Tuesday 13 July 2021
Chris and Julia Dawkins at their Waihopai Valley farm, The Pyramid, after winning the Marlborough Sheep and Beef Farmer of the Year competition recently. Photo: Ruth Thompson.
Marlborough’s great pyramid Matt Brown
A well-known farming family have been awarded another top accolade. The Dawkins family have taken the title of Marlborough Sheep and Beef Farmer of the Year. The family’s 602-hectare farm in the Waihopai Valley, the Pyramid, edged out Middlehurst
Station to take the prestigious award at a special prizegiving at the Beef and Lamb Winter seminar. Patriarch Chris Dawkins says he is very pleased with the result. “It was pleasing to win, given the calibre of the Middlehurst entry. “When you’ve been doing it for 45 years, you do gain a bit of
confidence in your systems.” Chris says he tries to match the best land use to the land type on property; sheep, cattle, trees, bees, grapes and a firewood business all have their own niche on the land. “If you look after your land, and you look after your animals, the financials generally fall into place,” he says.
Marlborough Sheep and Beef Farmer of the Year Trust chairman Simon Harvey says the Dawkins are very deserving of the win. “They operate to a very high level in all the aspects that we judge.” Simon and his family won the inaugural event in 2016 with their Glen Orkney Station, in the Medway Valley.
The Dawkins’ latest win follows a landmark environment award; making the Pyramid only the second farm in 25 years to receive the prestigious prize. They were the supreme winners of the Marlborough Environment Awards in 2019. “It celebrates every aspect continued on page 2
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Marlborough’s great pyramid from page 1 of Marlborough rural industries, from viticulture, agriculture, forestry and aquaculture as well as other subsections recognising community groups and innovation, such as the Picton Dawn Chorus,” says Simon. “Dawkins won the farming section, and the supreme award.” The Dawkins took out four out of five sections in the Marlborough Sheep and Beef Farmer of the Year at the end of June. Five experienced, independent judges put the farm under the microscope, basing their decision on five categories: financial performance, animal performance, land resource management, social responsibility and governance. “It’s a broad competition,” says Simon. “That being said, it was very close. Middlehurst were also a very high performing business.” Named after a dominant pyramid shaped hill at the
confluence of the Avon, Waihopai and Tummil Rivers, the Pyramid was bought by Chris’ father Jack Dawkins in 1954. “It became a father and son partnership in 1975 and I purchased it outright in 1978,” Chris says. He married his wife, Julia in 1979 – and had four sons who are very passionate about the business and farm. He says until very recently, he had lived in just one home. “I’ve now sold the livestock operation to my son, Richard. He runs the livestock and firewood business. “Patrick has bees on the property and helps out where and when required. “Two other sons take a keen interest in the farm, albeit from a distance.” Chris says he won’t enter the competition again, as previous winners are ineligible to enter for five years. But that doesn’t rule out his son. “It was pleasing to win, given the calibre of the Middlehurst entry.”
Heagney Bros chief executive Mickayla Kerr and MacKenzie Forest Management manager Angela MacKenzie were with Opawa students from Grovetown School. Photo: Matt Brown.
Thumbs up for wood Matt Brown A school education programme teaching children about forestry has been a huge success, getting the thumbs up from rural schools last week. The Wood is Good initiative made it’s way to it’s 26th New Zealand school, and the first in Marlborough, Grovetown School last Tuesday. Supported by local forestry businesses Heagney Bros, MacKenzie Forestry Management and PF Olsen, children were taught about the life cycle of forests, how the indus-
try functions and safety around log trucks. Heagney Bros chief executive Mickayla Kerr says the children were quick to pick up best practice around their large logging trucks. “There will be a few kids telling their parents they’re following too closely tonight,” she says. Sponsored by forestry management companies, wood councils and the Ministry of Primary Industries, the education programme, in its first year, is delivered by Wood is Good programme lead Erica Kinder. “All of the wood councils collaborat-
ed to get funding for the programme from MBI – it comes from the One Billion Trees Fund,” Erica says. MacKenzie Forest Management manager Angela MacKenzie says it’s great to see the enthusiasm students had for the programme. “It’s a great initiative, getting kids thinking about products made of wood – but also where they come from.” Wood is Good travelled to four schools over three days while in Marlborough, to Rai Valley, Canvastown, Grovetown and Wairau Valley.
Rural News vesting, complete with tree shaking demo and a factory visit to see what it takes to process pine nuts. Climate change: A new climate change education resource has been released by New Zealand’s pastoral farming sector. ‘The important role of New Zealand dairy and red meat in feeding a growing global population’, has been coauthored by Beef + Lamb New Zealand, DairyNZ and Federated Farmers of New Zealand. “Our pastoral industry is keen to work with the Ministry of Education to make this resource fit-for -purpose for classrooms,” says Federated Farmers President and climate change spokesperson Andrew Hoggard.
Team work: Food and fibre sector achievers were recognised at the 2021 Primary Industries New Zealand Awards dinner at the Air Force Museum of New Zealand in Christchurch last week. A favourite with many of the more than 500 farmers, growers, foresters, and fishers present was the winner of the Team Award. Steven Thompson from Bayley’s Rural Real Estate started helping farmers get out on the ocean waves to relieve the stress of their busy roles Surfing for Farmers now boasts a team of 50 volunteers and has spread to 16 regions.
Pinoli Fine: The Pinoli Pine Nuts team held a successful open day on 29 June after winning Gold in the Earth category at the 2021 Outstanding Food Producer awards for the 3rd year in a row. Pinoli Pine Nuts also won the Marlborough Cawthron Environment Business Innovation Award. About 100 people were treated to a special tour focusing on growing and har-
Milk Price: ASB bank have revised their farmgate milk price forecast for the current season twice, and it now sits at $7.40 per kgms, quelling initial fears the price could drop below the $6 mark. Economists’ forecast for the next season a slightly lower $7.30 per kgms. Higher auction prices recently should flow through into the start of next season.
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Environment award winner shares experience A Marlborough pine-nut plantation has opened its doors to show off its award-winning processes. Pinoli Premium Pine Nuts won the Business Innvoation award at this year’s Cawthron Marlborough Environment Awards. More than 100 people went behind the scenes at the Wairau Valley orchard and processing factory to see how the company is always looking to improve its environmental performance. Sustainability and climate adaptation is at the core of their pine nut business - the trees are drought resistant, control erosion, sequester carbon throughout their 100-year lifespan, and all waste product and prunings are turned into mulch, firewood or sold for biofuel. “If there’d been an award for patience, we’d have entered that,” says owner Andy Wiltshire. It takes 8-10 years before the trees start producing cones. Patience was also needed to develop pruning and harvesting techniques and build the factory, which is the only processing plant for pine nuts in the Southern Hemisphere. The Pinoli team performed extensive research overseas to source the European stone pine best suited to local conditions.
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Pinoli owner Andy Wiltshire inside the Pinoli Pinenut processing factory with field day guests. Photo: Supplied. Marlborough Environment Awards Trust chairwoman Jo Grigg congratulated Pinoli on their vision and commitment to a sustainable business at every step. “Pinoli Pine Nuts is an exciting business innovation using a tree that offers so much - it loves dry sites, can be integrated with livestock, is spray free and doesn’t spread as a wilding,” she says. The Cawthron Marlborough Environment Awards are held every
two years to showcase businesses and community projects that work to look after the environment. The Awards are supported by the Marlborough District Council, Cawthron Institute and Department of Conservation, and Cuddon Ltd sponsors the Business Innovation Award. Awards field days are being held in August, October and November. For more information go to cmea. org.nz
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Rural News
TUESDAY 13 July 2021
Varroa mite hits beekeepers hard Patrick Dawkins Beekeepers in Marlborough are being warned to be vigilant this winter and spring, with the everpresent threat of varroa mite already having led to significant colony losses for some. In much of New Zealand largely increased levels of hive mortality were reported going into winter, with the highly populated beekeeping regions of the Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Hawke’s Bay particularly hard hit. The parasitic varroa mite and the viruses it vectors are thought to be to blame. Some North Island operators reported deaths to 30 to 50 percentage of their colonies, and Marlborough beekeepers say they too are fighting an increasingly difficult battle against varroa, which first arrived in New Zealand in 2000. Twenty-one years on, a combination of factors is making control of varroa difficult, with suspected resistance to traditional in-hive miticide treatments, over population of hives and the economics of the industry all said to be working against beekeepers. At Tua Marina Apiaries beekeeper Will Trollope was particularly hard hit by varroa in autumn and suffered significant hive loss. He
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Philip Vercoe flows begin. While he has suffered a “massive spike” in losses this year, Trollope says he, and other local beekeepers he has spoken too, have seen the challenge of varroa worsening over the past several seasons. “The struggle to maintain hive numbers is the big issue,” Trollope says. “We have got used to losing a few hives to varroa each year, but for losses to spike like it has in the
last few years, this year in particular for me, it is a big issue.” Many North Island beekeepers who suffered at the hands of varroa this year pointed towards growing resistance to flumethrin, the active ingredient in commonly used miticide Bayvarol, as a potential problem. North America and Europe, who have had varroa mite much longer than New Zealand, have seen resistance to flumethrin develop. “I don’t believe our regular autumn treatment is working as well as it should do and that in turn is exacerbating any reinvasion problems,” Trollope says. Reinvasion is caused by bees carrying mites on their back either “drifting” off course and into neighbouring hives or when they intentionally “rob” weaker hives of their honey. Blenheim beekeeper Philip Vercoe is taking extra measures this season to stay on top of mite populations in his hives, but says he is seeing and hearing reports of high mite counts from students in the apiculture course he tutors at NMIT through Otago Polytechnic. “The differing treatment schedules of beekeepers and a lot of hives in the same area is also a big part of the problem,” Vercoe says.
Varroa mites on a worker honeybee. “That leads to reinvasion, especially autumn reinvasion. With so many hives in some areas, mites and disease are spread more easily.” The struggles of the honey industry are also playing their part. Non-manuka honey prices have fallen from as high as $14/kg five years ago, to as low as $3/kg to the producer, or unsaleable, now. That makes the economics of maintaining an effective pest management plan difficult. Those who aren’t managing mite loadings closely might be in for a
shock, Vercoe believes. “Anywhere there is more hives than your own, will likely be a hot spot, which is just about everywhere,” Vercoe says. Marlborough Gold Honey owner and veteran beekeeper James Jenkins has seen his hives setback by varroa in the past, but has lowered mite loadings thanks to an intensive treatment regime. “You have to disregard the cost of treatments and keep treating, keep treating, keep treating, plus keep checking mite numbers,” Jenkins says.
Rural News
TUESDAY 13 July 2021
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TUESDAY 13 July 2021
Protest appeal to help farmers Groundswell members in Marlborough are putting the call out for local farmers and supporters to join in a national protest. Hundreds of farmers across the country have already pledged their support to the Howl of Protest over a raft of new and proposed government regulations. Marlborough organisers are urging people to join around 20 other towns across the New Zealand by joining in on 16 July.
Regulation issues include freshwater and winter grazing, indigenous biodiversity and the so-called “ute tax” - a new rebate scheme, which would place a fee on higher-emission vehicles. Events will be held in Blenheim and other towns including Gore, Invercargill, Mosgiel and Oamaru. Local organisers say farmers are fed up with increasing government interference on their lives and businesses.
Groundswell NZ is a volunteer group of farmers and rural professionals advocating for grass root farmers and rural communities. And on 16 July, local farmers are encouraged to join in a national protest about what the group say are unworkable government regulations. Marlborough coordinator Lone Sorensen says the group is geared to helping and advocating for ru-
ral communities. “It all started with a tractor protest about the National Policy on freshwater. With overwhelming national support, it has grown to encompass a range of issues. “We are seeking solutions to environmental issues that are tailored to regional districts and their differences.” Supporting the hundreds of grassroots initiatives like catchment and land care groups, QEII
covenants and biodiversity and conservation trusts is key, she says. Protestors and supporters are asked to meet at the PGG Wrightsons/Farmlands area at Westwood Business Park in Blenheim or or at the RiverlandsTruckstop South of Blenheim at 11am. Protestors will then head in convoy at 11.30am to Seymour Square and Marlborough District Council.
Quad bike maintenance a non-negotiable Checking tyre pressure on quad bikes should be a fundamental health and safety process, says WorkSafe New Zealand. Harm resulting from quad bikes continues to be a serious issue in New Zealand. There have been 75 fatalities across the country since 2006. A further 614 people have been seriously injured. The reminder comes after a fatality on Tui Glen Farms in Wharepuhunga in the Waikato in January 2020. An experienced employee was fatally injured when the quad bike they were riding with their dog rolled on a steeply sloping area of the farm. The
victim was found pinned underneath the bike. A WorkSafe investigation found that the quad bike provided to the staff member had incorrectly inflated tyres with significant variations of over-inflation of tyre pressures. It also found that the staff member had not been trained and instructed on how to check and maintain tyre pressure. “Planning on the farm needed to include a more comprehensive system for checking the quad bikes tyre pressure,” says WorkSafe Area Investigation Manager Paul West. WorkSafe strongly recommends that
farmers consider what vehicles are best suited for the different roles and terrain of their farms. A side by side vehicle or farm Ute may be a safer option than a quadbike for some jobs. WorkSafe also recommends that businesses consider installing crush protection devices (CPDs) on the back of quad bikes. Currently, WorkSafe are working with ACC on a cash back offer on CPDs, to help ensure workers go home healthy and safe to their whānau. Tui Glen Farms have since installed CPDs on its quad bike and purchased a side by side vehicle and twowheeled motorbikes.
Rural News
TUESDAY 13 July 2021
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Pāmu case study #2 Rachael Lind Rachael Lind was raised on a Marlborough Sounds sheep farm, but now she’s making her mark in dairy farming on the West Coast for Pāmu. She tells Cathie Bell why that’s such a great thing.
Rachael Lind grew up on a sheep farm in the Marlborough Sounds, but it’s in dairy farming on the West Coast that she’s really making her mark. She is one of only three women dairy farm managers in Pāmu, state-owned farmer Landcorp’s farming organisation. Running Pāmu’ƒs Bassett’s Farm near Greymouth, Rachael was runner-up as farm manager of the year in the dairy industry’s 2019 and 2020 West Coast regional awards. This year, she won the award, and at the national awards, she won the Meridian Leadership Award. She started dairy farming 20 years ago, after leaving high school and moving to the coast for a summer job for three months. Rachael says she “fell in love with cows” and hasn’t moved from that since. And while she can’t put her finger exactly on what it is she loves about cows, she knows what it is
Marlborough-raised Rachael Lind was a big winner on the West Coast recently. As a farm manager, you’re manabout the West Coast. “It is a neat place to live. It’s con- aging a lot of things, Rachael says sidered isolated, but it has the - people, stock, feed, the environocean, river, bush, and a fantastic ment. community. They are really neat “Of them all, people management people, close knit... I think I’ll is the hardest one of all. “You’re dealing with a lot of difstay.” This year marks the fourth season ferent personalities,. People work that Rachael has been managing differently in the way they’re given directions - some learn by a dairy farm. She describes her people man- seeing, not doing, and vice versa. agement skills as “very hands-on”. “You need to know how each in“One of the biggest things in peo- dividual team member clicks.” ple management, I’ve found, is if Bassett’s Farm celebrates success, you get alongside your team and no matter how small. Rachael work with them. I’m very hands- says she focuses heavily on that. She also communicates heavon. “You get alongside them, outside ily with her team so that they in shitty days, you get their re- know when and why decisions spect.” are made, so they understand the
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business. “I share Wellington’s input, even the financial side of the business, the February and October budget reviews, so they know why we do things.” She says her team responds well to that. “I’ve got to have a team that is fully engaged in the business to operate succcessfully.” The clear communication helps remove uncertainty and clear up any misconceptions, Rachael says. “As we move through new phases, there’s a lot of uncertainty out there about what’s going to happen in future, and I keep staff informed. I answer their queries – are cow numbers to drop? Does that mean staff numbers are to drop?” Being a woman in a management role has its challenges too. Rachael says there are only about three women dairy farm managers in Pāmu, although there are “lots” of second-in-commands. “When I first started farm managing, I was the youngest in the team and female, I was a bit apprehensive.” However, she says, the support network Pāmu wraps around staff “is absolutely fantastic”. “They’re there to support every
team member at every level, it’s amazing.” As a farm manger, or even as a staff member, people need to reach out to the support network as well, Rachael says. She says her family – particularly her husband, “number one supporter and rock”, Murray – are extremely supportive, particularly her in-laws helping with childcare. Murray, she says, always believes in her moving forward, inlcuding encouraging her to apply for her current job. “If you don’t have that support around you, it can be very challenging.” She thinks confidence stops a lot of very competent women progressing their career. “The first year I was farm managing here at Bassetts’, I had a Pāmu roadshow at Greymouth. For this great big meeting, I was asked to speak as farm manager in my first year. It was very daunting for me, as I’m not a public speaker. “But afterwards, a young woman second-in-charge came up to me and shook my hand and said it was just what she needed to hear.” Rachael says women may not always have the brute strength that a man has, but women bring a level of empathy, compassion, and organisaiton to the role.
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