Farmers Weekly NZ June 25 2018 by AgriHQ

5 M bovis cheaters will be caught Vol 17 No 25, June 25, 2018

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Farm costs rising Neal Wallace neal.wallace@nzx.com

EMAND for runoff blocks is growing as dairy farmers look to close their herds in the face of the Mycoplasma bovis threat. As the scope of farmers’ response to the M bovis incursion becomes clear, BNZ chief economist Doug Steele warned individual farm incomes will be hit by higher costs but longer term New Zealand’s dairy farming industry is changing and will become a more costly system. “It is pretty clear to say the impact will be negative. The question is by how much?” Farmers will have to develop new wintering and grazing systems and either grow or buy-in feed to lower the risk of contracting M bovis. The planned cull of 152,000 cattle will reduce the combined beef and dairy herds by about 1.5% but the impact of lower milk production is unlikely to

be nationally significant for the country’s accounts. A possible consequence could be a rise in sheep numbers or at least a slow in the decline as dry stock farmers reduce the risk of contracting the disease by opting out of beef herds or beef finishing. Real Estate Institute rural spokesman Brian Peacocke said interest in runoff blocks is pronounced in Southland but there is also renewed interest in Otago and Canterbury. But few properties are available because any suitable have been bought. “I get the feeling that farmers are looking for properties that can either carry replacements or alternatively be a self-contained operation so they can, therefore, avoid cross-infection or risk of infection from M bovis.” Interest in runoff blocks was subdued until recently but evidence showed that trend reversing in the South Island. Groups of large-scale dairy farmers are banding together to buy suitably sized farms that can be used as runoff or support blocks for several properties.

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CASH COW? The cost of dairy farming will rise but the question is by how much, BNZ chief economist Doug Steele says.

Peacock said integral to this is faith, trust and confidence in the biosecurity measures implemented by the shareholders on their milking platforms. “They are pretty much people who have faith in one another in terms of hygiene.” Such purchases by multiple investors were more common until the milk price fell but reemerging in response to M bovis. Southern Wide Real Estate rural managing director Dallas Lucas from Invercargill said southern farmers are looking to keep more control over their herds and one option is to buy runoff blocks, leading to increased interest. “The availability of blocks is quietly reducing and tightening. More are being sold than coming on the market,” he said. The arrival of M bovis was a factor in the interest but the

Hot price offer.

high milk price has also spurred demand. Dairy farm sales have picked up in recent months and buyers are recruiting vets to monitor management of the property in the period leading up to settlement to minimise the risk of M bovis infection, he said. The M bovis outbreak had tempered interest in property purchases from non-farming investors with demand weighted towards practising farmers. Agribusiness Consultants dairy farm management consultant Jolene Germann of Invercargill said the timing of the outbreak left little opportunity for farmers to adjust their plans for this winter but graziers have responded. The arrival and departure of herds has been staggered so trucks and reception areas can be disinfected, feeding patterns adjusted to keep space between

herds and boundaries double fenced. Germann said farmers are considering more significant changes for next season to reduce the infection risk. While that includes buying supporting land or wintering on the home farm they are also looking to use graziers who winter only one herd. So graziers who take only one herd for wintering could prove valuable. Baker Ag consultant Chris Lewis said dairy farmers regularly look at the merits of grazing off properties and financially it is more economical to lease than to buy.

MORE: CALF REARING WARNING EDITORIAL, CARTOON

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NEWS

WEATHER OVERVIEW We kick off this week with a significant polar blast affecting the entire nation. Rain, heavy at times in the west, should ease to showers. Cold winds from the southerly quarter will produce snow down to low levels with heavy falls in the mountains and ranges of both islands. Tomorrow it shifts more easterly as high pressure from just south of Australia balloons out into the Tasman Sea. The colder south to southwest air flow should continue till Friday when high pressure from Australia finally moves in and centres itself over New Zealand for the end of Friday and across the coming weekend. Next week, however, kicks off with sub-tropical northerlies and a potential Tasman Sea low.

NZX PASTURE GROWTH INDEX – Next 15 days

Pasture Growth Index Above normal Near normal Below normal

7-DAY TRENDS

4 Calf-rearing must carry on Stock movements are the highest risk for spreading Mycoplasma bovis and the long shadow of the cattle disease is now forming over the calf rearing season. Farmers warned to obey the rules �� 5 Top economist moves to Manawatu �� 13

Wind

Rain Mainly dry in the east of both islands over the next week. Rainfall totals are minimal. Higher rainfall totals, especially on the West Coast and to a lesser degree the western North Island and Northland. Rain at times for Southland too.

Ag exports in trade stand-off �� 16

Temperature

Newsmaker ��22 New Thinking ��23 Opinion ��24 World ��28

REGULARS Real Estate ��30-32

Colder than average for many areas to start this week with high pressure late week and this weekend locking in the cold, polar air. However, by the end of this weekend or next Monday milder sub-tropical winds should develop nationwide.

Colder south to southwest winds from Monday to Thursday, fading from the eastern North Island this Friday as high pressure builds and winds become light nationwide. One week from now sub-tropical north to northeast winds are possible nationwid

Highlights/ Extremes Snow on the ranges and mountains of both islands over the next couple of days, more confined to the eastern and southern ranges mid week. Heavy showers, some with hail in other regions. High pressure later in the week might bring frosts.

14-DAY OUTLOOK

For further information on the NZX PGI visit www.agrihq.co.nz/pgi We’re now in the depths of the darkest part of the year with the least amount of sunshine available. On top of the longer, darker days we also have an increase in cold southerlies over the country this winter compared to previous seasons and previous years. Pasture growth rates will be zero to low over the next week with plenty of heavy rain on the West Coast but a drier, sunnier phase is kicking in for eastern regions, especially from Christchurch to Napier.

SOIL MOISTURE INDEX – 22/06/2018

Employment ��33 Classifieds ��34 Livestock ��35

40 Pig farmers question future Market demand is slow and pig meat prices have taken a dive in recent weeks as pork producers seriously question their future.

Source: WeatherWatch.co.nz

This product is powered by NIWA Data

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

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Dairy farmers should hold fire Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@nzx.com DAIRY farmers should hold their fire against New Zealand First in retaliation for criticism of Fonterra and its chairman John Wilson, Federated Farmers dairy chairman Chris Lewis counsels. NZ First has made some good calls recently on the 90-day trial period for new employees and the three-strikes rule in the criminal justice system, he said. Its input and support might be needed throughout the review of the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act to ensure Fonterra can be the dairy market leader in 20 years. Federated Farmers will make a comprehensive submission on the DIRA along with many other stakeholders and the eventual decisions will go through a select committee and the Cabinet. As a partner in the coalition Government NZ First will have a major influence, Lewis suggested. “I would encourage farmers to look at the bigger picture before they fire broadsides back. “I don’t want to put the boot in until we have a real opportunity

HANG ON A MINUTE MATE: NZ First has made some good calls recently so farmers shouldn’t be so quick to respond to its criticism of Fonterra, Federated Farmers dairy chairman Chris Lewis says.

to influence all three parties in the coalition,” he said. Fonterra has its failings, some of which NZ First leader and Acting Prime Minister Winston Peters and his fellow Cabinet

Minister Shane Jones had pointed out. “We all make mistakes, even down on our farms.” Federated Farmers has regular opportunities to raise its

concerns directly and privately with Fonterra’s board and its Shareholders’ Council. Council chairman Duncan Coull took a similar line, saying he looks forward to constructive

dialogue with NZ First MPs, such as primary industries spokesman Mark Patterson. “Shareholders are a little frustrated at what they deem are loose comments from politicians but we want to work constructively with the Government and the opportunity to do that will be at the upcoming DIRA review.” Forestry Minister Jones sparked the controversy by calling for Wilson to resign over the cooperative’s financial performance. Peters later said NZ First believes in commercial accountability and it has been commenting on poor performance by Fonterra for some time. He also totted up the cost of commercial and biosecurity failures at nearly $1.4 billion, including Beingmate and Danone losses, and related costs by government agencies. Peters made reference to the DIRA review by the Ministry for Primary Industries and its possible outcomes. Lewis and Coull clearly got the message.

Weakness creeps into the $7 milk price forecast Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@nzx.com ANOTHER minor fall of 1.2% in Global Dairy Trade auction prices and reduced forward prices in the dairy futures market have combined to push the AgriHQ farmgate milk price forecast down 19c to $6.68/kg milksolids. On May 1 the forecast was $7.03, in close agreement with Fonterra’s indication of $7 but three subsequent revisions have been downwards. The computerised model has a forecast average exchange rate of

US71c to the New Zealand dollar built in for the season, AgriHQ dairy analyst Amy Castleton said. The NZD has just fallen to US68.5c, a lower conversion rate that helped boost the AgriHQ dairy spot price to $7.08/kg, a rise of 9c since it was calculated after the previous GDT event. The exchange rates factored in helped explain the wide differential between the seasonal forecast and the spot price, plus the influence of the futures market prices, Castleton said. The spot price indicates what the milk price would be if prices

attained at the June 19 GDT event applied throughout the full season, at the current exchange rate. All dairy commodity prices were weaker at the most-recent GDT on June 19 except butter, which rose 0.8%. Whole milk powder was down 1%, skim milk powder down 1.1%, rennet casein 2.2%, anhydrous milk fat 2.5% and cheddar 3.6%. Westpac senior economist Anne Boniface said her milk price forecast is $6.40, contingent on further gradual easing in

world prices. She noted GDT offer volumes are starting to build and will do so in line with rising milk production and the usual seasonal pattern. The GDT event took place a day after the 2017-18 milk production figures for NZ were announced by the Dairy Companies Association. They showed the seasonal production in the year to the end of May was down only 0.6% on the previous season. That was helped by a productive autumn, including May’s figures of 88 million

kilograms of milksolids compared with 84m in May 2017 and 148m in April compared with 144m the previous April. ASB senior rural economist Nathan Penny said the late season production rally appeared to flow through to a touch of price softness in recent GDT auctions. However, dairy prices started the season on a firm footing and the NZD/USD exchange rate has helpfully dipped below 70c. The ASB will, therefore, maintain its firm $6.50 forecast, he said.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Calf-rearing must carry on Annette Scott annettescott@xtra.co.nz STOCK movements are the highest risk for spreading Mycoplasma bovis and the long shadow of the cattle disease is now forming over the calf rearing season. While it’s expected fewer calves will be reared this season, industry leaders say calf rearing must happen but with vigilance. “It’s going to be risky business but you are always going to have risks in business, some will be greater than others but it’s about assessing the risk and doing all you can to minimise risk,” Federated Farmers national dairy chairman Chris Lewis said. There will be significant flow-on effects for the dairy-beef industry if calf rearing is knocked on the head because of M bovis. “I know there are people not going to do it. There are people thinking about not doing it and there are those of us who are assessing the risk, planning accordingly and going to do it – business as usual. “I expect there will be a supply-

demand issue down the track and the flow on from the decisions farmers make now will likely cause a blip in 18 months to two years’ time. “Where’s the next steak coming from if we don’t?” Lewis said it could well be the start of a new way of calf rearing but farming business has to carry on. “We still want life to carry on. We want people to be prosperous. We can’t have millions of dollars invested in farmland and farm fresh air.” There is naturally more caution in the hardest hit M bovis regions where more of the risk assessment will fall back on farmer-to-farmer trust, he said. Canterbury dairy farm adviser Jeremy Savage is aware of people seriously considering not rearing calves this season. “That’s of concern if we want to keep calves alive in the long-term proposition. “It will create unhealthy prices in the market down the track when demand for yearlings and finishing stock outstrip supply.

COSTLY: A big fall in calfrearing now could create unhealthy prices when demand for yearlings and finishing stock outstrips supply, Macfarlane Rural Business consultant Jeremy Savage says.

It’s going to be risky business but you are always going to have risks in business. Chris Lewis Federated Farmers “If stock agents get more proactive in coming months it might give dairy farmers confidence to get back on track,” Savage said. He advised farmers to buy from as few sources as possible by contracting direct with farmers rather than buying through the yards.

“We know there have been hot spots from trading calves through the yards.” Buyers should always ask about cow and health history on the farm going back at least two seasons, question Nait records and ask if any M bovis test results are available for the farm. Feeding infected milk is the second highest risk of spreading M bovis and another significant concern around calf rearing, Savage said. “Trading discard milk and even raw milk is an unnecessary risk.” Savage suggested ordering milk powder now to avoid problems with supply. Pasteurisation will kill M bovis if the machine is working correctly and procedures are

correctly followed but there is a considerable financial outlay for the machine. Acidifying milk with citric acid is an option and works best when citric acid is added to fresh milk. Keeping up-to-date and correct Nait records will be critical this calf-rearing season, Biosecurity NZ operations chief Roger Smith said. “We are still getting shoddy Nait compliance. You would think 11 months in that we would have stood up as a community and have this sorted.” Smith is forever hopeful of 100% compliance as MPI and Nait increase their focus on compliance with Nait requirements.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Farmers warned to obey the rules Annette Scott annettescott@xtra.co.nz FARMERS claiming to be professionals must act responsibly and work together to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis and avoid destroying the dairy sector, Biosecurity NZ operations chief Roger Smith says. Any irresponsible acts will lie on a farmer’s conscience Smith said in response to farmers who suggested at meetings in Timaru and North Otago farmers fearing the consequences of becoming an infected property might prefer to shoot a sick cow and put it in a hole. Smith said he was horrified to hear reports of farmers who shot sick animals because they couldn’t face the consequences of reporting them.

If we find you we will deal with you and that is a promise. Roger Smith Biosecurity NZ “To any farmer choosing that action, it is on your conscience that you are prepared to destroy this industry. “If we find you we will deal with you and that is a promise.” The only way the eradication programme will work is if everyone pulls together to make it work. “If you want it to work you have to step up and tell us you have got a problem and we will deal with it. “This is not going to wipe out the industry but farming will change, as to be profitable it will need to change. “That will be the outcome, to have a sustainable farming model in the future and if there’s a silver lining to this it is that it reminds people of the increased vigilance over biosecurity.” While a set of off-ramps has not

yet been definitively established there are three key factors that will prompt a detour from the eradication programme to longterm management. “We are four weeks into the May 28 decision to eradicate and we remain confident there’s a shot this will be a game-changer. “This confidence will change if we find a second strain, a fourth cluster and the bulk milk testing in spring throws up results otherwise. “We are not going to keep bashing our heads on this. We are not going to keep doing this because it’s fun. Once it looks like it’s not good we will change,” Smith said. But farmers will have to take responsibility and MPI must be able to trust farmers as professionals. “This is not a zero-risk option. There is no guaranteed result. “But I have genuine faith that 95% of farmers are doing what they have to do but for this to work we need that faith to be in 100%,” Smith said. “There is a need to step up and be honest. “This is a 10-year project. This is an investment to try and eradicate now. There will be tears and there will be wrong roads but we are in this together.” Looking from the outside in and coming from a sector with the most experience of any on biosecurity, North Otago pig farmer Ian Carter is working with the dairy industry to help with onfarm biosecurity. He did not have confidence in the eradication decision. He was also not convinced the so-called industry representatives sitting in Wellington are making decisions representative of farmers. He believed the response’s downfall was having insufficient practical farming experience involved. “I don’t believe industry body people sitting in Wellington are representing farmers as farmers would believe they are. “The overseas experts have little understanding of the commercial

HAVE FAITH: Farmers left the Timaru meeting with a firm message to be responsible and trustworthy as the nation works get rid of Mycoplasma bovis. Photo: Annette Scott

New moves to help in fight Annette Scott annettescott@xtra.co.nz

environment outside their own country and the discussions and outcomes around the table are highly influenced by the policy makers who don’t understand outside the Wellington CBD. “And that’s scary, really scary and when it fails it will be farmers to blame,” Carter said. MPI confirmed M bovis was circulating at least 18 months before it was aware of it. While the Government will stump up the $870 million for the phased eradication, Smith said the industry will have to pay back its 32% share eventually. “We are working with industry bodies as to what is the best way to achieve that. It will be a levy taken off the cheque before you see it but it won’t be a oneoff. “It will likely be over one to two years, even five years but that is yet to be determined.”

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NEIGHBOURS of infected and high-risk properties will be informed as part of new moves to support the Mycoplasma bovis response and improve biosecurity practices. Primary Industries Minister Damien O’Connor announced the moves after pressure from farmers. The changes being made can be done quickly without legislation. They include the Primary Industries Ministry directly informing neighbouring farms of infected properties or highrisk properties. “This is a measured step that balances the privacy concerns of individuals with the need for farmers to protect their own farms.” MPI will also publish

a list of Nait numbers of all affected animals on its website, including all animals associated with or traced from an infected property. “This will give farmers better information to make informed decisions when purchasing new stock.” MPI will do more to ensure enforcement of the Animal Status Declaration (ASD) form. It is a legal requirement for the form to accompany cattle when a stock sale takes place. Regulation and legislation changes are also being considered, including amending the Animal Products Act to add a new offence for failing to use the form correctly, amending the Nait Act to bring its search powers in line with the Search and Surveillance Act and new rules to control the use of discarded milk.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

FARM TALK: In Ashburton last week, from left, Federated Farmers president Michael Salvesen, National Party leader Simon Bridges, federation dairy chairman Chris Ford and Rangitata MP Andrew Falloon discussed issues. Photo: Annette Scott

Nats out building rural bridges Annette Scott annettescott@xtra.co.nz LIFE is not going to get easier anytime soon for rural New Zealanders, National Party leader Simon Bridges told a meeting of 300 people in Ashburton. Bridges, as part of his Connecting with Communities regional roadshow, said increased intervention in people’s everyday lives and policies that will make it harder for regional businesses to operate are becoming reality under the Labour-led Government. And changes to industrial relations law will directly affect regional economies. The big increase in the minimum wage and amendments to the 90day employment trial were prompting employers to think twice about taking on new staff. Taking the roading budget from the South Island to build a rail link in Auckland is a tragedy for the South Island.

“We have done a big job on the roads as we were absolutely clear we were going to do a four-lane highway from Christchurch to Ashburton and that would be a transformational game-changer for regional economies in terms of efficiency, productivity and safety. “When we get back in we will start,” Bridges said. Add fuel taxes and increased compliance there’s a lot going on to hurt regional and small rural communities. “I’m worried about regional economies, your businesses and government talking farmers and rural companies down. “But looking at GDP down today, the chickens are coming home to roost,” Bridges said. Bridges believes the balance is about right in the existing Dairy Industry Restructuring Act. “I am worried about one thing and that’s the potential for it to become a political playground. “I don’t like ministers sticking it

to the bigger companies. It’s not good for anything.” While competition is good to drive innovation it has to be remembered while Fonterra is NZ’s biggest multi-national, on the global scene it’s really not that big, Bridges said. Farmers questioned Bridges on immigration and the desperate need for more workers, especially in the dairy industry. “Ashburton is unique in that we are virtually zero unemployment with not enough people to staff farms and rural agribusinesses – how do we make it better to get more people,” Federated Farmers dairy chairman Chris Ford asked. “While the Labour-led Government promised more workers into the regions, the bad news is, it’s a bit more complex than people say. “Don’t hold your breath, you will go blue,” Bridges said. He questioned the Government’s spending priorities saying the 125 working groups it had created cost millions

I’m worried about regional economies, your businesses and government talking farmers down. Simon Bridges National Party

and basically just provided jobs for consultants and retired politicians in Wellington. Meantime, he assured farmers National remains positive about farming. “Farmers are doing a great job and we are focused on working with and for farmers and farming industries. “Government runs best when there is less of the Beehive and more of you. “I believe we set you up with the infrastructures and the policy and let you get on with it.”

Late boost for last season’s final milk tally NEW Zealand milk processors collected record levels of milk in the last two months of the 201718 season as favourable weather boosted pasture growth, helping make up for trying spring and early summer conditions. Dairy Companies Association data shows the country’s milk processors collected 88,812,000 kilograms of milksolids in May, up 5.7% from May last year and setting a new record for the month. That followed a record collection of 148,177,000kg MS in April and means production for the full season to the end of May was down 0.6% from the previous year. “The 2017-18 season will be remembered by many dairy farmers for the trying conditions they were dealt during the spring and early summer,” AgriHQ chief analyst Susan Kilsby said. “Milk production was hampered during the spring by extremely wet conditions that restricted pasture growth. “This was followed by an early summer drought. “However, extremely favourable conditions for pasture production prevailed in the later part of the season. “They resulted in extra milk in the vat during the later months of the season.” The total milk collection for the 2017-18 season of 1839 million kg MS is 2.7% behind the 2014-15 season when NZ’s milk intake peaked at 1890 million kg MS, AgriHQ said. Dairy products are New Zealand’s largest export commodity. – BusinessDesk

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

NEWS BRIEFS Meat parties to meet BEEF + Lamb New Zealand managers will meet their counterparts from The Lamb Company next month to try to smooth over concerns about the launch of the Origin Brand in North America. The Lamb Company, a joint venture between Alliance, Anzco and Silver Fern Farms, has been developing the North American market with its own brand for 54 years but has concerns the introduction of another NZ brand will confuse consumers. The company wants B+LNZ to focus its Taste Pure Nature brand in markets such as China. Lamb Company chairman Trevor Burt said his management team will meet B+LNZ in the United States next month then make a recommendation to the B+LNZ board. B+LNZ said details of the role out of its origin brand were still to be confirmed and discussed with the industry.

New science adviser PROFESSOR Juliet Gerrard is to replace Professor Sir Peter Gluckman as the prime minister’s chief science adviser. Gerrard is associate dean of research at Auckland University’s science faculty. In her first weeks in the job Gerrard will connect with departmental science advisers and key stakeholders and visit scientists around the country to listen to a range of views on the opportunities that science, in its broadest sense, offers New Zealand. Gerrard trained at Oxford University where she completed honours and doctorate degrees in chemistry and biological chemistry. She was a scientist at Crop and Food Research when she was appointed as a lecturer in biochemistry at Canterbury University in 1998 where she became professor and director of the Biomolecular Interaction Centre until 2014. Her research at Auckland University has included biochemistry, health, agriculture, food science and biomaterial design.

DOC explains legal game export process Tim Fulton timfulton050@gmail.com DEER and other game animal products are getting a new export process and the Department of Conservation (DOC) is trying to ensure exports aren’t stopped at foreign ports because of it. Japanese border authorities last month stopped a New Zealand velvet exporter’s shipment at an airport because they did not recognise DOC’s approach to certifying legally hunted and farmed game animals.

DOC has been issuing certificates of export for deer, tahr and chamois products.

DOC has been issuing certificates of export for deer, tahr and chamois products. A new form letter from DOC director general Lou Sanson will list seven species of introduced deer plus Himalayan tahr, chamois and possums. They are introduced species that can be legally hunted and exported as trophies, velvet, fur and meat. Export sources said some of the recent border confusion arose from DOC stamping certificates with both a DOC logo and a CITES certificate. The DOC insignia has no standing as an export mark. CITES is a legally-binding global convention between 180 countries meant to stifle trade in endangered species. NZ joined CITES in 1989 and

passed the Trade in Endangered Species Act 1989. Under the Act DOC issues permits for CITESlisted specimens exported from or coming into NZ. The illegal trade in CITES specimens is worth billions of dollars a year and about 6000 species of animals and 30,000 species of plants are protected by the convention. DOC national compliance manager Marta Lang said none of this country’s ordinary game products are from CITES-listed species so NZ legislation does not require their individual certification. Domestically, DOC is talking to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and the Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade and reaching out to exporters who have in the past received DOC certificates of exports, as it prepares to change this service. The department is also engaging with CITES regulatory authorities in importing countries on the matter. So far there has been contact with officials in the United States, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Japan, Germany, Britain, Denmark and Korea. Meantime, DOC continues to issue certificates of export for non-CITES species. There is no internationally accepted CITES standard for certifying nonCITES species, Lang said. DOC is not considering passing responsibilities for the export certification to MPI or any other agency, she said. MPI certifies exported animal material and animal products for animal health and food safety purposes. Neither would the Game Animal Council have a management role, Lang said. The council is an independent

FAIR GAME: Chamois are among the species that can legally be hunted in New Zealand.

statutory body that will make its own decisions as to how it supports its hunting sector stakeholders through the documentation change. DOC is liaising with the council about the proposed changes, she said. Exporters will be able to download the final version of the new DOC letter from the department’s website along with other export documents to get their products into overseas markets from July 17. DOC plans to stop providing certificates of export on July 27. It charges a $40 administration fee for a certificate. The new letter will be free. Sanson’s letter is available on the DOC website, in draft form.

APPROVED: Conservation Department director-general Lou Sanson has writing a letter listing animal species that can be hunted.

doc.govt.nz/non-cites-exports

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10 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Minister upbeat on ag’s carbon role Richard Rennie richard.rennie@nzx.com AS CONSULTATION kicks off for the Zero Carbon Bill, Climate Change Minister James Shaw is feeling upbeat about farmers’ attitude to their role in a decarbonised economy. Shaw used Mystery Creek Fieldays and regional meetings to get a gauge on farmers’ feelings about how agriculture will be accommodated and is coming away surprised at how positive feedback had been. He acknowledged there is no silver bullet for dealing with farming’s inevitable contribution to greenhouse gas emissions but also reiterated it is almost a generational change he wants to achieve.

This is an opportunity for us to take to the rest of the world. Damien O’Connor Agriculture Minister “We have to remember we are talking about a 30-year transition to a zero-carbon economy. “The whole point of the bill is to create a sense of certainty, a pathway to drive innovation.” When asked on his personal view about including farming in ETS, Shaw said there has always been a presumption agriculture would ultimately come into the ETS mix, when conditions were right. “And that is partly why we have moved to set up an independent Climate Change Commission to look at these sorts of things.” Expectations are agriculture will initially have only 5% of its emissions costed into the scheme. Government officials are very aware of the risk of carbon leakage occurring where a limit on emissions in one country’s production simply leads to

products being imported from another where emissions are not recognised or costed. “While we have some fuzziness around such issues, having 95% allocation offsets that.” The Act will recognise the ETS scheme as a tool for managing gas emissions but the ETS itself is also under a separate review. Shaw doubts the ETS will be dumped for any other system. While it has its faults, he remains confident they can be ironed out. Government officials have been looking hard at the United Kingdom’s Climate Change Commission, which has been running for a decade. “Theirs is probably the best and the first but we also get to see what has not worked in it and adjust for that here.” That includes the need for a commission to be able to pressure a government to meet certain reduction timelines. And as important a tool as the ETS is for any commission it might not be the only tool. “The big lesson to come out of extensive modelling is that if you relied on ETS alone that carbon price will rise too high. It’s too much risk to rely just on that. The Government has to facilitate transfers so people come in under that price.” Shaw sees some sort of national branding that recognises lower carbon emissions, controlled nutrient losses and environmental sustainability as the holy grail for the country’s primary sector when it comes to marketing products. It is a view shared by Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor who expressed a desire to see New Zealand pursue a sustainability brand similar to Ireland’s Origin Green certification. “If we can be the world’s first net zero carbon food producers with all the other things it adds value to our food products.” It was also becoming evident other countries are interested in learning about how NZ is coping with its livestock emissions. “They have all been working on reducing their carbon emissions so, by default, their livestock

SHOWING THE WAY: The point of the Zero Carbon Bill is to provide certainty and a path to innovation, Climate Change Minister James Shaw says.

emissions are forming a larger portion of total gas losses. “At a United Nations climate change convention in Bonn I had half a dozen conversations with country representatives with entirely different gas profiles to ours, wanting to know what NZ was doing? “This is an opportunity for us to take to the rest of the world,” O’Connor said. Independent reviews have shown NZ’s Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium is a world leader in ruminant gas emission research. Consultation on the Zero Carbon Bill runs until July 19.

HAVE YOUR SAY:

The public consultation period on the Zero Carbon Bill runs till July 19. Feedback can be provided through the Ministry for the Environment website ourclimateyoursay.nz.

Only one option ONLY one of the proposed options for a new emissions reduction target in the Zero Carbon Bill consultation paper is both achievable and responsible, DairyNZ chief executive Dr Tim Mackle says. “To secure New Zealand’s future as a sustainable agricultural nation we must see long-lived gases reduced to net zero and short-lived gases like methane reduced and stabilised in accordance with scientific evidence. “We know methane needs to reduce and we welcome the opportunity to work with the Government on just how much that reduction needs to be.” Science shows methane doesn’t need to be reduced to

zero because it is a short-lived gas. “Allowing a specific amount of methane emissions will safeguard New Zealand’s future as an agricultural nation,” Mackle said. “Right now we are working with farmers to help them optimise their farm systems, which will assist in reducing methane. We’re also investing in the development of a methane vaccine and inhibitor. “All three proposed targets will still require significant uptake in forestry planting and we hope to work with the Government on simple changes to ETS forestry regulations to make planting more accessible for dairy farmers.

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News

12 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

ONE SHOT: If the Waimea irrigation project doesn’t proceed, millions of dollars in funding will be lost, chairman Murray King says.

Dam supporters wait on others Tim Fulton timfulton050@gmail.com WAIMEA Irrigation chairman Murray King knows that Ruataniwha feeling. After 30 years of trying to store water for Nelson’s Waimea Plains it all comes down to a group of councillors and the Department of Conservation. Like the ill-fated Central Hawke’s Bay scheme, Waimea Irrigation is wrestling with arguments about public good versus private benefit, the estimated $80 million cost and the chance of being tripped up by local and central government. Rautaniwha folded partly because it couldn’t get enough regional councillors to back it and because DOC land couldn’t be released for the project. There are striking similarities in Nelson’s Lee Valley, even

though Tasman District Council has signed up to underwrite the Waimea Community Dam with Crown lending. The council is responsible for water allocations and environmental policy in the area. Waimea Irrigation says summer flows on the river must be increased otherwise rural and urban landowners will face severe summer shortages and radically reduced water allocations. It predicted small and medium businesses will be forced to cut operations or shut. King said if the dam doesn’t go ahead the council will simply reallocate the water for other uses. The scheme would give plains horticulturalists reliable water, especially during a couple of critical weeks in mid summer. Unlike other irrigation schemes, the dam would store water for release into the Waimea River,

supplementing the minimum flow and topping up aquifers. Crop-growers and others drawing water from aquiferlinked bores would benefit from the recharge. Urban water supplies across the Waimea Plains would get a surge too. On June 28 the council will consider a cost review and decide whether to include the dam in its long term plan. Nelson City Council is also in play, finalising its own long-term plan and confirming an initial pledge of $5m for the dam. King is cautious about late stumbles. “There are some councillors who are less than convinced it’s a good idea.” It also needed DOC to sell 9ha for the dam. “Effectively, we’ve nearly ended up in a slightly worse position (than Ruataniwha) to be honest.

We’re at the beck and call of others at the moment.” King said the dam would inundate a small amount of land and DOC has mostly supported the project because stored water from the dam would boost aquifers and help downstream conservation. However, DOC said Waimea couldn’t or shouldn’t proceed without first doing a final cost assessment. A local Bill has to go through Parliament for the land sale to happen and King expects it could be the end of the year before DOC makes a final call on it. Waimea Irrigation has raised $16.5m through a share issue and Crown Irrigation Investments is lending it just over $22m through a low-interest loan to the Tasman council. It is also directly offering Waimea a $10m interest-free

loan and a $7m grant from the Freshwater Improvement Fund – a legacy of the National Government. King said everyone is keenly aware Waimea has one shot at using the government assistance now the Labour-New Zealand First coalition, supported by the Greens has vetoed future applications. “If this doesn’t proceed, $40m in grants, no interest loans and low interest loans will be lost.” Ongoing operating costs for the dam will be shared between Waimea and Tasman council. The latter’s share of operating costs is about $715,000 a year, which will be funded from water rates, charges and targeted rates. Waimea said the capital cost of the dam is four times cheaper than the next alternative, a standalone urban water supply.

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Top economist moves to Manawatu Richard Rennie richard.rennie@nzx.com

SHIFTING FOCUS: Con Williams is moving from banking to investment.

PGG Wrightson is strong at home

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PGG Wrightson has reaffirmed its forecast for annual earnings, saying weaker performance from its Australian and South American businesses will be offset by better trading in New Zealand. Operating earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation are expected to be $65 million to $70m in the year to June 30, up from $64.5m last year and in line with its February forecast, the Christchurch-based company said. “Overall, the agricultural sector in NZ remains robust and is having a profitable year with solid production and good prices,” chief executive Ian Glasson said. “PGW’s Australian and South American businesses have faced tough conditions with both regions being too dry to meet their sales targets. “Despite these headwinds we continue to expect an increase in overall operating ebitda for PGW this year

with PGW sharing in the broader prosperity in the NZ agriculture sector, highlighting the resilience of its diversified business model.” In February, the company said 2018 net profit would be about 20% lower than last year’s $46.3m because of one-time gains from property sales in 2017. Glasson said net profit after tax from normal trading is now forecast to be about 25% lower, reflecting the lack of significant property sales that added $8.7m to earnings last year, an expected loss on currency hedges and costs associated with potential Holidays Act remediation. “The recent dip in the value of the NZ dollar means our export currency hedges are likely to mark-to-market as an unrealised loss,” Glasson said. “There are also non-trading items outside operating ebitda that have the potential to impact reported npat in FY2018.

“For example, as is the case with many large NZ employers, PGW is continuing to work through a process to quantify the cost of historical liabilities under the Holidays Act 2003.” The recent Mycoplasma bovis outbreak is having little effect on the company’s financial performance and it is working closely with customers to monitor the impact on the broader sector. In October, PGW hired Credit Suisse (Australia) and First NZ Capital to run a strategic review of the business, looking at the firm’s capital and shareholding structures and identifying the best route to pursue growth. Glasson said the review is progressing well and the company hopes to comment further on outcomes from this work later in the year. Its shares last traded at 70 cents, having increased 23% over the past year. – BusinessDesk

A LOOMING capital gap in rapidly developing areas of the primary sector has prompted one of the country’s leading rural economists to make the move from bank to investment company. Con Williams has been appointed as head of MyFarm’s newly formed investment research division as the company branches further into investment areas beyond its pastoral roots, including viticulture, orchard and kiwifruit investments. Attending Mystery Creek Fieldays under the ANZ banner for the last time Williams said he suspected the work he had done several years ago predicting the surging growth in some horticultural areas had been well received by MyFarm as it made its first foray into the sector. He intended to extend that further. “And what we have been seeing is a capital gap opening up in these sectors where they have grown very quickly. “MyFarm has been interested in these sectors due to the growth opportunity that is out there. In addition, the ability to source foreign investment is getting restricted. It’s not so much a source any more.” There is also a demographic shift happening in sectors where established owners are looking to exit or for succession options for freeing up equity. “I am not sure that the banking sector is quite as competitive in these areas.” For investments in the primary sector to work for all parties it is important to have a counter party capable of doing a good job on the ground managing the biological assets it is made up of. Acquiring the asset at the right valuation and at the right time are also both important. MyFarm was one of the early

movers into the dairy farm equity market but more recently has focused efforts on primary sector investments beyond the more traditional pastoral areas. “These are areas I have done quite a bit of work in and a lot of what we worked on is playing out now.” That includes significant growth in the kiwifruit sector, viticultural success on the back of the wine industry and even growth in the low-profile hop industry.

MyFarm has been interested in these sectors due to the growth opportunity that is out there. In addition, the ability to source foreign investment is getting restricted. Con Williams MyFarm At a personal level Williams said he had spent eight years at ANZ, achieving as much as was professionally possible there. “I have always been interested in investing in businesses, despite choosing the career of an analyst, but it’s not just about being a good economist, it’s also about being a good investor.” Williams will be relocating to MyFarm’s head office in Fielding, putting him closer to the family farm in Hawke’s Bay. MyFarm chief executive Andrew Watters said Williams is the best primary sector analyst in the country. “His work has been incredibly important for us as we have ventured into new primary sectors such as apples, kiwifruit and viticulture.”

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News

14 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Manuka protection needs cash Richard Rennie richard.rennie@nzx.com MANUKA Honey Appellation Society members are optimistic money will be forthcoming for a bid to protect the manuka honey brand as a trade mark and ultimately as a Geographical Indication (GI). A high-level conference on manuka’s status earlier this month was met with a largely positive reception from Government officials, society spokesman John Rawcliffe said. Rawcliffe and others in the industry hope a cash injection to protect the brand for New Zealanders will soon be forthcoming. “So far, as an industry group, we have invested $1 million into manuka honey for its protection and we have already seen the landmark decision made in the United Kingdom where their Trade Registry has accepted the filing of the term manuka as a certification mark,” Rawcliffe said. To gain more wholesale protection the industry, however, needs another $1.4m to get it filed and accepted internationally. Once in place there will be a full insurance programme with Lloyds to deliver ongoing protection on the brand name manuka. Rawcliffe said producers

are buoyed by acting Prime Minister Winston Peters who said Australians are selling inferior honey under a manuka label. Peters said he did not understand why apiarists in Australia are able to get away with it and expressed a desire to defend NZ’s honey markets from Australian products.

Having the United Kingdom say that manuka is definitively a Maori word is worth gold. John Rawcliffe Manuka Honey Appellation Society British officials acknowledge manuka is a Maori word for the plant Leptospermum scoparium. While it also grows outside NZ it is known by different common names in those places. “Having the United Kingdom say that manuka is definitively a Maori word is worth gold,” Rawcliffe said. “It’s a very strong ruling.” Cost-benefit analysis shows the returns from protecting manuka as a brand significantly outweigh the

funds required to protect it. A Primary Growth Partnership put a target value of $1.2 billion of exports on the sector by 2028 for a product with an average export price of $58/kg. It has cost $1m to secure trademark certifications for the descriptor manuka honey between 2018-2020 with $4.5m required to protect and administer the intellectual property over 10 years. The investment of $5.5m is estimated to deliver a 650% rate of return in 2028 and a cumulative annual return over the next 10 years of $2.1b. Rawcliffe said the greatest value in the protection comes by ensuring other countries, particularly Australia, cannot use the term and risk pushing down the value of NZ manuka honey. And manuka might be only the first in a suite of protected NZsourced food descriptors to come and the time is right amid so much talk of adding value and telling the NZ story. “We have the whole suite of honeys, including rewarewa and pohutukawa, then seafood including hoki and even some of our cheeses.” Protecting GIs is likely to be a key negotiation point between NZ and Europe under a post-Brexit trade agreement. Special agricultural trade envoy

FAKE? Australians are selling honey labelled as manuka.

Mike Petersen said GI protection of European cheeses is one of the big three issues on the agenda for visiting European trade officials to discuss with their NZ counterparts in free-trade negotiations. “The risk right now is that the EU does not want us to use descriptors like feta or parmesan. “But I don’t think there has been too much thinking here about how we could capitalise on it the other way around. “Marlborough is protected but sauvignon blanc is not and why

could we not have NZ parmesan or feta?” Italy claims the most items protected under EU GI regulations with 294, compared to 245 from France and only 69 from Britain. However. Britain has eight protected fresh meat products generating 40% of GI protected EU fresh meat sales. Scotch Whisky remains the highest profile protected product, earning an estimated £5b a year, similar to long protected Champagne’s €4.7b.

Comvita spreads its wings to Uruguay for propolis COMVITA has bought 20% of Uruguay’s Apiter for US$6.25 million and signed a long-term supply agreement to secure another source of propolis for sales in Asia. The price is comprised of US$5.65m in cash and milestone earnouts and US$600,000 of Comvita shares, with settlement on July 2.

Propolis is made by bees from plant resins to protect and sterilise their hives. “We have always been supply-constrained for New Zealand sourced propolis,” chief executive Scott Coulter said. “Together with a long-term supply agreement the investment in Apiter removes our supply constraints for this key ingredient

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platform. “Although this investment is not material from a groupearnings perspective in the short term it underpins our long-term strategy of this business segment. “While relatively unknown in NZ, propolis and its health properties are well understood, with a high level of consumer awareness throughout many

Asian markets,” he said. “Particularly in China, we sell a large range of propolis capsules, tablets, soft gels, tinctures and toothpastes.” Last month Comvita said it had ended talks with a party that had been doing due diligence with the intention of making a full or partial takeover of it. In April the company slashed

its forecast after-tax operating profit to $8m to $11m for the year ending June 30, down from an earlier forecast for earnings of more than $17.1m because of the poor honey harvest. Comvita shares fell 0.2% to $5.73 and have gained 6% in the past year, lagging behind a 17% gain in the S&P/NZX 50 Index. – BusinessDesk

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News

16 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Ag exports in trade stand-off Nigel Stirling nigel.g.stirling@gmail.com EUROPE’S top trade official flew into Wellington last week to launch talks for a free-trade deal amid an increasingly tense stand-off over the future of New Zealand’s agricultural export quotas. The visit by European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom is the culmination of years of effort by NZ governments to bag a free-trade deal with the 28-country trading bloc. However, exporters can be forgiven for keeping the champagne on ice as they contemplate Malmstrom’s recent proposal for carving up longstanding quotas for sheep meat, dairy and beef exports to the EU. In the case of sheep meat NZ can export up to 228,000 tonnes to the EU free of tariffs. While less significant for dairy and beef the sheep meat quota underpins the EU as the industry’s single most valuable market. Last month Malmstrom asked

HALF EACH:: European Union Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom wants to split the existing New Zealand sheep meat quota between the EU and Britain. member states to approve the commission’s negotiating position with NZ and other countries over the future of their EU quotas following Brexit in March 2019. For sheep meat the proposal would see the quota split down the middle – half being allocated for exports to the United Kingdom and the other half to sales to the 27 countries remaining in the EU.

NZ exporters now able to send all 228,000 tonnes to either the UK or the continent free of tariffs would be able to send only half that amount before a 50% out-ofquota tariff kicks in. Beef + Lamb NZ policy and advocacy general manager Dave Harrison said the proposal limits NZ’s ability to redirect exports to either the UK or the continent in response to changing market conditions. The quota was originally negotiated by NZ during the 1970s and was reaffirmed in the Uruguay round of global trade talks in the mid 1990s. “Flexibility is a key part of what we negotiated and this takes that away.” Last September NZ’s ambassador to the World Trade Organisation along with ambassadors from six other countries with EU export quotas wrote to the EU and UK representatives at the WTO in Geneva. In the letter the countries rejected suggestions the quotas

More clarity for foreign investors Neal Wallace neal.wallace@nzx.com SOME certainty has returned for overseas investors who want to buy New Zealand farmland after six months in limbo as the Government reviews the thresholds buyers must meet. Potential sales have been on hold as foreigners stepped back because of the uncertainty, Duncan Cotterill Lawyers special counsel Christina Lefever said. ”There was some concern it was almost impossible to pass the test.” The Overseas Investment Office in April provided some clarity by approving three consents and established a threshold applicants had to meet. It also showed the door is not closed to foreign investors by confirming the weighting given to claimed benefits. Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage set out 16 legal and regulatory factors the OIO must have regard to when considering an application. The priorities are the claimed increase in jobs, the introduction of new technology and business skills, increased export receipts, increased investment in processing and the degree of ownership and control retained by NZ citizens. Weight is also given to environmental impacts while the perception buyers can gain approval by making grants or donations has been laid to rest and given a very low weighting. Lefever said foreign investors understand it is a privilege to buy NZ farmland and they have to meet a high test.

be split – a move they said flew in the face of WTO rules that state no country should be left any worse off by new trade agreements. Harrison said by formally seeking a negotiating mandate the EU’s trade negotiators have basically thumbed their nose at those countries’ concerns.

Flexibility is a key part of what we negotiated and this takes that away.

“They are couching it as being an interim position but it does look like they are ploughing on with the approach that doesn’t meet our needs.” Trade Minister David Parker said he intended to raise the matter with Malmstrom during her visit. “Our message to the EU continues to be that there is a better way to resolve this issue –

through working with concerned WTO members and being open to finding creative solutions rather than adding to the strains in the international trade environment by seeking to push through an approach that would not properly honour their WTO commitments and would leave us worse off.” Last November Parker floated an alternative proposal to deal with the quotas during a visit here by his British counterpart Liam Fox. It is understood that involved replicating the 228,000-tonne sheep meat quota in full across both the UK and the EU. By administering the quotas from NZ it would be possible for export licences to be revoked once the existing quota limit had been exceeded. That would ensure farmers here and in the EU and the UK are no worse off, as all sides claim they want, and as the EU and the UK are legally obliged to provide. However, when asked this week Parker said he had as yet had no formal response to the proposal.

Dung beetles prove attractive Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@nzx.com

RULES: Land Information Minister Eugenie Sage has set out 16 factors that can influence Overseas Investment Office decisions and the weight they should be given.

The new threshold is the same for all classes of land, including South Island high country pastoral leases. The time taken to review the criteria has created some anxiety but her message to farmers is that the door is not closed to foreign buyers. “My advice to vendors is to engage with overseas investors as to what their OIO strategy is and I suggest vendors seek their own legal strategy for the OIO.” Meanwhile, the Government last week introduced the Overseas Investment Amendment Bill, designed rationalise forestry investment by including

forestry rights for lots over 1000ha. It introduces a streamlined consent for investors in freehold or leasehold land and forestry rights, including a system for standing consents that grants investors approval before entering future forestry transactions. National Party finance spokeswoman Amy Adams said “Forestry investments have been given a free pass while the same investments into viticulture have been effectively blocked without any clear justification for the distinction between the two.”

DUNG beetles were among the most-watched exhibitors at the National Fieldays, their site seldom free of visitors who spent several minutes on the industrious insects. Using a large egg timer-style display case the same beetles were upended every so often and fell afresh onto a pile of earth and proceeded to dig themselves in and circle the perimeter. Another live display was a crosssectional soil profile showing the tunnels of beetles and their efforts to build nests of egg cases for the next generation. The exhibitor was Dung Beetle Innovations, of Kumeu, in West Auckland, a new company that has spent two years breeding several of the different beetle species approved for introduction to New Zealand. It offers landowners packages of beetle colonies containing up to four species to broaden their dung burying activities to eight months of the year, ranging in cost from $2000 to $6000. Co-principal and entomologist Shaun Forgie and fellow investor and director Andrew Barber emphasised the environmental benefits of dung beetle populations in improving water quality, reducing animal parasites, reducing soil compaction and improving pasture growth. The company grew out of the four-year importation and research project funded by farmers and interested parties that secured approval from the Environmental Risk Management

UNDERGROUND: Dung Beetle Innovation co-founder Shaun Forgie with one of the company’s beetle displays at the National Fieldays.

Authority in 2011 over 11 species of the 7000 found worldwide. Mexican dung beetles were introduced to Northland in the 1950s, being a smaller variety than the eight European and African species now being sold. Native species don’t like sheep and cattle dung. Domestic grazing animals deposit 100 million tonnes of dung a year that takes up to six months to break down. Dung beetles can do the job in a matter of days, effectively cleaning up the pasture and reducing the effluent run-off potential because of better retention of dung and urine in the soil. The company’s promotional material said dung beetles will redefine the approach to livestock manure by completing the natural, sustainable nutrient cycle.

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News

18 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Fieldays brings up the half century

HANDS-ON: Deveon Young, 8, from Te Awamutu learns CPR at the Fieldays health hub.

HEAVE-HO: Bradley Pako competes in the wood chopping.

FLYING HIGH: Dirt the dog clears a hurdle during dog trials.

HI-VIZ: Emily and Rosalie from Hamilton enjoying a break at Fieldays.

LINE-UP: Competitors in the Golden Pliers competition ready to go.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Photographer Aaron Davies captured the sights of National Fieldays at Mystery Creek as it celebrated its 50th event.

BIG BIRTHDAY: National Fieldays celebrated its 50th event this year.

BIG NUMBERS: Record crowds were reported through the gates at Fieldays this year.

WIRE TO WIRE: Tony Bouskill lines up in the fencing competition.

SHORN: Fliss Downes gives George Wynyard a going over at the Barter Barber.

OPEN FOR BUSINESS: Fieldays Society president and board chair Peter Carr opens Fieldays with Governor General Dame Patsy Reddy.

News

20 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Robot mind seeks volunteer farmer Richard Rennie richard.rennie@nzx.com A FARM computer system farmers not only talk to but which will talk back offering advice on what paddock to graze next, which irrigator to turn on and even who turned up for milking is only a volunteer farm away from reality. That is the next phase of a voice-assisted farm management system showcased by Massey University researchers at this year’s Fieldays. While its title of Smart Assistant is simple enough the interactive artificial intelligence system incorporates gigabytes of data collected from the university’s No 4 dairy farm and is accessible through Amazon’s Alexa voice device. “What we found in the course of developing the Alexa-driven system was farmers tell us there is no shortage of data out there for them,” robotics expert Professor Johan Potgieter said. “Their issue was accessing what they wanted in a simpler

way. Even having apps now there are simply too many of them and finding the right app, the right dashboard of information is now too much to access. They wanted their information to be more digestible.” Rather, they want information from the data that highlights the abnormal, the departures from the expected. “But given the level of volatility farms now experience it can be hard for us as humans to catch those anomalies, whereas Artificial Intelligence (AI) engines are very good at this. “Deep learning systems absorb all the data. They can remember previous anomalies and find links between them, making sense of that data better than we are capable of doing.” The Massey farm assistant can answer questions as broad as how milking went or the cover in a certain paddock. The system is an effort to take AI and machine learning out of the realm of pure robotics and into the agri-space.

“Initially, machine learning started through surveillance systems analysing videos of crowds for security.” But major advances in open platform, cloud-based, AI software have meant technology can be applied in more intuitive interactive uses. The smarts behind the Massey system is TensorFlow, an opensource AI software library developed by Google that provides super-computer capacity to researchers wanting to advance AI-driven systems without having to invest in the computer power themselves. “We basically feed all the information and images we have into this, with the parameters and weightings we want.” New Zealand traditionally has a poor reputation for tech transfer from concept to commercial pickup. “So, our hope is that by using these open source platforms that are accessible for researchers it will hasten that pick-up through to the likes of farmers.”

SPEAK TO ME: Doctoral student Hayden Wilson, left, and Professor of Robotics Johan Potgieter with the Alexa system.

Initial responses from farmers at both Mystery Creek and Central Districts Field Days have been overwhelmingly positive. “They like it that all those apps they have to access are all sitting behind Alexa and it’s Alexa that has to use them to get the information they are seeking – you don’t have to open them yourself. There is no password or dashboard. You simply receive the answer you want.” Grumbling opposition occasionally comes from baby boomers but younger farmers are fascinated and keen to try the system.

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The researchers anticipate commercialisation of the system is close but what particularly excites Potgieter is the next phase. “That is where the system starts to make recommendations to you. That could be to turn on an irrigator, shift the stock or start harvesting.” Using an array of sensors linked via the internet of things that include monitors for weather, soil moisture, water flows, pasture growth and stock demand he intends to move it to that level. “Really, this is as close as we can find a volunteer farm to set it up on as a trial adopter.”

Help us choose which destination we’ll be flying to on our inaugural Farmers Weekly Global Trek. In partnership with CR McPhail, New Zealand’s leading farm tour operator, we’ll be taking farmers and agribusiness professionals to a destination that will open their eyes to farming innovations. See what the world has to offer and vote online to be in to win a $200 clothing voucher from our prize draw partner, Stoney Creek. Follow our journey on Facebook and Instagram (@farmersweeklynz). #fwglobaltrek

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

O’Connor: Innovate as quickly as possible AGRICOM’S new Ecotain environmental plantain won the Fieldays Innovation Launch Award. The two other major Fieldays Innovations awards went to Acuris Systems for its prototype robot used in kiwifruit orchards and to Pamu Farming (Landcorp) for the deer milking partnership with Peter and Sharon McIntyre. They won the prototype and established innovation awards respectively. Highly commended prototype went to Maraeroa C Incorporation for its Ginseng Berry Gin and highly commended launch product went to Paysauce for a season time sheet and contract rate application for orchard supervisors. Agricom animal nutritionist Glenn Judson gave a five-minute overview of Ecotain to the Callaghan Onfarm Innovation Seminar along with six other innovations plus contributions from Callaghan and the Environment Ministry. He said four independent mechanisms combined to reduced nitrogen leaching under plantain by up to 89% relative to normal ryegrass pastures. They are dilute, reduce, delay and restrict. Research had shown not all plantains work in the four ways. The reduce, dilution and delay effects give plants in the sward more opportunity to use urine nitrogen, thus cutting down on leaching.

The restrict effect is a reduction in nitrification. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor opened the seminar saying his responsibility is to encourage all environmental innovators to push ahead as quickly as possible. Three days of speeches and networking at Fieldays were a highlight of his ministerial year and he found the onfarm innovation presentations both exhilarating and frustrating. Frustrating because the products and services are needed in agriculture and horticulture now to address environmental issues and tackle the nation’s carbon zero target. Farmers themselves could also do with one farm environment plan (FEP) that also signed off on biosecurity, animal welfare and the quality assurance schemes now demanded by exporters and their customers. He commended Fonterra for aiming to cover all its supply farms with FEPs. O’Connor foreshadowed some extension services provided by the Ministry for Primary Industries working in collaboration with private farm advisers and other rural professionals. Companies that presented in the Callaghan seminar were CRV on its genetics to reduce urine nitrogen in dairy cattle, Eko360’s controlled release nitrogen Smartfert, GPS-it with environmental mapping for building FEPs, Pastoral Robotics and its Spikey detection and treatment of urine patches, Regen for its data collection

WINNERS: Fieldays chief executive Peter Nation, left, presented Agricom project manager Leanne Clemens and animal nutritionist Glenn Judson with their Innovation Award.

and recommendations covering effluent, water, and nitrogen and Ravensdown for the Clear Tech water recycling product. O’Connor also presented UBCO with the Fieldays International Innovation Award for its two wheel-drive electric utility vehicle.

The 2018 UBCO 2x2 was praised for being e-smart, eco-friendly and safer than competing farm bikes and ATVs. It is street legal and suitable for both on and offroad uses. Equilume from

Sponsored award winners: • Young Innovator of the Year Award: St Paul’s Gudgeon Guard • Vodafone Innovation Technology Award: Halter • Sprout Global Growth Award: Equilume • Locus Research Innovation Award: T C Fence Systems • Origin Innovation IP: Micropod • Crowe Horwath Agri Innovation Award: Kelvin Thermo Dog • Tompkins Wake IP and Commercialisation Award: Halter • Callaghan Innovation Partnership and Collaboration Award: Holsim

A new Vista for Ireland Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@nzx.com IRELAND’S dairy and meat industries will benefit from research and extension work worth £40 million over six years by a new publicprivate partnership called Vista Milk. It will take on new projects along the supply chain from the soil to beef and milk, Teagasc research director Frank O’Mara said at the Enterprise Ireland exhibit at Fieldays. Teagasc is the Irish Agriculture and Food Development Authority. Vista Milk will begin in September with links between more than 100 researchers and academic and industry collaborators. It will be a joint venture between agri-food and ICT institutes as well as leading companies in both sectors. “We looked elsewhere

before coming up with this concept but this will be a truly pastoral initiative, whereas comparable efforts are grain-fed or indoors,” O’Mara said. “It is appropriate that I speak here in Hamilton because New Zealand and Ireland share the pastoral imperative and we already collaborate on much research.” Ireland is using the Primary Growth Partnership approach now going out of favour with the Labour-led Government. Vista Milk is also taking the Agrigate approach of electronic service delivery pioneered by Fonterra over the past two years. Ownership and control of agricultural data is a big issue to be tackled initially before expanding the digital toolbox. The needs and working behaviour of farmers will

NEW VIEW: Vista Milk will do research and extension work for the Irish dairy and meat industries, Teagasc director of research Dr Frank O’Mara says.

be paramount in product development, Enterprise Ireland’s James Maloney said. Nobody wants to come up with over-engineered and complex applications that aren’t readily adopted. Many existing products and services can be more efficiently delivered through electronic means. Ireland has 1.4m dairy

cows and 18,500 dairy farms with an average herd of 84 cows. Farm aggregation has resulted in some much larger enterprises with 300-500 cows and the accompanying need for technological assistance, O’Mara said. Vista Milk will be the biggest project under Teagasc oversight, he said.

Ireland was highly commended for its device that shines a lowlevel blue light in one eye of a cow to increase milk yields in winter.

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Newsmaker

22 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Catch contest win minor distraction

BEST BET: Taihape’s Mairi Whittle is not only the Catch of the Year but she knows all about banking and is about to start running her own farm.

Mairi Whittle is having quite a year. Last week she won the Fieldays Rural Catch competition and if that isn’t enough at the end of July she takes over her family’s Taihape sheep and beef farm. She spoke to Neal Wallace.

T IS proving to be a busy few weeks for Mairi Whittle. Having won the Golden Gumboot at the Fieldays Rural Catch Competition she becomes the fourth generation of her family to run the 6000 stock unit, Makatote Station north east of Taihape at the end of July. A former rural banker, Whittle, 28, and her family have been working on a succession plan, allowing her parents Jim and Maggie to retire from the hillcountry sheep and beef farm. Whittle said her move to farm ownership is possible only because of those who have supported her and her career change from banking to farming. Key among those are her parents and Rob Stratton, her employer for the last 20 months, who she said have all patiently taught and refined her farming skills. They will be her mentors as she moves onto the home farm but Whittle said her parents have told her they want her to blaze her own path. Her time working for Stratton taught her the finer points of pasture management, skills she plans to implement on Makatote. Whittle said others such as dog trialists and breeders have given freely of their time and advice

READY: Rural Catch winner Mairi Whittle and her team of dogs are ready to take over running the family’s Taihape farm.

to help her build up a team of working dogs. “There are hard-working, humble people working in rural New Zealand and you just can’t beat it.” While acknowledging she is stepping into the deep end Whittle is excited about running the home farm. “I am so lucky to have landed in the right places.” Her Rural Catch victory and the $20,000 in prices that came with it, including a new Suzuki King Quad valued at $18,000, was something of a minor distraction as she prepares for farm ownership. But the prizes will come in handy. “When they said the motorbike would come in handy – it really will.” She entered the Rural Catch contest only because some friends decided she was suitable and did all the initial leg work. “Some friends decided it would be good for me – well it was either this or (reality television show) Married at First Sight.” Whittle, who says she is still single, decided there was nothing to lose. It was a quiet time of year, she was keen to have time off the farm and she was going to Fieldays anyway.

The contest format changed this year, from finding the most eligible bachelor to include women and Whittle and three other women lined up along with four men for a week of competition that tested their farming knowledge and ability.

There are hardworking, humble people working in rural New Zealand and you just can’t beat it.

She won. “What makes me a great catch? I’m not sure.” A Fieldays spokeswoman said changes to the competition reflected the theme of this year’s Fieldays, the Future of Farming, and the role women play in agriculture.

The tasks were not at Young Farmer of the Year level but included all-terrain vehicle riding skills, stripping a chainsaw, fencing, cooking, fitness and wellbeing, problem solving, dog handling and finance and while she was competent in most, having to complete them in front of people added a new dimension. The attitude of the contestants was also taken in to account and Whittle said it was a case of continuously smiling. Born and bred in Taihape, Whittle boarded at Feilding High School for her secondary school education then enrolled at Lincoln University where she got an agricultural commerce degree. On graduating, she worked for ANZ in Nelson and Marlborough for four years then a year in South Taranaki before heading overseas. That was to satisfy a travel bug but to also gain farm work experience, which she did

in Australia and the United Kingdom. “They were awesome jobs. “None paid particularly well but it reiterated that I was not an office girl.” On returning home she realised she needed further practical farm experience and was fortunate to get a job with Statton. As she embarks on a new chapter in her life Whittle’s next challenge will be getting her head around new farm management systems. She intends increasing ewe numbers and mating hoggets to take advantage of high sheep meat prices, add a herd of beef breeding cows and introduce some pasture management skills learnt from Stratton. “I want to get a really good, simple system in place and then build on that.” She said her parents worked hard developing Makatote, a quality farm with quality livestock. “I am extremely grateful for the hard work they have done setting up the farm and developing a good even line of Romney ewes.” A busy year for Whittle is about to get busier. “I’m pretty happy the way life has turned out, the icing on the cake being the golden gumboot which will sit on the mantlepiece.” Dairy farm manager Ben Fisher of Ohaupo finished second to Whittle while the award for Fieldays Rural Catch People’s Choice award went to Lilly Newton of Urenui, Taranaki, who won over the crowd with her sense of humour and good-natured banter. Before Fieldays started the contestants took part in a two-day Farmlands road trip where they competed in a range of activities at various Farmlands locations with Palmerston North’s Renae Flett winning the Farmlands Choice Award.

New thinking

THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Eye in sky gets measure of grass Farmers with their feet on the ground are rapidly adopting new technology that gives them a head in the clouds. Drones are increasingly popular and now farmers can let satellites do the walking as they mothball the platemeter in favour of surprisingly accurate feed wedge ratings direct from the heavens. Richard Rennie spoke to the people involved.

TECHNOLOGY relegated to the too-hard basket eight years ago has advanced to the point that the days of laboriously stalking dairy farm paddocks to platemeter pasture are well over. LIC now has more than 1000 dairy farmer clients using newly developed satellite technology to measure their paddocks from space, delivering an emailed weekly report to them. Chief executive Wayne McNee said interest from farmers at this year’s Mystery Creek Fieldays was strong. The SPACE service has managed to penetrate 10% of the country’s dairy farms in the relatively short time since its launch in December. Typically, farmers can spend at least half a day using a platemeter to record pasture data and the crucial early spring is often when they have the least time to do it over the entire farm. Firmly in place in Canterbury, the satellite system now extends to Waikato. SPACE business unit manager

Rebecca Dalrymple said New Zealand brings its own challenges for satellite evaluation, including variations in farm contour, pasture type and cloud cover. “But the latest satellite technology is well ahead of that which was first trialled a few years ago. “We are able to achieve a far higher level of resolution with the latest generation.” Earlier LIC trials included using drones and light planes but there were complications around drone use in line of sight, technology and costs. The satellite project is a joint venture between LIC and Californian satellite company Planet Labs with LIC holding the IP on the pasture analysis technology that translates the images into pasture drymatter data for farmers. Data is presented to farmers as a ranked feed wedge with estimated pasture drymatter levels. Planet Lab put 88 microwavesized CubeSat miniature satellites into orbit late last year and now has the largest fleet of satellites in

space. The satellites are launched into orbit travelling as a secondary payload on larger rocket missions, helping keep their cost down. Dalrymple said farmers trialling the system have said the results of the satellite estimates are surprisingly accurate. That did much to validate the work that went on behind the scenes, at this stage on a farm-byfarm basis, with individual images having to be checked manually against a digitised farm image to ensure clarity and image quality. “Ultimately, we aim to see this being done automatically.” One issue still being resolved is the accuracy of the estimates at very high pasture levels, something LIC technicians are fine-tuning. “The challenge is that in NZ every farm is quite different, with varying contour and grass species that can appear quite differently in images.” Increasingly, time-short farmers are often short of skilled staff to assess pastures, with variable results not uncommon with plating samples.

SATELLITE SPIES: Rebecca Dalrymple of SPACE and Wayne McNee from LIC are excited about the prospects for using satellites to measure pasture.

“For the cost of $1000-$3000 a year the results are regular and consistent in terms of assessment,” Dalrymple said. McNee said the high-altitude reporting has potential to link to other pools of onfarm data, including hooking into farm production data to better understand what paddocks are the most productive and highlighting those that might need focused pasture or fertility attention.

The company is joint venture partner with Fonterra Farm Source in its AgriGate data pooling business and McNee said there is potential for other partners to get on board to augment the data collected. The potential for seamless and powerful data flows also becomes more real once the data links into LIC’s work developing in-line milk sensors that can record milksolids data, doing away with traditional herd testing.

Virtual fencing trials are starting here soon AGRESEARCH is about to embark on trials with technology that has long been dreamt about but also unavailable until now. The Crown research institute is working with Australian firm Agersens and its cornerstone investor, New Zealand’s Gallagher company, to set up trials to prove the application for virtual fencing here. Released to research groups earlier this year in Australia, the technology requires cattle to wear a solar-powered collar with GPS and cellular capability for locating stock and activating an audible and electrical alarm in the collar when they stray beyond a predefined area on the farm. AgResearch’s science impact leader Dr Warren King said the concept for fencing stock without fences has been around for at least 30 years. But it has only been with the proliferation of satellites linked to GPS networks, better cellular connectivity and miniaturised circuitry that the concept is now a reality that could change how farmers view their livestock management in a decade. “We are among the first to get hold of the collars fresh off the production line but know there are also two farmers already ahead of us keen to get their hands on them.” One of those is a farmer with less than adequate fences who, rather than invest significant sums in re-

fencing is opting to double fence with the collars on cattle. “Another runs a very intensive techno-beef operation with 80 mobs, which physically cannot all be shifted in one day. “At most he can shift 20 and he is looking for a system that means all mobs could be shifted once, maybe twice a day at times.” The collars are programmed to activate an audible alarm when stock approach their GPS defined fence and receive a mild electric shock when they go beyond it. He can see the value the collars could offer to optimise grass use in intensive cattle systems, more closely matching stock density to grass growth at different times of the year. There are also opportunities to programme the collars to keep stock out of waterways and sensitive catchment areas. “But what really spins my wheels about this technology is the uses farmers will find for it – things we as researchers have not even thought about.” He acknowledges the value proposition is probably stronger for cattle farmers than for dairy and impending environmental rules around restricting stock from waterways could be a key driver. Estimates are, for example, a Waikato sheep and beef property can expect to have to spend about $500 a hectare to keep stock out of waterways. Tag prices are yet to be

confirmed but are expected to be in the hundreds, making the equation to use them on an average stocked drystock farm attractive. Other livestock types might ultimately also be capable of being managed by the collars, with deer farmers in particular keen to trial them. “They require a local network to be established on the farm, with farm contour obviously having an effect on how many base stations you may need to gain coverage.”

NEW TECH: AgResearch science impact leader Dr Warren King has one of the new cow collars for testing the concept of virtual fencing.

Opinion

24 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

EDITORIAL Farmers won’t be cowed by M bovis

OST in the Mycoplasma bovis debate over the degree of compliance with animal traceability and what farmers have or have not been told by the Ministry for Primary Industries has been the ability of farmers to adjust to meet the challenges of this game-changing disease. The M bovis outbreak has certainly raised a number of valid questions and issues that need answers. But. as we reveal this week, farmers faced with this adversity have once again shown their resilience and ability to find workable solutions. The disease’s spread and the onset of winter certainly provided an incentive for a rapid response and in true farmer fashion that is exactly what they have done. Biosecurity measures have been introduced by graziers to ensure cattle from multiple farms do not arrive on the same day, allowing time for the cleaning of trucks and stock receiving areas. Grazing patterns have been adjusted and double fencing introduced to separate herds. Some farmers have already eyed longerterm solutions, looking at how they can operate a closed herd, which could include buying a runoff block. Another issue has been the need for dairy farmers contracted to breed Wagyu calves to hold on to them longer so collection trucks can be cleaned between farm visits. Likewise, MPI is suggesting that most rural of school institutions, calf day, be canned to prevent the interaction of calves. These are a small sample of a likely plethora of issues that will evolve from the outbreak of this disease and which will require creative and innovative solutions. Farmers have been fortunate until now to have had few restrictions on the movement and management of cattle but the arrival of M bovis means that will no longer be the case, regardless whether the disease is eradicated. There will likely be more tracking of stock movements, increased biosecurity measures, both nationally and by individual farmers, and less trust in general. But, as farmers have consistently demonstrated, they are adaptable, innovative and will survive.

Neal Wallace

LETTERS

Farming leaders missing, duped THE farming industry needs to pay more attention to people such as Ian Proudfoot of KPMG. He points out the unbalanced narrative surrounding primary industries is costing its participants real money and will continue to do so as land managers are exposed to more and tighter regulation. Farming leaders appear to be missing in action when they are most needed on these issues. A case in point is the forthcoming introduction of the Zero Carbon Bill’s consultation process. Dairy New Zealand appears to have rolled over and accepted the Labour-Green myth that emissions from ruminant animals contribute 45% of NZ’s greenhouse gases and has appointed climate change ambassadors to

spread the good word. This is in spite of recent articles in this and other papers by respected industry commentators Dr Jaqueline Rowarth, Professor Keith Woodford, Dr Doug Edmeades and many other informed people to the contrary. These learned people have all pointed out that it is only by counting the methane emitted by ruminants and ignoring the ingestion of carbohydrates by those same animals the 45% figure can be obtained. Another voice can now be added – that of Professor David Frame of Victoria University, who, along with co-researchers from Oxford and Reading Universities and the Norwegian Centre for International Climatic and Environmental Research has established that ruminant methane should be regarded as a flow gas, ie as ruminant

methane flows into the atmosphere a comparable amount of carbon dioxide flows out and so does not contribute to the stock of GHG. If we follow Frame’s findings to their logical conclusion we can see agriculture’s contribution to NZ’s GHG, once ruminant methane is excluded, amounts to about 10% of the total emissions. With the greatest respect for Trish Rankin, whom I am sure means well, I am convinced she and others have been duped. She admits she knew very little about GHG so presumably what she knows now is what she learned from the Ministry for the Environment’s scary presentation as it preached the party line. What is required of farming leaders is that they deliver a stern message to the

Government to the effect that farmers will not have a bar of the zero carbon process until we can be assured the figures on which future costings will be based can be verified by experts acceptable to us and that all aspects of the climate change mitigation process are fully understood and accepted by the wider farming community. Farming generally now has to accept there are people in NZ, some even in Government, who do not have farming’s best interests at heart. These people see the likes of the zero carbon process as an opportunity to get farmers. The politest thing we can say about them is their agenda is not our agenda. We owe it to ourselves to insist that we be treated fairly. Bill Wrigley Leeston

Letterof theWeek EDITOR Bryan Gibson bryan.gibson@nzx.com EDITORIAL Stephen Bell editorial@nzx.com Neal Wallace neal.wallace@nzx.com Annette Scott annettescott@xtra.co.nz Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@nzx.com Alan Williams a.dubu@xtra.co.nz Richard Rennie richard.rennie@nzx.com Nigel Stirling nigel.g.stirling@gmail.com

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Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Marketing process not agreed yet Andrew Morrison and John Loughlin

HE Farmers Weekly editorial, When industry good goes bad, made some interesting observations about the Red Meat Story and Taste Pure Nature, however, it also demonstrated a misunderstanding of the process. It is far too early to suggest the meat companies and Beef + Lamb New Zealand have failed to reach an agreement on the rollout. Agreeing the detail is the whole point of the process we are in. Different players in any sector have different perspectives, products and channels to market. The fact we don’t always agree on the precise detail does not mean the industry is broken or disunited. We all agree on the broad principles of Taste Pure Nature and we’re committed to making the rollout work. At a special workshop in April, B+LNZ received unanimous support for the Origin Brand and high-level, go-to-market strategy from processing companies. This level of support is a first for our sector. This backing also shows the level of support and buy-in to the approach that we have taken and the realisation of the potential opportunity. Farmers have also been supportive throughout this process and of the brand itself. Farmers tell us they feel pride, aspiration, optimism and they have a sense that everyone is working collectively for the good of the sector. However, the sector has been clear from the outset that we would jointly develop an activation plan – and that is what we are doing. This is a collaborative and iterative process commonly used in global brand development around the world to produce sector-specific action plans. Throughout this process we have gathered evidence to support

The

Pulpit

the approach and direction of the Origin Brand and strategy. Building the activation plan is no different and, like the underpinning brand, will benefit from the input of our processing partners and their in-market insights. So, what does this look like? Following a robust analysis B+LNZ and the processing companies have initially identified China and the United States and within them a handful of cities that offer the most potential.

Right now the process we are going through is to get clarity on what we will do and how we will do it.

Over the coming months B+LNZ will provide the companies with opportunities for input before we come together to make an informed, collective decision. After all, this is not B+LNZ’s decision to make alone. Right now the process we are going through is to get clarity on what we will do and how we will do it. The next question will be about how we resource that and finally

AGREED: Meat Industry Association chairman John Loughlin and Beef + Lamb New Zeaalnd chairman Andrew Morrision have explained how the Taste Pure Nature strategy will work.

agreeing the detailed activation plan with the sector. The discussion that is taking place now around where the brand is activated is very similar to the process other sectors have gone through when setting up a whole-of-sector approach. For instance, closer to home, Hawke’s Bay winegrowers who produce cabernet and syrah in a warmer climate got behind the decision to position NZ wine predominantly for its cool climate characteristics because they recognised the industry needed to work together as one. It’s also important to understand the principles behind the Origin Brand, in particular, the marketing and how it links with the existing activities of exporters. The Origin Brand has been designed to complement all producer and exporter brands, both existing and new. In each pilot market we envisage precise, targeted marketing. This is not a big-bang approach

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because we know we have a responsibility to invest farmers’ money wisely and spend their funds where we anticipate the greatest returns. We also expect that individual producer brand owners will continue to invest in their own unique propositions over and above this activity. Subject to the outcome of the farmer consultation, we hope to have about $9 million to invest in Taste Pure Nature, which will be a combination of the proposed extra levies raised and current baseline funding. As a sector our future lies in driving a higher premium for our products. Our research shows that country and place of origin is a primary tool consumers, retailers and food service use to decide where to buy their products from. Origin branding is also a platform off which greater value can be driven. Our existing and emerging competitors are investing

significantly in differentiating themselves and winning. Australia, for example, invests about $70m a year in marketing its red meat True Aussie brand and Ireland is investing in its Origin Green sustainability programme. We will not stand a chance if we do nothing. In fact, it’s likely we’ll slip behind our competitors. We believe we have the most authentic story to tell. Farmers now have a say by attending one of B+LNZ’s consultation meetings over the course of the next three weeks. We need to make this decision together and that’s the goal everyone is working towards achieving.

Your View Got a view on some aspect of farming you would like to get across? The Pulpit offers readers the chance to have their say. nzfarmersweekly@nzx.com Phone 06 323 1519

Opinion

26 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Dairy must not ignore reality Alternative View

Alan Emerson

FOR the outfit with the largest spin budget in the country one could argue Fonterra isn’t getting many bangs for its megabucks. Mind you, I should be frightened of criticising Fonterra if the reaction to comments by Regional Development Minister Shane Jones is anything to go by. While Jones is an orator and uses language I wouldn’t, he has a BA and Master of Public Administration from Auckland University and was awarded a Harkness Fellowship to study at Harvard. He has also been associate trade minister. He is entitled to his view. That view encouraged some asinine comments from Fonterra suppliers, mainly around the fact the Government and Shane Jones should butt out of farm business and one of the more stupid statements was the Government should get their sticky fingers out of the dairy industry. There are two issues with those ridiculous statements. The first is that governments put considerable resources into supporting primary industries and that includes dairy. For example, what would

happen if the Government said to the dairy industry “You brought Mycoplasma bovis into NZ – fix it”. What if the Government got out of biosecurity, roading, infrastructure, trade agreements and research – all vital to the dairy industry? The second reason is the statements by dairy farmers came across as arrogant, party political and precious to all the non-dairy farmers, the vast majority of New Zealand. Considering the facts behind Jones’ statements I am aware of a strong anti-Labour push by the dairy industry before the election with suspicion Fonterra was part

The statements by dairy farmers came across as arrogant, party political and precious to all the nondairy farmers. of that. I am also aware of frustration in Government circles about Fonterra’s attitude to the new administration. All of that isn’t very smart considering the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act, DIRA, is up for review. Another problem I have is that Jones isn’t saying anything new. In late May Fonterra foundation director Harry Bayliss went public on a letter he sent to all Fonterra

directors on March 31. In it he claimed Fonterra had consistently underperformed over the past 10 years. He believes the real issue is the governance culture set by chairman John Wilson, which manifests itself in a lack of strategic leadership by the board. He added there is a widespread and growing lack of confidence among shareholders, noteholders and the wider business community in Fonterra’s future. They are damning statements from a highly respected dairy industry leader. Fonterra has many other problems but no-one is taking responsibility. As I’ve written on previous occasions the investments in China are a dog. Some commentators are suggesting the loss there could be a billion dollars. I think they could be even greater than that. One reason, aside from the Beingmate fiasco, is that milk production in China is expensive. According to the ANZ bank, Chinese domestic milk price is 10% to 20% higher than international prices and there is no future in that. In NZ it costs US$30-34 to produce 100kg milk equivalents. In China the cost is $US50-60 – almost double. In Farmers Weekly at the end of May the highly respected corporate finance and economic advisers TDB Advisory said “It is not clear that Fonterra has created value for its farmer shareholders

COSTLY: Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters says Fonterra’s shortcomings cost the country $2 billion a year.

and the NZ economy”. They went on to suggest Fonterra’s returns to farmers and shareholders are behind those of its competitors. So don’t tell either Jones or me that we should all leave the dairy industry in the shape of Fonterra alone. It is verging on being a basket case which will have a massive effect not only on our biggest industry but the entire economy. In fact, in his post-Cabinet media conference just last week Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters told us Fonterra’s shortcomings are costing the economy $2 billion and that is everyone’s business. The greatest iniquity, I believe, is next year’s projected price of $7/ kg and while I’d be happy for dairy farmers to receive $8 the price needs to be sustainable. Analysts I spoke to had the projected price at between $6.40 and $6.68. The milk price futures market is below the Fonterra projection, which I find telling.

ANZ’s medium term view is $5.75 to $6.75. The Commerce Commission has said the $7 price is too high and Fonterra is underestimating risk. So, why would it do that, other than to give shareholders a warm feeling about the co-op and its board? Farmers should make the most of it as my view is that warm feeling won’t last. The additional issue is that with a high milk payout the share dividend is reduced. Fonterra shares trading on the stock exchange have dropped from $5.75 to $5.04 in a month with First NZ Capital changing its category from neutral to underperform. That is not good news for Fonterra.

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

Europeans won’t hesitate to put boot in Trade Winds

Nigel Stirling

THE Europeans talk a good game on free trade but they won’t hesitate to put the boot in when it suits them. New Zealanders are likely to have got an earful of fine words when Europe’s top trade official Cecilia Malmstrom was here to launch free-trade talks. No doubt the European Union’s Trade Commissioner will have talked of the values shared by NZ and the European Union in upholding the principles of global free trade. Her recent challenge to United States President Donald Trump’s aluminium and steel tariffs at the World Trade Organisation will probably have got an airing too. On her way here Malmstrom

SELF: The occupants of the European Parliament in Brussels will put their own interests first.

said NZ and the EU stand together as stout defenders of the international trading system now under attack from Trump. “That’s why it’s so important that we create these alliances right now and show the US that you can make good trade agreements, you can make winwin trade agreements,” she said. It’s a shame then the Brusselsbased bureaucrat can’t match those words with deeds.

Just last month Malmstrom formally submitted to EU member states the proposal she intends to take into negotiations with the holders of 174 agricultural export quotas that need to be resubmitted to the WTO following Britain’s scheduled departure from the EU in March 2019. The quotas, formally known as tariff-rate quotas or TRQs, specify the tonnages countries can export to the EU without incurring its high tariffs.

Malmstrom’s proposal would see those quotas carved up between the UK and the remaining EU members based on trade flows with quota-holding countries from 2013 to 2015. NZ has quota to export up to 228,000 tonnes of sheep meat to either the UK or continental Europe free of tariffs. It can use that quota either entirely in the UK market or in continental Europe or it can be flexible and export more to one than the other as market conditions and pricing determine. The meat industry believes splitting the quota in two, as is being proposed by the EU, based on recent trade flows would severely undermine its existing rights and is probably illegal under international trade law. In a letter sent to the EU and the UK representatives at the WTO in Geneva last September NZ and six other concerned countries said the quotas were achieved through a delicate balance of concessions and entitlements that is fundamental to the global trade architecture today.

In NZ’s case in successive trade negotiations stretching back to the 1970s it accepted pitifully small quotas for beef and dairy products in exchange for better access for sheep meat. The quota continues to underpin the EU as the NZ sheep meat industry’s single most valuable market. Alternatives to quota-splitting have been proposed by NZ but so far have been ignored by the EU and the UK. NZ is unlikely to accept assurances that quota given up now could be restored in bilateral trade talks with the EU and the UK in the future. More likely NZ will look to assert its legal rights through the WTO, which exists to ensure that at the very minimum no country is left any worse off by any trade agreement it is party to. Whichever way you look at it Malmstrom’s quota-splitting proposal is not the win-win trade agreement she claims the EU stands for. For all its diplomatic language it is as ready as anyone to put its own interests first.

Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Levy rise targets vital work Meaty Matters

Allan Barber

BEEF + Lamb New Zealand is doing a four-week consultation with members as it seeks approval for a modest increase in levies to promote the Red Meat Story through the Taste Pure Nature origin brand, help farmers lift their environmental performance, tell the farmer story and improve its capability to address biosecurity risks. The proposal asks for a 10 cents increase in the sheep meat levy and 80 cents lift in the beef levy, respectively 16.7% and 18.2% lifts from the levels that have been in place since 2009. Since the 2015 referendum B+LNZ has reprioritised spending, which has resulted in net annual savings of $1.4 million made up of reduced spending on offshore offices and market development activities partly offset by investment in environmental projects, work on the origin brand and research into alternative proteins. Smaller investments have also

been made into the appointment of Jeff Grant as the Brexit Red Meat Sector ambassador and B+LNZ Genetics. The process is an important step towards B+LNZ’s goal of strengthening its connection with farmers since the dark days of the 2009 referendum when the wool levy was lost, removing a $6m contribution to the organisation. The 2015 referendum provided a strong endorsement of the work being done on behalf of farmers with 85% of votes in favour compared with a narrow majority in 2009. However, B+LNZ deliberately opted not to ask for a levy increase in the referendum but made a commitment to consult farmers before any increase. The strategic review after the last referendum led to a refocus of the organisation’s key areas of activity to reflect the changing global marketplace in which sheep and beef farmers operate. Recent events have confirmed the relevance and importance of those areas identified. For example, competitors, notably Australia and Ireland, have been quicker off the mark in developing their own origin brands, which makes Taste Pure Nature a critical step towards building a credible Red Meat Story for meat exports. Secondly, overseas customers increasingly demand information

on how meat is produced and where it comes from with particular emphasis on animal treatment, traceability and environmental performance. Then domestic stakeholders, from central and local government to individuals, require evidence of environmental responsibility. That makes it essential to tell the farmer story persuasively and convincingly.

There is plenty of goodwill between B+LNZ and meat companies. Lastly the discovery and spread of Mycoplasma bovis has put biosecurity risk front and centre of public awareness, not least because taxpayers are faced with an estimated $600m bill for eradication. Preventing biosecurity incursions remains a critical factor for the agricultural sector. It’s important to note the industry’s share of M bovis eradication will be funded by a separate contribution under the Government Industry Agreement designed to cover biosecurity incursions and supported by 85% of voting levy payers. B+LNZ is negotiating the sector’s share with DairyNZ, which will result in a separate levy for sheep

and beef farmers. The Government has agreed to carry the cost of eradication for the first two years, requiring the industry to start contributing after that. Two key activity areas – development of the origin brand and the environment strategy – have already gained plenty of positive feedback. Farmers and meat companies have been very supportive of the work on Taste Pure Nature and alternative proteins while the environment strategy was welcomed by the Government at its launch in May. B+LNZ will certainly consider recent suggestions the Taste Pure Nature brand might undermine Lamb Company promotions in North America when discussions with meat companies about the finer details of the brand development process take place. Existing company brands will be reinforced by proposed activities promoting the origin brand and company executives I have spoken to, including Simon Limmer of Silver Fern Farms, are very supportive of the concept of Taste Pure Nature. However, B+LNZ and the companies are still working through the precise details of the activation process to ensure the development of a successful NZ meat brand. There is plenty of goodwill between B+LNZ and companies

and not too many years ago there were discussions about forming a single industry good organisation to represent farmers and processors. That was rejected, partly because not all meat companies were in favour, but also because the farmer organisation realised it had a critical role in representing the specific needs of farmers, which would be compromised by combining with the Meat Industry Association. Since 2009 B+LNZ has focused on spending the levy on the aspects of farming that farmers value while making sure they are aligned with changing strategic priorities. The dramatic improvement in levy-payer support in 2015 and the work done as a result of the strategy refresh provide plenty of evidence B+LNZ has succeeded in justifying its existence as a focused sheep and beef farmer organisation. Initial farmer response to the consultation process suggests there will be strong support for the levy increase to allow work to continue on delivering results against the key priorities for the benefit of the whole red meat sector.

Your View Allan Barber is a meat industry commentator: allan@barberstrategic. co.nz, http://allanbarber.wordpress. com

Charming, humble man knew how to have fun From the Ridge

Steve Wyn-Harris

RURAL SECTOR

One of the last times we chatted we’d both got a coffee at the same time just before Nes sold her business at the Waipukurau railway station. I asked Nes why Ren got called Ren when served but I was always dude. “Because he’s cooler than you,” she said with a smile, much to his delight. We sat in the sun sipping coffee on the bench and talked farming. And he was cool. And a whole lot of other things. He was charming, humble and knew how to have fun. He was a great hunter and the walls at his service were decorated with trophies and many of the stories were from hunting and fishing expeditions. But on the gentler side he was a keen photographer and we saw many of his wonderful photos.

He had that lovely ability to be able to relate to all types of people and show them all respect. That’s real class. Phillipa Wright who is a friend we have in common and is the wool buyer for both of us told the story at his farewell of how he made the effort to call in to her business and meet all the people there, learn their names and find out just what it was they did. Next thing Ren, in his capacity as the chairman of the New Zealand Campaign for Wool Trust, and Phillipa fly to the United Kingdom for a wool conference in Scotland and he’s rubbing shoulders quite comfortably with Prince Charles among other notables. He had a great passion for wool inherited from his mother

JOBS BOARD

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WE HAVE just had a very sad and sombre day here in Hawke’s Bay. More than 1000 people gathered last Wednesday at the Hawke’s Bay A&P showgrounds to farewell Renata Apatu. Ren died as a result of a helicopter accident on his beloved Ngamatea Station, halfway along the Napier-Taihape Road or Gentle Annie as we call it. Ren’s parents, Terry and Margaret, were friends of my own parents and were great people themselves and well respected in their time. Ren was 10 years younger than me so our paths didn’t cross until the early 2000s when he took over running that huge farm on behalf of his fellow owners and siblings Kate and Nathan. The only interest we had in common was farming and despite Ren being one of the biggest farmers in the country running 28,000ha and me being one of the smaller ones, the issues are always the same – the weather, the prices, the outside threats and the opportunities.

COOL: Renata Apatu had the ability to relate to all types of people. Photo: Richard Hilson

will miss Ren terribly but, as Margaret and was really getting we saw at his funeral, have the into his stride in looking at ways support of many good family and to restore this wonderful natural friends to help get through this fibre to a status it deserves. terrible ordeal. The great loss of this tragedy with Ren, I believe, is that he had gained a confidence and Your View exuded a mana and presence that would have seen him Steve Wyn-Harris is a Central become an industry leader Hawke’s Bay sheep and beef farmer. without any doubt. We are thin swyn@xtra.co.nz in the leadership department so to lose his potential now is a terrible shame. But of course, the greatest loss is carried by his family. Ren’s wife Sally, farmersweeklyjobs.co.nz also a local from Waipukurau, 2IC (1) bravely spoke at Assistant Manager (1) his farewell. She CEO (1) Dairy (2) told the delightful Farm Manager (2) story that early in Fencer General (1) their relationship General Hand (3) General Maintenance (1) he told her his Livestock Operations (1) mother thought he Regional Manager (1) should marry her. Sharefarming Opportunity (1) Shepherd (3) “I love your Shepherd General (3) mother but it’s Stock Manager (3) your decision” she Tractor Driver (3) answered. And then she Employers: Advertise your vacancy in the waited a month employment section of the Farmers Weekly thinking she’d and as added value it will be uploaded to blown it before he farmersweeklyjobs.co.nz for one month or close of application. made a romantic proposal. Contact Debbie Brown 06 323 0765 Sally, Angus, or email classifieds@nzx.com Olivia and Greta

World

28 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Yankee food still isn’t dandy BRITAIN’S Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Michael Gove has pledged to protect farmers against substandard food imports to avoid a “race to the bottom” after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union. Gove said UK food standards post-Brexit will be among the highest in the world. Imports of food produced using techniques banned in the UK will be allowed “over my dead body”, he said at the Hay Festival. More consumers are prepared to pay for food quality and provenance, Gove, who appeared keen to pre-empt accusations that “gold-plating” UK standards will leave British farmers unable to compete, said. “The future for Britain, not just in this area but in other areas, is being seen to set some of the highest standards in the world. “Of course there is the temptation to believe that left to their own devices politicians will conspire to lower standards everywhere. “But actually, I think that the future for British farming is to say we are not going to compete in a race to the bottom. “We couldn’t win it and we shouldn’t try. “We will succeed on the basis of consumers knowing that our food is of the highest quality and they can trace the journey from farm to fork and they can have absolute confidence that what they are buying is ethical and sustainable as well as being delicious and good value.”

TRUST ME: Britains Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Michael Gove says he will contine to support farmers and won’t allow substandard American food to be imported in a race to the bottom.

Topics addressed by Gove during an hour-long discussion included antibiotics in livestock production, promoting collaboration between farmers and his plan for a new system of farm support based largely on environmental measures. At one point Gove was asked whether UK standards will ever permit the wholesale import of American food including chlorinewashed chicken or hormoneproduced beef – both methods

banned in the UK. He replied “Over my dead body, as it were.” Gove was also asked about messages emerging from responses to the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ Health and Harmony public consultation on the future of farming, which closed last month. A common theme was that the government must recognise the diversity of UK farming, he said. It was also important to

World thinks UK up for grabs BREXIT has given the impression the United Kingdom’s food market is up for grabs, agricultural banker Allan Wilkinson says. Wilkinson, HSBC UK head of agri-food, told attendees at a Cereals debate that since the vote to leave the European Union global food businesses have expressed much more interest in breaking into the British market. “I get probably two emails a week from international food processors wanting to sell into this market,” he said. “Brexit has told our international peers and competitors, rightly or wrongly, the British food industry is up for grabs.” National Farmers Union president Minette Batters agreed. The Argentinians, Canadians and Australians were eager to boost their food sales to the UK’s 65 million wealthy consumers. “The world’s eyes are on our marketplace,” she said. News of global competitors lining up to take a share of the UK market will concern British farmers, who are already competing in a cut-throat retail environment and facing the loss of direct subsidies. “With the Sainsbury’s-Asda merger we are seeing far more challenges,” Batters said. “You speak to any of the retailers

and they will say this is the most difficult marketplace in the world.” Batters said she has instructed competition lawyers to look at how supply chains could be made fairer as subsidies are removed. “In the 2017 election there was cross-party support to roll out the Groceries Supply Code of Practice and we have not gone anywhere with it since. “We want to bring the UK together to look at how fair supply chains can be achieved.” Batters expects Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Secretary Michael Gove’s gold-standard labelling system to ensure fairness for primary producers. She will be pushing for Gove to be referred to as the Secretary of State for Food and the Environment, not just Environment Secretary. Batters said it will be impossible to protect nature in future if farmers are not properly supported to produce food. “Michael Gove has clearly taken ownership of the environment. “He is now only referred to as the Secretary of State for the Environment and, as of today, I want to turn that round. “For us, he is very much now the Secretary of State for Food and the Environment. “If you manage to get the

TITLE: National Farmers Union president Minette Batters wants Michael Gove to be called the Minister of State for Food and the Environment.

economics right and if you get the food bit right, you do stand some chance of getting a Green Brexit. “If you do not get the food bit right, if you do not get the production element right, if you do not get the profitability right you will never deliver on a Green Brexit.” UK Farmers Guardian

underline that the government recognises farmers will be able to contribute to environmental enhancement only if their businesses are successful – and that means having food production at their core. But National Farmers Union president Minette Batters has criticised what she describes as the lack of focus on food production in Defra’s consultation on the future of farm policy postBrexit.

Batters was asked about the Health and Harmony consultation during a public discussion at the Hay Festival. “It didn’t really mention food at all and we are farmers, that’s what we do and we care for the environment as well so I think that was a glaring oversight,” she said. Much of the consultation document focused on plans to replace direct payments to farmers with a system of support based on rewarding farmers for environmental measures. Batters said Gove has since acknowledged it should have focused more on food. The NFU had submitted a 100page consultation response to emphasise the importance of food production. “Apparently, he did design the title himself. I did point out to him that it is a beauty salon in Essex if you Google health and harmony.” Most countries across the world support farmers to keep food affordable, Batters said. It is vital to ensure farmers can secure a fair return from the market before changing farm support. Radical changes are needed if the government really wants to introduce a system of public money for public goods because farming is driven by global pricing. “You can’t just shut your eyes and say the market can run itself because the market is a savage beast,” Batters said. UK Farmers Weekly

Europe needs food not farming policy AN ALLIANCE of more than 30 European think tanks, non-government organisations and farming groups have united to call for a Common Food Policy to replace the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). The alliance made the demand as the European Commission published detailed reform proposals for the CAP, which included capping direct payments at €60,000 and giving member states more flexibility on how to use their funding allocations, plus the option to transfer up to 15% of their cash from direct payments to rural development and vice versa. The reformed CAP will be delivered with a budget of €365 billion, a 5% cut on the previous period of 2014-2020. Olivier De Schutter, food chairman at the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, one of the groups in the alliance, said “The main problem with the CAP is it is still an agricultural policy

in name and nature. “The policies governing food systems – CAP, trade, environment, health and food safety – are disconnected from one another and too many priorities fall through the cracks. “We need a fundamental transition to sustainable food and farming systems. “We need shifts in food production, processing, retail and consumption to occur at the same time. “And we need a clear direction of travel at EU level. “That is why we need a Common Food Policy.” MEPs also criticised the commission’s proposals for CAP reform, expressing concerns about a renationalisation of policy, which could distort competition in the single market. European farming group Copa-Cogeca supported the MEPs’ position, with president Joachim Rukweid warning farmers’ incomes are only about 40% of average earnings. UK Farmers Guardian

World

THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

Food origin designations are in doubt THEY have existed across the European Union since 1992 but now the future of protected food names in Britain has been cast into doubt. Inspired by France’s national quality system, Appellation d’Origine Controlee, the European Union launched the scheme to protect goods characterised by a specific geographical origin, developed over a long period of interaction with traditions and the local environment. Through the logos, consumers can easily recognise these traditional quality products and rely on their authenticity in terms of regional origin or traditional production. As well as providing a useful marketing tool in the EU and other markets, registration under the schemes provides producers with legal protection against imitation or misuse of the product name. An event hosted by the United Kingdom Protected Food Name Association in Parliament and attended by cross-party MPs and peers heard how the brands make £4.8 billion in UK export income each year. Association chairman Matthew O’Callaghan said anything less than a seamless transition to an equivalent scheme for products designated under

the European Food Names scheme could damage market opportunities at home and abroad after Brexit. “But we are facing uncertainty with Brexit,” O’Callaghan said. “We want a seamless scheme recognised on a shared basis, with our products recognised in Europe and their products recognised here.” With the support of crossparty MPs he had been meeting Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs officials to highlight the importance of a new scheme post-Brexit. Welsh red meat levy board Hybu Cig Cyrmu chairman Gwyn Howells said Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) designation was the cornerstone of efforts to grow new markets for Welsh Beef and Welsh Lamb. “It is a mark of high quality traceability among the food industry globally,” he said, adding the £1b industry in Wales employs thousands of people on farms and in the supply chain. Even if the legislation is carried into UK law, it is not clear who will fund it after Brexit. In 2016 the EU supported programmes worth €111 million to find new markets and promote consumption. For those with business models

VALUABLE: Farmers of Shetland sheep don’t have scale to pay for marketing so rely on the Protected Designation of Origin to fetch prices that offset their higher costs.

depending on designation the stakes are high. Shetland Food and Drink Association chairwoman Marian Armitage said protected status is vital for Shetland’s only abattoir. “The significance of this abattoir is it allows us to have the Protected Designation of Origin. The criteria is the animals have to be purebred, native and reared and slaughtered in Shetland. “The abattoir is important as it means crofters do not have to send animals to Aberdeen or elsewhere for slaughter.” Armitage said the market for Shetland Lamb is growing and there is an opportunity for growth but it is dependent on being able to sell off the back of the PDO. Maintaining traditional farming

systems is also at the root of concerns aired by Traditional Farm-fresh Turkey Association chairman Jacob Sykes who represents a group of about 50 independent family-run farms across the UK. Traditional Speciality Guaranteed status protects the reputation of regional and traditional foods whose authenticity and origin can be guaranteed. It means retailers can distinguish between wet-plucked, factory processed turkeys. “Our traditional systems rely on manpower so there would be an employment issue if we lost the designation. “We would also have concerns about who would audit the

The schemes THE most recent regulation on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs came into force in January 2013. The three designations are: • Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) • Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) • Traditional Speciality Guaranteed (TSG)

scheme outside the EU. “Defaulting to Trading Standards, we feel, would be nothing more than a box-ticking exercise as they do not understand the specifics of the sector.”

Horsemeat scandal could be repeated

DANGER: Britain’s access to European Union systems containing food safety threat risks could be lost in 2020.

FAILURE to protect access to Europe-wide food safety and animal health systems after Brexit will increase the risk of a new horsemeat-style scandal, Britain’s Local Government Association has warned. The association, which represents 370 councils in England and Wales, claimed repeated budget cuts had left Trading Standards, Environmental Health and port health teams unable to safeguard the food supply without continued rights to use European Union databases. Two key systems the United Kingdom could lose access to after Brexit are the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed, which sends urgent notifications across Europe on threats such as pesticide residues, salmonella and E coli, and the Trade Control and Export System, which manages all sanitary requirements for animals, semen and embryos, food, feed and plants. Together, the databases allow regulators to target their enforcement activity by tracing high-risk products and providing intelligence about potential

contamination but under the terms of the Brexit divorce deal, UK access would be cut off after 2020. The association’s Brexit Taskforce chairman Kevin Bentley, chairman said “If we lose access to these databases we will lose access to vital intelligence about the origin of food, feed and animal products and will not be aware when rapid alerts are issued to the rest of the continent. “This will significantly weaken our ability to effectively protect the food system, increasing the risk of a new scandal and undermining public confidence in the food industry. “After years of funding reductions, we simply do not have the capacity to increase checks to offset this risk, either at ports or inland, unless this is fully funded. “Without additional capacity there is simply no alternative to continuing to receive and share this type of information.” The horsemeat scandal in 2013 hit red meat sales and caused lasting reputational damage for the retailers involved. UK Farmers Guardian

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Real Estate

FARMERS WEEKLY â&#x20AC;&#x201C; June 25, 2018

New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading rural real estate company

TENDER

Coastal Trophy Cattle Country 165 Rothery Road This 790ha (approx) property presents an opportunity that rarely comes along! Currently a beef finishing farm subdivided into 130 paddocks with excellent infrastructure. The farm features four homes. Located just 60km from Hamilton and 40km to Raglan. Strong cattle farm land and the recreational activities on offer are exciting too. I recommend viewing this property to really appreciate the unique opportunity on offer here.

pggwre.co.nz/HAM28362 PGG Wrightson Real Estate Limited, licensed under REAA 2008 Contributor to realestate.co.nz

Te Akau TENDER (Unless Sold By Private Treaty) Closes 3.00pm, Fri, 20 July PGGWRE, 11 Vialou St, Hamilton VIEW 11.00-1.00pm, Tuesday 26 June & 3 July

Richard Thomson M 027 294 8625

richard.thomson@pggwrightson.co.nz

pggwre.co.nz

Connections

NICKY REID Results with integrity

dŚĞ ĞƐƚ ŽĨ dŽŵĂƌĂƚĂ

Real Estate

ϮϮϳ dĂƉƵ ƵƐŚ ZŽĂĚ

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dŚĞ ŽƉĞŶ͕ ƐƵŶŶǇ ĂŶĚ ƐƉĂĐŝŽƵƐ ĚǁĞůůŝŶŐ ŝƐ Ă ůĂƌŐĞ ĨŽƵƌ ďĞĚƌŽŽŵ ǁŝƚŚ ĂŶ ŽĸĐĞ͕ ƐƵŶƌŽŽŵ ĂŶĚ ĚŽƵďůĞ dŚĞ ǀĞŶĚŽƌ ƐĂǇƐ ĐĂƩůĞ ĂƌĞ ĞĂƐŝůǇ ĮŶŝƐŚĞĚ ďǇ ƚǁŽ ǇĞĂƌƐ ;ǁŝƚŚ ƐƚĞĞƌ ĐĂƌĐĂƐƐ ǁĞŝŐŚƚƐ ďĞƚǁĞĞŶ ϯϰϬ ĂŶĚ ϯϳϬ ŬŐͿ ĐĂƌ ŐĂƌĂŐĞ ƉůƵƐ ϯ ďĂǇ ƐŚĞĚ͘ ĂŶĚ ďĞŝŶŐ ŶŽƌƚŚͲĨĂĐŝŶŐ͕ ƐƉƌŝŶŐ ŐƌŽǁƚŚ ĐŽŵĞƐ Ă ĐŽƵƉůĞ ŽĨ ǁĞĞŬƐ ĞĂƌůǇ͘ KŶĞ ŚƵŶĚƌĞĚ ǇĞĂƌƐ ĂŐŽ ŝŶ ƚŚĞ ŬĂƵƌŝ ŵŝůůŝŶŐ ĚĂǇƐ dĂƉƵ ƵƐŚ ǁĂƐ ƌĞŶŽǁŶĞĚ ĨŽƌ ŝƚƐ ŚŝŐŚ ƉƌŽĚƵĐƟŽŶ ŽĨ ŬĂƵƌŝ ƟŵďĞƌ ƉĞƌ ĂĐƌĞ͘ dŚĞŶ ĐĂŵĞ Ă ůŽŶŐ ŚŝƐƚŽƌǇ ĂƐ Ă ĚĂŝƌǇ ĨĂƌŵ ĂŶĚ ŵŽƌĞ ƌĞĐĞŶƚůǇ ƚŚĞ ƉƌŽƉĞƌƚǇ ŚĂƐ ďĞĞŶ ŬŶŽǁŶ ĨŽƌ ŝƚƐ ĐůŽǀĞƌ ŐƌŽǁƚŚ ĂŶĚ ĂďŝůŝƚǇ ƚŽ ĨĂƩĞŶ ƚŽƉ ĐĂƩůĞ͘ Licensed Agent under the REA Act 2008

͞dŚŝƐ ŝƐ ĂŶ ŽƉƉŽƌƚƵŶŝƚǇ ĨŽƌ ƚŚŽƐĞ ůŽŽŬŝŶŐ ĨŽƌ ǁĞůůͲůŽĐĂƚĞĚ͕ ƚŽƉ ƋƵĂůŝƚǇ ƉƌŽĚƵĐƟǀĞ ĨĂƌŵůĂŶĚ ƚŚĂƚ ŝƐ ǀĞƌǇ ŐĞŶƵŝŶĞůǇ ĨŽƌ ƐĂůĞ͘͟ ǁǁǁ͘ƌĞĂůĞƐƚĂƚĞ͘ĐŽ͘Ŷǌ / η Z ϬϬϬϴ

&Žƌ ŵŽƌĞ ŝŶĨŽƌŵĂƟŽŶ͕ Žƌ ƚŽ ǀŝĞǁ ƚŚĞ ƉƌŽƉĞƌƚǇ͕ ƉůĞĂƐĞ ĐŽŶƚĂĐƚ EŝĐŬǇ ZĞŝĚ͕ ŽŶŶĞĐƟŽŶƐ ZĞĂů ƐƚĂƚĞ͕ ŽŶ ϬϮϭ ϭϬϯ ϲϮϳϳ ŶŝĐŬǇΛĐŽŶŶĞĐƟŽŶƐƌĞĂůĞƐƚĂƚĞ͘ĐŽ͘Ŷǌ͘

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Real Estate

FARMERS WEEKLY – June 25, 2018

RURAL rural@pb.co.nz Office 0800 FOR LAND

Property Brokers Limited Licensed under the Real Estate Agents Act 2008

City fringe investment

WEB ID TER62281 HAMILTON 614 Whatawhata Road 73.9ha located approximately 1.3km west of the Hamilton City boundary. This property, on consolidated peat soil, is fenced into approximately 50 paddocks. Structural improvements include a 17 bail rotary dairy, 5-bay implement shed / workshop, 3 barns and a three bedroom dwelling. While currently dairying, the property would also make an ideal finishing or cropping proposition.

Agricultural contracting

TENDER View By Appointment TENDER closes Friday 13th July, 2018 at 4.00pm, (unless sold prior), Property Brokers, 78 Studholme Street, Morrinsville.

Doug Wakelin

Mobile 027 321 1343 dougw@pb.co.nz

Charles Digby

Mobile 027 669 1511 charlesd@pb.co.nz

WEB ID WGC62473 MARTON 265 Waimutu Road View By Appointment Started over 36 years ago, this well established business has expanded and now provides a diverse range of agricultural work, specialising in grass and arable work and also features a produce trading arm to the Heather Kubiak operation. The business features a comprehensive range Mobile 027 231 4363 Office 06 281 3031 of machinery equipment and plant, with all being heather.kubiak@pb.co.nz presented in excellent condition. The option is there to continue operating out of the existing yard under a Richard White lease arrangement. The yard is expansive and features Mobile 027 442 6171 five large buildings for machinery and/or produce Office 06 281 3720 storage. Talk to us now to discuss the options available. richardw@pb.co.nz

BY NEGOTIATION

GREAT ONE PERSON UNIT

• Well laid out 185 acre dairy farm situated in the heart of Manawatu. • Lovely art deco homestead with great views over the property. • Modern 18 aside herringbone dairy with in bail feed system. Very nice feed pad along with good calf and milking sheds. • Effluent and water systems have been upgraded and are consented for intensive agriculture. • In retirement mode for the last few seasons our Vendors currently milk up to 160 cows and carry all replacements on farm. • Priced to sell at $2,200,000 plus GST. Call Les to inspect.

Sallan Realty

DAIRY CROPPING OR BEEF?

TOP QUALITY

Situated south of Whanganui is this 175ha farming opportunity. 20 aside herringbone dairy and 300 cow yard with adjacent feed pad. Herd is split calved, milked all year round, supplying Open Country. Bore water supplies water to stock troughs, dairy and houses. Large machinery shed, large silage bunker. There are two three bedroom family homes set in treed surrounds. Your chance to buy this farm with a flexible takeover date and take advantage of the coming season, current RV $3 mil. • Price reduced to $2,995,000. Call Les to inspect.

• Situated in Konini, Pahiatua is this quality 74 hectare dairy farm with excellent soils. • Very nice four bedroom family home set in lovely grounds. • Current dairy infrastructure includes a modern herringbone dairy with a 300 cow yard. • Currently supplies Open Country, has produced up to 1220 kgs/ms/ ha consented for dairy farming. • Shedding includes machinery shed and calf rearing facilities. • Your opportunity to own this outstanding dairy farm. Call Les.

• • • • • • •

Google ‘Sallan Realty’ Your Farm Sales Specialist

THE DESTINATION FOR RURAL REAL ESTATE

Land is the biggest asset to any farming business - so it pays to stay up-to-date with the market.

Connect with the right audience at farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate

LES CAIN 0274 420 582

Licensed Agent REAA 2008

LK0092369©

www.propertybrokers.co.nz

Employment Sheep & Beef Sharefarmer with Potential Equity Investment

The role comes with a 3-bedroom home with fantastic access to beautiful walks, fishing and hunting. A primary and secondary school bus service is also nearby. To learn more about this opportunity call Paul Ewing – Farm Manager on 0274 880 869 or 03 249 8055

We are looking for an experienced Shepherd to join our team. Located 10 minutes from Westport, this dairy support unit carries approximately 19,000 su per year over 700ha. Stock units include a mix of bulls, steers and dairy heifers. This role offers a variety of work including fencing, tractor driving, stock work and animal health management. A tidy 2-bedroom house is available. What you will bring: • 1-2 years’ experience as a Shepherd • Minimum of 2 well controlled dogs • Be a team player with good communication skills

Details of how to apply: https://pamunewzealand.com/company#careers

To learn more about this opportunity or to apply, please visit: www.pamunewzealand.com/company#careers

Applications close 5pm, Tuesday 26th June 2018.

Applications close 5pm, Friday 29th June 2018.

SENIOR SHEPHERD/ SHEPHERD GENERAL An opportunity has arisen for an enthusiastic and proactive Shepherd General to join the team on our sheep and beef farm, located in the Hauraki Gulf. The island location provides some unique challenges and opportunities for the right person. The successful applicant will have: • High level of pasture and stock management skills with a minimum of 5 years experience • The ability to work efficiently on your own and as part of a team • Competent team of dogs • Sound fencing skills This role is best suited to a someone who is a selfstarter, thrives on taking initiative to get the job done, and who will take on responsibilities as required to support the wider team. We offer excellent remuneration for the right skills, accommodation is provided as part of the package. For further information regarding the role available, and details to send you CV with references, please contact the Farm Manager Kim on 027 325 2964. Applications Close: Sunday 1st July 2018

The sheep and beef farming business covers 1229ha, with a commercial sheep flock of 3500 ewes, two sheep studs of 2000 ewes, a beef herd of 100 cows, finishing cattle from the beef herd and dairy unit and dairy support. The opportunity presented is for a full responsibility sharefarming contract with the potential to include equity investment. Expressions of interest should be made by forwarding a copy of your business plan/profile, demonstrating your management experience and proven ability to lift farm performance; to the address below by 30 June 2018. Sharefarming Opportunity c/o Peer Review, PO Box 77, Gore 9710 or email: brendon.harrex@peerreview.co.nz www.nithdale.com

General to join our team on our sheep and beef farm, located on Waiheke Island in the Hauraki Gulf. You will have: • Proven fencing skills and experience, both

• Excellent time management skills • Ability to work efficiently on your own and as part of a team. • Good communication skills, attention to detail and ability to problem solve The role will include general farm infrastructure maintenance. An ability to operate machinery would be an advantage. remuneration package.

The position offers a variety of work as well as the opportunity for the successful applicant to become involved in the day-to-day management of on farm activities.

Sisam & Sons Limited are recruiting for the position of an experienced stockperson on a 1100ha block, situated 24km south of Whakatane, Bay of Plenty. The successful applicant must have excellent stockmanship skills and run a minimum of three working dogs. A positive attitude, sound judgement, initiative and dependability together with good communication skills and the ability to be a team player being important attributes. This position offers a wide experience of intensive and extensive farming systems comprising of bulls, dairy heifers, steers, carry over cows and breeding ewes. This is an excellent opportunity to develop management skills.

Remuneration package subject to experience.

For further information regarding the role available, and details to send you CV with references, please contact the Farm Manager

EMPLOYMENT

130x63.57

A 3-bedroom house with large double car garage and sleepout attached is available on farm.

Accommodation is available as part of the

For more information or to apply contact: Blake – blakeharvie@outlook.com 021 278 8550 (evenings)

SHEEP BEEF 2IC BLOCK MANAGER

The successful applicant will need to have some experience in the following types of farm work: • Stock work, including lambing beats • Tractor work, such as seeding, spraying and fertiliser spreading • Maintenance of farm vehicles and machinery • Fencing and other general farm maintenance • Will require at least 3 working dogs under good command • Must be motivated, have good communication skills and be able to work unassisted as well as in a team environment

electric and conventional

This is a truly diverse role, where responsibilities and duties are not limited by job title, and we like to have everyone involved in all aspects of the farm operation. In return we offer:• Opportunity to learn industry best practices • Career progression • A friendly working environment with a flexible roster • On farm accommodation and a competitive remuneration package

Sisam & Sons Limited

Farming Ltd, a dryland sheep and beef finishing property consisting of approximately 4500su, situated in North Otago, 25km southwest Farm Hand General - 1/2 price ad of Oamaru.

We are currently seeking an experienced Fencer/

Applications Close: Sunday 1st July 2018

The successful applicant must have the following attributes: - Honesty - Hardworking - Sets high standards - A good attitude

FARM HAND GENERAL 0093210 A vacancy has become available at Wishaw

FENCER/GENERAL

Kim on 027 325 2964.

We are looking for a dairy farm assistant to join our established team to assist us with the day-to-day running of the farm. Located near Duntroon in North Otago this 250ha fully irrigated platform will peak milk 950 cows through an automated 60 bail rotary with inshed feeding, ACR’s, heat detection camera and automatic drafting.

LK0093208©

This position is primarily sheep and beef but a very small amount of time is required with deer, e.g. weaning, scanning. The successful person will be a team player, show excellent initiative and be ready to hit the ground running.

West Coast Dairy Support

LK0093202©

We are looking for an experienced shepherd to join our team on Haycocks Station. A 6,500 ha hill and river flats property running sheep, cattle and deer. The station runs 40,000 su and is located in the Mavora Valley 40 km from Te Anau.

Dairy Farm Assistant

Nithdale Station An exciting sheep and beef opportunity on a diversified property in Eastern Southland. Nithdale Station is a progressive family farming business with variety. The Station is made up of a commercial Sheep/Beef unit (including dairy support), a sheep stud operation, a dairy unit, forestry and a farmstay. The farm is located in the hills, 15 minutes from Gore in Eastern Southland.

WN36626 - Senior Shepherd - repeated ad

Three bedroom house will be provided along with a competitive remuneration package.

As this position is permanent, applicants will need to have NZ residency or a valid NZ work visa and hold a current drivers licence. Trademe Jobs Listing#1664668490 For more information or to apply please send your CV to: Murray Rodger. mrodger@netspeed.net.nz Or phone 0274 119 813

LK0093110©

SHEPHERD GENERAL

LK0093001©

SENIOR0093211 SHEPHERD 110x63.57 HAYCOCKS STATION

classifieds@nzx.com – 0800 85 25 80

LK0093210©

FARMERS WEEKLY – June 25, 2018

Please attach CV and written application to Matt Sisam, matt@sisamson.co.nz or 31 Sisam Valley Road, RD 1, Whakatane Enquiries phone 07 312 9060 or 027 3318 579 (evenings) Applications close Friday, 29th June 2018

REACH EVERY FARMER IN NZ FROM MONDAY

Stock Manager Plus

Please print clearly

Phone: Address: Email: Heading: Advert to read:

TAUMATA MOANA STATION LTD (TMS)

An opportunity has arisen to join a progressive family farming business.

GENERAL MAINTENANCE POSITION Taumata Moana Station is a large-scale coastal sheep and beef property situated close to Kawahia harbour in the Waitomo district.

We are looking for a trusted 2IC to run the farm so we can focus on growing our branded lamb marketing business.

The station has nine houses and associated farm buildings, and machinery that require constant maintenance and upkeep.

Tunnel Hill is a 1000ha intensive flat coastal property near Wanganui with 3500 Romney Ewes, 350 Angus Cows, maize grain and forestry.

This fulltime position requires the successful applicant to maintain all aspects of the grounds, buildings and vehicles, and work under the supervision of the Station Manager. The position will require someone who is well organised, tidy and is able to work without supervision.

We are looking for a focused, fit and self-driven individual with the following qualities: 4 Experience with all aspects of cattle, sheep stock work 4 Sound planning and time management skills 4 A positive outlook can-do attitude and good reliable work ethic 4 Excellent communication skills 4 A desire and ability to train and develop others

There will be some support farm-work required within this position and would suit someone who has had farm experience or who has had tradesman experience. A well-appointed three bedroomed home adjacent to the hub of the station is part of the salary package.

Applications close: 29 June 2018

Hunting and fishing on your back door. Applicants for this position should have a NZ residency or a valid NZ work visa. LK0093198©

Return this form either by fax to 06 323 7101 attention Debbie Brown Post to NZX Agri Classifieds, PO Box 529, Feilding 4740 - by 12pm Wednesday or Freephone 0800 85 25 80

Please make your application in writing or by email to: Farm Manager TMS Station 767 Taumatatotara West Road Attention: Brent Gowler Phone: 07 8767422 Mobile: 027 2202161 Email: tmsmanager@outlook.com

Fully renovated comfortable house is available.

Please email your CV to: tunnelhill@xtra.co.nz Richard Redmayne 0274 833 660 Applications close Tuesday 10th July 2018.

LK0093179©

Name:

classifieds@nzx.com – 0800 85 25 80

Classifieds

Rural Ladies Searching For Love!

ANIMAL HANDLING

LK0093169©

Whether you are in town or on the land, we can help you find that special Lady to enjoy your life with. Call for a FREE compatibility match to start meeting genuine singles in your area seeking companionship & love today. Seniors Welcome. Please call 0800 446 332 www.countrycompanionship.co.nz

FARMERS

T H IN K P R EB UILT

NEW HOMES

• Do you need new farm tracks or upgrade existing ones? • Or have you metal that could be used for crushing? We do: • On site metal crushing • Metal supply and cartage • Upgrade existing tracks and drainage • Retaining wall construction • River protection and stream maintenance • All types of earthworks and metal contracting

Our homes are built using the same materials & quality as an onsite build. Easily transported to almost anywhere in the North Island. Plans range from one bedroom to four bedroom First Home – Farm House Investment – Beach Bach

CRAIGCO SHEEP JETTERS. Sensor Jet. Deal to fly and Lice now. Guaranteed performance. Unbeatable pricing. Phone 06 835 6863. www.craigcojetters.com

APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, GARLIC & HONEY. 200L - $450 or 1000L - $2000 excl. with FREE DELIVERY from Black Type Minerals Ltd www.blacktypeminerals. co.nz

Tim McColl, Owner / Operator

Ltd

WINTER GRAZING

Kiwitea, Feilding

Mobile: 027 446 3383 | A/hrs: 06 328 9851 Email: timmccollcontractingld@xtra.co.nz

WANTED in central/ lower North Island for lambs, 1 to 2-year-old cattle or cows. Mark Grace 021 222 8470 mark@rathmoy.co.nz

All types of earthwoks and metal contacting

ANIMAL HEALTH www.drench.co.nz farmer owned, very competitive prices. Phone 0800 4 DRENCH (437 362).

FOR SALE

SELLING

SOMETHING?

DOGS WANTED 12 MONTHS TO 5½-yearold Heading dogs and Huntaways wanted. Phone 022 698 8195. NORTH ISLAND BUYING trip 30/6/18. No trial or breeding required! No one buys or pays more! 07 315 5553. mikehughesworkingdogs@ farmside.co.nz BOOK AN AD. For only $2.10 + gst per word you can book a word only ad in The NZ Farmers Weekly Classifieds section. Phone Debbie Brown on 0800 85 25 80 to book in or email classifieds@nzx.com

0800 85 25 80

ATTENTION FARMERS www.gibb-gro.co.nz GROWTH PROMOTANT $5.85 per hectare + GST delivered Brian Mace 0274 389 822 07 571 0336 brianmace@xtra.co.nz

BUSINESS FOR SALE WINDMILL WATER PUMP manufacturing business for sale. Contact: ross@ windmills.co.nz

DOGS FOR SALE

Tim McColl Contracting Ltd

LK0091108©

Call or email us for your free copy of our plans Email: info@ezylinehomes.co.nz Phone: 07 572 0230 Web: www.ezylinehomes.co.nz

FLY OR LICE problem? Electrodip - The magic eye sheepjetter since 1989 with unique self adjusting sides. Incredible chemical and time savings with proven effectiveness. Phone 07 573 8512 w w w. e l e c t r o d i p . c o m

ANIMAL SUPPLEMENTS

LK0092882©

SOLID – PRACTICAL WELL INSULATED – AFFORDABLE

FARMERS WEEKLY – June 25, 2018

DOG SALE! www. youtube.com/user/ mikehughesworkingdog/ videos – $1000-$2500. 30 Day Trial. Guaranteed to work. Deliver NZ wide. Trade In wanted. Sell 365 days a year! 07 315 5553. mikehughesworkingdogs@ farmside.co.nz HUNTAWAY DOG, backs sheep. Perfect in yards. $800. Phone 021 855 246.

EARMARKERS

FARM FOR SALE DEER FARM, 80HA. 20km to Timaru. Options to expand. 4-bdr home. Listing ID TMR61110. Enquiries to michael@pb.co.nz EQUITY PARTNERSHIP O P P O R T U N I T Y. Approximately 7000 SU. Good housing and infrastructure. Sheep, Beef and Deer. South Canterbury region. Phone Mark Lemon 027 339 6665, email marklemon@pb.co. nz

FARM MAPPING YOUR FARM MAPPED showing paddock sizes. Priced from $600 for 100ha. Phone 0800 433 855. farmmapping.co.nz

FARM SERVICES/ SUPPLIES TARPAULINS PVC TARPS. All sizes. Top quality Ripstop PVC.NZ Made. Phone for quote Westlorne Ohakune 06 385 8487. Free delivery North Island.

FERTILISER DOLOMITE, NZ’s finest Magnesium fertiliser. Bio-Gro certified, bulk or bagged. 0800 436 566.

BIRDSCARER DE HORNER

FOR SALE

HOOF TRIMMER

Combi Clamp Sheep Handler The most versatile Sheep Handler on the market • No power • No air • No breakdowns • Hands free operation • Good flow • Complete control • Portable • Weigh, dag, draft, feet, vaccinate – all in one pass!

PURCHASING FERAL DEER (from private blocks)

McNicholas Aviation Limited is a helicopter deer recovery operator based in Opotiki. The aerial operation can selectively cull your feral deer population and pay a royalty. If required we can also seek and destroy any resident feral goat population.

The Combi Clamp …

Contact Lance McNicholas 027 294 7504

LK0092981©

The feral deer population has increased to levels seen in the 1950’s resulting in reduced winter feed for farmer’s stock, and damage to juvenile trees for forest owners.

Known for good sheep flow, has been tested and proven to be the fastest and most popular Sheep Handler sold in Australia, replacing many Automated Sheep Handler units on properties throughout Australia and New Zealand.

DOG/PET FOOD. Lamb/ Beef and chicken products. All natural - raw - no preservatives or additives. NOSLOC PRODUCTS. Ex-freezer Te Kuiti. For information and prices www.nosloc.com or phone 07 878 6868.

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 on pick up. My on farm prices will not be beaten. Phone David Hutchings 07 895 8845 or 0274 519 249. Feral goats mustered on a 50/50 share basis.

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 6116 or info@nzkelp.co.nz HERITAGE APPLE TREES. Farm pack specials. www.tastytrees. co.nz – Phone 09 408 5443 or text 027 346 7645.

PROPERTY WANTED HOUSE FOR REMOVAL wanted. North Island. Phone 021 0274 5654.

TRACTORS/ MACHINERY DAVID BROWN Manifolds Crop Master 25 & 900. Phone W.Giltrap 07 823 7501. Email: w.giltrap@ gmail.com P U N C T U R E PREVENTION. Tyreshield. Use on all vehicles. Tractors, ride-on mowers, bobcat and earthmover tyres, quad bikes and all farm vehicles. Contact Mike 06 342 7880 or 0274 425 249 www.mikestyreshield. com

WEED SPRAYING BOOM SPRAY. Broad acre, brush weed control, total vegetation. Hilux gun and hose units x 2 and mist blowers for gorse, broome, blackberry control. Covering Lower North Island. Phone 06 375 8660 or 021 396 447, email kingbilly718@gmail.com

FOR SALE

Cattle Handling Equipment Standard Crush, Vet Crush, Auto Head Yoke, Sliding Gates • Heavy Duty • Hot dipped galvanized • Efficient • One-man operation • Sure catch – never miss • Self-catching with auto reset • No weight limit • Easily adjustable width • Built to last • Full range of options available

SELLING

LK0093220©

SOMETHING?

eliable Strong, fRficient and E

0800 227 228

www.combiclamp.co.nz

Videos on website – On-farm demonstrations available – SI Stuart 027 435 3062

Have something to sell? Advertise in Farmers Weekly

Phone Debbie Brown 0800 85 25 80 or email classifieds@nzx.com

Livestock

SH30, Benneydale

Purchasers, underbidders, staff and helpers at this years sale

GOATS WANTED • Kill space available • Prompt pick-ups, freight paid • payment in two working days • Top schedule, for an example a 12kg goat returns $52.80

Top priced bull Koanui Techno 6179 sold for $51,000 to Glenbrae Stud Central Hawke’s Bay

For all bull enquiries contact: Fred, Chris and Jennifer Chesterman Ph: 06 874 7844 or 06 874 7728 Mobile: 0274 888 635 or 0274 777 637 Email: kphp@xtra.co.nz

and 16kg $70.40

COMPLETE FRSN/ FRSNX/ JSYX HERD DISPERSAL

PHONE NIGEL 0800 85 25 80

SALE TALK

AUTUMN CALVES AVAILABLE Mid JuneMid July

farmersweekly.co.nz

B/W Hfrs

Red Bulls & Hfrs 100kg & Dehorned

Very good article.

All enquiries to Ken 027 452 2918

Romney Stud Breeders and Stud Stock Agents Reunion Croydon Lodge, Gore Wednesday 8th August 2018 Join old breeders and agents for a day of catchup and to share memories. Reunion dinner at night with guest speaker Sir Brian Lochore. Registrations contact: Nola Nevill, 4 Mayfair Grove, Alexandra E-mail: nolanevill@gmail.com Ph: 03 448 5076 For further information contact: Ken Bain 03 446 6500 or Murray Sheppard 03 445 4430

CLEARING SALE

On a/c of Waireka Farms, M & S Caseley 148 Waireka Rd, RD14, Whanganui 4584. T/N 40009.

Black Spotty Bulls & Hfrs

Comprising: 180 2nd, 3rd & 4th calving cows Calving from 20/7 (7 weeks AI, tailed with Hereford) These cows have come on the market due to the herd being downsized.

LK0093119©

All reared on milk powder.

A Financing Solution For Your Farm E info@rdlfinance.co.nz

On-Farm Sale – CRV Friesian Tuesday July 10th at 11.30am

B/W Bulls

10in1 Vacc, Pinkeye Vacc

R1 YR ANGUS STEERS 280kgs+ Ross Dyer 0274 333 381

Helping grow the country

Mother wakes up her son in the morning, but he insists that he doesn’t want to go to school. Mother asks him to tell her two reasons why he shouldn’t go.

400kgs 18MTH ANGUS HEIFERS

www.dyerlivestock.co.nz

Contact: Jason Roberts 0272 431 429

Mother answers: Because you are 50 years old and you are the headmaster.

Delivered to your inbox every Friday get in touch with Nigel on 06 323 0761, 027 602 4925 or livestock@nzx.com to sign up or feature your sale results and receive weekly updates today.

18MTH A&AH X STEERS 380-480kgs

100 Frsn/ Frsnx/ Jsyx Incalf Cows BW70, PW78, RA89% Vendor retiring after 34yrs, All stock grazed on farm. Cows calving 27th July to 6 weeks AB Frsn, Tailed off Hfd Bull, Bull out 27th December. TB C10, EBL Free, Lepto Vacc, BVD tested Negative, Mycoplasma Milk Tested Free.

Then son asks mother to tell him two reasons, why he should go.

No bull, be in the know with Farmers Weekly bull sales results

SIL Breeding EWES Due Jul/Aug 18MTH FRIES BULLS 400-480kgs

Comprising:

Pupils hate me, teachers also hate me, answers son.

BULL SALE RESULTS 2018

STORE LAMBS 28-40kgs

Tuesday 3rd July, 11.30am Start 904 Old Te Aroha Rd, Matamata A/C B & J Andrew

Phone Sue 06 363 7237 LIVESTOCK ADVERTISING

STOCK REQUIRED

LK0093167©

A big thank you to all our

This is the complete young-section of the herd. BW44; PW68; RA87%. This herd has been in the same family for 25 years.

LK0093192©

Crusader Meats NZ Ltd

livestock@nzx.com – 0800 85 25 80

Contact: Vendors, Matthew & Sally 06 342 5567 NZFLL Agent Malcolm Coombe 0274 326104 Or any NZFLL agent

• Quote 1160 – 78 Fsn/FsnX in-calf hfrs, BW 115, PW 126, 1/7 calv, well grown, $1690. Noel 027 588 7632 • Quote 1163 – 20 KiwiX in-calf hfrs, BW 118, PW 126, G3 tested, owner bred, 17/7 calv, $1500. Brian 027 244 0845 • Quote 1164 – 28 Fsn/FsnX in-calf hfrs, BW 130, PW 135, 8/7 calv, $1600. Noel 027 588 7632 • Quote 1126 – 60 Fsn/FsnX in-calf hfrs, BW 70, PW 90, 25/7 calv, well grown, $1200. Trevor 027 283 8389 LIVESTOCK REQUIRED • 120 Fsn/FsnX in-calf dairy cows, immediate delivery, genuine cows. Brent 027 551 3660 • Up to 200 Aut calved in-milk cows, any breeds. Stephan 027 453 8769 0800 548 339 | nzfarmsource.co.nz/livestock

LK0093137©

THE NEW ZEALAND FARMERS WEEKLY – June 25, 2018

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Dairy

Grain & Feed

MILK PRICE FORECAST ($/KGMS) 2018-19

FONTERRA 2018-19

AGRIHQ 2018-19

7.00

6.68

AS OF 24/05/2018

AS OF 21/06/2018

Last week

Prior week

Last year

Canterbury (NZ$/t)

6.0 5.5 Dec 17

Feb 18 AgriHQ Spot Fonterra forecast

Apr 18 Jun 18 AgriHQ Seasonal

What are the AgriHQ Milk Prices? The AgriHQ Seasonal milk price is calculated using GDT results and NZX Dairy Futures to give a full season price. The AgriHQ Spot milk price is an indicative price based solely on the prices from the most recent GDT event. To try this using your own figures go to www.agrihq.co.nz/toolbox

WMP GDT PRICES AND NZX FUTURES

7.70

6.50

396

334

NI mutton (20kg)

5.10

5.00

4.15

388

386

328

SI lamb (17kg)

7.60

7.55

6.50

Feed Barley

386

384

335

SI mutton (20kg)

5.15

4.20

221

Export markets (NZ$/kg) 9.05

9.04

8.46

284

UK CKT lamb leg

Maize Grain

421

410

PKE

285

220

* Domestic grain prices are grower bids delivered to the nearest store or mill. PKE and fertiliser prices are ex-store. Australian prices are landed in Auckland.

7.5

Last week

Prior week

Last year

6.5

Wheat - Nearest

276

219

Corn - Nearest

211

221

204

5.5 5.0

CBOT futures (NZ$/t)

4.5

South Island 1 7kg lamb

8.0 7.5

339

7.0

6006.5

448

453

333

Feed Wheat

322

325

245

2500

Feed Barley

394

399

291

2000 Aug 17 Nov 17 Feb 18 C2 Fonterra WMP

PKE (US$/t) 113

112

Ex-Malaysia

NZ venison 60kg stag

$/kg

442

c/kkg (net)

446

ASW Wheat

5006.0 4005.5 3005.0 4.5 Oct

Oct

Dec

Prior week

vs 4 weeks ago

WMP

3115

3155

3200

SMP

1915

1890

AMF

5900

Butter

5660

Last week

Prior week

Last year

Last yr

Aug

This yr

Last week

Prior week

Last year

1895

Urea

483

507

3.48

3.40

3.75

5900

6125

Super

302

317

Nth Isl 37m

3.75

3.60

3.80

5505

5250

DAP

739

Sth Isl 35m

4.55

3.90

750

3100 Sep

Latest price

Oct

Nov

Dec

IT WAS a mixed week for global markets after President Donald Trump threatened to impose a 10% tariff on $200 billion of Chinese imports, a tit-for-tat move as the two nations move closer to a trade war. Trump recently ordered tariffs on US$50b in Chinese goods in retaliation for intellectual property theft. The tariffs were met by China, which frustrated Trump. The statement caused markets to tumble on Tuesday but they found strength later on in the week. The trade confrontation pits the world’s two largest economies against each other and could disrupt global supply chains for the tech and auto industries, sectors heavily reliant on outsourced components. Trump’s threats sent global markets downhill and weakened both the US dollar and Chinese yuan. The Dow Jones tumbled, erasing all of its gains this year. The New Zealand dollar rose to a six-week high against the Australian dollar on expectations the Australian economy will be hit harder if China’s growth slows. NZ’s gross domestic product rose 0.5% in the March quarter, following a 0.6% increase in the December quarter. Agriculture was up 0.4% in the March quarter, following a 2.8% fall last quarter. Market commentary provided by Craigs Investment Partners

S&P/NZX 50 INDEX

8999

250 150 Jun 14

S&P/NZX 10 INDEX

8807

Jun 15

Jun 16

Jun 17

Feed barley

4 weeks ago

Sharemarket Briefing

$/kg

350

NZ venison 60kg stag

4.5

600

c/k kg (net)

3200

Coarse xbred wool indicator

5.5

CANTERBURY FEED PRICES

NZ$/t

US$/t

Jun

Coarse xbred ind.

450

16661

Jun

(NZ$/kg)

3300

S&P/FW PRIMARY SECTOR EQUITY

Apr

NZ average (NZ$/t)

WMP FUTURES - VS FOUR WEEKS AGO

Aug

Apr

WOOL

* price as at close of business on Thursday

Jul

Feb

FERTILISER

Last price*

3000

Feb

5‐yr ave

NZX DAIRY FUTURES (US$/T) Nearby contract

7.0 6.0

3000

May 18 Aug 18 NZX WMP Futures

North Island 17kg lamb

8.0

INTERNATIONAL

APW Wheat

3500

Last year

7.75

Australia (NZ$/t)

4000

Last week Prior week

NI lamb (17kg)

Feed Wheat

Waikato (NZ$/t)

6.5

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

Milling Wheat

PKE

7.0 $/kgMS

SHEEP MEAT

DOMESTIC

MILK PRICE COMPARISON

US$/t

Sheep

$/kg

500

3.5

400 300

2.5Oct Jul

Dec

Sep

5‐yr ave

PKE spot

Feb

Nov

Apr

Jan

Last yr

Jun

Mar

Aug

May

Jul

This yr

Dollar Watch

Top 10 by Market Cap Company

YTD High

YTD Low

The a2 Milk Company Limited

12.15

14.62

7.66

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Ltd

15.20

15.50

11.92

Auckland International Airport Limited Meridian Energy Limited Spark New Zealand Limited Ryman Healthcare Limited Fletcher Building Limited Mercury NZ Limited (NS) Contact Energy Limited Air New Zealand Limited (NS)

6.90 3.15 3.69 12.04 6.88 3.35 5.88 3.26

6.99 3.19 3.89 12.25 7.96 3.45 5.96 3.43

6.11 2.75 3.28 10.27 5.74 3.08 5.15 2.86

T&G Global Limited

3.150

3.300

Tegel Group Holdings Limited

1.180

1.240

0.810

S&P/NZX Primary Sector Equity

16661

17332

14417

S&P/NZX 50 Index

8999

8059

STRENGTHENING This Prior Last NZD vs comments on interest week week year rates from the United USD 0.6877 0.6950 0.7119 States Federal Reserve EUR 0.5923 0.6010 0.6404 have helped push up the US dollar and weaken the AUD 0.9317 0.9318 0.9553 cross-rate with the New GBP 0.5188 0.5244 0.5587 Zealand dollar. During Correct as of 9am last Friday the past week the NZD came off nearly a cent to finish on Friday about US68.7c. It has fallen almost 2c since the beginning of June. Westpac currency strategist Imre Speizer said the Fed at its June meeting made a hike to interest rates and signalled its expectation of five more lifts to come before the end of 2019. “The US economy is by far the strongest growing of those that affect our dollar and has resulted in the good run down during June,” he said. Trade uncertainties had also raised the expectation that China’s economic growth will get hurt and the effects will flow on to the Australian and NZ economies. NZ gross domestic product growth for the year to the end of March was confirmed last week at 2.7%, now well off the peak of 4.1% registered in late 2016. “It’s not disastrous but it shows our economy is certainly slowing and I am forecasting our dollar at US67c by year-end and 64c next year.” Speizer said the NZD also fell against the Euro and the British pound while staying steady against the Australian dollar. The Bank of England’s chief economist said interest rate increases should start now.

S&P/NZX 10 Index

8807

7640

Hugh Stringleman

Listed Agri Shares

5pm, close of market, Thursday

Company

YTD High

YTD Low

The a2 Milk Company Limited

12.150

14.620

7.660

Comvita Limited

5.670

9.210

5.600

Delegat Group Limited

8.650

8.900

7.510

Foley Family Wines Limited

1.470

1.610

1.400

Fonterra Shareholders' Fund (NS)

5.070

6.660

5.000

Livestock Improvement Corporation Ltd (NS)

2.750

3.000

2.250

New Zealand King Salmon Investments Ltd

2.350

2.450

1.840

PGG Wrightson Limited

0.670

0.720

0.560

Sanford Limited (NS)

7.590

8.500

7.350

Scales Corporation Limited

4.670

5.000

4.350

Seeka Limited

6.800

7.010

5.800

Synlait Milk Limited (NS)

11.010

11.600

6.260 3.100

Markets

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

NI SLAUGHTER BULL

NI SLAUGHTER STEER

SI SLAUGHTER LAMB

($/KG)

GOOD MALE STORE LAMBS AT STORTFORD LODGE

($/KG)

($/HD)

5.40

5.30

7.60

Cattle & Deer BEEF Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

Last week

Prior week

Last year

NI Steer (300kg)

5.40

5.70

NI Bull (300kg)

5.30

5.65

NI Cow (200kg)

4.35

4.50

SI Steer (300kg)

5.25

5.70

SI Bull (300kg)

5.05

5.15

SI Cow (200kg)

3.80

4.25

US imported 95CL bull

6.53

6.58

7.39

US domestic 90CL cow

6.94

6.97

7.05

Export markets (NZ$/kg)

North Island steer (300kg)

$/kg

6.0 5.5 5.0 4.5 4.0

South Island steer (300kg)

6.0

NZ venison 60kg stag

5.5

c/k kg (net)

$/kg

600

5.0

500

400 4.5 300

4.0

Oct Oct

Dec Dec

Feb Feb

5‐yr ave

Apr Apr

Jun Jun

Last yr

Aug Aug This yr

VENISON Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

Last week Prior week

Last year

NI Stag (60kg)

10.80

9.10

NI Hind (50kg)

10.70

9.00

SI Stag (60kg)

11.10

9.10

SI Hind (50kg)

11.00

9.00

New Zealand venison (60kg Stag)

$/kg

11 10

NZ venison 60kg stag

c/k kg (net)

600 9 500 8

400 7

300

6 Oct

Oct

Dec Dec 5‐yr ave

Feb Feb

Apr Apr Last yr

Jun Jun

Aug Aug This yr

127.00 - 130.50

high lights

$174.50-$190 $3.00-$3.13/kg 5-yr & mixed age Romney ewes, SIL 170-200%, at Feilding

R2 Angus & Charolais steers, 400-485kg, at Feilding

Mixed fortunes in the store markets

HERE are certainly mixed fortunes about in the store markets at present. Last week store lambs firmed again across the country, while their in-lamb mothers have held a steady path in the North Island and got off on a decent foot in the South Island. Not too many are keen on adding heavy store cattle to paddocks and the younger lines are usually lacking in quality where available. NORTHLAND NORTHLAND A fine day welcomed a return to more typical throughput levels at Wellsford, with just over 560 cattle yarded. Local buying power was helped by input from the Waikato, however with processing space still limited some lines were harder work, though the reduced number did help to ease pressure. R2 Beef-dairy steers, 391-522kg, traded at $2.54-$2.72/kg, while Hereford-cross, 365-416kg, lifted to $2.54-$2.66/kg. R2 Beef-dairy heifers eased slightly to $2.45-$2.60/ kg, while Hereford-cross, 342-390kg, strengthened to $2.35-$2.54/kg. The R1 pens were a highlight with solid returns for all sections. R1 Angus-Friesian steers, 178-214kg, lifted to $610-$695, whilst HerefordFriesian, 206kg, were steady at $740. A consignment of Shorthorn-cross steers were a feature and those 228300kg returned $710-$900, while their sisters, 207-256kg, managed $510$675. Beef-Dairy heifers, 201-278kg, lifted to $600-$685, and bulls of the same breeding, 116-175kg, traded at $480-$635. Four Angus cows, 344kg, with calves-at-foot, fetched $1400 per unit, and Shorthorn-cross, 297kg, with calves-at-foot achieved $1410 per unit. Both buyers and cattle were in short supply at KAIKOHE and that made for

IMPROVE YOUR FARM PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH QUALITY GENETICS ADVICE

MAXIMUM MONEY: Hemingford Charolais Stud in Culverden, North Canterbury, sold the highest priced Charolais bull sold in New Zealand in 16 years. Hemingford Maximus, pictured, made $27,000, which is the third highest price in the history of Charolais cattle in New Zealand. The previous highest price above this was back in 2002 for Greenwood Park Rangi in the North Island. Maximus was purchased by John Henderson, Auahi Charolais Stud, Otorohanga. At the Te Mania Angus sale in North Canterbury: 124 bulls were offered and 123 sold for an average of $11,380. The top price was $47,000 to K Higgins of Oregon Angus of Masterton. Stern Angus at Pleasant Point sold 105 bulls with an average of $11,030, well up on 2017 results. The top price was $20,000 to Dean and Teresa Sherson of Black Ridge Angus, Taumarunui. weak sale for the 320 head yarded, as reported by Vaughan Vujcich of PGG Wrightson. R2 beef-bred steers found new homes at $2.50-$2.60/kg, but a selection of Friesians were more like $2.10-$2.20/kg. A mixture of HerefordFriesian, Angus and South Devon R2 heifers were slow to move, generally making $2.25-$2.30/kg, though some better lines made as much as $2.50/kg. R2 Friesian bulls actually had a halfdecent sale considering what the rest made, selling at $2.55-$2.58/kg. Only a few R1 steers and heifers were around. Heavy South Devon and Red Poll steers were around $2.85-

$2.90/kg, but this lifted to $3.10-$3.20/ kg for other lighter beef-cross pens. Beef-cross heifers were down at $2.40$2.50/kg. Some vetted-in-calf Ayrshire cows sold relatively freely at $1.90/kg. AUCKLAND AUCKLAND Prime cattle managed to track sideways at PUKEKOHE, in-line with recent schedules, but store cattle took a bit of a hit due to the limited amount of grass and lack of dry paddocks across the region. Good older steers were bought at $2.55-$2.61/kg, but

Continued page 38

To find out more contact your local genetics specialist or head to www.pggwrightson.co.nz

NATIONAL TEAM. LOCAL KNOWLEDGE. Freephone 0800 10 22 76 www.pggwrightson.co.nz

Helping grow the country

Markets

38 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018 other store lines were at $2.30$2.48/kg. Older heifers made $2.44-$2.61/kg through both good and light pens. The crossbred weaner steers found new homes at $405-$445, $2.97-$3.24/kg, whereas small yearling heifers were $450-$630, $2.03-$3.70/kg. Boner cows were anywhere in the $1.56-$1.88/kg range. WAIKATO More people ventured into the rostrum at FRANKTON last Wednesday and with some new faces in the mix the market strengthened. Only a handful of R3 cattle were on offer and heifers, 450-490kg, earned $2.24-$2.30/kg regardless of breed. In the R2 pens both steers and heifers lifted for the majority. Hereford-cross steers, 370-515kg, strengthened to $2.58-$2.71/kg. Beef-dairy lines were strong and steers, 390-565kg sold over a tight band of $2.73-$2.77/kg, though a line of eight at 370kg managed $2.95/kg. Hereford-cross heifers, 340425kg, lifted to $2.53-$2.62/kg for most, as did Hereford-Friesian, 305-445kg, up to $2.61-$2.74/kg. R2 bulls, 405-510kg, were steady at $2.50-$2.58/kg. The R1 market was firm with any variance attributed to quality. An annual line of Angus steers and heifers were on offer and caught buyer’s attention, 310kg steers achieved $1020, while their 285kg sisters managed $850. Other lines of Angus steers, 220-280kg, were also strong at $790-$1005, and heifers, 250kg, fetched $750. Hereford-cross heifers, 160280kg, traded at $470-$725. Beef-dairy lines were strong with 150-225kg, realising $575-$620. In the bull pens ten Anguscross, 265kg, earned $690, while Hereford-cross, 170-195kg, maintained levels of $2.73-$2.99/ kg. Friesian and Friesian-cross bulls, 180-230kg, lifted to $480$615. The prime market was solid, with beef-dairy steers, 580-620kg, earning $1550-$1650, $2.65-$2.68/ kg. Beef-bred heifers, 490-515kg, fetched $2.67-$2.71/kg. Friesian boner cows, 460-600kg, strengthened on recent levels with the majority lifting to $1.87-$2.08/ kg. BAY OF PLENTY BAY OF PLENTY It was a nice warm day for punters at RANGIURU, but that was about where the excitement ended as there was mediocre numbers and quality across the sale. In the R2 cattle, two lines of 470-475kg Hereford-Friesian steers were solid at $2.67-$2.69/kg, while a few 385-390kg Friesians made $2.26-$2.33/kg. The R2 heifers were largely a mixture of 320425kg Hereford-cross types, and all of these were $2.38-$2.54/kg. There was little to raise a pulse through the R1 steers. The majority were 150-190kg dairy or dairycross pens at $360-$440. A single line of 135kg Hereford-Friesians were better at $530. R1 beef and beef-Friesian heifers, 130-170kg, made $460-$560, but the rest battled to make more than $2.20/ kg. Some 180-205kg traditional bulls made a respectable $580$660. In the prime section some

535-565kg prime beef-cross heifers made $2.65-$2.74/kg and 405-480kg dairy cows sold at $1.70-$1.89/kg. A few 460-465kg VIC Friesian cows made a good premium on the rest at $2.45/kg. TARANAKI TARANAKI It was a quick-fire sale at TARANAKI as just 170 head were trucked in from across the region. A good turnout of local buyers kept the market firm. Most R3 cattle were beef-cross heifers, 415505kg, which made $2.54-$2.58/ kg whether they were in-calf or otherwise. A line of 515kg AngusFriesian steers were solid at $2.73/ kg. All but one line of 355-435kg R2 Hereford-cross and HerefordFriesian steers were $2.77-$2.84/ kg, with the other line taking top honors at $2.89/kg. Two pens of beef-Friesian heifers, 335-340kg, were $2.54-$2.60/kg. There was less to talk about through the R1 lines. Some 130155kg beef-dairy steers made $415-$445, though a line of 175kg Hereford-Friesians made a premium at $575. The strongest R1 heifers were some 165kg Hereford-cross at $460. A mixture of 215-280kg beef-cross bulls were consistently bought at $2.77$2.79/kg. POVERTY BAY POVERTY BAY The usual winter slow-down in trading meant there were just 560 cattle yarded at the MATAWHERO cattle fair. Quality was mixed, as is typical at this time of the year, making for variable pricing. R2 cattle were in very short supply. Two lines of Charolais were quality, seeing bidding climb to $2.91/kg for the 445kg steers and $2.63/kg for the 400kg heifers. Otherwise some 320-460kg beef steers were $2.72-$2.78/kg, while light 245-275kg Angus heifers made $740-$805, $2.93-$3.02/kg. R1 Angus steers, 220-265kg, were $810-$880, dropping to $700-$730 for other 180-210kg beef types. Some 140-150kg Angus-cross did well enough considering their size at $600-$650. Two small lines of 250-265kg Angus R2 heifers were the strongest of these, making $770$825. Some large lines of 175195kg Hereford-Friesians were solid too at $530-$645. Around a hundred mixedaged cows, in-calf and dry, were a feature of the sale. Some 395515kg VIC MA Angus cows received reasonable interest at $2.28-$2.30/ kg, but other 470-505kg VIC and RWB beef cows were mainly $1.93$2.08/kg. Anything 350-415kg, dry or in-calf, were $1.34-$1.45/kg. A little over a thousand lambs were yarded on Friday where the market across the board was inline with the week earlier. The lambs were splits among various small pens, where good mixed sex lambs made $107-$125 and mediums were $99-$100. Good and medium ewe lambs were all $113.50-$115.50, but a light pen did make $89. Good and heavy male and ram lambs were nearly all $127.50-$140. A special entry of 600 Coopworth-Perendale ewes, scanned-in-lamb to blackface rams, sold well enough but not to a spectacular level. The two-tooths were $191-$206, and the mixed aged lines made $173-$185.

HAWKE’S BAY HAWKE’S BAY With plenty of punters on the rails both sales were solid at STORTFORD LODGE last week. The 80 cattle yarded at last Monday were met with solid bidding from a good bench of buyers. Prime Angus steers, 542643kg, made strong returns at $2.95-$3.01/kg with those that had been in overnight making a premium on other lines. Simmental-cross heifers, 537kg, sold well at $2.75/kg. Angus and Angus-cross cows, 380-550kg, traded at $1.70-$1.94/kg.

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Sheep numbers came back to steadier levels after last week’s double sale, though lamb throughput was still up on the same time last year. The lamb market was strong with the majority steady at recent levels. Four very heavy male lambs took top honors returning $212, with heavy mixed sex and ewe lambs close behind at $203.50 and $200 respectively. Other heavy male and ram lines traded at $173.50-$191, with lighter males earning $109$127.50. Good ram lambs traded at $121-$167. Heavy ewe lambs made solid returns at $156-$173, while very good types lifted to $154.50-$161, and good, $129-$145, with lighter lines at $118.50. The ewe market eased $3-$7 for most, though medium types bucked the trend, managing to lift on recent levels. Very heavy twotooth ewes made $159, with good types trading at $128.50-$131.50. Light-medium to medium lines softened to $109-$122.50. Top mixed-age ewes lifted to $195, whilst other very heavy types eased $6 to $155.50-$160. Heavy lines were steady at $144-$146, with good to very good ewes easing slightly to $130.50-$137.50. Medium to medium-good types lifted to $110-$128.50, whilst the lighter end softened $6 to $80$101. A good crowd gathered in the rostrum at last Wednesday, though they did have a bit of a wait for proceedings to get underway due to a couple of late truck arrivals, no doubt delayed by access issues for pick ups with how wet it is underfoot now. Vetted-in-calf cows started the sale with good interest from the rails. Mixed age Angus and AngusHereford, 440-545kg, in-calf to Angus bulls fetched $1210-$1370, while their Hereford counterparts, 500-580kg, were not quite as strong at $1100-$1230. R3 Hereford cows, vetted-in-calf to Hereford bulls captured buyer’s interest and

were well contested at $1290$1450. A consignment of good quality Angus and Angus-Hereford R3 steers, 465-500kg, from the same vendor as the cows sold earlier were well received and fetched $3.01-$3.08/kg. Other dry R3 heifers were solid with all, 410455kg, trading at $2.88-$2.91/kg. Beef bred steers dominated the R2 pens and quality types, 410430kg, traded at $2.82-$2.85/kg, with lesser sorts earning $2.65$2.75/kg. Heifers, 300-330kg, managed $2.57-$2.64/kg, for the majority, though a line of ten Angus and Angus-Hereford, 375kg, pushed to $2.77/kg. Friesian bulls were a highlight in the R1 pens, with two decent lines offered and those 150kg earned $510, with heavier 200kg, at $695. A quality line of R1 Angus heifers, 150kg, was good buying at $530. Out in the sheep throughput returned to more usual levels last week, with an ease in the weather allowing all to make it to sale. A small number of scanned-inlamb ewes were on offer and twotooth Romney with a scanning percentage of 208% made pleasing returns at $193, while five year Romney ewes scanned at 172% managed $190, these were matched identically by a mixed age line scanned at 158% also making $190. Medium and good dry ewes lifted to $129-$146.50, with lighter types also strengthening to $100$108. The store lamb market improved with lifts shown for the majority. Heavy cryptorchid lambs lifted to $127.50-$148, whilst good types fetched $126-$133.50. Male lines also lifted for most with heavy lines up to $137-$140, good types were steady at $127-$130.50, and medium sorts earned $117$128.50. Ram lambs continued this trend with medium-good lines lifting to $124.50-$134.50. Very heavy wether lambs made $140 and mixed sex lines were strong with the all managing $95-$127.50. Medium and good ewe lambs, traded at $115-$127, with lighter types making $88.50-$107.50. MANAWATU MANAWATU At RONGOTEA R2 HerefordFriesian steers, 420kg, were $2.55/ kg, while 385-525kg HerefordFriesian and Angus heifers made $2.43-$2.57/kg, as reported by Daryll Harwood of NZ Farmers Livestock. Some 365kg Friesian steers sold for $1.91/kg, only just above some 300-370kg dairy heifers which made $1.85-$1.86/ kg. R1 Hereford-Friesian steers, 195-315kg, made as much as $720, $2.30-$3.70/kg, while Angus-cross and crossbred steers, 145-180kg, were up to $430, $2.37-$2.61/kg. Hereford-Friesian and Angus-cross heifers, 135-220kg, were up to $480, $2.14-$3.00/kg. Hereford-Friesian R1 bulls, 105-270kg, consistently found new homes at $2.21-$2.38/kg, earning as much as $625, while other 170185kg Angus and beef-cross bulls were $2.71-$2.96/kg. All breeds of 140-240kg dairy bulls were $1.83$2.89/kg. Some in-calf Friesian cows made $725-$920 and crossbred cows were $765-$805. It was a wet day down at the

FEILDING yards for the Monday prime sale. The 96 cattle were mainly steady, where 515-560kg Friesian cows were $1.78-$1.88/ kg, though the 390-485kg pens were down a little at $1.59-$1.71/ kg. Both dry and in-calf Friesian heifers sold to the same level, $2.05-$2.16/kg for 385-430kg. Lamb numbers almost halved, but ewes were out in force again as scanning progresses. The smaller numbers helped give lambs a small lift. Highest price for the day was $192, but other top-cuts were $165-$185, while other good lambs made $140-$155. Medium types were $132-$139. Ewes were centred around $120-$140, with plus or minus $20 added depending on the quality. A few very heavy ewes were $164-$166. It may be almost mid-winter, but it looked more like an autumn cattle yarding on Friday due to the larger yarding and good mixture of quality lines. More than 250 straight-beef R3 steers were a feature of the day, but their numbers attracted enough interest to ward off any weakness. The 545655kg pens were nearly all $2.93$3.00/kg, but three 460-520kg pens made a little extra at $3.07-$3.13/ kg. R2 steers were out in numbers too at 370 head. Angus and Charolais, 370-405kg, were $3.08-$3.26/kg, falling to $3.00$3.02/kg for 430-520kg Angus. Weights didn’t matter too much in the Hereford-Friesians who were making $2.70-$2.79/kg for 375-645kg. Straight beef and beefFriesian heifers, 375-425kg, were all $2.65-$2.73/kg. R2 Friesian bulls were $2.74-$2.76/kg for 465-470kg, and $2.88-$2.90/kg for 420-430kg. A mixture of beef-cross bulls were all below this but where often shorter on quality too. R1 Friesian bulls were available in decent sized lines, with 210245kg pens making $700-$770. Some 170-220kg beef-cross steers were $650-$730. Scanned-in-lamb ewes were a feature of the sheep section again, tallying up to just under 2500 head. Lines with decent quality and scanning 160% or more made $174-$190, though a line scanning triplets took top dollar at $198. Other pens were largely $150-$171. There was little difference in terms of price between 5-year and mixed age pens. Store lamb numbers fell back fairly heavily, and what was yarded was clearly showing the signs of the winter weather to date. Good and heavy male and cryptorchid lambs were $131-$156, dropping to $112.50-$137 for medium lines. Ewe lambs were as strong as ever, clocking in just below the males. The heavier ewes lambs were $129-$139, good lines made $108$125.50 and anything else halfdecent made $99-$114. Mixed sex pens were quite varied, but some heavy pens were $125-$135.50. CANTERBURY CANTERBURY It was all steady through the selection of prime cattle at CANTERBURY PARK. Some 625635kg Charolais were sought after by bidders, climbing to $2.82$2.83/kg, owever other straight beef lines, 515-625kg, could only make as much as $2.60-$2.70/kg. The lighter 385-495kg pens were more like $2.54-$2.56/kg. Some forward-store Herefords, 485-

535kg, were stronger though at $2.75-$2.82/kg. The core of the heifers were 420-515kg beef-Friesian’s, making $2.41-$2.52/kg at the fall of the hammer. A small selection of 400600kg straight beef heifers were a little above the rest at $2.50-$2.56/ kg. The better beef-cross and dairycross lines man-aged $1.59-$1.68/ kg, but anything else was back at $1.40-$1.50/kg. Some 510-690kg beef bulls were $2.48-$2.49/kg. Store lamb throughput was back on recent weeks at Canterbury Park with returns softening from the very high levels seen at the end of last month. Medium good and good male lambs traded at $118-$120 and mixed sex lines earned $94-$132, and lighter types managed $85$99. Good ewe lambs traded at very similar levels to their mixed sex counterparts returning $115$126. Scanned-in-lamb lines are making an appearance and those with scanning percentages at 170% earned $190-$200. Prime lambs were solid with increased demand for heavier lambs leading to a lift for these at $190-$212, medium types earned $140-$189, and lighter types $100$137. Top two-tooth ewes and cryptorchids returned $160-$165, with the remainder trading at $119-$146. Heavy mixed-age ewes softened, albeit still with pleasing returns at $192-$232, good types earned $160-$175, and medium to medium-good $120-$156. Lightmedium lifted to $121-$131, with the tail end managing $70-$114. Heavy ram lambs fetched $101$135, with the remainder earning $70-$97. Scanned-in-lamb ewes were firmly back on the menu at COALGATE with just under 550 on offer. Throughput was back for both store lambs and prime ewes, though prime lamb numbers increased with just over 2000 yarded. Prime lamb returns were almost identical to the last sale, with the top end earning $200$203, and the next cut $180-$199.

The majority of the yarding traded at $140-$179, with the tail end managing $112-$139. Though prime ewe numbers were back on recent levels they were replaced with a good number of scanned-in- lamb ewes. A small number of top prime ewes earned $191, with the rest of the yarding sold in two main brackets, heavy types fetched $160-$189, with the next cuts returning $120-$159, with the tail end at $108-$116. A consignment of 5yr Romney ewes scanned at 162%, had a good following making $182-$185, other scanned in lamb lines managed $136-$180. The increased number of store lambs did nothing to diminish the strength of the market and a small top end lifted to $133. The bulk of the remainder were strong at $110-$122, with a small lighter end trading at $52-$95. A heavily reduced yarding greeted salegoers at Coalgate, where store cattle just surpassed twenty head, and prime numbers were just shy of fifty. Quality was varied throughout the pens and prices reflected this. A highlight was a single pen R1 beef-cross steers, 250kg, returning a solid $750. Friesian bulls of the same age and 255-285kg traded at $540-$550, and a line of five mixed sex, 165kg, managed $530. Prime cattle returns lifted for the majority of the limited yarding, particularly for those with with weight on their side. Top steers, 540-680kg, lifted to $2.64-$2.70/kg, though 405-510kg eased to $2.20-$2.40/kg. Heifers had solid returns with 425-595kg making $2.61-$2.70/ kg, and 400-410kg lifted to $2.34$2.36/kg. A single bull weighing in at 700kg fetched $1750, for $2.50/kg. Cows lifted with 550-625kg up to $1.60-$1.64/kg SOUTH CANTERBURY SOUTH CANTERBURY A smaller selection of cows worked in vendors favour at TEMUKA, reinvigorating bidding after last week’s fall. Friesian cows, 515-710kg, were nearly all $1.60-$1.70/kg, whereas 405-495kg were more like $1.51$1.59/kg.

A single line of 650kg Devon’s were $1.89/kg. Steers and heifers continued to track sideways. Some 600-755kg Hereford-Friesians and Murray Greys were the strongest of the steers at $2.71-$2.74/kg, but the other beef lines, 495-620kg, were spread across $2.57-$2.69/kg. Straight-beef heifers, 545-605kg, were solid at $2.65-$2.70/kg, but 500-605kg Hereford-Friesians were anywhere in the $2.51-$2.70/kg range. A few 490-615kg Friesian heifers made $2.45-$2.67/kg.

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Only 4 bulls were offered, all older beef sires, peaking at $2.63/ kg for a 795kg Limousin. Chatham Island lambs were a feature in the store lamb pens, but as a whole there were only similar numbers to the week before. Bidding was largely unchanged too. Heavy mixed sex lams were $135-$149, while good lines made $119-$140 and other mediumtypes $115-$124.50. A large line of light Merino lambs managed $91. The prime section was once again a 50:50 split of lambs and ewes. Prime lambs were steady, mainly $140-$179, but peaking at $197. Ewes also largely unchanged, mostly pick up for $130-$179, but topping out at $242. Only 550 store cattle were on offer at TEMUKA, as is common this far into winter. Much of the sale was centred around R2 steers

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SOUTHLAND SOUTHLAND There was limited action in the LORNEVILLE cattle yards, where prime lines sold well but poorer quality store cattle were very difficult to move. Medium condition cows, around 480kg, were $1.40-$1.45/kg, while the 380-400kg band was more like $1.20-$1.30/kg. Beef-cross steers, around 450kg, were $2.50-$2.60kg, and 400-420kg heifers of the same breeding were at $2.30-$2.50/kg. R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 440kg, made $940, $2.14/kg. Some R1 Hereford-Friesian bulls, 160180kg, made $350-$450, but some 160kg Simmental-cross steers were quite well sought after at $550. It was business as usual in the sheep pens. Top prime lambs were $150-$181, whereas mediums and light lines made $127-$147 and $101-$120 respectively. Heavy prime ewes made a healthy $146$190, but fell back to $108-$136 for medium pens and $86-$100 for the light ewes. A few heavy rams were $90-$100, and $70-$80 for mediums. The better quality store lambs sold to demand again at $105$115, dropping to $90-$100 for medium quality pens. A few light store lambs were $75-$85. The sheep market softened for the majority at CHARLTON last Thursday, though prime lambs bucked this trend firming, Nicol Gray from PGG Wrightson reported. A small yarding of store lambs eased by $10-$12 across the board, top lambs managed $120, with medium types at $90-$100, with lighter lines $80-$88. A medium yarding of prime sheep was lifted by strong results for prime lambs, heavy lambs strengthened to $180, as did medium types at $140-$155, and lighter $115-$135. Top ewes eased to $190, with medium types back at $130-$150 and lighter lines $90-$115. Heavy two-tooth ewes earned $140-$160, medium $110-$130 and lighter types $70. Whilst rams traded at $50-$100.

OTAGO OTAGO It was a positive day throughout all sections in the sheep pens at BALCLUTHA, as reported by Alex Horn of PGG Wrightson. Climbing schedules are continuing to support prime lambs, putting heavy lines at $150$170, mediums at $130-$150, and the lighter pens made $120-$130. Scanning is progressing through Otago, bringing in a good numbers of dry ewes. This had zero impact on the market though, as heavy prime ewes made $180-$221, mediums $140-$180, and the remainder $100-$140. Store lamb numbers are beginning to fall back, but buyers still made a good appearance, especially keen on the forwardstore lambs. Top store lambs were $130-$140, easing to $120-$130 for mediums and $100-$110 for the

29, 2017

NOVEMBER

EYE LIVESTOCK TTLE TARANAKI CA

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2.47

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smaller types. Store cattle will be offered on Wednesday the 27th June.

and heifers, supported by a large consignment brought in from the Tekapo area. The R2 steers that sold were steady on a fortnight ago, however six pens were passed in. The 390485kg Hereford-Friesians made $2.57-$2.72/kg, but one line of 415kg Angus were above the rest at $2.81/kg. A single line of 470kg Speckle Park-Friesians made a premium over the other dairycross pens at $2.74/kg. All of the heifers found new homes when put under the hammer, but these were back a little as a whole. Many were 380-445kg Hereford-Friesian, and combined with a line of Murray Grey-cross made $2.34-$2.45/ kg. One vendor’s lines were a little more sought after than the rest, putting these 345-385kg Hereford-Friesians at $2.49-$2.53/ kg. A decent number of 345-410kg traditional heifers made a little extra than the rest at $2.51-$2.61/ kg. R1 lines were mainly just a mixture of average quality bits and pieces which explained why nearly all were unable to make more than $2.50/kg. There was the odd pen of interest though. Some 220kg Hereford steers made a reasonable $750, $3.42/kg, and 245kg exotic heifers were worth a mention at $1050, $3.25/kg.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018

1300 - 1400 1090 - 1200 940 1542 1220 600 1455 910 1285 800 1060 400

3.5

2.52

3.0

2.59

2.5

2.74 - 2.77 2.70 - 2.72

2.0 100kg

200kg

300kg Steers

500kg 400kg Heifers

2.82 2.48 1.59 2.75 2.46 2.75 2.54 2.35 1.25

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600kg

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Markets

40 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – June 25, 2018 SI SLAUGHTER STEER

NI SLAUGHTER LAMB

NI SLAUGHTER MUTTON

R2 HEREFORD-FRIESIAN HEIFERS, 385-445KG, AT TEMUKA

($/KG)

5.25

7.75

5.10

2.41

ewes, SIL 162%, at Coalgate

Pig farmers question future Annette Scott annettescott@xtra.co.nz

ARKET demand is slow and pig meat prices have taken a dive in recent weeks as pork producers seriously question their future. Pig meat prices dropped 10 cents a kilogram in June with cost pressure really coming on from imported pig products, New Zealand Pork farmer spokesman Ian Carter said. “Imports are coming in really cheap and compromising domestic prices. “This is where Country of Origin Labelling (CoOL) is very important to us,” Carter said. Misleading domestic food industry advertising is also a concern. “We are seeing full page advertising and mailers where retailers are deviously putting all pork categories on the same page and that’s confusing shoppers when the NZ PigCare brand relates to just one, maybe two, of all products advertised. “Without CoOL it’s a clear case of pushing us to become less competitive. “It is becoming very evident that a lot we think provides us with a more confident environment is actually compromising us to be competitive in a globalised world.” Carter said pig meat producers have been

DARK: There’s no light at the end of the tunnel for pig farmers, spokesman Ian Carter says.

operating on a low schedule for 18 months but the latest drop matches the last significant decrease in 2007. “A lot of farmers departed the industry after that and those left were pretty committed farmers. “But some of those farmers are now saying they are not sure where we are going.” Looking ahead, the industry indicators are not giving a clear message given the impact of imports, competing proteins and high feed costs as pig meat competes with reasonably

Sitting

Importation of (pig) meat is crippling domestic producers. Ian Carter Farmer high beef prices and very strong lamb. “We don’t have the same light at the end of the tunnel. “Importation of (pig) meat is crippling domestic producers.

FENCE? ON THE

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“We are very sensitive to the consumer but what is not evident is that the signals are not noticeable at the retail shop level.” The pig meat schedule shows pork fetching $3.50$3.65/kg in the North Island and $3.45 in the South. Bacon ranges from $3.40$3.55/kg in the North and is $3.25 in the South. The greatest proportion of pig products, about 75%, goes into bacon schedule pricing. To say the schedule needs to be at $4/kg is not necessarily the answer, Carter said. “How we get confidence to re-invest is about sustainable returns relative to our costs and at this stage of the year a lift of 20-30 cents would make a big difference.” Traditionally, pig producers expect a lift leading up to Christmas. “But there’s not confidence there at the moment to get that acceptable level.” Feed prices, labour rates and increasing regulatory and compliance requirements are adding to producer costs. “It’s not as simple for us as it is for a $120 lamb or a $7 milk payout. “If grain keeps pushing above $400 a tonne then under that environment, yes, we need $4 but we don’t if grain is at $300. “We want to support our arable industry with a sustainable model based around grain but we are struggling right now. “It’s tough going but we remain hopeful,” Carter said.

$2.54-$2.65/kg R2 beef-Friesian steers, 415-520kg, at Wellsford

Weak start to the dairy season NEW Zealand has had a weak start to the 2018-19 dairy season from a dairy commodity perspective with poor results at both June Global Dairy Trade events. However, this is the time of year Amy Castleton when little is happening in NZ to AgriHQ Analyst influence movement in commodity prices. Strong autumn milk production – with both April and May beating last year’s exceptional levels – has had some influence on whole milk powder prices, which have eased off slightly. WMP achieved an average US$3189/t at the June 19 GDT event, which is still a reasonably high level for this commodity, though it has eased over the past few months. Expectations for WMP on the NZX Dairy Derivatives market have also drawn back but the market does expect WMP to remain above US$3000/t for the full season. Assuming NZ has a relatively normal milk production season we expect to see WMP prices maintained largely at current levels for the season, which should be supportive of milk price forecasts. We also continue to see some strong prices for milk fats though there has been some downward movement in recent weeks. Short supply on a global scale and ongoing strong demand have kept butter prices high. Prices for both butter and anhydrous milkfat are expected to remain at historically high levels though they are expected to ease a little throughout the season. Supply is the risk factor for commodity prices. All the main exporting regions are forecast to produce more milk in the coming months. Milk supply growth in Europe and the United States has slowed, which is supportive of commodity prices – but it is still growing. NZ and Australia are expected to produce more milk in the coming season. If we see greater growth than expected, that could put some downwards pressure on prices. amy.castleton@nzx.com

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