Farmers Weekly NZ May 24 2021

3 Budget shows targeted focus Vol 19 No 20, May 24, 2021

Farmers to act on staff shortages Gerald Piddock

F

gerald.piddock@globalhq.co.nz

EDERATED Farmers is urging farmers with staffing shortages to write to the Government to outline the effect it was having on their businesses.

The move comes after two announcements from the Government over the past few weeks concerning immigration.

It firstly denied an application

by Federated Farmers and DairyNZ to bring in 500 skilled migrants to work on dairy farms.

Instead, it approved 125 agricultural machinery operators, below the 400 that is needed.

Then on May 17, the Government announced an “immigration reset” to improve the country’s immigration system to reduce the number of unskilled migrants coming into New Zealand.

That same announcement also indicated a review of the Skilled Migrant Category (SMC).

Lewis says the announcement was bewildering and “a night of disappointment” for himself and representatives from other industries reliant on migrant staff who were present.

“Please take the time to write an email about the labour shortage

on your farm, or how your local contractors are short-staffed, and explain the economic, mental health, health and safety and animal welfare consequences of being short-staffed,” Feds employment spokesperson Chris Lewis said “Make sure your workers and their families who are impacted write in too.

“Direct your frustrations at the target.”

Most of the information outlined by MP Stuart Nash, who filled in for an ill Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi, were policy details he already knew about.

Lewis says the announcement had effectively united the industries who relied on migrant staff against it.

“It’s the Government versus everyone else on this issue,” he said.

“At the moment, we’re all on the same song sheet. Sometimes you feel quite isolated as a farmer, but I feel well-supported on this issue.”

Lewis says there’s nothing lowskilled about farm work.

“You develop your skills as you learn into a highly-skilled professional,” he said.

Any immigration policy changes, he says, would do little to prevent the expected staffing shortages over the new dairy

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Course brings shear joy

SEE STORY: P5 WORTHWHILE: Jedd Houpapa-Barrett was nervous before he attended a WOMOlife upskilling course, but he now has the tools of the trade to look after his long-term future.

JEDD Houpapa-Barrett was one of 22 shearers and wool handlers who took part in WOMOlife’s second upskilling

season and farmers will just have to soldier on.

Lewis says they will continue to try and persuade the Government to bring in more migrants while at the same time, looking at ways of getting more New Zealanders onto farms and persuading employers to improve conditions for workers.

“We are talking about it, we are encouraging farmers, but transformation doesn’t happen overnight, it’s a long-term thing,” he said.

The Meat Industry Association (MIA) is also wanting further clarity from the Government around its immigration reset.

MIA chief executive Sirma Karapeeva says introducing new

course held near Taumarunui last week.

The course built on the success of an earlier one held at

obstacles to employing migrant workers in the red meat sector would have a significant impact on the sector and jeopardise the jobs of thousands of Kiwis.

“For instance, at one meat processor, the entire night shift is only able to operate because of 10 skilled migrant employees – that means employment for 70 New Zealanders on that shift.

“Without sufficient workers, processing plants cannot operate at capacity, which will depress wages and impact returns to farmers and ultimately the value of our exports,” Karapeeva said.

She says the industry’s small number of migrant workers fulfil critical roles such as

Tautane, Tararua, with attention now turning to courses in Southland and Gisborne next month.

halal slaughterers, boners and butchers.”

Halal slaughter generates over $3 billion of value-add halal certified meat products, which accounts for one third of NZ’s industry’s export earnings by value.

The red meat sector generated $9.2 billion of exports last year and directly employs 25,000 people here.

Karapeeva says while its preference was to employ New Zealanders first, the industry still has a labour shortage and migrant workers play a very important role in helping to address that shortage and support employment for the wider sector.

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17 Buzz over manuka brand 12 Mopping up nitrogen Catch crops are proving their worth as a management tool to reduce nitrate leaching.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

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Budget shows targeted focus Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz THE primary sector must carefully pick through the fine print of this year’s Budget for funding gems, with millions budgeted for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and farm plans lost in the shade of billions set aside for redressing the country’s social imbalances.

Finance Minister Grant Robertson has made no secret of the Government’s desire to address the debilitating and lingering impact of benefit cuts made a generation ago in the 1991 “mother of all budgets”.

To do so, more than $3 billion has been allocated to core benefit increases, delivering beneficiaries on average $40 more a week.

Any hopes business and primary sector producers had for continuing injections and support after last year’s covid budget are well in the shade of this focus.

What primary sector funding there is in this budget does, however, reflect the Government’s continued commitment to helping the sector deliver on GHG reductions and environmental management.

As a result, the Government has earmarked $37 million towards a national farm planning system for farmers and growers, and $24m towards agricultural GHG mitigation research and development.

An additional $900,000 will also be spent on collecting agricultural statistics that will include GHG emissions.

Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says a single national farm planning framework that was easy for farmers and growers to use that integrates with business requirements was needed to meet climate change goals.

This will include a national training programme delivering more skilled farm advisors, and an accelerator fund to broaden the

GOALS: Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says the 2021 Budget reflects the Government’s continued focus on working with the primary sector to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The emissions funding is also welcome because of the challenges our greenhouse growers have when it comes to emission reductions, particularly in the South Island where only coal can be used.

Mike Chapman Horticulture NZ uptake of integrated farm plans.

Federated Farmers national president Andrew Hoggard identified the emissions and planning funding as some of the

few positives in the budget for the primary sector.

“What we really need to see from this Government is an acknowledgment that the world pays us good money for the food we produce, and we need a regulatory framework that encourages and supports us to keep doing what we do,” Hoggard said.

But Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Mike Chapman says his sector welcomed any funding that was going for farm environment planning and emissions reductions at this point.

“We are rolling the plans out now,” Chapman said.

“The emissions funding is also welcome because of the challenges our greenhouse growers have when it comes to emission reductions, particularly in the South Island where only

coal can be used. It is a real issue for us, the equivalent challenge, really, to what pastoral farmers have with methane emissions from livestock.”

O’Connor says the additional emissions funding of $24m will be invaluable in boosting NZ’s R&D into technologies for gas reduction.

He says the $900,000 of funds to enable collection of GHG data were also critical.

“As the saying goes, what gets measured, gets done,” O’Connor said.

DairyNZ general manager for responsible dairy Jenny Cameron says there was little new funding to help farmers accelerate the pace or scale of the work they are doing behind the farm gate to improve environmental outcomes.

She did, however, welcome

the national training programme funding for more skilled farm advisors.

“This is the sort of practical onthe-ground action that is needed,” Cameron said.

Benefits from other budget allocations may take longer to deliver a return to the primary sector, but could hold some upside in years to come.

This includes the Government’s announcement it will effectively recycle at least $3b over five years’ of ETS revenue back into emissions reduction schemes.

This has been applauded by Beyond Carbon director Lizzie Chambers. She says it could have some positive outcomes for farmers in years ahead.

“I know the finer details of this are not all there yet, but that is entirely appropriate given we are still waiting to see the final Climate Change Commission report with its recommendations,” Chambers said.

“For farmers, the recycling policy clearly leaves the door open to new funding of investments that could help agriculture further reduce its emissions in coming years.”

This could also be aided by another budget allocation, with $300m of additional funding to the NZ Green Investment Finance bank, taking total funds to $400m.

The Crown capitalised bank was established to accelerate investment to help reduce GHG emissions.

Agriculture is one of the five key sectors it invests in, and at this point no investments have been made into sector technology.

O’Connor says $22.5m of additional NAIT funding also allocated in the budget came on the back of the M bovis eradication programme.

“We have achieved increased levels of NAIT compliance in recent years. This funding will help us maintain and build on that good work,” he said.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Regions face working-age dip Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz DECLINING fertility rates, internal migration to large urban centres and lower migration levels means young rural New Zealanders skilled in almost any aspect of the primary sector are likely to be in the box seat for the rest of their working lives.

Former head of demography at the University of Waikato and professor of demography at Massey University Dr Natalie Jackson says issues the rural sector faces sourcing staff will only worsen in the coming decade.

“Young skilled people are an endangered species, in short supply and high demand.

Unfortunately, a lot just don’t realise that and think they may one day face the unemployment their parents or grandparents may have faced,” Jackson said.

However, the numbers put that concern to rest.

Modelling done by Jackson indicates in the decade 2023-33 almost all parts of New Zealand can expect to experience a decline in the number of 20 to 69-year-old workers. Overall, 75% of territorial authorities (TAs) will experience this decline.

The regional exceptions are Auckland, North Waikato, northern Taranaki and small pockets of ManawatūHorowhenua, Selwyn and Southern Lakes.

This “moderate” depopulation scenario has that decline ranging between 3-20%.

Even taking an optimistic scenario, where the immigration dial is turned up to 55,000 a year and the birth rate per woman aged 15-49 leaps from 1.7 to 1.9, the lift in regional working age growth is still muted.

Twenty-eight TAs (42%) would still see decline in their workingage populations.

“We would almost have to

TOUGH TIMES: Modelling shows the prospects for sourcing labour in the provinces are only going to get tougher in the next decade, and unlikely to get any easier beyond that.

swamp NZ with 100,000 migrants a year to make a major difference, and we are already competing with other countries that are encountering this problem, including Australia,” she said.

The key drivers behind the population declines are already being experienced, and only likely to get worse are due to a combination of factors.

At a big picture level NZ’s natural birth rate per woman aged 15-49 has declined from its peak of 4.1 in 1963 to be well below the replacement rate of 2.1. It now sits at 1.7, in line with most other Western nations.

“And this has been compounded by fewer women choosing to have children at all, and the proportion of women of childbearing age in the population is diminishing,” she said.

In the meantime, the

proportion of the population living longer means NZ is adopting a demographic profile that currently has 16% of its population aged 65-plus in 2018, and 33% in the younger working ages 25-49 bracket.

All up, the working age population aged 15-64 years comprise 65%.

But by 2038, the 65-plus group will comprise 23% of the population, up 7% from today.

The younger working age portion 25-49 will have dropped only slightly to 32.5%.

Jackson, however, stresses those numbers are an average for NZ, and in themselves less remarkable than the major differences rural regions can expect to experience.

In Thames-Coromandel, for example, the working age population of 15-64 years will slump from 54% to only 46% in

2038, while the 65-plus surges to 40%, well ahead of the national average of 23%.

“So, in these areas, they just won’t have the young people coming through,” she said.

Drilling into the working population, 60% of TAs in the coming decade will experience a decline in the number of workers aged 25-44, those often associated with entrepreneurial, innovative business start-ups.

Their more established cohorts in the 45-54 age bracket will also slide in numbers, declining in 84% of all TAs over the same time.

Almost all rural areas are also beset by their youngest workers aged 15-24 leaving for the bright lights of the four large urban centres.

This is something that has happened consistently since the mid-70s, but an effect only

exacerbated by more recent fertility declines.

Jackson says after many keynote addresses on the challenges facing rural authorities in sourcing working-age people, she finds policy settings stuck frustratingly on growth models many regions simply are not going to experience.

“There needs to be a more strategic central government approach toward TAs with labour shortages to entice more people, both internally and internationally to these areas,” she said.

“Aging-driven labour shortages can be projected and planned for well in advance, not left to the last minute as is currently the case”.

For young 15 to 24-year-olds who may represent unemployed potential in urban areas like Auckland, broad pastoral care would be needed to get them to move.

“You can’t just take them out of Auckland, and send them to the bottom of the South Island unassisted and expect them to make their own way,” she said.

The fact that a third of younger labour market entrants are Māori or Polynesian also brings a need for some cultural shifts and awareness about how they would be deployed in areas remote from their iwi or family.

The Government has declared it will be resetting its immigration policies, aiming to only seek out highly-skilled migrants.

Jackson says it would depend on the definition of “highlyskilled” whether the primary sector would benefit, with many managerial positions in the industry capable of being described as such.

“But this issue is not going to go away. If I was looking at land-use for something labourintensive like cherry growing, or alternatively for planting in pine trees, I would grow the pines,” she said.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

5

Thumbs up for wool courses Colin Williscroft colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz TRAINEES and tutors who have taken part in the first two upskilling courses for young shearers and wool handlers say the events were extremely successful.

The three-day courses, put together by training provider WOMOlife, are part of a pilot programme contracted by the New Zealand Shearing Contractors Association (NZSCA) through Kaiaka Wool Training NZ. Twelve trainees, made up of shearers and wool handlers, attended the first course at Tautane in Tararua, with another 22 at the second one near Taumarunui.

Jedd Houpapa-Barrett, who

shears for Mackintosh Shearing out of Taumarunui, couldn’t believe the care and support he experienced and would recommend the course to others.

“It wasn’t just showing us about our work, it was the whole package,” Houpapa-Barrett said.

“They showed us about stretching, eating well, and all the benefits.

“It helped me figure out with this work that I’m a rural athlete. I didn’t realise how many calories I burned when I’m working.

“I was really nervous before the course but I’m really glad I came.

It’s given me the tools of the trade to look after my long-term future.”

Finn McColl, who shears for Mark Barrowclough out of Piopio, says he underestimated beforehand just how beneficial

COMPREHENSIVE: Finn McColl appreciated the wide range of information the course provided.

the course would be.

“I’ve been blown away with the quality of the training,” McColl said.

“Everyone’s done shearing courses and stuff like that but these guys, they really work with you.

“They’re not telling you to change your style too much.

They’re working with you and helping you to adapt to the challenges in the industry.”

McColl says those on the course were provided with the tools to be well-rounded members of the wool harvesting industry.

That includes everything from learning how and why to warm up properly, to shearing patterns and gear, to the importance of looking after your mental state.

“It all goes hand in hand. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts,” he said.

“Each of those little parts is great to have but when you add them together, it’s going to help people enjoy their work and they’ll be in the industry longer, which is crucial for an industry like this. It’s a tough industry but it’s a proud one as well.

“People who are doing it want to be doing it for a long time and these guys are giving us the tools to do that.

“It’s been really relaxed and that’s allowed everyone to really open up and ask questions when they want to and break down their issues and work on them to fix them and come right.”

McColl recommends the course to others in the industry who want to upskill.

“If you can get a spot, jump in and grab it. It’s worth every minute. I sort of came in expecting

FOCUSED: Wool handler Jayde Howden-Beamsley gathers up some of the wool shorn during the final morning of the training course held on Meringa Station, just out of Taumarunui.

a certain level of training but there’s so much more to it,” he said.

Wool handler Chalet Bidois, who also works for Barrowclough, says she found the course eyeopening, not only because of what she learned about movement and health, but how that was conveyed by the trainers.

“It’s easy for everybody to understand. They make it simple.

It’s a totally practical environment where you can learn and engage and observe, like you can do all kinds of learning,” Bidois said.

“A lot of the lessons we’ve learned aren’t just for the wool shed, it’s applicable outside of work as well.

“It teaches you things that will help make your career last longer.”

One of the head trainers Carmen Smith says the concept behind the course involves looking at both body and mind.

“What you put into it and what you get out of it,” Smith said.

She says the approach of sharing knowledge and encouraging engagement will

work for people who may not have been comfortable at school.

“We try to be inclusive. We’re not up there lecturing, we just want to be relatable, to get across that people can ask questions,” she said.

The in-shed training is reinforced through trainees having access to online content, which includes a series of short videos they can access through their phones after they return to work.

Smith says the trainers have been pleased with the way the first two course intakes have responded to the programme of learning.

“We’re just trying a different approach. I often say it’s a holistic approach – mind, body and soul,” she said.

“It’s about making them think, it’s not only about working hard.

“As trainers we just love the different approach.

“We get quite emotionally invested in them (trainees). We care about them. We want to see them do well.”

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

7

UK navigates trade pressure Nigel Stirling nigel.g.stirling@gmail.com A ROW at the most senior levels of British politics over whether to scrap tariffs on Australian agricultural imports is being watched closely for implications for New Zealand’s push for tarifffree access in its own trade talks with the United Kingdom.

British media last week reported a split in Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Cabinet, with the current Environment Secretary George Eustice and his influential predecessor Michael Gove fighting to keep British farmers behind a tariff wall.

In the opposite camp is Johnson’s Trade Secretary Liz Truss who wants Britain’s agricultural tariffs gone in the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA) currently under negotiation to signal the UK’s free-trading intent post-Brexit.

In a crucial intervention, Johnson took to the floor of the British Parliament on Wednesday to back Truss.

The leader of the Scottish National Party Ian Blackford asked Johnson to “categorically rule out … being prepared to sign up a trade deal that will at any point

DIVIDED: British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s Cabinet is reportedly split over free trade talks, with one side trying to keep the UK behind a tariff wall.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

guarantee tariff-free access to Australian lamb and beef”.

Johnson replied saying Blackford “grossly underestimates (Scottish farmers’) ability to do great things with our trade deals

and to export Scottish beef around the world. All he does is call for us to pull up the drawbridge … Why is he so frightened of free trade?

“I think it is a massive opportunity for Scotland and for the whole of the UK and he should seize it and be proud of it.”

However, British media report Johnson remains under intense pressure from fellow Conservatives after being warned by Gove that scrapping agricultural tariffs could intensify pressure from within Scotland to leave the UK. It also risked inflaming arguments over Welsh independence.

The blow-up comes as Trade Minister Damien O’Connor prepares to travel to London and Brussels next month to advance talks for free trade deals with the UK and the European Union.

One Wellington insider says Johnson’s statement was a positive development for NZ’s negotiations, although noted the British PM’s erratic reputation and past record for U-turns.

“It is very helpful to us but how much detail do you think BoJo is actually over?” they asked.

While the offer on the table from the UK was an improvement

on current market access, it remained short of what would be acceptable to NZ. The source says NZ negotiators had been told by their UK counterparts that they could not conclude an agreement without some tariffs and quotas remaining in place for the most sensitive agricultural products.

The success of Brexit depends on the UK developing a dynamic new trading strategy and Boris knows that.

Lockwood Smith Former Trade Minister Former Trade Minister Lockwood Smith, who has close ties to senior members of the Tory Cabinet, says the pressure was on Johnson and his fellow Brexiteers for trade deals now the UK was out of the EU. “The success of Brexit depends on the UK developing a dynamic

new trading strategy and Boris knows that,” Smith said.

“It is so important to him that Brexit succeeds and that is why he will come down on Truss’ side, but Gove in particular is a fairly significant person against him.”

But Smith says the UK had to face reality if it wanted free trade for its own exporters.

“If they stick with the quotas and tariffs then forget Global Britain,” he said.

“It ain’t going to happen.”

Smith was disappointed at reports that Eustice was pushing for an extended phase-out of tariffs over 15 years to protect British farmers.

He says that was too long for NZ exporters to have to wait.

More sensible would be aligning tariff reductions with the winddown of direct payments to British farmers inherited from the EU and their replacement with subsidies for public goods such as fostering bird habitats and creating wetlands.

That process is expected to take seven years.

“Ten years would make sense.

It would give time for farmers to settle into new support systems that Eustice is putting in place and give certainty,” he said.

Milling wheat goal under threat Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz AN INDUSTRY drive to increase the use of New Zealand-grown milling wheat is under threat as farmers grapple with a new grain procurement regime.

In a project started in 2017, the arable industry has been working towards increasing the use of NZgrown milling grain.

Over the past four harvests wheat production has bumped up significantly to 110,000 tonnes, putting the project on track to meet industry goals.

Farmer and industry support for the project has been positive.

But significant adjustments to controversial trading dynamics for the coming season are derailing the plan.

Farmers lack confidence and industry is nervous following the details of the change that has come too late for farmers.

In March, Christchurch mill AB Mauri, formerly the Weston Mill, notified its new procurement policy that significantly changes the trading dynamics for the South Island milling wheat industry.

AB Mauri is a leading supplier of bakery ingredient solutions across Australia and NZ. Detail has been slow to emerge creating uncertainty with many farmers lacking the confidence to plant milling wheat this season.

In desperation to get answers, Federated Farmers convened a

meeting in Ashburton to hear from Wilmar – a large-scale Australian-based integrated commodity merchandising and supply management company – the sole trader now tasked with procuring the majority volume of AB Mauri’s South Island milling wheat requirements.

Wilmar will also procure for Goodman Fielder milling requirements at the Farmers Mill in Timaru.

It was standing room only, with the meeting attracting 140 farmers and industry stakeholders looking for a please explain.

Industry feared the new procurement policy would potentially lead to a fall in local milling wheat production.

Those fears are realised with the latest arable industry marketing initiative (AIMI) grower survey revealing autumn and winter drillings of milling wheat back 1800ha on the last season.

“We were really concerned that milling wheat was not going in the ground because of misunderstandings and uncertainty, ‘’ arable industry chair Colin Hurst said.

“Sadly, we are not going away from this meeting with much more confidence.

There will be no contracts offered publicly, Wilmar will deal directly with growers.

“We take a pragmatic approach, we know the tonnage we need, we will work with the mills, farmers

SEEKING ANSWERS: Feds Mid Canterbury chair David Clark, UWG chair Brian Leadley, Mid Canterbury arable chair Darrell Hydes and Feds arable chair Colin Hurst met with farmers over a controversial wheat procurement policy that has rocked NZ’s milling wheat industry.

Photo: Annette Scott

and agents, if they are involved, to get what we want and then close off,” Wilmar South Island merchant Brad Davies said.

“Our aim is to collect tonnes direct with growers and reduce the amount of carryover.

“Our volumes for NZ mills are no less, if not more than has been in the past.”

What if there’s not sufficient local grain?

“We will support 100% NZ grain where we possibly can, but I can’t stop putting bread on the shelves – then we go to Plan B, C, D,” he said.

Davies acknowledged the timing is not great for the new season’s planting.

“People have to make a decision and yes, this may impact the milling industry this season,” he said.

Davies would not be drawn

on pricing, or volumes.

United Wheatgrowers chair Brian Leadley says it is too late now for milling wheat this season.

“We have missed the boat potentially on the area we could have had in,” Leadley said.

“I am reluctant to say it, but the lack of trust and confidence in the system does put the supply local grain project under real threat.

“This strategy around the procurement and marketing has caused confusion and seriously impacted on planting time and land-use opportunity with extra grass rather than wheat being planted.

“It’s been a big effort in recent years to collaborate and get where we have, we just needed everyone to keep working together.”

If seed companies are discontinued in the contracting of

milling wheat between farmer and mill, the entire NZ milling wheat breeding effort is at great risk and the financial implications may cause these breeding programmes to be shut down entirely.

This would be a huge loss, as it would inevitably lead to much less milling wheat being grown in NZ and much more milling wheat being imported into NZ. “It will be a big chunk of our armour gone, and sad for farmers if we can’t continue breeding new varieties,” he said.

“In the changing environment we need breeding even more to keep the arable sector viable,” PGG Wrighston grain R&D manager Nick Brooks said.

MORE:

Farmers wanting to know more can contact Wilmar merchant Brad Davies on 027 7765 550.

8

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Call to maintain wool standards Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz CROSSBRED wool may be in the doldrums, but clip preparation must not be compromised.

Addressing the New Zealand Wool Classers Association (NZWCA) annual industry day in Ashburton, South Island wool auctioneer and NZWCA broker representative Roger Fuller urged wool classers and shed hands not to succumb to sub-standard clip preparation.

While many changes have happened in the wool industry over the past 40 years, the fundamentals have remained the same.

“Wool classing, grading and wool quality are as important as ever,” Fuller said.

“As your broker representative I

intend to ensure these important areas continue to be addressed and the high standards are maintained.”

Industry is addressing many issues to improve farmer returns and one of the biggest issues for farmers is the cost to harvest wool.

“We are certainly noticing a lowering in the standard,” he said.

“Shearers at the end of the day want to get the job done and the poor shed hand and classer are in the middle of the farmer and the shearer.

“It’s hard to put more people in the shed at $1.50 a kilogram for wool, at $2.50-$3.50 it’s easier to argue, that’s what we are facing with the farmer every day.

“But we must keep up the standards of what you are trained to do as a classer, don’t lower standards even if the farmer says

he wants you to save cost.

“Do your homework, know what is needed and get that short-cut mentality out of farmers’ minds.”

Fuller encouraged having a contract with the farmer before starting the job.

“If you have a contract, you have got some fat to chew,” he said.

Contamination is escalating and industry puts that down to carelessness because of fewer people in the shed.

He says it’s getting to a point where there will be a charge for contamination.

Thistles are the biggest issue in crossbred wool.

“Because of the dry season we are expecting it will be a really trying season for vege matter, especially thistles, this comes back to farm management as well,” he said.

TRICKS OF THE TRADE: Fairlie farmer Eric Laurenson and Waimate farmer Brian Ponsonby have been classing their own wool for years and looked forward to the opportunity to test their skills at the annual industry day.

Photo: Annette Scott

CLASS ACT: Wool classers test their skills at an industry professional development day in Ashburton, as they look ahead to the time when a premium will be paid for clip preparation.

Photo: Annette Scott

Cots are proving a problem, especially with the wet season in Southland.

“We are seeing a lot of cots coming through and if there’s any excuse to lower the price that’s one,” he said.

Fuller says industry needs to continue to attract younger people, therefore maintaining a good training programme and upholding standards is a must.

“The day will come when premiums are paid for preparation of clips, there will be a benefit in maintaining standards,” he said.

Speaking with an independent view of the wool industry, Hawke’s Bay farmer and Campaign for Wool (CfW) Trust chair Tom O’Sullivan did not hold back.

“I am going to be brutal in my view, especially strong wool,” O’Sullivan, who is a director on the Strong Wool Action Group (SWAG) board, said.

He recalled the days when wool was that valuable it was plucked off dead sheep and off barbed wire on the fence.

“Now strong wool is in absolute crisis, it is a broken industry – sadly, sadly broken,” he said.

“Every bale that goes out my woolshed door costs us about $1.60/kg.

“That comes from years of a lack of industry research and development, poor governance, poor marketing – too many names and not enough brains.

“The strong wool industry was asleep at the wheel, while consumers were romanced with synthetics for the past 30 years.

“I believe we are at a point where there will be a groundswell move away from synthetics.”

He cited several strategy initiatives CfW has under way.

“But we are on hold while we wait for SWAG progress,” he said.

One thing for certain is the industry needs collaboration.

“Gone are the days when all were in silos, we need to push together towards a united industry, and we will be far more powerful,” he said.

“The threat from forestry is huge. I hear a lot of farmers saying I’ll give it another year or two and then I’ll get out to wood.

“We have got to get the right brains not just names, with government support and financial backing to rebuild farmer trust of the activity beyond the farm gate.

“It’s a big challenge ahead, but wool can be a kick-ass fibre in the future if we get it right.”

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

9

Concern over forestry’s spread Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz THE Government has been accused of failing to fulfil election promises to protect quality soils from forest planting and to review the favourable treatment of foreign forestry investors.

Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard says the Government promised to revise the National Environmental Standards for Plantation Forestry (NES-PF) to require resource consent for proposed forestry blocks larger than 50ha on class 1-5 soil but has not yet done so.

“We were told they would,” Hoggard said.

The Government has announced terms of reference for a review of the Overseas Investment Act (OIA), which provides favourable treatment of foreign forestry investors, but a report is not due until the end of next year.

NZ Forest Service acting director general Henry Weston says changes to the national environmental standards (NES-PF) need to be considered alongside other work such as increased planting of permanent native and production forests to meet emission reduction targets.

It must also take account of reviews into the role of timber and wood processing in a net zero carbon economy and changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA), of which the NES-PF is part of.

Weston says the NES-PF provides regulation for the management of any forest block over 1ha planted for commercial

harvest, and a review of those rules started in 2018 was released last year.

It recommended changes to reduce the risk of wilding trees, tighter control in the management of slash and improve accountability for biodiversity.

Hoggard says the Government promised to introduce new standards to protect soils within six months of being elected, but Weston says it will now be considered along with the emissions reduction plan, part of the Zero Carbon Act, and RMA reforms.

“One of the work streams in that plan is a strategic direction for the NES-PF to ensure that it is fit for the future and integrated with broader government reforms,” Weston said.

“This will involve careful consideration of what right tree, right place, right purpose means for New Zealand.”

Forest companies encouraged by a high carbon price are outbidding pastoral farmers and purchasing some classes of land, according to Real Estate Institute of NZ rural spokesperson Brian Peacocke.

He has had reports that depending on the location and topography, forestry companies are paying between $4000 and $12,000/ha.

The areas experiencing the greatest growth are Otago, north Wairarapa, southern Hawke’s Bay, Gisborne, Wairoa, coastal Taranaki and Northland.

“It is quite widespread,” Peacocke said.

However, Peacocke says the profitability of sheep and beef farming, and banks being more willing to lend to the sector, has made farmers more competitive when buying land.

But that may only last until the carbon unit price, currently around $37 per tonne, starts rising, as it is widely predicted to do.

Hoggard’s criticism of the spread of forestry and its impact on rural communities and jobs has been rebuffed by forest owners.

The Forest Owners Association says planting restrictions will intrude on farmers wanting to plant trees on their land and make it difficult for NZ to reach its climate change targets.

Association president Phil Taylor says last year’s PricewaterhouseCoopers Report, commissioned by the Ministry for Primary Industries, found that, on average, the valueadd for forestry per hectare was many times higher than it was from the average hill country property.

Taylor says foreign forestry investors cannot invest in carbon forest planting and he notes the rate of new forestry planting in the 18 months to the end of last year, was 500ha a month and has since fallen.

The Climate Change Commission has calculated 380,000ha of new plantation forests are needed within 15 years for NZ to reach its greenhouse gas reduction targets, which Taylor says represents about 4% of existing sheep and beef farmland.

“If we fail to get that modest area in trees because of planting restrictions, then the Government may have to reduce livestock numbers instead. And I don’t think Federated Farmers would want that,” Taylor said.

IMPACT: Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard says criticism of the spread of forestry and its impact on rural communities and jobs has been rebuffed by forest owners.

Treasury shares forestry review focus Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz THE Treasury has released the terms of reference into a review of Overseas Investment Act (OIA) regulations, which eases the process for foreign forestry investors to buy land, but change is at least 18 months away.

Foreign investors own nearly 70% of New Zealand forest plantations, but in 2018 the Government changed the way the Overseas Investment Office (OIO) screened potential buyers, recognising their importance to the sector and

UNHAPPY: Rural leaders have criticised legislation enabling foreign investors to buy pastoral land for conversion to forestry.

THE BEST PART OF

to support projects such as the One Billion Trees programme.

The legislation has been criticised by rural leaders for the social and community impact from enabling foreign investors to buy pastoral land for conversion to forestry, as well as extending their ownership of existing plantations.

Farmers Weekly this month revealed that since 2018, the legislation has allowed foreign investors to buy 30 farms covering 32,644ha for conversion to forestry, along with another 35 existing forestry blocks covering 111,517ha.

The Government has

announced its review will look at whether the changes achieved the original intent and are aligned with other government objectives and work programmes.

Those include domestic wood processing, changes to the national environmental standards for plantation forestry, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), reducing emissions, the One Billion Trees programme and the reform of the Resource Management Act (RMA).

A report is not expected to be ready for the minister until late next year

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10 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Charity marks a big milestone Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz ONE year on from its inception, Meat the Need has donated more than 400,000 red meat meals to food banks throughout New Zealand.

Meat the Need became a nationwide charity after being successfully piloted in Christchurch amid the covid-19 crisis.

The charity, created by YOLO Farmer Wayne Langford and Siobhan O’Malley of Pukeko Pastures, enables farmers to help feed Kiwi families in need by providing the means for them to donate livestock through its charitable supply chain.

Langford says the high level of support from the farming community, alongside the support from meat processor Silver Fern Farms (SFF), has been key to the charity’s success.

“Many New Zealanders have needed a hand-up this past year and farmers have really

stepped up to the plate in giving generously to Meat the Need,” Langford said.

“Silver Fern Farms has also played a key role in promoting this with their network of farmers, processing the livestock and facilitating the distribution of the meat.

“With their support, our supply chain is going from strength to strength.”

As a Meat the Need founding partner, SFF is pleased to celebrate the charity’s first anniversary.

The milestone provides an opportunity to reflect on Meet the Need’s success to date in delivering over 410,000 nutritious red meat meals to foodbanks across NZ in the first year.

The ambitious goal for its second year is to double that figure and deliver close to one million meals.

Following the Christchurch pilot, Meat the Need scaled-up rapidly in its first year and now supplies high-quality natural beef

mince to more than 50 foodbanks across the country.

SFF plays a pivotal role in the supply chain by processing the livestock to create high-quality natural beef mince.

The meat processor also facilitates the delivery of the endproduct to foodbanks.

Group marketing manager Nicola Johnston says the company’s support of the charity was inspired by farmers who were actively looking for ways to give back to their communities.

“Silver Fern farmers produce some of the best red meat in the world, which is something they believe all New Zealanders should benefit from,” Johnston said.

“As key players in our foodproducing nation, they are passionate about helping the efforts to ensure no Kiwi goes hungry.”

Meat the Need is one initiative in SFF’s wider Sustainable Chain of Care programme that is committed to making a difference by investing in local

CALL TO ACTION: Siobhan O’Malley and Wayne Langford created the Meat the Need charity to help feed Kiwi families in need amid the covid-19 crisis.

communities, sustainability, and the environment.

Farmers who supply livestock to SFF can donate the value for an agreed number of livestock into the Meat the Need charity fund

through a simple booking process.

Other farmers and the public can also support the Meat the Need charity by making donations via its website – MeattheNeed.org

AGL launches associate director programme Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz

OPPORTUNITY: Alliance Group chair Murray Taggart says the successful candidate will attend board and committee meetings, and have access to induction and mentoring programmes.

THE Alliance Group is launching an associate director programme to introduce shareholders to a career in governance.

Alliance Group chair Murray Taggart says the successful candidate will be appointed for a year and be introduced to the dynamics of the boardroom, while broadening their understanding of Alliance’s business.

The successful candidate will attend board and committee meetings and have access to induction and mentoring programmes.

“We have a lot of depth and experience on our board and we work across multiple challenging and

exciting markets and environments,” Taggart said.

He says the board wants to share its experience and also grow the governance pool.

“This is a great opportunity for shareholders who have governance aspirations to gain real-world experience, including exposure to Alliance directors and management for networking, coaching and mentoring,” he said.

In the meantime, Alliance has paid out almost $6 million to its most loyal suppliers for stock supplied to the co-operative from January to March.

The quarterly payments were made to platinum and gold suppliers who received an additional 10c/kg for lamb, 6c/kg for sheep, 8.5c/kg for cattle and 10c/kg for deer.

Chief executive David Surveyor

This is a great opportunity for shareholders who have governance aspirations to gain real-world experience.

Murray Taggart Alliance Group says global shipping challenges and extreme dry conditions have made this year challenging for many farmers.

“To return this money to our loyal shareholders at this time is very rewarding,” Surveyor said.

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12 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Catch crops reduce nitrate leaching Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz CATCH crops are proving their worth as a management tool to reduce nitrate leaching.

Plant & Food Research, Lincoln Agritech and AgResearch scientists shared the findings of a catch crop used for a cleaner freshwater research project at a workshop in Darfield.

Discussion included current results, issues and benefits around the establishment of catch crops, including crop type, cultivation and soil management methods.

In opening the workshop, Plant & Food Research scientist Brendon Malcolm encouraged

farmers to “get ahead of the curve” and put some catch crops in.

“It’s about being the ambulance at the top of the hill,” Malcolm said.

A catch crop is any crop that is sown with the primary objective of utilising excess nitrogen in soils that otherwise may be lost to the environment through leaching.

Trials completed in Canterbury, Waikato and Southland have found cereals were more effective than grass species following winter grazing.

The earlier the crop is planted, the greater the opportunity to reduce leaching, with catch crops also able to increase the total annual yield of a paddock.

FIELDWORK: AgResearch research associate Anna Taylor and Plant & Food Research science team leader for field operations Shane Maley take soil samples in an oat catch crop.

The three-year Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Sustainable Farming Fund (SFF) project contract is widely supported by industries looking to reduce environmental impacts from winter forage crop grazing.

Malcolm says the main driver of the catch crop research is mopping up nitrogen.

One Canterbury trial of kale grazed over winter, then sown in oats late-July, captured 65 kilograms of nitrogen.

“The oat crop is taking up more nitrogen than it requires, so the result is a luxury uptake – high nitrogen percentage,” he said.

“It is a tool not a silver bullet and there is no one size fits all.”

Key agronomic recommendations are to sow the catch crop as soon as possible after grazing, select winter active species such as oats, target minimum or no tillage and targeting high plant populations, ideally 110-120kg of seed per hectare for oats, using certified high vigour seed.

Aim for good soil-to-seed contact, this may require some surface tillage, minimum weed competition and applying nitrogen fertiliser in October if required, then harvest at greenchop silage for maximum yield and quality.

Trial results to date show cereals perform better than ryegrass and Italian grass that struggle in the colder temperatures.

An oat-Italian mix is a popular choice, but dry matter yield performance lagged a straight oat crop in both Canterbury and Southland trials.

“More seed (means) more cost, but (also) more crop – it is really important to target high plant populations,” Plant & Food Research science team leader for

PLAN Plant & Food Research scientist Brendon Malcolm says catch crops are a way to get ahead of the curve.

The oat crop is taking up more nitrogen than it requires, so the result is a luxury uptake.

Brendon Malcolm Plant & Food Research field operations Shane Maley said.

“It’s all about sourcing appropriate seed and getting enough seed in the ground to get a result; lower plant population resulted in 30-40% less nitrogen update.

“I can’t stress enough the need to get really good seed for high vigour at this time of the year as you want to catch crops off by mid-November at the very latest,

or it becomes too hard to look at the next crop.

“Catch crops are low input, there’s no need to put nitrogen on at planting at all.

“Ideally 300 plants per square metre, and that smothers weeds out quite nicely too.”

Harvest at green-crop not only maximises yield and quality, but also opens other windows for follow-on plantings.

Catch crops do not work with fodder beet rotation.

While trials have been conducted on the West Coast, in Canterbury and Southland this year, with some work also being done in Hawke’s Bay, the trial work is not yet programmed into Overseer.

“But we do expect it will improve the number,” he said.

“We are working with Overseer now and applying to MPI to get some more funding to get into Overseer.”

Course to tackle farm risk management THE Agri-Women’s Development Trust (AWDT) will design and deliver a Ministry for Primary Industries-funded programme to help lift farmers’ risk management skills, in the hope of preventing business failure.

It will be piloted in six locations from next month.

The trust has been given $331,000 to research, design and deliver the course.

“The primary sector is the backbone of our economy and

it’s vital we ensure farmers and growers are equipped to withstand challenges facing the sector,” MPI director of rural communities and farming support Nick Story said.

“This course will give them the skills, tools and confidence to help make their agribusinesses more financially resilient.

“Farmers and growers can’t control the weather, commodity prices or shifts in consumers’ shopping habits, but they can plan and prepare for change.”

Where and when Pilot group

Sector

Start date

Location

Farming women

Sheep, beef, dairy

30/6/2021

Winton

Farming partnerships (women and men)

Sheep, beef, dairy

1/7/2021

Balclutha

Farming women

Sheep, beef, dairy

7/7/2021

Ashburton

Farming partnerships (women and men)

Sheep, beef, dairy

8/7/2021

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Sheep, beef, dairy, horticulture, arable

7/7/2021

Feilding

Pan-sector partnerships (women and men)

Sheep, beef, dairy, horticulture, arable

8/7/2021

Hastings

Up to 130 people are expected to take part in the course.

AWDT general manager Lisa Sims says it will be piloted with sheep, beef, dairy, arable, and horticulture businesses in the Hawke’s Bay, Manawatū, Canterbury, Otago and Southland.

“The aim of the course is to empower farmers and growers to understand the different types of risks facing their business, and give them the skills to develop plans to manage the financial and personal implications of those risks,” Sims said.

Funding for the programme is part of a $1.15 million commitment in the 2020-21 financial year to reduce the risk of primary producers getting into financial strife.

MPI has earmarked $500,000 a year for three years to help enhance financial literacy and risk management skills, and a further $100,000 has also been allocated to the Farm Business Advice Support Fund to provide farmers with independent advice

EMPOWERED: AgriWomens’ Development Trust general manager Lisa Sims says the course will give farmers the skills to develop plans to manage financial risk.

to help tackle farm debt.

“This fund is managed by the Rural Support Trust national council and has already been accessed by more than 40 businesses. It’s believed the support has prevented farmers from defaulting on loans and requiring the services of the Farm Debt Mediation Scheme,” Story said.

The Farm Debt Mediation Scheme was launched in July and has an annual budget of $550,000

to help farmers and growers work through debt issues with their lenders.

“There have been 42 requests for mediation services through the scheme. Importantly, it has encouraged lenders to engage in conversations with at-risk clients earlier, avoiding the need for mediation,” he said.

Farmers and growers can request mediation at any time and hardship funding is available through MPI.

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16 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Analysts weigh milk price prospects Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz GLOBAL Dairy Trade (GDT) prices were mostly unchanged in the second May fortnightly auction, the last before the end of the 2021 New Zealand dairy season.

The commodity price results were good prospects for an opening farm gate milk price for the new season in the mid-$7/kg milksolids range, analysts say.

The NZX dairy derivatives market for milk price futures is anticipating $7.84 for next season, higher than the current contract traded price for this season of $7.73.

However, the futures market also expected commodity prices to increase in recent GDT events, something that has failed to come true.

For the past two months (four auctions) the GDT index movements have been, in order, plus 0.3%, minus 0.1%, minus 0.7% and minus 0.2%.

LOOKING GOOD: Westpac senior agri-economist Nathan Penny expects Fonterra to open the new season with a mid-point forecast between $7-7.60.

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Notwithstanding a 0.2% fall in the latest auction, whole milk powder (WMP) prices have stayed above US$4000 per tonne, the major determinant of a milk price over $7.

Skim milk powder (SMP) rose 0.7% and now sits at $3447, having gained steadily since February and during most of the past 12 months, during which it has risen 35% Westpac’s senior agri-economist Nathan Penny says strong prices over recent auctions should cause Fonterra to lift and tighten its milk price forecast for the current season closer to $7.90.

He believed it would open the new season with a mid-point forecast between $7 and $7.60.

If the mid-point is $7.25, then he expected Fonterra to quote a range of $6.75 to $7.75, to reduce the risk of having to lower its forecast later in the season.

Penny says the sideways trend of the past few auctions meant that commodity prices remained at very healthy levels; for example, WMP up 54% over the past 12 months.

NZX dairy analyst Stu Davison also says the sideways trend was evidence of a market with robust demand.

“Buyers are happy to pay more than $4000 for WMP and there seems to be no stopping that demand at this point in time,” Davison said.

“The price point has been thoroughly tested

by Fonterra putting added volumes on the GDT platform, with the consensus that demand is still firm.”

Jarden head of derivatives Mike McIntyre says the futures market had expected increases in the GDT prices in recent auctions, only to be proved wrong.

“Those buying on the physical market are not necessarily participating in futures,” McIntyre said.

“GDT is a much bigger market and there isn’t a perfect tie-up with the derivatives market.”

He says the end of the NZ dairy season for milk production was much stronger this year compared with two previous years.

“So seeing prices up at these levels without supply constraints, sets us up nicely for the new season,” he said.

Chinese participation in the milk powders markets had continued right through into our autumn, which meant bigger consumption in China and a strong support under GDT prices.

BNZ senior economist Doug Steel has forecast the 2022 milk price at $7.80, adding that Fonterra could open with a prediction higher than $7, which would be a record opening price.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Buzz over mānuka branding

CASE: Apiculture New Zealand chief executive Karin Kos says there’s a compelling argument to protect NZ’s mānuka brand.

Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz THE head of New Zealand’s mānuka honey association has reacted with puzzlement to United Kingdom news reports of British beekeepers becoming tangled up in its claim to the term “mānuka” in honey labelling.

British newspaper the Telegraph recently reported that honey manufacturer Rowse has asked lawyers to fight NZ’s application to trademark “mānuka honey” and its composition.

The UMF Honey Association has lodged an application to have the brand protected with the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO).

But UMF spokesperson John Rawcliffe says there is nothing new in the report, and that UK appeal documents were filed back in 2017 when the association first sought the protection, along with an appeal by Australian beekeepers and honey producers.

Rowse claims the protection will have a negative impact on supply and push prices higher for the high-value health-giving product.

But Rawcliffe says this was a diversion from UMF’s efforts to protect an indigenous descriptor.

“There is nothing new in this story. I would like to grow champagne too, but I can’t because it is protected, and this is just what we are seeking for mānuka,” Rawcliffe said.

He says efforts by the UK and Australian beekeepers to stymie NZ’s attempt at protecting the name would be aired in court in the UK in September when both parties’ official appeal against the protection would be heard.

Rawcliffe labelled that confrontation a precedent setting encounter that would have long reaching consequences for the ability of NZ to protect this and future indigenous brand names, including other honey types like rewarewa.

These efforts are just an attempt to rip off mānuka.

John Rawcliffe UMF Honey Association “The reality is that if we are to create added value for honey that puts it above a sugar price, it has to have a New Zealand story behind it,” he said.

Rawcliffe says he was familiar with the British estate Tregothnan, which was a leading voice in the UK opposition to mānuka protection.

The property has produced mānuka honey for 20 years, with 50 hives and a line of limited edition mānuka honey.

“Having been there and seeing the plants, they have only a few plants they bought back from NZ in the 1800s. They are a very small drop in the bucket compared to native NZ plantings,” he said.

The UMF association is also continuing with its efforts to also gain protection for mānuka in China, and hoped to see a resolution made there before year’s end.

“In the short-term, these efforts are just an attempt to rip off mānuka. The Australians learnt how to walk all over Uluru, and now they are attempting to walk all over mānuka,” he said.

Apiculture NZ chief executive Karin Kos agreed with Rawcliffe that the UK move had been known about for as long as the Australian opposition.

“From our perspective we have seen the support for protecting mānuka across all aspects of the industry, at an iwi, government and industry level.

When you have all the players in NZ working on this, it is a compelling argument to protect it,” she said.

17

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News

18 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Putting safeguards in place

WORKPLACE SAFETY: Southland farmer Sam Hodsell says people are bound to make mistakes on-farm, so it’s important to have preventative measures in place.

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2021 Otago-Southland FMG Young Farmer of the Year Sam Hodsell says it’s critical to identify and manage workplace risks on their farm – but he and his family are also actively putting tangible measures in place to help protect people if someone does make a mistake.

“For instance, we’ve recently purchased and had big red buoys screwed onto all our irrigation pipes,” Sam, who 50:50 sharemilks with his partner Jenna for his parents Craig and Gaewyn on the 250ha family farm at Taramoa in Southland, said.

“That was learning from a near miss and we wanted to make sure the pipes were highly visible and they certainly are now.

“We have also benefited from productivity gains due to saving time looking for lost pipes.”

Sam sourced the buoys from New Zealand CeeMee company, which sells innovative farming safety solutions. The Hodsells are now also looking at installing rollover crush protection on quad bikes.

“My parents have always been very aware about health and safety,” he said.

“Growing up, I learnt a lot from seeing the measures my dad put in place on-farm.

“We have a health and safety plan, training register and incident report.

“We used online templates provided by farming industry organisations to draw those up and it was pretty straightforward.

“We sat down as a team and identified our risks and talked about how we could manage, minimise or eliminate them.

“Identifying and managing risk is also ongoing. For instance, one of our critical risks is working with large animals. We provide training for our people, to make sure they have the skills to safely do all aspects of their work. With livestock that includes training people to work in safe ways around animals and also how to read an animal’s behaviour.

However, we recognise that it takes a long time to pick that up.”

Fatigue has also been identified as a critical risk on-farm and over the past two years, Sam and Jenna have increased their staff numbers to help address that,

with resulting benefits.

“Fatigue is one of the biggest risks from my point of view,” he said.

“Employing extra staff means more of the workload is shared.

We talk with people about how they are feeling, and if they are tired, I will say go home and get some rest.

“I know if I’m feeling tired or under the weather, I don’t do the best job and there’s a risk of taking shortcuts. I don’t want anyone working if they are feeling like that.

“That’s not just about health and safety, it’s also about performance. It’s costing us more in wages but we get that return back in productivity and then maybe a bit more. I think it’s good for staff retention too – people enjoy their work more.

I know if I’m feeling tired or under the weather, I don’t do the best job and there’s a risk of taking shortcuts.

I don’t want anyone working if they are feeling like that.

Sam Hodesell Farmer “We have only been back sharemilking on this property for three years – which my parents have owned for 15 years – but the whole team has been with us for two years now.”

Vehicles and machinery are also recognised as critical risks and guards have been put on machinery.

“People can make mistakes, so you need those safeguards in place, such as having a guard on the PTO shaft on the tractor,” he said.

“We have expectations around use of vehicles, including always wearing a seatbelt, and using helmets at all times. We’re lucky in that the farm is pretty flat, but accidents can still happen and we want to provide the best protection if they do.”

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

19

Future drought could hit profits NEW research forecasts a strong relationship between potential intense future drought in New Zealand, with drops in farm profit.

The research, by the Deep South Challenge and Manaaki Whenua – Landcare Research, with the support of Motu Economic and Public Policy Research, draws on 70,000 tax returns and temperature and soil moisture data, to understand the historical relationship between local weather and farm profits in both the dairy and sheep and beef industries.

For controlling prices and farm management, the research shows a clear effect. Extrapolating on the clear relationship, future climate change scenarios were tested to understand how much future farm profit might be under pressure, due to reduced soil moisture and increased temperatures.

Year-on-year drought is still uncommon in NZ, giving farmers opportunities to recover financially, mentally and environmentally.

However, uncontrolled climate change is likely to bring more severe and far more frequent drought.

Under a high climate change scenario – the pathway representing little climate action and high economic growth – sheep and

beef farmers could see a profit loss of up to 54% by the end of the century, subject to a high degree of uncertainty.

Analysis suggests that sheep and beef farms are vulnerable to high temperatures as well as soil moisture loss, while dairy shows an unclear effect of high temperatures, but is clearly sensitive to soil moisture loss, according to this modelling.

Looking only at changes in soil moisture, both dairy and sheep and beef show a decrease in profit by 2100 – an average of 20% for dairy and 7% for sheep and beef.

A more moderate climate change scenario suggests more moderate losses considering soil moisture changes alone.

Manaaki Whenua research colead Dr Kendon Bell says that one potential use of the research results is to better understand how climate change might encourage farmers and growers to implement adaptation measures, or even to change what they farm and where. Due to large capital investments, it’s difficult for farmers to change the way they use their land, while the creeping pace of climate change will not likely force land-use change in the near future.

Yet this research suggests that landuse change should at least be on the cards in some places.

Bell says what’s important is the relative attractiveness of animal versus other land uses.

“To gain a full understanding of how climate change might affect land-use pressures, we require profit-weather functions for all relevant land uses, in addition to those provided here for dairy and sheep and beef,” Bell said.

He says animal agriculture is a major contributor to both climate change and water pollution, so understanding the extent to which climate change might affect this baseline over time is important for policy considerations over the coming decades.

“Understanding the scale of the expected impacts of climate change across all sectors is key for central government when considering future budgets for adaptation support.

“If, as a hypothetical example, the scale of expected net damages to agriculture was 1% of the expected net harm to human health, it would be difficult to justify putting 50% of central government’s adaptation budget into agriculture.

“However, these quantitative comparisons are not yet straightforward, because the underlying quantitative studies have not yet been executed across all sectors.”

®

LOOKING AHEAD: Kendon Bell says new research could help provide a better understanding of how climate change might encourage farmers and growers to implement adaptation measures.

News

20 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Northland berry farm takes shape Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz AWARD-WINNING horticultural and hydroponic entrepreneurs Maungatapere Berries, run by the Malley family, is under way with the first stage of tunnel houses covering 10ha for berryfruit production near Kaikohe in the Mid-North.

They are partnering with local iwi-owned Ngāpuhi Asset Holding Company and Far North Holdings in a new entity called Kaikohe Berryfruit Ltd Partnership.

Ground levelling and covering, tunnel house erection, drainage and water reticulation, and artificial shelter are all under way on the Ngāwhā Innovation and Enterprise Park.

Adding value is the key objective, because Northland currently generates about one-and-a-half jobs for every thousand tonnes of raw materials, compared with Hawke’s Bay at seven and Auckland with 30.

Andy Nock Far North Holdings Berry cuttings in bags of substrate are being prepared at Maungatapere Berries near Whangarei, where the Malleys pioneered large-scale hydroponics seven years ago.

Stocking the new Kaikohe houses with raspberries and blackberries will begin soon, and first production is scheduled for spring 2021.

Most of the water needed will be collected from the tunnel house

roofs and stored nearby, while the Matawii reservoir storage and irrigation scheme will provide backup supply.

The dam is being built by Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust alongside NgāwhāPark, and will distribute water to park tenants and further afield to several hundred hectares of good horticultural land south of the town.

The water will also augment the town supply for Kaikohe.

Kaikohe Berryfruit general manager Nicki Paget says the growing, picking and packing will provide good-quality, well-paid work for between 120 and 160 people, half of whom will be fulltime positions.

Project leader Patrick Malley says he is applying lessons from the Maungatapere site and using the same principles and the preprepared flat terrain of the new site was instrumental in getting the project off the ground.

The local storage reservoir is being dug, as well as levelling the packhouse, and storage area and the fertigation facility will be built next.

Maungatapere Berries were the Ballance Farm Environment Awards supreme winner for Northland in 2019, consisting of Patrick and his wife Rebecca and their two children, and Patrick’s parents Dermott and Linzi.

It was also highly commended in employee development in the inaugural Primary Industries Good Employer awards in 2018.

Ngāpuhi Asset Holding chief executive Paul Knight says the berryfruit venture would increase local business activity by $34 million annually and become one of the largest employers in the district.

Far North Holdings chief executive Andy Nock says the company had 260ha of land containing the proposed Matawii dam and its associated offset area, plus the industrial sites already under development on SH12.

EARTHMOVING: Building 10ha of tunnel houses and the necessary groundwork is a huge job for project leader Patrick Malley and Kaikohe Berryfruit general manager Nicki Paget.

Cornerstone occupants in the 60ha stage-one of development are Kaikohe Berryfruit and Olivado, the Kerikeri-based oil pressing and processing company.

Nock says manufacturing and skills-based training and research agencies were also committed to locate at Ngāwhā.

That portion of the development is underwritten

by Northland Inc, the regional economic agency.

“We are talking to a number of relevant food manufacturers for their processing plants,” Nock said.

“Adding value is the key objective, because Northland currently generates about oneand-a-half jobs for every thousand tonnes of raw materials, compared with Hawke’s Bay at seven and Auckland with 30.

“We create raw materials and then export them without further processing.”

A “closed loop” strategy was central to the innovation

SCALE: All the frames for the tunnel houses have been bent on site and shelter is being erected alongside.

and enterprise park, whereby businesses use each other’s materials and minimise wastes leaving the location.

For example, Olivado will make biogas methane to fuel

vehicles from avocado pressings and from outsourced dairy farm waste, along with liquid and solid fertiliser to be used

by Kaikohe Berryfruit and other horticulturalists.

Te Kopuru set to transform Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz QUIET Te Kopuru is to become the centre of one of two Northland water storage and irrigation schemes to be built by Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust.

South from Dargaville by 15km, on a no-exit road down the Pouto peninsula, Te Kopuru will be transformed by horticulture and new jobs for its inhabitants.

The trust has gained consent and started construction on a 270,000 cubic metre stage-one reservoir named Redhill near Glinks Gully, on the Tasman coast side of the peninsula.

This initial reservoir would be expanded to a much larger 3.2 million m3 capacity in future and the trust is presently working on gaining the required consents for this work.

After some excavation and the building of an embankment, the reservoir would be lined and then filled over several winters with pumped water.

This would be drawn from the lower reaches of streams and drains in the low country to the north and south of Te Kopuru, harvesting above-medium flows before they flow into the Wairoa River and the Kaipara Harbour.

This would be enough to support 1000ha of horticulture on the northern part of the large peninsula.

The trust says prospective orchardists want to establish on land next to Redhill reservoir potentially as early as September, but the details are commercially sensitive.

When ownership and control is devolved from the trust to a local water company, water use shares

would be $25,000 each, entitling the property to 3000m3 annually at a delivery rate of 30m3 a day.

Shares will be allocated to specific land parcels and will not be transferrable or able to be accumulated.

Users will also have to pay annual fixed costs and some variable costs depending on use.

They will be shareholders in the scheme, paying for access to water and its delivery, not buying water.

All water will be harvested from runoff into above-median flows in local streams, not drawn from underground aquifers.

Watertake consents from the lower reaches of creeks and drains have been issued by the Northland Regional Council.

When fully completed the scheme would have the capacity to irrigate 4000ha, promising more than $200 million of

annual regional output.

For both the Kaipara and the Mid-North schemes, consents are for 35 years to give certainty to the proposed water companies and their shareholders.

Development of the Redhill reservoir is running alongside the Kaipara Kai programme to utilise location, soils, mild winter temperatures and water for new crops.

Already a fertile location for kumara growing, the Pouto soils could be used for peanuts, soybeans, sorghum, hemp and tree crops like avocados and kiwifruit.

“Water security is the key for economic development in horticulture in new areas of Northland,” the trust’s relationship manager for Kaipara Ben Craw said.

“The schemes we are

VITAL: Te Tai Tokerau Water Trust relationship manager for Kaipara Ben Craw says water security is the key for economic development in horticulture in new areas of Northland.

developing are the best opportunity for economic growth these areas have seen in generations. It’s an exciting prospect.

AginED Ag ED

#

FOR E FUTURIA G R R S! U PR EN E

G

Volume 57 I May 24, 2021 I email: agined@globalHQ.co.nz I w w w.farmersweekly.co.nz Future Beef New Zealand (FBNZ) Hook and Hoof Competition held in Hawkes Bay on May 7th.

Have a go: 1

Go to www.farmersweekly.co.nz

2 Find and watch the OnFarm Story of Tim and Monique Neeson “You got a farmer, they’ll do it all” and read the article “Business focus helps realise ownership goal “ 3 Where do Tim and Monique Farm?

4 How many stock units do they carry in total across all of their blocks?

5 At what age did Tim leave school? What did he do when he left?

STRETCH YOURSELF: 1

Collaboratively they have something of a real estate portfolio. How does this / did this help them to achieve their goal of farm ownership?

2 What are the portions of stock that they carry? Ie how many ewes, cows etc?

3 Tim and Monique believe that diversification is worthwhile and necessary. They have plans for further possible diversification in the future. What are these?

4 The Neesons are keen to be part of the solution to poor ongoing prices for strongwool in NZ. As part of this they started their own company that produces wool blankets. What breed of sheep do they use for this? Why do they use this particular breed?

5 Currently manufacturing woollen goods in NZ comes often at a price point that a fair portion of people can not afford. Are there ways to make these products at a more reasonable price point without using any offshore resources?

6 We would love to hear your ideas and thoughts on ways to revive the wool market. Email us at agined@globalhq.co.nz

Have a go: This graph shows the AgriHQ NI average lamb schedules.

1

Values for this time of the year have hit the highest level in five years.How does it compare to this time last year in $/kg?

2 How does it compare to the five-year average?

3 On the graph, when was the highest value for any time of the year achieved?

STRETCH YOURSELF: 1

Why do you think values typically hit their lowest level around February-March?

This competition is a youth programme aimed at those 8 to 24 years old and is about inspiring

This competition is a youth programme aimed at those 8 to 24 years old and is about inspiring industry careers and providing education to youth across New Zealand.

A huge congratulations to those who received Beef+Lamb NZ Future Beef Prestigious Awards:

Rathkeale College – Awarded Generation Angus NZ Education Team Award

Summer Didsbury (St. Matthews Collegiate School) – Awarded Allflex Intermediate Beef

Hillary Cooper (Oxford Area School) – FMG Rising Star Award

Sophie had this to say about her experience: “I’m so grateful for Sophie Ridd the opportunities that Future Beef (Massey provides it’s competitors. I’m also University) Awarded Allflex thankful for the support I have Senior Beef received throughout Future Beef.

Ambassador Agriculture is a wonderful industry which is supportive and wants to develop it's youth. I’m excited to see the growth of the competition and my own development within the beef industry”.

2 If the next few weeks follow typical seasonal trends, would you expect the average to move upwards or downwards?

3 Supply of lambs is expected to dwindle in coming weeks. How do you think this will affect values at processors?

WHERE ON EARTH DO WE STACK UP?!

We have talked about origins of airflows (ie, where is this wind coming from?) but where NZ sits on planet earth is important at working out trends and also how much impact a particular weather event might have. For example, northern NZ is more likely to be impacted by a sub-tropical system whereas the South Island is more likely to have polar blasts.

Look at this map comparing well known international locations. The world is split into longitude (lines that go sideways around the globe) and latitude (lengthwise from north to south). It is using the latitude co-ordinates that we've made these maps (as it shows the distance from the poles and equator).

YOUR CHALLENGE!

ANOTHER CHALLENGE!

Find the international location(s) on the map to your left that is closest to where you live in NZ. Now go to Google and search that international location's weather and then compare it with your local forecast. See if you notice any extremes - or any similarities.

Using www.RuralWeather. co.nz compare forecasts between locations in northern NZ with southern NZ - to highlight how being closer to the equator or closer to Antarctica can influence your weather.

In a nutshell, north is warmer, and south is colder in the Southern Hemisphere.

NZ's location on earth puts us in the "not too hot, not too cold" belt (also known as the Goldilocks belt!).

Got your own question about how the weather works? Ask Phil! Email phil@ruralweather.co.nz with your question and he could answer it on the Weather Together podcast!

Newsmaker

22 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Advocates seek workable solutions

PURPOSE: South Island farmers Laurie Paterson and Bryce McKenzie founded Groundswell NZ to be a voice for farmers.

Photo: Natwick

There is a not so quiet revolution under way in rural New Zealand. A group of southern farmers has formed Groundswell, NZ with the aim of giving those at grassroots a greater voice. Neal Wallace talks to the group’s two founders.

T

HE Government’s freshwater regulations were the final straw for Bryce McKenzie, but it also marked a

beginning.

When the West Otago farmer saw the expectation of farmers from the Government’s National Policy Statement (NPS) for Freshwater, it did not align with what he had witnessed in seven years’ involvement with his local Pomahaka Catchment Group.

“When I saw the NPS, it was so far off the wall it was ridiculous,” McKenzie said.

He expressed his anger and disbelief in a Facebook post, fearing the rules will destroy rural communities and farm businesses.

Waikaka farmer Laurie Paterson agreed and despite a reluctance to become political, the two men decided they had to act.

They also wanted a forum to highlight the policy’s abundant and obvious shortfalls to urban New Zealanders.

In early October last year, 120 tactors paraded down the main street of Gore to highlight what McKenzie and Paterson term as “dumb” freshwater rules.

Little did they know that growing numbers of farmers were becoming increasingly frustrated their representative bodies did not appear to be vocally resisting government policy.

And little did they know that freshwater legislation was just the start, with more to follow.

That includes the National Policy Statement for Indigenous Biodiversity, rules requiring the identification of significant natural areas on private land and changes to the Crown Pastoral Land’s Act. “The speed with which this is being imposed on us, there is no chance anyone can keep on top of these policies,” he said.

An example of their frustration was illustrated while sitting in on a Climate Change Commission webinar.

Paterson says his attention was pricked when the commission told the audience that they had looked at all options to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

He countered that aircraft emissions were ignored, as had the decree from the Paris Accord that food production should not be compromised, a consequence of their recommendations.

“They told me that they were now allowed to look at aircraft emissions due to the Paris Accord, saying it could not be looked at until 2024,” Paterson said.

He describes that as rubbish as flight paths are obvious as are aircraft emissions.

By their actions, Paterson and Mackenzie had poked a bear, and Groundswell was formed.

“After the tractor trek Bryce said

he was heading back to the farm,” Paterson said.

“I said to him he couldn’t, that we had created an expectation.

But we didn’t realise how big an expectation we had created.”

Social media has allowed them to connect with farmers who share those same concerns, but McKenzie spends much of his day answering emails and phone calls.

We don’t want to be in the tent with them to be honest. We want to be outside the tent putting forward our members’ views.

Bryce McKenzie Groundswell NZ A petition followed and then in February 500 people attended a meeting in Gore where North Otago farmer and freshwater policy critic Jane Smith urged farmers to replace apathy with vocal opposition and to share information about the environmental work they have done.

That momentum continued in April, when 400 farmers attended meetings organised by Groundswell in Canterbury and the West Coast.

Groundswell branches have been formed on the West Coast, Coromandel, Manawatū, Waimakariri and South Canterbury.

McKenzie says they do not want to reinvent the wheel and even though senior Cabinet ministers such as Environment Minister David Parker have invited them to meet with him, they do not see their role as advocacy or political.

Rather, they are providing a vehicle for people to talk about the impact and their frustrations on rules and regulations emanating out of Wellington.

“We don’t necessarily want to be silenced by being part of the negotiations,” McKenzie said.

“We don’t want to be in the tent with them to be honest. We want to be outside the tent putting forward our members’ views.”

Paterson says they do not want to reinvent the wheel but see a role informing groups such as Federated Farmers, Beef + Lamb NZ and DairyNZ of the frustration of grassroot farmers.

“We are not attacking B+LNZ, DNZ or Federated Farmers – they are key to farming,” he said.

“But farmers are telling Groundswell they want stronger advocacy.”

That does not preclude Groundswell making a call to arms sometime in the future.

Although, they are quite prepared to start up the tractors

again, something some farmers are calling for.

“There is a feeling they want to do something,” McKenzie said.

“That’s where farmers are at.

We get people on Facebook saying ‘let’s do something’.

“The tractor protest worked in Gore, we got a lot of national attention. It brought farmers together and gave them a voice and alerted people in town to what is going on.”

Paterson says there was some concern that the Gore tractor protest could alienate urban people, but the opposite occurred.

“People came up and asked us what we were doing it for. We were able to engage with them,” Paterson said.

McKenzie and Paterson say they never wanted to have a political profile.

They reject any suggestion Groundswell is a group of rednecks, but rather are farmers concerned about the impact, volume and pace of rules and regulations coming out of Parliament.

“We’re for common sense. We seek common sense solutions,” Paterson said.

McKenzie agreed.

“Long-term we need to get more people speaking with one voice and strong advocacy from the bottom up.

“We want the grassroots to be heard,” he said.

New thinking

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

23

AgResearch bags top agritech award Sheep facial recognition, portable dairy processing, “green” batteries and meat quality tech were all winners at this year’s Food, Fibre and Agritech – Supernode Challenge.

Richard Rennie reports.

T

HE Food, Fibre and Agritech challenge, sponsored by ChristchurchNZ, KiwiNet and the Canterbury Mayor’s Welfare Fund aims to capture a range of disruptive technologies that can be commercialised to help address some of agriculture’s major challenges.

This year’s supreme overall winner was the AgResearch team headed up by Cameron Craigie for Clarospec. The team developed a machine to help deliver more consistent and objective lamb meat grading quality using hyperspectral imaging technology.

The unit that is now operating in a commercial plant providing objective, precise information on lamb meat quality.

The three main parameters the hyperspectral device can measure are meat pH, tenderness

and intramuscular fat levels, all key benchmarks for determining what makes a piece of meat more appealing to consumers.

“Hyperspectral technology enables us to analyse every pixel of the image, giving not only spatial information, but structural and molecular as well,” Craigie said.

The AgResearch team has translated that data into a formula that will provide an objective determinant of the meat’s quality, in an area that has been lacking in objective measurement until now.

Craigie expects two more units to be installed in coming months in a project that has had strong industry backing, including all major meat processors, the Meat Industry Association and Beef +Lamb NZ. The overall winner in the “value-added” category went to KarbenFibre founder Maryam Shojaei. Her entry was sustainable

HI-TECH: The hyperspectral imaging machine developed by AgResearch for objective sheepmeat quality assessment, which measures meat pH, tenderness and intramuscular fat levels.

flow battery technology offering reduced cost and more environmentally-friendly power solutions, using natural fibres in the composition of infrastructure scale batteries known as flow batteries.

Dairy farmer Glen Herud, who founded a dairy company based on ethical farming principles including allowing cows to remain with their calves, was recognised with the top small business award for his Happy Cow Company “milk factory in a box” business model.

The model provides farmers with the technology, processes and compliance material to process their farm milk within the farm gate into a saleable product, either at the gate or through retail outlets.

The model builds on Herud’s experience on the family farm trying to build a business by getting more farmers to leave calves on cows. He ultimately built a mobile cowshed to milk cows in the paddock.

In its latest iteration, Herud’s award-winning concept includes a compact pasteurisation machine that can be run within the farm gate.

So far, he has two farmers who have adopted the model in New Zealand, and one in the United States.

Herud’s model has a full pasteurisation plant installed, with descriptions of the steps and protocol required at each stage, along with the software for generating compliance and regulatory paperwork.

“Now any farmer can sell pasteurised milk on the market,

WINNERS: AgResearch senior research engineer Mos Sharifi and science impact leader of meat products and supply Cameron Craigie were named the supreme winners at the Food, Fibre and Agritech awards this year. making $1.40 a litre instead of 60c a litre,” Herud said.

Internet technology enables those farmers to track distribution of their milk in Happy Cow dispensers in cafes and outlets, alerting them when they need topping up. On purchase of milk, the farmer will be paid immediately.

Herud’s initial crowdfunding launch saw the company raise $400,000 in only eight hours and eight minutes after returning to the drawing board, having failed to breakeven with his alternative farming model on the family farm.

Australian geneticist turned Kiwi Mark Ferguson of neXtgen Agri claimed the enterprise grand prize valued at $30,000 for his Genesmith facial recognition system.

The technology employs artificial intelligence to match breeding stock to their offspring in the paddock and is in its prototype phase, with field trials due this lambing season.

Utilising cameras located in the field, linked through to artificial intelligence neural processors, the technology “learns” which lambs belong to which dams, based on the proximity relationship between mother and offspring.

Keep an eye out

The system takes about 24 hours to determine the mother-offspring relationships, assessing at four frames a second.

Ferguson says the initial market was likely to be high-value stud operations, but interest was strong among commercial farmers, with many keen to be involved in the early field trials.

He says the technology was adaptable to other species, with flighty deer in particular of interest to developers.

ChristchurchNZ chief executive Joanna Norris says the challenge has demonstrated the opportunity for food, fibre and agritech in Christchurch.

“The sector already accounts for 20% of the regional gross domestic product – we’ve got an existing regional strength which we want to foster and grow,” Norris said.

“It’s new businesses like KarbenFibre and Clarospec who will help to do this by driving bold innovation, creating jobs and reinforcing Christchurch’s reputation as a hub for innovation.”

Craigie says the awards experience proved to be a highly rewarding one, working and engaging with a talented cohort of judges and peers.

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JUNE 2021 | $8.95

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Opinion

24 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

EDITORIAL

Rural life is great, let’s tell everyone

W

ITH all the talk of who’s in and who’s out when it comes to immigration, a related and equally important factor to consider is demographics.

One demographer reckons that skilled young New Zealanders who want to work in the regions are set for life.

That’s because populations are declining in many parts of rural New Zealand – regions that are already crying out for educated and highly-skilled workers.

And that demographer says it’s going to take a concerted effort to entice both local and overseas workers here to ensure we thrive.

There’s been a lot of talk in this space in recent years – we’ve been warned of the 50,000 extra people we’ll need in the primary industries for some time – but that hasn’t translated into boots on the ground.

In fact, the situation for farmers and growers is dire.

Work is under way to bring Kiwis into the industry with training schemes, incentives and wage increases.

But a more holistic approach may be needed.

And while housing costs are lower outside cities, there are often challenges accessing healthcare, education and with internet connectivity.

These issues need to be fixed to give people the assurance they’ll have everything they need if they make such a life-changing move.

If we’re to fill the voice we need to present an opportunity that covers everything a family looks for.

That will take time and effort but in the meantime, farmers and growers are doing it tough, and that’s putting stress on both people and balance sheets.

The demographics show us it’s a problem that’s not going to go away – in fact, it’s only going to get worse.

It’s becoming more and more evident that we need more action to let others know what we all know – that the regions are a fantastic place to live and flourish.

Bryan Gibson

LETTERS

No two trees are the same IT SADDENS me when I see and read about whole farms being planted in trees chasing the Government’s policy for carbon.

There are some old research statements from “old timers” well known in farm forestry circles and demonstrated at Central Canty’s last field day.

The statement is “on nonirrigated farms you can have 10% of the farm in shelter and plantations with no reduction in livestock production and often have animal production increase”.

Surely, if every non-irrigated farm in the country had 10% of its land in trees we would exceed the Government’s tree planting target, have a way

better biodiversity outcome, better livestock welfare, better water quality and a much nicer place to live and work.

One of the limiting factors is cost, this is because we have two types of trees in this country: those that can get carbon credits and the likes of the 3000 trees of mine that don’t.

Surely, if we could get carbon credits for single row shelter that covered some – or all – of the cost for the second fence, planting and hedge-trimming, we could see shelter on every fence line on every farm.

Imagine what the country would be like. Think of the bird life, the lamb survival after a storm, the biodiversity, the improved water quality,

how much more time the bees can work, to name a few improvements.

Mike Davies Central Canterbury Farm Forestry Association

How about a fair go for farmers?

I’M WRITING in response to Clive Daltons’ Farmers Weekly, May 17, letter, titled A fair go for the minister.

Dalton, like many other “problem finders” in recent years, wants to disparage farmers as “not getting their brains into gear” and not “understanding the Animal Welfare Act (1999)”.

Dalton, and other animal welfare activists, think that farmers need their business

managed by people who have engaged profusely in social media and have come to conclusions that have nothing to do with the realities of the business.

Having visited more than 400 farms in the past 12 months, I can assure Dalton that all of those farmers were up each day before dawn tending to the welfare needs of their livestock.

Incredibly, farmers need to perform this task in order to achieve production. Failure to do so is a precursor to going broke.

The problem-finders, who have persuaded the minister of agriculture to betray the very people he is supposed to represent, seem oblivious to the fact that the very animals

Letterof theWeek EDITOR Bryan Gibson 06 323 1519 bryan.gibson@globalhq.co.nz EDITORIAL Carmelita Mentor-Fredericks 06 323 0769 editorial@globalhq.co.nz Neal Wallace 03 474 9240 neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz Colin Williscroft 027 298 6127 colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz Annette Scott 021 908 400 annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz Hugh Stringleman 09 432 8594 hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz Gerald Piddock 027 486 8346 gerald.piddock@globalhq.co.nz Richard Rennie 07 552 6176 richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz Nigel Stirling 021 136 5570 nigel.g.stirling@gmail.com

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Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

25

Carbon forests a risky business Robert Liverton

I

RECENTLY read a two-page article in the Dominion Post (April 22) titled Undercover Success Story.

The article was about a company called New Zealand Carbon Farming (NZCF), run by Matt Walsh, which owns 46,000ha, planted in pine trees for carbon credits.

I feel the article was full of misleading facts.

The article states that it buys unprofitable land and plants it in a cover crop of pine trees for short-term gain of carbon credits and it will allow indigenous trees to flourish beneath the umbrella of the pine trees.

The Climate Change Commission notes in it’s report “that the process of regenerating native trees under pine trees can take centuries and along the way unharvested pine forests can cause problems with wilding pines or trees falling over”.

According to Walsh “an ideal plot is to have indigenous trees surrounding, or within the pine blocks, because that would naturally seed the whole block regenerating into indigenous forest”.

We have a Queen Elizabeth II Trust retired block of native trees surrounded by pines. The trust actually subsidises us to cut out the seedling pines that infest the block from the surrounding pines that if left to grow would smother out the bulk of the native trees.

A good example of the invasive nature of pine trees is the wilding pines down south and the pines spreading across the Desert Road area.

The company says that they will thin and create light holes in the forest so indigenous trees can come through.

Call me cynical, but if this is going to affect income from the carbon credits and by the time the forest has changed ownership

they are trying to protect will now be condemned to death at birth. It will not be viable to rear them.

Finding problems is the easy part, but solutions are far more difficult.

Jasmine Huber thought that by forming her “rescue farm” she could take the stress out of animals destined for slaughter, but after two visits from the MPI her farm was shut down because of cruelty through starvation, further proving that farming is a complicated business and best left to those who understand it.

As more and more regulations are applied to farmers, one outcome can be guaranteed: the cost of production will increase.

In the short-term this increase will be absorbed by farmers but in the longer-term, the increase will be passed on to the consumer.

Hopefully that won’t put the “supermarket trolley pushers overseas” off wanting expensive milk for their cornflakes – nor Dalton either.

The

Pulpit

several times, as can happen, I doubt if this will ever be done.

I have since read an article in Farmers Weekly (May 10) about one of NZ Carbon Farms’ blocks at Viewfield in Otago.

Last year a fire broke out in the block and the local district and regional council politicians were shocked at the unkept state of the forest when they visited recently.

There were no fire breaks and no apparent weed or pest control.

A good example of the invasive nature of pine trees is the wilding pines down south and the pines spreading across the Desert Road area.

The article tries another form of justification for this short-sighted land grab by saying they provide employment for 28 full-time staff and temporary work for another 300.

Beef + Lamb NZ commissioned a report from BakerAg to analyse the effect on employment that

During the covid lockdown farming was deemed essential and it was ironically a pleasant respite for farmers not having to deal with problem finders. They were apparently texting each other with more pressing issues.

The social media machine does not appear to have its head around the vast debt that the Government is currently incurring, so I guess some things in the media still do take time.

When the debt reality dawns, it will be primary production that will be needed to get New Zealand out of the hole.

Maybe then the problem finders will want “a fair go for farmers”.

Wayne Doran Hawke’s Bay

Not a simple dam issue ALAN Emerson said in Farmers Weekly’s May 17 issue that “we let 97% of our water run out to sea, so having more dams is both logical and good for the climate”.

TRANSFORMED: Robert Liverton says sheep and beef farms won’t be able to compete with the carbon forests.

the tree planting programme is causing and they worked out per 1000ha, that carbon farming produces 0.6 jobs per annum, and sheep and beef properties generate 7.4 local jobs per annum consistently for the indefinite future.

This means that for their 46,000ha, they employ 27 people annually but cost the jobs of 340 farming staff annually.

They also calculated that the area in carbon forest would generate one and a quarter million annually, whereas if it was left in beef and sheep farms the area would generate fourteen-and-ahalf million annually and this is causing a decimating effect on the small rural communities of NZ. These losses are multiplied many times by other companies doing the same type of operation.

“This report illustrated the huge risk of unintended consequences from poorly designed policy and emission targets, which

will incentivise a high level of afforestation and result in a devastating impact on rural communities,” it stated.

In the newspaper article, the company, when asked who buys NZCEF credits, the company was coy.

Until 2019 the company’s website said it’s core business was the supply of bulk carbon credits “direct to large energy and oil companies”.

This means they sell credits to giant oil companies so they can carry on emitting carbon at the present rate and not have to cut production and profit to meet global targets. To do this they are buying valuable productive farmland in NZ and planting it in exotic monoculture forest for personal gains and depriving future generations of New Zealanders of a long-term viable economy.

These forests have been planted when carbon credits were $25 a

This fallacy is trotted out on a regular basis by people who don’t understand the serious environmental effects of large dams on waterways.

The 97% is not “our” water – it’s needed to sustain and protect our rivers, streams, lakes and wetlands.

Large dams are destructive and expensive.

Greenhouse gases are released when the dam is filled and vegetation rots. There are significant carbon costs resulting from building and operating a dam. Water is lost through evaporation, rivers are throttled and the flushing effect is reduced.

Dams are vulnerable to climate change if inflows are less than expected.

The Tasman District Council has decided that ratepayers will help pay for the cost overruns for the Waimea dam. The proposed Wakamoekau dam in Wairarapa also looks like it would be an unnecessary burden on ratepayers.

Large dams cannot provide

water resilience for a whole catchment.

Dams can be a good idea for towns and cities, but agriculture requires much more water over large areas.

The Wakamoekau dam would irrigate about 7000ha, which is about 2% of the land in Wairarapa that is in pasture or horticulture.

What about the rest?

Emerson lives in an area of hill country sheep and beef farms, which won’t benefit from largescale water storage dams.

I was a member of the Ruamāhanga Whaitua Committee, which was tasked with recommending ways to improve water quality and allocation in the Ruamāhanga catchment.

The committee proposed that multiple solutions are needed in order to slow water down as it moves through the catchment. In particular, we need nature-based solutions like riparian planting, wetland restoration, detainment bunds, swales, leaky dams and

tonne. Now the carbon price is close to $40/t and it is said they will go to $70.

At these higher prices, generally sheep and beef farms won’t be able to compete with the carbon forests and the whole of NZ’s productive hill country will be in danger of being brought up by the carbon companies for shortterm gains to NZ’s long-term detriment.

Who am I? Robert Liverton has been farming for over 50 years up the Waihoki Valley in north-east Wairarapa on a 720 ha block that has been in the family since the late 1860s.

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wider streams and rivers with more natural character.

One of the best things we can do is to increase the amount of organic matter in the soil, which allows it to retain more water.

All of these measures can work at scale over the whole of a catchment and provide the added benefits of increased biodiversity and improvements in water quality.

Focusing on large dams distracts our attention from the urgent work that is really needed to make New Zealand more water resilient.

Michael Birch Masterton

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Opinion

26 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Govt delivers a balanced budget Alternative View

Alan Emerson

I’VE been covering budgets for a while now and they are, in a word, predictable. Budget 2021 was no exception.

For the record, I believe we have been well-served with our ministers of finance. I rated Sir Michael Cullen highly, Sir Bill English did a good job and Grant Robertson is continuing the momentum, albeit in the shadow of covid-19.

We are in a fortunate position.

We’ve come through covid. Our unemployment rate is low at 4.7%.

The rating agencies are positive.

Standard and Poors gave New Zealand the first upgrade of any economy since covid began and Moody’s have maintained our AAA rating.

Pre-budget Robertson talked of two principles, the first being increased spending and I support that.

The second principle was that spending needed to be effective in both securing the economic recovery and in shaping the type of recovery that we as a country want. So far so good.

I thought the Budget was balanced. There were initiatives I agreed with and those I didn’t.

On the positive side it was good to see some solid money being allocated to the reform of the Resource Management Act (RMA). It is a dog that’s hampered progress for 30 years. It needs disembowelment – and now.

The recycling of revenue from the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to Emissions Reduction is also positive.

NAIT receiving $22.5 million was good, as was the $8.9m for advanced screening technology. It will be a valuable biosecurity tool to locate threats in international mail.

On-farm emissions get a $62m boost, including $24m for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation research. That includes vaccine development, methane and nitrous oxide mitigation and the breeding of low-emission animals.

Almost $1m is to be spent collecting accurate information on agricultural GHG emissions, which is needed.

Farmers and growers will also receive $37m for the tools they need to meet freshwater and GHG requirements by 2025.

The considerable investment in training will be good for growth.

The training incentive allowance is boosted and the funding for apprenticeships is increased as is tertiary funding generally.

Education in the regions gets a $10m lift to “identify local solutions to the emerging needs of learners”. There’s also digital training available.

Tertiary education and health both get considerable funding boosts, as does Pharmac.

For the record, I didn’t have an issue with the increase in spending for welfare benefits.

As predicted there are boosts for Māori in housing, education, training and health. I didn’t have a problem with that. The spending was well targeted and you could never describe it as ‘separate development’.

I was disappointed in the infrastructure spend, which was an increase from $42.2 billion to $57.3 billion. I would have liked to have seen a far bigger amount.

Interest rates are low and the Government’s books are solid.

People cry that our public debt is too high now being 31.7% of GDP. That figure is small compared with Australia’s public debt at 47.5% and miniscule compared with the UK and US being 85.4% and 104% respectively.

Our public debt is predicted to grow to 48% of GDP in 2023 before reducing to 43.6%. We can afford to borrow.

I remain unconvinced at the benefits of centralising education as outlined in the budget. Our local country school Whareama is incredibly well-

STACKS UP: Alan Emerson hones in on the sector’s cut of Budget 2021, and while he thinks there is room for improvement, there are more hits than misses.

run and successful. I’d hate to have Wellington bureaucrats interfering.

Every Budget, and it happens across the political spectrum, there is one minister who will grandstand. The 2021 Budget prize winner is Climate Change Minister James Shaw.

A media release from Shaw told us of “hundreds of new electric cars for the state sector”. That will reduce carbon emissions by 11,600 tonnes of carbon over 10 years.

Another statement from Shaw had $67.4m to support a carbon neutral public sector by 2025. That took the total amount of carbon savings in the budget to 76,000t over 10 years.

According to Enerlytica analyst John Kidd, the Huntly coal-fired power station will currently go through the entire government savings in four days, 15 hours and two minutes.

Why? We don’t have enough water storage and was that featured in the budget? No.

Ridiculously, we had the minister waxing lyrically about replacing boilers in schools and hospitals so they can use electricity. In dry years a lot of that electricity comes from burning coal.

Don’t play with the problem, Minister – fix it. And the only way you’ll do that is by nuclear power or water storage.

The last word on the Budget goes to Federated Farmers who told farmers to pat themselves on the back for making it possible for the country to afford the budget.

“And that’s because NZ’s internationally competitive, resilient and fleet-footed farmers and growers could roll with covid punches and keep this country financially afloat,” president Andrew Hoggard said.

Good on ya, mate.

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

Disaster’s only a click away From the Ridge

Steve Wyn-Harris

LET’S have a look at the growing threat of cyberattacks, given what has just happened to the Waikato DHB. We are now all heavily reliant on computers, devices, IT, the internet and modern means of communication like emails, social media, dropboxes and the like.

So used to it, that it’s almost hard to remember doing it any other way, even though it’s only been around for the past couple of decades or so.

Even on the home PC running a small farm business, there is a constant stream of threats attempting to sneak their way into our little system.

The anti-virus software does sterling work in the background and likes to tell me reasonably often how clever it is and how

many threats it has caught to keep us safe.

The scam emails used to be easy to spot. The pattern is much the same with an extremely large sum of money having been left to me by an unknown relative or needing my help to get out of the clutches of some regime and my assistance would be gratefully appreciated.

All I had to do was to supply my bank account access and riches would be all mine.

The spelling is poor, with sentence structure like an eightyear-old had composed the pitch.

It has been interesting to watch the attempted scammers lift their game over time so that before blocking and deleting the sender, I’m at the stage at admiring their handiwork.

A few years ago, I received one purporting to be from a couple inviting us to their wedding and all I had to do was click the RSVP. I’m not that stupid but I didn’t delete it as it was so damn good and every week or so would have a look at it and ask Jane if she’d ever heard of these two so-called young betrothed.

Turned out to be a mate’s daughter’s wedding which luckily, we did get to, despite our

seemingly lack of enthusiasm to attend.

Some of those bank and phone company emails have been so good in recent times that I even forwarded it to the company to see if it was actually from them, only to learn that they were still scams – but impressive ones.

It appears that the Waikato DHB disaster has been brought on by someone opening an attachment to an email they shouldn’t have.

That small mistake has brought huge disruption to this health provider and putting people’s lives and health in jeopardy. The hackers are probably threatening to release confidential patient information unless ransomware is paid, which is a flash name for old fashioned extortion.

The DHB has rightly said they won’t be paying any money to these criminals, but are frantically trying to fix their security breach and restore their systems.

The previous week, Ireland’s health services were attacked causing huge disruptions, but they too said they wouldn’t be paying any money to these hackers.

A couple of weeks earlier, Colonial Pipeline in the US suffered a ransomware

cyberattack, which saw an immediate shortage of fuel, prices escalate, panic buying and several states declare emergencies.

Colonial paid the criminals US$5 million to get back online, reinforcing that crime does pay, so let’s do it some more.

Ransomware is but just one of the cyber security threats out there. Others include spoofing, phishing and malware attacks.

An international study earlier in the year showed that more than half of ransomware victims have paid the asking price but despite this, 20% still didn’t get their data back.

Highest demands have been up to $30 million dollars, and there are several examples of businesses paying $10 million.

Experts recommend nothing is paid as it obviously encourages this behaviour.

Despite this, hundreds of millions are being paid out to these extortionists so the threat will only become greater.

I’m a company director and at today’s meeting, in light of the Waikato attack, we focused on our cyber security.

We have already taken plenty of preventative measures over time and employ a company of

ACCESS: The recent cyberattack at the Waikato DHB allegedly came in the form of an email attachment.

experts in these matters to help keep us safe, but the threat always remains – these online viruses are going to give us as plenty of grief in the future, just as the biological ones in the real world will as well.

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

Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

27

Fonterra plan is a risk The Braided Trail

Keith Woodford

FONTERRA’S decision on May 6 to present an alternative capital structure has opened a can of worms. The shares have dropped around 15% and investor units are down 13%. There are no immediate cash implications, but Fonterra’s capital value has declined by more than $1 billion.

This transfers through to farmer balance sheets. Given that this is just a proposal, the market response is remarkable.

There is close to zero chance that the proposals will be implemented in their present form. But the worms cannot be simply put back in the can.

Fonterra has made it explicit that its current structure is no longer fit for purpose. Those are not the exact words that Fonterra is using publicly, but they are the exact words coming in on the breeze.

Prior to the proposals being announced, there was no immediate need for action.

Fonterra could have kicked the can down the road for several years and left it for another governance team, but they decided to front-foot it. To that extent, their actions are laudable.

But shooting themselves in both feet was not needed.

There are two key parts to the proposal. First, the plan is to reduce farmer requirements to own shares. The idea is that farmers will only need to hold one share for every 4kg of milksolids supplied, compared to the current one share for every kilogram of supply. However, other farmers who have cash looking for a home can buy up to four shares as investments for each kilogram of supply.

The second part of the proposal is a plan to buy-out or at least cap the investor-unit fund.

If the proposals are accepted, then the only incoming equity capital will be retained earnings plus cash from asset sales. That is the same as the current situation.

However, buying up the existing investor fund would soak up funds.

The driver behind the need for change is Fonterra’s concern

STEADY: Keith Woodford says Fonterra should focus on what id does well – turning milk into long-life ingredients.

CHALLENGES AHEAD: Keith Woodford says Fonterra’s capital proposals will make the forward journey more difficult, running counter to the intent.

that its milk supply is going to decline. The key reasons are environmental regulations and urban-spread, plus horticultural conversions. Under the existing structure, this would lead to shares of departing farmers being transferred to investor-owned units. This in turn could lead eventually to those investors demanding control, although there is no mechanism in law to assist them.

Although the proposals are only up for discussion, Fonterra has already cut the two-way pipeline connecting shares to units. This means that if farmers now leave Fonterra, their shares will have to be purchased by other farmers who buy them as voluntary investments. This creates a big risk that the share price will eventually crash owing to a lack of willing farmers with liquidity to buy investment shares.

There is a saying in business management theory that strategy comes before structure. Well, that is the way it is meant to be. But if strategy and structure are misaligned, then structure controls strategy like a bungee cord pulling strategy back to what is feasible.

In Fonterra’s case, the new strategy created in 2019 focuses on marketing New Zealand milk rather than also trying to dominate global trade using milk produced in other parts of the world. Fonterra still has sizable foreign operations both

in Australia and South America.

Fonterra supposedly no longer has any ‘sacred cows’ when it comes to this overseas-sourced milk.

It makes sense for these overseas processing assets to be sold. It is a case of finding the right time to sell them at an acceptable price. At that time, Fonterra’s consumer-branded business will become considerably smaller.

The driver behind the need for change is Fonterra’s concern that its milk supply is going to decline.

At that time, Fonterra will also be much closer to having a structure that aligns with what farmers want. Their priority is to have control over the processing of NZ milk until that milk is in a stable form. That primarily means powders of various forms and sophistication, plus cheese and butter.

In email correspondence, some people have been suggesting to me that it is time to look again at the two-company model.

Going back more than 10 years, I saw merit in that structure and advocated for it. But those were the times when Fonterra’s strategy was to take on the world.

As long as Fonterra had a big

focus on consumer brands as well as business-to-business (B2B) brands, then there were strong arguments for a twocompany model. Consumerbrand companies need a different internal culture, deeply embedded in the company operational DNA, as compared to companies that focus on ingredients.

It is very hard to make consumer-focused and B2B strategies work in the same company. There lie some of the answers as to why Fonterra’s overall performance since formation has been so disappointing.

However, with Fonterra already losing much of its overseassourced milk plus the likelihood of losing more, it does not have a big future in fast-moving consumer brands. It no longer needs that second company.

To clarify that point, there may well be scope for a big consumerbrand company using NZ milk, but it needs totally separate management and governance from Fonterra.

Let Fonterra focus on the things that it does well such as collecting milk from farms and turning it into long-life commodities and sophisticated ingredients, including potentially the supply of ingredients to totally separate investor-owned consumerproduct companies.

If Fonterra structures itself this way, with a dominant focus on converting its suppliers’ milk to long-life products, then new capital needs will be modest. Sales of existing overseas assets can be used to further pay own debt.

Given Fonterra’s concerns about losing supply, this low debt becomes a safety factor for Fonterra going forward.

Fonterra’s farmers are saying that they want it to remain a cooperative under farmer control.

Fonterra needs to remind those farmers that a fundamental structural provision of dairy co-ops that do not have outside-

investor equity, is that the farmer suppliers have to be responsible for ‘service capital’. The notion that a processing and marketing co-op can prosper without adequate service capital from its suppliers is fanciful.

My key criticism of the existing so-called Trading Among Farmers (TAF) system has been that it was based on a falsehood that it somehow removed redemption risk. But that does not mean that TAF had no worthwhile features.

Some alternatives are worse than the existing TAF. Right now, there is no urgent need to buy out the existing investor fund. Having such a fund has meant that there is tension between milk price and dividend, but the proposed system simply shifts that tension elsewhere within the company. This is because the proposed system is that farmer shareholding relative to supply can vary by a factor of 16, with this being the range between the proposed minimum supply shareholding of 1:4 and the proposed maximum of 4:1.

The simplest path for Fonterra right now is to continue to sell assets related to overseasproduced milk as and when market conditions allow and to further reduce debt.

In the meantime, it might also be best to consider a mea culpa and restore the pipeline between shares and investor units.

As for the notion of reducing the service capital provided by Fonterra’s farmer members, that needs to go back to the drawing board. If the current proposal is implemented, the long-term future of Fonterra will really be at risk.

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

World

28 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 10, 2021

UK beef prices soar

CATALYST: The strong UK beef price is a result of changes to trade patterns post-Brexit and the ongoing global pandemic.

BEEF prices recently reached the “highest levels in many farmers’ living memory” as they soared past the £4/kg (about $7.80) mark. It comes as the supply of domestic cattle continues to pose a challenge, which, coupled with strong retail demand and changes to trade patterns caused by Brexit and the covid-19 pandemic, has helped keep prices extremely firm. The average deadweight price for steers in the week ending April 24 was 406.4p/ kg, 83.6p/kg higher than 2020. And prices were expected to remain strong in the coming months.

Hybu Cig Cymru data analyst Glesni Phillips highlighted the UK suckler herd has been retracting in recent years, with no signs of rebuilding quickly. “Prime heifer slaughterings during 2020 and the first quarter of this year, for instance, are higher than recent historic

levels,” Phillips said, adding it suggested supply would remain tight for “some time”.

Quality Meat Scotland director of economic services Stuart Ashworth says cattle throughputs were expected to increase in autumn as indicated by the December 2020 agricultural census showing growth in the number of under one-year-old cattle on UK farms that will begin reaching abattoirs in late 2021.

“While each year is different, it is not unusual to find prime cattle supplies at their seasonal low through May and June accompanied by a firming of prices as you get the transfer from indoor finished cattle to cattle coming in off grass,” Ashworth said.

“Equally though, cattle availability historically peaks through late September and October, so it would not be unusual to expect the price to

cool off at this time of year.” There was also a nervousness about how prices will adjust as the UK moves out of lockdown.

NFU livestock board chair Richard Findlay says the price was great news, driven by consumer demand for British beef, but it was needed on the back of rising input costs.

“We have to work very hard to keep the price high and make sure British beef continues to be the first choice of consumers, recognised for its great taste and one of the lowest carbon footprints in the world,” he said, adding the industry needed procurement in order to move away from sourcing cheap imported meats with a higher carbon footprint. He also praised the levy boards’ campaigns which have had a positive impact on consumer buying habits, benefiting UK beef prices.

UK Farmers Guardian

UK-India trade deal would be a really big win Trade barriers addressed by the Enhanced Trade Partnership included lifting restrictions to enable UK producers to export apples, pears and quince to India for the first time. Promar divisional director John Giles says while the UK has announced several agreements since leaving the EU, India would be a real marker in the Government’s ambition to become ‘Global Britain’.

“The attraction is there are over one billion people in the country.

Various estimates put the growth of the middle class at 400 million people within the next generation – that is almost another Europe,” Giles said.

He added India had been quite Friday 11/06/2021 protectionist with high tariff Future Farming Expo 2021 and non-tariff barriers and the Brought to you by the ACE Catchment Groups. complexity of selling to India With increased awareness of our impact on land meant exporters would have to and water as well as shifting consumer behaviour, treat it as a priority and build their there is a real opportunity for the food & fibre

SECURING a free trade deal with India would be the first “really big win” for post-Brexit Britain, with opportunities for farmers to export food to the country’s growing middle class.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently announced a new Enhanced Trade Partnership paving the way for a future UK-India Free Trade Agreement (FTA).

Agrievents

sectors to meet these challenges.

Time: 12.00-5.00pm Venue: Otautau Combined Sports Complex 20 Hulme Street, Otautau Tickets: www.thrivingsouthland.co.nz/ace

OPPORTUNITY: There are opportunities in India for apple growers, with the UK already exporting apples to the Middle East.

Fears over Enviro Bill’s effect on farming

Wednesday 16/06/2021 – Saturday 19/06/2021 National Agricultural Fieldays® 2021 Time: Gates open daily Wednesday to Friday 8am to 5pm and Saturday 8am to 4pm.

Tickets on sale now.

For the latest information regarding COVID-19 and our event please see our venue site https:// mysterycreek.co.nz/covid-19/ Wednesday 04/08/2021 – Friday 06/08/2021 The Horticulture Conference Wellness in all aspects of our lives – health including mental health, our relationships, work, and the environment in which we live and grow our food – is increasingly seen as a must, not a nice to have. The Horticulture Conference brings together People, Land and Innovation under the imperative of Growing Wellness.

Venue: Mystery Creek Events Centre 125 Mystery Creek Rd, Ohaupo

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Wednesday 10/11/2021 – Friday 12/11/2021 The New Zealand Agricultural Show 2021 The New Zealand Agricultural Show brings a touch of tradition to the city and celebrates all that is great about rural life.

Venue: Canterbury Agricultural Park 102 Curletts Rd, Hillmorton, Christchurch Show office for general enquiries: 03 343 3033 Email: info@theshow.co.nz Should your event be listed here?

Phone 0800 85 25 80 or email adcopy@globalhq.co.nz

presence in the marketplace.

“UK food does resonate with Indians, whether that is biscuits or cheese or craft ales and beers,” he said, adding India would be looking at opportunities to export items such as rice and tropical fruit.

But there were challenges, with the retail structure and cold chain infrastructure undeveloped.

British Growers Association chief executive Jack Ward says there were opportunities for apple growers and the UK already exported apples to the Middle East.

“English apples are iconic, like English asparagus or strawberries. They are a brand which could be exploited by exporters,” he said.

“The question is can you do it profitably.

You have got to factor in storage and incountry promotion and consider whether the end price justifies the additional hassle.”

UK Farmers Guardian

MINISTERS have been urged to explain how the Environment Bill will affect farming, with concerns growing that the industry will be hit by burdensome new regulation and costs.

The legislation, which was published in its first draft in 2018 and has faced several delays, embeds five environmental principles into policymaking in England, including the precautionary principle and polluter pays principle.

Industry bodies have warned the EU’s overzealous application of the precautionary principle stymied innovation in the crop protection space and, more recently, farmers in the North West have faced difficulty in getting Nitrate Vulnerable Zone derogations approved. Now, there are question marks about how ministers will choose to interpret this principle and others, such as polluter pays, with influential ex-government advisor Dieter Helm suggesting farmers should expect to pay more for fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides if it is “effectively” applied.

The Government is under extreme pressure from environment groups to harden the current stance.

“At a time of huge change for farming businesses with the move

away from the Basic Payment Scheme in England, we are still unclear of how long-standing features of EU agri-environment policy will now be interpreted,” NFU president Minette Batters said.

“It is incredibly important that the Government clearly sets out how its environmental ambitions, this key legislation and the principles behind it, will support farming and food production.”

Tenant Farmers Association chief executive George Dunn also raised concerns that the principles were not being looked at in a global context.

“Implementing the principles in a way which drives out domestic producers will lead only to domestic food demand being satisfied by

imported products, likely to be the source of considerable environmental damage through their methods of production and transportation,” Dunn said.

And, he went on to suggest the polluter pays principle could end up pointing to the wrong individual in the supply chain.

“If retailers continue to drive down the margins of primary producers, where is the profit to allow for the necessary investment in new, environmentally sustainable production systems?” he asked.

“If such market failure persists, the Government must step in with necessary grant aid and tax-based solutions.”

UK Farmers Guardian CLARITY NEEDED: The UK primary sector is concerned that it will face new regulations that will hit farmers’ pockets.

FARMERS WEEKLY – May 24, 2021

Real Estate

farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate 0800 85 25 80

29

Katikati 114 Busby Road Tender

A compelling reason to explore the options 234 ha self-contained dairy unit with approximately 70 ha of suitable horticulture land in five titles provides options.

385 cows have produced up to 146,000 kgMS with a low input farming system. The property has a good infrastructure level with a modern 40 ASHB dairy shed, two homes and a single man's quarters, calf sheds and implement sheds.

An ideal property to convert the front of the farm to horticulture whilst retaining the balance as a dairy unit or pursue the reconfiguration of titles to create lifestyle blocks with spectacular views across the Katikati estuary Motiti Island and Mount Maunganui.

To be sold on a walk-in walk-out basis with livestock and plant and machinery available.

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

Tender closes Wednesday 9th June, 2021 at 2.00pm, (unless sold prior), Farmlands Te Puna View Tue 25 May 11.00 - 1.00pm Web pb.co.nz/TNR86272 Eddie McDermott M 027 488 8154 E eddie.mcdermott@pb.co.nz Ian Morgan M 027 492 5878 E ian.morgan@pb.co.nz Sienna Coombes M 020 404 50456 E sienna.coombes@pb.co.nz

NEW LISTING

Tolaga Bay 899 Tauwhareparae Road

An immaculate farm and reputable Stud

5+2

Ratanui Angus, 9km from Tolaga Bay, combines a remarkably appealing combination of farming components that provide for an impeccably balanced farm and accomplished Stud operation. A pinnacle of presentation and balance, encompassing 374ha, including 85ha of fertile flats, 35ha leased flats, with the residual largely easy to medium sheltered hill country. Ratanui Angus established in the 1950’s, has grown to be one of the bastions of Gisborne Bull week, offering genetics sought after countrywide. A modern bull sale complex replicates the standard across the entire Ratanui operation. The highly regarded Suffmax Ram Stud also adds appeal.

Infrastructure is impeccable. The 5+2 bedroom homestead is supported by the large self-contained sleepout.

Investment into improvements, fertility and stud stock genetics, are a priority under Ratanui ownership.

Tender (will not be sold prior) Closing 4pm, Wed 23 Jun 2021 10 Reads Quay, Gisborne View by appointment Simon Bousfield 027 665 8778 simon.bousfield@bayleys.co.nz Stephen Thomson 027 450 6531 stephen.thomson@bayleys.co.nz

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farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate 0800 85 25 80

Real Estate

FARMERS WEEKLY – May 24, 2021

RURAL | LIFESTYLE | RESIDENTIAL

TENDER

OTOROHANGA, WAIKATO 565 Waimahora Road Rua Oki Farm - 1240 hectares This is an 'X-factor' farm. 677 hectares effective and the balance is bush. If you have been looking for a predominantly cattle grazing farm with the ability to have fantastic hunting and hiking on your property, then Rua Oki farm is that farm.

On average, wintering 1400 sheep and 850 finishing/trading cattle as well as dairy graziers of which numbers vary. Infrastructure is very good. Spring water gravity reticulated to 80% of the farm.

Extensive lane way system throughout. 100 plus paddocks. Strong fertiliser history and own airstrip. Main dwelling is a four-bedroom home with elevated views of the farm. 100-year-old homestead has native wood throughout, four bedrooms and steeped

in history. There is also a Hunters Lodge with three bedrooms and an outside spa - very cool! Farm buildings consist of a five-stand woolshed with a very tidy two bedroom shearing quarters, a nine bay shed, two x four bay sheds, a three bay and stables, seven bay shed, three x calf pens, two hay barns, and fertiliser bin. On average, 400 bales of hay, 100 bales of silage, and 25 hectares of pit silage is made.

What a special farm and a great opportunity.

See you at the Open Days.

TENDER

(Unless Sold By Private Treaty) Closes 11.00am, Wednesday 23 June PGGWRE, 57 Rora Street, Te Kuiti

VIEW 12.00-1.00pm Wednesday 26 May & 2 June

Peter Wylie M 027 473 5855 E pwylie@pggwrightson.co.nz

pggwre.co.nz/TEK34273 Helping grow the country

PGG Wrightson Real Estate Limited, licensed under REAA 2008

Your destination for rural real estate Market your property to an audience that counts

Add another touchpoint to your campaign on the website built for farmers.

Align your brand with content farmers read: • Geo and agri sector targeting options available • Post campaign analysis of your adverts performance • Advertise on our Real Estate page alongside relevant editorial content • Enrich your print ad - Click through to your property videos or websites from the virtual edition.

Contact your agent to advertise today!

0800 85 25 80 farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate

FARMERS WEEKLY – May 24, 2021

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Primary Pathways – Jobs, Education & Training

& FENCER GENERAL Te Awaiti Station

A farming syndicate of four investors is looking to partner with an equity contract milker for a farm based in the Waikato / Bay of Plenty regions in the year starting June 2022.

Preferred minimum investment will be $500k for around a 20% share in the syndicate. This will own farm, cows, shares, plant & machinery. A larger share is also negotiable either initially or over time as opportunities arise.

Proven experience is required and references will need to be provided. Will need to be able to operate a farm of 300-400 cows unsupervised.

The farm will be selected once the partnership is formed.

Head of Sales & Opportunities Tauranga, Bay of Plenty • Do you have a passion for leadership in the Primary Sector?

• Have an authentic leadership style?

• Enjoy strategic decision-making and having an ability to inspire and motivate team members?

• A solid track record of exceeding company revenues by leading teams to achieve revenue goals and excellent mentoring skills?

• Are you eligible to work in New Zealand?

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A great opportunity for a motivated operator looking to take the next step into farm ownership.

Expressions of interest to be emailed to geoffrawcliffe@hotmail.com

DRYSTOCK FARMER WANTED

LIVESTOCK MANAGER

Equity Contract Milker

An iconic South Wairarapa coastal property of 6618ha requires a competent Livestock Manager and Fencer General both with excellent stockmanship. These are separate roles. The property farms sheep and beef, deer, and bees.

The Livestock Manager must be a team and community leader who works well and communicates effectively with everyone.

Additional requirements: • Have a good standard of horse-riding • Possess your own saddle • Possess a strong team of working dogs For all inquiries, phone 06 307 8850 Evenings preferred To apply for the position, email your CV along with a short cover letter and contact details of three professional referees to: danriddiford@teawaitistation.co.nz

Business Development Manager

FARMERS WEEKLY – May 24, 2021

An exciting and unique position is available at Kawhia for a person who has experience in running a small farming operation.

A stunning 540ha farm, situated on the Kawhia coast, is requiring the services of a diligent farmer with a minimum five years experience. This property is currently a breeding station consisting of 200 Hereford breeding cows and replacements and 850 Breeding ewes plus replacements. You will be a critical part of leadership of the farm and need to be honest and reliable. A proven knowledge and experience growing young stock, best practise animal health standards, feed budgeting and the ability to work autonomously and collaboratively is essential. You must have a high level of communication and good planning skills. Health and safety is a priority.

Key attributes 1. Effective time management skills 2. Extensive experience in handling stock, yard work and pasture management 3. Excellent animal welfare values and practises 4. Ability to identify animal health issues 5. Knowledge and ability to maintain water reticulation and electric fence systems 6. Basic mechanical skills and the desire to keep all machinery and tools in well maintained condition 7. Diligent in weed control 8. 3-4 working dogs under good control 9. Full drivers license essential and no criminal convictions We offer accommodation as part of your employment package

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For more details about this role please contact Julia Smith on 021 145 6704 or email your work experience and contact details to grasshut@xtra.co.nz

We’re hiring Are you a dynamic team player?

Tauranga, Bay of Plenty

We have a new role in our driven and fun sales team!

Telesales Classifieds - Six-month fixed term contract

• Are you a born sales person with a passion for technology and the primary sector?

We have a role in our Feilding head office for a people person who is a real go-getter.

You’ll be talking to farmers and other business clients all over New Zealand who want to market their products and job vacancies in the classifieds section of Farmers Weekly, Dairy Farmer and our websites.

You’ll be busy on the phone and email, building trust, discovering needs, and then presenting great solutions that work across our print and digital assets.

• Do you enjoy meeting people and learning about new things on a daily basis?

Our team will support you every step of the way as you learn the range of products, systems, processes and industry-good activities at GlobalHQ that combine to make this a great place to work.

• Are you looking for an opportunity to grow your talents in a fun, faced paced and innovative environment?

An empathy with the farming sector and the media world would be an advantage, and a proven record of sales success is necessary. You will use your skills and customer service experience to reach sales targets using the world-leading Salesforce CRM system.

You will require a good understanding of the G Suite cloud computing tools and usual computing tools, along with highly accurate and efficient administration skills.

• This could be the role for you!!!!

Initially this is a fixed term contract for six months, however, we would like to see it grow into a full-time long-term role.

Together we’ll see how far we can grow the market!

If so we would love to hear from you and discuss this exciting opportunity.

To discover more, please register your interest by requesting a detailed job description and application form by emailing: hr@globalhq.co.nz Applications close at 5pm on Friday June 4, 2021.

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You could be developing relationships alongside existing customers that are iconic businesses in the New Zealand Agri landscape such as Zespri, Turners and Growers, Spring Sheep Milk, Bidr, Mr Apple, Plant and Food Research, and Ballance solving real world business problems for the primary sector.

Our business is a technology solutions-based business that is looking out for the future of our food and fibre sector in New Zealand, as it faces one of the most challenging times in its history. We are a business that is re-imagining what this future make look like and need great people with vision, energy and are team players.

JOBS BOARD farmersweeklyjobs.co.nz

If you’re as fired up as we are about what the future holds for our industry, our company and team check us out www.cucumber.co.nz If Cucumber feels like a good match for your head and your heart then please find out more about us and apply by sending an intro letter and your CV to hr@cucumber.co.nz

Associate Director Aviation Business Development Manager Business Manager Dry Stock Farmer Equity Contract Milker Employer Accreditation Farm Manager General Hand Great Opportunities - Australia Head of Sales & Opportunities Home Based Telephone

Interviewers • Labourer • Livestock Manager and Fencer General • Livestock Operations & Performance Manager • Regional Livestock Manager • Senior Shepherd General • Shepherd • Stock Manager • Telesales

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Contact Debbie Brown 06 323 0765 or email classifieds@globalhq.co.nz

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We are a values-based organisation that is focussed on Kotahitanga or togetherness/oneness where you will be part of a great team of specialists all working towards a common purpose of a more sustainable, efficient Primary Sector in New Zealand which in turn will lead to a better world.

Noticeboard DOGS WANTED

FLY OR LICE problem?

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WE HAVE A TOP selection of young Huntaways for sale. We are not traders we are breeders trainers and sellers based in Southland. Transport to the North Island no problem.

Join us on facebook workingdogsnewzealand.

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SEVEN YEARS OR OLDER Huntaway. Off hills.

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NZ’s finest BioGro certified Mg fertiliser For a delivered price call ....

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Good quality, well priced native plants

Waiinu Beach Quarry

udly NZ Made Pro Since 1975

Expressions of Interest – purchase of mining right, resource consent, access agreement and associated quarry plant and machinery.

021 441 180 (JC) frigidair@xtra.co.nz

When only the best will do!

TOWABLE FLAIL MOWER 13.5HP. Briggs & Stratton Motor.

Electric start. 1.2m cut

Please phone or text Andrew Quigley 027 436 9307 andrew.quigley@quigleyfeeds.co.nz

BARLEY & WHEAT STRAW RYE GRASS STRAW MEADOW HAY LUCERNE & MEADOW BALEAGE Available in Squares & Rounds

NEW HOMES SOLID – PRACTICAL

WELL INSULATED – AFFORDABLE

Quarry has provided quality shellrock to dairy farmers, sheep and beef farmers, local contractors, forestry, all roading requirements, river erosion work in the Waverley, Waitotara and South Taranaki region since 2004.

For more information regarding the Deed of access call 027 232 7763 View by appointment only.

$3900 GST INCLUSIVE

To find out more visit www.moamaster.co.nz

T HI NK P R E B U I L T

36.2 hectare Survey Quarry Located 7km off State Highway 3, Waitotara, the property has consent to excavate shellrock from 36.2 hectare with right to extend mining permit and land.

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DRYSTOCK EQUITY PARTNERSHIP or lease land sought by progressive and experienced young farming couple. Phone 07 878 4940

Lease land wanted to grow export hay.

South Island wide.

Large areas of lease land required. Dryland and irrigated. Would consider anything.

Phone Mark 0800 478 729 or Tracey 027 554 1841

- MAY ONLY SPECIAL -

Ph 021 047 9299

WANTED

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MUSTERING GOAT MUSTERING. 50:50 split with farmer. Based in Whanganui. Small numbers okay.

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PLANTS FOR THE PLANET

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15 EQUIVALENT ROUNDS $75+gst; Shed stored squares $75+gst.

BALEAGE $75+gst. Unit loads available. Top quality.

Phone 021 455 787.

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

RED DEVON BULLS. Waimouri stud, Feilding.

Phone 027 224 3838.

See TradeME #2251190054 [For farmers and hunters]

FEED TROUGH TRAILERS

NZ’s #1 Under Woolshed/Covered Yards Cleaning Specialist For Over A Decade

Ph: Scott Newman 027 26 26 272 0800 27 26 88

HAY FOR SALE

PROMOTES QUICK PASTURE growth. Only $6+gst per hectare delivered. 0508-GIBBGRO [0508 442 247] www. gibbgro.co.nz. “The Proven One.”

SCOTTY’S CONTRACTORS

GRAZING AVAILABLE, large numbers. Weekly rate or weight gain options.

Waikato/BOP area. Phone 021 863 320.

LIVESTOCK FOR SALE

Selling something?

LAND FOR LEASE

Justine Alexander 027 232 7763

Our homes are built using the same materials & quality as an onsite build. Easily transported to almost anywhere in the North Island. Plans range from one bedroom to four bedroom First Home – Farm House Investment – Beach Bach

Call or email us for your free copy of our plans Email: info@ezylinehomes.co.nz Phone: 07 572 0230 Web: www.ezylinehomes.co.nz

Travel further with Farmers Weekly Promote or find your next adventure in our Travel & Tourism section published monthly.

Next issue – June 14: Booking deadline Wednesday June 9 - 12 noon To advertise your travel products and services contact: Debbie 06 323 0765 or email classifieds@globalhq.co.nz

www.farmersweekly.co.nz

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DOLOMITE

BUYING, SELLING DOGS NZ Wide. www. youtube.com/user/ mikehughesworkingdog/ videos email: mikehughesworkingdogs@ farmside.co.nz 07 315 5553

GIBB-GRO GROWTH PROMOTANT

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The world’s richest source of natural iodine. Dried and milled for use in agriculture and horticulture. Growth promotant / stock health food. As seen on Country Calendar. Orders to: 03 322 6115 or info@nzkelp.co.nz

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BEARDIE AND COLLIE Pups. https://www. youtube.com/channel/ UCFyzfLgzI8py3Gc2iZPo DNQ/videos Email: hughesfamilydogs@ farmside.co.nz 07 315 5553.

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

WANTED

NATIVE FOREST FOR MILLING also Macrocarpa and Red Gum, New Zealand wide.

We can arrange permits and plans. Also after milled timber to purchase.

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

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.

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DOGS FOR SALE

DOGS WANTED

FORESTRY

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CRAIGCO SHEEP JETTERS. Sensor Jet. Deal to fly and Lice now. Guaranteed performance.

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HORTICULTURE

GOATS WANTED

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ANIMAL HANDLING

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FARMERS WEEKLY – May 24, 2021

34

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

Waitangi Angus

Livestock Noticeboard

FARMERS WEEKLY – May 24, 2021

Brookland & Hillview Simmentals

KAIRURU POLLED HEREFORDS

ON FARM 30TH ANNUAL SALE

Bulls for sale by Private Treaty Herd established 1972 ”

JUNE - 1PM at Kairuru,9 Reporoa (m

Inquiries and inspection always welcome Colin & Catherine Hutching Phone 06 374 1802 Karl & Louise Humphreys 06 374 1786

Thursday 10th June 2021 58 rising 2yr bulls at Waitangi ALL Bulls are i50K tested for enhanced EBVs

Enquiries and Inspection Welcomed:

26th March a In conjunction with BIDR

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using proven performance genetics to enhance commercial returns for our clients

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“ A Consumer orientated breeding programme

SINCE 1979

28 R2YR BULLS

LOT 2

KEVIN & JANE Mc McDONALD (REPOROA) 07 333 8068 • 027 451 0640 JEFF & NICOLA McDONALD McDONALD 021 510 351 • kairuruNZ@gmail.com

Contact John, Joss or Phil Bayly M

027 474 3185,

Email

jbayly@xtra.co.nz

Sale Catalogue link: www.waitangiangus.co.nz/upcoming-sales

www.waitangiangus.co.nz

Stay ahead of the rest Sign up to AgriHQ’s free upcoming saleyard notifications to find what’s on offer before sale day.

Choose which sale yards you want to follow and find out the number and class of stock being entered at the next sale.

PINE PARK ANGUS 35 2-year-old bulls Sale Thursday 10th June – 11.30am

ON FARM AUCTION: 1pm Thurs June 17 OPEN DAY: 11.00am, May 27 at 811 Maraetotara Rd Over half sold for $6500 or less in 2020

farmersweekly.co.nz/enewsletters

P: 06 8747844 M: 027 4888 635 E: info@koanuiherefords.co.nz

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Please call to arrange a viewing Phone: Edward 021 704 778

Satisfaction guaranteed!

www.koanuiherefords.co.nz

13 in-calf R2yr heifers TAUMARUNUI ANGUS BULL SALE DAY 13 heifer calves THURSDAY 3RD JUNE

•

SHIAN 11AM,

BLACK RIDGE 2PM,

PUKE-NUI 4.30PM

Proud to be part of Angus NZ Registered Polled Herefords

BLACK RIDGE

KEVIN & JANE McDONALD

ANGUS STUD

07 333 8068

On-Farm Bull Sale

Thursday 3rd June 2021, 2pm 27 R2 Year Bulls SIRE BULLS:

ANGUS

Stern 094, Stokman South Dakota 226, Matauri Navigator 428, TeMania 314, Matauri Taratara L368

DEAN & TERESA SHERSON 675 Taringamotu Road, RD 4, TAUMARUNUI 3994 p: 07 896 7211 m: 027 690 2033 e: black_ridge@live.com.au Like and Find us on Facebook

Inspection and Enquiries always welcome.

All bulls BVD vaccinated and tested.

Lepto vaccinated. Semen evaluated. TB C10.

BULL SALE

THURSDAY 3RD JUNE 2021 AT 4:30PM Bull Sale Venue: 303 River Road, SH 43, Taumarunui

32 Bulls

Alan & Catherine Donaldson p: (07) 896 6714 e: agcsdonaldson@gmail.com www.pukenuiangus.co.nz

Find us on Facebook

Livestock Noticeboard

FARMERS WEEKLY – May 24, 2021

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

35

ANNUAL BULL SALE:

FRIDAY THE 4TH OF JUNE 12 NOON

46 BULLS including: BigMac Q324

BigMac Q333

BRED FOR BALANCE The bull sale season is upon us with Angus continuing to play a pivotal role in the balance of New Zealand’s beef industry.

LOT 2

LOT 10

Steakhouse Q307

With a strong maternal influence, consistent growth and high marbling traits the Angus breed is ideally positioned to impact your breeding programme.

The AngusNZ indexes and EBV’s provided by our breeders is specific to New Zealand conditions, climate and market to give you greater assurance and decision-making capabilities.

Magic Q323

For further understanding on NZ indexes and EBV’s visit angusnz.com

AngusNZ congratulates our breeders on the positive sale results already achieved.

• • •

Ruaview Angus Glenwood Angus Penvose Angus

Future sales include:

24-29 MAY PUKETOI ANGUS DELMONT ANGUS KINCARDINE ANGUS WAIMARA ANGUS BANNOCKBURN ANGUS

PRIVATE TREATY

LOT 33

MOANAROA ANGUS

LOT 46

KOWAI ANGUS PINEBANK ANGUS

Enquiries & viewing welcome, contact: RODDY 06 372 7533 or NEIL 06 372 2838 Check us out on

fb.com/kayjayangus

angusnz.com

Top quality bulls bred for NZ Farmers ● ● BVD Tested Clear, BVD and 10 in 1 Vaccinated ● Calving ease, moderate birth weight bulls suitable to mate 1 or 2 year olds or cows ● Breedplan Recorded ● TB Status C10 ● Herd completely free of known genetic defects ● Only proven NZ bred bulls used in last 10 years ● Renowned for great temperament ● Three year comprehensive guarantee

47 Rising 2yr bulls Friday 11th June @ 1.30pm on farm, Pahiatua Email for a catalogue: bulls@totaranuistud.co.nz Daimien & Tally 06 376 8400 or 021 430 710

Mark Crooks – PGG Wrightson 027 590 1452

LK0106856©

www.totaranuistud.co.nz 36th Annual Bull Sale

Monday 14th June 2021

Enquiries and inspection welcome. Contact

Kevin or Megan FRIEL ph: (06) 376 4543 625 Jackson Road, Kumeroa

kev.meg.co@xtra.co.nz

www.mtmableangus.co.nz

36

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

Livestock Noticeboard

FARMERS WEEKLY – May 24, 2021

STOCK FOR SALE

If you want weaner bulls, anywhere in the country, I can supply. Give me a call

R2 & R3YR STEERS 480-530kg

R2YR FRSN BULLS 320-480kg Lines MA COWS

LK0107242©

Hamish Hewitt 027 447 5384 www.hewittlivestock.co.nz

refer to online listings

STOCK REQUIRED

BULL SALE - 8th JUNE 2021

ANGUS and/or XBRED COWS Nov & Dec Bull

Commercially Farmed Herd in Tararua Hill Country - Focusing on Profit Driving Traits

MALE LAMBS 33-38kg EWE LAMBS 32-36kg

SALE TALK

Two hunters hired a pilot to fly them deep into the wilderness to look for deer. After bagging six large bucks, they were loading the plane to return when the pilot said, “Hold on. This aircraft is only rated to carry four deer.”

The two men objected strongly. “Last year we got six and the pilot let us take them all – and he had the exact same plane.”

Reluctantly, the pilot gave in and all six deer were loaded. However, even on full power, the little plane couldn’t handle the load and went down in the forest. Somehow the two men survived, and after climbing from the wreckage the first hunter asked: “Any idea where we are?”

40 Performance Bulls - Auction Starts 12 Noon

Sons of Feature Sire

www.dyerlivestock.co.nz

Ross Dyer 0274 333 381

TH Frontier 174E

A Financing Solution For Your Farm E info@rdlfinance.co.nz

“Sure,” his friend replied. “I think we’re pretty close to where we crashed last year.”

Multi Trait Leading Low Birth High Growth

Poll Hereford Bulls - Available for viewing anytime.

Stuart 027 8484408

Douglas 027 9197150

Or Your Agent

Auahi Charolais

Looking for a Beef Shorthorn?

Check them out

Carnegie

Taupiri Private Sales 07 824 6751 - Kelvin

Raupuha

Mahoenui Bull& Heifer Sale 1st June, 9am 07 877 8977 - Russell

Morton

Waiuku Private Sales 021 031 3091

Katikati Sale 20th May, 1:00pm 021 520 244 - Craig

Browns

Morrinsville Private Sales 07 889 5965 - Hamish

Bullock Creek

Waitara Private Sales 06 754 6699 - Roger

Roscliff

Te Awamutu Private Sales 027 211 1112 - Ross

Mangaotuku

Stratford Private Sales 06 765 7269 - Jack

Colvend

Ongarue Sale 1st June, 3.30pm 07 894 6030 - Alan

Te Kohanui

Marton Private Sales 06 327 8185 - Alan

Hinewaka Sale

Sale 9th June, 3.00pm 06 372 7615 - David

Turiwhate

Dunblane

Kumara Bidr 26th May, 7.30pm 027 379 8167 - Chris

Waikari Private Sales 027 233 3678 - Chris

Glenbrook Station

Rough Ridge

Ranfurly Sale 21st May, 11am 03 444 9277 - Malcolm

Glendhu

Heriot Sale 25th May, 11am 027 497 8104 - Fraser

Tuatapere Private Sales 03 226 6713 - Anita

Dunsandel Private Sales 022 470 2447 - Sarah

Hemmingford Maximum

This is our first offering from our $27,000 bull Hemingford Maximum – the perfect finishing sire.

Enquiries phone John Henderson 027 633 1775 or any Carrfields agent or Bruce Orr, Stud Stock Manager 027 492 2122

Hiwiroa Sale

Waipukurau Bidr 3rd June, 7.30pm 06 858 5369 - Jim 06 855 4737 - Nick

Carriganes Cattle

Omarama Private Sales 021 285 9303 - Simon

Westwood

On offer is 27 R2 Bulls 10 R3 IC heifers In calf to a proven calving ease sire C10 – BVD vac2

Whangarei Heads Sale 2nd July, 1pm 09 434 0987 - David 09 434 0718 -Will

Waitomo Private Sale 07 873 6968 - Ron

Mill Valley

Est. 1981

Sale date 27th May – 1pm

Glenrossie

Aubrey

Whangamomona Private Sales 06 762 3520 - Aaron

Pio Pio

LK0107235©

Lochburn

Henderson Partners

Using a n bull in Shorthor eeding ss-br your cro l increase wil program ne up to bottom li 20%

MAUNGAHINA STUD SALE DATE: 10th June 2021 – 1pm 36 Polled Hereford bulls 18 Polled Speckle Park Bulls

Glenfern

Tokanui Private Sales 03 246 8498 - Allan

Renowned for great marbling producing top quality meat

www.shorthorn.co.nz

mark.maungahina@xtra.co.nz • +64 27 415 8696

www.maungahina.co.nz

LK0107127©

Keep an eye out on our facebook and website for updates

Livestock Noticeboard

FARMERS WEEKLY – May 24, 2021

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

37

Lot 10

Mary Taylor PH: 06 8555322 Andy & Emma Martin PH: 068555348 E: taylors@glenbraestud.co.nz View Online: www.glenbraestud.co.nz

Lot 16

Lot 5

Lot 6

2021 AVERAGE OF GLENBRAE SALE BULLS ‘VS’ BREED AVERAGE EBV

Birth Wt.

200D Wt.

400D Wt.

600D Wt.

Milk

Scrotal Size

Carcase Wt.

EMA

Rib

Rump

Glenbrae sale bulls av

+4.8

+41

+70

+99

+19

+2.5

+67

+3.7

+0.7

+0.8

NZ Breed av.

+4.1

+33

+55

+78

+17

+2.1

+52

+3.6

+0.7

+0.8

30 Powerful Poll Hereford

Glenbrae Annual Bull Sale 1019 Mangaorapa Rd, Porangahau. Thursday 2pm. 3rd June 2021

NORTH ISLAND LIMOUSIN BREEDERS

Look towards the future

BE GREEN GO WHITE!

IS IT A PREMIUM IF THAT PREMIUM IS COSTING YOU IN PRODUCTION AND HAVING A BIGGER IMPACT ON THE ENVIRONMENT?

2021 LIMOUSIN BULL TRIAL SALE

A SUPERB LINE UP OF 12 SELECTED AND TESTED R2 BULLS REPRESENTING SIX ESTABLISHED STUDS FROM THROUGHOUT NZ

Run together for 9 months beneath the Kaimai Ranges, all have excellent docility, structure, feed conversion rates and the magic Limousin muscle.

ADD MORE MEAT FASTER WITH A LIMOUSIN BULL

CHAROLAIS CROSS CATTLE WILL REACH THEIR TARGET WEIGHTS EARLIER AND HAVE BIGGER DRESSING OUT PERCENTAGES. 15 TO 18 MONTH CHAROLAIS CROSS STEERS HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO REACH CARCASS WEIGHTS OF 300-330KG WHILE DRESSING OUT BETWEEN 57- 60%

S A L E O N T H E B UL L T R I AL FAR M :

234a Te Tuhi Rd, Okauia, Matamata 4371 12 noon Friday 4th June 2021 - Viewing from 11am Updates and catalogue at www.limousin.co.nz Contact Frank Rientjes (Convenor) : 027 436 5032

ARE YOU GETTING TOO MANY BULL BREAKDOWNS? Waigroup bulls are backed with a rigorous guarantee. CALL US TODAY

STUDIES SHOW THE CATTLE THAT ARE GONE THE QUICKEST HAVE THE LEAST ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT.

THEY, • EAT LESS FEED • CONSUME LESS WATER • HAVE LOWER METHANE PRODUCTION

VISITORS & ENQUIRIES WELCOME

PINEBANK Established 1919 Willie Falloon Ph: (06) 372 7041 E: falloon@xtra.co.nz GLANWORTH Established 1952 Shaun Fouhy Ph: (06) 376 8869 E: glanworthfarm@gmail.com

www.anguswaigroup.co.nz

LK0107128©

Pinebank Sales: 2-Year bulls by private treaty through June Glanworth On-Farm Auctions: 2-year Bulls Thursday 24 June at 2.30pm

• HAVE LOWER NITROGEN EXCRETION www.charolais.net.nz FB & INSTAGRAM@charolaisbreedersnz

38

GroWTH & meAT

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

mIlK & mATernAl

feeD effICIenCY

Livestock Noticeboard

FARMERS WEEKLY – May 24, 2021

RIVERLEE HEREFORDS

Westwood Shorthorn TE TAUMATA HEREFORDS BullsPOLL for sale by Private Treaty

5th Annual Bull Sale 9th June 2021, 1pm

33rd AnnuAl on fArm Bull SAle

June 7

Held on farm 2354 Rangiwahia Rd, Manawatu

2012 at 12pm

th See www.shorthorn.co.nz to view bulls for sale

Shorthorns and To view our bull Westwood sale catalogue & Coloured Sheep pictures of Allsale lots go to: bulls’ blood tested negative for BVD www.tetaumata.co.nz

LK0107114©

YoungLOTHerd Sire 6

Anita Erskine, Westwood, Papatotara, Tuatapere RD 9691 Phone: 03 226 6713 Email: westwood.farm@xtra.co.nz Te Taumata Banjo 10302 20 R2yr Polled Hereford Bulls (Or PGG Stud Stockman Callum McDonald 027 433 6443) HILL COUNTRY BRED FOR HILL COUNTRY FARMERS

free DelIVerY

BVD VACCInATeD

TB C10

CArCASe SCAnneD Selling Agents Carrfields Livestock: Bruce Orr 027 492 2122 Dan Warner 027 826 5768 NZ Farmers Livestock: John Watson 027 494 1975 Brent Bougen 027 210 4698

Beef up your bull knowledge Beef Industry Driven Performance from a true dryland farm

42nd Annual Poll Hereford Bull Sale

farmersweekly.co.nz/enewsletters

LK0107191©

Te Taumata Genetics

2021 Bull Sale Lot 3

Murray & Fiona Curtis 06 328 2881 or 027 228 2881

Email: mfcurtis@farmside.co.nz

Wed May 26th at 1pm On Farm Auction Alistair & Eileen McWilliam Ph 06 372 7861 or 027 455 0099 www.tetaumata.co.nz

LK0106699©

POLL HEREFORDS Est. 1962

Subscribe to our bull sales eNewsletters to Alistair & Eileen 06 372 7861 or Jim 06 372 7718 Email: studstock@tetaumata.co receive updates with the latest results from www.herefords.co.nz across the country direct to your inbox. www.tetaumata.co.nz 150 Te Kopi Road, RD 4 Masterton 5884, Enquiries & Visitors Welcome

Hinewaka Shorthorns

41 ST THURSDAY 10TH JUNE 2021

18th ANNUAL BULL SALE Wednesday 9th June 2021, 3pm – on farm

On farm sale at Karamu Wanganui at 3.00pm BULLS SIRED BY: LD Capitalist 316, Hoover Dam, MF Theodore 2305, MF Edmund 2136, Matauri Reality N150

Contact Lindsay or Maria Johnstone today 027 445 3211 or 027 610 5348

ranuiangus.co.nz All bulls i50k and structurally assessed.

LK0097818©

20 R2YR BULLS View online catalogue at www.hinewakashorthorns.co.nz and visit our facebook page

NGĀPUTAHI 14 JUNE BULL SALE

David, Pip & Mitch Blackwood – Ph: 06 372 7615 456 Te Wharau Road, Masterton

0097594

130.71x100angus OREGON

Viewing from 1pm AUCTION 3pm

Join the Clan, get the Ngāputahi advantage.

Ngāputahi Bulls will produce weaners which have the Potential to kill 300+ kg at 20mths, with up to 100% achieving meat quality and IMF Premiums that are now available.

Oregon Angus

35 BULLS

Tuesday 8th June 2021 – 2pm

OREGON DYNAMITE

BULL WALK THURSDAY 20TH MAY, FROM 1.50PM

TOTARA RESERVE POHANGINA VALLEY

Scan our QR code to see our Sale Bulls data

Forbes Cameron 06 329 4050 • 027 259 4050 or Angus Cameron 06 329 4711

LK0107237©

KEITH & GAE HIGGINS 06 372 2782

BULLS AVAILABLE FOR INSPECTION AT ALL TIMES WITH APPOINTMENTS LK0107012©

AT MORLAND 1464 MASTERTON STRONVAR ROAD

Livestock Noticeboard

FARMERS WEEKLY – May 24, 2021

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

MERCHISTON ANGUS

in conjunction with

12th Annual Bull Sale

39 EST 1955

26 RISING 2 YEAR OLD BULLS st

ONLINE AUCTION Auction to be held at Beaumont Pub

Inspections welcome from 9.30am Prior viewing by appointment only - Beaumont Township, 1910 State Highway 8 Open day: Friday 14th May, Beaumont Township PMS – PMS 445 C

PMS – n/a

RGB – 60, 76, 64

RGB – 255, 255, 255

CMYK – 0, 80, 95, 0

CMYK – 50, 28, 24, 65

CMYK – 0, 0, 0, 0

HTML – f15a29

HTML – 3c4c54

PETERS ANGUS 1910 State Highway 8, Beaumont, RD1 Lawrence 9591, Otago www.petersgenetics.co.nz

Contact: Justin Wallis (Stud Master) 027 225 8330 or Clayton Peters 027 222 4421

NZ’s Virtual Saleyard

UPCOMING BULL SALES

Monday, 24 May 2021 11.00am - Puketoi Angus 1.30pm - Kaimoa South Devon 2.00pm - Gold Creek Simmental Tuesday, 25 May 2021 1.00pm - Kerrah Simmental 2.30pm - Delmont Angus

ASCOT HALLMARK H147 [15 SONS IN THIS YEARS SALE] LK0106966©

PMS – PMS 173 C

RGB – 241, 90, 41

43 ANGUS BULLS

9TH June at 2.30pm on farm and on BIDR Putorino Road, Rata Enquiries to: Richard Rowe 027 279 8841 e: mercang@farmside.co.nz or see ebook online at Angus NZ

LK0106864©

11am Tuesday 1 June 2021

Manuiti

South Devon Stud

Wednesday, 26 May 2021 11.00am - Leafland Simmental 7.30pm - Turiwhate Shorthorn 7.30pm - Kincardine Angus

Monday, 31 May 2021 2.00pm Umbrella Range Angus For further information go to bidr.co.nz or contact the team on 0800 TO BIDR

For Sale by Private Treaty

8 x Quality R2 Bulls (docile temperament) All passed mobility and morphology tests and BVD free + fully vaccinated

LK0107186©

Thursday, 27 May 2021 11.00am - Lone Pine Simmental 2.00pm - Glenside Simmental Friday, 28 May 2021 1.00pm - Waimara Angus & Stoneburn Hereford Saturday, 29 May 2021 1.00pm - Flagstaff Hereford, Glacier Hereford & Bannockburn Angus

Call Tim & Di Deighton 06 382 5551 Email: ddeighton@inspire.net.nz

Livestock advertising?

Contact Ella:

0800 85 25 80

livestock@globalhq.co.nz

HEREFORDS • ROMNEYS LK0107019©

Going Going Gone!

AUCTION 8 June Gisborne www.hain.co.nz

BULL SALE

28 Robust #HEREFORDS #HILLCOUNTRYBULLS

40

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

Livestock Noticeboard

FARMERS WEEKLY – May 24, 2021

King Country

BULL SALE WEEK | MAY 31ST – JUNE 3RD 2021 6 breeds | 9 studs | Approx. 300 bulls for sale over 5 days

Cam Heggie, 027 501 8182 Kevin Mortenson, 027 473 5858

Brent Bougen, 027 210 4698 Alan Hiscox, 027 442 8434

or contact your local agent for more information

BULL SALE DATE 1ST JUNE AT 3:30PM.

ANNUAL ON FARM AUCTION HELD UNDER COVER. ALAN & VAL PARK Located off state highway 4.

841 Tapuiwahine Valley Road Ongarue, Taumarunui 3997. p: 07 894 6030 e: colvendfarm@gmail.com Colvend Shorthorn & Angus Stud

Sound well fleshed sires, Excellent temperament 200 Fully Breedplan recorded cows • 20 Bulls Catalogued BULL OPEN DAY: WEDNESDAY 2ND JUNE, 1 - 5PM • ALL ENQUIRIES WELCOME

27TH ANNUAL SALE THURSDAY 10TH JUNE, 1PM, TE KUITI SALE YARDS

also online bidding with

PETER & CAROLINE FOSS

Colvend Angus established in 2016 on females from the Oakview, Turihaua and Springdale Studs Colvend Shorthorns established in 2000. Successes at Beef Expo 3 Supreme Champion bulls and 2 Reserve Champions.

BVD tested free.

TB C10

Ready to talk some Bull?

Contact Ella: 0800 85 25 80 or email livestock@globalhq.co.nz

495 Potaka Road, RD 1, Aria, King Country Ph/fax (07) 877 7881 • Email: pcfossy@xtra.co.nz

Storth Oaks Angus

TARANGOWER ANGUS

75th ANNUAL Bull Sale

“Genetics still available” 96 bulls sell:

2021 on farm & bidr simultaneously streamed Annual Sale Wednesday 2nd June, 1 pm Tim & Kelly Brittain 524 Paewhenua Rd,RD 2, Otorohanga. 3972 Phone: 07 873 2816 Mob: 027 5935387 Email: tim@storthoaks.co.nz www.storthoaks.co.nz facebook.com/storthoaksangus

storthoaks

twitter@storthoaksangus

SALE TO BE LIVESTREAMED

Tuesday 1st June 2021 11:30am 41 Quality Rising 2-year-old Angus Bulls Rob Purdie Ph: 07 877 8935 912 Ngatarawa Road, Mahoenui Email: tarangowerangus@farmside.co.nz

LK0107151©

96 average in top 5% of breed for AP index 96 average in top 10% for SR index 96 average +2.93 for IMF

Livestock Noticeboard

FARMERS WEEKLY – May 24, 2021

KIA TOA CHAROLAIS

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

41

Red, White & Roans of our world

On-farm Sale Est 2003

973 Troopers Road, Te Kuiti

Bull & Heifer On-Farm Sale 31 GENUINE HILL COUNTRY BULLS ON OFFER Monday 31st May 2021 at 1.30pm

1st June 2021, 9:00 am

Contact: Paul and Claire Grainger 07 878 6458 – 027 209 1959 pcgraingers@xtra.co.nz

Enquiries inspection always welcome email:and rnmwproffit@xtra.co.nz LK0106831©

ALL BULLS BVD TESTED AND VACCINATED FOLLOW US ON FACEBOOK – KIA TOA CHAROLAIS

Contact Russell Proffit

2033 State Highway 3, RD Mahoenui, 3978 phone: 07 877 8977 or 027 355 2927 www.raupuhastud.co.nz Raupuha Stud

For over 80yrs Hingaia bulls have been standing up to the demands of the industry

HINGAIA OFFER: Proven Genetics Constitution Fertility Longevity Soundness Balanced EBVs

HINGAIA ANGUS

“A balanced breeding programme for all environments”

Annual Bull Sale Wednesday 2nd June 2021 147 Hingaia Road, Te Awamutu - 4.00pm

AUCTION

MONDAY 31st MAY 2021 – 11.00AM 488 MANGAOTAKI ROAD, PIOPIO

Richard Jolly 147 Hingaia Road, RD4, Te Awamutu 3874, P: 027 499 7159 Email: jollyrt57@gmail.com Andrew Jolly P: 0272 090 037

www.hingaiaangus.co.nz

Andy Transom P: 0275 965 142 Brent Bougen P: 027 210 4698 Bruce Orr P: 027 4922 122

Andrew & Tracey Neal Ph: 07 877 8009 • Mob: 027 366 5514 potawa488@gmail.com

LK0107101©

INSPECTION AND VISITORS ALWAYS WELCOME

Quiet, reliable, affordable fully guaranteed Bulls.

19 years breeding and selling Simmental Bulls.

C10 herd, BVD clear, vaccinated, semen & service tested.

MARKET SNAPSHOT

42

Market Snapshot brought to you by the AgriHQ analysts.

Mel Croad

Suz Bremner

Reece Brick

Nicola Dennis

Sarah Friel

Caitlin Pemberton

Deer

Sheep

Cattle BEEF

SHEEP MEAT

VENISON

Last week

Prior week

Last year

NI Steer (300kg)

5.25

5.25

5.00

NI lamb (17kg)

7.50

7.40

6.60

NI Stag (60kg)

5.35

5.35

5.50

NI Bull (300kg)

5.20

5.15

5.05

NI mutton (20kg)

5.90

5.80

4.55

SI Stag (60kg)

5.45

5.35

5.50

NI Cow (200kg)

3.50

3.50

3.50

SI lamb (17kg)

7.15

7.00

6.45

SI Steer (300kg)

4.75

4.75

4.50

SI mutton (20kg)

5.60

5.50

4.05

SI Bull (300kg)

4.70

4.70

4.45

Export markets (NZ$/kg)

SI Cow (200kg)

3.20

3.15

3.00

UK CKT lamb leg

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

8.54

9.56

8.77

7.66

11.08

North Island steer slaughter price 6.50

8.0

South Island steer slaughter price

$/kg CW

6.0 5.0

10.0 South Island lamb slaughter price

Oct

4.50

(NZ$/kg)

Dec 5-yr ave

Feb

Dairy

Oct

Aug 2020-21

Apr 2019-20

Jun

MILK PRICE FUTURES

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

2019-20

2020-21

Fertiliser

Aug 2020-21

Last week

Prior week

Last year

2.33

2.34

2.49

NZ average (NZ$/t)

Last week

Prior week

Last year

Urea

672

672

567

319

319

314

990

990

787

37 micron ewe

-

2.10

-

Super

30 micron lamb

2.15

2.20

-

DAP

Grain

Data provided by

Dec

FERTILISER

Coarse xbred ind.

Jun

2019-20

7.0

5-yr ave

WOOL

5-yr ave

8.0

5.0

5.00

Apr

9.0

6.0

5.50

Feb

South Island stag slaughter price

11.0

7.0

5.0

Dec

7.0

6.0

6.00

Oct

8.0

$/kg CW

4.50

Last year

9.0

7.0

9.0

Last week Prior week

North Island stag slaughter price

11.0

8.0

5.00 $/kg CW

$/kg CW

5.50

6.50

Top 10 by Market Cap

CANTERBURY FEED WHEAT

Company

Close

YTD High

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Ltd

33.12

36.55

YTD Low 27.1

5.32

9.94

5.04 6.65

8.00

405

Meridian Energy Limited (NS)

7.50

400

Auckland International Airport Limited

7.55

7.99

Mercury NZ Limited (NS)

6.53

7.6

5.79

Spark New Zealand Limited

4.5

4.97

4.37

7.00

$/tonne

$/kg MS

10.16

5.0

4.00

6.50 6.00

395

Mainfreight Limited Ryman Healthcare Limited

390

DAIRY FUTURES (US$/T) Nearby contract

380

…

Sept. 2022

M

…

J…

M

Sept. 2021

N …

S

…

J…

…

385

M

5.50

May-20

Prior week

vs 4 weeks ago

WMP

4220

4320

4145

400

SMP

2835

2830

2825

395

Sep-20

Nov-20

Jan-21

Mar-21

May-21

4140

4100

4050

Butter

3500

3460

3430

Milk Price

7.74

7.70

7.64

405

$/tonne

AMF

390 385 380

May-20

* price as at close of business on Thursday

WMP FUTURES - VS FOUR WEEKS AGO

Jul-20

Sep-20

Nov-20

Jan-21

Mar-21

May-21

WAIKATO PALM KERNEL

4400 4200 $/tonne

4000 3800 3600 3400 3200 May

Jul-20

CANTERBURY FEED BARLEY

Last price*

US$/t

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

6.0

6.00

4.00

11.68

North Island lamb slaughter price

9.0 $/kg CW

8.77

US domestic 90CL cow

Last year

10.0 11.75

Export markets (NZ$/kg) US imported 95CL bull

Last week Prior week

$/kg CW

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

William Hickson

Ingrid Usherwood

73

77

64.85

14.39

15.99

13.86 5.67

Fletcher Building Limited

7.26

7.55

Contact Energy Limited

7.68

11.16

6.6

Infratil Limited

7.51

7.9

6.74

Listed Agri Shares

5pm, close of market, Thursday

Company

Close

YTD High

YTD Low

ArborGen Holdings Limited

0.175

0.195

0.161

The a2 Milk Company Limited

5.66

12.5

5.42

Comvita Limited

3.29

3.6

3.06

Delegat Group Limited

14.8

15.4

13.75

Fonterra Shareholders' Fund (NS)

3.9

5.15

3.88

Foley Wines Limited

1.73

2.07

1.68

Livestock Improvement Corporation Ltd (NS)

1.18

1.18

0.81

Marlborough Wine Estates Group Limited

0.245

0.65

0.245

New Zealand King Salmon Investments Ltd

1.66

1.72

1.43

PGG Wrightson Limited

3.33

3.65

3.11

Rua Bioscience Limited

0.4

0.61

0.37

Sanford Limited (NS)

4.45

5.23

4.3

Scales Corporation Limited

4.62

5.09

4.22 4.66

Seeka Limited

5.18

5.68

400

Synlait Milk Limited (NS)

3.06

5.24

2.85

T&G Global Limited

2.89

3

2.88

350

S&P/NZX Primary Sector Equity Index

12958

15491

12865

S&P/NZX 50 Index

12437

13558

12085

S&P/NZX 10 Index

12237

13978

11776

300 250

Jun Jul Latest price

Aug

Sep 4 weeks ago

Oct

200

May-20

S&P/FW PRIMARY SECTOR EQUITY

Jul-20

Sep-20

Nov-20

Jan-21

Mar-21

May-21

12958

S&P/NZX 50 INDEX

12437

S&P/NZX 10 INDEX

12237

43

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Pulse

WEATHER

Strong second half expected

Soil Moisture

Overview Most of New Zealand is drier than average this week – this is based on average rainfall across NZ over a 24 year period from 1979 to 2003.

This week is looking mostly dry, with a very powerful high pressure zone exiting South Australia, heading towards the South Island. At the same time, there is a significant sub-tropical storm just near the North Island for all of this week. This storm will produce rough beach and sea conditions, windy sou’easters and showers around eastern areas – hopefully down into dry Hawke’s Bay too. This system will be stalled here all week, held in place by the big high crossing the South Island. Southerlies return this weekend.

20/05/2021

Mel Croad mel.croad@globalhq.co.nz

Source: NIWA Data

Highlights

Wind

Windy in the upper North Island with coastal SE gales possible at times, as a deepening low – or even storm – forms in the subtropics. This windy easterly quarter flow may even spread down into the South Island for a time. Southerlies possible this weekend.

Highlights/ Extremes

Temperature Nothing too dramatic in our forecasts, although this week does kick off on a colder note, with the lower South Island getting heavy frosts in some places. Southerlies kick back in again this coming weekend too.

14-day outlook

7-day rainfall forecast

0

Despite the nearby storm off the North Island’s northern coasts, high pressure dominates NZ this week. The high will take all of this week to transition across the country, with the low unravelling by Friday and drifting east of NZ. A southerly kicks in this weekend and by next week low pressure may again be forming east of NZ to provide more eastern wet weather as another large high remains centred just south of NZ.

The offshore sub-tropical storm is the one to watch – damaging gales stay just offshore, but may drift into eastern areas like eastern Northland, Great Barrier Island, Coromandel Peninsula and East Cape. Some chance for wet weather in dry eastern areas. Southerlies return this weekend.

5

10

20

30

40

50

60

80

100

200

400

Mostly dry this week due to this high crossing the country, but the sub-tropical low will bring rain to East Cape at times, and showers or patchy rain into other eastern areas like Northland, Bay of Plenty, Coromandel, parts of Auckland, Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay – possibly even down to Canterbury for a time – all caught up in the southeast to easterly flow. By the weekend southerlies return, with a chance for more eastern showers next week.

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

A

GRIHQ’s latest Livestock Outlook report paints a very positive picture for lamb and beef prices over the next six months, which could extend into the new season. Forecast prices within the report indicate swift upside, potentially returning to 2019’s levels.

The speed of the market turnaround will have some questioning if this momentum can be sustained. At this point the positives outweigh the negatives, allowing sheep and beef farmers to plan and budget with confidence.

Global shipping disruptions, which are slowing the flow of New Zealand lamb and beef into export markets, are driving prices higher. This is creating urgency among importers to secure supplies before they tighten further. This elevated competition is welcomed following a subdued start to the year.

Meat companies appear confident these market conditions are set to continue, but less confident in the supply of livestock needed to maximise returns.

There are numerous winter-to-early spring lamb contracts in circulation, as meat companies scramble to secure numbers for the lean winter months.

There have been fewer beef contracts tabled in comparison, however, the upwards pricing trends are the same, setting a benchmark for winter pricing expectations.

Since April, growing Chinese demand for NZ lamb has been the catalyst for other key markets to rally. The reopening of the foodservice sector in major markets has also underpinned a lift in demand for higher-end lamb cuts.

Initial data shows the average export values for lamb rebounded between March and April to over $10/kg. This trend is continuing through May as export prices push higher.

This stronger demand is occurring as lamb supplies seasonally ease.

National lamb slaughter rates bottom out at about 200,000 head per week in August.

Mid-April slaughter rates were still holding well above 400,000 head per week, but processors have indicated a sudden slump in the lamb kill through May. This shouldn’t come as a surprise based on the high slaughter rates through the first six months of this season.

This is a key reason why farm gate prices for lamb have surged beyond $7/kg in recent weeks. Further upside is merely a formality, which will continue through to spring.

Farm gate beef prices have been slow to react to stronger global market conditions, as they coincided with the peak autumn cow kill, which pressured space at processing plants.

As cow numbers button off into June, there will be plenty of room for beef prices to shift higher, thereby aligning closer to market conditions.

This is a key reason why farm gate prices for lamb have surged beyond $7/kg in recent weeks. Further upside is merely a formality, which will continue through to spring.

The US imported beef market has surged to near-record levels for this time of the year on the back of tight imported supplies. This trend doesn’t look like it will abate anytime soon, which provides some solid assurances for farmgate beef prices into spring.

Improved demand isn’t solely limited to the US, with key Asian markets also stepping up to the plate.

While NZ traverses peak beef kill now, by the end of June supplies will be much leaner.

Despite this, AgriHQ expects farm gate beef prices will continue to track higher through winter, but the real upside will develop into spring.

Global beef supplies have edged lower in recent months, providing plenty of opportunity for those markets with the ability to lift production to capitalise on the stronger prices.

44

SALE YARD WRAP

The Glob visits Feilding The Glob healthcare caravan’s doors were open at Feilding’s Friday sale, offering free health checks.

GlobalHQ started the initiative pre-covid 19 last year, but due to lockdown the caravan had to be parked up for a short time. It recommenced touring sale yards and agricultural events recently and has been very popular.

Doctor Sue Fowlie from the Rakaia Gorge Health Centre is the doctor in charge and has welcomed many faces to the caravan.

For the majority, a clean bill of health has been given, but she has picked up a few potentially serious issues in her time in The Glob.

Project manager Michelle Thompson says a steady stream of people visited the caravan since 10am on Friday morning.

“A number of people have walked past but have come back later and had a check-up,” Thompson said.

“In the first few checks Dr Sue found some that needed further intervention, and this is exactly why we are running these checks.

“Most of those through the caravan have been farmers, stock agents and transport operators and to date, they have all been male aside from one.”

The next stop for The Glob is the National Fieldays at Mystery Creek.

NORTHLAND Kaikohe cattle • In-calf purebred Angus heifers achieved $1250 • In-calf boner cows earned $1.80-$1.90/kg • Boner cows held at $1.60/kg • Heavier R1 beef-cross bulls made $2.45-$2.50/kg Around 500 head sold on a firm market at KAIKOHE, PGG Wrightson agent Vaughan Vujcich reported. R2 beef-cross steers sold to $2.55-$2.64/kg, and heifers, $2.30-$2.45/kg.

Quality R1 Simmental-cross and Hereford-Friesian steers sold from $3.00/kg to $3.50/kg. Better R1 beef heifers earned $2.40-$2.50/kg.

Wellsford store cattle • A nice line of R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 300kg, achieved $2.56/ kg • R2 Friesian bulls, 435kg, earned $2.51/kg • Weaner beef heifers over 200kg traded to $480-$570 • Run-with-bull Hereford-dairy cows, 372kg, made $610, $1.64/kg.

More rainfall improved confidence at WELLSFORD last Monday. The top end of the R2 steers improved to $2.58$2.65/kg, with the lion’s share steady around the $2.40$2.50/kg mark. Weaner traditional and dairy-beef steers above 200kg sold well at $610-$720, with the balance mostly $530-$590. Mixed age vetted-in-calf Angus-cross cows sold to $800, $1.68/kg. Read more in your LivestockEye.

AUCKLAND Pukekohe cattle • Prime steers earned $2.61-$2.65/kg, $1660-$1760 • Medium prime heifers earned $2.59-$2.64/kg, $1290-$1570 • Boner cows sold over a range of $1.42/kg to $1.86/kg, $690-$1230 • Small to medium weaner heifers fetched $290-$320 The market was firm at PUKEKOHE on Saturday 15th and there was good demand for short-term cattle. Good store heifers made $2.45-$2.49/kg, $970-$1110, and light autumn-born 1-year steers $2.34/kg, $770. Good weaner steers traded at $630-$705, though there was low demand for lesser types with small, crossbred steers $375-$440.

COUNTIES Tuakau sales • Angus steers, 269kg, made $910 • Hereford-Friesian heifers, 360kg, reached $950 • Heavy prime lambs managed $150-$169 • Prime beef cows earned $1.77/kg to $2.07/kg About 500 store cattle were yarded at TUAKAU last Thursday and most classes held value, PGG Wrightson agent Craig Reiche reported. Simmental-cross steers, 449kg, made $2.67/kg, with 396-435kg Hereford-Friesian at $2.53/kg to $2.71/kg. Hereford-Friesian steers, 131-170kg, managed $540-$615. Angus heifers, 433kg, realised $2.42/ kg, with 220-279kg Hereford-Friesian and Angus heifers at $600-$665. Steer prices eased slightly at last Wednesday’s prime sale. Heavy steers traded at $2.66-$2.75/kg, medium $2.56-$2.61/kg and light, $2.48-$2.56/kg. Heavy prime heifers reached $2.64-$2.72/kg and medium, $2.44/kg to $2.64/kg. Well-conditioned Friesian cows fetched $1.75/kg to $1.95/kg, medium $1.55/kg to $1.75/kg and light boners, $1.26/kg to $1.55/kg. Monday’s sheep sale drew a small yarding. Medium prime lambs managed $120-$150 and stores, $80-$141. Heavy prime ewes returned $139-$169 and medium, $120-$139.

WAIKATO Frankton cattle 18.5

• R2 Angus-Friesian heifers, 322-361kg firmed to $2.50-$2.55/kg • Top R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 390-499kg, returned $2.54$2.55/kg • R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 366-395kg, held at $2.39-$2.46/kg PGG Wrightson offered a moderate yarding of just under 540 store cattle at FRANKTON last Tuesday. There was a good turn out of buyers and solid competition for quality lines. Heifers filled the majority of the R2 section and most Hereford-Friesian, 248-405kg, realised $2.40-$2.47/kg.

Same breed bulls, 301-340kg, managed $2.46-$2.53/kg.

Weaner Hereford-Friesian steers, 133-226kg, returned $450$670 while quality heifers of the same breed, 125-208kg, firmed to $385-$630. Prime Hereford-Friesian steers, 526630kg, held at $2.59-$2.69/kg. A consignment of Hereford bulls was offered and seven, 466kg, took top honours at $3.00/kg while the balance, 462-660kg, sold over a range of $2.51/kg to $2.81/kg. Top boner Friesian cows, 540-600kg, fetched $1.63-$1.71/kg with 415-481kg at $1.39-$1.50/kg.

Read more in your LivestockEye. Frankton cattle 19.5 • R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 320-403kg, eased to $2.44-$2.54/kg • Better R2 Friesian bulls, 420kg, reached $2.43/kg • Prime Hereford heifers, 444kg, fetched $2.68/kg A smaller yarding of 278 store cattle was presented

by New Zealand Farmers Livestock last Wednesday at FRANKTON. A limited R2 steer and heifer section had Angus steers, 332kg, improve to $2.56/kg and same breed heifers, 343kg, managed $2.45/kg. Hereford-Friesian heifers, 317-400kg, firmed to $2.44-$2.48/kg. Bulls accounted for a good portion of the offering and five Limousin, 408kg, returned $2.45/kg while the balance of Friesian, 338-384kg, traded at $2.09-$2.21/kg. R1 HerefordFriesian steers, 191kg, fetched $600 with same breed heifers, 188kg, $500. Six Limousin-cross bulls, 246kg, returned $600 with Hereford-Friesian, 225kg, $615. Boner cows filled most of the prime section and better types, 455558kg, earned $1.48-$1.54/kg with $1.21-$1.31/kg common for the balance. Read more in your LivestockEye.

KING COUNTRY Te Kuiti sheep • Heavy prime ewes made $175-$180 • Run-with-ram 2-tooth ewes sold to $164 • Empty 2-tooth ewes fetched $97.50-$108 • Heavy prime lambs earned $160-$174, medium $150-$157 and light $139 Over 2000 sheep were penned at TE KUITI last Wednesday and the market lifted. Store lambs had the biggest improvement as strong competition from local and outside buyers pushed some up $15-$20. The top end sold to $148-$151.50 and a large portion traded around $130$136.

BAY OF PLENTY Rangiuru cattle and sheep • R2 Hereford-Friesian steers and heifers, 345-406kg, returned $2.52-$2.54/kg • One pen of R2 Angus steers, 455kg, managed $2.40/kg • One pen of R2 Angus heifers, 424kg, earned $2.57/kg • R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 372kg, fetched $2.28/kg • Prime Hereford-Friesian and Hereford-Jersey bulls, 648-672kg, achieved $2.75-$2.81/kg Store volume remained consistent with recent weeks at RANGIURU last Tuesday. Weaners made up more than half the tally and bulls featured a slight majority amongst them.

The high-water line was set on 158kg Hereford-Friesian steers that made $600, followed by Hereford-Friesian bulls,

190kg, that made $560. Hereford-Friesian heifers, 151kg, traded at $500 and the balance were mostly lesser and off-types that ranged from $240 to $450. Prime steers and heifers all managed $2.62-$2.69/kg while dairy cows, 450550kg, returned $1.29-$1.39/kg. Lambs traded at $90-$145 and ewes made $140-$156. Read more in your LivestockEye.

POVERTY BAY Matawhero sheep • Wiltshire ram lambs made $158 • Romney store ewes earned $120-$136 • Prime mixed age ewes sold to $150-$190 The market strengthened across the board at MATAWHERO last Friday. The top end of male store lambs sold to $150-$154, medium $136-$149 and light mostly $117-$129. Top ewe lambs lifted to $141-$151, medium $120-$137 and lighter types $90-$114. Five to six-year Romney ewes, scanned-in-lamb with singles, achieved $169. In the prime pens the top end improved to $200$218, medium $140-$170 and light $110. Read more in your LivestockEye.

TARANAKI Taranaki cattle • Better R2 steers, 410-476kg, earned $2.51-$2.60/kg • Weaner Hereford steers, 252-285kg, made $610-$670 • Outstanding weaner Speckle Park-Friesian heifers, 274kg, fetched $780 • In-milk mixed-age cows mostly earned $1.45-$1.51/kg • Prime steers fetched $2.64/kg to $2.75/kg There was a solid market for the mixed-quality offering at TARANAKI last Wednesday. The bulk of the R3 steers held at $2.39-$2.48/kg. A nice line of R3 428kg heifers and calves which averaged 120kg were secured for $1120 per unit. R2 heifers sold in a wide range though those weighing above 420kg made $2.30-$2.40/kg regardless of breed. The lion’s share of boner cows achieved $1.40-$1.50/kg. Read more in your LivestockEye.

HAWKE’S BAY Stortford Lodge prime cattle and sheep • Angus cows, 601kg, exceeded expectations at $1.85/kg • Most mixed-sex lambs firmed to $143-$150 • Heavy mixed-age ewes held at $161-$178 Cattle made a brief return to the Monday schedule at STORTFORD LODGE, though all bar one was in a single pen. Sheep vendors benefited from another week of strong competition from the rails and prices largely held. Top mixed-age ewes reached $192-$218 and included a small line of scanned ewes. Medium up to very good lines traded from $120 to $156 and only a few fell below that range. A small lamb section reached $164-$170 for ram and mixedsex and a small ewe lamb offering returned $138-$145. Read more in your LivestockEye. Stortford Lodge store cattle and sheep • A pen of 40 R3 Hereford steers, 470kg, fetched $2.71/kg • R3 Angus heifers, 473-511kg, sold for $2.66-$2.78/kg • R2 traditional steers, 337-421kg, firmed to $2.73-$2.83/kg • Top male lambs lifted to $150-$160 • Good ewe lambs lifted to $120-$136 A very positive sale eventuated at STORTFORD LODGE last Wednesday as quality cattle and another big yarding of lambs drew in buyers from all over the North Island.

Cattle totalled 700 head and featured several big lines of mainly traditional cattle. R2 traditional heifers, 270-373kg, held at $2.35-$2.43/kg and a consignment of weaner

45

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

returned $101-$194. Good weighted traditional cattle, 455-663kg, typically earned $2.36-$2.44/kg across both the steer and heifer pens. The better end of the dairy-beef breeds generally fetched $2.16-$2.27/kg. Read more in your LivestockEye. Coalgate cattle and sheep • Prime Charolais heifers, 495-553kg, fetched $2.57-$2.58/kg • One prime Angus-Friesian steer, 690kg, earned $2.54/kg • Other prime steers and heifers over 490kg made $2.38-$2.47/kg Store lambs continued to come forward in good order at COALGATE last Thursday with the top pens $125-$144 while most of the rest fetched $100-$117. Very few prime lambs sold for less than $140, and at the top end a handful managed $200-$216.

Twenty percent of the ewes sold for $200-$276 with the balance mostly $100-$197. Scanned-in-lamb ewes sold for $132-$193. The store cattle were mostly R2 dairy-beef types, 350-400kg, that fetched $1.80/kg to $2.00/kg across both the steers and heifers. The main exception was 401kg Hereford-Friesian steers that stretched to $2.12/kg. Friesian heifers, 258-279kg, traded at $1.08-$1.16/kg. Read more in your LivestockEye.

SOUTH-CANTERBURY

WELLNESS CHECK: The Glob was at the Feilding sale yards on Friday giving out free health checks. PGG Wrightson regional livestock manager Steve Wilkinson, pictured with farmer health checks project manager Michelle Thompson, got a clean bill of health.

traditional steers, 210-245kg, sold for $700-$830. Weaner Shorthorn bulls, 144-193kg, returned $475-$590. Nearly 7000 lambs were penned for the second week running and overall males improved by $10-$20 and ewe lambs, $5-$10.

Medium through to good male lambs sold for $123-$138.

One heavy line of ewe lambs reached $149 and the balance fetched $110-$136. Mixed-sex traded at $110.50-$125. Read more in your LivestockEye.

MANAWATU Feilding prime cattle and sheep • High yielding steers and heifers, 517-710kg, attracted bids of $2.49-$2.56/kg • Ewes were mostly heavy pens that sold for $161-$177 • The top lambs fetched $178-$190.50 while the balance was generally $155-$177 Most of the cattle at FEILDING last Monday were in-calf boner cows. They typically weighed 479-603kg and traded at $1.54-$1.64/kg, a 10c/kg premium over equivalent empty lines that were commonly $1.41-$1.53/kg. The best prices of the day were reserved for bulls though, particularly a pen of 639kg beef-cross that fetched $2.88/kg. A few Friesiancross and Speckle Park, 630-685kg, came close to this mark at $2.74-$2.76/kg. A small calf yarding sold on a better market to the previous sale. Speckle Park bulls were the highest priced at $170-$190 while Hereford-Friesian made $130-$185. Read more in your LivestockEye. Feilding store sale • R3 Angus steers, 550-705kg, lifted to $2.85-$2.95/kg • R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 345-485kg, were $2.55-$2.65/kg • R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 335-440kg, made $2.25-$2.40/kg • Store male lambs averaged $141 • Store ewe lambs averaged $126 Around 1300 store cattle were yarded at FEILDING. VIC Angus cows from Blenheim, 500-585kg, sold for $1050$1210. A few 380-405kg R2 traditional steers were $2.75$2.85/kg, while a big line of 440kg R2 traditional bulls made $2.45/kg. R2 beef heifers from Tekapo, 290-330kg, were mainly $2.55-$2.65/kg. Big numbers of 155-240kg weaner

Friesian bulls struggled, often sold or passed in at $2.40$2.65/kg. A little more than 16,000 lambs had a slightly less spark about them as a whole. The heavy males were strong though at $155-$170, with more standard good lines $140-$155, mediums $130-$140, and the lighter-end mainly $115-$125. For ewe lambs, the heavier types were $135$140, good lines mainly $125-$130, mediums $115-$125, and a few lighter pens $105-$115. Some Romney ewes, SIL 142%, made $140.

Read more in your LivestockEye. Rongotea cattle • R3 Hereford bulls, 800kg, fetched $2.54/kg, $2032 • R2 Hereford bulls, 623kg, earned $2.57/kg, $1601 • Better weaner steers traded to $570-$610 • Weaner heifers sold to $500-$560 • Friesian boner cows, 411-563kg, made $1.19/kg to $1.70/kg Cooler weather kept some regular buyers away at RONGOTEA last Tuesday. R3 Hereford-Friesian steers, 445-547kg, made $2.23-$2.29/kg, and 532kg Angus earned $2.52/kg. R2 Hereford-Friesian, 455-478kg, heifers made $2.30-$2.34/kg, and 495kg Charolais-cross $2.22/kg. Runwith-bull beef cows, 440-498kg, sold in a range of $1.48/kg to $1.77/kg.

CANTERBURY Canterbury Park prime cattle and all sheep • Charolais-cross and Charolais-Hereford steers, 545-645kg, earned $2.70-$2.74/kg • Charolais and Charolais-cross steers, 470-550kg, made $2.50$2.58/kg • Traditional cows, 418-518kg, mostly earned $1.40-$1.50/kg • Scanned-in-lamb breeding ewes often earned $175-$206 Sheep sold on a buoyant market at CANTERBURY PARK last Tuesday, in front of a large buying gallery. Most heavy pens of store lambs managed $106-$126 with lighter types $76-$103. The $200 mark was again exceeded for prime lambs with the best pen $218 while other heavy types fetched $183-$210 and the majority $126-$160. The top ewes managed $238-$262 while most other lines of quality

Temuka prime cattle and all sheep • Angus, Charolais, and Speckle Park steers, 539-715kg, traded at $2.43-$2.47/kg • Hereford-Friesian steers, 513-560kg, largely managed $2.26$2.31/kg • Angus cows, 506-788kg, fetched $1.39-$1.49/kg • Store Poll Dorset-Merino ram lambs made $134-$174 with ewe lambs $115-$165 Another large yarding of store lambs was on offer at TEMUKA last Monday. Quality was excellent, and brisk bidding priced the majority at $90-$146. There was still plenty to talk about in the prime section as one pen of lambs pushed to $230 while $302 was achieved for the top prime ewes.

The bulk of the lambs earned $130-$160 while the lion’s share of the ewes managed $100-$270. There was a bit more life in the prime cattle market and traditional heifers, 485635kg, largely earned $2.33-$2.39/kg while virtually all dairy cows, 500kg and over, were $1.22-$1.32/kg. Read more in your LivestockEye.

OTAGO Balclutha sheep • Prime ewes sold well with heavy types at $170-$200, medium $140-$160 and light $80-$100 A small yarding of prime lambs was penned at BALCLUTHA last Wednesday and values eased compared to the previous sale. Heavy prime lambs made $130-$140, medium $120 and light $100. Store lambs were met by a strong buying bench and the market improved. Top store lambs fetched $110-$120, medium $90-$105 and light $40$60.

SOUTHLAND Lorneville sale • Prime heifers above 450kg held at $2.00/kg to $2.15/kg • Boner cows over 500kg fetched $1.30/kg • R2 Friesian bulls, 410kg, made $835, $2.03/kg • Weaner Friesian bulls, 185-203kg, earned $360-$400 • Top store lambs improved to $104-$115, medium $95-$105 and light $80-$90 Prime cattle sold on a sound market at LORNEVILLE last Tuesday. Prime steers above 500kg improved to $2.20$2.30/kg, and 460-500kg, $2.00-$2.10/kg. Store cattle were of mixed quality. R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 469kg, firmed to $2.22/kg and 418kg Charolais to $2.11/kg. Heavy prime lambs firmed to $140-$165, medium $119-$138 and light $110-$115. Top prime ewes sold to $182-$214, medium $132-$176 and light $110-$124.

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Markets

46 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021 NI BULL

NI COW

SI LAMB

($/KG)

($/KG)

($/KG)

5.20

3.20

BEEF-DAIRY HEIFERS, 350KG AVERAGE, AT FRANKTON

high $148.50-$150.50 $131-$151 Good to heavy store ewe store male lambs at lights Top lambs at Matawhero Te Kuiti

($/KG)

7.15

2.45

Lamb shortage pushes winter contracts higher Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz

A

DYNAMIC global red meat market is creating an uncertain future, but that uncertainty appears to have a positive rather than negative tinge.

A shortage of lamb has prompted multiple meat companies to offer contracts over winter and spring of between $8-$9.10/kg, while beef exporters are watching with interest fall out from a month-long beef export ban imposed by the Argentine Government.

Facing elections and soaring domestic beef prices, the Government this week imposed a ban on the export of beef in a bid to force down prices.

Reuters reports that farmers have responded by stopping the trading of livestock for nine days, putting them on a collision course with the Government.

Officials say the ban will be lifted once local supplies are assured at reasonable prices.

AgriHQ senior analyst Mel Croad says global repercussions from this sudden development are largely unknown.

While it’s not the first time Argentina has made this move, it is since being such a dominant exporter to China.

In recent years 75% of Argentinian beef has been sold to China, peaking at 400,000 tonnes a year for each over the past two years.

Croad says exporters are closely watching developments, but the initial consensus is that removing 30,00040,000t of exported beef a month from the international market will push up prices.

“With China the main market and Argentinian beef now not available, they will be looking elsewhere. Other

SPIKE: A domestic and global shortage of lamb is impacting on the NZ suppliers, with contracted prices rising sharper and earlier than usual.

markets will be looking for short-term upside from China,” Croad said.

Export volumes out of Uruguay, Brazil, New Zealand, Australia and the US to China were all lower last month than a month earlier.

With meat en route to China, Croad expects it to be several weeks before any impact from Argentina’s export ban to materialise.

A domestic and global shortage of lamb is impacting on the NZ suppliers, with contracted prices rising sharper and earlier than usual.

Croad says contracts being offered range from mid-$7 to $8/kg for supply in July to a peak of $9.10/kg in August in the North Island, and peaking a month later in the South Island.

“Based on the expected lamb slaughter, these contracts show meat

companies are scrambling to secure supply,” she said.

A global shortage of lamb is being driven in part by the reopening of foodservice outlets.

Croad says pricing at these levels was last seen in 2019 when a company offered $9/kg for August supply.

This year she is aware of at least four companies offering contract prices of more than $8, which is more than usual.

“A few weeks ago the spot market was nowhere near $7, now we have contracts for July to September supply of $8 to above $9 in both islands,” she said.

Last week Croad warned there could be 1.1m fewer lambs left to slaughter this season compared to last year, creating competition from processors.

ACROSS THE RAILS SUZ BREMNER

Breeding cow stock numbers are in decline DROUGHT, farm conversions and changes in farm policies have all contributed to a reduction in beef breeding stock numbers nationwide, and the situation is not about to right itself anytime soon.

But what is interesting about the situation is that actual numbers of breeding cows for sale is not immensely different as capital stock lines find themselves leaving the farm gate, effectively replacing the fewer cast-for-age cows that are now on the market.

Volume to sale yards has reduced to levels that have not quantified holding standalone fairs in some regions. Or if these have been held, tallies have generally been down. But more on-farm sales of capital stock cows are what has balanced the equation out, for the meantime at least.

Farm sales to forestry has without a doubt been the main driver and at some stage there will come a time when these capital stock cattle will cease to be available, and then we will really see how many incalf beef cows and heifers there actually are in the system.

Droughts over the past few years have had a twofold effect.

In some cases farmers have dug deeper into their herds in a bid to reduce pressure on-farm as much as possible, but many in the past have gone to the processors rather than the yards. However, it is good to note that most of the in-calf cows that have been offered at fairs this season have avoided that fate and returned to farms around the country.

Roll back the clock 10 years and the May fairs for in-calf cows and heifers were very busy days. At Temuka that year, 1060 traditional and exotic heifers and calves were penned, but this year 410 were yarded.

The Wairoa version 10 years ago played host to 1500 head, but this year’s calendared event was cancelled due to stock either not available, being sold on-farm or heading down the road to Stortford Lodge.

Feilding held two fairs in May 2011 and sold a total of 1890. This year the first fair spot was not required, and 160 cows sold at a regular sale day, while the second day held last week offered up 620 heifers and cows. suz.bremner@globalhq.co.nz

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

3

Contents 5

Minister’s comment

Innovation and tech key

8

Hope for rural connectivity

9

Greenhouse gas work on show

13

Dairy challenges ahead

14

M Bovis test patent filed

16

Rethinking data tools

20

Student innovators in world final

21

NZ has technology talent

24

Hybrid auctions taking off

26

Ag-tech start-ups funding boost

28

Focus on versatile veges

30

Biotech needs more support COVER PHOTO: Paul Sutherland Photography

K

IA ora tatou and welcome to this year’s Farmers Weekly special Fieldays publication.

We took a break last year, with covid restricting the annual agricultural event to online only, but with Fieldays set to return to Mystery Creek, we are back with a publication highlighting some of the technological and innovative approaches the primary sector is calling on to ensure both it and the country, which relies on its economic contribution, is well-positioned for the future.

The world has changed immeasurably since the last time Fieldays was held in 2019.

New Zealand agriculture and horticulture have not been immune to some of the issues the covid pandemic has thrown up during the last year or so.

Fortunately, farmers and growers have long been known not only for their ability to innovate, but also to adapt to meet new challenges.

Sometimes that involves technology, other times it’s looking at problems in front of them and then working out ways

how they can be overcome, initially using resources at hand, but also thinking of new methods as to how best position themselves to deal with whatever is thrown at them further down the track.

In this publication, we examine not only some of the new technologies being worked on and how the agritech industry is positioning itself for the future, but also how farmers, growers and their representatives are capitalising on modern techniques to better explain why the NZ primary sector and what it produces is among the best in the world.

The arrival of covid in February last year and the nationwide lockdown that followed about a month later, shut down events that have long been an essential part of the fabric of rural NZ. Included in those were sale yards but, thanks to work that was already well under way, it wasn’t long before online auction platforms were increasingly providing an alternative way for farmers to sell their stock.

In this publication we look at how, despite sale yards returning

to normal, for many farmers hybrid auctions are the new reality and are being embraced.

The hybrid approach is now an integral part of Fieldays itself.

After running an online-only event last year, which we’ll see how has been recognised on the international stage, this year event organisers retained that option despite eagerness to be back running a physical event.

The agritech industry itself, which as one story notes contains world class talent, understands transformational change is required to take it to the next level.

We take a look at work being done to help achieve that, particularly around attracting new investment, as well as running the rule over the ongoing problem of a lack of data interoperability, which has long been a handbrake on farmers’ ability to run their businesses more efficiently.

Some of the challenges most front of mind for farmers and growers are either biosecurity or regulation-based, the latter including freshwater improvement and greenhouse

Fieldays special publication editor Colin Williscroft.

gas reduction, so we look at work being done by Crown Research Institutes and others utilising the latest techniques to put farmers on the front foot in those areas.

Despite the challenges, have faith that there are new approaches and tech coming through that will help the primary sector to make the most of its well known can-do attitude and meet whatever is thrown at it.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

5

Moving with the times It’s great that after the dominating feeling of uncertainty, rural communities and others involved in the primary sector have the opportunity to reconnect at Fieldays, Agriculture and Trade Minister Damien O’Connor says.

I

t’s fantastic that Fieldays is up and rolling again in its normal form after two years. It’s a superb opportunity for young and old, farmer and townie, and friends from across the country to reconnect with each other in this wonderful industry we call agriculture.

The more connected we are, the better off we’ll be as a sector and a nation.

Covid-19 bulldozed event schedules large and small across last year’s calendar, and we’ve learned a lot about ourselves through all of this – and we’ve been reminded of a few things too. One is that our primary industries truly are the backbone of our economy.

Casting my mind back to March 2020, the dominating feeling was uncertainty. The world hadn’t experienced a pandemic since World War I – beyond living memory. Countries were locking down around the world, and it was fair to assume the global economy was going to take one hell of a knock.

It was suggested we could be headed for 20% unemployment across the economy.

And so into this howling headwind we went.

What I think is truly remarkable is what our primary sector achieved for New Zealand throughout this. Export revenues for the year are forecast to dip by only 1-3%. This is despite major disruption to supply chains and uncertainty in our export markets.

The most recent data shows reveal the highlights. Fonterra increased its payout forecast midpoint to $7.60, well above last year’s pay-out of $7.14 per kilogram milksolid. Kiwifruit harvest estimates show a record crop is expected, with more kiwifruit produced than ever before. The volume of meat and wool exported is higher than expected.

Forestry revenue is tracking 3-4% higher than last year. Wine

LEADING ROLE: New Zealand’s covid economic recovery is a tradeled one, Trade and Agriculture Damien O’Connor says, and the primary sector will be at the heart of this.

Our success as exporters comes from being tuned into our customers and market conditions. That means never standing still and always looking ahead. revenue is tracking higher than last year too.

Now, if anyone wants to quibble about 1-3% dip in revenue, just remember this time a year ago it was anyone’s guess as to what the coming 12 months would look like. MPI was not in a position to issue its scheduled June or September SOPI (Situation and Outlook for the Primary Industries) because of the extreme uncertainty in markets and international supply chains. You know things must be bad when the experts are saying “your guess is as good as mine”.

What’s also significant is that volumes have been good pretty

much across the board. If the NZ dollar wasn’t so strong, we may well actually have lifted our export revenues. And that high dollar tells a story of how well NZ has weathered the pandemic from an international viewpoint.

I believe treating the pandemic as a health response first has put us in the best possible position.

So the message is simple: it’s a big heartfelt thank you to our primary industries. You’ve kept us fed, kept export revenue coming in and kept many of us employed.

Your backbone has been ours.

Your hard work has kept us out of harder times.

And that brings me to trade.

NZ’s covid economic recovery is a trade-led one. Our primary sector will be at the heart of this. As we progress, we need to be asking how we position our industry and our story on the world stage. These are the things we need to be discussing at Mystery Creek this year and beyond.

Our success as exporters comes from being tuned into our customers and market conditions.

That means never standing still and always looking ahead.

We know consumer values are evermore determining what people will pay a premium for in the supermarkets, at the restaurant and online.

Where did this come from? Who produced it? Were those people paid well? Can I be sure my food decisions have minimal impact on the environment? Is this good

for my kids? What’s my carbon footprint?

Exporters get asked this. I get asked about it in trade talks.

The world is changing and we must move with the times.

The work we’re doing together with the likes of Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures, He Waka Eke Noa and integrated farm planning is about getting the right results that actually add value to our exports. Highvalue consumers abroad want to know they’re buying food and fibre that are quality, ethical and sustainable.

NZ has to move from volume to values – that is aligning our story with the values of our consumers.

And of course, being able to demonstrate it.

As NZ starts to reconnect with the world in covid times, I wish you all the best reconnecting with each other at the 2021 Fieldays.

TALK TO THE EXPERTS FOR FARMING SUPPORT 07 858 4233 farmservices.nz info@farmservices.nz

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Our Land

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Fieldays gains global recognition

ON SCREEN: Last year’s Fieldays Online featured livestreamed content.

Now we have shifted to a digital landscape, we are no longer constrained by gate opening and closing times and travel restrictions. include an online extension to allow a wider audience to be a part of what is expected to be the biggest Fieldays event to date.

“Now we have shifted to a

digital landscape, we are no longer constrained by gate opening and closing times and travel restrictions,” Nation said.

“Visitors can have a seamless

Backed by science.

Proven by calves.

24/7 Fieldays experience, accessing deals when and where it is most convenient for them.”

Through being run as a hybrid, this year’s event is predicted to reach an even more substantial audience, connect rural communities globally, and showcase the New Zealand primary sector to the world.

MILK BAR TEAT

streamed through Fieldays TV, which hosted panel discussions, primary sector career profiles, cooking demonstrations and guest speakers.

Fieldays Online attracted 90,455 total digital visitors, with attendees from more than 75 countries, while nearly 300 exhibitors hosted digital sites.

New Zealand National Fieldays Society chief executive Peter Nation says that being presented a Bronze Award at the Eventex Awards is an impressive feat in what has been a challenging year.

“This is a huge recognition for us. With innovation being one of our key strategic pillars, we took a challenging set of circumstances and invented a world-first event of its kind, keeping rural communities connected in a time of adversity,” Nation said.

“Fieldays Online has now become an important part of the Fieldays brand, keeping our reputation for innovation and smart thinking alive globally.”

Eventex Awards co-founder Ovanes Ovanessian says that receiving an Eventex Award is tremendous recognition for Fieldays.

“Every accolade is based entirely on merit and acknowledges the company’s fantastic creativity, flexibility, and drive for innovation,” Ovanessian said.

This year’s Fieldays will again

COLOSTRUM TEAT

F

IELDAYS has been announced as a Bronze Award winner in the Virtual Expo category for the 11th Global Eventex Awards for Fieldays Online, a world-first for a virtual agricultural event of its kind.

The Eventex Awards recognise excellence in every aspect of the event industry, from events and experiences to event technology, suppliers, venues and destinations. There were 561 entries from 37 countries around the world that competed for the accolades.

Fieldays Online was created in 108 days in 2020 when the physical event was cancelled due to covid-19 mass gathering restrictions.

Organisers partnered with Satellite Media, an Aucklandbased digital innovation agency, to bring the virtual event to life.

Trade Me supported the event, connecting exhibitors with ecommerce capabilities.

Held over two weeks in July, the event allowed visitors to scope out special deals and access live content from the comfort and safety of their own homes.

Exhibitors used the virtual platform to promote their products and services, sell products, offer deals, and generate content, promotions and activations.

A mix of live content was

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Hope for rural connectivity Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz

G

ETTING farm sensors and equipment hooked up through a network established just for the Internet of Things (IoT) is a key focus for wireless internet providers in coming months.

Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPA) NZ chair Mike Smith says farmers could expect a major connectivity boost when the IoT network is completed over the coming two years, finally providing a dedicated network for a new generation of farm equipment.

The IoT was given a high profile six years ago as more devices came onto the market “internetready”, including moisture sensors, stock ID systems and greenhouse automation systems.

However, installed equipment has since relied upon proprietary networks to operate, adding to the cost of set up.

Scotland has such a system in place for both public and private commercial use.

Smith expects there will also be intense interest from NZ’s regional councils and utility companies for such bandwidth.

In the meantime, he says WISPA is continuing to work to try and get some inequities between the urban focused Ultrafast Broadband (UFB) roll-out and the Rural Broadband Initiative (RBI) evened out.

One area is the provision of customer-premises equipment (CPE) such as routers and modems in the home or business.

“It’s great that RBI got the infrastructure installed, but there was no funding in it for CPE, unlike the UFB programme,” he said.

“A number of WISPs are already providing fibre, if we do not get the funding to go up the drive and provide CPE, it will only make it harder to get rural users hooked up.”

UPGRADE: In a few short years the rural broadband network will need further upgrading, WISPA chair Mike Smith says.

But we have equipment in place now that in five years’ time will require a lot of additional investment and upgrading.

With 70% of NZ’s rural population covered by WISPA members, Smith says it was a logical step to establish IoT bandwidth from existing sites, making the bandwidth open to any commercial agritech company needing it.

The network would be based on a LoRaWAN bandwidth (longrange wide-area network), ideal for covering rural distances, using small amounts of power for transmitting small data packets.

“We will have several proofof-concept sites up across the country in six months and be rolled out nationally in two years,” Smith said.

WISPA is creating an IoT entity that can liaise with commercial tech interests, and work with government and regulators to establish policy and standards for operations.

Smith says WISPA also supports efforts by the Telecommunications Users Association (TUANZ) for more forward planning in the RBI over coming years.

While welcoming the $15 million in savings from the UFB initiative to go into RBI, it would only focus on more congested sites in upgrading existing cell towers.

“But we have equipment in place now that in five years’ time will require a lot of additional investment and upgrading,” he said.

“We need to see more of a joint venture approach between government and providers, looking at ‘what do we need for the next five years to upgrade?’”

WISPA is also concerned that it is still not clear how much of newly available bandwidth spectrum rural providers will be allocated, as opposed to 5G providers.

“There has been a delay here, and regional providers are in a position to deliver very bespoke systems to their rural communities that may require a mix of technology, not just 5G, not necessarily just wireless,” he said.

The organisation is also championing a national connectivity register, also suggested by TUANZ in its 10year plan for rural infrastructure.

“This needs a real push now, and covid highlighted that. In such

an event, having a register gives a particularly good overview of who has what sort of connectivity,” he said.

Last year the Ministry of Education issued modems to help with in-home learning, but these were often dispatched to households that did not need them.

“Such a register would act like the power registry, so we know here all the points of connection to the network actually are,” he said.

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He remains confident the Government is listening to rural providers’ concerns, having seen the vital role connectivity has played in keeping the country functional over the covid lockdown.

“We have worked well with the Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment,” he said.

“But the challenge they have got with rural is the way it has always been done is the easiest way, but is it the right way?”

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Good science to help gas mitigation Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz

A

S CLIMATE change obligations loom large for the agriculture sector, Crown Research Institute AgResearch will be showcasing its work in this space at this year’s National Fieldays.

AgResearch’s research director Dr Trevor Stuthridge says the institute’s research spans a range of areas and approaches to help farmers, and New Zealand as a whole, reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Agriculture contributes close to half the emissions from NZ, with most of it being methane.

Stuthridge says the science is also crucial to help inform the Government’s approach, and the advice it receives from the Climate Change Commission.

“Based on the record of innovation from Kiwi farmers over the past decades, supported by good science, there is every reason to think the sector will adjust and adapt to meet the targets required of it,” Stuthridge said.

“Providing new technologies and tools is going to be critical

and we are already seeing some of these become available to farmers.

“Our world-leading research to breed low methane-emitting sheep, through the support of government and farmers, is an example of what can be achieved with the right investment of time and money.”

Stuthridge also sees real potential in the development of methane inhibitors, where substances can be fed or applied to livestock to reduce their emissions.

Work alongside Fonterra and Netherlands based global health and nutrition company Royal DSM on a product called

Our world-leading research to breed low methane-emitting sheep, through the support of government and farmers, is an example of what can be achieved with the right investment of time and money.

Once rolled out to the national sheep flock, he believed there was the potential for a methane reduction of up to about 1% every year, which will be significant as it accrues over time.

“Crucially we see this change happening without any sacrifice in the health of the animals or the quality of the products that come from them,” he said.

“This experience in breeding low methane-emitting sheep is also being shared with other researchers with a view to achieving something similar with cattle.”

Bovaer, otherwise known as 3-NOP, is showing particular promise.

“One formulation for pasturebased farming to date has demonstrated a methane reduction of more than 30% for up to six hours after the additive is fed to cattle,” he said.

“Given this progress towards a product specific to NZ’s pasture-based farming, we have suggested the Climate Change Commission factor this into its recommendations to the Government.”

Research is also continuing into

CONFIDENT: Dr Trevor Stuthridge is optimistic the primary sector can meet its GHG targets, with the right tools.

genetically modified ryegrass and white clover, and its potential to reduce methane emissions from livestock.

However, technologies such as these come with challenges given current regulations around release of genetically modified organisms in NZ. “In AgResearch’s recent submission to the Climate Change Commission, we make

the point that it would be timely to revisit a national conversation about use of genetic modification and related technologies in NZ, given the potential to help in reducing agricultural emissions in NZ,” he said.

Other research is looking at the potential to lower emissions through use of alternative animal feeds, changing farm practices and land-use.

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10 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

FOCAL POINTS: Warwick Catto says farmers are moving away from a singular productivity focus to what is more of a ‘triple bottom line’ of profit, environmental care and social care.

Photo: Peter Drury

Fert co-op seeks balance Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz

O

VER a decade’s worth of technology and research will be bundled together in a Ballance initiative to better connect farmers with their land, water, soil and animal resources.

Ballance science strategy manager Warwick Catto says Ballance with Nature reflects the co-operative’s response to the wider range of pressures and expectations put on farmers today compared to any previous generation.

“We have been working in this space for many years, but this has finally coalesced it into a rallying call, a way to pull it all together,” Catto said.

The co-op has defined seven key areas in the initiative that align with farmers’ main resources, the Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFFF) investment programme, and impending regulations regarding water, carbon reduction and biodiversity.

These are soil health, clean air, nutrient efficiency, healthy waterways, biodiversity, resource utilisation and animal care.

“This reflects the fact farmers

are moving away from that singular productivity focus to what is more of a ‘triple bottom line’ of profit, environmental care and social care,” he said.

Catto says the farming sector is more aware now than ever that it has to work with what nature has provided, and with that is moving away from outright fertiliser application to fertiliser efficiency in converting pasture and forage to protein.

The more holistic approach Ballance is taking reflects not only what farmer shareholders are adopting, but also captures a suite of technology and software the co-op has invested in over the past 15 years to improve nutrient efficiency and reduce environmental impacts.

As a ground floor participant in the Primary Growth Partnership programme through its Clearview Innovations vehicle back in 2011, Ballance contributed $10 million dollar-for-dollar alongside the Government.

This resulted in the development of some key tech aimed at improving environmental management.

SpreadSmart, SurePhos, Pasture Planner and MitAgator were all technologies that fell out of an initial 25 concepts.

All had some clear environmental drivers behind them, including improving the efficiency of nitrogen use in pastoral systems by 50% by 2018 (My Pasture Planner), reducing dairy farm nitrogen losses (MitAgator), increasing the efficiency phosphate fertiliser use (SurePhos) and improving fertiliser application (SpreadSmart).

The most recent release, SurePhos, is a slow release phosphorus and sulphur fertiliser aimed to help reduce phosphate losses and loads into waterways, particularly on steeper dry stock country.

Catto says taking a wider holistic view of farm challenges beyond just pastoral productivity cannot however ignore the need

When I first started my career very few farmers used nitrogen fertiliser. In more recent times we are now looking more at phosphate, potash and sulphur, all important for legume growth MyPasture Planner comes as part of Ballance’s fertiliser recommendation process, and helps farmers make decisions on the rate and spatial use of nitrogen fertiliser, while reducing its environmental impact.

MitAgator develops risk maps for individual farms, identifying areas where there is likely to be greater loss of phosphate, nitrogen, sediment and bacteria.

The SpreadSmart technology automatically applies fertiliser from topdressing planes at an optimal rate aimed to help protect environmentally sensitive areas.

for New Zealand farmers to be globally competitive, and that relied upon efficient nutrient use.

Ballance, like its farmer clients, was less “nitrogen-centric” than in the past, with more conversations being had about legumes’ role in pastoral system productivity and nutrient efficiency.

“When I first started my career very few farmers used nitrogen fertiliser. In more recent times, we are now looking more at phosphate, potash and sulphur – all important for legume growth,” he said.

Awareness of protein dense

feed, whether as clover in pasture or specific crops is something Ballance advisory staff are now more cognisant of when advising farmers on nutrient budgeting.

As climate change challenges ryegrass persistence in the North Island in particular, alternative crops and grasses are likely to require even greater focus and adjustments to traditional nutrient inputs.

He says the co-op is already working on its “next-gen” version of Ballance with Nature, through its Future Ready Farms programme.

This has been co-funded with the Government for $25m, including $10m from the SFFF fund.

This five-year partnership aims to boost farm sustainability and profit, while also further reducing greenhouse gas emissions, agrichem use and nutrient losses to waterways.

Twelve projects have already been identified across multiple sectors, including forestry, horticulture and arable, to deliver projected benefits of $1 billion to NZ farmers by 2030.

The Ballance with Nature initiative will be launched at this year’s Mystery Creek Fieldays.

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

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12 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Electric tractors not coming soon Gerald Piddock gerald.piddock@globalhq.co.nz

D

O NOT expect to see electric engines on any large horse-powered tractors at this year’s

Fieldays.

Such technology is still very much in the development phase and Tractor and Machinery Association (TAMA) president Kyle Baxter does not expect any major breakthroughs until at least the end of the decade.

“It’s like the autonomous passenger car, everybody thinks it’s going to be here next year, but the reality is, that it’s not,” Baxter said.

The reason was that engineers have yet to create an electric engine that can sufficiently power the heavy loading that is required for a tractor when it is towing a piece of heavy farm machinery, such as a plough or feed wagon.

Baxter says all of the major farm machinery companies are working on resolving this issue in various ways and it was taking up a huge amount of these companies R&D time.

“In Europe and North America, there’s been a huge drive to reduce emissions in agricultural vehicles,” he said.

“They call it alternative power solutions and those solutions can be electric, they can also be hydrogen. One manufacturer

developed an on-board generator on the tractor to generate more power to operate machines towed behind.”

That diesel-powered generator was used to power attachments such a fertiliser spreaders.

Everyone is trying everything, but he was not aware yet of anything that had been commercially released.

“We do get asked about it a lot in terms of customers, but I don’t think any of them are brave enough to buy the first one though,” he said.

Baxter says he read in an article that cited a prediction in 2016 that by 2022 10% of road vehicles would be fully autonomous.

“That’s only seven months away,” he said.

Other technology, such as drones, was starting to become more widely used and some companies had commercially released robots.

Lely, for example, are widely known for their usage of robots in the dairy industry. Closer to home, Palmerston North’s Greentech Robotics had also developed robotic seeding, weeding and harvesting machines.

“I think what will happen in the autonomous vehicle space is that we’ll see it come to New Zealand and agriculture globally, and I think you’ll see it revert back to small machines rather than having a great big 500Hp tractor. I think

LUXURY: TAMA president Kyle Baxter says he anticipates livestock farmers will see autonomous technology as nice to have, instead of being essential to their business.

you’ll finish up with lots of little machines,” he said.

These could be drones or small robots and he imagined as many of 20 of these working on a paddock or crop rather than one large tractor.

In terms of farmer demand, he anticipated livestock farmers to see this technology as “nice to have” instead of being essential to their business because they

have too many variables in their business.

But there was definite interest in the horticulture and viticulture industries, he says, because the technology suited the uniformity of their operations, it tended to use smaller horse-powered machinery and its well-publicised issues with obtaining farm labour.

In the arable sector, he predicted the heavy diesel-

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powered engines would stay, but there would be continued advancements in driver aids in the cab.

In the meantime, diesel engines are here to stay. But Baxter says people did not realise how much improvements have been made in recent years to make these engines cleaner.

Electric-powered options were starting to emerge among smaller horse-powered vehicles and machinery suitable for lifestylers.

In Europe, some countries were also using electric-powered excavators in urban centres.

Companies such as John Deere had developed cab-less autonomous tractors, which resembled rectangular-shaped machines on wheels. Other companies had developed similar vehicles that operated in controlled environments.

However, farming operated in variable conditions such as weather or terrain, which made its use challenging.

“Skilled operators still need to be sitting in a seat for lots of those tasks, however, the driver aids that have come along have greatly assisted this,” he said.

Companies have also explored the concept of having these vehicles controlled remotely as a drone. There was also technology that allowed tractor drivers in a cab to control ‘slave’ tractors that were operating adjacent to it.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

13

NZ dairy is great, but it can be even better There are challenges ahead for dairy farmers, but DairyNZ chair Jim van der Poel says the industry is in a good position to meet them.

W

E AS dairy farmers have had a positive year and dairy continues to be a key contributor to the Kiwi economy and our communities.

Domestically and internationally, consumer expectations are changing – and we too want to evolve our farming operations to meet those challenges and raise the bar.

We have a proud history of doing just that.

The sector has continuously refined our practices, developed new technologies and is driving efficiencies to give our pasturebased farmers a competitive advantage over global competitors.

There is no doubt changes are ahead, but we are in a strong position thanks to the hard work of dairy farmers and sector bodies which represent them.

We are rising to the challenges and maximising opportunities to benefit all farmers and the whole country.

An example of our sector’s strength is our leading role in sustaining national and regional economies following the global covid-19 outbreak. Kiwi farmers are vital to their communities, and New Zealanders are starting to recognise this, with about 60% supportive of the work of dairy farmers and the sector.

Our recent Farmers’ Forum was a great opportunity for us to talk with farmers and hear concerns.

We appreciate a key challenge is that farmers are concerned and somewhat anxious about the numerous regulations ahead of us.

We want to assure farmers DairyNZ has your back. We are advocating for sensible policy informed by good science. We will continue to work with the Government for realistic and fair expectations, and to ensure goalposts don’t keep moving.

We will be at Fieldays and we look forward to hearing from farmers what’s on their mind and how we can help. Our Climate Change Ambassador farmers will also be there to talk with farmers about what they are thinking and how they can help.

We are working closely with other sector bodies such as

Federated Farmers and Beef + Lamb New Zealand, as well as other agencies, including working together on research to make dairy farmers’ levy dollar go further.

Following collective primary sector advocacy, we achieved changes to the Action for Healthy Waterways regulations. These included removing the impractical and expensive requirement for farmers to move existing fences to meet new stock exclusion guidelines. The Government has also parked the dissolved inorganic nitrogen (DIN) review.

DairyNZ, alongside partners, was part of the Southland Advisory Group which worked to secure government agreement to deliver change through a winter grazing module as part of certified farm plans. The Government’s wintering regulations were also deferred for a year.

We are asking the Government to work with us to future-proof our primary sector and rural communities by continuing to invest in initiatives that will attract and retain skilled workers, support innovation and support mental health and wellbeing.

We are also playing our part in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, alongside all Kiwis, as we address climate change. DairyNZ has research and extension work under way to support farmers in reducing footprint.

Independent research commissioned by DairyNZ released this year confirms NZ is the world’s lowest emissions producer of milk. The AgResearch study shows our on-farm carbon footprint is 48% less than the average of 18 countries studied.

This gives us a great benchmark – it shows we are on the right track. I’m often asked why we need to do more when we’re already so good – and the short answer is it’s becoming a condition for trade access, and social licence locally. And our competitors are always catching up. We must not rest on our laurels.

Our role isn’t just advocacy; we are also providing information and options to help farmers decide what to do next. We

SUPPORT: DairyNZ chair Jim van der Poel says the industry good organisation has farmers’ backs.

shared DairyNZ Partnership Farms research this year, showing options for some farmers to increase efficiency while reducing both nitrogen loss and GHG emissions. In some cases, profitability may also be improved.

assumptions of fewer cows and less dairy land to achieve the same production, with less methane. We have provided the commission with data and research and are encouraging them to revisit the assumptions that underpin their model.

We will continue to work with the Government for realistic and fair expectations, and to ensure goalposts don’t keep moving.

However, for already highly efficient farms, footprint gains tended to come at a cost.

While the sector can achieve some of the reductions using existing knowledge, to make more ambitious progress, more science is needed. The transition to a low emissions economy must be grounded in science, economic and social considerations.

In our submission on the Climate Change Commission draft carbon budgets on behalf of farmers, DairyNZ called for a long-term plan and investment into climate change science and solutions.

In our submission we also disagreed with the commission’s

Improving water quality is another challenge dairy farmers are rising to meet, and have been for many years.

Like all New Zealanders, farmers want healthy waterways and under our Dairy Tomorrow strategy we are committed to leading efforts to improve our waterways, with 98% of dairy’s waterways fenced; 100% of stock crossing points having bridges and culverts; and many hundreds of thousands of trees planted alongside waterways nationwide.

We are also seeing many more farmer-led initiatives under way.

Farmers are reducing nitrogen loss, investing in infrastructure and

farm environment plans (FEPs), and working in catchment groups to collectively achieve solutions.

Farmers are rightfully proud of these initiatives.

Our DairyNZ five yearly technology survey indicates farmers readily adopt tech that fits their farm business and has a clear value proposition.

This has mostly been in automating tasks and making the job easier, particularly at the dairy.

Examples are auto drafting and auto cup removers.

We are seeing increasing adoption of wearable animal sensors, particularly for heat detection, which is critically important and requires skill and time when done manually.

At the hi-tech end, sensors and data are being trialled by companies to increase efficient nitrogen and water use, and manage cows and pastures using virtual fencing collars.

DairyNZ is working to understand on-farm challenges and how to support farmers with technology use.

DairyNZ will continue to work with farmers, and for farmers, as we rise to the challenges and opportunities ahead.

Our Land

14 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

M bovis test to help eradication Colin Williscroft colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz

A

UCKLAND-BASED biotech company Pictor has filed a patent application for a new Mycoplasma bovis diagnostic test.

Pictor’s M bovis diagnostic test, which is being developed in collaboration with the University of Melbourne, uses multiplex immunoassay technology that enables highly sensitive detection of complex diseases with a minimal sample.

Pictor chief operating officer Howard Moore says the test will have a high level of sensitivity and specificity for detection M bovis detection in serum and milk samples, which will be achieved through the use of multiple antigens.

Moore says Pictor first became involved with M bovis around the time the disease first arrived in NZ but it only received funding from

MPI to begin work on developing its test about a year ago.

Pictor’s research is one of four projects on diagnostic tests funded by the M bovis Programme, a partnership between the Ministry for Primary Industries, Beef + Lamb NZ and Dairy NZ. Having developed a prototype in NZ Pictor is now working on optimising the test at the University of Melbourne.

The optimisation work is being done in Melbourne because as M bovis has been present in Australia for many years, the regulatory laboratory requirements are not as strict as they are in NZ. The first optimisation tests were held at the end of April and Moore says the results were excellent.

That work will continue but it’s hoped the Pictor test will be ready for MPI to use by September.

Moore says improved

INVESTMENT: Pictor assay scientist Jimena Tejerina with the company’s new M2 iONE1200 arrayer that will be used in manufacturing its M bovis diagnostic test.

diagnostic testing will play a significant role in accelerating NZ’s M bovis eradication programme.

“If we can improve sensitivity, we’ll improve detection rates and if we improve detection rates, we’ll get control of this faster.”

However, it’s not going to happen overnight.

“Even when we think we’ve eradicated it, or almost eliminated it, there will probably still be the odd farm out there, so it’s going to take several years to build up that confidence they’ve

got every last one of them. If you don’t get the last one it will rear its head again.”

A more sensitive test will help achieve that.

“The more sensitive the test, the more confidence that the epidemiologists, the industry, the farmers and decision makers can have that the disease has been eliminated.

“The better the test, the more confidence farmers can have going forward.”

It’s a busy time for Pictor not only is it looking to launch its M

bovis test, it’s also planning to launch a new covid 19 test, as well as a new dengue diagnostic test in India.

To keep up with the expected increase in demand for its products it has gone into partnership with South Canterbury company South Pacific Sera, which was co-founded by farmer William Rolleston.

Both companies have invested in new technology, which is currently being installed, so they will be ready to ramp up manufacturing when required.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

15

Tech mimics insect senses Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz

P

LANT & Food scientists trying to develop a synthetic sensor for tasting and smelling compounds decided to look to nature’s sensory elite, the insect world.

As a result, Scentian Bio chief technology officer Dr Andrew Kralicek and his team have developed sensor technology built off insects’ super sensitive smell receptors, developed over millions of years to detect predators, mates and food – often in miniscule amounts over great distances.

Earlier this year, Kralicek left Plant & Food to head up the agency’s first spinoff company Scentian Bio. The company intends to commercialise the cutting-edge research with potential in biosecurity, food quality, flavourings, and even human disease detection.

“We identified the genes for insects’ smell receptors, and we know what receptors are used for smelling liquids or gases,” Kralicek said.

“They are like a hand that reaches and grabs the liquid or gas, and when it is delivered to the receptor it binds to it and sends a signal to identify what it is.

MULTIPLE USES: Dr Andrew Kralicek and his team plan to commercialise cutting-edge research with potential in biosecurity, food quality, flavourings, and even human disease detection.

“We have effectively done that and removed the insect from the process.”

The synthetically produced receptors are coded for liquids or gases and learn how the different combinations of receptors distinguish one smell from another. Once the insect smell ‘language’ is decoded, a

computer can be programmed to do the same.

“A fly, for example, uses 45 receptors and we can put 45 receptors on a chip and expose it to complex volatile compounds.

You will get a response pattern to, for example, bad milk, banana or vanilla extract,” he said.

The practical result is a

device about twice the size of a cellphone and slightly thicker that could be tuned in to specific smells for the likes of biosecurity officials to use at the border.

Initial funding for the receptor research came through the original B3 Better Border Biosecurity collaboration, intended for research into means of reducing the entry and establishment of new plant pests and diseases at New Zealand borders.

There is the potential to also have the devices in the likes of ships’ holds or containers, constantly monitoring for biosecurity incursions or declines in product quality during shipment.

“Queensland fruit fly for example is a big threat. We have been able to show you could detect a unique scent fingerprint from fruit that is infected with the fly larvae. Yet to look at that fruit, you could not tell,” he said.

The researchers are currently testing this further in Australia amid dense populations of fruit fly.

Devices used in different port or border areas can be tuned to detect threats specific to those areas.

For orchardists or farmers, the devices could cover growing zones and provide an early withinboundary biosecurity alert about infection or disease.

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“When plants become infected and under stress, they release a smell as an alert to other plants around.

“Being able to detect that means an orchardist or farmer could act early, treating that one specific zone before it spreads further and you have to treat the entire area,” he said.

The initial area intended to be targeted when commercialised is the consumer flavours and fragrances industry, a US 33 billion-dollar industry in 2018, with the flavour division being the largest.

In what has tended to be a subjective area, humans are used to determine and set flavour and scent profiles, but they are not without problems.

“People are all different, and taste profiles vary significantly for different cultures. Also, people have to be trained, and often retrained to ensure they are in the zone for evaluating flavours and scents,” he said.

“Being able to standardise taste and scent profiles with consistency is regarded as something of a silver bullet by the industry.”

Scentian Bio has received Callaghan and Sprout funding and is rapidly approaching the last-stage “proof of concept” phase in coming months before ramping up towards commercial development.

Our Land

16 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Data tools need a rethink Farmers collect a huge amount of data while running their businesses, but for years they have been frustrated at the inability of the tools they use to talk to each other. Colin Williscroft looks at the problem and whether there may be light at the end of the tunnel.

T

HE problem of farmers not being able to store and share the information they collect about their properties and livestock is nothing new, but the frustration they often feel about that has been growing when they see the advances made elsewhere.

New Zealand and Australia managing director of agri software and digital solutions business Rezare Systems Andrew Cooke says farmers contrast that problem with their daily lives as an everyday consumer, where, as long as they provide permission, they along with everyone else can use a wide variety of apps to access cloud data.

He says even business tools can talk to each other, so when farmers see that level of data interoperability elsewhere, where at least at some level key elements of data can be shared, they find it frustrating that they can’t do something similar onfarm.

That lack of easy access to shared data also affects business people farmers deal with, from consultants to veterinarians, who often have to ask the same questions countless times, rather than just clicking for information access.

Cooke says all that farmers and those they work with want is access to the same data sharing opportunities that most people take for granted.

He says consumer technology expectations have moved quickly, with enormous gains made by big tech companies during the past 10 years.

However, those companies have been targeting markets involving millions of people, fuelling investment that has allowed technology to jump ahead in leaps and bounds.

The NZ ag sector is much smaller, with tech projects likely targeting a fraction of that audience, leading to bootstrapping development rather than attracting venture capital investment.

That brings with it a wide range of limitations.

The good news is because the world is moving forward, IT solutions are gradually becoming more available.

What might have cost half a million dollars in the past, which would have been a significant investment for a NZ ag company, is now available at a fraction of that, making it much more affordable.

Cooke says the other challenge to improving ag data interoperability is on a more interpersonal level.

He says in the past many companies have had concerns around data standards protocols,

ACCESS: Andrew Cooke says farmers want the same data interoperability in their businesses as they have in their personal lives.

which has led to misconceptions and fears that control over data will be lost, with it made available to anyone who wants it.

There’s been a view, which is comparable to the international oil industry protecting its resources, that holding onto and protecting data means it retains its value further down the track, even if there’s not a current market for it.

the interoperability tunnel, which for some might come from an unexpected direction.

Both the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and AgriTechNZ are collaborating to investigate new initiatives for improvements, which in part is being driven by increasing regulation that is on the horizon.

Cooke says the new programme

They now know if they implement some connection points it’s not going to lead to a free-for-all on data where it all spills out.

That fear of loss of control has led to companies taking curation of their data very seriously to look after their shareholders.

Although well-intended, that too has slowed progress towards interoperability.

Cooke says in that latter area, some of those hurdles are being overcome.

There has been a maturing of views, with chief executives, chief information officers and chief technical officers of agriculture companies now having a far greater understanding of the issues involved.

“They now know if they implement some connection points it’s not going to lead to a free-for-all on data where it all spills out,” he said.

There may be another glimmer of light at the end of

of work is being lined up around the development of farm environmental plans (FEPs) and their need for data sharing – everything from nutrient budgets to greenhouse gas numbers – to make those plans effective.

There is still a lot of work to do, but making data available will be key.

Agritech consultants Wharf42 chief executive Peter Wren-Hilton says there are many issues around data interoperability and without improvements, there will be ongoing challenges to develop applications that can be used by all farmers and growers.

He says if agricultural platforms and applications and applications cannot talk to each other the result is multiple silos working alone.

“Farmers and growers do not

INEFFICIENT: Peter Wren-Hilton says farmers and growers do not want to have to manage multiple applications and have to endlessly enter the same data into different systems.

want to have to manage multiple applications and have to endlessly enter the same data into different systems,” Wren-Hilton said.

“Ultimately that reduces the opportunity to increase adoption across the industry, often harming productivity, profitability and sustainability on the way through.”

Wren-Hilton, a former executive director of AgriTechNZ, agrees with Cooke that some of the issues around improving interoperability relate to the proprietary nature of data gathering. Another is the question of data ownership, while a third is around the interpretation of data standards.

He says NZ also faces another challenge.

“Because our domestic market is relatively small, there are a number of major duopolies in different verticals – think fertilisers,” he said.

“Competition rather than collaboration is then the core DNA of many of these duopoly businesses. The concept then of sharing data goes against this ingrained way of thinking.”

The lack of interoperability in agriculture is not just a NZ issue, it’s global.

Wren-Hilton says there is currently a coalition of countries including the Netherlands, Denmark and NZ, trying to identify some of the key issues.

That in itself provides an additional area to be overcome.

“The global lens of course adds another layer of challenge. If different countries apply different data standards, that creates numerous cross-border issues,” he said.

As for what needs to be done now, Wren-Hilton says it’s a key workstream within the Agritech Industry Transformation Plan, with work being led by MPI from the Government perspective and the Agritech NZ Practitioner Working Group from an industry perspective.

He says there are a large number of other interested and/ or affected organisations seeking to provide input into those discussions.

“There will be progress, but it will not in my view fundamentally change some of the challenges without a broader change of policy direction from some of our larger agribusinesses,” he said.

However, he does believe there are niche areas where interoperability has gained ground that show lessons can be learned.

He gives the example of joint initiatives such as Agrigate, which was led by Fonterra and LIC, with the support of other major data owners, as a good example of what can happen if there is sufficient focus.

“In this instance, dairy farmers can view a lot of relevant data through a single platform. If it takes this kind of sector approach, that might work,” he said.

Our Land

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

17

Initiative targets big climate goals

A

GRICULTURAL seed company Germinal has announced a new research programme to support sustainable farming, as climate change puts increasing pressure on New Zealand’s primary industries.

The Canterbury-based company has enhanced its long-term research alliance with the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences (IBERS) in Wales, with an initiative that builds on nearly 35 years of collaboration between the two organisations.

It means Germinal now employs and directs a team of researchers at IBERS who are specifically tasked with developing new pasture and crop varieties to help farmers address climate change.

Germinal has exclusive worldwide production and marketing rights for the varieties bred in partnership with IBERS. Germinal New Zealand general manager Sarah Gard says IBERS is a powerhouse in terms of its research capabilities.

“We are extremely fortunate to have exclusive access to this innovation, and apply it to NZ’s unique environment,” Gard said.

While it’s not a silver bullet, our new research programme with IBERS will result in alternative pastures that farmers can use as another tool to further reduce their environmental footprint.

“We recognise the urgency of the threat of climate change, and the resulting pressure on farmers.

We also know farmers are already making significant improvements to reduce emissions.

“While it’s not a silver bullet, our new research programme with IBERS will result in alternative pastures that farmers can use as another tool to further reduce their environmental footprint.

“It’s about supporting farmers and ensuring they have the resources available to meet industry targets.”

The NZ government has set a target of reaching net zero emissions of long-lived gases by 2050, and reducing biogenic methane emissions by at least 24% by that time.

The Climate Change Commission’s recent report identified improved farm practices as a priority area – particularly developing and adopting

practices and technologies that lower emissions and address climate change.

Gard, who manages two Canterbury dairy farms with her husband, says innovative pasture and plant breeding technology will play an important role in that regard.

“We believe alternative forages will become an important tool for reducing the impact of livestock farming on NZ’s environment – supporting farmers to sustainably balance increasing productivity and profitability, while reducing on-farm emissions,” she said.

Germinal’s new research team based at Aberystwyth University will look at the lipid content of grasses, nutrient use efficiency and novel protein crops to reduce on-farm emissions.

Potential new varieties include a clover capable of using phosphorus more efficiently than conventional clover, reducing

ALLIANCE: Germinal general manager Sarah Gard says a long-term partnership with a Welsh research institute will help NZ farmers address climate change targets.

reliance on synthetic fertiliser.

Gard says the IBERS partnership will strengthen what Germinal is already doing on the ground in NZ. The company operates its own breeding programme in Canterbury, supported by on-farm trials throughout the country.

“Backed by international knowledge and expertise, our primary focus is developing new varieties for NZ, in NZ – ensuring our research translates into tangible results on-farm,” she said.

“A key strength of NZ’s

farming systems is that they’re predominantly pasture-based.

The majority of the milk and meat produced in NZ comes from animals that consume 90-100% of their diet as pasture or whole crop.

“Compared to high-input feed systems, pasture-based systems are efficient, sustainable and relatively low-cost due to minimal machinery, processing and transport requirements.

“It’s now a case of refining the pastures that we use to help address climate change.”

18 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

19

Game-changing seed plant Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz

C

ANTERBURY-BASED Luisetti Seeds has unveiled a cutting-edge seed and production plant that will support New Zealand’s arable industry well into the future.

The new multimillion-dollar seed and cereal processing plant at Ashburton was officially opened by the Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor earlier this month.

The Petkus plant is the biggest of its type outside of the US, and uses revolutionary technology to process ryegrass, fescue, cocksfoot and cereals, with minimal dressing losses and maximum efficiency.

Significantly reduced dressing losses will benefit arable growers and the machine’s increased efficiency and capacity will ensure shipping deadlines for international and domestic seed customers are met.

Production director Vincent Luisetti says the Pektus machine represents a significant investment for Luisetti Seeds and will double the seed cleaning capacity at the company’s Ashburton site.

“This cutting-edge machine reflects our belief in the importance of the arable industry, and indeed agriculture, to the Canterbury and wider NZ economies,” Luisetti said.

“It will benefit our growers and our customers by ensuring the crops that are processed through our plant are of the highest possible quality.

“Our farmers do a fantastic job growing the crops and we can do justice to their skills, care and attention, by using world-leading technology to process their seed and cereal crops.”

The Central Canterbury seed industry is world leading.

The combination of rich soils, reliable irrigation water and

counter-seasonal production generates $329 million annually for the NZ economy.

In 2019, seed exports were worth $260m.

The area in seed production is 37,000ha, most of this area is in Canterbury, off which 85,000 tonne of seed is harvested annually.

Ryegrass is central to the seed industry, both for use domestically and for export.

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) has assessed ryegrass to be worth $14.6 billion to the NZ economy.

The Pektus plant was three years in the planning and specifically designed and manufactured to cope with the growing seed industry.

It is highly automated and incorporates cameras that enable production staff to view product flows and production remotely from their mobile phones.

Through wireless technology, the plant’s operation is supervised from the Pektus factory in Germany where technicians can fine-tune and adjust operations where required.

A state-of-the-art dust collection and management system has been purchased from Germany, which will provide a pleasant, almost dust-free environment for operational staff.

The plant features specially designed clean-down facilities that both minimise clean-down times and eliminate any possibility of contamination between lines.

To assemble the plant, Luisetti Seeds had to seek special visa exemptions from the ministries of Agriculture and Immigration to allow highly specialised technicians from Germany and Australia into the country during the covid-19 pandemic.

“We were pleased to have the minister (O’Connor) open this new plant as he played a key part in getting the exemptions to go ahead,” he said.

“We had paid for it, we had

CUTTING-EDGE: Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor cuts the ribbon at the new Luisetti plant opening with Max Luisetti, while Vincent Luisetti looks on.

seven containers on the water and six experts from different parts of the world coming to install it, then came covid.

“The Level 4 lockdown couldn’t have come at a worse time for us.

Nobody could get here, we had contracted 4000 extra tonnes of produce in anticipation of having the new plant, we could not handle that on the machines we had.

“It was all a bit desperate, then Minister O’Connor visited us and helped set some plans in place so we could continue.”

The company has now employed an extra six people in its Ashburton branch to run the plant and handle the extra shipping and export requirements it will generate.

Plans are also in place to build a new warehouse to cope with the additional capacity.

It will benefit our growers and our customers by ensuring the crops that are processed through our plant are of the highest possible quality.

“This whole project has been about meeting demand from our local farmers and increasing overseas customers,” he said.

Last year Luisetti Seeds exported to 28 countries, including Japan, the US, Canada, Kenya, Pakistan, Europe – anywhere where seed is required, Luisetti said.

Luisetti Seeds is a 100% NZ family-owned company that first opened its doors in Rangiora in 1932 as a small regional seed merchant.

Today, the third generation of Luisetti’s, along with their staff, keep the Luisetti name at the forefront of cereal seed genetics

and arable production throughout NZ, as well as being a significant supplier and processor of cereal grain seeds and pulses for offseason multiplication services for the northern hemisphere.

Luisetti Seeds is the leading supplier of seed peas for frozen pea production and milling wheat seed for bread production in NZ. “This plant will make a difference for our company, our clients and indeed the NZ arable industry as we, along with our plant breeding partners, continue to bring new varieties of seed that are adapted for both NZ domestic and international markets,” he said.

Academics lead robotics revolution

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HE latest in robotic technology will feature heavily at this year’s Fieldays, with three of Waikato University’s latest prototypes on display in the Innovation Hub. The three robots are collaborative projects involving students and academics from the schools of engineering, computing and mathematical science at the university, in partnership with other academic institutions and businesses.

The robots include a robotic asparagus harvester, a grape vine pruner and a kiwifruit orchard survey robot.

All are entered in the Fieldays

Innovation Awards in the Prototype category.

The robotic asparagus harvester uses advanced robotics to harvest asparagus on commercial farms and has been updated from its original iteration.

The robot’s latest version developed last year had successful field trials at asparagus farms in Matamata and Newstead last October and November.

With covid-19 restrictions and closed borders impacting immigration and the labour force in New Zealand, the need for automated technology has increased, Dr Shen Hin Lim, senior lecturer in Mechatronics and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Waikato said.

“There is a need for ag robots and horticultural technology to solve problems, including the labour shortage on our orchards and farms,” he said.

of commercial secateurs.

Its development team dubbed the cutting blade “the barracuda”, a name suggested by a grower.

It’s not just that it’s back-breaking work, it’s difficult to find enough workers and that was even before covid-19.

“It’s not just that it’s backbreaking work, it’s difficult to find enough workers and that was even before covid-19. Automating the process offers a sustainable solution.”

The automated grape vine pruner is a work in progress, with the prototype developed over many iterations and modifications

The Zespri orchard survey robot uses a variety of sensors to autonomously navigate around the orchard to capture information that can provide actionable insights to growers, the University of Waikato systems engineering lecturer Nick Pickering said.

It can be programmed to

capture a wide range of data through the life cycle of kiwifruit growing.

“We’ll be initiating the research later in the year starting with flower counting and canopy cover, with plans to expand the collaboration into the areas of pest and disease detection, fruit estimation and plant structure,” Pickering said.

“The information from the robot will be used to support growers to make complex decisions to optimise fruit quality and quantity.”

The robot will be trialed in orchards this October and November, with analysis and reporting due by March next year.

Our People

20 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

INNOVATORS: Massey students Nathaniel Faulkner, Tyrel Glass and Baden Parr are behind ProTag, a smart ear tag for livestock that is a finalist in a global competition run by Microsoft.

Agritech startup taking on world Colin Williscroft colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz

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N AGRITECH startup created by three Massey University PhD engineering students is one of four finalists in Microsoft’s Imagine Cup world championship for student technology developers.

Baden Parr, Tyrel Glass and Nathaniel Faulkner are the trio behind ProTag, a smart ear tag for cattle.

They liken their product to a Fitbit, as it’s an activity tracker that uses movement data to extract behavioural information – only theirs is for livestock.

The idea for ProTag came after meeting a young farming couple who wanted help to invent a smart ear tag that could give them insights into their herd’s health.

The resulting ear tag detects an animal’s movement and can recognise when it’s grazing, sleeping or running. Information is sent to the cloud and used to predict if the animal is developing an illness.

Farmers can use the information to take preventative health measures that will reduce vet fees,

boost productivity and improve animal welfare.

Glass says that the recent explosion of artificial intelligence and the internet of things presents an opportunity to rethink the way farming is approached.

“We can put a small, low-cost ear tag on livestock that provides farmers with the insights they need to manage or even prevent illnesses. It’s an exciting, fastpaced space tackling some of the big sustainability issues we face in feeding a global population.”

The second advantage is a holistic integrated approach to data analysis, as information from an animal is not viewed in isolation, but rather against a backdrop of geographic farm features such as shelter belts, water troughs and boundary fences.

All the data collected can be fed into continually-improving machine learning models targeted at identifying early illnesses.

Among the benefits for farmers are allowing them early

We can put a small, low-cost ear tag on livestock that provides farmers with the insights they need to manage or even prevent illnesses.

The ProTag team say there are several aspects that make their approach different than others.

The first is the incorporation of GPS with other metric data into a small, formfactor ear tag.

Other products incorporating the same hardware features are usually attached an animal’s neck, which can cause problems through being caught on objects around the farm.

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identification of cows suffering from animal health problems such as mastitis, lameness and bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), while also ensuring cows have optimised grazing during pregnancy.

The Imagine Cup brings together student innovators from around the world to tackle social issues with technology and has been run by Microsoft for 19 years.

The winners of the competition receive $US75,000 (about $NZ105,000) in prize money and a mentoring session with Microsoft chief executive Satya Nadella, among other prizes.

ProTag beat tens of thousands of challengers from across the Asia Pacific in regional finals to make a world shortlist of 12, before being named the winner of the Earth category.

They’ll now compete against the winners of the Education, Healthcare and Lifestyle categories, which were won by teams from the US, Kenya and Thailand, respectively.

The overall winner will be announced later this month.

The New Zealand trio are recent graduates of Massey’s Bachelor of Engineering programme, specialising in electronics and computer engineering, which is how they met. They are now all studying towards their doctorates at Massey’s Auckland campus.

They cite their experience at Massey’s engineering programme and their supervisor Associate Professor Fakhrul Alam’s approach to learning as their major motivation, over and above their study, to entering a competition

like the Imagine Cup. “Entering this competition is a reflection of Fakhrul’s mentoring style,” Glass says.

“He’ll connect a group of us who are working on similar projects in a room and says we should learn off each other.”

Faulkner agrees. “He (Alam) has a lot of trust in our abilities, he recognises what we’re good at and lets us get on with it.”

Alam says he has always encouraged his PhD students to extend their skills and interest while studying.

“I want to keep my students engaged and motivated to try new things and be entrepreneurial – I often ask them, ‘why do you want to work for someone else?’”

He says being a student is the time to experiment with taking risks, making mistakes and using those lessons to grow personally and professionally. He is proud the team has made it this far.

“When you see your students competing and winning against the world’s best, it validates what we do here and why we come to work each day. We are producing world-class engineers and that’s what the world needs. It’s an incredibly satisfying feeling.”

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

21

NZ tech talent measures up don’t necessarily consider when they first start out,” he said.

Former AgriTechNZ executive director Peter Wren-Hilton agrees that NZ agritech designers and developers can compete with the best of the world, but they face some unique challenges.

Colin Williscroft colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz

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EW Zealand has the talent to come up with cutting-edge agritech innovations but many projects are held back by the small size of the local market, which makes it difficult to take them through to the commercialisation stage.

Outgoing Agmardt general Manager Malcolm Nitschke has been involved with the ag seed funder for more than eight years and during that time he’s seen a range of NZ agritech start-ups.

He has no doubt of the talent working in the sector.

“The thing that I’ve learned is that we’re right up there with the rest of the world in our ability to design and engineer things,” Nitschke said.

“Our issues are our ability to develop from here in NZ because our sector is too small.

“We’ve got some fantastic designers and developers, and we’re as good as anyone in the world.”

Nitschke says he has had the luxury of being able to travel overseas with his job and visit technology hothouses like Stanford and Silicon Valley, which has given him a good appreciation of how NZ agritech compares to its international peers.

Wren-Hilton says the Agritech Industry Transformation Plan (ITP) has a key role to play in the industry’s future.

“The recent announcement that Finistere Ventures and NZ Growth Capital Partners were establishing a 40 million-dollar fund goes

Our issues are our ability to develop from there in NZ because our sector is too small.

WORLD CLASS: Malcolm Nitschke says NZ agritech designers and developers are among the best in the world.

He says one of the other challenges the NZ agritech sector faces is that in NZ the uptake of new primary sector technologies and ideas is not a three-year window like it is at Stanford or Silicon Valley, where they can

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develop, sell and move on.

“Here it’s about a 10-year leadin time, so the whole process of getting (agritech) product into market or new technologies embedded in production, there’s a long lead-in time, which people

He says as well as having a domestic market that is very small in global terms, much of NZ’s agritech has traditionally been focused on our pastoral farming systems.

“That has limited our global ambition to certain other countries such as the UK/Ireland, who also employ pastoral farming systems.

The much larger part of the global market doesn’t,” Wren-Hilton said.

He says another challenge NZ agritech companies face is access to capital to grow and scale, while distance to market is another.

“To be serious about developing offshore markets, you really need to be in-market.

That poses significant challenges to the majority of NZ agritech businesses who are quite small and undercapitalised compared to many of our international competitors,” he said.

some way to beginning to address the investment challenge,” he said.

“As someone who knows Finistere Ventures quite well, I would expect that with followon funding with syndicated partners, that $40m could well deliver $100m-$150m worth of investment over time.

However, it’s not just funding.

“We need to ensure that our agritech companies have the capability and knowledge about offshore market entry. What works in NZ does not necessarily work in North America or Europe,” he said.

“This will require further inputs from both NZTE (NZ Trade and Enterprise) and Callaghan Innovation to enable the necessary training to provide these entrepreneurs with the knowledge and tools they require.”

Our People

22 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Rewarding irrigation leadership Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz

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HE gathering of primary industry leaders earlier this month at E Tipu in Christchurch set the scene for the launch of the 2021 Zimmatic Trailblazer Sustainable Irrigation Awards.

The awards acknowledge the world-class leadership farmers demonstrate in water management and present a platform to showcase farmers leading the way in responsible irrigation, innovative water management and environmental stewardship.

The awards are run annually, alternating between Australia and New Zealand.

E Tipu 2021 – the Boma NZ Agri Summit tackled the big questions that exponential change presents for NZ’s primary industries, exploring ways to become more innovative, sustainable and collaborative.

Zimmatic strategic adviser Stu Bradbury says finding new ways to protect and efficiently manage water as a precious natural resource is paramount.

“Launching this year’s awards to coincide with E Tipu makes sense,” Bradbury said.

Craige Mackenzie says keeping up with new technologies is key on the precision farming journey.

“Precise location and understanding of soil types is the gold standard in driving decisions around water use and nutrient placement,” Mackenzie said.

“Not only can an electromagnetic (EM) survey be used to reduce water inputs, it can form the basis of other decisions related to plant health, production and nutrient uptake.

“As soil is the basis for farming the land we work with, it makes sense to dig a bit deeper and start our precision ag journey with a deeper understanding of our soils.”

New to the Vantage portfolio is water-holding capacity assessments working alongside the EM survey help make more informed decisions.

Farmers know their soils, where the good bits and poorer parts are, but identifying an accurate water-holding capacity (WHC) assessment plan will determine just how much water they hold in different locations.

A Neutron Probe will then accurately measure soil water holding capacity at predetermined sample sites.

“Using this information, we

We want the awards to get people talking about smart practices and innovative technology options farmers can use to improve their irrigation and freshwater management.

“Achieving sustainable freshwater management will help maintain our sector’s licence to operate and future-proof our food and fibre industry.

“Responsible irrigation and water management can make a big difference to farm productivity, the environment and the prosperity of our rural communities,” he said.

Vantage NZ founding director

complete a report identifying the water holding capacities over the farm and give insights and recommendations from a management perspective,” he said.

The Trailblazer Awards, offering more than $16,000 in prizes, aim to celebrate such excellence in sustainable irrigation, recognising farmers leading the way in responsible irrigation,

TRAILBLAZERS: Irrigation Trailblazers inaugural award winners Leanne and Tom Heneghan (left) and Sue and Ted Rollinson strengthen NZ’s success story as global leaders in sustainable and profitable farming.

innovative water management and environmental stewardship, and encouraging them to share ideas for achieving sustainable freshwater management.

Last year’s inaugural awards attracted 21 entries, with four NZ finalists selected.

Head judge and Irrigation NZ chair and Irricon Resource Solutions principal Keri Johnston says all four 2020 finalists demonstrated a high level of achievement across all areas.

“We were so impressed by the number and calibre of entrants,” Johnston said.

“All the finalists deserved commendation, but it was Ted and Sue Rollinson who deserved to win the NZ competition because of their dedication to continuous improvement over many years.

“The fact that they have upgraded their irrigation system

several times as technology and efficiencies have improved, and are still looking for more opportunities, is testament to their commitment to being irrigation trailblazers,” she said.

Bradbury says there is an opportunity for innovative farming pioneers to influence future generations.

“These farmers have a role to play in strengthening the NZ success story as global leaders in sustainable and profitable farming,” he said.

“We want the awards to get people talking about smart practices and innovative technology options farmers can use to improve their irrigation and freshwater management.”

It is also about promoting leadership across the primary sector.

“We’re looking for farmers

who are in it boots and all when it comes to water management, giving them a platform to share their stories with a wider audience,” he said.

The judges are looking for innovation in water management, steps taken to ensure sustainable water use on-farm and an obvious passion for protecting water as a precious natural resource.

This year all farmers and farming operations in NZ irrigating over 25ha are eligible. The awards will be held in Australia in 2022.

The awards have been made possible thanks to the support and generosity of NZ industry partners Farmers Weekly, Irricon, Vantage NZ, and IrrigationNZ.

MORE: For more information and to enter visit: www.irrigationtrailblazer.com

Otago appoints ag innovation professor

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HE University of Otago has appointed Dr Craig Bunt (Te Ōtiawa) as the inaugural professor of Otago’s Agricultural Innovation programme, which commenced in 2019.

Currently an associate professor in animal science at Lincoln University, Bunt’s leading scientific contributions span veterinary pharmaceutics, food science and environmental management tools.

His appointment reflects a 25-year journey, which began with undergraduate and doctoral studies through Otago’s School of Pharmacy and continued through work in industry, the Crown Research Institute AgResearch, and academia.

“While studying at Otago I

was a pharmaceutics student working on single dose vaccines for animals, so right from the start I was an agriculture student, even if it wasn’t recognised that way,” Bunt said.

“I’m just one example highlighting how Otago has been involved in agricultural research for some time, but all this work now has a home through the Ag@Otago Research Theme and Agricultural Innovation programme, which is fantastic.”

Agricultural Innovation, a major within Applied Sciences, is designed to focus students’ learning on the major issues and innovative solutions required to support the future of the industry, as well as developing leaders to drive it forward.

“As agriculture is such a huge

industry for NZ, students from any discipline can learn from and about the industry and apply their area of expertise and interest for the benefit of agriculture,” Bunt said.

He says the Agricultural Innovation major will collaborate with industry to develop innovative solutions for challenges it is facing, but also provide more ethical and sustainable innovations that are applicable to the industry’s outputs and their distribution.

“I’m looking forward to contributing to the programme’s initiative to develop agriculture research opportunities and teaching alongside my continuing research on agricultural formulations,” he said.

Bunt’s research interests reflect

a multi-disciplinary approach and focus on veterinary, agricultural and natural products formulations, which includes leading the Ag/ Vet Controlled Release Laboratory based at Lincoln.

The work of his research group has produced unique transformational discoveries and technologies, including the development of a grass grub control granule and a wildlife control bait, which to date has been used in Australia to control feral pigs and is especially important as an alternative tool to 1080.

Bunt’s innovations have also led to one new FDA-approved veterinary pharmaceutical and three agricultural products that improves food safety and sustainability by better

management of environmental pests, livestock and pasture.

Bunt’s return to Otago will also bring him closer to colleagues, including associate professor Greg Walker who is a co-principal investigator on a recently funded MBIE Smart Ideas project on multifunctional nano-coatings for sustainable agricultural applications.

“We are working on a new sustainable biodegradable coating for agricultural products, such as fertiliser and seeds, that has the potential to enable greater efficiency and sustainability in their delivery and use,” he said.

Bunt will be based in the Department of Food Science and will commence his role in September.

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

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Our Markets

24 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Popularity of online sales picks up after pandemic Colin Williscroft colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz

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OVID gave livestock sale yards a significant shakeup last year, with online platforms growing in strength as a result.

One of those was PGG Wrightson subsidiary bidr, which has seen strong growth since its launch at Fieldays 2019.

National territory manager Caitlin Rokela says the platform came into its own during the covid lockdown but even now, with the sale yards open again, it is part of an effective hybrid stock sales system, both livestream and onfarm, which has been embraced by farmers.

It has well in excess of 4500 registered users, and also attracts farmers who want to keep an eye on markets, rather than wanting to buy.

A recent four-day large dairy stud dispersal sale had between 100-150 registered buyers every day, with another 100 watching.

She says vendors see it as a powerful marketing tool, while some farmers prefer buying online as they save time by being able to stay on-farm, and money by not having to travel.

It’s used by a wide range of ages and is seen as adding another layer to the auction industry rather than disrupting it.

The social side of the sale

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yards trade will continue to be important.

Rokela says bidr is an open platform, with nine different livestock agencies – Carrfields Livestock Ltd, Hazlett Livestock Ltd, John Griffith & Co, Link Livestock, PGG Wrightson Ltd, Peter Walsh & Associates Ltd, Progressive Livestock Ltd, Redshaw Livestock Ltd and Rural Livestock Ltd – actively using it.

Buyers with accounts with any of these agencies can buy through bidr.

Rokela says bidr now has four good sales seasons behind it, and it’s continuing and improving the service it offers farmers and others involved.

NZ Farmers Livestock’s online platform MyLivestock was launched in April last year as part of a hybrid sale at Frankton.

The company’s livestock general manager Bill Sweeney says that although the online platform came together more quickly than was initially planned, they were already some way down the path of creating that option for farmers, so although it took a big effort, they were not starting from scratch.

“The pandemic simply meant we put the pedal down and got the MyLivestock platform refined and released two weeks later so farmers could resume trading,” Sweeney said.

He says in the year since lockdown, farmers have become

ONLINE AUCTION: The MyLivestock online platform was launched at a hybrid sale at Frankton just over a year ago.

familiar with the choice that now exists.

“Where before they might only attend and bid at the local yards, now they can bid at livestock auctions across New Zealand,” he said.

He says one of the ways MyLivestock has enhanced its platform is the addition of an auto-bidding option, which he says gives farmers a new level of flexibility.

experiencing company record attendance and participation at sales across the country.

StockX managing director Jason Roebuck says the importance and value of online markets was brought into stark relief during lockdown and StockX saw a surge of activity as physical and interpersonal markets were stopped and/or severely restricted.

“We established significant numbers of new trading accounts

Where before they might only attend and bid at the local yards, now they can bid at livestock auctions across New Zealand.

“Now farmers can check out a line of cattle online and, based on their knowledge of market prices, place a limit on what they are prepared to pay per head or per kg and then get on with work on the farm knowing they will lead the auction to that limit,” he said.

Sweeney says the addition of auto bid has levelled the playing field for farmers who are at the yards or who are bidding online and as a result they are

for farmers to sit alongside the 21 livestock agencies that have established trading accounts with StockX,” Roebuck said.

StockX was launched in 2016 and is the longest running independent trading platform.

He says the company’s experience of any new user – whether farmer, livestock agent or meat company representative – is one of cautious excitement at the outset followed by satisfaction

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on trade completion from which confidence builds to repeat trades.

“This sits alongside a growing understanding that online trading is now a mainstream trading option, providing reduced trading costs and greater market access/ reach. We have traders who have traded in excess of 100 times,” he said.

“We have a user base that spans farm owners, stock managers, meat processors, livestock agents, corporate farm managers, those in their 20s through to some of our higher users who are in their 80s.

“Age of the user is in our view largely irrelevant as it is the platform capabilities and the secure trading processes for those that are going online that are of value. They have seen that it is a safe way to trade, it’s easy and it’s repeatable.”

Roebuck says StockX continually updates its platform capabilities and it is the only trading marketplace that allows and manages trades from listing through to payments, invoicing and settlement all online.

Our Markets

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

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Boosting meat’s reputation T HE meat industry has launched a new consumer-facing website to try and change conversations about the production and consumption of beef and lamb.

Early indications are that in its first month of going live, it is starting to have an impact.

Making Meat Better is a joint initiative between Beef + Lamb New Zealand Ltd, B+LNZ Inc and the Meat Industry Association (MIA).

The site was launched on March 30 and MIA chief executive Sirma Karapeeva says there has already been great feedback from companies about how it can help their marketing efforts overseas.

She says awareness of the site is building and it’s helped attract some influential followers to the industry’s social media channels.

“Ultimately the site is about changing conversations – moving away from reliance on global research on the health, nutritional and environmental aspects of red meat, which is based on grain-finished, intensive farming systems, which isn’t relevant to NZ,” Karapeeva said.

“It will take a long time to raise awareness of this, for people to understand the differences and for their attitudes to change as a result.

“We therefore weren’t expecting things to change overnight – we’re in it for the long haul, but there have been some encouraging signs.”

B+LNZ chief executive Sam McIvor says Making Meat Better will support the marketing of NZ beef and lamb globally, underpinning the promises made by the Taste Pure Nature brand that was originally launched in the US and has since gone into China.

He says the information on the site is currently being incorporated into industry messaging in the US, and some processing companies are also looking at how they can include the site’s statistics in their marketing in other countries.

“A major focus is to measure the site’s usage, the engagement

JOIN IN: Beef + Lamb NZ chief executive Sam McIvor says a new meat industry website provides farmers with an opportunity to spread the word about NZ farming systems.

This has exceeded our initial targets and we’re excited to continue to develop content that is engaging and appealing to users. on social media and from online advertising to help refine what the industry does over time. So far the numbers are building slowly but surely, as we expected,” McIvor said.

He says in the first month the website has been visited more than 9000 times by 6000 different users.

“Considering this has been from a standing start, we can take a lot of confidence that the information on the website is being sought out by the public,” he said.

Facebook has been the most successful way of driving people to the new site and for disseminating information, and is one of the industry’s biggest focuses for promotion.

So far, the information on Facebook has been seen nearly a million times by more than 140,000 individual users.

“We’ve also generated just shy of 20,000 likes, shares, comments and other interactions on our posts,” he said.

“This has exceeded our initial targets and we’re excited to continue to develop content that is engaging and appealing to users.”

Farmers who have been on the Making Meat Better Facebook page may have seen some negative pushback, but that’s no cause for alarm.

“We expected this and it was intended to spark engagement,” he said.

“What’s encouraging is the way our supporters have responded to comments, providing balance and genuine stories about farming to back up the statistics on the Making Meat Better website.

“If you’re one of those supporters, thank you – it really makes a difference.”

He says farmers and others in the industry will continue to be asked to join the conversation and get involved through social media.

“If you’re a bit unsure about the way some of the social media posts have been framed, that’s okay, you can pick the ones that work for you,” he said.

“We know farmers have urban friends and family, and the more we can do to spread the word about our more natural farming systems, the better.

“Similarly, if you’re not sure about other aspects of Making Meat Better, that’s okay too.”

He says there have been

some questions raised about the website’s name.

“The website and social media accounts are primarily aimed at consumers, so we needed a name that shows we’re proud of the fact we’re already world-leading in the way we farm, but it’s also really important to show consumers we recognise there’s still work to be done,” he said.

“Consumers and decisionmakers are immediately turned off if they think farmers are claiming it’s ‘job done’.

“We’ve also been heartened by some of the followers our social media channels have attracted.

There are respected thought leaders following us and sharing our content, and our aim is to increase this support over time.”

MORE: To find out more, go to https:// makingmeatbetter.nz/

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Our Markets

26 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Opportunity for ag-tech funds Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz

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UNDING opportunities for New Zealand agritech start-ups are looking more positive than ever, thanks in part to a rising tide of global funds, and a maturing of the startup environment.

Agritech NZ chief executive Brendan O’Connell announced the first solid outcome of the sector’s Industry Transformation Plan (ITP), with the launch of a $42 million venture capital fund targeting NZ agritech start-up firms.

Backed by the Government’s NZ Growth Capital Partners fund and San Diego-based capital venture company Finistere Ventures, the fund is a milestone achievement for the ITP launched a year ago.

“We are now seeing a range of ways that companies can take their approach to capital fundraising. The traditional path has been through growing and reinvesting, as we see with our established agritech firms.

Some have had support along the way like Figured and PicMi,” O’Connell says.

“Some, like Halter, come with a real ambitious approach with strong aspirations and find the capital to support their aspirations, bringing that gap between testing and being available and adopted, closer together.”

Such an approach can help early stage agritech firms jump quickly over the perilous “valley of death” that hits many after an early growth phase when they run up against slower commercial uptake, and become starved of capital.

Halter recently announced it has secured a further $32m in its Series B funding round, led by venture capital firm Blackbird Ventures. It also included further funding from aerospace company Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck.

He also cited Bay of Plentybased Robotics Plus, which managed to secure buy-in from

FUNDED: Agritech NZ chief executive Brendan O’Connell is confident the sector will surge ahead with many new funding options opening up.

Japanese industrial giant Yamaha, keen to tap into its robotics technology and investing US$10m to do so.

“This is another very different business model to what we have seen in the agritech sector, with the exception of Xero,” he says.

have been recognised at the awards include Ubco electric farm bikes and the PicMi seasonal employment app.

The provision of fund bodies includes Finistere, Pacific Channel with early-stage funding of $50m, and the $100m Pioneer Capital

Where there used to be holes in the funding sources, there are not now.

“I think funds like the Finistere Fund will see a whole new generation of businesses move forward from start-ups, and suspect many will come through from the Innovation Awards we see at Mystery Creek.”

Past successful start-ups that

fund for focusing on growth in larger international markets.

“Where there used to be holes in the funding sources, there are not now,” he says.

With the sources of funds there, the question of what “investability” looks like from a

potential investor’s view needed to be addressed.

“That is, how to find the right partner for the right investor. This is where Sprout Agritech comes in.”

Sprout aims to work with start-up companies getting the “match fit” for approaching investors, ensuring they have business plans, production and sales projections, and channels to market clearly laid out to provide a pathway to scalability.

O’Connell encourages all agritech start-ups to invest in the organisation’s experience, tapping into consultants for mentoring advice that can mean the difference between market success and fizzling out due to a

poor commercialisation process.

He is optimistic about agritech’s future now that the ecosystem of funding is linking with innovators.

“The sector’s advantage over our core primary production is it is not constrained by natural resources, it is all just down to innovation, and the investment is now being added.”

He acknowledges skill levels always need more input, but hopes the productivity commission’s review of immigration settings will help here.

“And we do have a strength in the global pandemic environment – people do really want to live here.”

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

27

Start-ups set to show their stuff at Fieldays

T

HREE start-up companies that received early-stage Callaghan funding are among the many agritech firms updating farmers on their progress at this year’s Mystery Creek Fieldays.

Farmote, Zeddy and Riverwatch have received funding of between $4800 and $320,000 from the funding source two years ago in their early stages.

Today, directors of all three are now looking positively at their companies’ commercial growth prospects over the coming 12 months.

Farmote is a remote dry matter monitoring technology company developed by founder and engineer Richard Burton to help farmers determine grass growth and cover more efficiently.

The system utilises a network of satellite-based multispectral imaging and ground-based remote sensing technology to replace the arduous task of walking the farm property with a plate meter to measure total farm dry matter cover.

The system claims significant advances above conventional satellite-based pasture measuring systems. This includes being capable of measuring at night and not being subjected to shifts in light patterns and cloud cover.

It also has the remote or “mote” monitors in place to cross reference the satellite measurements, ensuring a high level of accuracy. The motes are linked via a low-power wide-area network signal.

With the data delivered to an

app, farmers are able to virtually “walk” their property for dry matter measurements, allocating and budgeting feed quickly.

Burton says last year was a consolidation year for the company as component supplies from China dried up early on with the covid pandemic.

This year’s Mystery Creek Fieldays marks a soft commercial launch as the company ramps up farmer client numbers.

Zeddy feeders is also poised to build up its farmer numbers this year after prototype design was ironed out last year.

The smart feeders use an electronic ear tag to identify each animal eating from it, and meters out the feed based on individual animal demand and needs.

Zeddy chief executive Kate Gwilliam says the company is entering the market at a time

TAILORED: Zeddy smart feeders use an electronic ear tag to identify each animal eating from it, and meters out the feed based on individual animal demand and needs.

when farmers are more attuned to how much and what type of feed their animals are receiving, and are also more likely to pick up on new app-based technology.

“This has come in part thanks to Fonterra’s efforts with their milk vat monitoring programme.

Farmers are now used to getting alerts on their phone app. They also like the subscription business model we are using for our feed system.”

She says a subscription-based model ensures a more ongoing, relationship-based engagement

IN-SITU: Farmote remote dry matter monitoring technology helps farmers determine grass growth and cover more efficiently.

Supporting farmers for over 40 years

with farmers, rather than a oneoff transaction exchange when hardware is purchased.

“It keeps the farmer customer at the forefront for us and for farmers, they know what the ongoing cost is going to be,” she says.

Along with cattle, the company is exploring feed bin options for the emerging market of milking sheep and dairy goats.

The company’s trials have shown young stock can enjoy more rapid weight gains when their feed rations are managed by Zeddy, helping reduce weight variations within lines of stock.

Gwilliam says the key goals for Zeddy in coming months are to work on refining the prototypes, improving the app user interface.

“In many respects we are trying to work in the hardest market first here in NZ. European and UK farmers are more accustomed to rationed feed and tech adoption,” she says.

Co-founder of remote water quality monitoring device Riverwatch James Muir says this year marks the delayed launch of the technology after covid disrupted company plans for Mystery Creek last year.

“It has given us time to

refine the technology and we are now even more prepared to go to market. The device’s suite of sensors now meet the requirements under the new freshwater quality standards,” Muir says.

The Riverwatch monitoring “waka” sits in-situ in waterways delivering data on five key water quality parameters – pH, turbidity, conductivity, dissolved oxygen and temperature.

Muir says connectivity of the device when located in remote sites will be virtually guaranteed, with the company poised to utilise satellite-based SWARM satellite IoT connectivity.

“It means even the most remote waterway will be able have its data accessed.”

A desktop app provides alert levels on water quality and a water quality score based on the parameter data collected.

With government water quality regulations coming into playm interest has been strong from farmer catchment groups, councils and iwi bodies.

“We are also getting strong interest from forestry companies wanting to monitor water quality at felling time in order to meet the strict standards they now operate under,” he says.

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28 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

POTENTIAL: Food Nation co-founders Miranda Burdon, left, and Josie Lambert believe there is no reason why the NZ plantpowered food sector shouldn’t lead the world.

Focus on versatile veges There’s a growing market for plant-based products where vegetables feature as a ‘centre of plate’ item, and there’s more innovation under way. Colin Williscroft reports.

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LANT-BASED food business Food Nation is halfway through a twoyear project that’s looking to create a diverse range of new processed vegetable products.

With investment from the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Food and Fibre Futures (SFF Futures) fund, the idea aimed to develop a range of plant-based meat-alternative foods using mushroom seconds and an array of other more novel plants.

One year on, there has been plenty of progress.

“Many of the plant-based meals currently on the market revolve around ‘fake meat’,” Food Nation co-founder Miranda Burdon said.

“They try to reflect the taste and texture of meat, rather than showcasing the various plants they are made of. The products we’re developing are predominantly and unashamedly made of mushrooms, grains and vegetables.

“They are free from soy, dairy and gluten, so people with all types of diets can enjoy them.”

The Auckland-based company is using fresh New Zealand ingredients as much as possible, working in partnership with NZ producers such as Meadow Mushrooms, Kiwi Quinoa, the Hemp Farm and the Pure NZ Buckwheat Co. “We’re aiming our products at the ‘reduce-a-tarians’ market – including vegans and vegetarians as much as anyone who wants to eat less meat, but still want

something substantial that tastes amazing,” she says.

MPI director investment programmes Steve Penno says the skills and ingredients Food Nation are using are in their infancy in NZ, and the work they’re doing with food technology institutions and other plant food suppliers and processors in NZ is building this capability.

products that can be substituted in traditional recipes.

“Our market research found that consumers wanted a mincelike product first and foremost as it’s so versatile in cooking, so that was our first area of focus,” she says.

“Whatever we produce, our aim is to make it craveably good.

There are around 50,000 edible

There’s a growing global market for alternatives to meat-based protein, and our support of this project will help NZ to tap into that market much faster.

“There’s a growing global market for alternatives to meatbased protein, and our support of this project will help NZ to tap into that market much faster. This investment will have benefits for NZ businesses looking to enter the market, and help build our plant-based food sector,” he says.

Burdon says without SFF Futures funding, Food Nation wouldn’t have got where it is today.

“It’s helped us with the development end immeasurably, enabling us to develop our knowhow and capability as we innovate to deliver new taste sensations,” she says.

Food Nation recognises that to create change in consumers’ eating habits, any new product must be easy to adopt. To make it easy for people wanting to reduce their meat intake, they have focused on developing

plants in the world, so there’s no shortage of options.”

The products have a fourweek shelf life without using preservatives, achieved by changing the cooking process and packaging. By using fully recyclable packaging and mushrooms that don’t make the grade for supermarket shelves, the company is reducing waste.

Fellow co-founder Josie Lambert says there is increasing expertise within the NZ food technology sector with a growing number of people working in the space and companies investing in it.

She says it is nice to be part of something that is growing so fast and heartening to see the energy of people who are developing their skills and knowledge.

“The talent pool is growing fast, with the increasing level of interest in this sector domestically

and internationally, we have seen an increase in focus from both the private and public sector,” Lambert says.

“NZ has always been a nation of innovators and it is fun to see that continue with this next wave of food innovation.”

Food processing capabilities are also growing.

Lambert says when Food Nation began access to and awareness of innovations available overseas was a challenge but in the relatively short space of time that they have been working in the space, they have seen big strides – both in innovation and investment.

“Of course we would love to be able to run faster but the progress has been heartening,” she said.

She says the biggest enabler of growth in plant-powered foods will be by increasing the number of products in the market.

“At Food Nation we have a long wish list of product development and we believe that as awesome products arrive in the market consumers will become less weary of tags put on food,” she says.

“We just hope people will eat more plant-based food because it is a great dietary option, healthy, delicious and enjoyable.

“There is so much room for this market to continue to grow.”

She says there is room for farmers to diversify and help meet the new market.

“It’s not my area of expertise but we are already working with NZ farmers producing hemp,

quinoa, buckwheat, all things that are new for NZ and can grow brilliantly here.

“Then you see the work that people like Leaft Foods are doing and you can’t help but feel excited about the future of horticulture in NZ.” The company is already turning heads internationally, taking out the Best Meat Alternative category at the World Plant-Based Awards in October 2020. They were also recently one of the top 10 finalists of FoodStarter, New World and Ministry of Awesome’s competition to find NZ’s most innovative food and beverage products for their Happy Patties.

Penno says boosting the capability of the plant-based sector provides diversification opportunities for farmers from regions across NZ. “It’s a sustainable and highvalue revenue stream with a low environmental impact – and what’s more, the end result is tasty and healthy.”

Most of Food Nation’s production is for the domestic market, although they do have a small presence in Asia and plan to grow their international presence over time.

“We believe NZ has the opportunity to be the best garden for the world in the same way that we have been the farm (for) the world in previous generations,” Lambert says.

“There is no reason why our plant-powered food sector shouldn’t lead the world.”

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

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30 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

Call for more support for biotechnology Colin Williscroft colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz

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OVERNMENT has a critical role to play in funding agricultural biotechnology research for the benefit of all New Zealanders, BiotechNZ executive director Dr Zahra Champion says.

Champion says governments worldwide need to invest in gene editing research to ensure there is equitable access for farmers to new technologies and so avoid only having the large multinationals involved in that type of innovation.

“We would like to see greater government support for genetic research and this type of technology, with studies carried out by Crown research institutes and universities in conjunction with our New Zealand companies,” Champion said.

“If NZ wants to reach its goals to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions, except biogenic methane, to zero by 2050, we must do something different.

“Gene editing technology is one tool that can potentially increase crop yields and quality, plant drought-resistance, improved food safety and security, improve product shelf life and higher nutritional value.”

She says private investment is important for research industries, but it needs to be balanced with government investment to benefit everyone in NZ. “Scientific research is essential to solving major problems that affect millions of people, such as global warming, disease, poverty, and inequality,” she said.

Champion says the three big areas of biotech research are human health, environmental/ industrial and agriculture.

She says cutting-edge biotech is accepted in human medicine,

where the global population accepts vaccines, treatments and therapies, adding that during the past year a revolutionary new biotechnology approach out of NZ is being used to fight cancer.

That work has come out of Wellington’s Malaghan Institute of Medical Research, and Champion says it offers new hope for cancer patients.

She says biotechnology could provide similar advances for agriculture.

“There are many genetically modified innovations on farms globally, which could significantly contribute to economic growth and (the) environmental and social prosperity of Aotearoa if this technology was available,” she said.

“We need the Government to review gene technologies in NZ as the last time was the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification held in 2001.

“The field of genome science has advanced dramatically since then, especially the ability to work with genomes in a very precise way.”

A recent report on the future of emerging proteins in NZ highlights the legal constraints restricting the development of some areas of research, including biotechnology.

The report – Emerging Proteins in Aotearoa New Zealand: What will it take for the sector to thrive?

– was prepared by FoodHQ and was the culmination of a threemonth project in late 2020, to gather insights and perspectives from more than 185 people involved across the emerging protein sector.

It says that for those seeking to utilise genetic engineering technologies, NZ’s current regulatory system, which does not permit the commercial production

TIME FOR ACTION: BiotechNZ executive director Dr Zahra Champion says the Government needs to review gene technologies in New Zealand, as the last time that happened was the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification in 2001.

of genetically modified organisms, makes research and development using GE complex and expensive and that looks unlikely to change in the near future.

“Since the development of precision genetic engineering techniques, such as CRISPR, there have been calls for a review of NZ’s relevant regulations, but there does not appear to be government appetite for this at this stage,” she said.

options – especially those involving biotechnology – do not currently stack up in NZ, based on current knowledge and approaches, although the situation is fluid.

“Much can and will change in the next 10 or 20 years, especially given the level of investment currently going into the cost engineering of large-scale emerging protein production systems of all kinds,” she said.

“Future generations of consumers are likely to be less concerned regarding genetic modification or the artificial nature of these technologies, especially those in large urban centres that have grown up surrounded by technology and with no connection to traditional food production systems.

“It is important that we consider not only what our consumers want right now, but also what they are going to be wanting in 10-20 years’ time, what technology will make possible at that time, and what role NZ will choose to play in the future international food production system.”

modern high-precision genetic engineering techniques.

“For those watching some of the international activity around the use of biotechnology for food production, there is an element of frustration and feeling that NZ is currently turning a blind eye to the largest potential disrupter of our economy ever seen,” she said.

On the other hand, the report says other people feel that biotechnology approaches have

There is an element of frustration and feeling that NZ is currently turning a blind eye to the largest potential disrupter of our economy ever seen.

The report says the development of unique cultivars may provide a future competitive advantage to NZ in terms of plant proteins.

However, it says those working in that area seem to generally accept the current situation, although they also believe those cultivars could be more quickly and cost effectively developed if researchers were able to utilise

minimal relevance to NZ, now or in the future.

“There are still many uncertainties around the true sustainability of these technologies at large-scale, and there are questions for some around the safety and consumer acceptance of the products,” she said.

It says the economic feasibility of some of the emerging protein

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

31

Change should not be feared

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HE primary sector may be known for its innovation and willingness to embrace technology that provides proven advantages but it’s also important to keep track of emerging trends, if it’s going to keep up with, if not ahead of the game.

I know there’s more than a few farmers out there who don’t really take the growth of emerging or artificial proteins that seriously, but to think they can be ignored would be a mistake.

One of the reasons why MPI invested in Food Nation was that it recognised there will continue to

be a growing market for plantbased proteins, so it makes sense for New Zealand to not only keep an eye on that market but also invest in technology that will help make it a player.

If you think other countries and companies firmly associated with animal-based proteins aren’t diversifying themselves, you would be wrong.

Earlier this month Brazil company JBS, the world’s biggest meat processor, bought Netherlands plant-based protein company Vivera, Europe’s third largest plant-based food company, for more than $US400 million.

It’s not the only plant-based company it’s added to its portfolio.

At the time of the purchase JBS

global chief executive Gilberto Tomazoni said the move will give his company a stronghold in the plant-based food sector, along with technical knowledge and capacity for innovation.

That includes considering the potential opportunities biotechnology might be able to provide.

Whether that means we examine the possibilities of

You don’t have to be constrained by the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” approach.

As a country that relies a lot on its food exports, we too need similar knowledge and capacity to innovate if we are going to stay relevant in the future.

Being prepared to not always fall back on what might have worked before is a key part of staying relevant in fast-changing times.

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biotech like gene editing to help deal with challenges like greenhouse gas emissions and plant-drought resistance, I don’t know, but surely it’s a discussion that deserves to be held.

By their very nature innovators push boundaries, as they are rarely satisfied with the status quo.

They want to find solutions or

improvements and are prepared to go outside the square to do that.

Sometimes that means difficult or awkward conversations but that’s often where solutions are found.

That’s a spirit farmers and growers need to encourage.

You don’t have to be constrained by the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” approach.

Embracing innovation and new technology will help take the primary sector forward and help cement its future in changing times.

It will give strength to the industries within it so we can all continue to be proud of their achievements.

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32 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – May 24, 2021

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