Farmers Weekly NZ October 24 2022

BLNZ rolls up its sleeves on HWEN report

Annette Scott NEWS He Waka Eke

MORE than two years of cross-sector collaboration with uncomfortable conversations and robust debate on pricing emissions has not been recognised and “I am gutted”, Beef + Lamb New Zealand director Nicky Hyslop says.

“I am gutted as a sheep and beef farmer and as a BLNZ director with the government decision to make significant changes to He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN), which now have an unacceptable impact on a sheep and beef farmer,” Hyslop told farmers at the central South Island farmer council annual meeting.

“We get the current farmer anger and frustration but let’s channel that into strong messages that will resonate with the public, build pressure on the government and get constructive changes to make this whole thing workable.

“The bottom line is we are not going to agree to anything that threatens the viability of our industry and of our family farms.

“We accept that we have a role to play in reducing our emissions but not in a way that will put us out of business,” Hyslop said.

“This is a great sector; we are proud stewards of our land and right now most of us are seeing pretty solid farmgate returns.

“Yes, there’s some significant headwinds and challenges ahead and to meet these challenges we need to be in the right mindset, we need to be match fit and ready so let’s focus on the positives, look for the solutions for our challenges, see the opportunities and remember we are all part of pretty special sector with a bright future ahead.”

We get the current farmer anger and frustration but let’s channel that into strong messages that will resonate with the public, build pressure on the government and get constructive changes to make this whole thing workable.

Nicky Hyslop Farmer director

BLNZ chair Andrew Morrison said farmers did not ask for the sector to be the one to set prices, but farmers must be more than consulted on price settings and spending revenue.

In particular, farmers should have direct control and say over the use of the re-investment of the farm levy back into the sector, he said. “As a sector we wanted

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Fruit crops hijacked by late frost

Waikato organic blueberry grower Oliver de Groot says the recent frost that wiped out crops is the worst they have experienced, with temperatures plummeting to -4.8degC. “We had two helicopters working but they can only provide protection down to -2degC, it just got too cold.”

3

Photo: Peter Drury

Cities swell with furious farming voices

Southland farmers Russell MacPherson, Winton, John Sinclair, Wright’s Bush, Doug Fraser, Groper’s Bush and Lance Henderson of Fairfax were a few of the many who took to the roads last week to protest the government’s regulatory reforms.

Photo: Natwick

Much has changed for farming in New Zealand since the sector lost privileged market access

New Zealand is already pouring oil on the CPTPP’s troubled waters ahead of becoming chair.

The low turnout at the recent local government elections was a disgrace, Alan Emerson believes.

EDITORIAL

Bryan Gibson | 06 323 1519

Managing Editor bryan.gibson@agrihq.co.nz

Claire Robertson

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

Neal Wallace | 03 474 9240

Journalist neal.wallace@agrihq.co.nz

Gerald Piddock

Journalist gerald.piddock@agrihq.co.nz

Annette Scott

Journalist annette.scott@agrihq.co.nz

Hugh Stringleman

Journalist hugh.stringleman@agrihq.co.nz

Richard Rennie | 027

Journalist richard.rennie@agrihq.co.nz

Nigel Stirling | 021

Journalist nigel.g.stirling@gmail.com

SALES CONTACTS

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

Steve McLaren | 027 205 1456 Auckland/Northland Partnership Manager steve.mclaren@agrihq.co.nz

Jody Anderson | 027 474 6094

Waikato/Bay of Plenty Partnership Manager jody.anderson@agrihq.co.nz

Donna Hirst | 027 474 6095

Lower North Island/International Partnership Manager donna.hirst@agrihq.co.nz

Grant Marshall | 027 887 5568

South Island Partnership Manager grant.marshall@agrihq.co.nz

Debbie Brown | 06 323 0765

Marketplace Partnership Manager classifieds@agrihq.co.nz

Grant Marshall | 027 887 5568

Real Estate Partnership Manager realestate@agrihq.co.nz

Andrea Mansfield | 027 602 4925

National Livestock Manager livestock@agrihq.co.nz

PUBLISHERS

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

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our pioneering spirit tells us nothing’s out of reach

Contents

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

News in brief Sustained spending

Fonterra expects to spend about $1 billion on reducing its carbon emissions and improving water efficiency across its sites by 2030.

Capital expenditure will include investment in “energy efficiency initiatives”, including transitioning sites that use natural gas to biomass, biogas and electricity, and switching fuels at the nine sites that still use coal. It expects to wean itself completely off coal by 2037.

Regen on the ranch

The Ministry for Primary Industries has committed $142,480 over two years through its Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund towards a $356,200 project with Lean Meats Limited (trading as Atkins Ranch) to scale up the number of verified lamb producers that meet the regenerative certification requirements of the Savory Institute’s Land to Market Programme in the United States.

Pigs won’t fly

Hunters are being warned not to relocate feral pigs into new areas, as it can spread disease.

OSPRI says its work can be undone by the reintroduction of Tb-infected pigs with the potential of spillback into the possum population. Steve McFall from the Te Kuiti Pig Hunting Club said anyone releasing pigs from Tb country could severely restrict hunting in the release region.

A pig of a plan

New Zealand’s pork sector fears up to two thirds of pig farms could be affected by a new National Policy Statement for Highly Productive Land that says territorial authorities must avoid using highly productive land for purposes other than land-based primary production.

NZPork is concerned this could lead to the exclusion or limitation of pig farming across large parts of rural zones.

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

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

Blueberry crops wiped out by late frost

KIWIFRUIT and blueberry growers are counting the cost of an unusually late frost that swiped crops across Bay of Plenty and Waikato, with some losing almost their entire season’s income in one night.

Waikato organic blueberry grower Oliver de Groot and his family face losses of 90% in their blueberry crop, wiped out in a single frost that had temperatures plummet as low as -5degC in the early morning of October 7.

“This is certainly the worst we have ever experienced here, it got to -4.8degC. We had two helicopters working but they can only provide protection down to -2degC, it just got too cold,” he said.

The 90% loss represents about 300t of crop, much of which would have been high-value exports.

“We will actually be lucky if we even harvest 10t of crop. The picking costs on bushes with very few berries on them are so high that it becomes uneconomic,” De Groot said.

The three-generation family business is one of the oldest blueberry operations in New Zealand, in a region that accounts for the bulk of the country’s crop.

Estimates are the Waikato frost could have taken out 50% of the national blueberry crop this season, including crops from three growers in their first year of operations.

With the crop taking five years to reach fruiting maturity, De Groot is also concerned the family may lose about 10,000 younger bushes that represent the business’s future income.

He said the wider implications of the frost are the loss of jobs for the 80 Pacific Island workers who return annually to the orchard for harvest time.

Fellow grower Dan Peach packs for 23 blueberry growers throughout Waikato and has also suffered 90% losses.

He said there is no insurance offered in NZ for such events.

Across the Kaimai range kiwifruit growers were also hit hard by the unseasonable event, with reports

of crop loss at this critical budding period ranging from 6% to 20%.

James Trevelyan, director of Trevelyan’s Pack and Cool, said growers in the 40m-80m elevation zone near Te Puke had been hit hardest in the region, but growers in the Western Bay of Plenty towards Waihi-Katikati had been

hit even harder by frost’s impact.

Seeka non-executive director Stu Moss said he had suffered 10% losses from frost, and was thankful for frost protection helping mitigate the worst of the event.

“Some orchards did not have frost protection, however, as they have never been hit by frost in the past. The severity of this one was notable.”

Seeka has updated the stock exchange on the frost event, noting such an event had not been experienced for over 10 years. While still early days, Seeka estimated the impact on production could be between 3.5 million and 4.0 million trays, with updates to come.

Weather Watch director Phil Duncan said the frost event was caused by a southerly airflow driven straight off the Antarctic. While the polar portion only briefly reached NZ the incoming high-pressure zone accompanying it allowed the cold air to sink and settle for one night.

“Another factor was the shape of

Photos: Peter Drury

that high pressure system. It was a ‘tall’ high (shaped north to south) and was very large.

We will actually be lucky if we even harvest 10t of crop. The picking costs on bushes with very few berries on them are so high that it becomes uneconomic.

Oliver de Groot Monavale Blueberries

“Its placement near Tasmania meant it had great reach over the Southern Ocean and when coupled with low pressure southeast of NZ, it made for the classic set up for a full, nationwide Antarctic blast here.

“However, it’s rare to see a setup like that occur in spring, as usually the windy westerlies of the Roaring Forties help bulldoze it sideways (eastwards) as it tries to reach NZ.”

Nithdale Station, 338 Nithdale Road, Gore (meet at the woolshed)

Richard Rennie NEWS Horticulture

FROZEN: Waikato organic blueberry grower Oliver de Groot and his family face losing 90% of their blueberry crop, wiped out in a single frost.

KIND OF BLUE: Estimates are the Waikato frost could have taken out 50% of the national blueberry crop this season.

Milk price forecasts come under threat

Hugh Stringleman MARKETS

FARMGATE milk price forecasts are under pressure after the latest Global Dairy Trade auction produced a 4.6% drop in the price index, incorporating falls for the five major dairy commodities sold.

Skim milk powder fell 6.9%, whole milk powder 4.4%, cheddar 3.9%, anhydrous milk fat 2.7% and butter 2.6%.

The GDT market has given back in October all the price gains made during September, despite Fonterra revising its milk collection seasonal forecast downwards by 1% four days before the auction.

It has given up on a production recovery this season and now expects to collect 1480 million kilograms of milksolids, the same volume as in the 2021-22 season.

“Variable weather conditions, which caused a slow start on farm,

have continued, contributing to lower collections through September and early October, which has caused us to further revise our collections forecast,” chief executive Miles Hurrell said.

But that announced revision in supply did not work the expected magic for prices.

The downward demand factors

kg,” ASB commentator Nat Keall said.

“Given the ultra-tight global supply outlook, we are still picking dairy prices to head higher, but the demand just is not there right now and that weighs heavily on our forecast given prices for a huge chunk of the season’s product are being struck right now.”

Keall said he thought 25% of the season’s output would be priced and contracted during October.

He postponed the prospect of price recovery to later in the season when inventory levels in China wind down, consumption patterns hopefully normalise and auction demand returns.

are speaking loudly and now causing concern, dairy market analysts said.

“Dairy prices eased more than we, and the market, expected and we have therefore reduced our milk price forecast by 60c to $9.40/

Westpac senior agri economist Nathan Penny said the broad price falls are against a backdrop of economic weakness in the key market, China.

Covid movement restrictions are still weighing heavily on economic activity and the recent Communist Party congress reaffirmed those factors.

“On balance, the weak results

OUTLOOK: Westpac senior agri economist Nathan Penny says the weak results over October and a weak Chinese dairy demand outlook mean there are now downside risks to the bank’s milk price forecast of $9.25/ kg.

over October combined with the weak Chinese dairy demand outlook mean that there are now downside risks to our milk price forecast of $9.25/kg.”

NZX dairy insights manager Stu Davison said the weakness showed up early in the GDT auction, with low ratios of bidder demand to the tonnage supply.

‘We need every farmer to speak up on HWEN changes’

to have a say on pricing, certainly that’s been diluted now.”

Sequestration has to be recognised; existing planting is a bottom line, with exploration of safeguards around preventing economics alone leaving any sector with an unfair share of the burden.

The model needs to be reassessed to ensure equity in the system. Price cannot be the primary driver and as a collective sector “we need to get clear and consistent messages to government”, Morrison said.

Chief executive Sam McIvor said there are still some safeguards that can be put in place.

“Certainly, there’s some rubbish in the modelling and how we address that is the question.

“We need to get recognition of sequestration. This is essentially a bottom line for us.

“In terms of levy relief there are some safeguards we can put in place early in the journey. There is new science still emerging and we need to step through that carefully.

“Some things we are firm on, some things we need to do more work on and we don’t have a lot of

time up our sleeves.

“We need to push back; you will see more sternness and aggressiveness from me over the next few days.

“We need to come up with a plan now to get the balance right but our voice needs to be heard in a constructive way to achieve a level of influence over our future.”

McIvor said the best way forward is to combine with other sectors.

“We need to be collaboratively driving our own destiny to have better chances of succeeding.”

He urged all farmers to make a submission.

“As a sheep and beef industry we

were the most vulnerable at the start. We are more vulnerable and most affected in this government response now.

“Farmers are willing to do their bit but if there’s no mitigation then it’s worthless.

“We need every farmer to submit, we need government to know how this affects you, your business, your family and your community.

“This is not just what is happening politically but social licence domestically and internationally,” McIvor said.

Consultation closes on November 18.

Market participants will now be revising their expectations for the next GDT auction on November 1.

“It would seem we have seen enough evidence to assume that consumer impacts are now being felt back through the supply chain, which if true, will mean that prices have further to retreat,” Davison predicted.

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HEADS IN THE GAME: Farmer director Nicky Hyslop says there are signi cant headwinds that need to be met in the right mindset with a focus on the positives to look for solutions.

We can assume that consumer impacts are being felt back through the supply chain, which if true, will mean prices have further to retreat.

Stu Davison NZX Dairy Insights

Meat industry predicts GHG jobs bloodbath

Neal Wallace NEWS He Waka Eke Noa

MEAT processing plants will close and thousands of industry jobs will be lost from falling stock numbers as a consequence of the government’s agricultural greenhouse gas policies, say sector leaders.

The Meat Industry Association (MIA) and Meat Workers Union are both concerned at the implications of the government’s response to He Waka Eke Noa, in which its own modelling shows sheep and beef production could fall by up to 20%.

AFFCO national livestock manager Tom Young told The Country radio programme that government forecasts of a reduction of up to 20% in livestock numbers would reduce the 18 million-head lamb kill by 3.6 million and the 2.6 million-head national cattle kill by more the 500,000.

The implications are severe.

“Effectively you are looking at several very large meat plants closing and the downstream issues associated with that,” Young said.

MIA chief executive Sirma

Karapeeva warned that declining livestock numbers could force processing companies to consider the future of their plants in some areas.

“Any policy changes that exacerbate a decline in livestock numbers would clearly be a concern for the processing sector and our communities,” Karapeeva said.

of the sector’s He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN) proposal and is not acceptable to farmers or BLNZ.

“While we recognise everyone has a role in reducing emissions, we will not accept a system that disproportionately puts our farmers and communities at risk,” McIvor said.

Meat Worker’s Union national secretary Daryl Carran said the threat of job losses is real.

“We are far from friggin’ happy. We think it will be an absolute disaster,” he said of the policy.

Carran wants to see farmers rewarded rather than penalised for their environmental stewardship.

for methane and $2404 for nitrous oxide and fertiliser for an average sheep and beef farmer.”

McIvor was critical of the proposed narrowing of vegetation recognised as sequestering carbon, saying the amount removed will be “miniscule” and it will have little impression on the impact of the levy.

“The key conclusion that BLNZ takes from the modelling is that the removal of sequestration,

as proposed by the government, results in a system that is inequitable and unfairly disadvantages the sheep and beef sector,” McIvor said.

He said the government’s own modelling shows a disastrous outcome for the sector and his organisation intends fighting for the balance to be restored by reinstating the sequestration criteria promoted by the HWEN partnership.

Tom Young AFFCO

She said the organisation is still working through the impact of the government’s paper but said the proposals in it could accelerate the drop in stock numbers being felt from sheep and properties converting to carbon farms.

Beef + Lamb NZ (BLNZ) chief executive Sam McIvor last week doubled down on his criticism of the government’s response, saying it fundamentally alters the balance

He said the loss of land to trees has put pressure on stock numbers, but a further 20% decline in livestock will jeopardise the viability of plants.

Carran wants the government to go back to the drawing board.

“I understand why farmers are unhappy and equally we are very concerned about the loss of jobs,” he said.

The meat sector is the country’s largest manufacturing industry, employing 25,000 people –predominantly in regional New Zealand, Karapeeva said.

“That’s why it is really important the government takes a cautious approach to emissions pricing and ensures there is no disproportionate impact on sheep and beef farmers.”

She said the carbon footprint of New Zealand sheep and beef production are about half the average global figure.

McIvor put the emissions cost to sheep and beef farmers at about 10% of current average farm profit before tax without taking account of sequestration or proposed incentive payments.

“Based on our calculations, under an 8c/kg (methane) scenario with a (nitrous oxide) price of $10/t CO2-equivalent in 2030, this would constitute an average per farm charge of $7859, made up of $5455

Rural protests hit streets of urban NZ

Staff reporter NEWS Emissions

HUNDREDS of tractors, farm utilities, trucks and other farm vehicles converged on urban centres on Thursday, sending a message to the government and levy bodies that they do not

support an emissions tax on the sector.

Some farmers travelled several hours to take part in the “We’re not going to take it” protest.

The Wellington protest was due to end up at Parliament, while elsewhere convoys took a circuit through city and town centres, their vehicle bedecked with signs.

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NUMBERS CUT: AFFCO national livestock manager Tom Young says government forecasts of a reduction of up to 20% in livestock numbers would reduce the 18 million-head lamb kill by 3.6 million.

MAD AS HELL: Tractors and farm utilities converged on urban centres such as Dunedin last week as part of a Groundswell protest against a proposed emissions tax.

Photo: Chris Sullivan/Seen In Dunedin

Effectively you are looking at several very large meat plants closing and the downstream issues associated with that.

skills

The shifting ground beneath farmers’ feet

MUCH has changed the position of farming in New Zealand society since 1973, when the sector lost its privileged access to a large and lucrative market.

“That cued up a series of crises that got worse and worse, culminating in 1984 with Rogernomics and really the first moment in the colonial history of New Zealand where a government decisively turned its back on farming. Things have never quite been the same,” Otago University’s Professor Hugh Campbell, an expert in the sociology of agriculture, told the Embracing Urban Agriculture webinar hosted by Lincoln University’s B Linc Innovation centre.

He listed a series of fractures over the past 40 years or so that changed how urban and rural

New Zealand relate, starting with a series of food scares in Europe including the Chernobyl disaster and Mad Cow Disease, which shook consumers’ confidence in food safety.

Consumers were also shaken by biosecurity issues including rabbits and the illegal release of calicivirus in an effort to control them, as well as the PSA virus that hit kiwifruit growers.

Global environmental crises have also played a part as new generations worry about their future.

“I thought my generation were concerned growing up but no, we were just kind of mild compared with the level of alarm and concern now.”

He said the introduction of mixed member proportional representation (MMP) was pivotal.

“Prior to 1996 (when New Zealand had a first-past-the-post electoral system) Robert Muldoon could win three successive elections by stitching together

parliament on the back of a series of marginal rural electorates, and the rural electorate were therefore really powerful in making government in New Zealand.

“MMP really changed a lot of

National MP quits portfolios over MPI conflict

Staff reporter POLITICS MPI

NATIONAL MP for TaranakiKing Country Barbara Kuriger has resigned from her portfolios of agriculture, biosecurity and food safety, citing a conflict of interest.

“My family has been in a dispute with the Ministry for Primary Industries over events that occurred in 2017,” she said.

“This has created a blurred line with my portfolio responsibilities and in order to continue to support my family, I am stepping aside.

“Although the dispute is, for me, a personal matter which I have endeavoured at all times

to keep separate from my professional role, I accept there has been a conflict of interest which I should have recognised

sooner, and managed.”

Kuriger said that as the dispute is ongoing, she would not be commenting further.

rural New Zealand and a whole lot of bedrock certainties about how the world worked.”

And then, in 2002, the dirty dairying campaign “really blew things right open. The then Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment, Dr Morgan Williams, published the first major government report which said ‘We’ve got a problem.’

“He said the very small proportion of New Zealand’s population that lives in rural areas and produces the vast majority of our export income will increasingly come under tension, and that, he said, is a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.”

Campbell said NZ came late to an urban-rural divide compared with northern hemisphere countries, but he believes what geographers call the “contested countryside” has now emerged here, too. “In the UK they’ve had walking access rights, major political and then negotiated and legislated solutions to rambling and the right to roam and that kind of thing since the 1920s, whereas for us it’s all very recent.”

What all this means for farming

is that while in the middle of the previous century farmers had an absolute licence to farm, the arrival of the contested countryside has created some challenging dynamics.

But the way to bring urban and rural NZ back together is not by radicalising farming communities through the importing of political tropes and ideas from the United States, Campbell said.

“I’ve been writing about Groundswell quite a bit recently and this is not a political development that fills me with happiness,” he said.

“I think the ‘Us against the world, you attack one rural person, you attack us all’, is really unhelpful at the moment. It just obscures diversity and obscures the internal debate and creative discussion happening within rural New Zealand.

“We do need to work out ways to build social norms and networks around shared land use responsibility between country and city. I really think we need to celebrate the exemplars of best practice and you really have to stop defending the indefensible.”

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DISPUTE: Without revealing the nature of the dispute, National MP Barbara Kuriger said it was ‘a personal matter’, and ‘ongoing’.

Tony Benny POLITICS Agriculture

DIVISIVE: Otago University’s Professor Hugh Campbell takes issue with ‘radicalising farming communities through the importing of political tropes and ideas from the United States’. Here, protestors take to the streets of Ashburton in 2021.

Agro-ecology ‘the future of farming’

ago, are now promoting agroecology as the future of farming.

Sustainability

IN A rapidly changing world, New Zealand farmers will need to embrace agroecology, the science and practice of farming with an ecological mindset, to survive, the head of the BHU Future Farming Centre Charles Merfield told a recent webinar.

“The answer to life, the universe and agriculture is clearly to me becoming agro-ecology. If you’re not familiar with it you need to really get up to speed with this pretty quickly,” Merfield told Embracing Urban Agriculture, hosted by Lincoln University’s B Linc Innovation centre.

Merfield, who has more than 30 years’ experience in sustainable agriculture as an organic vegetable grower, consultant, teacher and scientist, said agro-ecology has been around for more than a century but has now been embraced by both the European Union and the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO).

“The whole EU strategy for agriculture for the next 10 years is based in agro-ecology,” he said.

“And all the UN bodies, starting with the FAO over two decades

“These are two massive supranational political bureaucracies that require a vast amount of evidence, discussion and debate just to decide what to have for breakfast, so the fact they have moved from intensive agriculture and are now actively promoting agro-ecology is starting to scream volumes at me.”

predecessors are just embedded in the agrichemical method of farming. They are unaware that these other toolboxes even exist and there’s far more in the nonchemical toolboxes than there are in the chemical toolboxes in terms of ways of managing agriculture.”

Merfield has done extensive research on mesh covers to protect crops from insect pests and he led a field scale trial comparing the effectiveness of mesh made from woven fishing line with sprays for controlling psyllids on potatoes.

“The plots were 100m2 and we had one psyllid under the mesh, and over 400 on the chemicals. This is basically total control –you can’t get this level of control normally outside a lab.”

Despite a big upfront capital cost for the mesh, profitability in the trial actually increased, Merfield said, adding that mesh has been in use in Europe and Israel for 30 years.

MESHURABLE RESULT: Charles Mer eld has has done extensive research on mesh covers to protect crops from insect pests. There are big upfront capital costs, he says, but then pro tability actually increases.

Merfield said farmers have four “toolboxes” they can use: physics, chemistry, biology and ecology.

Agrichemicals are found in the chemistry toolbox.

“One of the things we find today is so many farmers and their

He told his audience about other remarkable non-chemical ways of fighting insect pests, including a way to stop grapevine leaf hoppers from attacking grapes in Europe by disrupting their courtship song.

“They have to sing it and get it right before they mate and therefore produce larvae and if you disrupt this song, they can’t then mate and produce larvae.”

By attaching a small device that sends vibrations down the wires that go through the vines, that pre-mating song can be disrupted.

“You disrupt the song, they can’t finish it, the boys and girls can’t mate and the leafhopper problem is solved.”

Merfield is convinced time is running out for chemical control, through evolved resistance, legislation and consumer resistance – but is equally sure

that there are nature-friendly solutions.

“Where we need to get to is the redesign; this is agro-ecology,” he said. “We redesign the farming systems to be far more robust and resilient and give its multiple benefits — performance and profitability, reduce our planetary impacts and improve the overall robustness and resilience of the farm system in light of all these external shocks we are increasingly facing.”

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So many farmers and their predecessors are just embedded in the agrichemical method of farming ... there’s far more in the non-chemical toolboxes than there are in the chemical toolboxes in terms of ways of managing agriculture.

Charles Mer eld BHU Future Farming Centre

Tony Benny

Environmental spending needs more transparency

Richard Rennie POLITICS Environment

THE Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment has received some highpowered support in a report highlighting New Zealand’s inability to adequately measure the benefits of environmental expenditure.

Only a fortnight after releasing a report detailing the challenges in offsetting livestock methane emissions, commissioner Simon Upton’s environmental spend report outlines how $2b a year is allocated to environmental causes, its fate largely unknown and unaccounted for by the government.

Auditor-general John Ryan has backed up Upton’s concerns, and reiterating how the report highlights barriers to informed debates on national environmental priorities and government plans to achieve them.

In a blog released alongside the report, Ryan says he is concerned that it is not clear to the public

what outcomes are being sought by successive governments, and how that translates to spending, including environmental spending.

On average the government spends $150b a year, with $2b on the environment.

Despite the plethora of ambitious strategic environmental goals presented by governments, the sheer numbers have led to confusion, complicated by environmental goals cutting across many aspects of society.

“There is no common environmental outcomes framework that unites even the eight agencies that constitute the

Somewhat embarrassingly, we have only been able to do this because international treaties have required us to report the information in a consistent way for a number of years.

Simon Upton Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment

wider natural resources sector,” Upton notes in his report.

As a result, little is known about the magnitude of central government spending on the environment, and how it is allocated across different areas.

Perhaps surprisingly, he found climate spending may be an emerging exception. A single plan has been formulated to reach the outcomes desired.

“Somewhat embarrassingly, we have only been able to do this because international treaties have required us to report the information in a consistent way for a number of years.”

The big-ticket items for NZ’s environmental spend range from $600 million a year on improving NZ’s biodiversity, $100m on improving coastal environments, $250m on reducing pollution and waste, and $500m on improving the efficiency of institutions managing human environmental intervention.

Upton makes three key recommendations.

One is that the government must clearly state environmental outcomes and how it will achieve them, both short-term priority and

WASTED: PCE Simon Upton says there needs to be greater transparency and reporting on how e ective the $2 billion a year of environmental spend is in New Zealand.

longer-term overarching ones that “are not the stuff of party politics”.

Secondly, agencies should tag expenditure relating to environmental outcomes and report on the contribution made to those outcomes, clearly linking environmental outcomes sought and expenditure allocated in their annual reports.

Finally, governments should be required to provide a “whole of government report” to the House on expenditure it has allocated to its environmental outcomes and the progress made

towards those outcomes.

Annual reports may cover what an agency has achieved, but these need to be aggregated by outcome, rather than left in a siloed agency for categorising.

He likens such reporting to the Child Poverty survey taken every year.

“It would be simple statement of progress towards each outcome, to be scrutinised in tandem with information about the expenditure allocated to those outcomes. It should happen at least every three years.”

Fonterra playing field tilted, rivals say

exit provisions of the DIRA by disincentivising farmers to leave Fonterra to supply its competing processors.

in the raw milk market.”

FOUR dairy companies have voiced a common concern that the government is serving the commercial priorities of Fonterra without balance.

Open Country, Miraka, Synlait and Westland made a joint submission to the Primary Production Committee of Parliament on the proposed Dairy Industry Restructuring (DIRA) Amendment Bill to facilitate Fonterra’s capital restructuring.

The submission says the change in legislation will undermine the remaining open

The loss of Fonterra supply share value means co-operative members can no longer recover their full investment when they exit.

The main purpose of the Fonterra restructuring is to more easily capture and retain milk supply.

“Once again the government is shoring up the continuing dominant position of Fonterra without adequately balancing that against rightful concerns of other parties which have invested in dairy processing and must compete with Fonterra

Win a trip to Sweden.

Nevertheless, the submitting companies seem resigned to the amendment bill proceeding and they want to next review of the DIRA brought forward to no later than June 2024.

Federated Farmers’ dairy section supports the capital restructuring but opposes the ministerial appointment of the chair of the Milk Price Panel.

“Any amendments to the DIRA must walk the fine line between the need for Fonterra to be free to remain competitive and subject to market signals while allowing for a level playing field for smaller players,” dairy section chair Richard McIntyre said.

He warned against possible

political interference in the process for setting the base milk price.

“The milk price should be independent of both commercial and political bias and agendas,” he said.

The Fonterra Co-operative Council said the bill proposes a market maker in supply shares to enhance liquidity, which it supports.

It also supports the requirement to make independent market analysis of performance accessible to farmers and unit holders.

The council backed a dividend retentions policy for Fonterra, while noting that one already exists.

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Hugh Stringleman MARKETS Dairy

HANDS OFF: Federated Farmers’ dairy section chair Richard McIntyre warned against any political interference in the setting of the base milk price.

O’Connor cools flare-up on China trade bloc bid

Nigel Stirling POLITICS Trade

TRADE Minister Damien O’Connor has put distance between himself and his Australian counterpart’s condemnation of China’s bid to join a major Pacific Rim trade deal.

New Zealand moves into the hot seat next year when it takes over the chairmanship of the Comprehensive TransPacific Partnership just as China’s application comes up for consideration by the agreement’s existing 11 member countries.

In early signs of a rift between Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) countries on China’s application to join their ranks, Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell was last week dismissive of its chances.

“I don’t believe there’s any prospect that China can join,” he said.

China whacked Australian exports of wheat, wine and meat with tariffs and other trade restrictions after former Liberal prime minister Scott Morrison called for an inquiry into the origins of the covid-19 virus two years ago.

There had been hope a new Labor government would lead to a cooling in tensions.

But Farrell doubled down last week when he said China’s trade reprisals against Australia were proof it could not live up to the agreement’s free trade standards.

CPTPP heavyweights Japan and Canada are also understood to have reservations.

But fresh from a meeting of CPTPP trade ministers in Singapore, O’Connor was not rushing to join in the condemnation of China’s bid.

“We are very aware of the situation between Australia and China and have expressed our concern but the accession process

is an independent one connected to CPTPP members.

“China has an obligation to discuss these issues on a bilateral basis with each of the members and clearly Australia has expressed its view.”

Asked whether he agreed with the Australian view that China could not possibly meet the CPTPP’s standards, O’Connor said he did not want to pre-judge its application before it had been properly considered by all members.

“We welcome new members to CPTPP and those that are prepared

to commit to the conditions of it consistently will no doubt be welcomed into it.”

O’Connor said there was endorsement from all CPTPP countries in Singapore of the agreement’s “open door policy” for new members.

“But also a re-endorsement for all applicant countries to meet the standards of the current agreement,” he said.

The United Kingdom, Ecuador and Taiwan also have applications pending.

Taiwan’s bid to join CPTPP is sure to rattle China, which regards the island as part of its territory and not as an independent state with the authority to negotiate trade agreements in its own right.

It is expected China and Taiwan’s bids will be dealt with once the UK’s application is decided either later this year or early next year just as NZ takes over the CPTPP chairmanship from Singapore.

Former trade negotiator Stephen Jacobi told Farmers Weekly last week that NZ faces a “delicate diplomatic dance” overseeing both China and Taiwan’s bids for CPTPP membership in 2023.

But O’Connor said there was no question in his mind that China would use its status as NZ’s largest trading partner as leverage to try to influence the outcome of either its application or Taiwan’s.

“We could well be the chair when that is considered but members have to make a call and it is up to us to facilitate that,” he said.

“We do not expect any undue pressure from anyone to … support or oppose the application of anyone.”

O’Connor said he last spoke to his Chinese counterpart at a World Trade Organisation meeting in Geneva earlier this year.

He said he had “expressed China’s enthusiasm to join CPTPP” and other regional trade agreements including NZ. Taiwan’s application to join CPTPP was not discussed, O’Connor said.

DairyNZ AGM elects Brown, Lewis to board

Staff reporter PEOPLE Dairy

TRACY Brown and Chris Lewis have been elected to DairyNZ’s board, joining three other farmer-elected directors and three board-appointed directors.

DairyNZ chair Jim van der Poel said he is looking forward to having Brown and Lewis on the board.

“Tracy and Chris will play a key part in setting the future direction of DairyNZ and the sector.

“They both bring key knowledge and expertise which will support our farmers as we continue to navigate the changing farming environment,” he said.

He also acknowledged and

We are very aware of the situation between Australia and China and have expressed our concern but the accession process is an independent one connected to CPTPP members.

Damien O’Connor Trade Minister

thanked departing board member Elaine Cook for her contributions to the board.

EXPERTISE: Tracy Brown has been elected to the board of DairyNZ.

RESTRICTED: China put tari s on Australian wheat, wine and meat following former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s call for an inquiry into the origins of covid-19.

Photo: Wikimedia commons

NIXED: Australia’s Minister of Trade and Tourism told an interviewer in Tokyo recently that he doesn’t ‘believe there’s any prospect that China can join’ the CPTPP next year.

Cool spring delays start of contracting

Gerald Piddock NEWS Arable

COLD, wet spring weather is delayed baling, grass silage making and summer crop sowing over large areas of New Zealand, causing a headache for rural contractors.

The cold snap and the frosts throughout late September and early October have delayed work for up to a month, Rural Contractors New Zealand president Helen Slattery said.

The ground is cold and wet, which has halted the excessive pasture growth that is typical over spring that is used for making bales for summer feed.

“Those southerlies and the latest lot of snow really chilled everything out,” Slattery said.

It was an issue throughout most of Waikato and the central North Island in Manawatū and Hawke’s Bay. Once temperatures do rise and paddocks dry out, Slattery said, it will mean a compacted workload for contractors as they try to get crops in the ground and silage made.

“It’s all going to come at once, which is going to cause difficulties for staffing because we’ll need

to get our staff here, get them inducted and trained.”

The rush of work for the industry will see tractors and other vehicles out on the roads and Slattery said she hopes the public will be patient and show some understanding.

Cultivating the soil for maize sowing and other summer feed crops is also starting to happen, but it too is being delayed by the weather.

“You can’t cultivate a sodden paddock. It’s just going to cause a mess and we need to wait for the temperature to be right. If the soil is cold, it’s not going to be conducive to germination and growth.”

Worker shortages that plagued the industry over the past two years have eased but are not resolved. While contractors can use the working holiday visa to attract overseas staff, securing experienced staff is still frustrating.

Slattery said she was surprised that contractors looking for staff did not take up the compliment of visas made available to them by Immigration NZ.

Contractors will have access to New Zealanders who have been trained, which should ease the shortfall to a degree, but they

cannot replace the experienced operators who are still needed, she said.

The long-standing system where professional operators from the northern hemisphere travel to NZ to work the season before returning to their home country in time for their spring is slowly returning as borders re-open, but it is taking time.

“There is still that [work] peak

that is very difficult to ignore especially this year and is very difficult to manage especially with the weather, the cold and the lack of grass growth. We haven’t had the sunshine,” Slattery said.

One of the positives that has emerged from the staffing shortages over the past two seasons is that it has caused contracting businesses to work more closely with one another

You can’t cultivate a sodden paddock. It’s just going to cause a mess and we need to wait for the temperature to be right. If the soil is cold, it’s not going to be conducive to germination and growth.

when machinery operators are hard to find, she said.

Input prices are also showing no sign of slowing down and farmers understand that contractors are having to pass on some of those costs. The price of diesel is now twice what it was last year and the costs of machinery maintenance and replacing parts have also substantially increased, she said.

This means both farmers and contractors are taking a close look at their budgets to see whether the cost of growing a feed crop outweighs its benefits, or whether it is less expensive to buy feed instead.

“We have had to look out our numbers and they have had to look at their numbers as well,” Slattery said.

DELAYED: Wet, cold weather has delayed grass silage and bale making by about a month.

CHALLENGES: Rural Contractors New Zealand president Helen Slattery says the labour squeeze, rising costs and a shorter growing season will take their toll on contractors this season.

Helen Slattery Rural Contractors New Zealand

Heed the net-zero drumbeat, Hatton urges

At its worst, a “do nothing” approach will only destroy value through increased exposure to higher carbon prices.

THE drumbeat for net carbon zero agriculture is getting louder by the month, driven by the enormous task confronting the world to reduce its carbon intensity by over half in only eight short years.

“If we do not decouple emissions from growth we will not get there,” PwC’s sustainability and climate change director Dr Victoria Hatton told delegates at the Oceania 2035 Summit.

While claiming to be a firm optimist, Hatton said the opportunity for New Zealand agriculture is being driven as much by risk and exposure as it is by investor and consumer interest.

The recent Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment’s report on carbon offsetting highlighted how taking a “do nothing” approach to gross emissions and simply planting to offset simply is not possible, given

it would require almost half the pastoral land in New Zealand to be turned into forestry.

Consumer sentiment, financial expectations and regulations are now all interacting to turn the tide towards low carbon products. This

is also driven by the upfront reality of already having to deal with physical risks of climate change now in play globally, Hatton said.

Agriculture sits across a spectrum of risk, depending upon its response.

California dries up under growers’ feet

Climate change

FARMERS and growers in California are operating on an apocalyptic stage, with forest fires and limited water supplies props in the state’s climate change nightmare.

California’s food and agriculture secretary Karen Ross told delegates at the Oceania 2035 summit that agriculture was suffering now under climate conditions that had not been anticipated for another 10-20 years.

“We realised after we had done the forecast that, going into the future, we will have lost 10% of our water due to increased rates of evapotranspiration.

“This is with plumbing [irrigation] built 60 years ago for half today’s population.”

Ross was in New Zealand for the

summit and to co-sign a letter of intent between Californian producers and New Zealand to work together in developing climate change solutions and responses.

Ross’s state provides the United States with over a third of its fresh vegetables and is the country’s largest dairy producer. More than 400 food commodities are grown there, and California generates US$50 billion (about $89b) a year in farmgate value.

But forest fires and dwindling groundwater are hitting productivity hard in the state, which has faced lingering drought

for several years.

The drought is now forcing strict groundwater laws into play to try to better manage aquifers.

Estimates are that up to 400,000ha in the San Joaquin Valley alone will have to be idled as the law starts to affect growers.

“Water is the thing that keeps me awake at night,” Ross said.

Meantime the proliferation of wildfires is so great over the extended summer period that their smoke interferes with crop photosynthesis, with 30 days of constant smoke over July.

“And that is nothing on what it does to human health.”

Farm and horticultural workers face reduced hours in order to limit their exposure to the near constant presence of smoke.

The state aims to reduce its methane emissions to 40% below 2013 levels by 2030, with an equivalent emissions reduction target in place for the dairy and

Value preservation will be achieved by taking climate risk mitigation measures, to avoid fines and regulatory costs like European Union carbon border charges, likely to come soon.

The gold standard on the spectrum is value creation, through achieving true net-zero transformation.

This delivers additional market share and new customer segments.

Hatton cited United Kingdom food chain Morrisons as an early mover aiming to be net carbon zero for its beef by 2030, five years ahead of the industry as a whole.

“From a NZ perspective we may be blocked out then from their market. If we do not turn that to an opportunity, then we could miss out.”

Hatton recently berated the NZ beef industry for its earlier failure to entirely capture the grass-fed claim, having sat on it for decades.

She has also cautioned that

NZ’s “carbon neutral” beef being marketed in the United States will not gain the same traction in Europe, where net carbon zero is the target.

However, it is not too late, with NZ proving good at developing new products, and the world an ideal Petrie dish for putting them out there.

At its worst, a “do nothing” approach will only destroy value through increased exposure to higher carbon prices.

Dr Victoria Hatton PwC

She urged processors to look beyond their immediate manufacturing silo, further downstream at packaging (plastics), logistics (transportation emissions) and final product use including end of life and wastage, a big part of the sector’s emissions loss.

livestock sector.

“We are halfway to our goal to reduce methane in livestock systems. We have spent $US300 million [about $527m] in the last 10 years,” Ross said.

This has included investment in dairy digesters to handle farm effluent, removing methane and

turning solids into compost. Ross said the collaborative agreement with NZ signals a recognition that when it comes to climate change countries are not competing with each other, and stand to gain much by unifying their research and innovation efforts.

Richard Rennie MARKETS Carbon and Oceania

Richard Rennie NEWS

MISS OUT: NZ agriculture risks missing out on markets if it doesn’t move quickly, PwC’s sustainability and climate change director Dr Victoria Hatton says.

BLOCKING THE SUN: The proliferation of wild res is so great over the extended summer period that their smoke interferes with crop photosynthesis in the western United States.

Water is the thing that keeps me awake at night.

Karen Ross California secretary of food and agriculture

Thousands of hectares retired in Waikato

Staff reporter NEWS Conservation

WAIKATO

landowners have retired 21 farms’ worth of unproductive land and planted more than three million trees in the past five years.

In doing so, these farmers have contributed to improving water quality, biodiversity and climate resilience on this land, the Waikato Regional Council says.

Catchments in the region are managed in partnership with landowners and the council to achieve its environmental goals.

One way it does this is to help fund the costs of riparian and hill country fencing and planting.

This voluntary catchment and river restoration work is funded in different ways throughout the region, with funding coming from rates collected or by the council applying for funding

for various work programmes from other organisations.

Waikato and West Coast catchments manager Grant Blackie said the council has financially assisted 1823 landowners in the past five years, with 80% of the funded work undertaken in prioritised catchments.

“In the Waipā Zone, for example, we have catchments that are predominantly farmland and highly modified, which deliver high loads of the sediment

to the Waipā River, so we’ve had extra funding available for those landowners through the Waikato River Authority and MPI’s Hill Country Erosion Fund and One Billion Trees,” Blackie said.

“Landowners are doing a phenominal job taking care of their land. Unfortunately we always have more landowners wanting to work with us than we have funding available and there are large areas of the region outside of our priority catchments where only very limited funding is available.”

He said the 5777ha that has been retired over the past five years – equivalent to more than 20 average-sized farms – consisted of remnant native bush, steep

slopes, wetlands and riparian margins.

“All of this work to retire unproductive land helps to contribute to cleaner water, increased biodiversity and improving the climate resilience of each farm.”

Catchment and river management work for the past five years has also included 1205km of fencing, to prevent stock access to retired land, and the planting of 3,147,324 plants, mainly native plants but also including smaller numbers of exotic afforestation species and poplar and willow poles.

“And that’s just through us. There are many landowners who fund this type of work alone or make their own applications for

funding through other funding sources.”

Blackie said the value of the work completed in the region in the past five years is conservatively estimated to be about $27 million, based on the average costs of fencing being $12 per metre and $4 for a tree in the ground.

Funding availability is dependent on whether landowners live in an identified priority catchment or whether the council has secured additional funding for work programmes outside business as usual.

It ranges from 35% of costs to 100% depending on the type of work and funding available, and landowners are able to use their contribution as work in kind.

All rights reserved. NZ-BOV-0009-2022.

NZ here many

Landowners are doing a phenominal job taking care of their land. Unfortunately we always have more landowners wanting to work with us than we have funding available.

Grant Blackie Waikato and West Coast catchments

TAKING CARE: Waikato farmers have retired nearly 6000ha of farmland and planted more than three million plants in the past five years to improve water quality and biodiversity.

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Alliance Group heading for all-round record year

THE Alliance Group is heading for a record year on multiple fronts.

Chair Murray Taggart said its financial results for 202122, to be announced later this year, will show record levels of revenue, profit, cash flow and staff safety performance.

“We’re really thrilled at the way the year has ended. If you had told us at the start this was how we would end up at year’s end, we wouldn’t have believed you,” Taggart said.

Taggart said the co-operative’s profitability has been steadily improving in the past five to six years, but the results have been boosted by dividends from business initiatives and markets performing more strongly than expected.

“Certainly a significant chunk has come from a better performance within the business,” he said.

He paid tribute to staff who he said have gone to great lengths to stay covid free and ensure the business kept functioning.

There are some headwinds in the coming season.

Taggart said inflation is high and economic growth slowing in major markets the United States, the United Kingdom and Europe.

“Put together and we see people are trading down their purchasing habits in markets. At this stage is doesn’t look catastrophic, but the state of the global economy is looking uncertain.”

Taggart said there is general concern at the impact of government regulations, more so at carbon policies in general than specifically He Waka Eke Noa (HWEN).

The view among sheep and beef farmers is that despite having a light environmental footprint, under the government’s response to HWEN they are being hit the hardest, and many are openly questioning whether their businesses have a future.

He urged farmers to get involved in the consultation process.

“This is a proposal that is out for consultation and surely it won’t be the final proposal because there is stuff in there that will dramatically impact the livestock sector if the most extreme measures are adopted.”

Taggart said it is important to let the consultation process take its course.

“We have to be careful that we don’t box at shadows.”

The pending result was even more remarkable given the uncertainty from covid and the economic impact in international markets.

A falling New Zealand dollar is providing some cushioning, but Taggart warned that will increase market prices and could lead to some resistance.

Alliance is coming to the end of its supplier road shows and

Alliance is embarked on a decarbonisation plan to reduce its carbon emissions by 77% by 2029.

Taggart said Alliance is yet to see market demand for carbonneutral products, which the government said will be the reward

Search for young Māori horticulture stars

Staff reporter PEOPLE Horticulture

ENTRIES are open for the 2023 Ahuwhenua Young Māori Grower Award.

The award recognises young up and coming Māori who are working in the horticulture industry.

The award was inaugurated in 2012 and has proved to be very popular, attracting high quality entrants, many of whom have gone on to take leadership roles in the agri and horticultural sectors.

Nukuhia Hadfield, chair of the Ahuwhenua Trophy management committee, said the competition

is a flagship award to showcase the great strides young Māori are making in the horticulture industry.

She said the award also highlights the huge variety of roles that are available to young people.

“I urge all young Māori working in the horticulture industry to enter the competition and that their employers encourage and support members of their staff to put their names forward.

“This prestigious competition not only highlights bright young people, it also reflects well on their employers,” she said.

Entry details, including the entry form, are on the Ahuwhenua Trophy website www.

ahuwhenuatrophy.maori.nz.

Entries close Friday, February 10 and the finalists will be announced in March 2023, with the winner announced at an awards dinner in Tauranga on June 9.

for farmers and exporters.

“The reality is that will definitely be a trend, that over time people will want to see progress, but it is not yet a driver that is about to suddenly deliver markets.”

Markets such as Germany, which are traditionally sensitive to such issues, have not raised it.

Livestock manager Danny Hailes said global demand for meat remains high, the only clouds on the horizon were in the form of economic and geopolitical issues.

He said China is key.

“So long as China doesn’t start wobbling we should be okay.”

Up to the end of December Hailes said lamb prices should range from mid $8/kg to high $9/

kg, falling to a range from the high $7/kg to just over $9/kg for the second quarter, December to the end of March.

First-quarter prices for mutton should range between mid-$5/kg and mid-$6/kg and low-$5/kg to mid-$6/kg for the second quarter.

Prime beef prices over the first quarter are expected to fall between $5.80/kg and $6.70/kg and then $5.50/kg to $6.50/kg for the second quarter.

The forecast first quarter price range for bulls is expected to be from mid-$5/kg to mid-$6/kg and mid-$5/kg to low-$6/kg for the second quarter.

Venison prices are expected to range from $8/kg to $9.40/kg.

One of New Zealand’s most trusted brands in flystrike protection has returned. Ask for Vetrazin from your preferred rural Veterinary clinic.

GREEN AND GROWING: The Ahuwhenua Young Māori Grower Award is open for entries.

Neal Wallace NEWS Business

RECORD PERFORMANCE. Alliance chair Murray Taggart said the last financial year was a record for the cooperative.

We have to be careful that we don’t box at shadows [on He Waka Eke Noa].

Murray Taggart Alliance Group

This prestigious competition not only highlights bright young people, it also reflects well on their employers.

Nukuhia Hadfield Ahuwhenua Trophy management committee

After that winter, are you having a laugh?

Getting busy farmers along to events can be a big ask, but after a year like no other, Farmstrong’s comedy shows in Omihi and She eld in Canterbury showed rural communities are keen to reconnect.

THE Omihi community hall is a monument to rural resilience itself, rebuilt after a devastating fire in 2015. It’s a place with a storied rugby history – photos of former All Blacks from the area adorn the walls. But tonight, the hall is full of farmers who’ve turned out in numbers to attend Farmstrong’s comedy night featuring an all-star line up of Nick Rado, Courtney Dawson, Tarun Mohanbhai and Tevita Manukia.

Covid has affected a lot of livelihoods. The comedians themselves are pleased to be back on the road. The event has been postponed and rescheduled several times due to covid-19. Since then, more extreme weather events have hit the region and a polar blast the day before has blanketed the surrounding hills with snow.

“This is the fourth Farmstrong gig I’ve done,” notes comedian Courtney Dawson. “It’s always so much fun and it’s nice to see the community come together, have some kai, share a laugh. It’s also good for an Aucklander like me to actually meet hard-working people that have proper jobs,” she laughs.

Julie and Rob Stokes, who farm in the Lees Valley, have given themselves a night off. “Why have

we turned up? We’re in need of a good laugh,” says Julie.

Adds Rob, “It’s been a bit of an awkward spring so far, but it’ll come right in the end. This is a very resilient community, but it’s good to celebrate getting through these things too. It’s good to feel like you’ve made it out the other side of the tunnel and you’re good to go again. It can be as simple as having a laugh.

“Have I ever been a comedian myself? No, I think clown would be a better description,” jokes Rob.

Julie likes the idea of Farmstrong. “I absolutely believe in it. I think it’s a good cause and it’s doing a good job helping farmers.”

Bill Lott, a sheep and beef farmer from Waiau, has been farming for half a dozen years and is also involved in a local earth-moving business. “This community has been through a bit. It’s been a testing old winter really. It’s good it’s getting back to normal and you can come to functions like this. It’s good to get out.

“I think Farmstrong’s doing some good stuff. I’m keen to learn

a bit more tonight. You do need to be pretty focused in farming and have the right mindset. The ‘top two inches’ matter. Even if you’re working hard, it’s important to take time off, catch up with locals you haven’t seen for a while and see what’s going on in the rest of the community.”

Marie Black, mayor of Hurunui, also praises the value of the event. “We’ve all come through quite a dynamic two- to three-year period. We’ve had the covid effect which

has prevented us from actually coming together.

“Our primary producers are the anchor of this district. They are people who roll up their sleeves and make things happen for this community and support New Zealand Inc.

“I think Farmstrong’s ability to bring an event like this to our rural community is great because the fellowship that we get from each other at these events is really important.

“So, I’ve come along to support our district and encourage our people to come along and have a bit of fun. When it comes to wellbeing, there’s nothing like a belly laugh.”

MORE: For farmer-to-farmer tips and resources on how to stay Farmstrong, check out farmstrong.co.nz

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URBAN MEETS RURAL: Farmstrong comedy show comedians, from left, Nick Rado, Tarun Mohanbhai, Courtney Dawson and Tevita Manukia.

From the Editor

Harness our energy to a positive turbine

Bryan Gibson Managing editor

HERE in Manawatū, the spring winds usually take care of drying out the landscape ready for the first cut of feed as pastures take off.

This year those winds will have to work a whole lot harder.

There’s still standing water across much of the plain, and the same story is playing out in many other regions of New Zealand.

Meanwhile, whole crops of berries and fruit have been wiped out by late frosts and there’s more forecast later in the week.

Back in the saleyards, livestock markets are being buffeted by the winds of indecision as traders struggle to find feed and finish stock.

And the volatile spring weather has seen Fonterra revise its milk collection forecast for the 2022-23 season, from 1495 million

kilograms of milksolids (kg MS) to 1480 million.

It has all the elements of a perfect storm, albeit one that the forecasters reckon will simmer down pretty soon.

But it’s not just the weather that’s creating turbulence right now, as we all know.

There are a lot of emotions swirling through our farming communities.

There’s anger at the endless number of hurdles food producers are being asked to clear.

There’s anxiety about how business models will hold up against the headwinds of regulation, climate change and geopolitics.

There’s disillusionment with the way our communities seem to be falling further away from the caring, supportive and resilient structures we once relied on to keep us going.

As I write there are tractors rolling into city centres around New Zealand as farmers search for a way to express all of these emotions, to find a way to be heard.

It’s a valid response to the world we find ourselves in.

But there are others who are asking some new questions.

How can we rebuild the structures that have served us so well, but make them even stronger so they can withstand the winds that are growing in strength as well?

How can we harness the determination that exemplifies who we are and direct it towards a positive future?

How can we communicate with the people who we feel have misunderstood our purpose so they can help, rather than hinder progress?

It all comes back to groundwork. To having a sound foundation to build upon.

Getting back to the weather, there’s one map we can all take some assurance from

The tractor protest is a valid response to the world we find ourselves in. But there are others who are asking some new questions. How can we harness the determination that exemplifies who we are and direct it towards a positive future?

right now and it – like so much in farming –concerns the ground beneath our feet.

Soil moisture levels are great right now and that gives an assurance that there’s enough fuel.

So, while spring does its thing and the wind of online outrage blows, let’s hold on to what matters and remember we’ve got enough in the tank to make summer a breeze.

Letters of the week I’m calling you out, James Shaw

Murray Strawbridge Ashhurst

ITAKE note of a recent interview with Climate Change Minister James Shaw on The Country lunchtime radio show and Jamie Mackay. The discussion was on the soon-to-be-banned live cattle overseas trade.

Shaw claimed that if we continued this trade there would be countries that would start refusing to trade with us. Mackay asked who these countries were. Shaw responded “Go ask Fonterra.” Mackay, not satisfied with this reply, again asked the question, “Who are these people who will refuse to trade with us?”. He again received the reply, “Go ask Fonterra.”

This left me to make my own conclusion that Shaw did not in fact know any country that has made such a threat to us and either made it up or was repeating some mantra he had heard from his anti-farming mates.

I googled a list of our trading partners to see if there was a suspect I could see amongst them. Could it be China, our number one trading partner taking 32% of our total exports? Not likely, as they are the ones that take our export cattle. Could it be our number two trading partner, Australia, taking 11.4% of our exports? Again, not likely as they are our direct competitors in this market. Working my way down the list to as far as number 13, Vietnam, I see no country that would make this type of demand.

I’m calling you out, James Shaw. If you can substantiate your claim regarding live cattle export claims and name one country that will cease trading with us if we export live cattle, I will donate $100 to the Green Party.

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To cut emissions we need farmers on board

Todd Muller National Party acting agriculture spokesperson

SHEEP and beef farmers are justified in their concern about the government’s plans, which would make their sector bear the biggest cost of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture.

Any sector in any industry facing a 20% reduction in size in order to achieve a government objective that the sector never asked for, would tell ministers to go away and return only when they have a fairer and less harmful proposal.

That is also National’s message to the government.

For the past three years, the He Waka Eke Noa partnership, involving representatives of the primary sector and other stakeholders, has been developing an agreed way to achieve emissions reductions with the least damage to the sector.

The partnership gave its report to the government in May but when the government responded publicly last week, its proposals were met with an outcry.

In particular, under the government’s proposals, its own modelling suggests up to 20% of the capacity of the sheep and beef sector could be lost overseas – to markets that will create higher emissions.

While New Zealand’s contribution to global emissions is not significant, as a small nation, we rely for our security and trade on countries acting together and playing by agreed rules.

The same principle applies to trying to limit the extent of global warming. All countries need to play a part.

Labour and National have both committed to the Paris Climate Agreement’s targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

New Zealanders are entitled to

expect that, having made that commitment, governments will achieve it.

National does not believe that inflicting on the primary sector a regime that it does not support, is the way to achieve reduced emissions.

While Labour may consider that reducing beef and sheep farming by up to 20% is simply collateral damage on the way to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, National says that’s an unacceptable sacrifice.

While Labour may consider that reducing beef and sheep farming by up to 20% is simply collateral damage on the way to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, National says that’s an unacceptable sacrifice.

All New Zealanders, even those who have never set foot on a farm, depend to some extent on the farming sector for their standard of living.

Overall, New Zealand’s primary sector is estimated to feed 40 million people in the world, and earn around $9000 in export revenue for every New Zealander. It is, by any measure, a vitally important part of the New Zealand economy.

Rural and provincial communities are also core to how New Zealanders think about their own country. To take a slice of that primary sector – sheep and beef farming – and cut it by up to a fifth by 2030, is simply far too high a cost and, in National’s view, unnecessary.

New Zealand farmers are already the most carbon-efficient in the world.

Producing a kilogram of milksolids from a Kiwi dairy farm

will create fewer carbon emissions than a kilogram of milksolids produced in any other country.

The sophistication of farming in New Zealand is both a great starting point for emissions reductions, and shows that New Zealand farmers embrace science and technology.

This will be key to New Zealand achieving emissions reductions, and a National government will support new technology.

What will not help reduce global emissions would be for New Zealand to reduce sheep and beef farming, only for it to increase in countries which are not as carbon efficient.

That is like banning gas-fired power stations, only to replace them with coal-fired stations to meet electricity demand.

It makes no environmental sense and it would make the large sacrifice of New Zealand’s primary sector – of income and jobs – worthless.

Finally, when farmers will be paying a price for emissions from their farms, it is only fair that they should also be able to earn more from any climate-change initiatives they undertake, such as planting trees as shelter belts or windbreaks. That will allow farmers to partly offset their emissions costs with emissions mitigation.

National backs farmers. No one cares more about farmland than the people whose living depends upon it.

No one cares more about the outdoors than those who spend their days there. In the same way that farmers have taken responsibility for fencing stock off from waterways, I am confident they will accept responsibility for reducing emissions – but only as long as the regime feels fair. Right now, it doesn’t.

Most farmers, I believe, accept that the primary sector has an important role to play in reducing

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emissions, and that doing so requires a price being put on those emissions.

For emissions to reduce, farmers need to be invested in the process. Only with the primary sector’s

support will a successful and enduring solution be possible. A consultation programme has begun. National will heed farmers’ feedback. I suggest the government does the same.

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REGIME: National’s acting agriculture spokesperson, Todd Muller, says inflicting a regime on the primary sector that it does not support is no way to achieve reduced emissions.

National questions decide local elections Alternative view

and Labour, have given local government a lot more to do without funding them for it. Rates can only go so far.

I found the Auckland mayoral result fascinating and felt the brashness of the winner, Wayne Brown, was somewhat over the top.

Telling me he’s going to figure out what Auckland wants and then to get Wellington to pay for it was, I thought, extremely arrogant.

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

THE recent local government elections were interesting for a variety of factors.

For a start the low turnout was a disgrace. There’s no point in having a democracy when only one person in three wants to participate.

Since the election we’ve had experts pontificating on what the elections actually meant, which isn’t a lot when only one person in three voted. You can’t get a definitive trend from a third of the population.

What did interest me was that there were a pile of conservative candidates and many progressive candidates but few in between.

The commentary coming from the newly elected is that they want more local government and less of that imposed by Wellington.

I have some sympathy with that view as over the decades central governments, both National

Auckland is our largest city, but it doesn’t contain the majority of the population. Suggesting that Auckland can figure out what it wants and then get the rest of the country to pay for it isn’t a sustainable position.

It’s also important to acknowledge that while mayors are important, they’re not omnipotent.

Brown and other new mayoral incumbents may want to make massive changes, but without the support of councils they’re wasting their time. That’s a fact many, Brown included, seem to forget.

The reality is also that you can’t just fire people. There are safeguards, as we know.

In addition, biggest isn’t necessarily the best. Watching the foibles of local government in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch makes me pleased I live in the provinces.

Finally, Brown singing “Hit the road, Goff” accompanied by his banjo was, I considered, puerile.

So much for the Queen City when we’re currently ruled by a king.

Eleven mayors were rolled and a further 20 have new mayors courtesy of incumbents retiring.

That means almost half local government is headed by new

In Gore the incumbent, by repute an excellent mayor, was in favour of Three Waters. The challenger, Ben Bell was opposed. That Bell won should tell the government something.

leaders, many with little local government experience.

What is interesting is the positions of those mayors on a variety of issues. Newsroom Pro surveyed the candidates and found that 76% of respondents opposed Three Waters.

In Gore the incumbent, by repute an excellent mayor, was in favour of Three Waters. The challenger, Ben Bell, was opposed. That Bell won should tell the government

something.

Just last week in Auckland, Brown instructed the council to stop all work on Three Waters, which is further bad news for the government.

As I’ve previously written, I believe Three Waters was a badly thought-out, extremely arrogant dump on the general population. The political naivety of the move combined with the lack of any meaningful communication was astounding.

So now the government has the vast majority of local government mayors and councillors opposed to Three Waters in any form. The legislation is not far away from being introduced.

The government has three options: to railroad the legislation through, to modify it or to abandon the cause completely.

My personal belief is that they will railroad it through as it is, in

Reports of our demise greatly exaggerated

RECENTLY the government released its response to the He Waka Eke Noa Primary Sector Climate Action Partnership proposal on the pricing of agricultural emissions.

Understandably, it’s caused much anger, disquiet and disappointment across all agricultural sectors, particularly in my sector of sheep and beef as well as deer farming.

We appear to bear the brunt of the implications despite a steady decline in emissions over time given our contraction.

The dairy sector, where the big increases in emissions have occurred, is impacted less and potentially has the ability, because of a daily interaction with its animals, to mitigate more.

The good news is that the government agrees that it is not appropriate for agriculture to be put into the Emissions Trading Scheme. Remember, this was being seriously considered back in 2019 and would have been a far worse outcome than what we are dealing with.

Sheep and beef farms are already facing a serious threat as

forestry and carbon companies, incentivised by the rising carbon price, outbid farming businesses for land to plant pine trees on.

When you do the numbers, you can see that it is a compelling business case, and this is with carbon currently priced at $80.

One doesn’t want to think about what will happen when it gets into $100+ as forecast and expected.

The proposed pricing on emissions in 2025 will further tip the balance from animals towards trees and make the case for more planting of trees on farmland even more compelling.

This is in direct contradiction of the clause in the Paris Agreement that says mitigate, but not at the risk of lowering food production.

The irony is that we can plant trees on our own farms and be paid to offset carbon emissions from transport and industry under the ETS, but the ability to be awarded sequestration benefits under this proposal to offset our animal methane emissions is limited.

The government’s proposal is that sequestration rewards be limited to indigenous vegetation where stock is excluded and riparian strips – which will be

useful for some, but not all.

It is only fair that if you are to be priced on your emissions, you should receive benefits for the carbon capture that is occurring or could occur on our farms.

If anything, I’ve planted too many trees over my 40 years, and this property would be offsetting much of its emissions but very little of it qualifies for the ETS because I did it too early for the sequestration benefits currently proposed.

One of the reasons given for more sequestration not being included in this proposal is the complexity of measuring and working out how much carbon is being captured by small and widespread plantings across our landscape. One shudders at the prospect of a bunch of bureaucrats wandering around with clipboards and tape measures!

Well, technology and science are about to make this task a piece of cake.

I’m aware of a New Zealand company that is about to launch technology that will enable this very thing to be undertaken accurately.

It will offer the ability to survey

vegetation using hyperspectral imagery at 1000ha/hr, giving species identification, age, and health, enabling potential carbon sequestration calculation efficiently and effectively.

Increasing the amount of sequestrating allowed would be a significant help to hill country sheep and beef farms and an area our industry bodies and those of us submitting over the next few weeks could make progress on.

Looking for a positive, there’s the assurance that revenue raised from this pricing of emissions will be recycled back into the agriculture sector through innovative technology, research and incentive payments to farmers.

Despite living in the 21st century, there is a strong element pushing back against science and facts, due in large part, and ironically, by the amazing technology that brings us social media.

The vegetation survey above is an example where science could have a huge positive impact upon this issue, and the large amount of money generated by the new tax could very well hasten scientific solutions to the problems we face.

the mistaken belief that people will have forgotten the issue by the time of next year’s general election.

I believe that is naïve, as local government can create a lot more noise for an extended period of time than the Parliamentary press gallery can.

It does show a touch of arrogance, as both National and ACT have pledged to repeal the legislation if elected next year.

It is also pertinent to acknowledge that last week ACT said it is opposing any cogovernance initiatives and will hold a referendum on the Treaty of Waitangi and its relevance.

That will have a considerable effect on Three Waters as it is currently drafted.

It is, in my opinion, a politically astute move from ACT and should guarantee the party increased representation in Parliament.

It also puts the government in a difficult position over Three Waters.

It will be interesting to see if it chooses a long electoral life over the quick exit that railroading Three Waters will achieve.

On the positive side for the government, 57% of the local government respondents in the Newsroom Pro survey supported greater intensification, as do I. That means cities going up, not out.

I was in Christchurch last week and the amount of good fertile land going into residential housing was significant. Thankfully the government has plugged the gap so it can’t continue.

So fellow farmers, buckle up your seat belts. We’re in for an interesting ride.

From the ridge

One thing we could improve is the niggle within our sector. The old divide-and-rule principle is a real risk if we fall apart.

It would be better for all of us if the industry bodies and the likes of Groundswell got together and formulated a coordinated response that includes compromise from all sides.

In my time farming, I’ve heard the demise of our sector forecast several times.

We are a resilient bunch and bloody good at what we do.

This is not a time for despair but yet another challenge for us to confront and work out how we are going to deal with it.

GO UP, NOT OUT: Support is growing for greater intensification, though ‘I was in Christchurch last week and the amount of good fertile land going into residential housing was significant,’ Alan Emerson says.

Photo: Fraser Newman

Steve Wyn-Harris Central Hawke’s Bay sheep and beef farmer: swyn@xtra.co.nz

Ethical food production our story to tell

Among those at the recent Oceania 2035 summit in Auckland were two Lincoln University students whose attendance was sponsored by Farmers Weekly publisher AgriHQ and the Public Interest Journalism Fund as part of a programme to encourage new thinking about the primary industries. These were their impressions.

column

Emma Blom Lincoln University student and AgriHQ cadet

OVER the two-day 2035 Oceania summit, 50 speakers from all over the world addressed localised challenges and global responsibility towards the climate crisis in an atmosphere that mixed world-leading thinking with science, politics, and innovation –and created a compelling ideology around climate change and our future.

There is a strong value in being net zero and as a nation New Zealand is in a unique position to achieve this and maintain a competitive advantage around ethical food production and

selling a story to our consumers. In 20 years from now, family dinners will still have meat on the table, but stiffer competition with plant-based and synthetic meat is approaching.

Australian companies such as V2 are overcoming technology hurdles to make plant-based meat cheaper, tastier, and produced at net zero. The ideal future for New Zealand agriculture would be to compete at this same level by adopting agri-technology to improve environmental practices.

Alice Ritchie, Tesco’s agriculture sustainability manager, highlighted the fact that consumers’ behavior is changing. Surplus cash is spent on ethical food now that quality is the new normal. Consumers care about the products our nation produces and are interested in our management practices. With industry communication, this information can be capitalised on and shared with producers to create a targeted product. Being transparent with data throughout the supply chain can benefit producers, suppliers and consumers.

Over 300,000t of food is wasted annually in New Zealand alone. Globally, food waste amounts to $1 trillion. We need to feed the world but we need to refine the supply chain to minimise waste. New Zealand is not alone. Fiji

loses 30-40% of its crop postharvest. With inefficiencies in the system, opportunities arise for businesses. Companies such as Ecostock and Ecogas convert waste food into stock feed and gas, capitalising on the global issue. There is a great opportunity for New Zealand to reduce its 134 landfills and create a targeted waste management scheme.

A powerful presentation by chef, author and TV presenter Robert Oliver celebrated the cuisine of the South Pacific and outlined some of the region’s health challenges related to diet. A generation and a half has been exposed to processed foods, resulting in three diabetic-related amputations a day in Fiji and 75% of Pacific deaths being due to noncommunicable, or chronic, diseases.

But consumption patterns are

changing and there is growing recognition that the social responsibility to care for people, culture and climate means the Pacific islands need to make local food sexy for younger generations, creating a meaningful connection to their food because “the story of the food is the story of the people”.

The summit discussed the pressing issues that our foodproducing nation is facing. What cannot be ignored is the divide in perspectives on the issue.

The government’s response to He Waka Eke Noa, announced in the summit space, made sense for progressive change towards a climate-positive country, but the uproar from farming organisations suggested the absolute opposite. Change is bound to happen but who will hold the power, thinkers or doers?

A business case for embracing GHG change

Tessa Strang Lincoln University student and AgriHQ cadet

AFTER two very insightful days at the 2035 Oceania Summit

I can safely say there are plenty of inspiring individuals ready to embrace the change that is required in order to move forward as a nation and accelerate action towards tackling New Zealand’s challenge of reducing emissions.

Regulation and policy framework are shaping the way we operate our farming systems, and the summit addressed solutions to resolve this pressure, and move alongside the change.

Across both days at the summit, the well-recognised issue of global food waste was touched upon by most of the speakers. We all know food waste is an issue – on a global scale we waste 33% of the food we produce – but how well do we respond to this issue as an individual consumer?

One company that is tackling this issue through proactive action is Ecogas, which is working to convert food waste into an energy source and animal feed using an anaerobic digester. Andrew Fisher, business development manager at Ecogas, said we have far too many landfills in New Zealand rather than solution-based facilities such as his Ecogas plant in Reporoa.

Intiatives such as this embrace change rather than fighting against it.

“There is no silver bullet,”

Richard Heath, executive director of the Australian Farm Institute, told the conference. So how do we get there? There are many small start-up businesses working towards growing their idea into a recognizable initiative. However, lack of funds is restricting their growth and ability to scale up. Investors are needed to accelerate this opportunity.

A panel of venture capitalists on the second day of the summit included experienced investors Matthew Pryor, co-founder of Tenacious Ventures – Australia’s first dedicated agrifood tech VC firm – and MJ Alvarez, investment manager at WNT Ventures. Both had a central message for smaller scale companies looking to create an impact: in order to attract investors, companies must be able to prove their foundational

knowledge of the market they are operating in, as well as their capability to attract networks and retain those networks to make themselves known in the industry.

of Tenacious Ventures, built on the idea that carbon farming is an opportunity for farmers looking to seek a return from offsetting their emissions.

She said there is room for improvement in terms of educating farmers on how to implement the opportunity, as at the end of the day they are the beneficiaries of the process.

Is there value in net carbon?

That was a question posed by a number of speakers at the conference, and it sparked many conversations around the voice of the end consumer.

Carbon farming is a topical conversation that is relatively controversial. Some see it as an opportunity, and some see it as a threat. Sarah Nolet, co-founder

There is a tremendous amount of effort going towards reducing on-farm emissions for the greater good of the environment – but will there be any monetary gain for farmers as a reward for their hard work?

CHANGE IS GOOD: Tessa Strang and Emma Blom were sponsored by Farmers Weekly publisher AgriHQ to attend the Oceania 2035 summit and Blom says she encountered world-leading thinking on climate issues, and fresh interest from venture capitalists.

Being transparent with data throughout the supply chain can benefit producers, suppliers and consumers.

Regulation and policy framework are shaping the way we operate our farming systems, and the summit addressed solutions to resolve this pressure, and move alongside the change.

Nutty pigs bring home the supreme bacon

Free-range, paddock-to-plate whole chorizo salami by Poaka Artisan Cured Meats has been crowned supreme in the New Zealand Food Awards.

Annette Scott caught up with Poaka founder Josh Hill.

THE winning product of the New Zealand Food Awards 2022 is the result of the unique vision of Poaka founder Josh Hill, who is raising and farming pigs in a way that is quite rare in New Zealand.

As the name suggests, Poaka Artisan Cured Meat focuses on traditionally made free-range meats.

The 36-year-old entrepreneur set up the paddock-to-plate operation on his parents’ orchard in Aylesbury, near Christchurch, six years ago.

Having previously worked as a helicopter pilot, general engineer, carpenter, welder and tractor driver, Hill spent a short stint on a Southland farm and fell in love with watching animals grow and thrive.

“A good friend asked me to help on his farm while he was recovering from a rugby accident,” Hill says.

“I had never had the opportunity to work on a farm with animals. I loved the rural setting and the animals.

“My parents had land back in Canterbury and I had this idea on how I could utilise that.’

Initially his mother was not sold on the idea of turning their unused orchard into a pig farm, but Hill had a plan. It made good sense: he had done the research and he could utilise the 10ha of chestnut trees that were part of the 40ha block.

It was a case of bringing home the bacon.

He returned home to raise the happiest heritage pigs and make the best salami through traditional methods, in the knowledge that a chestnut-rich diet would enhance the flavour of the meat.

“A chestnut orchard to feed pigs is almost unheard of, but the old saying you are what you eat is proven really true with the pigs,” Hill says.

“The nuts enhance the flavour, delivering the melt-in-your-mouth texture traditionally found in European charcuterie.”

When he was starting out, the biggest challenge was finding the right breed of pigs.

“Heritage pigs are not farmed in great numbers in New Zealand, so I found myself travelling from Havelock in the north to Gore in the south to get what I needed.”

With the pigs on farm, a new challenge arose – keeping them there.

“The fencing wasn’t great and heritage pigs like to explore, so we had to sort that one pretty quickly.”

Poaka’s heritage Tamworth, Berkshire and Wessex saddleback pigs are pasture-raised, grazing and growing slowly on a diet of

acorns and sweet chestnuts to make not just a way of living that meets high animal welfare and food safety standards but also creates intensely flavoured, worldclass salami, bacon, sausages and whole muscle products.

Keeping it all in house as much as he can, Hill grinds his meal, buying in the grain from neighbouring farmers, to complement the pigs’ diet of sweet chestnuts and acorns.

“We have this arrangement with the Christchurch City Council to clean up the acorns off Hagley Park. We harvest about 20-30t a season and the pigs finish on the mix of acorns and chestnuts.

“It helps the council with its vermin control and the pigs enjoy the acorns.”

Hill has a purpose-built craft butchery on the farm, and at the end of their journey, after about 14 months and weighing 140kg, the pigs are processed in

Ashburton and returned to the farm butchery.

Hill is hands-on throughout the processes, including working with specialist butchers, fermenting the pork as traditionally as possible while maintaining food safety.

He also sells the products directly to the public at the Christchurch farmer’s market.

The supreme win was very much unexpected, Hill said.

“We entered because we knew we had a good product that would fit in. The supreme win caught us off guard, but we are very grateful, and it is recognition that all the hard work is paying off.

“Working seven days a week, big hours, sometimes I wonder why I do all this, but this pulls back to the reason – it is an amazing product, safe, sustainable, delicious and without a negative impact on the environment.

“It does put the wind in your sails, gives the business good

exposure and delivers our customers a sense of pride and recognition they are backing a winning horse.

“We run a different business model based on high quality, not high quantity. My aim is to make the best cured meats possible.

“The reality is we are not a massive player or producer, but we keep getting better at what we do, not bigger, and every day we learn something new.”

The judges described the Poaka chorizo as a unique product to be savoured by consumers in highclass restaurants, food service and speciality food markets.

“This is a delicious product with a compelling and engaging story and is an exciting contribution to New Zealand’s cured meats selection,” head judge Kay McMath said.

“A key aspect to the success of the product was the careful consideration and addressing

Josh Hill Poaka Artisan Cured Meats

of challenges along the whole value chain from animal production and feeding through to the development of new drying procedures and facilities and the journey to scale.”

It was a triple win for Poaka, which also won the Cuisine Artisan Award and the NZ Food Safety (NZFS) primary sector award.

NZFS deputy director-general Vincent Arbuckle said the high quality of entrants was a good illustration of the quality and innovation driving the food sector.

“We have an excellent food system in NZ, driven by passionate, hard-working New Zealanders,” Arbuckle said.

“These awards are an excellent opportunity to recognise some of that talent.

“I’d like to particularly congratulate Poaka for taking out the supreme award. It’s welldeserved recognition for the talent and persistence of its people to bring its vision of handcrafted artisan chorizo.”

NZ Food Awards is run by Massey University, to recognise and reward excellence in the sector.

The primary sector award category, open to primary sector food and beverage products, is sponsored by NZ Food Safety.

The award recognises researchers and manufacturers who have added value through the introduction of new varieties, cultivars, or breeds and new or alternative harvesting, processing, or packaging to extract or create new or innovative primary sector products.

GO NUTS: Sometimes you do want to know how the sausage is made – when it’s a story of sweet chestnuts, city acorns and a unique vision.

HERITAGE: Poaka founder Josh Hill, pictured here with father Doug, scoured the country for the right breeds of heritage animals before settling on Tamworth, Berkshire and Wessex saddleback pigs.

We keep getting better at what we do, not bigger, and every day we learn something new.

Research gets to guts of gas

One of the unwanted byproducts of meat processing is the undigested remains of feed that lie in the gut of slaughtered animals. Now Scion researchers aim to turn this ‘paunch grass’ from an unpleasant reality into a valuable biofuel. Richard Rennie spoke to scientist Dr Suren Wijeyekoon about its potential.

APOTENTIAL gas field lies in the guts of slaughtered animals when semi-digested grass is turned into a methanerich biogas. Scion researchers aim to use the waste to produce biogas at scale.

“Our research is looking at the potential to use that waste product, taking it from a small batch to a large pilot study, and if successful it is research that can be commercially adopted by Ecogas,” said senior scientists and project leader Dr Suren Wijeyekoon.

On average every slaughtered cow has 10-15kg of paunch grass in the first stomach of its rumen. At present processors have to treat the grass as part of plant waste stream. For the study’s purposes

Silver Fern Farms is providing fresh paunch grass for treatment and trialling.

The $385,000 research is being funded by Ecogas and the Bioresource Processing Alliance (BPA), with participation from AgResearch.

It builds on joint research done in 2018 that founded the technology used in New Zealand’s first large-scale food waste to bioenergy plant at Reporoa.

The $30 million Ecogas plant is scheduled to open this month, and aims to turn 75,000t of organic waste collected from businesses and kerbside food scrap collections into bioenergy.

With capacity to take up to 100,000t a year, the plant will be capable of converting waste into

methane for national electricity grid power generation, carbon dioxide for the food industry and liquid fertiliser for primary production.

Nearby greenhouses will be able to be heated using the gas produced, with carbon dioxide also fed in to enhance plant growth.

The study aims to determine how much gas can be produced from the paunch grass and how gas production can be enhanced by way of assorted grass

pre-treatment methods that can then be scaled up from batch to continuous pilot levels.

The use of a specially developed biomethane-potential test kit can assess the biogas production potential of the grass, with its gas body containing about 60% methane and 40% carbon dioxide.

The assessments are made in Scion bio-reactors to accurately measure gas production.

The final stage of assessment would be carried out at Ecogas’s pilot facility in Wiri, where Scion and Ecogas would run the 1500-litre pilot plant to replicate results at scale, producing sufficient gas and digestate for field testing.

The scientists intend to complete testing in a year’s time and if the outcome is successful they will adopt a commercial model for gas extraction.

Longer term they hope to blend the grass as a kind of moderator with collected household scraps.

“Grass is made up of mostly cellulose and is metabolised slowly. Food waste is fast digesting; together you will improve the digestion of the grass,” says Wijeyekoon.

“Ideally you need the right cocktail to get the bugs working optimally – that’s the end game.”

AgResearch scientists are examining whether the liquid contents of the grass mix can be

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used as a pet food ingredient, given its protein, mineral and vitamin content.

Scion scientists will be testing the organic material left after the bioreactors have extracted the gas component, and its potential use as a fertiliser.

We can explore a num ber of new opportunities – bioenergy production, bioCO2, and digestate for biofertiliser and pet food ingredient production.

Dr Suren Wijeyekoon Scion

Wijeyekoon says the trial work highlights the multiple opportunities the waste product can provide in helping complete a circular bioeconomy.

“We can explore a number of new opportunities – bioenergy production, bioCO2, and digestate for biofertiliser and pet food ingredient production.”

Ecogas general manager Alzbeta Bouskova says the company is excited to partner with Scion in the study and explore the potential of paunch grass as a new clean-energy feedstock and, in the process, assist the meat industry with transition to sustainable and circular principles.

GUTSY: Scion’s Dr Suren Wijeyekoon says there are multiple opportunities for gas and fertiliser production from what constitutes an industry waste at present.

RUMEN TO IMPROVE: Dr Suren Wijeyekoon’s research looks into the biogas production potential of grass before and after it is swallowed by a cow.

FARMING

There are many different thoughts around what constitutes “free range” farming. Follow this link to take a look at what goes on in a SPCA accredited free range chicken farm in NZ. https://www.pianz.org.nz/ video/freerange-chicken-farmingin-nz/ Then see if you can answer the following questions.

What does free range mean to you?

What other types of chicken farming are there?

What breed of chicken are in the video?

What is the difference between a meat breed chicken vs an egg laying breed?

STRETCH YOURSELF:

1 When was free range productive chicken farming introduced in NZ?

2 Approximately how many chicken farms in NZ are now free range?

How long are chicks kept inside before being allowed out? Why is this?

4 How many birds per m2 are they allowed?

5 How many hours per day do the birds have access to food and water? Why is this not 24/7?

6 What are five things monitored on the computer

Could a new sweetener be the answer to type 2 diabetes?

Mental health awareness week ran from September 26 to October 2 and the theme was “Reconnect”.

all know that our mental health is as important as (and can impact) our physical health. So, we are checking out some tools and resources that can help make sure you keep yourselves in tip top shape.

Sam Whitelock is an ambassador for Farmstrong and he believes there are several things farmers can do when they are feeling overwhelmed – and always taking care of yourself is the priority. Have a read through the things he recommends that farmers should be aware of.

https://www.farmersweekly.co.nz/ treat-yourself-as-your-farmsgreatest-asset/

1 Do you think that these recommendations apply to people in other industries?

2 Can you see value in these aspects for everyone? How could you apply them in your life?

3 Do you think that all of Sam’s tips are equally important or are there some that you feel stand out? If so, what are your stand outs?

1 What are some of the key strategies that this initiative will be undertaking?

what tools will they have in place for young rural people?

Who would have thought that a sweetener could possibly provide a remedy for people with type 2 diabetes?

This is exactly what kiwi company Whey Bionics NZ partnered with the Ministry for Primary Industries is aiming to develop. The technology that they are looking to develop wants to process whey permeate as a sweetener with anti-diabetic properties. Whey permeate is a byproduct of cheesemaking. Follow this link to read more:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/te-awamutu-courier/news/wheytechbionics-nz-aims-to-create-a-product-with-anti-diabetic-properties/ YH7TQXGBEBVQPQ7KKUY52RDXJ4/?fbclid=IwAR0tJLoC54YrMV4xBz3_ KGIDU8Wt1VccNsRvAzp_WCxwvtuOp_-PgkR-EfI

1 Why do we need sugar or sweeteners?

2 Can you name two artificial sweeteners?

3 What is whey?

STRETCH YOURSELF:

They are partnering in in initiative to boost the wellbeing of young people in rural communities. To read more head to https://www.farmersweekly.co.nz/ partnership-to-boost-young-farmerswellbeing/

Why do they believe that people in the food and fibre sector in particular need to keep a focus on their mental health?

are there some things that make them more likely to have mental health stressors?

1 Assuming that this product can be developed and manufactured who would be likely to want to use it?

2 What is whey permeate? How is this different to whey?

3 How would this product outstrip current artificial sweeteners?

4 Who is conducting the current trials on raw products from milk producers?

has just been completed and the winner was Gavin Mutch of Dannevirke. Check out the full article at https://www. pggwrightson.co.nz/news/very-high-standardwaimate-spring-shears?fbclid=IwAR3Byanzhtdk lONXaj75ZBfwWwDn3eY9Wa3ORS5LAGCTvbF1P95

How often is this event held

How many times has Gavin held the title?

Who won the wool handling open final?

How many finals has Henare won collectively over his career?

5 What are the trials that are currently being undertaken? What is their next step?

6 WheyTech Bionics NZ chief executive Ben Van Rooy states that “the most valuable part of the product lies in the nutraceutical component of the product”. What are nutraceuticals?

controllers from the sheds?

READY FOR GREENER PASTURES

Large scale dairy operation with multiple options

This large scale dairy farm was converted in 2014. Currently milking 1340 cows, both herds producing 348,015kgMS last season on a milking platform of approx 510ha. This substantial operation presents a rare opportunity to further develop whilst utilising the current dairy setup. This property offers modern infrastructure with a 60-bail rotary and a 44 ASHB, both with in-shed feeders, automatic cup removers, protrack systems and lined effluent ponds. Centrally raced, with reticulated water supply and a high standard of fencing throughout. There are substantial calf rearing facilities and six dwellings. Contour is easy rolling to some moderate sidelings. Properties of this size, with multiple income streams are extremely rare. The money has been spent and the opportunity is now yours. There will be multiple options to purchase, contact today. bayleys.co.nz/2450984

Tender (will

4pm,

Fenton

The incline, Raumati and Huiarangi organic dairies

The incredible opportunity to purchase one, two or three of arguably the best contoured dairy units in the reliable Patoka District is one not to let slip. Located only 45 minutes from Napier, The Incline boasts 324ha of mainly flat land, a 40-bail rotary, two feed pads, excellent shedding with four very well-maintained dwellings and an airstrip. There is also the option to purchase in 168ha or 155ha portions. Raumati is a 458ha farm, mainly easy to flat contour, boasting a 2008 built 60-bail rotary, 600 cow feed pad, large calf rearing sheds and three dwellings. Huiarangi is 287ha of near flat platform with a well specified 50-bail rotary shed, large cattle yards, implement/hay sheds and four dwellings. The free draining, fertile ash soils coupled with the fantastic infrastructure provide the foundations for a fantastic return on investment on all of these farms. A must view. bayleys.co.nz/2853079

The

Raumati

Matakohe 1526 Ararua Road

Superior 306.6ha fattening unit

This farm consists of 306.6 hectares, is in three titles and offers a good balance of contour and immaculate infrastructure. This farm is certainly a stand-out in its location and proximity to Matakohe, along with running breeding ewes, fattening lambs and cattle which set the platform for this productive farming unit. Subdivided into 55 paddocks with three holding paddocks for ease of management, there is a mix of established and newer pastures on this productive and healthy, easy contoured property. It is complemented with a five bedroom kauri villa and an array of sheds including two stand woolshed with plant, impressive set of stock yards and immaculate four and five bay implement sheds. For the avid hunter, nestled in the bush is the Hunters Hut. The property has approximately 85 hectares of flat land with the balance easy to rolling and 20ha of QEII Bush. bayleys.co.nz/1060309

Auction (unless sold prior)

1pm, Wed 23 Nov 2022

Northland Rugby Union, 136 Riverside Drive, Whangarei View 2-3pm Wed 2 Nov or by appointment Catherine Stewart 027 356 5031 catherine.stewart@bayleys.co.nz

Quality location - with options

Looking to secure a substantial dairy holding this spring? If so, then this 245 ha (more or less) dairy unit in the North Waikato is a must-see. Brought to the market for the first time in over 100 years, properties of this calibre are a rare commodity. This property is on nine titles with subdivision potential and has been developed over the years to create an exceptional opportunity. The farm infrastructure includes a 42-bale external rotary cowshed with in-shed meal feeding system and 500 head yard capacity. Additional infrastructure includes a modern feed pad and a large, concreted area for storing of supplement, two half round barns, implement shedding and stock yards. The 169 sqm (more or less) brick home is the main dwelling on the property which enjoys peace and privacy. Call us today! bayleys.co.nz/2313804

bayleys.co.nz

Davis

2022

Reap the rewards

A fantastic opportunity to purchase scale with a great set-up. The 72 bale Don Chapman rotary is centrally located. Previously 1,100 cows have been milked with production to 350,000kgMS. Production last season was 287,972kgMS from 920 cows (once a day from September). The dairy has a Read Industrial milking plant, ACR’s, vertical discharge chiller unit along with a Packo ice bank water chill. Effluent passes through a concrete sump/ stone trap and pumped to a four million litre Tasman tank with a 1.7 million litre lined pond as a back-up. Effluent is pumped through hydrants and 90mm underground piping to a travelling irrigator covering up to 140 hectares. Water is sourced from the Waihou River with two separate intakes. There is a separate intake for the irrigation system. Ample support buildings, including four dwellings, provide the necessities to run this great operation. bayleys.co.nz/2313812

Tender (unless sold prior)

Closing 2pm, Wed 23 Nov 2022

96 Ulster Street, Hamilton View 12-1pm Thu 27 Oct

Mike Fraser-Jones 027 475 9680 mike.fraserjones@bayleys.co.nz

Scale, contour, development

Located just off the Napier-Taihape highway, Mangaohane Station offers a rare mix of scale and balance of country, together with a high standard of productive improvement to provide a track record of consistent stock carrying capacity. Around 2,600ha of country has been cultivated and developed. This combined with an excellent water scheme, piped to 320 troughs in most of the station’s 140 main paddocks, has supported circa 40,000 quality stock units over the past few winters. The station has a full complement of buildings, and is positioned between the pristine Rangitikei River, renowned for its trophy brown trout and the Ruahine Forest Park. The sale of Mangaohane presents a rare opportunity to own one of New Zealand’s iconic sheep and beef cattle stations. Inspections by qualified purchasers only. bayleys.co.nz/2853087

4,840ha

bayleys.co.nz

Te Aroha 227 Endowment Road

Taihape Mangaohane Station, 1957 Mangaohane Road

101 Mangapapa Road

Large sheep, cattle and deer breeding and finishing

'Rawhiti Station' is 800 hectares in a superb location just off State Highway 1, south of Taihape, featuring large areas of cultivated contour, a grand villa renovated in 1994, and a 280ha deer unit. The offering comprises three distinct blocks available as one or separately. Mangapapa Road boasts 338ha, and includes the four-bedroom homestead, five stand woolshed and managers home plus large areas of cultivated contour. This adjoins the Papakai Road block of 127ha with new sheep and cattle yards. 334ha on Torere Road offers an intensive deer operation and includes a purpose-built deer handling shed, three-bedroom cottage and sheep facilities. Rawhiti's 100 paddocks, easy contour, strong fertiliser history and high fertility in a reliable farming area allows for versatility and high stock performance, finishing most progeny alongside an established velvet operation. bayleys.co.nz/2900518

Tender (unless sold prior)

Closing 2pm, Thu 1 Dec 2022

PO Box 8, Taihape View by appointment Pete Stratton 027 484 7078 peter.stratton@bayleys.co.nz

429ha self contained, award winning dairy farm

Located only 13km North East of Dannevirke in the popular Raumati area, Te Maunga Farm is an award winning self contained farm boasting mainly flat and easy contour. A very well set up farm, improvements include a large four bedroom homestead, three further dwellings, 50 bail rotary shed and a massive number of calf rearing, hay and implement sheds. Being fully self contained the profitability is very good, with the approximately 258 hectare milking platform and approximately 95 hectares of support land. Races are well maintained with the help of the red metal pit and lime quarry. A three year average production of 237,178kg/MS (once a day) as a result of an excellent fertiliser history and pasture renewal programme with 125 hectares irrigated via centre pivot and Bosch long laterals this is a consistent performer. This low cost farming operation is very profitable. bayleys.co.nz/2853055

bayleys.co.nz

429ha

Tender Closing 4pm, Wed 16 Nov 2022

17 Napier Road, Havelock North View by appointment Tony Rasmussen 027 429 2253 tony.rasmussen@bayleys.co.nz Monty Monteith 027 807 0522 monty.monteith@bayleys.co.nz

Orini 261 Flaxmill Road

No frills production unit

With most of the capital expenditure having been done, excellent farm layout and good infrastructure, this unit provides a great productive and sustainable dairy operation. Currently milking 330 cows through a 30ASHB with an average production of 142,464kgMS over the past three seasons. An extensive array of shedding includes a large five bay O’Neil half round barn with leanto, three bay workshop, and multiple calf rearing sheds near the working hub plus three dwellings. The effluent system provides ample storage and containment when required then fed to a travelling irrigator covering 35 hectares. Water is sourced from a bore with submersible, pumped through a sand filter to a manacon and pressure fed around the farm to all paddocks. bayleys.co.nz/2313598

NEW LISTING

132.88ha 3 1

Auction (unless sold prior)

11am, Thu 17 Nov 2022

96 Ulster Street, Hamilton View 12-1pm Wed 26 Oct

Mike Fraser-Jones 027 475 9680 mike.fraserjones@bayleys.co.nz Scott Macdonald 027 753 3854 scott.macdonald@bayleys.co.nz

SUCCESS REALTY LIMITED, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

NEW LISTING

Morrinsville

Piako Road

Great value opportunity

This dairy unit between

a

unit. This all flat consolidated peat loam farm is currently milking approximately 420 cows with production to 145,000kgMS. The 36ASHB is well located with all support buildings and infrastructure handy to the dairy plus two dwellings. This excellent and great value opportunity is currently run by a very good sharemilker in conjunction with an adjoining 105 hectare (more or less) dairy (same owners) which is also for sale so over the years there has been some interaction between the farms in stock and management movements. This unit/these units have very good infrastructure and are just waiting to be taken to the next level. Definitely a great opportunity and well worth a visit. bayleys.co.nz/2313743

Auction (unless

Morrinsville 220 Valintine Road

Great value low-cost production

This dairy unit, between Morrinsville and Hamilton, is run by a very good share milker in conjunction with the adjoining 128 hectare (more or less) dairy unit. A very good 20ASHB is well located. Around 220 cows are milked in a short season from the end of August until the end of March, and this shed begins when cows ‘in milk’ are sufficient to make it sensible. Production has been to 77,000 kgsMS and achieved with minimal inputs of 300 kgs DM per cow. Support buildings adjacent to the dairy include a five bay half round barn and spacious three bay gable shed for calf rearing plus a very tidy three-bedroom home. This is definitely a low-cost production unit which is still going through its final stages of development and will present a great buying opportunity. bayleys.co.nz/2313738

105.91sqm 3 1

Auction (unless sold prior) 11am, Thu 24 Nov 2022

96 Ulster Street, Hamilton View 12-1pm Wed 26

SUCCESS

Raglan 20 Waimaori Road

Quality farm, so many options

Options abound with this impressive 142.9ha (more or less) dairy unit. Contained within five titles, the property enjoys easy contour, modern improvements and solid production. Operated under the same family for nearly 50 years with the neighbouring 120ha dairy farm also for sale. An excellent 20ASHB is well located along with ample support improvements. Fully self contained, the farm supplies Fonterra with a three year average of 86,551kgMS milking 250 cows. The tidy dwelling features three generous bedrooms, open plan kitchen, dining and lounge and adjacent double garage. The location of the property is second to none, close to the main arterial routes and an easy drive to Raglan. bayleys.co.nz/2313830

142.9238ha

Tender (unless sold prior)

bayleys.co.nz

Raglan 49 Te Papatapu Road

Buy one or buy both

This 120ha (more or less) farm is located in the popular dairying area of Te Mata and offers production and lifestyle in one well presented property. The adjoining 142ha dairy farm under the same ownership is also available for sale. The 32ASHB is complete with modern plant and supplies 105,870kgMS to Fonterra milking 285 cows. Ample improvements include calf and implement shedding, bore water and single pond effluent system irrigating 26ha. Soils are a mix of loam and ash as dictated with gently rolling contour. Accommodation is well catered for with a three bedroom home and two bedroom dwelling. Amenities, services and quality schooling are within easy reach with the central location seeing Raglan only 15km away and Hamilton just 45kms. bayleys.co.nz/2313829

120.0311ha

Tender (unless sold prior)

Closing 4pm, Tue 22 Nov 2022

96 Ulster Street, Hamilton View 12.30-1.30pm Thu 27 Oct

& Thu 3 Nov or by appointment Peter Kelly 027 432 4278 peter.kelly@bayleys.co.nz Angus Kelly 021 165 5031 angus.kelly@bayleys.co.nz

SUCCESS REALTY LIMITED, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

Cambridge 3652 Cambridge Road

Exclusive large land package

Offering investment return, farming with an eye to the future and horticulture or equine opportunities. Location is a key factor with the main entrance off Cambridge Rd and a second entrance in the middle of suburbia on Shadbolt Drive. Comprising 72.2ha (more or less) in two titles, explore development potential with the property dual zoned with 2.9ha large lot residential. Supplying 108,000kgMS to Fonterra, the versatile land comprises fertile pastures and high producing volcanic ash soil plus mineralised peat across predominantly flat land. The quality dwelling provides comfortable family living with spacious and sun filled living areas that flow seamlessly to the outdoor living space. bayleys.co.nz/2313835

72.747ha 5

Auction (unless sold prior) 11am, Thu 1 Dec 2022 96 Ulster Street, Hamilton View 1-2pm Wed 26 Oct or by appointment Peter Kelly 027 432 4278 peter.kelly@bayleys.co.nz Angus Kelly 021 165 5031 angus.kelly@bayleys.co.nz

SUCCESS

Te Rauamoa Farm

approximately 176 hectares. The 36ASHB is centrally located with well formed races fanning out in both direction to 71 paddocks. Around 420 cows have been milked with production to 203,358kgMS. There is an extensive array of support buildings including two dwellings. The water system comprises a bore with submersible pumping to multiple tanks and pressure pumped to troughs in all paddocks. A top class sharemilker has been in place for eight years and would be a great addition to any investment. bayleys.co.nz/2313739

bayleys.co.nz

Dairy farm with scale and location

Previously milking 800 plus through a 48-ASHB with a five year rolling average of 303,000kgMS. The contour is predominately rolling with steeper sideling’s with a milking platform of 280ha and the balance being used for grazing stock and 30ha planted in trees. A central race system provides access throughout the property and water is supplied via three bores. The infrastructure and systems throughout the farm is excellent, including an inshed feed system and a large calf-rearing facility. Three dwellings and a large implement shed complete this property. This is a rare opportunity to purchase a quality dairy farm with proven production and multiple titles with various options to purchase. bayleys.co.nz/2450977

Boundary lines are indicative only

Rotorua 385 Whirinaki Valley Road

Makaraka 59 Farmer Road

Mixing pleasure with profits

Lifestyle, productive land, water and income all await with this immaculately presented property. The home features four generous bedrooms, dual living spaces, two bathrooms and an underground wine cellar. Expansive patios invite outdoor entertaining, while a spacious guest suite above the carport provides additional accommodation. The orchard, having undergone substantial redevelopment, boasts persimmons and citrus plantings on premium soils, an onsite packhouse/implement shed/workshop, a 29,600 cubic meter per annum water consent, new bore and city water supply. The property already provides an income and is well on its way to reaching its full potential. bayleys.co.nz/2752697

9.5422ha 4 2

Tender (unless sold prior)

Closing 4pm, Wed 23 Nov 2022 10 Reads Quay, Gisborne View by appointment Jacob Geuze 027 747 3014 jacob.geuze@bayleys.co.nz Simon Bousfield 027 665 8778 simon.bousfield@bayleys.co.nz BOUSFIELD MACPHERSON LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

FINAL NOTICE

A statement property with upside

This 1,844.8074ha statement property is well-suited to sheep and beef breeding and finishing, and cropping on the flats. With great scale, balance of contour and huge development potential, it has large areas of workable country suitable for cultivation and regrassing, with steeper gullies providing forestry options. There is an existing consent (currently unutilised) for a 100 L/sec irrigation water take (expiring 2024). Additional benefits may be obtained by further subdivision of the larger hill blocks. There is an extensive laneway system, well-subdivided paddocks, excellent sheep and cattle yards, two woolsheds, covered yards, hay and implement sheds, two good homes and singles quarters. Around 20 minutes from Kaikoura, this opportunity is not to be missed. bayleys.co.nz/5519321

Deadline

737 peter.foley@bayleys.co.nz

WHALAN AND

Fordell 214 Mangamahu Road

Versatile flats and breeding country

Superbly located, the much admired 'Riverly' boasts close to 200 hectares of fertile flats balanced with attractive hill country offering diversified farm income, only 34kms from Whanganui. Featuring flats only 40m above sea level with options from horticulture through to pastoral and carbon farming. These include livestock breeding and intensive finishing, cereal, root, and green fodder cropping in a microclimate with opportunities including kiwifruit, pip fruit or vegetable production.

Riverly offers a range of farm accommodation alongside a fivestand woolshed, two sets of covered yards plus excellent satellite yards, well maintained tracks and fenced to 52 main paddocks. bayleys.co.nz/2900521

679.9635ha

Tender (unless sold prior) Closing 2pm, Thu 24 Nov 2022 Bayleys, 158 Wicksteed Street, Whanganui

View by appointment Pete Stratton 027 484 7078 peter.stratton@bayleys.co.nz BARTLEY

BAYLEYS,

Cheviot 773 Cat Hill Road

Large-scale, simply-run hill country

Cat Hill has around 9km of Hurunui River frontage - well regarded for its fishing and boating - complemented with hunting on the property, making this a recreational paradise. Good healthy stock country underpins an easy-care, low-cost farming operation. Wellsubdivided with very good track access, a mix of reticulated water to the lower blocks and paddocks, with springs and creeks to the top. There is very good access, feeding from the hill onto the river flats providing ease of management of both sheep and cattle, with excellent sheep yards including covered yards, woolshed and cattle yards, allowing a couple to manage the farm with some use of casual labour. Two good homes provide accommodation. Large-scale, close to local amenities, providing a great lifestyle. bayleys.co.nz/5519455

1,477.3449ha 4

For Sale by Deadline Private Treaty (unless sold prior)

12pm, Tue 15

bayleys.co.nz

Kaikoura

Kaikoura Road, Stag and

Canterbury 162 Burdons Road, Burnham

Once-in-a-lifetime opportunity

This highly-productive Burnham dairy farm boasts an exceptional location and a superior homestead. The 250.5828-hectare property has proven performance showing consistently with the average production over the past four seasons at 573,381kgMS. The meticulous attention to detail on this farm sets it apart from others. Simple and efficient systems, environmentally sound with quality infrastructure and irrigation means it’s well set up for the new owners. The centrally located 70-bail rotary shed with Read milking plant has new automatic cup removers, Tru-test auto draft system and includes large feed pads. Immaculate main home, second three-bedroom home, and a further four-bedroom home.

bayleys.co.nz/5519481

Blueberry Success

State Highway 27, Ngarua

Our current vendor is ready to go and retire at the beach giving an opportunity for a new operator to step into this highly profitable business. This Blueberry orchard is located on some very fertile soils. This 15.83 ha property consists of 3.9 ha of blueberries and raspberries covered with bird netting. Careful variety selection has meant that the orchard has fruit supply for most of the summer months with harvest commencing from late Nov and finishing midApril. The operation is fully self-contained having its own packing and cold storage facilities while product is awaiting transport to markets. This property comes complete with a stunning four bedroom home, with double garage. This can all be purchased as a going concern.

250.5828ha

Deadline Sale (unless sold

12pm, Fri 4 Nov 2022

3 Deans Avenue, Christchurch

View by appointment

Chris Flanagan 027 433 4657 chris.flanagan@bayleys.co.nz Ben Turner 027 530 1400 ben.turner@bayleys.co.nz Craig Blackburn 027 489 7225 craig.blackburn@bayleys.co.nz

WHALAN AND PARTNERS LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

A Strong Contender

The big-ticket items on this 106 ha (approx.) dairy farm in Walton have already been crossed off the to-do list. It's walk in ready and producing a very credible average of 96,400 kg/ms from approximately 245 cows despite going on OAD in December for lifestyle reasons.

Deadline Sale

Closes Thurs 17th Nov, 4pm (unless sold prior)

There's a lot here to get excited about, including the beautifully modernised four bedroom, two bathroom home from which the views are captivating. This well-rounded property is superbly presented with a complementary mix of contour and soil types, supported by strong pastures and good quality infrastructure. Namely the fencing, tracks and laneways, water supply, effluent system, feed pad, milking shed, duck ponds and loads of shedding. LJ Hooker Matamata

View Fri 28th Oct, 4th Nov 11 - 12pm

Agent Rex Butterworth 021 348 276 Peter Begovich 027 476 5787

888

Road

Tender Closes Wed 16th Nov (unless sold prior)

View Wed 26th Oct, 2 & 9th Nov 11am - 12pm

Glen Murray 027 488 6138

LJ Hooker Matamata 07 888 5677

Link Realty Ltd.

Licensed Agent REAA 2008

Awamutu

Ngahape Dairy Farm 59.66ha (Approx.)

in the very strong farming district of Ngahape, proudly farmed by the current owners for 33 years & seriously for sale - this is an opportunity not to be missed.

This 59.6627ha (approx.) property is currently milking 215 cows & producing 83,000kgMS (3 year average) through a 20 aside Herringbone cowshed with adjoining 5.82ha (approx.) & 7.39ha (approx.)

Both leases are available to prospective purchasers.

teawamutu.jhooker.co.nz/1JKZGG8

Auction 1pm Thursday 17th

(unless

View Thurs 27th Oct 11:00 - 12:00pm

30th Oct 12:00 - 12:30pm

Agent

Weal

Licensed Agent

This is a beauty

Farmed with great pride and attention to detail by the Vendors over the last 48 years, this well presented and located property with a long road frontage comes to the market in excellent heart. 103 ha (STS) north facing farm, with flat to very gentle rolling contour milking 265 cows with a two year production average of 118,243 kgMS. Subdivided into 63 paddocks by wide surface laneways, reticulated with excellent farm water and consistent fertiliser history with strong healthy pastures.

There are two good homes on the farm, a four bedroom solid brick main homestead and a modern seven year old, three bedroom cottage providing excellent accommodation for farm staff.

Rangitaiki 91 Matea Road

Open Day

Tender closes 2.00pm, Thu 17th Nov, 2022 (unless sold prior), Property Brokers, 138 Arawata Street, Te Awamutu View Tue 25 Oct 11.30 - 12.30pm Tue 1 Nov 11.30 - 12.30pm Web pb.co.nz/MAR108725

Ian Morgan M 027 492 5878

Chelly Aitchison M 022 697 8779

Absentee owners motivated to sell

A well respected 184 ha dairy unit with very good contour and a comprehensive range of buildings only 25 minutes south of Rotorua in the Rerewhakaaitu District.

This farm has been nurtured and developed by the Vendors over the last 21 years to a farm that delivers and achieves consistent levels of production. The farm with its 184 ha of mostly flat to gentle contour produces around 200,000 kgMS from 520 cows with approximately 524 tonne of palm kernel and meal blend introduced as brought in feed.

The property has a good range of infrastructure including a 47 ASHB, implement sheds, calf sheds, workshops and a lined effluent storage pond and three good dwellings.

Open Day

Tender closes 2.00pm, Thu 3rd Nov, 2022 (unless sold prior), C/Farmlands, 36 Marguerita Street, Glenholme, Rotorua View Wed 26 Oct 12.00 - 1.00pm Web pb.co.nz/MAR107049

Chelly Aitchison M 022 697 8779

Ian Morgan M 027 492 5878

'Rawiri Farm'

Rawiri Farm is a very well presented, high performing lamb and beef finishing property located 43 km south-east of Taupo in the Rangitaiki district.

• 348 ha - 318 ha in pasture, well fenced into 66 main paddocks with reticulated bore water

• Contour is approx 70% flat to easy undulating, the balance easy rolling hill with some steeper faces

• Predominantly free draining pumice soils with excellent fertility levels

• Three stand woolshed, very good stock handling facilities and farm shedding

• Renovated three bedroom plus office family home with internal double garage

After a rewarding forty year tenure the owners have decided it's time to move on, presenting a fantastic opportunity to secure an outstanding property that has a consistent history of producing quality stock.

Tender closes 4.00pm, Thu 1st Dec, 2022, Property Brokers, 138 Arawata Street, Te Awamutu View Thu 3 Nov 12.00 - 2.00pm Thu 10 Nov 12.00 - 2.00pm Web pb.co.nz/TWR107839

Ohaupo

Forkert

Rerewhakaaitu 206 Ash Pit Road

Open Day

Dave Peacocke

River Run

River Run provides a dairy purchasing option in a central North Island location seldomly offered to the market. The 136.21 ha (more or less) of flat, well-draining dairy land could be an ideal two labour unit property or an extension to another farming business. Located just 11 km from Taumarunui township on the edge of the Whanganui River the 106 ha dairy platform has an excellent layout with short walks on flat to easy undulating contour and is under excellent management with the current sharemilkers producing an average of 100,000 kgMS from 300 cows. The 30 ASHB cow shed is centrally located and is supported by calf barns and further hay and implement sheds.

Auction 11.00am, Mon 7th Nov, 2022, Taumarunui Golf Club, 165 Golf Road, Taumarunui

View Tue 25 Oct 11.00 - 1.00pm Web pb.co.nz/TUR102767

Katie Walker M 027 757 7477

Whakapapa trophy

This is an incredible opportunity to purchase a prime piece of land for deer or other livestock on the banks of the Whakapapa River. There is 25.41 ha (more or less) of land with approx. 9 ha of land that is cultivatable or could be used for mowing silage. As well as being a great farming unit, it's real uniqueness comes from the aesthetics of the property. You are greeted by a large pond that has been lovingly planted with specimen trees that show off their brilliant foliage during the warmer months and certainty stand out in the autumn. The center of the property offers a fabulous building site or sites and from here you can watch over the Whakapapa River.

Auction 12.00pm, Mon 7th Nov, 2022, Taumarunui Golf Club, 165 Golf Road Taumarunui

View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/TUR108652

Katie Walker M 027 757 7477

Ara Farm

This tidy sheep and beef farm is 34 km west of Taumarunui, in Otunui. The 466.20 ha (approx) farm has 400 ha effective grazing land and 60 ha of scattered native bush. Rolling flats complement medium to steeper hill country and gives the farm many stock policy options for a future proofed operation. The farm has been faithfully fertilised over the last 37 years of current ownership. There are natural water sources around the farm, good fencing, laneways and satellite yards. A good house and further buildings support the farm, including a haybarn and a four stand woolshed with covered yards. There are many farming options here to explore, traditionally this farm fattens all its stock, currently producing fat cattle through July - August and lambs during summer but it could be a great breeding farm to add to an existing operation. This is a genuine King Country sheep and beef farm that offers a fantastic opportunity to an existing farming operation.

Katie Walker

Taumarunui 258 Burnand Road

Open Day

Taumarunui Stone Jug Road, Kakahi

Auction

Taumarunui 292 Aramahoe Road, Otunui

Open Day

Tender

Katie Walker

Kopaki

Kopaki Road

Open Day

Turnkey - King Country grazing

91 ha situated 25 km southeast of Te Kuiti on a sealed road. This farm offers a diversity of options for different buyers, it could be that first farm, or for that farmer looking to downsize, or a complimentary addition for extra grazing.

• 81 ha effective grazing of even balanced contoured land, from flat to undulating through to medium hill and is predominantly eczema free.

• House - 2005 superior 337 m2 brick homestead. Open plan kitchen & lounge with separate dining, two extra lounge areas, four double bedrooms (master with ensuite), family bathroom, office and a large laundry with an additional shower and toilet. Heated with heat pump and under floor heating. Triple bay garaging with internal access

• Infrastructure - three stand woolshed, two implement sheds, cow shed, two calf sheds, yards and pump shed

• Fencing and water - Fenced into approximately 20 paddocks and water is reticulated around the farm, pumped from a natural water source to a manacon, then gravity fed

4

Tender closes 4.00pm, Mon 28th Nov, 2022, Property Brokers, 131 Rora Street, Te Kuiti View Thu 3 Nov 11.00 - 12.30pm Thu 10 Nov 11.00 - 12.30pm Web pb.co.nz/TER106765

Di Janett M

Doug Wakelin

Rerewhakaaitu 368 Yankee Road

Transport business and land & buildings

Operating since late 2009, this rurally focused transport business has a loyal client base, with business well spread across the seasons. Operating out of a depot in the heart of rural Rangitikei, the work boundaries are not limited by the Cook Straight, with trips to the South Island part of their operation. The Company owns two Livestock Transport units, with one running on a 54 tonne permit and a further smaller unit complementing the business. Further income is generated from Owner Drivers carrying out business created through HWCT Limited. The business operates a very busy and semi-automated public weighbridge, ideal for their own business and providing an excellent passive income.

Neat as a pin – Entry level dairy farm

Exceptionally tidy 78.82 ha seasonal supply dairy farm located at Rerewhakaaitu. The property is flat to gently rolling in contour. Housing is well catered for by a very tidy four bedroom main home with detached garaging set in immaculate garden environment. A three bedroom cottage and garaging are located nearby. Farm Infrastructure includes an 18 ASHB shed, De Laval plant and electronic pulsation and various multi bay implement and calf sheds. The farm is subdivided into approximately 40 paddocks that are connected by a 1.5 km central race system. Consistent production is a feature of this property with a three year average of 70,201 kgMS. Soil type is the easily managed Taupo Ash.

Hunterville

Tender

Tender

Phillip

'Rocky Heights' -Summer safe breeding block

486 ha located only 15 km from Dannevirke in the renowned farming district of Tamaki, 'Rocky Heights' is not only ideal for breeding but has hunting opportunities and forestry income as well. Nestled under the Ruahine Ranges and situated on both sides of Tamaki East Road, this medium scale hill country breeding block is an ideal summer safe property. Property features include:-

- Fenced into 33 main paddocks

- 11.2 ha of Pinus Radiata registered in the ETS

- Four stand split level woolshed, two sets of satellite sheep yards and cattle yards

- Excellent natural water

This property presents well for both first farm purchasers and farmers wanting to add a summer safe breeding block to their portfolio. A pure rural New Zealand farm.

Te Uri Road

Te Manga Station

747 ha situated in the Mangaorapa Valley of Central Hawke's Bay, some 50 km south of Waipukurau. The standard of improvements including the recently renovated four bedroom family homestead, four bedroom second home, shearers quarters / holiday accommodation, five stand woolshed, large tractor shed / workshop, fencing and all-weather access to the rear of the property are unquestionably first class. A feature of Te Manga are the large tracks of flat to very easy country. Areas of native bush with a trophy hunting block deer fenced MPI accredited also exist. Presently utilized as a breeding and finishing block for both sheep and cattle with high fertility ewes and Angus cows run. Dairy replacements are also carried. The aesthetic appeal with the native bush, natural water, exotic and native plantings to provide shelter and woodlots will appeal to the discerning purchaser wanting their own stand-alone property or add to their portfolio.

For Sale By Negotiation

James

Pat

James

2.00pm, Thu 24th Nov, 2022, Property

Waipukurau

Dannevirke 158 Tamaki Road East

Porangahau

Tender

Tender

417 ha - Impressive self contained dairy farm

Makotuku Dairy impresses with scale and superior infrastructure.

This outstanding 417 ha self contained dairy farm located 21 km northeast of the Dannevirke township, is highly regarded for its mostly flat to rolling contour, quality soils, excellent infrastructure and modern housing. The farm infrastructure includes a 2007 commissioned 50 bail rotary shed with in shed feed system, 200 tonne silo with crusher, 400 cow feed pad, 2 x 350 tonne feed bunkers and centre pivot irrigation.

Makotuku Dairy offers an exceptional opportunity to secure a farm with scale, quality infrastructure and increasing productivity.

Tender closes 2.00pm, Tue 15th Nov, 2022, Property Brokers office 4 Stanley Street, Dannevirke View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/DR103595

Jim Crispin M 027 717 8862 E jimc@pb.co.nz

Sam McNair M 027 264 0002 E sam.mcnair@pb.co.nz

Te Apiti - 1,177 ha

Te Apiti is located 7.3 km from the Homewood coast, 50 minutes' drive east of Masterton. A mix of medium to steeper hill country, comprising a total of 1,177 ha.

A third generation sheep and cattle store farm, Te Apiti offers a range of land use opportunities on a mix of sandstone, clay and argillite soils. Particular attention has been given to maintaining the excellent access, fencing and overall presentation of this property. Divided into two main blocks, comprising 658 ha in a mix of native bush and millable pines with some grazable areas. The main farming area of 517 ha is supported by five sets of satellite yards, airstrip, fertiliser bin and fantastic natural water sources and is subdivided into a total of 61 paddocks.

A sound four bedroom family home with numerous station-style outbuildings. A four stand woolshed (500 night pen) and a large four bay implement shed with designated workshop and stables provide the infrastructure and platform for all buyers.

4 1

Tender closes 4.00pm, Wed 23rd Nov, 2022, Property Brokers Ltd, 84 Chapel Street, Masterton View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/MR109316

Tony McKenna M 027 901 0246 E tonym@pb.co.nz

John Arends M 027 444 7380 E johna@pb.co.nz

Te Wharau 937 Kaiwhata Road

Tender

Brock

Woodville 168 Range Road

Tender

Fertile and flat with location - 122 ha

This former dairy property currently run as intensive bull finishing is located just 3 km to Woodville and a 34 km drive over the saddle to Palmerston North. This well presented property has been through an extensive development program which includes investment in new pastures, drainage and subdivision. The farm is well subdivided by a range of electric and conventional fencing in good condition with a strategic race system for access to paddocks. With three points of road access the property provides future options for subdivision utilising the numerous records of title. Farm improvements include a disused 36 ASHB with modern effluent system including large storage dam with the former cow yard used as loading & drafting facilities with new Te Pari yards. Adjacent to the cowshed are ample sheds for storage & calf rearing, complimented by other disused sheds in various locations. The property features a large four bedroom home with generous living areas and a swimming pool.

Pahiatua Post Office Road

Auction

Tender closes 2.00pm, Wed 23rd Nov, 2022, to be submitted to Property Brokers, 129 Main Street, Pahiatua View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/PR107323

Dunollie Farm - 66 ha

Situated in the farming community of Ballance, 11 km west of Pahiatua and only 27 km east of the Palmerston North CBD this former dairy farm provides real options to the market.

Dunollie Farm has benefited from an extensive development program in recent times which includes investment in capital fertiliser, drainage, pasture renewal, fencing and access. The contour is well suited to its current farming use of beef fattening, being flat to easy hill with small areas of medium hill. The former dairy farm has recent history of dairy support including wintering MA cows providing alternative farming use.

Farming improvements include a new set of cattle yards which includes weighing and handling facilities and ample shedding for implements, hay or calf rearing.

Reap the rewards of this well developed property in a sought after farming location.

Jared

Jared

First class dairy farm

Seldom do have we have the privilege to market such a quality dairy asset in this highly regarded location. Situated at Kokatahi only 20 minutes from Hokitika is this first class 230 ha (subject to survey) dairy farm that has been well developed and farmed by our vendors. Currently milking 430 cows achieving top production of 168,777 kgMS on a semi self contained basis. Excellent range of quality farm infrastructure including a modern 44 bail rotary cowshed with ACR's plus in shed meal feeding supported by a full range of shedding. Superior accommodation options including the main homestead set in established grounds completed by a modern three bedroom Lockwood home. This farm ticks all the boxes - excellent location, quality free draining soils and superior farm infrastructure and housing. Stock and plant available at valuation.

2 6 2 3

Tender closes 3.00pm, Fri 25th Nov, 2022 (unless sold prior), at Property Brokers, 97 Revell Street, Hokitika.

View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/HKR10840

Gareth Cox M 021 250 9714 E gareth@pb.co.nz

Anna Hart M 027 294 9678 E anna.hart@pb.co.nz

Mackinlay farm - Dairy with scale

We are delighted to offer for sale this quality 330.49 ha dairy farm located at Kokatahi, arguably one of the best dairying locations on the West Coast and only 15 minutes from Hokitika. This well established property enjoys the benefit of productive alluvial soils combined with sound farm infrastructure including 48 bail rotary cowshed with automatic cups removers and meal feeding system. Excellent accommodation options with modern family homestead complemented by two x three bedroom staff houses. Currently milking 590 jersey cows with three year average production of 212,779 kgMs with the milking herd wintered on platform.

3 10 4

Tender closes 3.00pm, Wed 30th Nov, 2022 (unless sold prior), at Property Brokers, 97 Revell Street, Hokitika

View By

Web pb.co.nz/

Gareth

Anna

Prime dairy farm - Grey Valley

Dairy farms in the favoured Grey Valley are always sought after and this proven performer is no exception. Located at Atarau only 30 minutes inland from Greymouth is this mid scale dairy farm consisting of 216 ha (200 ha effective milking platform) of fertile river terraces, milking 480 cows producing 176,314 kgMS in the 21/22 season. Tidy farm improvements including 38 ASHB shed with meal feeding and protack drafting complemented by a modern effluent system with large storage tank. Full range of calf and implement sheds plus an underpass that provide ease of management. The property enjoys two tidy homes situated off the main sealed road.

2 8 2

Tender closes 3.00pm, Fri 2nd Dec, 2022 (unless sold prior), at Property Brokers, 33 Tainui Street, Greymouth

View By appointment

pb.co.nz/GYR10526

& Anna

Hokitika 250 Bladier Road, Kokatahi

Tender

Hokitika 331 Upper Kokatahi Road, Kokatahi

Tender

Greymouth

Road, Atarau

Tender

Chris Murdoch

Gareth Cox

Fully self contained dairy farm

On offer is this fully self contained dairy farm. 216 effective ha currently milking 440 cows through a 40 ASHB dairy shed with read plant. This farm is supported by a 240 cow herd home with power and lighting. This property has sound infrastructure along with a great array of sheds and a consented underpass. Accommodation includes three warm and comfortable farmhouses. Currently run in conjunction with a 72 ha runoff which is presently offered for sale. Located in the reliable Kowhitirangi Valley which sustains a good balance of free draining soils in a reliable district. This property has many positive features and is well positioned for the future.

3 9 3 1 6

Tender closes 3.00pm, Tue 6th Dec, 2022 (unless sold prior), at Property Brokers, 97 Revell Street, Hokitika

View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/HKR106103

Gareth Cox M 021 250 9714

Anna Hart M 027 294 9678

Prime grazing in premium location

Consistently farmed for many years as a 72 ha dairy support block (70 ha effective). It has been run in conjunction with a neighbouring dairy farm which is also offered for sale. Well fenced, raced and subdivided into 35 paddocks, currently used for grazing young stock, wintering cows and making supplement. Outbuildings include a three bay shed with power, old cowshed used for cattle yards, fertiliser bin and older deer shed. Water is reticulated to existing water troughs from a well at the shed. A unique opportunity to purchase with the dairy farm or as a stand alone dairy support block. Call to secure a viewing.

Tender closes 3.00pm, Tue 6th Dec, 2022 (unless sold prior), at 97 Revell Street Hokitika

View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/HKR109611

Gareth Cox M 021 250 9714

Anna Hart M 027 294 9678

356 ha - Winterview Farm

Modern large scale dairy BCI irrigated farm with almost all cows wintered on. Total area flat combined with good quality soils, excellent rainfall, proven production (406,000 kgMS average past five years), milking 880 cows and wintering majority on farm. Very tidy 54 bail rotary dairy shed with in shed feeding, double pond effluent, excellent range of farm building, grain storage and pivot irrigation to 136 ha. Executive five bedroom homestead with a further three other homes. A great proven dairy unit located in the favoured foothills of Mid Canterbury.

A great opportunity to take control of your costs.

2

79.8 ha - Pure rural New Zealand

A great small dairy unit located on the outskirts of Temuka and close proximity to Timaru.

This dairy unit is located on excellent soils, pivot irrigation. Has good lane system and strong pasture growth. The farm is milking 300 cows with 2022/23 production target of 145,000 kgMS. The cows are milked through a 22 ASHB shed (with a yard capacity of 300 cows), Milfos plant and new GEA electronic pulsators. Good standard of other farm improvements. A great opportunity to start or finish your dairy career.

Hokitika 6 Stopbank Road, Kowhitirangi

Tender

Hokitika 92 Whitcombe Valley Road, Kowhitirangi

Tender

Ashburton Forks 351 Alford Forest Cemetery Road

Tender

closes 12.00pm, Tue 8th Nov, 2022 (unless sold prior), Property Brokers Ashburton View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/AR109251

Chris Murdoch M 027 434 2545

Temuka 50 Guild Road

Tender

Tender closes 12.00pm, Mon 21st Nov, 2022 (unless sold prior), Property Brokers Ashburton View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/AR109086

Chris Murdoch M 027 434 2545

High quality dairy farm

Located in the favoured dairy area of the Waitaki plains North Otago, Property Brokers are proud to present to the market this quality 161 ha dairy farm. Currently milking 570 cows and on track to achieve 265,000 kgMS this farm has excellent soils with flat contour. All infrastructure is extremely well presented with a 44 ASHB dairy, in-shed feeding, together with complete spray irrigation including three centre pivots operating on low cost water via the Lower Waitaki Scheme. Presented with three homes that are well cared for and in immaculate condition. If you desire a quality dairy farm in a renowned dairy area and operating at a lowcost structure, then look no further.

Deadline Sale closes Wednesday 30th November, 2022 at 2.00pm, (unless sold prior)

View By appointment Web pb.co.nz/OMR109923

First-class Taieri dairy

Property Brokers are privileged to offer Drumturk Farm to the market after three generations of family ownership by our vendors. At 103.23ha and consisting of two titles, it is situated on some of the Taieri's well regarded soils and offers very good farm infrastructure & layout, excellent fertility levels, consistently solid production levels and is complimented by two very tidy dwellings.

Currently leased and milking approximately 265 cows supplying Fonterra, it is operated as self-contained in terms of the MA cows, with the milking herd wintered on-farm. Young stock are grazed off. Attention to detail is obvious, with first-class presentation obvious upon entering the farm.

Oamaru

Deadline Sale

Ross Robertson

Henley 938 Centre Road

Tender

Paul Urquhart

•

•

•

•

•

• good

include

16 a/s h.b.

dairy,

utilized for handling of livestock plus implement shedding, hay shed & a separate lockable workshop/storage shed

• an excellent quality low maintenance homestead featuring 4 brms, ensuite, modern kitchen/living, internal access double garage & in ground pool set in a prominent & private north facing position surrounded by nicely landscaped gardens & grounds

easy access to first class service centres plus options for schooling

TradeMe

Bay Of Plenty

597 Otamarakau Valley Road Pukehina

Centrally located between Whakatane, Tauranga and Rotorua, and just 7km from the beach, this tidy block is up for private tender.

Currently, this predominantly flat 79.5ha farm, with 46 paddocks is operating as a beef finishing block, but up until five years ago was operating as a dairy farm with a 24 ASD HB shed. The farm come with excellent centralised races and a new set of beef yards.

There are 9ha of pines with 48ha of irrigated flats. There is a 3-bedroom plus office home with a double garage. With also two hay barns and an implement shed. Viewing is by appointment only.

For enquiries,

Rural Te Pahu dairy

Large and picturesque, this 158.97ha farm ticks the box for so many options. Currently in dairy, it could easily continue to be run as a dairy unit or a blend of dairy/grazing/beef/deer plus some cropping options. Such a great location in a fantastic rural community with a good race and water system and excellent shedding. A very tidy three bedroom home plus a sleepout are onsite for accommodation. Don’t miss an open day soon.

rwteawamutu.co.nz/TEA30382

Tender Closes 17 November at 1.00pm at Ray White Te Awamutu, may not be sold prior. Price will be plus GST (if any)

View Thursday 27 October, 11.00am - 1.00pm

255

Pirongia dairy perfection

O’Shea Road, Pirongia

Superbly tidy and picturesque, this 79.2ha freehold and 124ha leasehold dairy farm is situated on the lower slopes of Mt Pirongia. Currently milking 260 cows through a 40ASHB in conjunction with their dairy beef operation, the farm has milked around 430 cows. This would be a great opportunity for someone to buy a smaller farm and be able to run a larger milking herd by leasing the remainder of the block.

Closes 22 November at 1.00pm at

White Te Awamutu, may not

sold prior. Price will be plus GST (if any)

View Tuesdays 25 October & 1 November

- 1.00pm

Rural

Accelerating success.

For Sale By Tender

Kevin Deane Real

Kevin Deane Real Estate

DAIRY GRAZING, SHEEP & BEEF

PIARERE, SOUTH WAIKATO 254 State Highway 1

Outstanding Dairy Farm

PGG Wrightson is privileged to be able to offer this very valuable and well-established dairy farm to the market this spring. Located at 254 State Highway 1, the original farm has been owned by the Watkins family since 1967, with Kay and Martyn taking over ownership in the early 80s and purchasing a neighbouring block a few years later. It was dry stock at the time amounting to 152 ha, of which 128 ha is now dairy platform. The farm was converted to dairy in 1996, milking up to 410 cows with young stock retained on the farm. Currently it milks around 380-400 cows with 25 heifers retained, and all but a portion of PK purchased. Supplement, both maize and grass silage is grown on farm. All infrastructure is well maintained and very well presented, including the homestead and managers home. There's tracks, fences and plantings of trees and shelter throughout that make this farm very appealing to the eye. A feature, I think is the 360 degree panoramic views of the lake and mountains. It is an absolute credit

and sought-after land.

Road

Trophy Farm Opportunity

'Chequers' - Outstanding 872 hectare trophy farm opportunity. Traditionally and conservatively run Sheep and Beef breeding and finishing property with top infrastructure on the market for the first time in 47 years. Most of the farm is flat to easy rolling contour,

DARGAVILLE, NORTHLAND

Opportunity Only Knocks Once

Simply one of Northland's best low input dairy farms. An excellent opportunity to own this property that has been held in the Kay family for 80 plus years. This 204 hectare property has potential for increased production with continued sound management. Milking 420 cross bred cows. Fertile soils, strong pastures and fertile flats. A very grand brick and tile homestead that is on its own title that overlooks the property, and two further homes. 35ASHB cowshed, calf/implement sheds. All this only 11 kilometres

rural town.

NEW LISTING

to discuss

HAZELBURN, SOUTH CANTERBURY

'Rockpool' - 262 Hectares

'Rockpool' is located in the Raincliff area and is currently run as a deer unit, but would be suitable for cattle and sheep. Farming 290ha (262.4988ha freehold and 27.535ha AMF accretion land) and subdivided into approximately 44 paddocks, including a 64ha trophy/game park. 'Rockpool' has a balance of contours and soils with flats, rolling hills and steeper country with picturesque limestone outcrops. Good deer handling facilities with hydraulic crush and various other implement sheds and support buildings. Access throughout the

is via a central laneway with arterials.

TENDER

ARIA, WAITOMO 80 Parakoko Road

Pukeho Partnership -The Grass Grower 647 hectares (more or less) - multi purchaser options available. Nicely contoured balanced farm, two dwellings, all the farm buildings needed, very good fencing, reliable water and a very good fertiliser record. Contour runs from extensive flats to easy rolling to steeper in the south of the farm. Attention to detail throughout the farm is evident. Breeding finishing farm with brought in bulls also finished. This farm is a performer. There are options here, buy as one or the following options - 421ha, 89ha and 137ha or a combination of all three. Please bring

own bike to Open Days.

NEW LISTING

(Unless

3.00pm, Friday 25 November

10.00-12.00pm

CENTRAL OTAGO

Bare Land - O'Neill Road 101.72 Hectares

This well developed dryland block with both domestic and stock water system along with a modern set of cattle yards would make an ideal retirement block or first farm opportunity. A proposed elevated building site has been developed with north facing 270 degree views towards the spectacular Hawkdun ranges along with private rural views over the Maniototo plains. Recent pasture development includes cropping for dairy cattle

followed up with re-grassing for

and young stock grazing.

CONTRACTORS

DOGS FOR SALE

TWO 4-MONTH-OLD heading bitch pups. Breeding papers available. Feilding/ Hunterville area. Phone Geoff 027 274 1478.

HUNTAWAY AND HEADING dogs. Deliver NZ wide. www.youtube.com/user/ mikehughesworkingdog/ videos - 07 315 5553.

DOGS WANTED

12 MONTHS TO 5½-yearold Heading dogs and Huntaways wanted. Phone 022 698 8195.

BUYING NOW! All abilities. NZ wide. Immediate payment! Email: mikehughesworkingdogs@ farmside.co.nz - 07 315 5553.

ANIMAL HEALTH

FARM MAPPING

ACCURATE AND PRACTICAL farm maps showing area sizes of paddocks and vegetation. Visit farmmapping.co.nz for a free quote.

GOATS WANTED

FERAL GOATS WANTED. All head counted, payment on pick-up, pick-up within 24 hours. Prices based on works schedule. Experienced musterers available. Phone Bill and Vicky Le Feuvre 07 893 8916.

GOATS WANTED. All weights. All breeds. Prompt service. Payment

GIBBOOST

GIBBERELLIC ACID growth promotant. Increase pasture growth and dry matter. From $5.50 per/ha. 0508 733 343, sales@vernado.co.nz

HORTICULTURE

NZ KELP. FRESH, wild ocean harvested giant kelp. The world’s richest source of natural iodine. Dried and milled for use in agriculture and horticulture. Growth promotant / stock health food. As seen on Country Calendar. Orders to: 03 322 6115 or info@nzkelp.co.nz

LIVESTOCK FOR SALE

FALLOW DEER for sale. 40 years breeding. Manawatū area. Phone 021 886 065.

PUMPS

HIGH PRESSURE WATER PUMPS, suitable on high headlifts. Low energy usage for single/3-phase motors, waterwheel and turbine drives. Low maintenance costs and easy to service. Enquiries phone 04 526 4415, email sales@hydra-cell.co.nz

RAMS FOR SALE

WILTSHIRES-ARVIDSON. Self shearing sheep. No1 for Facial Eczema. David 027 2771 556.

HAIR SHIRE® Low input meat rams! www.organicstud. nz 027 225 5283. tim@ organicstud.nz

RURAL MASSAGE RELAXING FULL BODY massage in rural Ohaupo. Unwind. De-stress. www. ruralmassage.co.nz or call 027 529 5540.

STOCK FEED

MOISTURE METERS Hay, Silage dry matter, grain. www.moisturemeters.co.nz 0800 213 343.

WANTED TO BUY

Rimu etc. Also buying salvaged native logs. Phone Richard Uren. NZ Native Timber Supplies. Phone 027 688 2954.

PERSONAL

COUNTRY ROMANCE. A country lady who is seeking a like-minded gentleman. Standing at 5’5 with a slim build, blonde hair & hazel eyes. She is an outdoors lady, who enjoys fishing, tramping, cooking, travelling, gardening and spending time with that someone special. To meet, Please call and quote code 58. Phone 0800 446 332.

Pure-bred

rams

- Aaron O’Keefe

SALE TALK

2 cats and another 2 cats and another 2, how many would you have?”

Teacher: “If I

Johnny: “Seven.”

Teacher: “No, listen carefully... If I gave you two cats, and another two cats and another two, how many would you have?”

Johnny: “Seven.”

Teacher: “Let me put it to you differently. If I gave you two apples, and another two apples and another two, how many would you have?”

Johnny: “Six.”

Teacher: “Good. Now if I gave you two cats, and another two cats and another two, how many would you have?”

Johnny: “Seven!”

Teacher: “Johnny, where in the heck do you get seven from?!”

Johnny: “Because I’ve already got a freaking cat!”

Markets

Softening prices require a budget rethink

There’s no denying that the market for lamb will be trending on the soft side in the months ahead – albeit off a high base – and that will have to factor into planting prospects for feed crops.

Mel Croad MARKETS Lamb

ARMGATE returns have been top-notch over the past two years and most of us are well versed on the drivers. It was hoped, as we rolled into a new export season from October 1, that the good times would continue. The need for high returns is even more crucial given the acceleration of on-farm costs in recent months. In most cases this has been eye watering but largely out of our control.

AgriHQ’s October Livestock Outlook report took an honest look at pricing direction in the months ahead, based on current market fundamentals. It’s safe to say it packed a bit of a punch in terms of pricing forecasts, especially around lamb. It was known that demand for lamb was softening across key markets and that downside is becoming more pronounced, quickly flowing back to farmgate prices.

Soft market conditions are out of our hands due to a number of factors – talk of a global recession, inflationary pressures, consumers looking to protect disposable incomes, and higher input costs due to drought and war. All big, meaty issues that are weighing on higher-priced proteins such as lamb. To balance that and prevent a significant build-up in inventories, in-market prices have to adjust lower, and that has been the case in most key markets.

This change of pace has effectively wiped about $7/head

Certainly the numbers will be crunched as summer feed crops have become integral to mitigating offloading at the height of summer, when prices are usually at their lowest.

off lamb slaughter prices through December compared to AgriHQ’s September outlook. This same reduction continues into the opening months of 2023.

While on paper these might look like subtle changes, they soon add up when offloading decent lines of lambs.

It will also influence store lamb prices when volumes trading starts to ramp up.

Given the early heads-up, there is still time to revise budgets and make the necessary changes, especially given that farm costs and interest rates continue to rise.

Planting intentions for summer feed crops had already been shaved due to significantly higher costs.

Now with lamb prices looking lower than expected, where does that leave planting prospects for feed crops? Certainly the numbers will be crunched as summer feed crops have become integral to mitigating offloading at the height of summer, when prices are usually at their lowest.

Taking a positive spin on all of this, a lamb price that is still hovering above $8/kg into the New Year is nothing to sniff at, especially given the negative tone out there. Even adjusting for inflation, this would be stronger

than all but four years since the turn of the century. The downside in prices to Christmas might be stronger than what we are used to at this time of the year, but they did start from a $9.60/kg price point.

Farmgate lamb prices fell by nearly $1/kg between October and December 2015 to average $5.25/kg, based on a severe drop in export demand. Were we to endure the same downside from a weaker starting point, it would have been a much tougher pill to swallow.

Proudly sponsored by

READY TO BALE: Planting intentions for summer feed crops had already been shaved due to significantly higher costs.

Weekly saleyards

When volume allows, saleyards will host stand-alone sales for vendors and, at Canterbury Park on Wednesday 19th, JG and DA Crawford offered up just over 900 yearling traditional and exotic-cross cattle. These are purchased as calves each year and wintered on crop, ready for the spring market. This year’s offering was made up of 550 heifers and 340 steers, and the breed split was different in each class. Charolais-cross heifers made up 70% of their section, and steers 40%. The traditional pens were straight Angus and Hereford, followed by Angus-Hereford lines. Annual buyers returned to place their bids and North Island buyers were active on bidr with about 300 reported to be heading north. Pricing was very similar between the breeds as the traditional steers averaged 270kg and $3.66/kg and Charolais-cross, 275kg and $3.64/kg. Traditional heifers averaged $285kg and $3.31/kg and Charolais-cross, 270kg, $3.34/kg.

Kaikohe

Mixed-age Angus cows

2-year beef-cross

Yearling beef-cross steers

Yearling beef-cross bulls

Yearling heifers

Wellsford

2-year Hereford-Friesian steers, 418-504kg

or $/hd

Frankton | October 13 | 745 cattle

or $/hd

2-year Hereford-Friesian heifers, 386-416kg 3.22-3.26

Yearling Angus-Hereford steers, 248-306kg 3.67-3.74

Yearling Hereford-Friesian steers, 263-272kg 3.35-3.42

Yearling Angus-Hereford heifers, 228-289kg 2.94-3.24

Yearling Hereford-Friesian heifers, 275-320kg 3.06-3.27

Aut-born weaner Hereford-Friesian steers, 110-145kg 5.10-5.36

Pukekohe

October 15

Aut-born yearling dairy-beef

Aut-born yearling dairy-beef heifers

Yearling steers

Yearling

Aut-born

2-year

Yearling

Yearling

Tuakau

or $/hd

$/kg or $/hd

Aut-born weaner dairy-beef steers, 127-200kg 630-730

Aut-born weaner dairy-beef bulls, 115-220kg 550-705

Aut-born weaner dairy-beef heifers, 122-208kg 470-600

Weaner dairy-beef bulls, 77-129kg 310-655

Weaner Friesian bulls, 72-140kg 270-615

Weaner dairy-beef heifers, 73-117kg 210-490

Frankton | October 18 | 601 cattle

$/kg or $/hd

2-year dairy-beef steers, 436-441kg 3.30-3.38

2-year dairy steers, 428-488kg 2.93-3.09

2-year dairy-beef heifers, 374-446kg 3.01-3.19

Aut-born yearling dairy-beef steers, 342-385kg 3.10-3.28

Aut-born yearling dairy-beef heifers, 332-372kg 2.91-3.10

Yearling Hereford-Friesian steers, 232kg, one line 3.71

Yearling dairy-beef steers, 212-304kg 3.44-3.57

Yearling Angus-Friesian heifers, 253-270kg 3.41-3.44

Yearling dairy-beef heifers, 219-292kg 2.85-3.12

Yearling Friesian bulls, 282kg, one line 3.37

Prime dairy-beef steers, 621-668kg 3.50-3.53

Prime Charolais-cross cows, 508-557kg 2.43-2.50

Prime dairy-beef heifers, 476-506kg 3.33-3.42

Boner Friesian cows, 507-608kg 2.34-2.37

Frankton | October 19 | 491 cattle

$/kg or $/hd

2-year Hereford-Friesian steers, 509-650kg 3.30-3.48

2-year dairy-beef steers, 393-481kg 3.26-3.36

2-year Hereford heifers, 477-480kg 3.30-3.33

2-year Hereford-Friesian heifers, 323-521kg 3.17-3.27

2-year Hereford-Friesian heifers, 355-394kg 2.87-2.99

Yearling Hereford-Friesian steers, 242-367kg 880-1200

Yearling dairy-beef steers, 208-332kg 2.97-3.07

Yearling Hereford-Friesian heifers, 202-343kg 700-1000

Yearling Friesian bulls, 309-386kg 3.10-3.33

Rangiuru | October 18 | 539 cattle, 58 sheep $/kg or $/hd

2-year dairy-beef steers, 354-403kg 2.97-3.11

2-year Hereford-Friesian heifers, 390-485kg 2.93-3.11

Yearling dairy-beef steers, 290kg, average 3.28

Yearling Hereford-Friesian heifers, 299-321kg 3.11-3.24

Prime Hereford-Friesian steers, 513-533kg 3.43-3.47

Prime dairy-beef heifers, 496-606kg 3.42-3.55

Boner Friesian cows, 480-547kg 2.46-2.63

Prime ewes, all 90-140

Prime hoggets, all 160-174

Taranaki | October 19 | 461 cattle

$/kg or $/hd

Mixed-age dairy cows, in-milk 1250-2000

2-year dairy-beef steers, 435kg average 3.41

2-year dairy heifers, in-milk 1700-2250

Yearling Hereford-Friesian steers, 286-317kg 3.41-3.50

Yearling Hereford-Friesian steers, 215-275kg 3.67-3.77

Yearling beef-cross heifers, 190-288kg 600-840

Yearling Hereford-Friesian heifers, 211-293kg, tops 3.08-3.13

Yearling red Hereford-Friesian heifers, 295-338kg 2.94-3.05

Stortford Lodge | October 17 | 2122 sheep $/kg or $/hd

Prime ewes, heavy to very heavy 189-223

Prime ewes, medium-good to very-good 140-188

Prime ewes, light-medium to medium 91-139

Prime 2-4-tooth ewes, medium to good 140-160

Prime male hoggets, heavy to very heavy 185-219

Prime mixed-sex hoggets, heavy to very heavy 181-216

Prime ewe hoggets, good to heavy 171-187

Stortford Lodge | October 19 | 1066 cattle, 1454 sheep $/kg or $/hd

2-year traditional steers, 495-590kg 3.79-3.95

2-year traditional steers, 377-491kg 3.63-3.69

2-year Hereford-Friesian steers, 458-492kg 3.43-3.49

2-year Angus & Angus-Hereford bulls, 515-588kg 3.60-3.75

Yearling traditional steers, 331-353kg 3.91-4.03

Yearling traditional steers, 262-319kg 1130-1310

Yearling Angus bulls, 365-458kg 3.64-3.76

Yearling Angus & Angus-Hereford heifers, 272-311kg 3.24-3.37

Store hoggets, heavy, all classes 154.50-165

Store hoggets, good, all classes 136-150

Feilding | October 14 | 1182 cattle, 1624 sheep $/kg or $/hd

2-year traditional steers, 511-539kg 3.72-3.79

2-year dairy-beef steers, 392-479kg

2-year Friesian bulls, 430kg

2-year traditional heifers, 344-435kg

2-year dairy-beef heifers, 409-451kg

Foot and Mouth Disease

Yearling South Devon-cross steers, 391-420kg 4.08-4.20

Yearling Hereford-Friesian steers, 312kg average 3.14

Yearling Friesian bulls, 291-405kg 3.34-3.45

Yearling Angus heifers, 266kg average 3.23

Yearling Hereford-Friesian heifers, 291-321kg 3.12-3.26

Mixed-age ewes & lambs, BF, docked 135-138.50

Store mixed-sex lambs, good 144-151

Store Perendale hoggets, shorn, light-to-medium 135

Feilding | October 17 | 40 cattle, 2989 sheep

$/kg or $/hd

Mixed-age Friesian cows, in-milk 1200-2750

Boner Friesian cows, 469kg 2.8

Boner Friesian heifers, 460-487kg 3.06-3.10

Prime ewes, very good 194

Prime ewes, good 131-170

Prime mixed-sex hoggets, very heavy 209-215

Prime mixed-sex hoggets, heavy 176-200

Prime ewe hoggets, very heavy 196

Prime mixed-sex lambs, heavy to very heavy 193-233

Rongotea | October 18

$/kg or $/hd

3-year plus Friesian steers, 565-625kg 2.83-3.22

2-year beef-cross steers, 387-405kg 2.20-3.11

2-year Hereford-Friesian steers, 275-409kg 2.72-3.18

2-year beef-cross bulls, 405-540kg 2.69-3.16

2-year beef-cross heifers, 195-369kg 2.31-2.63

Yearling Hereford-Friesian steers, 233-305kg 2.69-2.97

Yearling beef-cross steers, 259-319kg 3.09-3.15

Yearling Friesian bulls, 255-400kg 2.75-3.34

Yearling Hereford-Friesian heifers, 200-272kg 2.43-3.01

Aut-born weaner Hereford-Friesian steers, 145-165kg 500-560

Aut-born weaner Hereford-Friesian bulls, 103-195kg 410-550

Boner cows, 300-470kg 1.93-2.47

Play your part, update NAIT

Coalgate

2-year

Yearling Hereford-Friesian steers,

Yearling dairy-beef heifers, 228-305kg 600-850

Prime traditional steers, 539-618kg 3.54-3.69

Prime traditional heifers, 485-594kg 3.46-3.60

Mixed-age ewes & lambs, tails 100-116

Store finewool hoggets, heavy 140-160

Prime ewes, most 120-220

Prime hoggets, most 160-245

Canterbury Park | October 18 | 220 cattle, 3366 sheep $/kg or $/hd

Prime dairy-beef steers, 565-690kg 3.36-3.51

Prime bulls, 640-670kg 3.12-3.27

Prime Angus heifers, 455-620kg 3.28-3.45

Boner Friesian cows, 510-665kg 2.15-2.32

Mixed-age ewes & lambs, all 102-127

Prime ewes, good-heavy 171-242

Prime hoggets, good-heavy 192-250

Canterbury Park | October 19 | 893 cattle $/kg or $/hd

Yearling Angus & Angus-Hereford steers, 254-319kg 3.70-3.76

Yearling Hereford-Friesian steers, 219-299kg 3.57-3.77

Yearling Charolais-cross steers, 269-367kg 3.49-3.66

Yearling Angus heifers, 256-346kg 3.28-3.38

Yearling Charolais-cross heifers, 263-328kg 3.30-3.42

Temuka | October 13 | 961 cattle $/kg or $/hd

2-year dairy-beef steers, 405-478kg 3.20-3.40

2-year Hereford-Friesian heifers, 313-375kg 2.90-3.09

2-year bulls, 376-485kg 3.22-3.30

Yearling Hereford-Friesian steers, 275-318kg 800-980

Yearling Hereford-Friesian heifers, 299-378kg 2.91-2.94

Yearling dairy-beef heifers, 230-305kg 2.61-2.75

Yearling Friesian bulls, 212-224kg 3.10-3.11

Temuka | October 17 | 405 cattle, 3245 sheep $/kg or $/hd

Prime traditional steers, 530-690kg 3.32-3.43

Prime Belgian Blue-cross heifers, 440-537kg 3.23-3.38

Boner Friesian cows, 580-638kg 2.20-2.35

Boner Friesian heifers, 465-565kg 3.04-3.18

Store ewe hoggets, heavy 117

Store Halfbred wether hoggets, all 158-178

Prime mixed-sex hoggets, heavy 200-220

Prime ewes, heavy 200-230

Charlton | October 13 | 285 sheep

$/kg or $/hd

Store hoggets, all 100

Prime ewes, all 115-200

Prime hoggets, all 138-235

Prime rams, all 100-130

Lorneville | October 18

$/kg or $/hd

2-year Angus steers, 313kg 1050

2-year Angus-cross heifers, 370kg 1020

Yearling Hereford-cross steers, 280-320kg 900-1000

Yearling Hereford-cross heifers, 270kg 800

Prime steers, 540kg 3.30-3.40

Prime bulls, 660kg 3.22

Prime heifers, 650kg 3.36

Boner cows, 400-450kg 2.20-2.30

Boner heifers, 350-380kg 2.20-2.80

Store ewes & lambs 120-125

Store hoggets & lambs 105-115

Store hoggets 90-125

Prime ewes, medium-heavy 134-208

Prime 2-tooth ewes 132-210

Prime hoggets, medium-heavy 152-234

Feeder Calves | October 18

Rongotea | October 18

$/kg or $/hd

Friesian bulls 75

Hereford-Friesian bulls 80-150

Hereford-Friesian heifers 20-100

In the unlikely event FMD was to enter New Zealand, it would devastate our primary sector and rural communities. OSPRI is working closely with the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the primary sector to ensure we are best-using the tools and data we have available to support a response team in the event of an outbreak.

If you have followed all of the steps and still need help, our Support Centre is ready to assist you. Call 0800 482 463

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Fonterra Shareholders' Fund (NS) 3 3.782.75

Foley Wines Limited 1.351.571.35

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T&G Global Limited 2.73.012.59

Weather

It’s dry out there –perhaps too dry

LAST week started out a little cloudy with a few showers around New Zealand on Monday, a front pushed over the North Island moving in from the Tasman Sea. Tuesday is when a cold front moved over the South Island bringing showers to most regions.

Our cold upper air did eventuate, so thunderstorms formed on the front as it moved through Canterbury, bringing heavy showers and hail.

Precipitation would have been welcome as Canterbury is starting to dry out a bit. As can be seen in the rainfall map, the region hasn’t had too much lately and moisture deficits are tending to the dry side.

Wednesday and Thursday saw showers for western regions. A couple more cold fronts moved northwards but only Thursday’s one brought a few showers in the east later in the day.

On Friday, cool southwesterlies lay over the country, then the weekend saw a large high move in.

Nelson and Marlborough have actually been drier than Canterbury lately in terms of rainfall but moisture deficits have been close to normal. With a lack of rain coming up for Nelson and Marlborough, moisture deficits will increase. The North Island overall is sitting more pretty but dry weather is on the way this week.

Soil moisture Last 15 days sun

A front moves onto the South Island on Monday this week bringing some wet weather, though Nelson and Marlborough still remain largely dry.

The front breaks up as it reaches the North Island on Tuesday, so shower activity

Last 15 days rain

backs off. Still a bit of cloud left over for the South Island with showers only remaining in the west.

A large high covers the country on Wednesday and Thursday with mainly dry conditions prevailing. Friday and Saturday

sees a northwest airflow for the South Island with showers in the west and dry weather out east, while the North Island remains under a ridge of high pressure. Similar again on Sunday but the West Coast may see showers turn to rain.

A friend who’s there when the weather’s not so fair

Our agribusiness managers are with you for the long haul

Rabobank is a specialist agribusiness bank. That means the challenges that you’re facing as a farmer are our challenges as well. Our agribusiness managers and other specialists are available to talk with you face-to-face and can help you get to where you want to be. Give us a whistle on 0800 500 933 or visit rabobank.co.nz/banking