow from grazing cows, they ditched them.
The cash flow took a knock, but barley yields went up by as much as 3.5 tonnes a hectare.
Blair said their awareness of environmental impacts has progressed as they gain knowledge of the issues.
The area, for example, has a real issue with runoff and leaching.
The Drysdales have been involved with the Balfour Catchment Group for about three years.
The group is unique as it has deer, arable, hill country sheep and beef, horticulture and dairy farmers in it, Blair said.
Treefarmer is a free software programme designed to help landowners make informed decisions for planning or harvesting a woodlot.
• You can map several woodlots on your property at the same time and simulate harvesting by overlaying possible harvesting roads and skid sites
• Choose from any of five forestry species and three management regimes
• The model will generate the wood and carbon yields at any selected harvest age.
• There is a checklist of requirements for site preparation, establishment, silviculture and harvest planning.
Treefarmer was developed with Forest Growers‘ Levy Funds. Access is from Forest Growers Research website at:
Jody said the group is also unique because it deals with some of the oldest soils in the country.
Earlier this year they teamed up with AGMARDT, Thriving Southland and Clint Rismann from Land & Science in Invercargill to see how they can mitigate nutrient loss to the
environment on their farms beyond what regulations require.
For the project, LiDAR dronebased photogrammetry and ground based radiometric survey were used to create a highresolution landscape model of the farms.
This knowledge has a real-world effect on their input and profit.
“Wherever we make environmental gains, we also make economic gains”.
The entire catchment group also benefited from getting a number of farms in the area mapped.
As a result the catchment is slowly but surely changing the way it uses nitrogen and how it approaches mitigation.
The Drysdales said the group does this with a communal mindset, following the approach that changes made on farm benefit the entire catchment.
Blair said in their 15 years as arable farmers they’ve seen the industry become more scientific in its approach to nitrogen, with
many trials run by the Foundation for Arable Research on N use efficiency.
These trials have had a direct effect on the Drysdales’ farm, with N spread over four to five applications during a season, as opposed to two or three historically.
Blair also uses a device called N-detect to clip leaves of, for example, wheat, which tells him how much nitrogen the crop needs, how much is in it, and how long it can go without an application.
Soil and leaf testing throughout the season is also the norm on the farm.
“Applications are basically by prescription,” Jody said.
Blair also plants crops that need almost no chemistry, such as buckwheat and hemp.
This isn’t just a cost saver –he also doesn’t like putting any chemicals that are not required into the system.
The one thing that is constant on the Drysdale farm is change.
Blair said he is interested in new approaches to land-use change and is always open to new opportunities.
They also try to instill a sense of adventure in their children, with Carly, 16, Fletcher, 14, and Leah, 12, all looking for ways to make an extra buck.
Carly, for example, helped Jody to sell hemp products at the last Southern Crafters Market and Leah has just begun making hair scrunchies that she will either start selling or give away.
Fletcher is also looking for business opportunities to fund his fishing and motorbiking interests.
Blair said they always keep an open mind about the future and embrace change.
“Kiwi farmers have been good at that. If you go back to when subsidies were removed in the 1980s, the No 8 wire mentality came through. Farmers learn hard and fast.”
GAINS: Blair Drysdale uses a device called N-detect to see how much nitrogen crops need. He said keeping the environment in mind when you apply fertiliser, for example, also means financial gains on the farm.
COMMUNAL: Southland arable farmers Blair and Jody Drysdale say being involved with the Balfour Catchment Group means they take a communal approach to mitigations on their farm and know that any changes they make influence an entire catchment.
Photos: Gerhard Uys
to our supportive wool growers for your voluntar y contributions to our industr y work, and to our Funding Partners for making it possible.
Together, we’re building a br ighter future for strong wool.
nzwool.co.nz
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No challenge this fullback won’t tackle
‘Work hard’ and ‘Never stop learning’ are the guiding principles of a young Central Otago shepherd who is walking the talk on Matakanui Station near Omakau.
Neal Wallace PEOPLE Beef and sheep
LIBBY Miller may be only 22 years old, but the Central Otago shepherd has three life rules she lives by: work hard, do 10 pushups a day, and maintain physical fitness through regular running and exercise.
She could add a fourth rule: never stop learning.
Miller works on Andrew and Tracy Paterson’s 9000 hectare Matakanui Station near Omakau, where, in addition to being a general shepherd, for the past two years she has overseen management of their 700-ewe Polwarth stud.
She admits to regularly asking questions of the Patersons and farm manager Nick Gee in her hunger to learn.
They have willingly shared their expertise but as part of her quest to increase her knowledge, Miller is also completing AgITO papers and working towards her wool classer’s certificate.
“If you’re going to do something, you may as well do it well,” she said. “But it also interests me.”
Miller was always going to be a sheep and beef farmer, exposed to the sector through her parents who worked on farms.
Weekends and holidays were spent helping them.
On leaving Gore High School after completing her Year 13 studies, Miller finished a year’s study at Tinwald Farm in Central Otago, which partnered with the Central Otago Polytechnic to provide practical on-farm training for students.
While studying there, at weekends she worked for Geoff and Joyce Brown at Locharburn Station.
On graduating she spent a year on a farm owned by Mark and Leeanne Heaps near Mataura in Southland.
Her love of dogs and fine wool encouraged her to seek work on a more extensive property.
Two years ago she was appointed a junior shepherd on Matakanui Station, a fine wool and beef high country and irrigated property in the Manuherikia Valley about 30km from Alexandra.
Miller runs six dogs and enjoys working them in the Matakanui hill country, but she also loves wool, its versatility and what it does for wearers and users, hence her decision to study wool classing.
If you’re going to do something, you may as well do it well.
Libby Miller Central Otago
It helps that wool is a key source of income at Matakanui.
“I’ve always wanted to do it [wool classing] but Matakanui is big in wool and Paddy [Andrew] and Tracy are very passionate with wool and are wool classers themselves.”
Matakanui runs Polwarth sheep, a fine wool breed that produces wool about 21 micron, which is sold under contract to buyers such as Icebreaker and Smartwool.
The Polwarth stud was started by Martin and Hilary, Andrew’s parents, about 50 years ago and they currently run 700 ewes, 440 ram hoggets and 440 ewe hoggets.
When the stud master left, Miller was offered the position.
It proved a busy and emotional role.
“It’s a stressful but rewarding job that is not for the faint hearted
and I probably care a little too much,” she said.
Advice from her father, Doc Miller, resonated: “He told me that ‘if you are going to have livestock, you’re going to have dead stock’.”
For the past two years she has overseen the lambing, which this year began on September 18 and ended in early November after hogget lambing had finished.
For three weeks at the peak of lambing her alarm would sound at 4.30am and her day would start with study for her wool-classing certificate, making milk for lambs and exercising her dogs.
By 7am she was out on her lambing beat until late afternoon when she went for a run with her dogs.
“Then it was eat, sleep and repeat.”
The ewes are single-sire mated and at the peak 100 ewes a day were lambing.
Summers at Matakanui are hot and dry and rainfall averages about 500mm, but spring in Central Otago can be changeable with snow common.
In Miller’s determination not to let anything die from the cold, she would bring in lambs to warm them up and took it personally when any of them died.
“I treat every lamb as a potential stud sire,” she said.
Miller helps prepare the rams for selling and speaks with ram buyers about what they want and what they seek.
Her role also involves monitoring the performance of the stud sheep for internal parasite and footrot challenges, which Matakanui is breeding resistance to while enhancing other productive traits.
When not looking after the stud, Miller works as a general shepherd on the station, which runs 9500 commercial Polwarth ewes, 7500 hoggets, 1000 wethers, 410 Hereford cows, 170 heifers and 240 steers.
They finish their own cattle and, depending on the season, buy in
5000 to 6000 fine wool store stock, which they also finish.
There are six full-time staff including two tractor drivers, needed because they harvest their own supplements and sow their own crops.
About 500ha of low-lying country is irrigated.
The property ranges from 280m above sea level to 1600m in the Dunstan Ranges, in which they have two large blocks on which stock spend summer.
Just over 5000ha of the station is freehold, with the balance leasehold.
Andrew Paterson said he and Tracy enjoy exposing young people to the intricacies of farming.
They offer Gateway Project spaces to Dunstan High School students in Alexandra, in which senior students have structured learning in the workplace in addition to their academic studies.
He said farmers who take on these students need to accept that students will make mistakes, but
young people need a chance to learn and to decide if a farming career is for them.
So what does the future hold for Libby Miller?
Her love of the expansive South Island high country, working with fine wool and testing her dog control skills remain major draws.
But she also wants to travel and pursue her other great love, rugby.
A fullback, Miller has played 48 games for the Albion side in Gore even though for the last two seasons it required commuting several times a week for practice and games.
Miller has also played for Southland and she hopes to one day travel overseas to play rugby and work on farms abroad before returning home and furthering her career here.
She is under no illusions about what that requires:
“You have got to want to learn and you have got to want to work hard.”
FLOCK: Libby Miller with stud Polwarth sheep on Central Otago’s Matakanui Station. Photos: Neal Wallace
FINE WOOL: The opportunity to work with fine wool lured Libby Miller to a job on a Central Otago high country station.
TEAMWORK: Libby Miller with her team of dogs on Matakanui Station.
No doubt 2024 has tested your character too.
Nothing is constant or predictable. Everything feels disrupted: Agriculture, media, people, markets, politics, weather, our health…so we control the controllables, and we manage the rest…together.
Curveballs make the jobs we all do more interesting, and 2024 didn’t disappoint.
For us at Farmers Weekly, 2024 has been a good year - we’ve ended better than we started and we’re quietly optimistic about 2025. A lot of that optimism comes from the support shown from readers who have seen the value of our work and made a contribution.
Our supporter tally is now up over 100, taking us a quarter of the way to employing a full-time journalism cadet. Please join the team if you can.
Thank you to all our supporters, readers and advertisers. You are the great network of hardworking people we do this for.
It takes a team.
Have a wonderful summer and we‘ll deal with the curveballs coming our way next year…together.
Dean Williamson dean.williamson@agrihq.co.nz 027 323 9407
I always find the paper really good. The articles I really enjoy are the ones showing the solutions for the problems we face. The reason New Zealand does so well is because we look for solutions.
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FEDERATED FARMERS
Feds lodge banking complaint
Federated Farmers have submitted a formal complaint to the Commerce Commission, requesting an urgent investigation into the lending practices of New Zealand banks.
The complaint relates to potentially anti-competitive, coordinated, cartel-like behaviour from the banks, driven by their involvement in the international NetZero Banking Alliance.
“In New Zealand, five major banks dominate 97.3% of the agricultural lending market,” Federated Farmers banking spokesperson Richard McIntyre says.
“All five of those banks are either directly members of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, or are indirectly affiliated through their parent companies: BNZ, ANZ, ASB, Westpac, and Rabobank.
“This raises some serious questions about the potential alignment of lending policies and anticompetitive cartel-like behaviour that we think deserve further scrutiny.”
BNZ is a direct member of the Net-Zero Banking Alliance, having joined in 2021. Westpac, ANZ, ASB, and Rabobank are all affiliated with the alliance through their offshore parent companies.
The banks reference their Net-Zero Banking Alliance obligations in their various sustainability reports and internal banking policies for who they will, or won’t, provide lending to.
Several of the banks have already started to put in place targets for
various sectors, including reductions in financed agricultural emissions by 2030.
“Increasingly, we are seeing banks asking farmers about their onfarm emissions and setting 2030 emissions reduction targets that look remarkably similar,” McIntyre says.
“Federated Farmers aren’t opposed to individual companies setting emission reduction targets, but we do have an issue with companies potentially coordinating their targets in an anti-competitive way.
“We’re also increasingly concerned about what will happen to farmers if we’re unable to meet the banks’ emission reduction targets by 2030.
Will we effectively be de-banked?
“Given the significance of farming and agricultural exports to the economy, this should be something that concerns all New Zealanders.”
Meanwhile, Federated Farmers have also sounded the alarm this week about the risk of banks defunding petrol stations by 2030 as part of their commitment to the NetZero Banking Alliance.
“This is a significant concern that threatens the viability of rural and provincial petrol stations across the country,” says McIntyre.
“Petrol stations are a vital lifeline for rural communities and isolated parts of New Zealand. They provide an important service, and that need for fuel is going to exist well beyond 2030.
“It’s not just farmers who depend on those petrol stations. It’s families trying to get their kids to school,
The old saying goes that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck – then it’s probably a duck. I think the same thing could be said about cartel-like behaviour.
Richard McIntyre
Federated Farmers banking spokesperson
local businesses, contractors, and tourists too.
“If banks are unwilling to provide
lending to pay for things like upgrades, expansion or compliance, petrol stations will just disappear. What are we supposed to do then?”
Federated Farmers have been receiving panicked calls this week from a number of petrol station owners in small rural towns who are concerned about the impacts of banks’ policies.
Documentation provided to Federated Farmers clearly shows an internal BNZ policy that there is to be no new lending to petrol stations and all existing debt needs to be paid back by 2030.
“We’re worried we might see something similar happen with
farming. It’s a huge concern because, without access to capital, we simply can’t farm,” McIntyre says.
“For the avoidance of doubt, Federated Farmers are not definitively saying that banks are operating in an anti-competitive cartel-like way that falls foul of the law.
“What we are saying is that it sure does look like they are, and we need the Commerce Commission to urgently investigate to give us some answers.
“The old saying goes that if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck – then it’s probably a duck. I think the same thing could be said about cartel-like behaviour.”
BNZ appeared before Parliament’s banking inquiry on November 11, where MPs grilled BNZ’s CEO Dan Huggins and chair Warwick Hunt for an hour.
“It was good to see BNZ given an absolute roasting,” McIntyre says.
“The MPs asked some really tough questions about the bank’s behaviour, because it’s totally indefensible and requires some real scrutiny.
“BNZ struggled to adequately respond to questions about why they’re defunding petrol stations, why they’re setting emissions targets for farmers, whether they’re greenwashing, and more.
“We’re looking forward to seeing the results of this inquiry and we hope it results in a much fairer and more transparent banking system for all Kiwis, including farmers.”
INVESTIGATION WANTED: Federated Farmers alleges NZ banks are involved in potentially anti-competitive, coordinated, cartel-like behaviour, driven by their involvement in the international Net-Zero Banking Alliance.
Federated Farmers say banks still behaving badly
Federated Farmers’ latest banking survey results paint another damning picture of rural lending, despite falling interest rates.
The survey of more than 600 farmers, conducted in November, shows only 53% of respondents are currently satisfied with their banking relationship.
“That’s a huge drop from 80% in 2017 and raises some serious questions about their behaviour,”
Federated Farmers banking spokesperson Richard McIntyre says. “We’re incredibly concerned by the rapid deterioration in farmers’ relationships with their banks and hope this will face some real scrutiny during the current banking inquiry.”
The Federated Farmers report shows one in four farmers continue to feel undue pressure from their bank, with dissatisfaction highest among sharemilkers, at 35%.
Only 55% of farmers rated communication from their bank as good or very good, continuing a downward trend from a high of 80% just a decade ago.
Alarmingly, almost a quarter of farmers feel their bank doesn’t allow them to structure their debt efficiently, with 11% saying they’ve been asked to use overdrafts for capital projects.
“That’s really concerning and will be adding a lot of unnecessary financial stress for farming families across the country,” McIntyre says.
“Forcing farmers to use their overdrafts for capital spending doesn’t just drive up interest costs for the farmer; it also unjustifiably drives up the profit for the bank.
“That kind of behaviour is totally unacceptable. Overdraft facilities are designed for short-term cashflow management, not longer-term investments.”
VARIATION: Richard McIntyre says their survey shows some banks are better than others at allowing farmers to structure their debt.
According to the survey, both ASB and Westpac were the most likely to make such unreasonable requests of their farming clients.
“This kind of poor and indefensible behaviour from banks has a real impact on farmers’ wellbeing,” McIntyre says.
“Of those we surveyed, 33% said their mental health and wellbeing has been negatively affected through their interaction with the banks.”
While the report shows continued poor performance and behaviour from many of the banks, there are still some strong performers.
Rabobank, with 23% of market share in rural banking, outstrips all the other banks in terms of satisfaction rates among farmers, at 70.1%.
Rabobank and ANZ also rate much better than others in terms of their flexibility for farmers to structure their debt.
“Those strong results from Rabobank and ANZ may be a silver lining, but there are clearly still some systemic issues in rural banking,” McIntyre says.
We’re incredibly concerned by the rapid deterioration in farmers’ relationships with their banks.
Richard McIntyre
Federated Farmers banking spokesperson
“There is a real squeeze on agricultural lending at the moment and it’s getting harder every year for farmers to access the capital they
need to run their businesses.”
Reserve Bank figures show lending to the farming sector is currently at $62.9 billion, up slightly from $59 billion in 2016.
“It might look like an increase on paper, but when you adjust that 2016 figure for inflation, it would be over $76.3 billion in today’s dollars,” McIntyre says.
“What that means is that, in real terms, agricultural lending has decreased by $13.4 billion, or nearly 25%, since 2016.
“With constantly increasing costs and compliance, and a decrease in capital available from banks, it should be no surprise farmers are feeling squeezed.”
Earlier this year, Federated Farmers welcomed the launch of an independent inquiry into banking, including rural banking.
Parliament’s Finance and Expenditure Committee has received
more than 140 public submissions and is currently hearing submissions from the major banks.
Federated Farmers is one of those submitters and will speak to the committee early next year.
“We really led the charge to get this rural banking inquiry over the line but now’s not the time for us to back off – there’s still a big job to be done,” McIntyre says.
“We need to make sure the rural voice stays front and centre during this process so we can find some genuine, practical and rapid solutions that will improve the lives of farming families.
“Having an inquiry is great, but the job’s not done until we get real and lasting change for farmers.
UNDER PRESSURE: On average, one in four farmers continues to feel undue pressure from their bank, Richard McIntyre says.
Demanding $5 greasy auction reserve
Earlier in the year I decided to stop selling my wool through the auction system, hoping I might get a better return selling directly.
How did that go?
Well, I sold it to the same people who’d have bought it through the auction for pretty much the same price, minus the charges.
So, I came out about the same: losing money again!
I’ve had a few enlightening conversations in the last couple of months, and the more I learn about the wool market, the more perverse I find it.
My frustrations with the auction have been around why the price is always depressed. The auction price also serves as a barometer for price for all other sales, as I found out.
But why? Wool volumes have been falling for as long as I’ve been alive, even more so during my farming career over the past 20 years.
The wool stores are as empty as anyone has seen in a long time, so surely we should be seeing some significant price increases, especially for better-quality wool.
Prices have lifted, but not at any rate or to any level that makes sense to keep producing wool.
But then I learned something recently that blew my mind – and which helps explain the problem.
I was venting to a senior wool person, who told me something startling: that exporters currently negotiate a fixed-price contract for supply with their customers not for one month, not for six months, but for at least 12 months!
I was speechless.
I’ve corroborated this with another senior wool industry person who has negotiated such contracts.
This is why prices for our wool never move far.
The exporter knows how much it will cost to run their business, then they add a nice fat margin to that, and then off they go to auction or negotiation for a price direct to farmer.
Clearly, there’s an incentive for exporters to drive down the price they pay us to protect their own margins.
They already know how much they negotiated to sell to the customer, and they know that price is fixed.
The only place for the price to go is down.
When prices do creep too high and their margins are reduced, the exporters will purchase lower-quality wool to blend in.
That’s so long as they can still give the customer the average specifications that their contract
requires, while still protecting their margin.
So, what can us farmers do about this?
In the words of Rage Against The Machine, I say ‘we gotta take the power back!’
I believe we need to put a reserve on our wool and make the exporters pay more. They’ll hate it, but boohoo –welcome to our world.
We can look to sell direct to the customer, which is being worked on by some companies, but is not as easy as it sounds.
The other thing we can do is use the laws of economics to our advantage. As I said above, supply hasn’t been this low in living memory.
Exporters still need to supply their customer, so demand remains.
I believe we need to put a reserve on our wool and make the exporters pay more. They’ll hate it, but boohoo – welcome to our world.
We control the supply and, given there isn’t an excess in the market waiting to be sold, we should be able to demand a high price.
But we need to work together.
INSIST: Toby Williams says he is going to demand a $5kg greasy reserve at auction and is encouraging others farmers to do the same.
Think like an informal Zespri – they control the fruit and the pricing.
I’ve done my shearing for summer and worked out my costs. For me to break even, I need $5/kg greasy. This is the critical number.
Don’t be fooled by a broker or exporter quoting you a clean price.
You need to demand that the weight of wool you produce is priced greasy.
It’s much easier to understand, as this is the amount of fleece you shore off your sheep.
If you accept a clean price, it’ll be about 20% less than the greasy price, depending on your yield, which
is the scoured weight divided by greasy weight.
So, consider this article my rallying cry to wool growers: let’s stand together and demand a $5kg greasy reserve at auction.
I’m re-entering the auction system and have told my broker that it’s a $5 reserve.
He thinks I’m mad and he’s probably right, unless you join me and demand a $5 greasy reserve too.
Let’s take the power back.
MORE:
If any of you want to speak with me about it, please get in touch on twilliams@fedfarm.org.nz
Toby Williams Federated Farmers national meat and wool chair
SPEECHLESS: Toby Williams was stunned to learn recently that exporters currently negotiate a fixed-price contract for supply with their customers for at least 12 months.
Toby Williams Federated Farmers meat and wool chair
Kāinga Ora’s ‘KO’ blow to the wool industry
Federated Farmers says Kāinga Ora’s decision to categorically rule out using woollen carpets in social housing is a slap in the face for struggling Kiwi sheep farmers.
Kāinga Ora, a crown entity, has released a request for proposal for companies to provide carpet and underlay for its state homes – but it specifies it wants nylon carpet only.
It also states, with bold emphasis, “We are not looking to procure wool carpet”.
“It’s incredibly disappointing and shortsighted for Kāinga Ora to not even consider a woollen option for these homes,” Federated Farmers meat and wool chair Toby Williams says.
“What ever happened to the Government commitment to back our farmers and use sustainable woollen products in Government buildings? That’s ringing pretty hollow today.”
The National-NZ First coalition agreement said Government
agencies would be directed, where appropriate, to prefer use of woollen rather than artificial fibres in government buildings.
“I can’t see why it wouldn’t be appropriate to use woollen carpets in a state house, but we didn’t even get a look in,” Williams says.
Farmers just want a level playing field, but we were totally shut out of this process with no clear reason why.
Toby Williams
Federated Farmers meat and wool chair
“Kāinga Ora weren’t interested in testing the price wool carpet providers might come up with for such a significant supply contract.
“Farmers just want a level playing field, but we were totally shut out of this process with no clear reason why.”
Williams says using cheap plastic carpets might save a dollar or two in the current economic climate, but there are other costs that need to be considered.
“It comes at the expense of the viability of our sheep farmers and the rural communities we live in, but it also carries a huge environmental cost.
“For the Government to choose a fossil fuel-derived synthetic carpet over a sustainable New Zealandgrown woollen product, just because it’s cheaper, is an absolute shocker.”
Williams says this is just another blow for sheep farmers, who are struggling to keep wool an export and domestic commodity and a viable part of their businesses.
“Sheep farmers are losing money – and have been for some years now – on their wool, and this is a real kick in the guts.”
Wool carpet manufacturer Bremworth said in a media statement that Kāinga Ora’s deliberate exclusion of wool carpet
NATURAL FUTURE: The National-NZ First coalition agreement said Government agencies would be directed, where appropriate, to prefer use of woollen rather than artificial fibres in government buildings.
from state homes sets a damaging precedent.
“Ultimately this means Kainga Ora has chosen to specify a carpet that is made with imported fibre that is essentially plastic,” CEO Greg Smith says.
“Given we have a large surplus of a high-performing alternative in locally grown strong wool, this decision seems to lack macroeconomic insight and an awareness of the plight of our rural sector and the communities they support in recent years.”
Smith says Kāinga Ora is New Zealand’s largest landlord, and a contract to supply so many homes would have been transformative to the wool sector.
“There is no question that we would have gone to extraordinary lengths to secure this contract. It would have represented a key turning point for the wool sector in New Zealand.
“If there is some inherent bias against wool that persists within Government departments, it is important for the industry to have the opportunity to correct any lingering misconceptions.
“For the wool sector to be
completely left out of the conversation will be soul-destroying for many farmers.”
Smith says the Government and its department heads should be the wool sector’s first customer and most vocal champion.
“The removal of wool carpet from the Kāinga Ora contract is a lost opportunity to send a message of support for the sector and to set a precedent for residential developers.”
It appears Kāinga Ora has concluded that warmer, dryer and healthier homes means laying petrochemical-based carpets instead of Kiwi wool, Smith says.
Kara Biggs, Campaign for Wool NZ GM, labelled Kāinga Ora’s decision as “hugely disappointing”, and another low blow for New Zealand’s strong wool growers.
“We are confused as to why Kāinga Ora would explicitly refuse to let wool carpet manufacturers be part of the process.
“It simply doesn’t make sense, so we think some clarity around this for our growers and brand partners is warranted.”
Biggs says the request for proposal should be reopened, allowing wool carpet manufacturers to take part.
LOSS: Sheep farmers are losing money – and have been for some years now – on their wool, and this is a real ‘kick in the guts’, says Toby Williams.
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Bred from world champion dog trialling bloodlines. Phone Somerton Park Kennel. Canterbury 021 264 6250.
DOGS WANTED
STRONG-EYED, WELL bred heading bitch pup. Phone 027 323 6338.
GOATS WANTED
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.
SDT Clubs annual working sheep dog sale on 12th January 2024 at 966 Ruatangata Road, Whangaehu. Sign posted from SH3. Auction 12 noon, viewing from 10.30am. Register dogs for sale with Secretary Brenda O’Leary email: brenda.dog@inspire.net. nz or ph 0272922173. All Enquiries to Duncan Atkinson Ph 0272 422 2881 or Auctioneer Chris Hay Ph 027 632 7177.
If
You
Must
and help out with
portfolios,
writing is essential. Financial remuneration will be negotiated. You will need to be a’ Country Girl at Heart” and have a clean drivers licence to share the driving. Age is no barrier. Your friends and family will be welcome. I am a lonely guy, financially independent, in my 70’s, living in Taupo and searching for someone with these above attributes. It’s time to enjoy more friends, travel, dialogue and have fun TOGETHER. If interested, please email me and tell me about yourself, and why this proposal may suit you. Please include your phone number. All replies are treated in confidence. In anticipation, please email down890@hotmail.com
MANAWAHE WILTSHIRES
WILTSHIRE RAMS –PURE BRED
17 years farming and breeding Wiltshires
10 2-Tooth Rams available
Sound, solid boys ready for the job ahead
Refer TradeMe for details
Top stock, full shedding, a great investment
Ph Sharon 027 537 7157
TE KUITI SELLING CENTRE
JANUARY 2025 CATTLE
FAIRS
Te Kuiti 2 1/2yr Steer Fair
Monday January 6th 2025
12 noon Start
885 Cattle comprising 385 2 1/2yr Ang & Ang/Hfd x Steers
220 2 1/2yr Exotic x Steers
280 2 1/2yr Here/Frs & Ang/Frs x Steers
Te Kuiti 15mth Exotic Steer Fair
Tuesday January 7th 2025
12 noon Start
875 Cattle comprising 875 15mth Sim, Char, Sth Dev x Steers
Te Kuiti 15mth Traditional Steer Fair
Wednesday January 8th 2025
12 noon Start
1200 Cattle comprising 1100 15mth Ang & Ang/Hfd x Steers
100 15mth Hereford Steers
Te Kuiti 15mth Here/Frs x Steer Fair
Thursday January 9th 2025
12 noon Start
1090 Cattle comprising 750 15mth Here/Frs x Steers
100 15mth Char/Frs x Steers
150 15mth Ang/Frs x Steers
90 15mth Bel/Blue x Steers
Te Kuiti Heifer Fair
Friday January 10th 2025
12 noon Start
835 Cattle comprising 55 2 1/2yr Char, Sim x Heifers
20 2yr Angus Heifers
280 15mth Sim, Char x Heifers
235 15mth Ang/Frs & Here/Frs x Heifers
130 15mth Ang & Ang/Hfd x Heifers
95 Aut Char, Sim, Ang x Wnr Heifers
DAIRY LISTINGS WANTED NOW
Due to early demand and strong buyer interest
Carrfields is actively looking for more cows and heifers to market on your behalf. Take advantage of early season demand and market your herd with Carrfields today.
Jsy/Ayr herd - $1900 SOLD Frsn/Frsn x herd - $2400 SOLD Frsn x - $2060 SOLD For Sale
Pedigree Jersey herd - $2140 Ref: DH3553
Pick 200 Frsn/FrsnX cows - $1900 Ref: DH3531
High Index A2A2 R2yr Hfrs - $1900 Ref: DH3555 Elite R1 Heifers - $1000 Ref: DR3561
Contact your local Carrfields Livestock Representative, or visit www.carrfieldslivestock.co.nz to view our current listings
TUAKAU ANNUAL FAIR
Tuakau 15mth Heifer Fair
Thursday 9th January 2025
OJ & M Cathcart – 21st Annual Heifer Sale
850 x 15mth Heifers
Comprising of approx.
450 Angus
150 Angus x Hereford
100 BWF Hereford x Friesian
150 Exotic
Tuakau Beef & Exotic Steer Fair
Tuesday 14th January 2025
1140 Beef Bred Steers
Comprising of approx.
600 Angus
220 Angus x Hereford
320 Exotic
Annual drafts from:
Kauri Ridge, M & T Paulson, OJ & M Cathcart, T Baldwin, B & J Laing
Tuakau Dairy Beef Steer Fair
Thursday 16th January 2025
Comprising of approx.
320 BWF Hereford x Friesian
80 Angus x Friesian
120 Beef x
ALL ENQUIRIES CONTACT:
Craig Chamberlain 027 532 0253
Dave Anderson 027 498 1201
CRAIGNEUK
Cass Wiltshires
• 1500+ 2th Wiltshire Ewes
• 1500+ Wiltshire Ewe Lambs
• 50 2th Wiltshire Rams
• 200 MA SIL Recorded Wiltshire Ewes
• Selection of AD Ewes
STOCK WANTED
• 100kg plus weaner bulls
• 180kg to 450kg 1 yr bulls
• 450kg to 700kg 2 yr bulls
• Ex yearling service bulls all breeds
• AD ewes and lines of cull ewes
• Large numbers of cow, bull and Prime SOUTH ISLAND WIDE
Call Colin 027 285 5780
From the team at Livestock Connection, we would like to thank you for your support for the year and wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.
We look forward to working with you all in 2025.
SALE TALK
New pants for Christmas
In halls decked with holly, and trees all a-glow, I feasted on goodies, let my inhibitions go, From gingerbread houses to mulled wine so bold, I consumed with abandon, in holiday’s hold.
Eggnog flowed like a river, a creamy delight, Pies disappeared faster than stars in the night, Turkey and stuffing, and oh, the mince pies, I ate ‘til I felt like a stuffed Christmas prize.
Dear Santa, I plead, as the scale gives a sigh, Bring stretchy new pants and don’t ask me why, For I’ve eaten like royalty, bursting at seams, Now I need new attire, for my dining regimes.
So here’s to the feasting, our holiday rite, Merry Christmas to all, let’s eat day and night, With waistbands expanded and spirits
For the first time ever we might see average farmgate lamb prices peak in December, though we’re still forecasting they will ease through January.
IT’S hard to recall a time when farmgate lamb prices have remained elevated into December. In the past four years, the volatility of outside forces has seen the peak in farmgate lamb prices range from as early as June in 2023 to October in 2021.
But if you have been in the game long enough, prior to 2015 it was almost a given that lamb prices peaked in November. With little indication of pricing pressure, it leads to the expectation that for the first time ever we will see average farmgate lamb prices peak in December. This contrasts with the five-year average drop of 49c/kg between November and December.
The AgriHQ lamb indicator currently ranges between $8.00$8.10/kg across both islands, compared with $6.15-$6.20/kg last year. This means 17.5kgCW lambs are worth an extra $32-$33/head. Underpinning the stable price has been a lack of lamb for processing. New season lamb numbers were incredibly slow in coming forward through November.
Early lambing country such as Hawke’s Bay moved early and opted en masse to offload lambs into the strong store markets as opposed to waiting to try to finish on disappearing feed levels. Generally, in the four-week
period to mid December, national lamb slaughter rates tend to double, lifting to over 500,000 head per week. Processing rates are starting to seasonally gather momentum as more wean, but achieving that target feels like a stretch this year.
Complementing the tighter supplies has been robust support from export markets keen to secure product.
Indications point to average export values for November recovering some of the ground lost in October. But, more importantly, they will be significantly higher than November 2023 and 2022. This has provided meat companies with a good level of confidence early in the season and kept competition firm for lamb.
There is still plenty of fat in the system to cushion any downside.
These positive market conditions have continued into December.
Demand has been widespread, with our traditional markets showing the strongest support. Interest from China has seasonally improved in recent weeks, providing additional support.
Even at this point of the season, key markets are already showing a willingness to discuss pricing expectations for the Easter chilled trade.
It’s a positive step, but one could
argue that it’s derived by tight production out of New Zealand. The swift change of pace in key export markets does bring a level of nervous apprehension about its longevity.
Export markets have supported higher in-market prices on the back of tighter production out of NZ. But the question is, does that confidence continue when the availability of lamb increases and processing plants are running at higher throughputs?
While we wait to determine that answer the best thing the industry can do is nurture this current demand, so it extends deep into the season.
Despite the strong end to the year, AgriHQ’s December Livestock Outlook report is still forecasting that lamb prices will ease through January. This is on the expectation that lamb numbers will continue to grow,
boosted by slow December throughputs and a continuation of dry weather.
Any downside will be softer than normal to reflect the stronger export position. This means farmgate lamb prices will start the year above $7.50/kg – a long way from where they started in 2024. The weather will have a bigger say this summer, given the expanding dry conditions. If
processors become swamped with lambs at any one point, it will place further pressure on prices. But fortunately there is still plenty of fat in the system to cushion any downside and keep prices tracking above the fiveyear average well into 2025. This will provide a much-needed confidence boost for the industry after enduring a difficult 12-18 months.
HAPPY NEW YEAR: AgriHQ’s December Livestock Outlook report is forecasting that farmgate lamb prices will start the year above $7.50/kg – a long way from where they started in 2024.
Mel Croad
North Island lamb slaughter price ($/kgCW)
Cattle Sheep Deer
Weekly saleyard results
These weekly saleyard results are collated by the AgriHQ LivestockEye team. Cattle weights and prices are averages and sheep prices are ranges. For more detailed results and analysis subscribe to your selection of LivestockEye reports. Scan the QR code or visit www.agrihq.co.nz/livestock-reports
Feilding | December 6 | 1809 cattle, 10,142 sheep
2-year
2-year traditional heifers, 460kg
Yearling traditional steers, 380kg
Yearling dairy-beef steers, 365kg
Yearling Friesian bulls, 310kg
Yearling traditional heifers, 305kg
Yearling dairy-beef heifers, 300kg
Mixed-age ewes, most
Store blackface mixed-sex lambs, all
Store whiteface cryptorchid lambs, most 66.50-117
Store whiteface ewe lambs, all
Feilding | December 9 | 166 cattle, 3429 sheep
Prime bulls, 620kg
Prime dairy-beef heifers, 540kg
Boner dairy cows, 545kg
Mixed-age ewes, most
Prime mixed-sex hoggets, all
Prime mixed-sex lambs, most
Rongotea | December 10 | 339 cattle
2-year dairy-beef steers,
Bowl of ‘weather salad’ starts off summer
ACOMMENT we received on our WeatherWatchTV
YouTube channel this week really sums up the current weather pattern New Zealand is in for in early Summer: “Wow, what a weather salad!”
It’s one of those salads that another family makes and it has strange items in it that you’re not used to eating. That’s how our December weather pattern feels. Familiar but with some odd things thrown in.
A few have pushed back to me, saying it’s not a spring patten when it’s 30 degrees. But it is spring-like if that 30 degrees is thanks to a windy nor’wester. Just seven days ago there was a light dusting of snow on the southern end of the Southern Alps. Gale force nor’westers brought down trees. Thunderstorms and heavy
downpours surprised others. And many more had cloudy, sometimes windy, weather. It hasn’t all been sunshine and 30degC.
Another comment I recently received was also related to the “weather salad” set-up we have right now: “You make so much sense of such a messy forecast.”
I look for pattern inside the chaos. La Niña brings an easterly pattern, El Niño a westerly one. We’re neutral, which means anything can happen. This year some say it feels more like El Niño with the westerly pattern – yet this bowl of salad also has sub-tropical ingredients in the mix, which puts more of a northerly twist into it.
So what is the pattern in the current chaos? There are three:
• Tropical energy well north of
New Zealand has been slowly ramping up in recent weeks with more low pressure zones, and rain events.
• A regular and steady stream of high pressure zones exiting southern Australia/Tasman Sea area and affecting NZ’s pattern.
• Major storms over the Southern Ocean.
As I’ve said in recent weeks, the storms south of NZ are our biggest driver at the moment, far outweighing what is happening in the tropics.
However the tropics/sub-tropics is now adding weather ingredients to New Zealand’s salad, meaning we’re now getting a taste of more humidity and a better chance for wet weather in the North Island.
So if you’re trying to find a pattern in this chaos it may be hard to see – but if you look long enough you’ll see life in the tropics, highs frequently in the Tasman Sea, and big storms south of us.
And NZ is the salad bowl getting
ABOVE NORMAL:
This NIWA temperature map from the past two weeks shows most regions were more than 2degC above normal.
Mean Temperature Anomaly 9am 25/11/2024 to 9am 10/12/2024
all of these ingredients thrown in.
Finally, it’s worth understanding the three ways NZ gets hot weather. 1) A tropical airflow into NZ (usually more humid and muggy than it is record breaking heat). 2) A large high over us in summer with light winds and clear skies for days. 3) The main culprit
for heat? Windy nor’westers, especially if they bring Australian air with them.
A hot nor’wester even in winter can produce overnight lows in NZ above 20 degrees, and our two record-breaking highs in NZ over 42degC were both caused by nor’westers.
Philip Duncan NEWS Weather
The storms south of NZ are our biggest driver at the moment.
