Farmers Weekly NZ July 31 2023

Economy needs rm hand: English

Concern at cost of agri loans

average rates on business loans have risen sharply to above 7%, whereas average home loan rates have yet to hit 5%.

THE growing gap between interest rates charged by banks for agricultural and business loans compared with housing loans is a worrying trend for farmers and orchardists.

NZAB director Andrew Laming said the historical gap is widening and that banks seem to be using higher margins on business loans to subsidise the housing sector.

“It appears that banks are happy to lean on the business sectors to keep home lending on life support,” he said.

The agribusiness adviser and former rural banker used the latest Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) data to compare the interest income earned by banks on residential mortgages versus on business loans, of which agri loans are a $62.5 billion slice.

Laming said agri mortgage broker NZAB operates across all major banks and keeps a close eye on bank funding costs and their underlying drivers.

Banks point out that business and agri loans require more of a bank’s own capital, as determined by the RBNZ, and there are different security rules and risk management factors.

Since bottoming out at plusminus 3% nearly two years ago,

For borrowers who are coming off fixed terms, the re-fixing options for business loans are 8-9% compared with 6-7% for home loans.

The gap is wider than in the past, especially during the long period when all interest rates generally were much lower, Laming said.

Other means of comparison are the relative margins between housing and business loan rates and the costs of borrowing for banks, using RBNZ data on the average interest rates on bank deposits.

The margin for banks on home lending is below 1%, while for business lending it is 2.75%.

“It is hard not to conclude that banks are elevating the margins for their business and agri customers to keep afloat the housing loan market, an easier place for them to lend and earn profit.

“Keeping home loans lower than what they otherwise would be encourages relatively more activity in this sector.”

The first response from the big trading banks is to point out the cyclical variability in floating versus fixed interest rates and agri versus housing loans.

Continued page 3

Acting the goat with Bob

Olivia Gilbertson and Angora goat Bob enjoy a rare moment of sunshine. Olivia’s mother Lucie farms 250 Angora goats at Waitukai Farm in Patangata, Central Hawke’s Bay. Mohair from the goats averages $40/kg compared with $2.10 for the wool from the farm’s sheep – no wonder Bob is smiling

Climbing in history’s steps

North Canterbury farmer Andy Fox honours the heroic actions of his grandfather in helping to liberate a French town during World War I.

PEOPLE 16

Surging levels of leptospirosis infections in people have animal and human health authorities on alert.

NEWS 3

A report identifies four types of emerging protein that New Zealand could lead the way in producing.

TECHNOLOGY 4

A solution may have been found to deal with postcyclone slash and washedout soil at the same time.

TECHNOLOGY 17

Hugh Stringleman NEWS Finance

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News in brief

Fonterra capital

Fonterra shareholders have almost unanimously approved the return of capital following the sale of Soprole in Chile, voting 99.24% in favour of the scheme of arrangement.

At a meeting on July 26 the co-operative said it is on track to pay 50c a share, around $800 million in total, by the end of August. Final High Court orders will now be sought for the payment process.

Milk price cut

Westpac has slashed its farmgate milk price forecast for the 2023-24 season by $1.10, down to $7.80/kg milksolids.

Senior agri economist Nathan Penny said the main reason is ongoing sluggishness in the Chinese economy. New Zealand milk production in April and May set records for both months and the autumn surge was enough to offset a slow spring and bring the 2022-23 season in ahead of the previous season. Penny expects dairy prices to recover late this year or early next year.

Earnings up

PGG Wrightson has increased its guidance for operating earnings in the financial year just ended from $57 million to $60m.

Acting chair U Kean Seng said the rural servicing company continued to deliver pleasing operational performance in the fourth quarter of the 2023 financial year ended June 30. The guidance remains subject to audit and PGG Wrightson will release its annual results on August 15.

Rural leaders

MISSED: As minister in charge of Cyclone Gabrielle recovery, Kiri Allan will be missed by her region, says Fed Farmers Gisborne Wairoa president Toby Williams.

Applications are open for farmers, foresters, fishers, growers and agribusiness professionals to join one of two programmes being offered next year for the Kellogg Rural Leadership Programme. Kellogg has helped develop rural leaders since 1979. Kellogg scholars are grounded in the food and fibre sector and come from multiple industries and parts of its value chains.

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

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

pioneering spirit tells us nothing’s out of reach

Lepto the sting in Gabrielle’s tail

Richard Rennie NEWS Disease

SURGING levels of leptospirosis infections in people have animal and human health authorities on alert in regions severely affected by flooding, as the disease lingers into the new farming season.

Disease monitoring by the Institute of Environmental Science and Research puts New Zealand’s current rate of human leptospirosis infection at 3.5 per 100,000 people, well up on last year’s 2.4 per 100,000. This is being driven strongly by infections in areas affected by long-term rainfall and Gabrielle’s flood impact.

From February to May this year Hawke’s Bay, Tairāwhiti and Waikato all reported significantly elevated levels of infection, with Hawke’s Bay reporting 25 cases in March alone.

Year to date, 106 people have been infected with the disease, with over half of those, 54, coming from Tairāwhiti and Hawke’s Bay district health regions. In March a higher-than-average number of

Continued from page 1

The ANZ business and agri regional manager for East Coast and Lower North Island, Marcus Bousfield, said two-thirds of agri loans are on floating rates and these have reflected the sharp rise of 5% in the OCR over the past 20 months.

“Those borrowers have felt the direct impact of the Reserve Bank’s monetary policy moves, while homeowners are mostly on fixed rates, some of which may be yet to rise. Variable rates for home loans at present are around 8.5% but there is a lag effect still to be worked through.

patients were hospitalised by the disease.

At the current reported infection rate this year may prove the worst since 2017, when 140 people were affected.

The increased incidence in humans is another sting in Cyclone Gabrielle’s tail and confirms Massey University researchers’ concerns raised earlier this year about elevated disease risk.

They predicted that, a month after the flooding, rodentborne disease outbreaks could start to appear with a strain of leptospirosis carried by rats, and livestock carrying several others.

The disease has the ability to survive in water and soil for several weeks after being shed in the carrier animal’s urine. It is not always easily detected in livestock, but it can be a debilitating disease when contracted by humans.

The significant lifts in the rate of human infections have prompted the Ministry for Primary Industries’ animal health endemic team to notify vets of the elevated risk of the disease spreading in livestock.

John Meban of Eastland Vets in Gisborne said the extended wet

“This is the most volatile time for interest rates since 2008 and unfortunately businesses are feeling it first.”

Regarding the allegation of cross-subsidising housing and business sector lending, Bousfield said business lending is very competitive and any such prolonged disparity would be evident to all business owners.

Farmers have repaid debt in recent times and now that rising costs and falling product prices are occurring together there may be room for switching off principal repayments.

“We acknowledge the very real cost pressures on our big

weather suffered by the region over the past 18 months does much to explain the increased incidence of leptospirosis.

“Our expectation is that will continue with all the surface flooding and water all around us”.

He said his suspicion is a leptospirosis strain is cycling through local sheep populations.

productive sector, and the speed of the rate rises, and we are here to help our clients through this.”

Westpac head of agribusiness

Tim Henshaw said agri and housing lending portfolios are entirely separate.

“Agri lending rates tend to be higher than housing lending for a number of reasons,” he said. These include differing risk profiles and loan terms.

“Having paid down debt, with strong balance sheets and previous experience, we believe the vast majority of our customers are well-placed to manage the current interest rate cycle.

“You see sick animals when they pick up another strain, often the pig strain Pomona in cattle, which can cause abortion storms. We have seen a bit of leptospirosis in finishing lambs this year too.”

In Hawke’s Bay, VetsOne director and vet Mike Newall has also seen elevated levels of leptospirosis infections in traded lambs, and he

“If they are feeling under strain we encourage them to talk to us, so we can discuss financial options and what other support may be available.”

ASB said that RBNZ capital regulations require banks to hold higher levels of capital for business loans than for home loans, which directly influences pricing.

New capital requirements were introduced in 2022 and will gradually increase until 2028.

“Because of the relative risk profiles, business lending is more impacted by these increases than home lending,” ASB said.

Professor David Tripe of Massey

has just had a dairy farming client hospitalised with it for four days.

“There are certainly more cases of it about than we have seen in the past.”

Both vets have been urging farmer clients to consider vaccination of their dairy and breeding cattle. Newall estimates 90% of his dairy clients have herds vaccinated but the rate is only 50% in beef herds.

Massey University veterinary epidemiologist Dr Emilie Vallee said Hawke’s Bay has always been a hot spot for leptospirosis infection, with meatworkers particularly susceptible. She said overseas experience suggests infection rates should drop after the flood event, usually after one to two months.

“These infections seem to be livestock related, judging by the strains being reported.”

She said human infection is a strong signal that the disease is present in the livestock population, with a traditional peak through early spring still to come.

Work by Vallee’s colleague Dr Jackie Benschop, funded by the Health Research Council, has shed more light on NZ’s leptospirosis transmission, and its effects.

University’s School of Economic and Finance, said it would be easy to conclude banks are starving farms and business of finance but there is not enough evidence to draw any conclusions.

“Because so much lending for housing is done at fixed rates, it is a key area for competition. “Some banks got into more trouble than they want on farm lending and this now impacts their approach.”

Rabobank NZ chief executive Todd Charteris said there has been a small increase in nonperforming agri loans during this year, against a backdrop of very low levels in the past decade.

FAR has added value to the maize industry by:

• Providing data to help maize growers optimise N use and without compromising yield.

• Demonstrating the value of different maize establishment techniques for different soils and systems.

• Targeting research on the value of cover crops in maize.

• Supporting the response to fall armyworm and velvetleaf incursions.

• Encouraging good management practice through annual Beyond First Principles workshops.

SPREADING: Cyclone Gabrielle’s aftermath has included leptospirosis bacteria spreading further through livestock populations, which is now re ected in increased human infections.

Emerging proteins we should be growing here

Bryan Gibson TECHNOLOGY Food and bre

ANEW report has identified four types of emerging protein that New Zealand could be a leader in producing – but one of the authors warns that the country’s defensive attitude must change if it is to catch up with other food-producing nations.

FoodHQ’s report, Unleashing Aotearoa NZ’s Next Protein Revolution, focuses on NZ’s chances of success in producing 10 of these novel proteins.

The four that rank highest are hemp, leafy greens, seaweed and fungi.

FoodHQ chief executive Dr Victoria Hatton said the report builds on two other pieces of work that identified the options and highlighted the need to understand where our strengths could align with the sector.

“The intention of the report was to really help us understand how we can best go about contributing to the emerging protein supply market based on what our ‘uniqueness’ is and that hasn’t been

looked at before,” Hatton said.

“How can we take advantage of some of the capabilities NZ has, things that we are good at, and what does our infrastructure look like?”

NZ lacks the resources and investment that other nations have, so it is vital we make smart decisions that can build upon our strengths as a food producer, she said.

Can we have dairy with hemp growing as a rotational crop? Could we have dairy and an indoor shed that’s a vertical growing system for leafy greens?

Dr Victoria Hatton FoodHQ

The types of protein covered in the report were ranked against four metrics: competition, natural resources, know-how and regulation.

Precision fermentation, for example, would be challenging because NZ’s rules on genetic

modification would need to change to allow production.

Similarly, cultured meat is made using processes NZ is good at, but its main ingredient is sugar, which would have to be imported from overseas.

Hatton said new products require a lot of investment so government funds will be needed to get started.

“The whole concept of an emerging sector is that it is emerging, so we have very few industry leaders and they are really struggling financially because they are trying to make products in a market which is really hard – they’re still at the research and development stage for some of them,” she said.

Another major obstacle Hatton identifies is the attitude many in the food and fibre sector have to emerging proteins.

“We’re already seven to 10 years behind in some of these protein classes because we’ve had this defensive view of our more traditional protein products.

“It’s prevented us from having the open discussion around the possibilities for diversification. I think we can have it all. If you think about the future of food production in NZ, and you think about landscape resilience, we can’t expect to just be doing dairy and red meat on farm in 15 years’ time because the climate is changing and consumer preferences are changing.

“So we have to think about an ‘and’. Can we have dairy with hemp growing as a rotational crop? Could we have dairy and an indoor shed that’s a vertical growing system for leafy greens?

MORE:

SWEET MEAT: Cultured meat is made using processes NZ is good at, but its main ingredient is sugar, which would have to be imported from overseas, making it less suitable as an emerging protein focus.

Wider role for vet techs as shortage hits

such as anaesthetic inductions, intubations and prepping for surgical procedures in companion animal clinics.

MAPPED OUT: FoodHQ assessed a range of emerging proteins for how well they are suited to New Zealand conditions.

“If we really invest in the development of these emerging proteins as products then we start to imagine what an alternative to a single system might look like.”

VETERINARY technicians are to take on more clinical roles in practices to help address the vet shortage.

Veterinary Council of NZ (VCNZ) chief executive Iain McLachlan said it is up to individual practices what extra roles they give to nurses and technicians, but they will be within their scope of practice.

He said these additional functions will be more obvious in companion animal practices and likely involve the administering of medication and conducting routine tests.

“Very much like human health, where you might see a general practice nurse, seeing a veterinary nurse or technician can safely happen at veterinary clinics.

“Allied Veterinary Professionals [AVPs] have their own set of standards, ethics and guidelines, so are trusted specialists in their fields.”

The VCNZ’s professional adviser, Seton Butler, said AVPs are already responsible for tasks

In production animal clinics “they can also be the first professional called to calvings and, if needed, they can perform epidurals or prepare for a caesarean in advance of the veterinarian arriving in well-run clinics”.

Massey last year increased enrolments in its Bachelor of Veterinary Science course by 30, but it will be five years before they graduate.

McLachlan said before the covid pandemic two-thirds of the approximately 300 vets registered in New Zealand each year came from overseas.

That source dried up over the past two years and while it is slowly recovering, it is not a quick fix to address the vet shortage.

The NZ Veterinary Association had 77 vacancies on its website last week.

McLachlan said the sector is using a three-pronged approach: registering more vets, training more vets and finding new ways of operating, such as using AVPs.

Neal Wallace NEWS Veterinary

Listen to a full interview with Dr Victoria Hatton on the Farmers Weekly in Focus podcast on your favourite streaming app.

Local retailers’ interest in carbon lifts

Richard Rennie MARKETS Emissions

AS PRESSURE mounts in overseas markets for carbon footprints and supply chain transparency, New Zealand supermarkets are also moving to meet consumers’ carbon expectations.

Late last year Tesco UK sustainability manager Alice Ritchie signalled that the giant food chain would prefer an overarching policy on NZ’s farm emissions to a scattering of separate certification schemes. She said a single uniform approach held greater appeal.

NZ supplies 40% of Tesco’s lamb, and Tesco is already signalling to its UK farmers and processors to lower carbon emissions as it works to become net carbon zero by 2035.

electricity generation, heating, and cooling.

So far Countdown has achieved a 46% reduction in its Scope 1 and 2 emissions against its 2015 baseline.

A Countdown spokesperson said in terms of company business, Scope 1 and 2 comprise only 2% of its 3.142 million tonnes of total carbon emissions a year.

“Our approach to Scope 3 emissions is a collaborative one. Our commitment is to reduce Scope 3 emissions by 19% by 2030 and we want to do this by helping suppliers make positive changes, which we know many of them are already taking steps towards,” the spokesperson said.

Countdown launched a pilot Scope 3 programme late last year to engage with suppliers to measure and reduce their emissions. It supplies a sustainability self-disclosure tool to identify impacts and achievements of suppliers in reducing carbon.

In the company’s 2022 sustainability report it says that, in the initial stages of this pilot, it is focused on 18 major suppliers across a range of categories including long-life, meat and dairy, where the emissions impacts are the greatest.

Competitor Foodstuffs is about to appoint a carbon manager to oversee its efforts to reduce emissions.

In NZ, the owner of Countdown supermarkets, Progressive, is working to reduce its Scope 3 emissions by 19% by 2030. Scope 3 includes emissions from company suppliers, including farmers at the source of food production and within the farm gate. Scope 1 includes emissions generated directly by the particular company through fuel combustion in boilers, furnaces, and transport, and Scope 2 includes emissions associated with

Sandy Botterill, head of Foodstuffs environmental social and governance, said as a member of the Climate Leaders Coalition comprising 100 NZ organisations, the company is committed to taking collective, transparent and meaningful action to reduce its emissions profile.

The country’s largest primary processors are also ramping up their carbon focus, partly in response to overseas supplier demands and to NZ consumer expectations.

John Skurr, GM for NZ sales at Alliance, said his company has been completing regular environmental assessment reports for customers across the globe, including NZ’s grocery sector, for some time.

He said the company regularly hosts customers from key markets on suppliers’ farms.

“They’re always impressed by the

lengths our farmers go to improve their environmental footprints.”

Guy Blaikie, director of Fonterra Brands NZ, said NZ customers are interested to know the carbon footprint of the products they purchase from Fonterra.

“We work with customers to provide the information they need, whether that’s through statements or completing customers’

emissions templates,” he said. Fonterra is aiming at a 50% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 from a 2018 baseline, upping its earlier target of 30% reduction.

These are being achieved in part with a $90 million government contribution to help decarbonise processing.

But Fonterra’s Scope 3 targets are still under wraps, with the cooperative expected to announce its farmgate targets for suppliers later this year.

Silver Fern Farms (SFF) chief sustainability officer Kate Beddoe said a focus on carbon reduction was anticipated from its customers across all markets for some time.

“To this end we have launched Net Carbon Zero beef which incentivises our farmers for sequestration within their farming systems.

“We were also one of the early advocates and initial partners in AgriZero which is investing in methane reduction technology on farm.”

She said SFF has adopted science aligned targets for Scope 1 and 2 emissions, and will be adopting Scope 3 on-farm emissions targets by year’s end.

“Furthermore our industry assurance scheme NZFAP+ requires participating suppliers to have an emissions reductions plan, and to know their number.” Efforts to tie down NZ’s carbon emissions at the farm gate appear to have stalled.

Parliament shuts down on August 31 prior to the election and major issues remain outstanding on He Waka Eke Noa.

These include determining the vegetation that can be attributed to farm sequestration, and price setting.

It was originally a bipartisan policy, but the National Party has declared it dead and hinted at dropping statutory timelines for emissions reductions.

In the initial stages of this pilot we are focused on 18 major suppliers across a range of categories including long-life, meat and dairy where the emissions impacts are greatest.

Countdown spokesperson

EMISSIONS OMITTED: Like their overseas counterparts, NZ supermarket chains are seeking to get a read on emissions from their supply chain, and this includes primary producers.

The land least likely to survive future flooding

EYEWATERING metrics

in a Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research report on Cyclone Gabrielle’s impact reveal the different impacts pasture, exotic plantation and native forestry planting had on land resilience in Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti .

Just released, the rapid assessment report uses satellite imagery of land before and after the event, determining that the regions experienced 300,000 landslides, with an average landslide containing 1000t of soil.

The resulting 300 million tonnes of soil lost is estimated to be worth $1.5 billion. The impact was most severe on land with pasture and exotic forest plantations.

The report found a 90% reduced likelihood of land collapsing when covered in woody vegetation.

But the outcome depended on the region being studied and type of vegetation.

In southern Hawke’s Bay, the likelihood of land collapse was reduced by 90% for indigenous forested area, and 80% for land covered with exotic forest.

In northern Hawke’s Bay exotic forestry proved less effective, with a 60% reduction in collapse, against indigenous reducing risk by 90%.

Further north in the Tairāwhiti region, however, the ability of exotic forestry to protect the land was even less at only 50% effective.

Across northern Hawke’s Bay and Tairāwhiti, the report says, forestry management practices such as non-thinning of trees, thin soils, and multiple forestry rotations all contributed to a failure to hold land in place.

In the Ngātapa-upper Wairoa catchment area, the likelihood of landslides in harvest forest was determined to be twice as likely as any other land cover.

Scientists back ‘One Biosecurity’ refresh

Gerald Piddock NEWS Biosecurity

NEW Zealand needs a wholesystem approach to its biosecurity to better connect the community, scientists and governing bodies if it is to remain fit for purpose.

A singular, interconnected system is needed to address the fact that so many biosecurity risks are cross sectoral, Lincoln University’s Professor Philip Hulme said during a webinar on the future of biosecurity for NZ’s dairy sector, organised by the university.

an outbreak occurs – whether it’s Mycoplasma bovis or foot and mouth disease – dread and uncertainty remain.

Workshops were held with the Ashburton farming community last year to co-develop initiatives around safer trading of stock and other aspects to improve biosecurity responses.

When an incursion occurs, farmers are also dealing with the financial and environmental challenges that come with running a farming business.

But the report’s findings were not limited to failings in forestry plantings alone, with the likelihood of landslides on 20-degree slopes greater on pastureland than on exotic forests in the Hawke’s Bay region.

Further north in Gisborne, high producing grassland and exotic forest had similar likelihoods for land slippage.

The report authors note that high producing grassland tended to be more susceptible than exotic forests to landslides, except in Gisborne coastal hill country. The report’s authors have recommended more detailed field investigations to determine specific causes of forest plantation failure.

But landslides in Tairāwhiti were found to be linked to land where plantations had been harvested, with those plantations being almost five times more likely to experience landslides compared to indigenous forest. That increased to more than 10 times the rate after the plantation had been harvested.

Of the 300 million tonnes of soil released, Esk Valley is estimated to have received about 6 million tonnes, with half of that dumped into waterways and 1.5 million tonnes laid on the river valley flood plain to an average depth of 80cm.

There’s still time to apply for a 2024 Nuffield Scholarship.

According to the scientists’ models, if mature indigenous forest had been on that catchment’s highly erodible land areas, the mass of eroded soil would have reduced from 5.7 million tonnes to 4 million tonnes, with an average depth of sediment reduced by 30%, to 50cm. The report only looked at satellite imagery that applied to land classes six and seven, which represent 70% of the land area in the affected regions.

Manu Caddie, spokesperson for Mana Taiao Tairāwhiti in Gisborne, said the research is a nail in the coffin for all unsustainable land use in the region, and highlights how specific Tairāwhiti-northern Hawke’s Bay issues are.

“Crown policies supported land clearance over the past 150 years, now we need public policy that supports rapid restoration of permanent indigenous forest, with associated jobs and income to landowners.”

He said the results also challenge the current claims about transition forestry, where exotic plantings provide an initial income and cover for emerging native forests.

“The problems with that idea are that pine performs poorly compared to indigenous forests in terms of keeping the land in place. We can’t wait another 30 years, let alone 70-80 years, as some companies are proposing.”

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“Everything is separated yet there are commonalities across all of the biosecurity threats that we are missing by working in this simple way,” he said.

“In New Zealand, animal health, human health environmental health and plant health are often dealt with separately.

“Really what we need to do is bring in biosecurity to work much more at the centre of these different areas.”

Hulme called this approach “One Biosecurity”.

There also need to be better links in the biosecurity continuum between pre-border, border and post-border, he said.

This has increasingly been seen as a way forward as the Ministry for Primary Industries refreshes NZ’s biosecurity system, which is comforting, he said.

DairyNZ biosecurity manager Liz Shackleton backed the call, saying the refresh is a huge opportunity to get the system right for the future.

She said NZ has a fragmented biosecurity system where different sectors tend to work in their silos.

“We have policies that are 30 years old and the funding settings have served us well to date, but ultimately will have to be reformed to be match-fit into the future,” she said.

For dairy farmers, when an

“Be aware that this is the reality you’re facing when you’re trying to get science communication out there and into the community.

Liz Shackleton DairyNZ

“More than ever, the anchor in this storm of chaos is going to be the need to take a step back and have that leadership to strengthen and integrate systems and partnerships and build that trust.

“That investment in face-time is so crucial.”

Shackleton said there were key take-home messages from reviews following the M bovis incursion.

These included the value of investment in preparedness around relationships, planning and people and ensuring data systems are properly integrated to allow for a single, more streamlined biosecurity approach.

“Until we get those system and information flows more integrated, we are continually going to be on the back foot.”

Kate Scott Business Owner Positive force Nuffielder

We have policies that are 30 years old and the funding settings have served us well to date, but ultimately will have to be reformed to be match-fit into the future.

Richard Rennie NEWS Forestry

PLANTED: Floods and landslides displaced 300 million tonnes of soil, estimated to be worth $1.5 billion. The impact was most severe on land with pasture and exotic forest plantations.

Minister’s departure leaves a hole – Feds

Richard Rennie POLITICS Governance

TAIRĀWHITI farming leaders say Kiri Allan’s departure as minister heading Cyclone Gabrielle’s recovery is a great loss for a region that benefited from having her direct links to the cabinet.

As East Coast MP, Allan was given the task in Gabrielle’s wake in February, when she called the repair job ahead “monumental”.

Federated Farmers Gisborne Wairoa president Toby Williams said Allan will be sorely missed in the region, where her local connections and contact with high-level Wellington ministers had helped push the recovery along faster.

Allan, who resigned all her ministerial portfolios last week after being charged with careless driving and failing to accompany an officer following a car crash, has said she will not seek re-election for the East Coast electorate.

“She would have to want to do it. But it could also be some time away, say there was a change of government you could be looking at six years.

“It comes down to whoever takes over as the new MP, and how the region feels about them.”

He said it was possible there could well be work at a local level that took advantage of her many skills, while also being less stressful and lower profile.

Said Williams: “Typically, when we asked for something to get done, with Kiri it would happen. Almost straightaway she could talk to other ministers and get that particular ministry to act.”

He said he had been impressed with Allan from the get-go when first meeting her after Anne Tolley’s departure back in 2020.

He said the Enhanced Taskforce Green project was one initiative she championed for people struggling to secure staff to help clean up after Gabrielle.

It enabled local councils to engage with Work and Income to secure workers to help with clean-up projects. It included a wide range of eligible people, from students to beneficiaries and displaced workers impacted by the event.

More recently, Williams said, he credited her with getting the low-interest loan scheme over the line for growers and farmers.

The government has offered to support banks to grant lower interest loans of up to $10 million over five years and carry 80% of the credit risk. If a bank won’t lend to a particular person the government will provide loans of up to $4m, deferring interest for 10 years.

“We were looking for a hand up, not a handout, and she helped us get that over the line. It came at a time when the big banks were a bit slow and their rates were high, although more are on board now.”

Williams said he admired Allan’s hard work and the skills she had brought to the region right from her initial role as minister for emergency management.

“And she also had to deal with a bout of cancer.”

Allan took leave in April 2021, returning cancer-free late that same year.

He said regardless of who wins the next election, they were unlikely to have a seat at the cabinet table.

In terms of her being able to return to such a high-profile role, Williams said he’d “never say never”.

MISSED: As minister in charge of Cyclone Gabrielle recovery, Kiri Allan will be missed by her region, says Fed Farmers Gisborne Wairoa president Toby Williams.

We were looking for a hand up, not a handout and she helped us get that over the line.

Toby Williams Federated Farmers

Uncertain season ahead for calf rearers

Gerald Piddock MARKETS Livestock

CALF rearers are facing another challenging season as high input costs and potentially reluctant purchasers mean the likelihood of yet another razorthin profit margin for those selling Friesian bull or dairy beef calves.

Looking at the season ahead, Paul Muir from On-Farm Research, based at the Poukawa Research Farm in Hawke’s Bay, said while calf milk replacer (CMR) costs have fallen slightly, meal prices are up and labour costs have risen, too.

The saleability of the reared calves also has question marks with a falling beef schedule due to lack of demand from China. This drop in price could soften demand – but a lot depends on what happens between now and the end of the year when the calves are sold, he said.

“Rearing costs are up on last year, mostly because of small increases in costs across the board. Everything’s sneaked up a bit. My feeling is that the costs of rearing are up 5-10%.”

While prices for four-day-old calves in Waikato are good – $145 in Waikato and $123 in Tirau – he

said he doubts this will last when supply hits its peak in August.

Waikato Federated Farmers dairy chair Matthew Zonderop shared this sentiment, saying while the market is buoyant at the moment, in general it begins to fade by the end of July when prices slump and the calf buyers become more particular about what they are buying.

“With the increase in rearing costs, in particular wages up

Feds flags SNA regs for lack of clarity

Neal Wallace NEWS Environment

NEW regulations intended to further protect indigenous biodiversity have failed to fix flaws identified in earlier drafts, a farming leader says.

The regulations become law in August.

Federated Farmers board member Mark Hooper said the final version of the National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity (NPSIB) ignores suggestions made on earlier drafts to provide clarity and use plain language so landowners can understand their obligations.

“Landowners need to understand and interpret what is expected of them so they can avoid activity that involves Significant Natural Areas,” Hooper said.

“What we ended up with didn’t meet those goals.

“Where we had hoped for certainty, now we have got increased uncertainty.”

District and city councils will primarily be responsible for enforcing and administering the NPSIB from August 4. Hooper said this will increase tension and he questioned whether there are sufficient ecologists and other experts available to support the policy.

Councils will work with landowners to identify SNAs and, depending on what stage councils are at, a report prepared for the Ministry for the Environment (MFE) estimates one-off and ongoing costs over the next 30 years for implementation and administering the policies.

14% and the lack of capable staff, calf meal up, electricity up, it all adds to calf buyers looking for value for money and essentially driving the price down at the farm gate, making it a lossmaking exercise for farm owners and share farmers to sell calves at the market.”

His Murray Grey bull calves usually sell for $110-$150/head.

“Last season they sold for $30, which didn’t cover the costs of

the NAIT tag, transport and calfrearing costs.”

Muir said that on a $6/kg CW beef schedule, a two-year-old 300kg dairy beef bull will sell for around $1800, earning the farmer a $1200 margin over two seasons.

Muir believed the high rearing costs will mean fewer calves reared by rearers, but possibly more will be reared by dairy farmers as they look to supplement their income due to the stagnant milk price forecast.

“It’s very hard to predict how many calves will be reared in total. Keep in mind that rearing calves is a hard game.”

Muir said CMR has fallen by around $10 to range from $80 to $90 while whey or non-curding CMRs will be around $75/bag, about $5 less than last year.

A premium CMR at $85 a bag and fed at 125 g/litre costs 53 cents per litre. At $75 a bag, a non-curding CMR works out at 47 cents a litre.

In contrast, the cost of calf meal has lifted $100 a tonne to be around $1150 for 16% protein pellets and $1200 for 20% protein pellets.

“Because of the uncertainty around ingredients, together with cost of imported ingredients (such as soya meal) in calf meals, few suppliers will guarantee their prices beyond June,” he said.

Muir said it is difficult to provide an accurate indicator of calf rearing costs because every rearer has a different setup.

Some rearers have ready access to cheaper calves or low-cost whole milk. Larger rearers get better discounts on CMR and calf meals and have economies of scale with labour. Mortality and animal health costs vary.

It’s very hard to predict how many calves will be reared in total. Keep in mind that rearing calves is a hard game.

Paul Muir On-Farm Research

These factors all impact the bottom line, Muir said. In a hypothetical scenario, Muir said a rearer will have a fixed rearing cost of around $440 per calf. This includes a $150 margin to cover labour and profit. However, the variable costs of calves, cartage and commission at point of selling need to be added to this.

“If the price for good spring calves is $100, rearers need a net average sale price in excess of $540 a calf to be profitable,” he said.

Mark Hooper Federated Farmers

It also fails to acknowledge existing biodiversity protection by landowners, Hooper said, instead focusing on preventing further loss but without providing any obvious metric or quantitative way for landowners to measure Significant Natural Areas (SNAs).

The cost for territorial authorities is estimated at between $500,000 and $2.6 million, regional councils $800,000 to $2.1m and unitary authorities $1.3m to $4.7m.

The estimated cost to the Department of Conservation is between $3.6m and $5.1m and central government support for Tangata Whenua is $14.6m, although some of that will offset to territorial authorities.

The opportunity cost for private and Māori owners for land used for infrastructure, mining and quarrying that contains SNAs, is calculated at $32.5m, described as “a one-off short term cost”.

The bulk of SNAs are on Māori and public land.

An MFE spokesperson said councils are already required to protect SNAs under the Resource Management Act (RMA), but the NPSIB provides guidance that is clearer and tighter.

An area qualifies as an SNA when it has ecological representativeness, diversity and pattern and rarity and distinctiveness.

The spokesperson said SNA criteria have been tightened to ensure protected areas have the most significant biodiversity.

Common indigenous species classified as “at risk” do not by themselves trigger an SNA but if there is any debate over identification of SNAs, a physical inspection is required.

Another change is that matagouri and mānuka will no longer trigger an SNA unless they are rare in a region.

Existing activities such as grazing and forestry can continue under the NPSIB provided their effects remain at the same level and do not increase the loss of

native plants or animals in an SNA. There are no requirements for fencing or pest control.

The government is exploring a biodiversity credit system to incentivise farmers to undertake conservation protection work of native plants and animals.

Funding of nearly $20m over four years to support NPSIB implementation and the biodiversity credits work was allocated in last year’s budget. For landowners applying for resource consent for new activities or developments that may affect native plants and animals, the MFE advises more requirements may have to be met.

TOUGH: There are question marks over the saleability of reared calves with a falling beef schedule due to lack of demand from China.

PROTECTION: The National Policy Statement on Indigenous Biodiversity applies to all land types and sets out what the Ministry for the Environment calls consistent ecological criteria to identify where SNAs are located.

Landowners need to understand and interpret what is expected of them so they can avoid activity that involves Significant Natural Areas.

Economy needs firm hand: Bill English

Neal Wallace NEWS Economy

MANY countries, including New Zealand, have lost their economic discipline since covid, former prime minister and finance minister Sir Bill English says. He told 700 farmers at the Silver Fern Farms Plate to Pasture Conference in Christchurch that since covid, governments have been less disciplined and allowed economic conditions to deteriorate.

Speaking during an economic forum that discussed postcovid economic challenges and opportunities, English said NZ’s economic performance has also suffered from what he called “chaotic and unproductive” policy making.

He gave the example of changes to the Emissions Trading Scheme, which has created distrust and uncertainty with carbon pricing; regulations imposed on farmers; and the tax on utility vehicles to subsidise buyers of electric vehicles.

“We need to get these things in shape and quickly, because the world is pretty unpredictable.”

English said Ireland is considering culling 200,000 cattle to meet climate change goals, which raises strategic choices for NZ’s primary production sector.

He said the quality of regulation and policy in NZ is a major threat and believes we need to confidently make the case that our primary production systems are already sustainable and demonstrate that fact.

“I hope in the next few years we can clean up this dumb policy and the primary production sector can move onto the front foot and make their case domestically but also on the world’s stage.”

English said the next few years could be volatile as the world weans itself off cheap money and adjusts to what is a very different global economy.

Economist Cameron Bagrie said the country is not in a recession but is resetting from the effects of inflation, which he said were fuelled by the government’s approach to monetary policy.

“We have strayed out of our economic lane, we have traversed

10km to the left and we are on a goat track.”

He was also concerned at the implications of the country living beyond its means, its poor education performance, local body debt and a tax take that is $6 billion below budget.

“Economic laws are coming back into play. For a long time we have followed ideology.”

English, Bagrie, Silver Fern Farms chief financial officer Vicki McColl and Rabobank NZ chief executive Todd Charteris were all part of the panel.

Charteris said he believes interest rates have peaked but it could be April next year before the Reserve Bank cuts the official cash rate.

He thinks on-farm costs have peaked, too, but fighting inflation will come with pain and a rapid cut in interest rates could be in response to international weakness among NZ’s trading partners.

For the past 20 years or so, global trade was driven by economic growth, the common good and comparative advantage, but Bagrie said those drivers have now changed.

Food and energy security are priorities and trade and market access are increasingly being used by countries as a weapon.

Charteris agreed, saying the notion of free trade is under pressure but other factors are emerging, such as a decline in natural resources and an ageing global population.

A recent United Nations report

says the number of new births has peaked, which means that in the coming decades there will be fewer people to produce products, including food, relative to consumers.

Charteris expects demand for nutritious food to increase, saying this will be underpinned for NZ by the strength and ability of its farmers.

Sainsbury’s exec heaps praise on NZ farms

of farmers to meeting these standards.

and protecting and regenerating nature.

NEW Zealand livestock farmers are well ahead of what is needed to meet the environmental and social needs of consumers, a Sainsbury’s executive said.

“You are leading the way,” Gavin Hodgson, the director of agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture at the United Kingdom supermarket chain, told the Silver Fern Farms (SFF) Plate to Pasture Farmer Conference in Christchurch.

He said he had noticed a substantial difference, since his last visit in 2019, in the approach

“As a country you are years ahead and SFF is also well ahead and that is an important message.”

Sainsbury’s accounts for 15% of UK supermarket sales and Hodgson said NZ farmers are aligned to the retailer’s sustainability values, which are enshrined in its Plan for Better strategy.

That strategy sets out three goals: providing a product that is better for the individual, better for the planet and better for everyone.

Each goal comes with specific targets that address diets, reducing carbon emissions and food waste, less packaging, more recycling

They also include human rights, community and partnerships, working conditions and animal health and welfare.

A 20-person agricultural team is charged with integrating those goals and sustainability into the Sainsbury’s supply chain and it has introduced a payment structure that rewards suppliers who meet those values.

Hodgson said the strategy is based on research that found consumers believe Sainsbury’s needs to focus on human rights, food waste, plastic use, animal welfare, protecting nature, carbon emissions and water use.

Recycling, health and safety and sustainable sourcing were considered strengths.

Sainsbury’s has a large retail footprint, operating more than 800 convenience stores and in excess of 600 supermarkets that turn over $64 billion a year from customers conducting 26 million transactions a week.

While sustainability is important to its customers, Hodgson said, price means some of those values are compromised when economic conditions tighten.

Plant-based alternative proteins are no exception. Demand has not been as rapid as expected and as prices have increased, consumer spend has not grown.

RECESSION OR RESET: The panel that discussed the post-covid economy at the recent Silver Fern Farms Plate to Pasture conference are, from left, journalist Madison Reidy, former prime minister Sir Bill English, economist Cameron Bagrie, Rabobank NZ chief executive Todd Charteris and Silver Fern Farms chief financial officer Vicki McColl.

Neal Wallace NEWS Food and fibre

GOOD JOB: Gavin Hodgson from Sainsbury’s praised NZ farmers.

It took a village to cinch Legendairy win

TEAM Legendairy from the Mt SomersSpringburn Primary School in rural Mid Canterbury may not know too much about pig breeds but overall had enough farming knowledge to earn the AgriKidsNZ Grand Champions 2023 honours.

Battling it out in the AgriKidsNZ competition at the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Contest at Winchester near Timaru, Team Legendairy of Flynn Wallace, Charlie Clark and Georgia Heaven from the Aorangi region, racked up the most points after a gruelling day of challenges to take away the Grand Champions bragging rights. The trio also scored highest in the Modules and the Agriquiz, taking three of the top awards at the Grand Final awards evening.

“It got better and better each time our name was called,” the trio said.

“Our team did amazing, we’re very happy that we won some great prizes and of course, bragging rights.”

The Year 7 and 8 pupils from Mt Somers-Springburn school were buzzing over their result, being just reward for the many hours of training and practice ahead of the big day.

The road to the Grand Final victory started at the beginning of the year when a group of students signalled their interest in taking up the challenge.

“We decided at the start of the year we would give it a go, and our parents and the school and the community all supported us.”

The journey to the Grand Final podium started with the Aorangi regional competition that had 600 primary school students, including two teams from Mt SomersSpringburn, vying for the right to compete at the Grand Final.

Team Legendairy finished

second in the regional competition, earning their place at the Grant Final.

“That was in April so we had a lot of work to do before the final, but it helped that we had so many people helping us.”

Charlie, who lives on the family cropping and livestock farm, said he loves machinery, working in the workshop making stuff and being out shifting stock and moving break fences.

Flynn lives in the local village and said he was very grateful for the opportunity to spend school holidays with his friends on Mt Somers Station.

Georgia has lived on a dairy farm and her mum is a veterinary nurse.

“So we all had different skills from our homelife to put together and places to go for our practice other than the modules we did at school.”

The school modules were set by teacher Maryann Heaven, who compiled specific resources to help set the students up for the final competition.

It was a big team effort with huge support from school, family, local farmers and the wider community.

“Everyone helped us with the training and practice, we did modules at school, we went on farms and our teacher was very good setting us up with training modules. We did some in class time and some in our break times at school and we did a lot at home and in the community.”

On competition day “there was no real best part, but the tractor driving was fun” and pigs provided the biggest challenge.

“We didn’t know our pig breeds, but oh well, it was awesome that all the effort we put in paid off.

“We had so much support and help from regionals to the big contest day and we would like to thank everyone who helped us, the farmers, the sponsors, our families and school,” the trio said.

Coach Jayne Clark said team building was key to the overall success.

“We did a lot of team building, just getting out and doing activities and challenges together. That is important, learning each other’s ways and specific skills, when they have to work together in the competition.”

Team building included a visit to a supermarket to learn about food ingredients and cuts of meat,

ON TOP: AgriKidsNZ 2023 Grand Champions Flynn Wallace, Georgia Heaven and Charlie Clark from Mt SomersSpringburn Primary School in Mid Canterbury.

a visit to a local apiary, cooking scones to learn to read and follow instructions, visits to different farms and cooking shepherd’s pies to deliver with little notes to the more senior folk in the local village.

The school finished third in 2019, but this was the first win –and plans are afoot for another crack next year.

“I guess we shouldn’t be giving away all our winning secrets, but it really was a village effort,” Clark said.

The Three Western Girls from Hauroko Valley School, made up of Sierra Bennett, Elly Hurley and Sophie Parris, were the AgriKidsNZ runners-up, and Southern Boys Sam Horrell, Oliver Chamberlain and Tomas Clarke, also from Hauroko Valley School, finished third, with Tomas Clarke taking home the prestigious title of Contestant of the Year.

Annette Scott PEOPLE Awards

Photo: Annette Scott

It got better and better each time our name was called.

Team Legendairy

Letters of the week

You can’t have it both ways

Jason Barrier Waerenga

I TAKE exception to your attempt to undermine internationally recognised concerns about “carbon leakage” – another very good reason for New Zealand farmers not to sign up to any emissions plan that reduces our production.

Your editorial, “Not the biggest role but still a key one” (July 24) states that “emissions will barely waver” if NZ cuts 20% of its production.

In tandem, in “Environmental scrutiny is a thing of the past, present and future” (farmersweekly.co.nz July 3), outspoken dairy analyst Julia Jones dismissed concerns around emissions leakage as “bullshit, because we don’t produce enough to have an impact, and if someone else wants to replace what we aren’t providing then they just redistribute what they are already growing; they’re not actually growing any more”.

Firstly, one can only marvel at how another country might fill the deficit of reduced NZ food exports without actually producing any more food!

Carbon cuts coming to a store near you

From the Editor

Richard Rennie Senior reporter

FOR most primary sector producers, consumers’ carbon expectations have been largely something for distant overseas markets, particularly the European Union and United Kingdom.

But the call for greater supply chain transparency and carbon footprinting is coming increasingly close to home.

Of the two main players in New Zealand’s $20 billion-a-year supermarket and grocery sector, Countdown’s supermarkets appear to be positioning themselves as the most advanced in emissions measuring and reduction.

The chain has sliced its Scope 1 and 2 emissions by almost half in a few short years, and once that low-hanging fruit is picked, it has Scope 3 emissions in its sights. These are emissions from suppliers, including farmers and growers.

Scope 3 emissions account for 98% of the chain’s total carbon footprint. The plan to reduce these by 19% by 2030 puts the primary sector on notice.

It also makes the continued wrangling around He Waka Eke Noa and regulated reduction targets something of a

sideshow to market reality.

Countdown already has pilot trials in play with over a dozen growers and suppliers of produce, looking at how it can help them identify and reduce emissions across a range of food categories including meat and dairy.

While the New Zealand domestic market is only a small part of the primary sector’s total production, it signals a firm knock from the carbon auditor on the sector’s door that is loud and local.

It is a knock the sector should feel increasingly capable of answering.

Fonterra has lifted its Scope 1 and 2 reduction target from 30% to 50% by 2030 and is due any day to reveal to farmers how much it expects them to reduce their emissions, as Scope 3 suppliers.

Seasoned from years of working to improve water quality, many dairy farmers may well find emissions reduction an easier win, one that also delivers improved profits.

Meantime the red meat sector is also answering the carbon knock.

A visiting Sainsbury’s executive recently told Silver Fern Farms suppliers that they are years ahead in meeting the sustainability needs of the UK grocer’s customers, which include carbon, welfare and waste. He also noted how far they have come since his previous visit only four years earlier.

With a senior executive of a chain that accounts for 15% of the UK market heaping that sort of praise, the sector should take heart that expectations here at home will also be met.

The many different parts of an export carcase are destined for many different markets, so meeting the demands of such overseas consumers is assurance that the expectations of Kiwi consumers on carbon accountability will also be met.

Secondly, to pretend, on the one hand, that we are so small that our substitution by overseas competitors with higher carbon footprints won’t be noticed but to then also claim that we are not too small to lead the world in reducing farm emissions is both ludicrous and illogical – you simply cannot have it both ways.

Such “pearl-clutching” and prophesying by Ms Jones and yourself is unhelpful to reasoned debate.

Worse still is the rank hypocrisy of being lectured about farming’s dwindling “social licence” by a government that was only too happy to import plastic carpets for 800 schools.

Add to this the ignominy of meat company executives who trot about delivering sermons on the “market demanding low-carbon meat” but refuse to walk their talk by providing farmers with any sort of price premium to match this vainglorious virtue signalling and it is perhaps easy to see why farmers like myself are becoming cynical and frustrated with this sort of sanctimonious narrative.

Things are changing and they are changing towards a more informed and mature conversation about climate change.

Governments overseas are beginning to look more holistically at the interplay between global warming strategies, land use and a growing demand for food.

But plenty of market research has also confirmed what consumers say they want and what they will pay for can differ.

Food prices continue to soar but supermarkets appear committed to ever lower carbon targets.

It means tension will only grow between the need to feed a family, and whether food suppliers can match carbon targets in a way that keeps them viable and their products still affordable.

Ultimately it will be consumers’ budgets and the need to feed whānau that will be the key determinant over planetary carbon emissions.

Beef + Lamb NZ and Federated Farmers have belatedly recognised this by applying a handbrake to the madness of He Waka Eke Noa and should be lauded for doing so.

It is now past time for our media, industry consultants and meat company executives to stop weaving this fabric of support for more government taxes, to stop lecturing farmers about carbon reduction from self-appointed pedestals and to start standing beside us in demanding some sensible policy and some science-based warming targets from the government.

Alan Emerson says it best in referencing Mark de Lautour in “Our position on trade is just plain crazy” (July 24): “The key issue is that no consumer is currently prepared to pay for product with a reduced carbon footprint.” Enough said.

This makes the continued wrangling around He Waka Eke Noa and regulated reduction targets something of a sideshow to market reality.

Effective connections take FAR further

Alison Stewart CEO of the Foundation for Arable Research

THE Foundation for Arable Research is a small agency with limited resources that need to be spread across a broad range of research activities and crops.

We also have the added complexity of having other non-levy crops, like process vegetables or horticulture, as well as livestock integrated into our farm systems. This means that it is almost impossible for us to cover everything our growers would like from our grower levy.

Leveraging our funds with those from the government, commercial businesses and other industry sectors has always been a key component of our business model and has enabled us to keep ahead of the game. This strategy has become even more relevant in the past five years with a plethora of government environment legislation being implemented, a number of biosecurity incursions and rising costs across all aspects of the business.

Creating effective connections and collaborations with our ag-sector partners has become a necessity rather than a niceto-have. Collaborations allow all involved to utilise their collective resources in the most effective way, not duplicate activities and, most importantly, deliver consistent messages to our growers/farmers.

Our pan-sector collaborations span three main themes –biosecurity, research and extension & advocacy.

Managing biosecurity risks is a top priority for New Zealand’s agricultural sectors. We all know the damage that could be done

to our industry if a major pest or disease established and spread uncontrolled. FAR is working with 16 other plant sector groups on readiness plans for brown marmorated stink bug, a pest with a very wide host range and the potential to cause major economic losses to multiple fruit, vegetable and arable crops if it established.

Unfortunately, we have also been involved in several biosecurity responses, namely black grass in Canterbury and fall armyworm nationwide, in both cases working closely with the fresh and process vegetable sectors.

FAR collaborates on a number of large pan-sector R&D programmes that deliver mutual benefit to different sector groups.

For example, two large programmes funded by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment focused on the development of variable rate irrigation technology and evaluation of forages for reduced nitrate leaching. Working with DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb NZ, IrrigationNZ and several Crown Research Institutes gave us the scale and resources to be able to deliver a wider range of technologies and solutions.

FAR is also part of a large plantbased sector collaboration called A Lighter Touch. Allocated $27 million over seven years, the goal of this programme is to transition the plant sectors to a more agroecological crop protection regime.

By integrating biological products and cultural practices in crop management programmes, we are aiming to reduce the use of synthetic pesticides by 30% while still maintaining yield and quality. Collaboration with the other plant sectors, particularly process and fresh vegetables, has enabled

FAR to successfully leverage our investment by 4:1. This will deliver a suite of new tools and technologies to our growers to help them manage pests and diseases on their farm, to a much greater level than FAR could have done alone. We have also been actively involved in several pan-sector initiatives to address common weed problems and develop effective herbicide resistance management programmes.

Advocacy is always a difficult topic to address for FAR. As a research organisation, our focus has to be on conducting good research that our growers want and delivering this to them in a clear and effective way so that they can improve the efficiency and profitability of their farm business.

However, it would be remiss of us if we did not also make sure that the results of our research were communicated and used as widely as possible. This could be for the purpose of promoting the sustainability of our production system to consumers or making government agencies more aware of the benefits of mixed cropping/livestock systems or providing robust data to inform the development of agriculturerelated policies.

All of these scenarios can deliver benefits back to arable

growers. For example, providing Federated Farmers with arablespecific data has enabled it to make more informed submissions on the impact of proposed freshwater legislation.

Similarly, being part of the He Waka Eke Noa partnership with 12 other sectors has enabled FAR to represent the voice of arable and make sure that we are not disadvantaged by policies being set in place to address issues predominantly arising from other sectors.

This is not political lobbying, which we see as the remit of Federated Farmers, but it is advocating for the sector by providing robust science-based evidence to showcase the value of arable farming as a land use in NZ.

With a referendum now underway on the future of our levy-funded organisation – voting in FAR’s levy referendum closes at noon on August 23 – we hope that our growers can see the value of the research that we do and the leverage that we achieve through our pan-sector collaborations. We estimate that for every dollar that the FAR levy payer contributes, we are achieving a four-fold increase in that investment through our collaborations. That’s the nice-to -have.

BIOSECURITY: Dr Alison Stewart, CEO of the Foundation for Arable Research, says FAR is working with 16 other plant sector groups on readiness plans for brown marmorated stink bug.

Pen pushers drive provinces to the brink

and environmental health”, yet the civil servants at EPA are milking it for all it is worth.

As ACT agricultural spokesperson Mark Cameron pointed out, it is totally unacceptable that Bovaer has languished at the EPA for two and a half years. I agree.

The reality is that farmers are under pressure to reduce emissions and Bovaer can assist with that – but the approval process is languishing in a faceless bureaucracy.

Then there’s Land Transport NZ or Waka Kotahi (LTNZ). In the provinces roading has become a shambles, much of it caused by inclement weather compounded by bureaucratic stupidity.

I’VE reached peak irritation with the Wellington bureaucracy. It seems many have little to do except sit at their desks and figure ways they can irritate the productive provinces with countless and irrelevant rules and regulations.

That’s compounded by the fact there is a distinct lack of either rural or provincial experience in either the senior management teams or the boards of many organisations.

By their decisions they lack any knowledge of life in the provinces. It appears to us that there are these huge faceless, amorphous, gold-plated bureaucracies that justify their existence by casting their pearls of wisdom to the ignorant swine in the rest of the country.

In Wairarapa, State Highway 2 between Carterton and Masterton is a mess.

LTNZ “consulted” with the locals and then totally ignored all local input.

Hinakura is a productive rural hamlet to the East of Martinborough. Floods took the road out, isolating the community. They can currently get out, but it takes a lot more time on substandard roads that are unsuitable for heavy vehicles and are often closed.

Locals tell me it’s a pain in the butt getting stock in and out. Getting services is impossible and kids’ education is suffering.

The road is going to cost $14 million to fix but LTNZ isn’t interested as it claims it doesn’t represent value for money. It wouldn’t know.

Putting that cost in perspective, it is but a drop in the ocean compared with the $62m goldplated advertising campaign for the misguided Road to Zero promotion.

A for incompetence for former transport minister Michael Wood. Which brings me to KiwiRail. It recently came to Wairarapa with the news that it is going to close several road crossings, meaning infinitely less access across both Masterton and Carterton. Its official reason was safety, which is pure rubbish as there haven’t been any crashes on the crossings deemed for closure. In typical Wellington-centric fashion it didn’t tell the local

councils but put letters in boxes informing residents of its misguided proposals.

KiwiRail comes across as a complete shower. Trains don’t run and are rarely on time.

You’d think that climate change would encourage efficient, convenient public transport but KiwiRail obviously missed that bit.

As with LTNZ, its board has no obvious provincial expertise and, by its record, deserves an A for

irrelevance. The organisation itself certainly qualifies for an A for incompetence.

So, in summary, we’re suffering greatly in the provinces because of an arrogant lack of understanding from the Wellington bureaucracy, a corporate jackboot approach that would do a dictator proud, governance that lacks practical provincial experience, all combined all with a degree of ministerial incompetence. It needs to change.

You’ve got to hand it to NZ trade negotiators

Meaty matters

and chief negotiator, Crawford Falconer, to the role of chief trade negotiation adviser following Brexit.

may not hold water immediately.

Let’s start with the ridiculously stupid decision by the Ministry of Education to put nylon carpet in 800 rural schools. It’s been described as a kick in the guts for provincial NZ but I’ll add further comment at a future date.

Then we have the archbureaucracy, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with its excessive time wasting over the methane inhibitor Bovaer. Bovaer can reduce methane emissions in dairy cows by 30-45%. It is highly significant. Forty-five countries have approved its use, including Australia.

Now we hear that the EPA has “completed a Māori impact assessment” and is “consulting with WorkSafe”. What can WorkSafe legitimately add?

Internationally, Bovaer has been described as having “low to negligible risk to human, animal

It’s also petty cash compared with the $614m in cost over-runs on projects over the past four years, as ACT found out with parliamentary questions.

LTNZ’s insistence on an 80km/h limit for the straight road with just one bend between Featherston and Greytown is pure bloodymindedness.

A retired road police officer told me that during his tenure there were just two deaths on the road, with both caused by medical events.

That LTNZ is out of control is witnessed by its staff and salaries. Over half the staff earn over $100,000 annually with an additional half of that number earning over $150,000. On top of that it recently awarded an extra bonus, mainly to those who are highly paid. For what?

So, the Emerson Awards for LTNZ would be an A for arrogance for the organisation, an A for irrelevance for the board and an

Allan Barber

Meat industry commentator: allan@barberstrategic.co.nz, http:// allanbarber.wordpress.com

FREE Trade Agreements have long been viewed as the ultimate goal of trade negotiations on behalf of New Zealand’s exporters, although the population may not always view the reverse obligation to grant equivalent benefits to imports quite as favourably. There are 14 FTAs in force at present with more under negotiation or scheduled to come into force in the near future.

NZ trade negotiators have done a sterling job in concluding these agreements over recent decades and the ultimate compliment to their excellence was the United Kingdom government’s decision to engage ex-NZ ambassador to the World Trade Organisation

Beef + Lamb NZ estimates over 50% of red meat exports are covered by FTAs, and this will rise to nearly three-quarters when deals about to be concluded are in place. The United Statesbased International Trade Administration suggests 90% of NZ exports will be covered by FTAs by 2030, although the lack of interest shown by both US and Indian governments may make this target unduly optimistic.

The FTAs concluded with the UK and the European Union are calculated to result in immediate tariff savings of $37 million and $100m respectively from year one, with further savings on certain products, such as beef, sheepmeat and dairy products over a staggered timeframe.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade calculated these amounts by applying the existing tariff rate to the average of exports over the three-year pre-covid period 2017-19, to give a tariff saving for each product covered by the FTA. It further assesses the predicted benefits as an underestimate, with importers generally deciding to buy more product than before because of the tariff removal.

Although this argument is intuitively correct at face value, it

Rick Walker, ANZCO’s GM of sales and marketing, says customers aren’t stupid; they know the removal of a tariff means the product is now cheaper, so they are unlikely to agree to continue paying the previous price including the tariff in full. Walker believes buyers will agree to pay what they need to keep their customers happy, which probably means sharing the saving with the exporter.

While Australian farmers and, no doubt, a number of NZ red meat and dairy producers are not impressed by the EU FTA deal, it is a good one overall for many sectors of our economy.

As a rule of thumb this may result in keeping half the benefit gained from the FTA, although the end result will almost certainly be a higher volume of goods being bought, either because there is higher demand at a lower price or the removal of quota restrictions allows pent-up demand to be satisfied. Naturally the price paid must be at least as good as that available from an existing buyer.

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

OFF TRACK: You’d think that climate change would encourage efficient, convenient public transport but KiwiRail obviously missed that bit, says Alan Emerson.

The Emerson Awards for LTNZ would be an A for arrogance for the organisation and an A for irrelevance for the board.

Working out how to meet the moment

Eating the elephant

our land in different ways than before, be transparent Scope 3 partners for our supply chain and provide the environmental, animal welfare and food quality standards demanded by our customers.

Collectively as a farming community we want to hear that we will be all right, we are part of the solution, we can meet our mortgage payments and provide for our families.

Some want to hear we can continue doing what we are doing today and take pride in it. Others want assurance the progressive steps we are taking are the right ones.

All farmers fundamentally care about the state of the environment but have different ways of expressing this view.

LIFE is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it: the words drummed into me by a former rowing coach come to mind as I follow the reactions of farmers to the actions taken by our industry bodies during the He Waka Eke Noa consultation.

An outcome that looked outwardly successful has backfired on industry leaders. How could something with so much deliberation, crosssector participation and positive negotiation end with such a reaction? Was it as simple as farmers not being listened to by their industry bodies or is there something larger at play?

These questions make me think. What is it that I want as a farmer? What is it that we want collectively as farmers? And what is it that we are trying to solve? What is the role of the industry body in this?

As new entrants to farm ownership, we have a lot of capital at risk. To survive, we must utilise

Continued from previous page

The agreement signed with the UK sees 99.5% of current exports entering without restriction from day one, ultimately moving to 100%, with major beneficiaries being the wine industry, other horticultural sectors, fish and seafood, and the dairy industry, which gains 60% access immediately and 100% by year seven. The European Union FTA also frees up seafood and horticulture from day one with kiwifruit, wine, apples, onions, honey, and vegetable seeds featuring prominently as valuable items.

Concessions on beef and sheepmeat will be phased in over 15 years under the FTA with the UK, which is unlikely to be a problem for sheepmeat at least, while the EU agreement only allows 10,000t of beef after seven years with an in-quota tariff of 7.5% reduced from 20% on the minimal volume currently allowed under WTO access.

Sheepmeat gains separate allowances under the FTAs in addition to the quantities

Farmers’ reactions to industry bodies regarding He Waka Eke Noa could stem from the continued ambiguity and confusion the sector is facing in terms of what actions they need to take that will have meaningful impact. Are these reactions serving us in the best possible way or are we getting caught up in the emotions of our desires?

How can the actions and reactions of the government, industry and farmers help drive us towards innovative solutions?

The uncomfortable truth is that our sector plays a large part in our nation’s emissions profile. We face the difficult task of putting a self-imposed tax on the way we operate or face the wrath of the government if we don’t. Something akin to a self-imposed speeding fine.

If I were to act on rhetoric coming from industry bodies, I would double down as an efficient producer of protein in the face of ambiguity and trust that we will be all right. A risky assumption to place a large amount of capital behind.

negotiated through the WTO access agreement when the UK joined the EU and subsequently split down the middle after Brexit.

Australian lamb and beef will pose a competitive threat in the

The siloed approach of industry bodies, which ties the identity of farmers to their land use, drives stubborn competition rather than collaboration. It brings to mind Michael Munger’s theory of directionalists and destinationists. Directionalists back any solution that takes us towards the final goal, whereas destinationists have an ideal outcome in mind and are less flexible, blocking anything and negatively reacting to anything that doesn’t fit their vision. Industry bodies need to be

UK, so there may be few instant gains as a result of the FTA, and lamb sales may even suffer in the short term in what is a depressed market.

However, Australia may not

directionalists that are open and supportive to the many ways we can drive down emissions and still support economic activity. The competition between the industry bodies seems to breed destinationists in these leadership roles. Leadership of industry bodies that are directionalists, especially when it comes to the meaty problem of pricing agricultural emissions, might always be doomed when it comes to re-election. They would have to trade short-term votes for longterm outcomes, which does not help the ego.

I would like an industry body that works back from our customers to optimise land use rather than the current setup that siloes and ties our identity to land use.

Our brains can only apply a small amount of energy to long-term problems such as climate change before we default back into what

sign a FTA at all with the EU, as Australian farmers have warned their trade minister he should under no circumstances accept a similar deal to New Zealand with few advantages for beef and dairy.

NZ export volumes of sheepmeat to the UK and Europe have fallen dramatically as a result of the reduction in the sheep population since the 1980s and the increasing importance of China as an importer. Last year NZ exporters shipped less than half their quota entitlement to these traditional markets, with North Asia and North America providing valuable alternative destinations.

The latest research by BLNZ and the Meat Industry Association shows NZ red meat exports have benefited substantially from concluding FTAs with tariffs reducing by 47% between 2010 and 2022 (before the impact of the UK and EU FTAs).

However, these organisations are concerned the international trading landscape is now affected by greater protectionism, geopolitical tensions and economic volatility following the pandemic. The research indicates

is in front of us. The one thing we know is that this problem is not going away. The thing we haven’t been told is how our actions can improve the situation without applying the hard lever of dropping stock count. Personally, it is easy to get so bogged down in our operational tasks that we lose sight of who we should really be making decisions for, our end consumer. Many of our initial business strategies for adding additional revenue streams and bolstering current ones feel a world away as we batten down the hatches to focus on short-term survival.

The same rowing coach would also state that the final straw when controlling your reaction is to remove yourself from the situation. In this case, we, as farmers, would remove ourselves from the sector and give up on a dream. We are certainly not ready to do that.

our red meat sector faces an average of 2.3 times more nontariff measures than the global average, adding $1.5 billion a year in costs to red meat exports. These non-tariff measures impose an additional $370m a year in administrative costs, nearly double the amount imposed by tariffs, for unnecessary requirements such as document certification at the importing country’s consulate as opposed to electronic certification or overly strict standards that are not justified by scientific evidence. Importantly the FTA concluded with the UK is a prime example of a high quality agreement that goes beyond a narrow focus on tariff removal.

While Australian farmers and, no doubt, a number of NZ red meat and dairy producers are not impressed by the EU FTA deal, it is a good one overall for many sectors of our economy. The trade negotiations team deserves credit for reaching a successful agreement when NZ is a minnow on the world stage. It remains to be seen if Australia’s greater economic size gives it more clout.

David Eade

David Eade is a Whanganui Sheep and Beef farmer with a finance background, specialising in investments within the primary sector. eating.the.elephant.nz@gmail.com

LOOK AHEAD: David Eade says a collective decision on farming’s direction of travel is long overdue.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

I would like an industry body that works back from the customer to optimise my land use rather than the current setup that pegs my identity to my land use.

PRIME CUT: The latest research by BLNZ and the MIA shows New Zealand red meat exports have benefited substantially from concluding FTAs, with tariffs reducing by 47% between 2010 and 2022.

Climbing in the steps of my grandfather

A North Canterbury farmer honours the heroic actions of his ancestor in helping to liberate a town on World War I’s Western Front.

ONE hundred years later to the day and minute, Andy Fox stood in the exact spot his grandfather had before he climbed a ladder to scale the walls of the French town of Le Quesnoy during World War I.

A photo was taken that day, November 4, 2018, when Fox and his family were attending the 100-year anniversary of the town’s liberation from German occupation.

There’s Fox, standing five rungs up the ladder, just as 21-year-old Second Lieutenant Leslie Averill (his grandfather) would have done. Averill was the first soldier to ascend the ladder that led to the liberation.

“To spare civilian casualties and eliminate any need for artillery and bombing, their rather daring plan to gain entry to the town was to climb the walls using a ladder and open the gates for the rest of the force to enter,” Fox said.

The North Canterbury farmer has visited Le Quesnoy many times because of his grandfather’s connection to the town.

Fox is now a supporter of the NZ Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata which opens in the French town on October 11.

It will commemorate the triumph of Kiwi soldiers who liberated the people of Le Quesnoy and the approximately 12,500 New Zealanders who died in Europe during World War I.

For Fox, history is not just an interest, it’s in his blood. He collects classic cars, knows war history in great detail, and he smiles proudly when he talks about his farm being in the family for 150 years.

Fox’s son George currently works

the farm with him so he’s hoping it will stay in the family a little longer. “Succession planning is really difficult,” he said.

He loves sharing excerpts from history books, telling stories, and showing old photos, including a 1918 aerial reconnaissance photo of Le Quesnoy that highlights the scale of the walls, all with the aim of keeping history alive for future generations.

He knows the story of his grandfather’s exploits in Le Quesnoy so well that when he tells his version of events he transports you back in time to the days around November 4.

“A 21-year-old New Zealander, who happens to be my grandfather, has ended up in command of a group of men after rapid promotion following the battle of Bapaume – a very intense battle three weeks previous where casualties were high.

“At one stage, this young man was the only surviving officer in his company. He is in charge of leading a group of men of the 4th brigade from the New Zealand expeditionary force. At least 500 Germans have well defended positions in the town.”

He continues to set the scene for the liberation with descriptions of everything from the town to the mood of the German troops.

“Le Quesnoy is a small town that is completely surrounded by 8m high walls, and in places a moat, with the fortifications built 400 years earlier.

“As luck would have it, just before my grandfather climbed the wall, the Germans decided to leave their positions after becoming aware that the town was totally surrounded by the Rifle Brigade. They didn’t know of the relatively

To spare civilian casualties and eliminate any need for artillery and bombing, their rather daring plan to gain entry to the town was to climb the walls using a ladder and open the gates for the rest of the force to enter.

small number of New Zealand soldiers involved.

“Looking back, my grandfather realised how lucky he was in the timing of climbing the wall. Any resistance by the Germans at that moment would have made him and his group an easy target. But in all,

711 Germans were captured by a very small number of New Zealand soldiers.”

Back in 1916 his grandfather and friend Paul Clark wanted to “do their bit” for the war effort. After a year of medical studies at the University of Auckland they both enlisted and by the end of 1917 they had been commissioned.

“With the confidence of youth,” said Fox, “they were not put off in the least by the poor survival rate among junior officers on the Western Front. As my grandfather later acknowledged, he was lucky to survive the war.

“He was the only officer in his company not to be either killed or wounded during the battle for Bapaume, which sadly took the life of his best mate Paul.”

For his actions at Bapaume and Le Quesnoy, his grandfather was awarded the Military Cross.

“The people and town of Le Quesnoy are still very grateful to those New Zealanders. There are many street names inspired by New Zealand and École du Dr Averill is a school named after my grandfather.

“On Anzac Day we remember, as we should, Gallipoli, the Somme and Passchendaele. But Le Quesnoy is also important. It was unique in that as a military campaign it was a complete success. So Anzac Day is a day to remember all those who have served and died.”

TO DONATE:

This is a charitable project that has been entirely funded by donations from generous supporters and members of the public. If you would like to make a donation – big or small – to be part of creating the New Zealand Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata go to: https:// nzliberationmuseum.com/donate/

‘Champion’ catchments share restoration tales

Bryan Gibson PEOPLE Environment

STORYTELLING has been central to the sharing of knowledge for thousands of years, and a recent study of catchment groups suggests that even in today’s world, stories are integral to their success Kati Doehring, a freshwater ecologist and science communicator at the Cawthron Institute, led a project that found catchment groups could be more

We’ve come to realise that sharing restoration knowledge is really important for catchment groups . . .

Kati Doehring Cawthron Institute

effective if they shared their stories of success and failure with their communities and others on the same journey.

“We’ve come to realise that sharing restoration knowledge is

really important for catchment groups and if that knowledge is shared collectively from the bottom up then the momentum and the uptake is amplified,” she said.

“What we looked at is how groups often do a lot of good work and hold a lot of knowledge about the things that worked and the things that didn’t work.

“If they tend to go out and share that restoration knowledge with other groups that are either just starting out or even have been going for a while then a lot of mistakes can be avoided.”

Doehring said these older, “champion” groups have made a lot of the mistakes and know the solutions.

“That’s where the idea of collective storytelling comes in.”

The researchers spoke to five catchment groups, and while they all had unique and individual stories that reflected their environment and stage of development, there were some common trends.

Doehring summarised these

into three themes.

• Catchment journeys produced and shared by respected storytellers can encourage further restoration in their communities.

• Catchment journeys can motivate ongoing change, driven by land stewardship, proof of restoration progress, future generation and community cohesion.

• Complete catchment stories (including successes, weaknesses and hardship) can elicit emotions in participants that encourage ongoing momentum to restore.

MORE:

Follow the QR code on this page to listen to Farmers Weekly editor Bryan Gibson chat with Kati Doehring

Read more about the project at https://ourlandandwater.nz/outputs/ collective-storytelling/

NEW HEIGHTS: North Canterbury farmer Andy Fox is a supporter of the NZ Liberation Museum – Te Arawhata that will open in the French town of Le Quesnoy in October.

Andy Fox North Canterbury

SHARING: Cawthron Institute freshwater ecologist and science communicator Kati Doehring found catchment groups could be more e ective if they shared their stories of success and failure with their communities and others on the same journey.

Biochar may be tonic for washed-out earth

The post-cyclone problem: clogging forestry slash and silt-sti ed soil. The possible solution: burning the slash and using the resulting material to enhance the soil structure. Richard Rennie reports.

SEDIMENT and slash from Cyclone Gabrielle have created a giant headache for local authorities and landowners to deal with – but biochar creation may provide some solutions to dealing with both.

Biochar is the charcoal produced through the process of pyrolysis, or the burning of the product in an oxygen-free or air-limited environment. Found naturally in soils as a result of historical fire cycles, this pyrogenic carbon does not break down easily. It offers a means of enhancing soil structure, and most importantly has been proven to sequester carbon.

Overseas markets valuing biochar through carbon

credits have developed rapidly, particularly in Australia, the United States and the European Union.

Traditional processes have involved smouldering the biomass in earth mounds, often leaving it to decompose naturally, but modern incinerator technology has made wholesale biochar creation a reality.

Phil Stevens, Biochar Network NZ’s deputy chair, said the group has high hopes for the role it could play in helping deal with Cyclone Gabrielle’s forest waste and slash legacy.

Estimates are in the Gisborne region alone 400,000 cubic metres of slash and waste washed down after the event.

Hopes for biochar playing a role were recently supported in a ministerial paper on the slash and waste residue that cited biochar as a means to deal with the problem and also help remediate the poor quality soils the waste has come off.

“Ultimately it is easier to deal with the waste stream at the source, on logging sites, where turning it into biochar becomes a standard part of the forestry practice,” Stevens said.

He said the burning treatment to turn wood mass into biochar reduces the volume on a four to one basis, helping deal with the problematic issue of having to truck high volumes of lower value waste material.

The Biochar Network has just completed a demonstration in Canterbury with Pukaki Forestry for using the technique to deal with massive windrows of wilding pines removed through the MacKenzie Country.

“Really you can go anywhere in New Zealand and there are councils and landowners having to contend with surplus biomass. That includes wilding pines, forest waste or willows being removed from river systems.”

Stevens said incinerator technology is advancing quickly.

In the US a semi-trailer air curtain burner has been developed.

“These things are beasts. You take them to the site and feed them organic matter and it produces biochar continuously.

In an eight-hour day a tonne of

biochar is produced from four to five tonnes of biomass.”

He said such tech is ideal for dealing with the East Coast forest slash and waste.

“So much of it is larger logs and it is wet, and this leads to problems with handling, so what you can do with it is pretty limited anyway.”

In a closed-loop approach, the biochar produced from the waste can then be repatriated onto the land it has come from, often country that is of poor

soil quality and in need of remediation. Biochar’s porosity and surface area can provide better structure and aeration to the benefit of the soil to which it is applied.

Stevens also pointed to the international markets rapidly developing for biochar carbon credits, although the network cautions that any scheme needs to ensure the carbon stored in biochar is taking account of the complete lifecycle of production and application. Inefficient production without proper combustion can produce a poor-quality product and deliver negative environmental effects.

Stevens said the network has been having several conversations with entities in the Tairāwhiti district, particularly for applying it to silt-affected soils.

Biochar also offers an additional output stream for biofuel, with equipment capable of heating a boiler also producing biochar at the end of the heating process.

Red seaweed cuts methane in Aus trial

Richard Rennie TECHNOLOGY Methane

AN AUSTRALIAN trial on the use of red seaweed to reduce methane emissions from livestock has delivered some positive results in the longest trial to date on cattle.

The trial, which involved feeding the seaweed asparagopsis to feedlot Wagyu cattle over 300 days, delivered a 28% reduction in methane released from the livestock.

Australian Agricultural Company managing director David Harris said they had anticipated a higher methane abatement level, but that a reduction of almost 30% is still significant.

“It helped us understand more about how to apply asparagopsis and what we can consider to improve outcomes in the future,” he said.

Feed refusal was an issue in the trial, something noted in previous reports.

The results appear to add one

solution to an evolving mix of methane-reducing options, with Harris acknowledging there is no silver bullet to eliminate methane emissions.

Other important outcomes from

the trial include no changes to taste or marbling, and the ability to use asparagopsis oil over a sustained period.

“No one had tested those things in Wagyu previously, but they are

important findings especially as a beef company selling a premium product into global markets,” he said.

“Importantly, we also learnt that it’s safe for long-fed cattle like Wagyu to consume over those extended periods.”

One issue raised by the trial was the reduction in liveweight of almost 10%, and the ration type and size required to get the outcomes in Wagyu cattle.

Harris acknowledged a challenge that New Zealand researchers are also facing: how the product can be used in tackling methane reduction in extensive grazing environments. In Australia that includes stations with over a million square kilometres of grazing country.

being fed to 1000 cows.

In February Jack Holden, Fonterra’s GM for sustainability, told FoodBev Media there had been no unacceptable residues in milk tested to date, with some recent Australian research suggesting levels of bromoform residue were well below food safety thresholds.

RESULT: Outcomes from the asparagopsis trial include no changes to the beef’s taste or marbling, and the ability to use asparagopsis oil over a sustained period – all three aspects tested for the rst time in the Australian trial.

“Feed additives generally are only one part of the solution. There will be other approaches and technologies that emerge to complement them.”

Fonterra is also engaged in asparagopsis trials in Tasmania on a dairy farm. The trial product is

Holden confirmed this week that Fonterra is aware of the latest report and the feed refusal issues. He said Fonterra is taking a conservative approach on the rate of asparagopsis inclusion, to reduce the risk of feed refusal. “We still have more to learn about using red seaweed, and other possible low-methane innovations. We will be continuing trials into the 2023-24 milking season and will keep building on our early work as well as learning from others.”

Fonterra is also trialling a number of other methanereducing technologies, including milk culture extracts in its Kowbucha trial product.

SLASH AND BURN: Wilding pine waste awaits burning in a pit to create biochar in a MacKenzie Country trial last month.

SCORCHED EARTH: Biochar being created in a trial on a wilding pine site in the MacKenzie Country.

Ultimately it is easier to deal with the waste stream at the source, on logging sites, where turning it into biochar becomes a standard part of the forestry practice.

Phil Stevens Biochar Network

Three bush blocks -

Tahora

There are three properties in this group on offer and each property is unique and has reasons why it could suit different purposes.

• Ohura Road (SH43) offers a rural bush clad hunting and recreational getaway without having to graze and manage 100's of acres of farmland.

• Moki Road 180.80 ha. This block is a simple straight forward bare block ready for you to add a hunting hut or leave it as a blank canvass.

• Lot 1 Moki Road 139.01 ha. This block offers more remote access via a DOC track and has the Waitara River on its northern boundary.

For Open Days meet at Ohura Road woolshed at 1.00pm.

Greenstreet 96 Ashburton Staveley Road

Tender closes 11.00am, Thu 17th Aug, 2023 (unless sold prior), 27 Hakiaha Street, Taumarunui

1.00 - 1.30pm

36.46 ha - Enviable country lifestyle

Located only a short drive from central Ashburton, this small farm offers numerous opportunities perfect for the family to enjoy the wide open spaces, large home and all it has to offer. A large open plan kitchen / dining / living that also boasts a separate lounge. Open the bi-folding doors to enjoy even more space. Four large bedrooms plus games room, three bathrooms, plus an executive sized office - this home has it all. There's also two car internal access garaging, outside entertaining plus magnificent views of Mt Hutt and surrounding mountains. There are a multitude of options from a farming perspective.

Together Stronger

Taumarunui Tahora

Inspired Executive Lifestyle

116A Mimiha Ridge Road, Matata

Wide seascape extending right from Coromandel to include Mayor, Motiti, Plate, Falkner rocks, and White Island, a closer tree lined rural outlook just adds to an outstanding heart warming and totally unique environment. 1km off Matata white sandy fishing beaches. Single level extensive 4 bedroom home to comfortably house your family, no matter their ages. Tar-seal right to your gate and onto a wide expanse of developed parking catering for whatever you have with wheels, maybe add in a boat, caravan, beach fishing buggy and a ride-on mower. A double garage with internal access. Fabulous, country-size, chef‘s kitchen beyond what one would expect in a modern home. Two ensuites, a large family bathroom cater for all. Start your day with sea views ensuring mental horizons are relaxed. A family dining area and a generous lounge opening up through multi fold doors to a covered dining deck before stretching the length of the home extending to the tepid swimming pool with it’s waterfall feature. Two fenced paddocks for horses or a few sheep, maybe a cow and a bunch of chooks. Rest from farm, business or profession and just delight in a strong connection with your environment that is so easy to maintain. Many buy a house, only the discerning purchase a home with a view like this.

https://www.realestate.co.nz/42291912

PRICE $2,500,000

VIEWING

Open Homes Saturday and Sunday 12:30pm to 2:30pm and any other time by appointment LK0116194©

Ted & Jenny Peacocke

m. 027 485 6062

B. 07 578 1828 admin@peacockes.net

borrowings. bayleys.co.nz/5521423

Sensor Jet. Deal to y and Lice now. Guaranteed performance. Unbeatable pricing. Phone 06 835 6863. www.craigcojetters.com

TOO MANY WILD DEER on your farm? Two older experienced hunters looking for a fallow block to hunt regularly in the Wanganui area. Ray Wisnewski 027 553 3729 or contact Steve Hibbell 021 118 1341.

DOGS FOR SALE

WELL BRED HEADING pups for sale. 7 weeks old. Sire by A Owens Cap (world champion). Dam by B Bruce Cheat. Proven cross. Waikato. Phone 021 557 119.

GRAZING AVAILABLE

HOGGETS. CATTLE. Location Bulls, Rangitikeifrom Mid Aug. Text 021 224 2119, testimonials available.

HAY FOR SALE

HAY AND SILAGE bales for sale. Good quality lucerne bales. Galatea. Phone 027 444 8846.

QUALITY RYE GRASS and barley straw. Shed stored and covered stack. Weed free. Round and square bales, Waimate, South Canterbury. Unit loads available, can deliver. Phone Dan 021 760 407.

HORTICULTURE

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

HYPNOTHERAPY

RED DEVON BULLS. Well grown, purebred. Feilding. Phone 027 224 3838.

BALAGE FOR SALE

THIS SEASON’S QUALITY balage. 300 x $70 a bale, including gst. Located central NI. Phone 027 367 7832.

CONTRACTORS

GORSE AND THISTLE SPRAY. We also scrub cut. Four men with all gear in your area. Phone Dave 06 375 8032.

DOGS FOR SALE

14-MONTH HUNTAWAY, big bark, good manners. ONE 12-month old Heading dog, good type, very keen. Phone 027 243 8541. 30 DOGS UNDER 30 hundred. Deliver NZ wide twice monthly. www.youtube.com/user/ mikehughesworkingdog/ videos 07 315 5553.

PURINA PROPLAN

WHATATUTU dog sale. Saturday 12th August. At Otara Station, 319 Whatatutu Road, Te Karaka, Gisborne. Sales start at 12 noon. Dosing clearance required. Enquiries and to enter go to: Whatatutu

Dog Sale - Facebook page or phone 027 443 8350.

FORESTRY

WANTED

NATIVE FOREST FOR MILLING also Macrocarpa and Red Gum, New Zealand wide. We can arrange permits and plans. Also after milled timber to purchase. NEW ZEALAND NATIVE TIMBER SUPPLIERS (WGTN) LIMITED 027 688 2954 Richard.

FARMING FAMILIES, online hypnotherapy support for everyday challenges. Contact Shirley Henderson at shirl@ shirl.nz for a chat. For more info: http://www.facebook. com/handsforhealthnz

LAND FOR LEASE

TUAKAU 16 ACRES, at, suitable for supplementary grass or maize. Phone Simon 027 417 8239.

LEASE LAND WANTED

WORD ONLY ADVERTISING. Phone 0800 85 25 80.

PUMPS

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

RAMS FOR SALE

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

RURAL MASSAGE

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

DAIRY OR GRAZING FARM wanted. Open to leasing and/or share farming and developing land in partnership. Rangitīkei, Manawatū or HB areas.

Phone Michael 027 223 6156.

PROMOTES QUICK PASTURE growth. Only $6.50+gst per hectare delivered. 0508-GIBBGRO [0508 442 247] www. gibbgro.co.nz. “The Proven One.”

GOATS WANTED

Prices based on works schedule. Phone Bill and Vicky Le Feuvre 07 893 8916 / 027 363 2932.

GIBB-GRO GROWTH PROMOTANT GIBBOOST INCREASE PASTURE growth and dry matter. $5.50 per/ha ex store + GST. Phone 0508 733 343. www.vernado.co.nz GOATS WANTED.

BOOK AN AD. For only $2.30 + gst per word you can book a word only ad in Farmers Weekly Classi eds section. Phone 0800 85 25 80 to book in or email wordads@agrihq. co.nz

PUPS, 3/4 BEARDIE, 1/4 red border. Four dogs, three bitches, born May 4th. Phone 022 026 4975.

Livestock

SALE TALK

If brains were dynamite, you wouldn’t have enough to blow your nose.

You’ve only got two brain cells, and they’re both fighting for third place.

• How glorious it must be to be so wonderfully free from the ravages of intellect.

• You’re every bit as sharp as a marble.

• They think with a limp.

• They’re the kind of person that uses personality for birth control.

• You are the reason there are directions on shampoo bottles.

• I envy people who don’t know you.

• I don’t have the time or crayons to explain it to you.

• Intelligence seems to follow you, however you prove to be elusive.

You’re just like a pizza cutter. All edge and no point. I just love that you don’t care what people think. You don’t need to fear success. You have nothing to worry about.

I bet you take more than 15 items through the express lane.

I like you. People say I have no taste, but I like you.

STOCK REQUIRED

MACHINERY DISPERSAL SALE

A/c Rowland Family

301 Karere Rd, Longburn, Palmerston North

Saturday August 12th, 11am start (refreshments on sale from 10.30am)

Comprising:

Tractors: John Deere 7810 (175HP, 11437hrs); John Deere 6420 with frontend loader (110HP, 4644hrs); John Deere 2130; International 585; Massey Ferguson converted to forklift; 5-furrow Clough plough; Supercharge fert spreader; Atchison seed drill; Fieldmaster mower; Grain transfer bin trailers x 2; near new tandem axle trailer; Taarup mower; Redback HD3 leveller; Silvan diesel tanks x 2; Cambridge rollers x 2; spring-tine cultivator; Celli Energy power harrow; Duncan tandem discs; Express 3000 discs; portable loading race; sheep race & yards; Farmgard Eco90-7 blade; chisel plough; hay rakes 4 & 6 wheel; mole plough; waterblaster; grain elevator; drill presses; compressor; chainsaws x 4; generator; electric & hand tools; grinders x 5; assorted fencing & irrigation parts; shelving & workbenches; assorted tractor tyres & parts; plus much more.

Viewing from 9am on sale day only

To view photos of main items visit: www.mylivestock.co.nz/auctions

TUESDAY, 1st AUGUST 2023, 11am

Offering approx 900 cattle comprising:

• 50 R3yr Hfrs VIC 15/11 Angus (Capital Stock)

• 210 R2yr Steers

• 20 R2yr Heifers

• 50 R2yr Beef Bulls

• 35 R2yr Friesian Bulls

• 200 R1yr Steers

• 200 R1yr Heifers

• 105 R1yr Bulls

Grand opportunity to purchase exceptional well-bred lines of hill country station bred Cattle.

Jamie Hayward 027 434 7586

Chris Hurlstone 027 598 6542

www.agonline.co.nz

Facebook: PGG Wrightson

bidr August 28th – Auction 2503 Open day for viewing 20th August

These are the first New Zealand sons available for sale from Australia’s top selling bull Jan 2021

Injemira RR semen packages 2x10, only semen for sale in NZ

1503 Tairua Whitianga Road, Whenuakite

Enquiries welcome

Bryce and Sue Hooton 021 962 640

Bruce Orr - Carrfields Stud Stock 027 492 2122

Enquiries: NZFL agents

Emmet McConnell 027 443 7671

Livestock - East Coast www.dyerlivestock.co.nz

Richard Trembath 027 499 3992

Matt Muggeridge 027 237 8661

TE KUITI ADULT CATTLE FAIR

Friday, August 4 Start 12 noon

TE KUITI YEARLING CATTLE FAIR

NZ’s Virtual Saleyard bidr.co.nz

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Low lamb volume misleading in market lull

Don’t

ANYONE visiting the Temuka saleyards at the moment will be wondering where all the lambs have gone.

The month of July 2023 has offered up the lowest numbers of prime and store lambs in AgriHQ’s records, going back to 2010.

This may lead people to believe that lamb numbers are running out, or that this year’s overall throughput is well down, but in fact that couldn’t be further from the truth.

The year to date has seen nearly 144,000 store lambs heading to the Temuka yards, the third highest tally since 2010, with the highest in 2019 when 157,000 were offered.

There is still one more sale to go this month and so the year-todate tally won’t come close to that record, but it still holds one of the top spots for throughput. In both 2019 and 2023 there were surges of lambs in May, though 2023’s tally of nearly 52,000 exceeded 2019 by more than 10,000 lambs.

The May monthly average for store lamb throughput at Temuka is 24,000, so May 2023 more than doubled in volume.

May was a popular selling month this year as prices were very attractive, in stark contrast to current markets, and a surge of lambs arrived from Central Otago, keeping stock agents busy

on Sunday afternoons as they prepped the lambs for the Monday sales.

A very mild winter and late grass growth kept plenty of enthusiasm in the market then, and sellers took full advantage of that.

The tables have turned significantly now, though, and PGG Wrightson regional manager Joe Higgins expects to have a very quiet month ahead.

“The lamb market has turned dramatically in the last month and looking ahead is unfortunately more negative than positive. Weather conditions have changed significantly, and both buyers and sellers are now trying to digest what the markets are doing.

“There are still plenty of lambs out there, but sellers are opting to hold off for now while the market is so flat.

“They will need to make a move at some stage though, before lambs get too heavy or risk cutting their teeth”.

Notably absent for much of the year has been livestock from Chatham and Pitt islands.

For farmers on the islands it must feel like Groundhog Day as once again they find themselves waiting for the boat to carry stock over to the main islands. The livestock transporter Southern Tiare was taken out of use at the end of February as it sailed away for major repairs and maintenance.

It was supposed to be back operating in May.

Delays have lengthened that time, but it is now expected to start its journey from Auckland back to the Chatham Islands any day now.

Hazlett stock agent Martie Gregory-Hunt said it is not a moment too soon.

“We have had a very wet, very cold winter and we need to get stock off the islands. It is great that there is light at the end of the tunnel now”.

The boat will focus solely on transporting stock to Timaru and Napier, starting with lambs, of which there are 30,000-40,000

to be sold at the Temuka and Stortford Lodge saleyards.

Once all the lambs are transported, the focus will shift to cattle.

The first of the lambs are expected to arrive onshore from about mid-August, all going according to plan.

The Southern Tiare carries approximately 2500 lambs per trip and can take up to three days to make the journey, weather dependent.

It is unlikely that the lambs will meet a favourable market once at the yards, but it will take a lot

Weather conditions have changed significantly, and both buyers and sellers are now trying to digest what the markets are doing.

Joe Higgins PGG Wrightson

of pressure off farmers on the isolated islands, who rely solely on this mode of transport to get stock to sale.

“ “ GO-STOCK is an easy way to free up money for working capital so you can expand your business faster.

GROUNDED: Farmers in the Chatham and Pitt islands have been waiting for repairs to the livestock transporter boat Southern Tiare so that lambs can be shipped across from the islands to the saleyards.

be fooled by the tumbleweeds blowing through Temuku – there are lambs out there, even if some of them are a storm-tossed three-day ocean voyage away.

Suz Bremner MARKETS

Sheep and beef

Weekly saleyards

It was the South Island’s turn to try to keep their heads above water as the heavens opened and paddocks turned to mud and puddles. Small winter yardings were further reduced due to the inability to get stock off some properties. However, the small entries of store lambs at Temuka and Canterbury Park sold better than expected given the conditions, and the cattle markets held up well.

Let’s stop neglecting the top two inches.

Working under pressure, being tired and letting our personal wellbeing slip away is a major risk - not just to ourselves, but to our businesses, families and everyone who relies on us. And almost a quarter of injured farmers, put it down as a major cause.

So if we’re not looking after ourselves like we do our equipment, stock, or property... or reaching out when we need a little help... isn’t it time we took better care of the gear upstairs?

SIGN THE PLEDGE, AND JOIN THE CHANGE.

AT farmwithoutharm.org.nz

Cattle Sheep Deer

NOTE: Slaughter values are weighted average gross operating prices including premiums but excluding breed premiums for cattle.

Fertiliser Forestry

Patterns showing some positive signs for spring

Duncan NEWS Weather

THE regions with some of our most settled weather often don’t get talked about. Severe weather usually makes the headlines, so if you’re in a part of New Zealand that’s had calm, steady weather in recent months you may feel a bit left out.

Because of the chaotic weather pattern this year, the varying wind directions and airflows mean basically every part of the country has had soaking rains and warmer than average temperatures. But there are some areas that are leaning slightly drier – and with a spring pattern nearby that usually means more westerlies and drier spells in the mix.

As far as soil moisture is concerned, much of the country (around 90% of NZ) is at “field capacity”, meaning the ground can’t absorb more water and so additional rain will become

surplus, leading to ponding and surface flooding and, yep, more mud.

Those areas in surplus lately have been mostly in Canterbury with that easterly-driven rain several days ago.

traditionally NZ’s driest area. Otago, much like Canterbury, is also seeing a mixture of areas that have had too much rain (closer to the east coast) and areas that aren’t so wet (northern Otago). Here’s something that may surprise many of you: currently the state of the soil moisture levels around NZ is pretty much “normal”.

But there are a few spots dropping to around half of the soil moisture capacity – and that, at the time of writing, was also in the same region with too much water, Canterbury.

It highlights how even within one region you can be both too wet and becoming a bit dry.

South Canterbury and North Otago are the areas that aren’t as wet as other parts of NZ –not surprising really, this is

We’ve got your back

Areas that are wetter than normal are mostly in the east of the South Island from that rain event several days ago (parts of Marlborough, a lot of coastal Canterbury and some parts of coastal Otago).

Waikato and Bay of Plenty are about normal for this time of year now after being in water surplus for several weeks before this. That means that even though it’s still been wet quite lately, the overall totals are dropping.

And that’s really what this week’s column is all about: taking note of where we are now – and being prepared for a potentially drier pattern to emerge for the

SQUELCH: Surprisingly, given the winter we’ve had, the state of soil moisture levels around NZ is pretty much ‘normal’.

rest of this year as El Niño grows.

Our next monthly ClimateWatch update will be out this Wednesday – so in our Farmers Weekly column next week we’ll be exclusively breaking down why United States forecasters have announced El Niño is here, but Australian and New Zealand forecasters are taking longer – and what the general outlook is shaping up to be for spring and summer.

FED UP: The rainfall deficit map shows that in most of New Zealand the ground can’t take much more water.

Highlights this week

• Monday kicks off with a westerly flow over NZ

• A classic cold front moves up NZ Tue/Wed

• High pressure from the Tasman Sea late week for the North Island

• Another classic cold front for the South Island on Fri/Sat

Philip

Because of the chaotic weather pattern this year, basically every part of the country has had soaking rains and warmer than average temperatures.