Top South Farming - December 2022

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Summa Donald summa@nmf.co.nz

Young Winemaker of the Year crowned amidst stiff competition

PAULA HURBURT

A winemaker with a passion for improving the industry has been named as the 2022 Ton nellerie de Mercurey NZ Young Winemaker of the Year.

Alun Kilby, 28, is a Produc tion Winemaker at Marisco in Marlborough.

Having worked in the New Zealand wine industry for 13 years, Alun says he is thrilled to take out the prestigious title and committed to improving the way NZ wine is made and distributed to the world.

Four talented young winemak ers from around the country competed on Thursday 3 No vember at Kim Crawford win ery in Blenheim.

The other contestants were Douw Grobler from Trinity Hill in Hawke’s Bay, Eliana Leal

from Amisfield in Central Ota go and Georgia Mehlhopt from North Canterbury who came in second.

The finalists were put through their paces throughout the competition day, tested on their wine market knowledge and laboratory skills.

They had to prepare a plan for producing a premium single vineyard pinot noir, present their views on the best new in novations in the wine industry, undergo an interview, weigh up options for purchasing a new humidifier for a cellar and then expertly judge wines in a wine show setting.

A final Fruitfed Supplies speech was delivered at the Awards Dinner at Witherhills, where the competitors had to con vince the audience of the ben efits of overseas visitors coming

Photo: Supplied.

to their wine growing region. Judges say the high caliber of all finalists was clear.

Alun Kilby won best Fruitfed Supplies speech and Georgia Mehlhopt won the Villa Ma ria-Indevin Wine Judging sec tion.

Apart from becoming the 2022

Note from the editor

BARBARA STUART EDITOR

Christmas is only weeks away. Do you remember as a child how time passed slowly be tween Christmas’. Now as a ma ture adult it seems the year slips by in half the time and we are Christmas shopping and plan ning yet again and this year is no exception.

I know out there at the grass roots everyone is busy and stressed by labour shortages adding to the pressure people are tired. Every week there seems to be more bad news for people on the land as science is disregarded and common sense

from the primary sector falls on deaf ears. I don’t usually go in for strong statements but it’s about to be Christmas and I want to acknowledge the eco nomic benefit all primary sec tors provide to all in our region and country and to encourage people to look forward.

There’s a lot to be done to bat tle our way to science-based regulations to meet our climate and environmental obligations. Science is learning more all the time and we are fortunate to be among the early adaptors, put ting our systems ahead interna tionally.

It’s so disappointing to find the one rule fits all and centrali

to

effective and democratic

for all New Zealand

Tonnellerie de Mercurey NZ Young Winemaker of the Year, Alun won $1000 cash, a visit to the Tonnellerie de Mercurey cooperage in Burgundy, and will be an associate judge in the New World Wine Awards. He will also get the chance to review some of his favourite wines in DrinksBiz magazine.

All finalists took home a very special bottle of Church Road’s Tom and will meet up again early next year on an educa tional trip hosted by Fruitfed Supplies.

The competition is made pos sible by all the generous spon sors:  Tonnellerie de Mercu rey, Fruitfed Supplies, Villa Maria-Indevin, Laffort, Pro grammed Property Services, Tira Crown, Visy, New World, Winejobsonline, NZSVO and Pernod Ricard.

ers.

What’s heartening is the rural voice has become stronger and more united.

Deep down in my heart I know we will get to the right solu tions eventually. Meanwhile, plan some fun and to have a break over the Christmas holi days. Catch up with family and friends, chew the rag and never, never let life get you down. We are so blessed to live here at the bottom of the world away from the turmoil in Europe and the Middle East.

From all of us at the Top of the South Farming paper have a wonderful Christmas and New Year.

sation approach continues

derail

outcomes

Alun Kilby wins Young Winemaker of the Year.

Marlborough A&P bounces back

ANDREW RITCHIE

The Marlborough A&P Show at tracted large crowds this year after two years in the wildnerness due to the dreaded Covid. The com mittee adjusted their ticket prices in order to attract families to a fun filled day out.

Children were allowed free entry with adults at $10.

The fairground was in much de mand with queues forming for the various rides. The dairy section enjoyed a first year back after the mico plasma bovis episode. Sheep shearing, dog trialing and the children’s pet show all enjoyed the comeback.

President William Harris said great things were planned for the one hundred and fiftieth anniver sary in 2023.

Some restoration work will be done on the 100 year old sheep shed to make it waterproof and also to enhance the venue for the Farmer’s Market.

“In order to survive these days facilities must be adapted so that they become multi-purpose en abling different groups to enjoy them.”

In the trophy tent was an enor mous array of silver cups. Anna Sharpe has the unenviable task of ensuring the cups are returned to the show. This year was made par ticularly difficult due to fact that the show had not been run for two

years. All sorts of excuses were volunteered but eventually the trophies were all run to ground. It was noted by your correspon dent that most returnees had not bothered to apply any silver polish to the items, before surrendering them to the organisation.

Also officiating on the day in the trophy tent was Sam Rutherford who apart from commentating

on the microphone was present as the representative of the Royal Ag ricultural Society of New Zealand. The society overseas the running of all the agricultural shows in the country and is responsible for rat ifying all the judges.

Alan Jones who has been a mem ber of the committee since 1988 was in charge of the horse section. He said entries were a little down

on previous years but it takes a while for people to adjust to things returning to normal after the last two years. He was impressed with the increasing number of standard breds being entered in the show ring.

“The ex-trotters are cheaper to buy, placid and easy to teach after their lives on the trotting track.”

For the 150th Anniversary Show

next year Alan says the committee are optimistic about the revival of the beef cattle section at the event. In years gone by exhibitors from as far away as Nelson used to show their cattle. Next year it is hoped they will have competitors from Christchurch in attendance. Keep the dates free for the 150th Anniversary Marlborough A&P Show November 2023.

Fonterra settles claim

STAFF REPORTER

A class action brought by Australian farmers to Fonterra regarding a cut in milk pay-outs six years ago has been settled.

The Australian farmers alleged the manner in which Fonterra had com municated the price change was mis leading and that they had acted un ethically causing financial problems and stress.

Fonterra has always opposed the alle gations.

Fonterra has agreed to pay the $27m and said that they settled without any admission of liability and there will be no impact on its financial position.

President William Harris is planning great things for the 150th anniversary in 2023. Photo Andrew Ritchie.

Letter to the Editor

Dear Editor,

I’d like to thank all the kind and thoughtful people who voted for me and the proposal of a money free, Resource Based Economy as a possible solution to our multiple crises. I take my hat off to the other candidates around the top of the south who give so much of their time, resources and energy to the conventional cause. They sincerely offer themselves up, lambs to the slaughter, essentially guaranteed to fail. They receive my utmost respect. No wonder they look a bit doubtful. Imagine publicly defending, indeed promoting, capitalism today. The very best of luck with that.

I received 1433 votes. My ongoing roll er-coaster of conclusions is both tragic and triumphant. Not all the votes, but most of the integrity, ethics and common-sense high ground. IMHO lol.

Examining every trend over the last thir ty-plus years, it’s hard to see much to suggest our society is on the right track. Yet. With a candidate in Hamilton West, by-elections and a general election next year, Money Free Party New Zealand stays busy. Unless of course there’s any better suggestions?

Contesting whilst holding all the aces makes for an intoxicating paradox of dis may and delight. Misery and joy. How could I not do it? Thank you all for the respect and attention. We’ll get there.

Richard Osmaston www.moneyfreeparty.org.nz

Helping our Tasman fish

FROM PAGE 1

The Tasman Jobs for Nature Fish Passage Project is en tering a period of accelera tion. Currently in year two of five, the project focuses on assessing and remediat ing in-stream structures on private land to help fish get upstream. This work is free to landowners.

Residents in the Motueka South and Collingwood ar eas may see the Kūmanū Environmental fish passage team as they visit properties to complete this work.

What does this mean? The team looks at in-stream structures like culverts to see if fish can pass through. If they can’t, or are unlikely to, they try and fix that.

How? With the use of mate rials such as rubber aprons, mussel spat rope and baffles. It usually takes around 15 to 30 minutes per remediation then the team is on their way to the next structure.

Will they be in touch with me? If you have an in-stream structure and/or waterway they may be in touch direct ly. Sometimes they visually need to rule out a mapped “potential” or waterway crossing point structure too.

With the valued support of

landowners across the dis trict, the project has made some significant achieve ments in the first year with 809 assessments and 145 remediations completed, mainly in valleys around Motueka and Tapawera. As with any long-term project, there were plenty of learn ings in the first year. Now in year two, the focus is on building greater community awareness to enable the proj ect to meet the larger num bers planned.

The team is working to com plete whole catchments to better connect waterways for fish.

Year two expectations in volve having over 1,400 as sessments and 504 remedia tions complete.

This is a Tasman Jobs for Na ture Project which is funded by Ministry for the Environ ment and Tasman District Council. With the support of landowners across the re gion, this five-year project (ending in June 2026) is set to make significant achieve ments for Tasman fish with at least 4,350 assessments and 1,566 remediations.

If you are keen to know more, visit tasman.govt. nz and search ‘Fish Passage project updates’.

Rural people helping rural people

The old saying a trouble shared is a trouble halved is a real truism.

Many people who work on the land are under stress these days.

Staff shortages, long hours, costly, unclear new regula tions plus recovering from a storm event or drought are taking a toll on many farm ing families.

Sometimes people just need to chat to another person who understands the prob lems they are facing and who has been there too.

Carol Keoghan reports, at the recent Agfest in Grey mouth a Christchurch com pany called ASP Machinery donated a calf shed and held a silent auction with funds received going to the West coast Rural Support Trust (RST) to help with the work they do supporting people on the land. She says, “We always appreciate the help people like ASP Machinery give.”

“Working long hours is a

trap,” says Carol, “and when a person finds themselves bogged down for too long and losing their love of farm ing it’s a warning sign.”

Rural Support Trust per sonal are rural people with a wide range of experience

and knowledge in dealing with challenging situations. Their facilitators are trained to help find options to man age all types of challenging issues.

The Rural Support Trust is also linked to agencies who

can provide people who are feeling at the end of their tether with information and assistance.

They are also free and confi dential. If you are someone who needs a listening ear, call 0800 787 254.

Phil Pau, Carol Keoghan and Alastair McNeill. Photo: Supplied.

Perched culvert before and after remediation. Photos: Supplied.

The health of our people will be the health of our nation

MAUREEN PUGH National List MP

Most of the feedback I have received lately is about the outcomes of the shake-up of the health system which has seen the end of District Health Boards and the start of a new Crown Health Authority, Te Whatu Ora. Just a couple of months in, and an increase in head office staff, we are still to hear from them about how they plan to fix the major challenges that patients and front-line staff are experiencing.

The government have cruelly manipulated the waiting list statis tics so that when the Health Minister says the waiting list is ‘re duced’, it’s because GP’s referrals for first specialist appointments are being declined. People simply don’t make it to the list. There have been deaths already attributable to lengthy wait ing times, the worst possible out come for patients and their families. People in rural areas are the most at risk from the change because dis tance from hospitals and care facil ities can mean delays at the best of times. The timeliness of the initial diagnosis is essential to the correct treatment plan, and delays or mis takes will cost lives.

Staff problems are at the heart of the problems in our health system. It’s clear that we needed to have trained more doctors. Had this government committed to National’s planned third medical school with a spe cialist rural GP training facility, we would not be in such a mess now. Allied to staff shortages is the need for the borders to be opened up to

the skilled people we need, and the immigration system streamlined.

In the last two to three years, we have attracted some of the special ist medical talent we needed, only to lose them again because it has not been possible for their families to join them in New Zealand due to our very restrictive immigration conditions.

So, what would National do, if given the chance next year? It’s a fair ques tion on an important issue that is facing New Zealanders, young and old, rural or urban or, in fact, healthy or sick. Like we did in the 20082017 era, National will increase health spend ing every year, recog nising the need to keep up with inflation. There is a clear shortage of nurses so we would immediately put nurses on the ‘straight to residency’ pathway to attract more skilled staff. We will bring back targets for wait ing times. It is difficult to under stand why the government scrapped emergency department waiting time targets. These goals were respected by staff, and we know these mea sures saved lives. National would put a priority on reinstating them.

Targeting the sectors where care and resources are most needed would become the hallmark of the health system under National.

Only a handful of Te Whatu Ora board members have management experience. With due respect to cur rent medical people on the board, what is required are change manage ment skills, because it’s obvious that change will need to come quickly if we are to have confidence in the new health system.

Nelson Marlborough Trout Hatchery – a win for anglers

Nearly all Nelson Marlbor ough trout anglers will be aware of our current hatchery operation in the Wairau Val ley.

Many of them enjoy the ben efits the hatchery provides in terms of a regular supply of ‘ready to catch and consume’ trout, which are frequently re leased into put and take fish eries in the region during the year.

Fish & Game have been run ning a hatchery programme for around six years now as agreed mitigation with Mana wa Energy (formerly Trust Power) for the inability of the Branch hydro intake fish lad der to provide consistent up stream fish passage for trout.

In recent years, around 5000 rainbow trout per annum have been grown at the hatchery to a 1kg+ size, and liberated into Lake Argyle, Waimea Park Educational fishery, and the Branch/Leatham river system above the hydro intake.

Since our release programme commenced, regional growth in anglers, particularly fami lies, has increased consider ably.

We have also retained and re activated many other anglers, who either find our wild fish eries difficult to succeed on, or don’t have the mobility to fish there anymore.

They enjoy the fact they can go to these places and see good numbers of fish, with a more than reasonable chance to succeed. The amount of positive feedback we get from anglers is humbling to say the least, they don’t mind paying for their licence when they see tangible value for money.

Lake Argyle, for example, is

now our most popular trout fishery, to the extent that it is now on the destination list for many visiting anglers, often the first stop off the ferry. Our latest hatchery manag er, Rob Foster, comes from a dairy farming background and has taken to his new role like the proverbial fish to wa ter.

He has been working for Fish & Game for one year and has brought excellent initiatives and practicality to the opera tion, no doubt gained through his life working in the rural sector.

You’ve got a good chance to bump into Rob, or other Fish & Game staff this summer at places where we do our releas es – they always attract plenty of attention, especially when some of the thumper 10+ pound fish are released – that sure gets anglers running to grab their rods!

Scenes like this have been made possible with the hatchery, Lincoln Randall with his first trout on the fly from the Leatham River. Photo: Supplied.

STAFF REPORTER

The Membership Advisory Panel (MAP) is seeking expres sions of interest from members to represent UFBA on the Fire and Emergency Public Safe ty Network Working Group.

The Public Safety Network Group is a joint programme of work between FENZ, police, Wellington Free Ambulance, and St John to replace aging networks with modern dig ital capability. In particular, the focus is on digitising our Land Mobile Radio (LMR), with our current technology in FENZ at its end of life. There is also scope to include personal alerting and priority cellular in this work.

Reflecting on the recent spate of rain events when people living remotely in our region were without communication, good representation to ensure the working group is aware that farms and business oper ating in the outer Sounds lost connectivity. Several locations were further limited by com promised road access, unusual sea access, availability of ma chinery and an aged resident population. Many other parts of the Top of the South Island

and Westcoast are vulnerable when power is lost or when there has been no sun for sev eral days.

It is vital that the Rural Adviso ry Committee in Marlborough and soon in Nelson Tasman have good represen tation on the Emer gency Public Safety Network working group, says Gavin O’Donnell, Past President of Nelson Federated Farmers. Gavin says, while there are challenges providing services to people living remotely and agrees with those who believe, people liv ing remotely should take some personal responsibility if they chose to live and work in those locations, we do need to make sure those people are not “out of sight out of mind.” Gavin suggests reliable communica tion is one of basic importance for public safety emergency re sponse and recovery.

frequency as other agencies should they need to.

Gavin O’Donnell

Gavin reports that because of the individual limitations of communications equipment required to operate in and around large urban build ings, remote rural environments and marine locations. In addition to the numerous cellular networks these can at times be a bit like having a telephone conversation with several family mem bers, all in different locations on separate phones, or a large Zoom meeting where every one has the video turned off. Not ideal in an emergency.

STUART SMITH Kaikoura MP

World leaders have recently met at the latest UN climate meeting COP 27 in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt.

These meetings are a gathering of the great and the good in the climate change world. Some will fly to Egypt in their pri vate jets to lecture us all on us ing public transport, oblivious to their own hypocrisy at using the highest emitting form of transport possible. Regardless, I hope they have the foresight to focus on real, achievable solutions. That is: policies that are realistic and not ahead of technological solutions.

We only have to look to Europe and the UK to see the damage done by a premature expec tation that they could close down their thermal power sta tions and rely on wind and so lar to keep the lights on. They decimated their energy sector which, as a consequence, ren dered energy all but unafford able and, with winter looming, tragically some will pay the ultimate price and succumb to the cold, not able to access

FENZ, ambulance, police, Civil Defence, Maritime an Emergency Air Operations all have their own radio operat ing frequencies and channel allocations. Some agencies can operate on the same channel

Currently we have different agencies, systems and fre quencies (mainly using cellu lar, UHF and VHF radio fre quencies) with some shared between agencies operating through an extensive network of towers and translators all at risk of operation and system failure at critical times.

There’s a lot to consider and a strong rural voice should be part of both the Public Safety Network working groups and Rural Advisory Groups.

affordable energy they need to survive the northern winter.

In the energy sector they talk about the trilema. The energy trilema refers to affordable, reliable and environmentally sustainable energy.

The difference between life in the developed world, as we enjoy in New Zealand, and life in the third world is having ready access to reli able and affordable energy. We forget that at our peril.

Wind and solar energy do have a vital role to play. Of course they do! But we haven’t yet reached sufficient levels of technological advancements in New Zealand to be burning our bridges just yet and shut ting down our non-renewable generation and still expect the lights will stay on.

The energy sector will con tinue to provide generation capacity needed to keep the lights on - if allowed to get on with it.

Our government’s attempt to tax our farmers in the name of climate change is a great exam

ple of a policy moving ahead of available technology. Why? Farmers currently have no practical tools to mitigate their emissions, and by dras tically reducing agricultural production in the name of cli mate change would put us in breach of the Paris Accord.

We should ac knowledge the en vironmental prog ress that we have made. Yes, we have more to do but food security and access to affordable, reliable energy must not be put at risk by climate change policies. We can have both, but it will take leadership.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a dif ferent result. A recent UN re view of climate policies found that they couldn’t tell the dif ference today to a world that had not adopted any new cli mate policies. Is there a better example than COP of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting (promis ing) a different result?

Will future emergency communications work for rural people and those living remotely?

Hi-tech traps on trial in fruit fly surveillance

Biosecurity New Zealand’s Na tional Fruit Fly Surveillance programme is trialling 60 stateof-the-art traps, with the aim to bolster the detection of exotic fruit fly.

“We have a world-class biose curity system, but the growth in global trade and travel increases the opportunity for fruit flies to enter the country,” says Biosecu rity New Zealand Director Di agnostic & Surveillance Services ,Veronica Herrera.

“Exotic fruit fly incursions could significantly impact New Zea land’s horticulture industry, so early detection is critical.”

The fruit fly surveillance pro gramme runs from September to July each year to coincide with the heightened risk of fruit flies entering New Zealand.

More than 7,800 traps are cur rently stationed across the coun try. Biosecurity New Zealand has found the Queensland fruit fly half a dozen times in surveillance traps and has successfully eradi cated it each time.

This season, 60 additional Rap idAIM traps have been deployed across 11 Auckland suburbs to target the Queensland fruit fly (QFF).

The hi-tech traps are on trial

from the Australian company RapidAIM.

Sensors in the traps evaluate the behaviour of insects entering the unit. An algorithm then predicts

whether it is a QFF. If detected, an alert identifies the trap location, enabling a field of ficer to collect the sample within 48 hours.

“The chief benefit of the Rapid AIM system is the possibility of an immediate notification of a suspect QFF,” Ms Herrera says. Biosecurity New Zealand began

working with RapidAIM in 2020 to see if the traps were compati ble with the New Zealand envi ronment and cellular network. Wider introduction of the traps will be dependent on the success of trials and is some years off. In the meantime, work is ongoing to develop sensors that could detect all economically important exotic fruit flies.

“We want to embrace the new technology to reduce costs and respond to incursions immedi ately, but we must be certain that the sensitivity and efficacy is as good or better than what we are currently using. Our goal is to make surveillance operations more effective and efficient.”

The brown marmorated stink bug (BMSB) surveillance programme also got under way this month.

Like exotic fruit fly, BMSB also poses a threat to New Zealand horticulture industry.

Biosecurity New Zealand will monitor traps at 86 high-risk sites during the BMSB season, which runs from November to April. Anyone who thinks they have found an exotic fruit fly or a BMSB is asked to catch it, take a photo and report it by calling the Biosecurity New Zealand hotline on 0800 80 99 66.

Queensland Fruit Fly. Photo: Supplied.

North Nelson Country Club Speed shearing

SHARYN MILLER

The skill and art of sheep shear ing is usually witnessed by only a few out on remote farms. But last Saturday night the shearers came to town to put their talents to the test at the annual Speed Shearing Competition, which is held at the North Nelson Country Club at Wakapuaka on the outskirts of Nelson.

The event combined a country atmosphere with the excitement of a speed shearing competition, the outcome was always going to be a fun experience for the large crowd.

The night started with three lo cal farmers demonstrating their

shearing skills in the farmer clean shear category, this is about how well the sheep is shorn more than timing.

The fleece throwing event fol lowed with ten entries, the aim is to pick up the freshly shorn fleece and throw it onto the wool table, skirting off any soiled wool. This was judged on how well laid out the fleece was as well as tim ing.

Then it was time for the shearing guns to wow the crowd, starting with the female section

who combined grace with preci sion. In my opinion these ladies had some of the cleanest shorn sheep of the night.

Next the men had three sheep to shear against the clock as well as presenting a cleanly shorn sheep to the judges.

Each round the time it took to complete got faster and faster keeping the crowd on the edge of their seats. The athleticism and skill of the competitors was cer

tainly the highlight of the night.

To finish the night off there was the Team Competition that in volved one team member eating a meringue, another drinking a pint of beer and the combination of a shearer using a hand-pro pelled shearing machine operated by the last team member! Most of these competitors were locals having a huge amount of fun.

One suggestion for next year, how about the best mullet competi

tion? There certainly were some impressive varieties of mullets amongst the crowd, that would be fun!

Thanks to Cable Bay Farm for supplying the sheep for the Speed Shear event and Pepin Island farm the sheep for the Wool Throwing section. Also, to the organisers who certainly put in a huge effort to run such a successful event –I look forward to being involved next year.

The skill of sheep shearing on display at the Nelson North Country Club. Photo: Supplied.

EXCLUSIVE

TAPAWERA

Quality living at Tapawera

This productive lifestyle farm is situated just on the outskirts of Tapawera township in the expansive Tapawera valley. The cornerstone of the property is a magnificent 376 m2 home built in 2010 which sits well off the road and faces north to enjoy all day sun and wide valley views of the western ranges. 19.020 hectares of flat fertile ground subdivided into 19 paddocks with permanent and deer fencing. The property has many features including a water consent for irrigation, a good range of farm buildings, yards, a paddock of peonies in production. Another bonus is the use of approximately 8 hectares of accretion land between the boundary and the Motueka river.

EXCLUSIVE

DOVEDALE

Appealing Dovedale Farm

A stunning property in all respects. Ideally suited as a stepping stone farm for those who want to work their way up to a bigger unit or equally a well-appointed dairy runoff with a high-quality home.

The popular Dovedale location and proximity to Motueka, Richmond, and Nelson City is appealing as is the easy drive to the outdoor playgrounds of the Kahurangi, Nelson Lakes, and Abel Tasman National parks. After years of improving this appealing 70-hectare rural property, our owners have made the decision to sell and move on to a new challenge.

A meandering concrete drive leads to a northwest facing, stunning three-bedroom home, two-bathroom Adobe Brick homestead.

Tasman Report

Where has the year gone with this be ing the last of my opinion pieces before Xmas. 2022 has been a blur really with so much to look back on most of it has been pretty negative, but as we head towards Xmas, I think there are some pretty challenging times ahead for many New Zealanders in 2023, and possibly being in the rural space is not a bad one to be. The big message I think everyone should not forget is look af ter yourselves and your fam ilies, talk to people close to you as there are a lot of peo ple who are really struggling to deal with what is going on both on farm and in their per sonal lives – take the time to talk - even a conversation with an old friend or a neigh bour may help them or you!

With interest rates rising and the main trading banks be ing very hard to raise money from we are seeing the real estate market slowing markedly. The number of residential and lifestyle list ings locally and nationally are well up, and we see a genuine buyers’ market –plus the buyers are very cautious. Put all this together with the rising cost of living and it is understandable that people will be careful with their spending choices in the short term at least. From a rural perspective the storms and flooding we have experienced in parts of the Tas man region have also impacted on the access and saleability of property which

will likely take some time to recover from and despite some strength in the dairy sector there is a lack of urgency among those looking to expand - the horticultur al market is still buoyant in Marlborough with viticultural confidence still very high and there have been some very good bare land sales in Tasman.

Situated on an elevated westerly facing site, there are commanding views of the Mount Owen range. The home has a brand-new designer kitchen and open-plan living. All rooms are of generous proportion.

A high standard of substantial farm buildings adds to the appeal of the property before you even set foot on the farm. With good access to all parts of the farm and fences of a high standard, the land is well suited to cattle finishing, dairy grazing, or calf raising. Re-grassed and with a good fertiliser history all the hard work has been done for you to move in and farm with confidence.

A farm that can be put to a variety of uses - Inspection will not disappoint.

Joe Blakiston

0274 344 069

So, what is the outlook for 2023 - I think most people expect to see a significant slowdown in the economy and with an election looming we will see plenty of promis es made from politicians – It is typical to see Winston Pe ters back in the headlines af ter 3 years in the wilderness. With the ridiculous carbon emission commitments, we are signing up to, the 3 wa ters debacle, politically cre ated labour shortages and pending changes to the RMA there is plenty of reason to be worried what our politi cians are having to deal with before they even try to tackle the economy – and in an election year does anything ever get achieved?

Maybe we should all just sit back and enjoy how a Football World Cup is run in a middle eastern kingdom that rules with an iron fist- to appreciate the freedoms we have in New Zealand before hav ing a great break over Xmas and ready ourselves for another fascinating year… Take care.

EXCLUSIVE

EXCLUSIVE

BRIGHTWATER

Income on Waimea West

How does the saying go, Location, Location, Location.. This property has it all - location, lifestyle, income and water. Just 6km to Brightwater this lifestyle property offers purchasers a wide range of opportunities and multiple income streams. It provides the current vendors with a great passive income through rental units and leasing the land out.

Flat and fertile Waimea silt loams mean anything will grow from fruit to vegetables. An irrigation consent allows 6.94 hectares to be irrigated. The main dwelling comprises three double bedrooms and two living areas and has two one-bedroom units attached. There is also a self-contained sleepout, a portable eco cottage and a second two-bedroom home.

pggwre.co.nz/NEL36745

TAKAKA

Golden Living in the Bay

A quality home and infrastructure are features of this Golden Bay lifestyle property. Along with the 10ha of lush pastures and fertile soils. Just 3km from Takaka, the Ian Jack designed home is set well back off the road, with living areas designed to enjoy the sun with mature gardens and shelter providing privacy. A charming self-contained one-bedroom cottage with adjoining sleepout is a cherry on top. The man in the family is well catered for with a large six-bay 10m deep fully enclosed workshop. There are two hay barns and an old cowshed converted to a funky shed for storage with a walk-in chiller. There are good cattle yards, and the farm is subdivided into 13 paddocks, and has an excellent water supply, good shelter, and plenty of firewood.

9 8

PRICE BY NEGOTIATION

Plus GST (if any)

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UPPER MOUTERE

Quintessential Nelson rural living..

This lifestyle farm possesses a multitude of features that should tick the boxes on many fronts. Set on the quiet and peaceful Blackbird valley in the heart of Upper Moutere, approximately 7kms to Upper Moutere village. The 18-hectare property is subdivided into 10 paddocks with about half the contour in alluvial flats and the balance rolling to easy hill.

Doug Smith

E douglasjcsmith@pggwrightson.co.nz M 027 543 2280

A classic 4-bedroom villa has been tastefully modernised yet retains the charm of yesteryear. The home sits in established gardens affording privacy and all-day sun. The is a good range of support sheds with a 2-bay lockable garage by the house, a four bay implement shed, a large ex hop kiln and a 2 bay fruit storage shed.

pggwre.co.nz/NEL36798

4 1 2 ENQUIRIES OVER $1.7M

VIEW By Appointment Only E douglasjcsmith@pggwrightson.co.nz

The future is in good hands

ELOISE MARTYN

The senior Kaikōura Suburban tamariki, Year 5 & 6, have been looking at how they can use en terprising attributes to be kai tiakitanga of their local whenua, during their school’s learning inquiry which is called L4L = Learning for Life.

While investigating options the school was approached by one of their parents, Jodie Hoggard, who asked if they would like to be a part of the Landcare Trust Wet lands Project, putting eco guards around the freshly-planted na tives on the Boyd’s ‘Silverstream’ farm located on Postman’s Road.

The Wetlands Project was exactly what the senior Kaikōura Subur ban tamariki had been looking for, so excitedly accepted Hog gard’s offer.

Managing Wetlands is a threeyear project which is Led by NZ Landcare Trust. It is a practical project that aims to work with a cross-section of farmers, and the wider community, to provide ad vice and share knowledge about the benefits that wetlands offer the farming system and the com munity generally.

The senior Kaikōura Suburbant

tamariki have had two on-farm wetland sessions.

On their first trip they success fully cleared weeds and grass

away and installed over 200 hes sian-based Eco Guard tree pro tectors around freshly-planted natives.

second, and recent visit, saw a team of 21 amazing kids (with teachers and parents) in stall almost 600 Eco Guards.

Eco Guard tree protectors are a sustainable product made from jute, bamboo and wool. The guards are biodegradable so there is no need to remove them, the guard is left in place and it natu rally breaks down.

They are unique as they let light into the tree, let air in for the tree to breath yet they are strong enough to protect the tree from wind and animals such as hares. Eco Guards are competitively priced as well as quick to install –no folding required.

The Kaikōura Suburban School involvement in the Wetlands Project has provided the oppor tunity for the tamariki to not only learn about the wetlands, and their importance, but to be involved in the wetlands at a practical level which has created greater understanding.

It has also led to the tamariki taking the lead in their ‘Leaves of Green” landscaping proj ect around Kaikōura Suburban School. They have planted 80 na tives so far on the school grounds and are in the process of growing seedlings to continue planting. Their goal is to plant 400 trees over the next two years at the school.

Tolerance to summer drought on your property can be improved by under standing the connection between soil microbes, soil structure and water-hold ing capacity.

Soil is comprised of core elements, organic matter, mineral matter, air, and water as demonstrated (below) the ratio of air to water determines how soils perform in drought conditions.

The GBD-recommend ed biological farming ap proach considers the struc ture of the soil microbes’ home with improvements the moisture-holding ca pacity of soil increases. A soil that has good struc ture is characterised by the particles forming strong aggregates this allows them to draw in more water and trans locate it to a greater depth. In comparison compact ed soils that form under situations like repetitive cropping, with minimal structure and aggregation lack the ability to transport water to a depth and mois ture is lost either as runoff

or evaporation. Well-structured soil can store more infiltrated water in the spaces between the aggregates and as mini wa ter films around each indi vidual soil aggregate. This means soil with a good structure can “hold on” to water that is received and maintain a higher water holding capacity between rain or irrigation events.

GBD has the optimal per centage of magnesium car bonate to calcium carbon ate to achieve a balance soil structure.

Over the summer if your property tends to have is sues with excessive run

off, poor water storage, and drainage – it’s time to revisit your soil manage ment with a shift in focus to building soil health. Im proving soil aggregation with GBD creates a bal anced system. Over time the dual action of GBD containing both magne sium and calcium carbon ate has a regenerative effect on soil structure and there fore its moisture-holding capacity.

To book a free soil consul tation to understand how Golden Bay Dolomite can support your farm on 03 525 9843 or sales@golden baydolomite.co.nz

Their

Senior Kaikōura Suburban tamariki worked hard to weed, clear and guard a wetland area on a local farm tucked under Mt Fyffe. Photo: Supplied.

deutz

Falsehoods?

GARRICK BATTEN

Can you make sense of the varied climate change messages, infor mation, opinions and agendas of people and organisations?

First is that a changing climate with high and low temperatures and floods and droughts produc es consequent events like wild fires, loss of animal and human life, and economic, environmen tal and social damage. These have happened before, will happen again, but that doesn’t re ally matter wheth er you believe that or not as there is no doubt that these physical ef fects are happen ing now.

Second is the be lief that NZers can reduce these effects by reducing our GHG emissions. One reason is dictated by our very high per head emissions in world terms, ignoring that much of that is from producing food for others outside NZ. But we contribute only 0.17% of global emissions so any influence up or down is negligible, and can be compared with other influences like volca nic eruptions, wildfires, melting tundra or Chinese coal burning.

Third are the personal and po litical agendas leading our gov ernments to commit to lead the world in reducing emissions to save it.

So we have legislated targets for key dates, and the farming indus try has accepted that principle, if not recognising the methods for achieving them. The govern ments also signed up to the Par is Agreement not to take actions to reduce food production. So farmers are now hoisted onto the government petard to become the victim of this commitment to

lead the world. Logic is that legis lated requirements will now con tradict that commitment.

Farmers argue that reduced NZ food production will be replaced by other food produced with higher emissions from less effi cient producers. This is dismissed as not being significant in world terms, that leads to another point. How can this be dismissed as not being important but our insignif icant emissions are concurrently promoted as being critical? And that we have to penalise and tax ourselves to reduce them?

Emissions policy spin is the claim that farmers will be unable to sell all their food products at premium prices unless from more sustainable, lower emissions farming systems. Yet already we are very highly efficient in terms of sustainability and emissions by world measures, and further more, unsubsidised to do that compared with others producing food in our markets. Accordingly, we should be earning premiums now, so how will they increase?

This platform also needs to be considered in the context of be ing able to sell our share of global food production. For example, we produce only 1.3m tonnes of beef in a world supply of 340m tonnes. We can feed only 40m out of 8b people.

All these points can be consid ered in a context of government promoting policies that are sup posed to be kind, fair and equita ble to look after each other, with a ‘farmer fix’ that is bigger than the problem. And does not yet recog nise that a national reputation for low-emissions food production reflects more than just farmers’ responsibility.

Methane is a big topic

STAFF REPORTER

Methane is a big topic and it’s a pressing concern for the Dairy and Beef sectors. We need to reduce our emissions, while im proving profitability – but how? Senior research scientist Dr Jane Kay, who leads the Less-Meth ane Team, is optimistic that DairyNZ will have a suite of tools to offer by 2025 for farm ers to meet the ten percent re duction by 2030.

The most promising are being worked on now at small scale to be ready to accelerate to farm scale. Dr Kay says New Zea land’s pasture-based system, which has always given us our competitive edge, is one of the challenges we face now. Assessing solutions based on

pasture forage and supplement efficacy and accuracy of feed additives like seaweed. Some options under evaluation are the rumen development of calves. This means getting to the calf soon after birth and introducing microbials to the gut which en

sure a lifetime effect of produc ing less methane.

Automatic feeders, where a cow’s size and feed are pro grammed to ensure cows get the right amount of the inhibitor throughout the day, slow-release inhibitor capsules which work from 100-200 days, are amongst some of the solutions being worked on across a wide range of considerations based on pol icy, animal performance and welfare, economics, environ mental consequence, and social/ cultural impact.

Dr Kay says, the fantastic science team at DairyNZ work closely with farmers to look at barriers to adoption of tools. Every farm has individual systems and goals requiring a string of mitigation solutions.

Passionate about selling NZ hops to the world

BARBARA STUART

Blair Stewart as the new general manager of Sales & Marketing at Nelson’s NZ Hops co-operative. Blair brings to this newly-estab lished role, extensive experience in global sales, commercial op eration, and strategic develop ment. He says, “I am passion ate about selling New Zealand products to the world.

“We are a unique region with high-value products. I absolute ly love Nelson and have the best of both worlds commuting from Nelson to Auckland each week promoting a fantastic product. I’ve forged my career in this area and I get a real buzz out of re alising the value of our products in offshore markets”. Working with Fonterra since 2011, Blair led the growth and expansion of Fonterra’s protein and spe cialty products in the key mar kets of North Asia, the US, and

Europe - a business unit valued at over $US300 million. Earlier experience with Fonterra saw Blair working on the ground in science and technology, making strategic improvements towards sustainable growth.

NZ Hops has a number of global sales and distribution partners, and Blair’s role will see him de velop and expand these part

nerships. He will oversee the Australasia and North America sales team and the marketing team. Blair is delighted to join NZ Hops and the new challenge. “We have incredible new hop va rieties coming through the pipe line. Many of these hops have mind-blowing flavours and I can’t wait for consumers around the world to experience them.”

Suppliers of all grades of industrial and household coal

• West Coast sub-bituminous coal with low ash, low sulphur and clean burning qualities

• High grade West Coast bituminous low ash coal

• Premium grades available for your boiler or multi fuel burner

• Bagged coal from 20kg to 1 tonne

• Bulk deliveries

• Coal storage in the Canterbury region for continuity of supply

Give Mark a call on 027 531 0998 for a competitive price to have your coal delivered direct from our mines to your place.

Phone 0800 110 602 Email mark@birchfieldcoal.co.nz www.birchfieldcoal.co.nz

Dr Jane Kay, Senior Research Scientist, DairyNZ. Photo: Supplied.

Blair Stewart, the new general manager of sales and marketing at Nelson’s NZ Hops. Photo: Supplied.

Dollar for dollar.

Rural Community Noticeboard

Brightwater

Welcome to Tasman Honda

ATV - explore the range

Tasman Honda formally Morley Motorcycle & Marine is 100% New Zealand owned and operated. Our focus is on offering our customers in the Nelson, Tasman and surrounding areas a full Honda experience. Genuine Honda products, parts, maintenance and services. Our showroom at 25 Elms Street is a destination hub for all things Honda. With our extensive Honda range there is nowhere you can't go, roads, dirt tracks, racetracks, NZ is your playground and what better region to explore than Nelson Tasman. Honda’s all-terrain vehicles make farm life easy. No matter the job and its level of difficulty, Honda has the right hardworking ATV for you.

tasmanhonda.co.nz info@tasmanhonda.co.nz

This entry level lifestyle property has been owned by the vendor for nearly 40 years, and due to a change in circumstances, now is the time to pass on this 32 Ha of flat character land to the next custodian to make it their own. They say a river is more than an amenity, it’s a treasure - and this property sure is just that, with so much to offer. Bordering the Gowan on one boundary, and the Buller River on the other, creating the ultimate playground for white water enthusiasts, trout fishermen and nature lovers with bird life like you wouldn’t believe. The dwelling itself is a four-bedroom, one bathroom weatherboard home that was relocated onto the property in the mid 70’s. It has good bones, concrete piles and some renovations and putting your own touch on it would certainly enhance the property. The property offers good shedding with the main shed being a spacious five bay implement shed, and then a workshop and woodshed up by the house as well as a stand-alone garage. To find out more and to access additional information get in touch with Toby today.

For the first time in 150 plus years, this established family owned orchard with quality production history is offered to the open market.

Of the 51.87 HA, 23.77 HA are planted in a variety of apple and pear trees (over 46,000 plants) with irrigation rights in place.

The balance of the land is utilised for other improvements, including large pack house, cool store, workshops and a bonus of approx 30 HA of easy to steep hill planted in exotic forestry and natives.

Farm Diversity is a Win!

135 Ha with a multitude of option... whilst the whole block makes sense to retain as one with great access and diversity with the grazing and forestry, the vendors are open to a boundary adjustment with the property being in two titles, creating a 35HA approx. quality rolling to hill grazing block, and a larger 100 HA approx. forestry block which includes approx 23 HA of young Pinus Radiata, a further 22HA approx of cutover ready to be planted, and around 18 HA of quality rolling grazing land.

This private, predominantly north facing secluded bare land block just outside of Dovedale offers a total of approx. 55 Ha of easy rolling to steeper hill grazing and the forestry component along with a large stand of established natives. However it works for you; the established access tracks make the running and maintenance of this property simple, alongside good fencing and cattle yards, 2 Dovedale units for stock water as well as other natural water and springs. A great hut at the highest point of the property makes the ideal spot to escape the world.

If this has your attention call Toby now for the full story.

Lifestyle Where The Rivers Meet 101 Gowan Valley Rd, Murchison

Vaila Orchard Riwaka Tasman

85 Brooklyn Valley Rd, Brooklyn

Fundamental culture shift in New Zealand planning legislation

ANNA BENSEMANN

There is a general shift in New Zealand legislation to better honour the partnership prin ciples between the crown and iwi, embodied in the Treaty of Waitangi. This is distinct ly apparent in recent plan ning-based legislation changes under the Resource Manage ment Act (RMA). Central gov ernment driven National Policy Statements (NPS) for both fresh water and high ly productive soils illustrate this fundamental change, and arguably have directed some of the most significant chang es to compliance measures for modern farming.

New fundamental concepts such as Te Mana o te Wai have been introduced to provide an overarching direction for how fresh water is managed. This concept recognises the vital importance of water and looks to protect the health and well-being of freshwater, seeking to prioritise the health of waterways before human drinking water, and before more commercial uses of wa ter such as irrigation. This concept requires an integrat ed management of freshwater bodies using the concept of ki

uta ki tai (‘from the mountains to the sea’).

Co-governance is another key direction promoted by central government to enable tangata whenua engagement and in fluence in the decision-mak ing process. There is a real potential for disconnect to occur where an obligation to ac tively involve tan gata whenua in decision making is not supported with funding and resources to make such consultation meaningful. With the RMA largely a user pays system, it has traditionally resulted in applicants having to fund con sultation with Iwi, often creat ing animosity between Iwi and resource consent applicants. This is seen as a significant barrier to development and creating a clear wedge in oth erwise small communities.

As with any new piece of legis lation there are different ways of ‘interpreting’ these new concepts and requirements. Each regional and district council interprets their obli gations differently, leading to inconsistent administration

and often inconsistent out comes between regions and districts. There will be some standardisation to interpreta tions when these concepts are tested through environment court proceedings.

Case law deci sions tend to take ten plus years to emerge due to the slower processing timeframes for court proceedings.

The formal process of litigation is also not for everyone, with deep pockets required to fund the legal system and greater risk of being turned down.

In the meantime, councils, planners, Iwi and farmers alike will have to grapple with what these new concepts and rules will mean on the ground. The real opportunity is to ensure mahi tahi (to work together as one) occurs when it counts, to secure a healthy and prosper ous environment for all parties involved, including for gener ations to come.

Our primary logo is the full colour version shown at right. Alternative versions of the logo have been created (as shown on the following pages), but this version is always the preferred option.

Anna Bensemann, Senior Plan ner, Baseline Group Marlbor ough. Ph 03 578 7299 email: anna@blg.nz

If space does not permit this logo in its full horizontal format, you may use the logo shown on the following page, or rotate this logo 90º and use it vertically (as shown below). This version is only to be used when absolutely necessary.

New book focuses on the Clarence Valley’s farmers and people

TONY ORMAN

A new book, The ClarencePeople and Places of Waiautoa by rural journalist Tim Fulton, shines the spotlight on the Clarence valley, an hour’s drive south of Blenheim. Is the Clarence in Kaikoura or Marl borough. It’s a moot point but it’’s roughly midway between the two and thus well known to many Marlburians.

Tim Fulton grew up around farming in Canterbury’s Waimakariri which taught him much about rural people and issues. “And a career of more than 20 years as an ag ricultural journalist has taught me even more,” he adds with a smile.

Tim’s name will be familiar as editor of the New Zealand Farmers Weekly for 10 years and he also had an insight into politics working on the Parlia mentary press gallery as well as working for the NZ Farmer and Straight Furrow. “Rural journalism exposes you to a huge variety of people and

The Clarence - People and Places of Waiau-toa, by Tim Fulton, published by Bateman Books. Price $79.99

issues, from farm manage ment concerns to internation al politics. It’s also a job that requires patience, an analyt ical outlook and good people skills,” he says.

As an author he’s had three books published - a family memoir Straight off the Tus sock (2005), Kiwi Farmers Guide to Life (Bateman Books June 2021) and The Clarence – People and Places of Waiau Toa, to be released October 2022.

“Everything about the Clar ence is daunting,” he writes. That’s accentuated by the dom

inating outline of New Zea land’s tallest mountain outside of the Southern Alps, com monly known as Tappy but more exactly Tapuae-o-Uenu ku.

Tim Fulton interviewed all the farmers, and familiar names such as the Murrays, Milltons, Kings, Dentons, Godfrey, Reader and others feature.

He touches on the tension be tween private and public land management in the high coun try. There are intriguing re flections on the last big sheep muster on Molesworth in 1937, the history and culture of Maori settlement including a long lost kumara-growing area near the mouth of the Clarence - but above all, the farmers and their families are the main focus.

It was a labour of love for Tim over three years of research and writing. “Personally, it’s hugely satisfying to have re counted memories of so many people born and raised in the Clarence - and those who have come to love it,” he says.

MyOSPRI — the new online customer portal

Early in November, we went live with new features in MyOSPRI. Since the end of July, farmers using MyOSPRI have created just over 15,000 elec tronic farm-to-meat-processor and 1,300 farm-to-farm Animal Status Declarations (ASDs). MyOSPRI is our new farmer customer portal, and the first functionality added to it was the ability to send electronic ASDs. The next major milestone is to re place the NAIT system, with a more user-friendly and fit for purpose traceability system which makes in teracting with our traceability and the TBFree programme easier. As part of the build, we’re working to update MyOSPRI more often, with incremental changes, so users can benefit from the new traceability features as they’re ready. We are keen to get early feedback on the changes as they roll out. Releas ing new features more often means the changes are subtle and evolve as you use the system. The purpose of the change is to de crease the barriers some people are experiencing and to improve com

pliance, reflecting more accurately what animals are on farms through out New Zealand. Currently you still need to use NAIT to record animal movements, until the new tracea bility system in MyOSPRI is ready to wards the end of 2023.

We’ll be making further updates to the roles in MyOSPRI over the next few feature releases in November and early next year. These changes will include: removing the People Admin role and reassigning those people as Location Managers, re moving the ASD Admin role and en abling basic access for a MyOSPRI user for a farm or lifestyle block to create ASDs and add pickup ad dresses. People who currently only have the ASD Admin role will be re assigned to have this basic access. These changes will happen auto matically, so you don’t have to do anything. More information will be shared with you in the next feature release at the end of November. For more information email us at MyOSPRI@ospri.co.nz and we’ll get you added to the mailout list.

Anna and the team are land development experts and can help with all your resource consent needs around the farm.

Get in touch about your next project, and with their experience and expert knowledge they’ll save you time and unnecessary cost in preparing your resource consent, giving it the best chance of being approved without delays

WEST COAST

West Coasters leading the way with industry training

STAFF REPORTER

The West Coast Trades Acade my gives secondary school stu dents the chance to start training for work while they are still at school. Students in years 11, 12 and 13 have the option to study in a trades programme, working towards their NCEA qualifica tions as part of their school time table. This year, 220 students at tended the academy from each of the six secondary schools across the West Coast region. The train ing providers include Tai Pouti ni Polytechnic, a division of Te Pukenga, Whenua Iti Outdoors and Papa Taiao Earthcare.

The West Coast Trades Academy manager, Tania Washer said that it is her job to ensure the courses they offer cover a range of trade focused competencies as well as helping students to develop the right personal and interpersonal skills to be more work and life ready.

“Every year we carefully review the courses on offer. We work

with local employers and eco nomic develop groups to ensure we are training our students for vocational pathway careers to help address the New Zealand skills shortages.”

For seven years, amongst the 15 trades programmes on offer, the academy has offered agriculture as one of their most popular courses, with students complet

ing a 2-year programme, consist ing of hands on, practical learn ing at the Tai Poutini Polytechnic farm in Reefton. Graduates of the course go into local farm ing jobs or further education in the sector. This year, 26 students completed the programme. More recent programme additions to the Trades Academy are the Civ il Construction & Earthworks

programme, led by Tai Poutini, and a range of Conservation and Earthcare programmes, deliv ered by Papa Taiao Earthcare.

Students who complete these courses follow into a range of career pathways within the farm ing, civil works and conservation sectors.

The academy celebrates the suc cess of all of their students at an

annual celebration and awards ceremony, held at Shantytown. In early November a crowd of al most 300 packed into the Events Centre.

Student enrolments for 2023 have peaked at 315, the highest level of interest since the inception of the academy, although only 212 plac es can be currently funded by the Ministry of Education.

One year at The Criterion Hotel Westport

ELOISE MARTYN

The day I called to interview Dar ren it was extremely noisy, I asked if it was a good time to chat. “Not really,” he replied, “I’ll call tomor row,” I said. “Might be best,” he said, “Its cup day.” and he hung up.

Today when I called the place was much quieter. “How was cup day?” I asked, “Steady” Darren re plied. “Did people dress up?” I en quired, “Nope, we had a barbie in the beer garden, it was a good day enjoyed by all.” On to the story...

The boy who grew up in hotel now owns his own hotel.

Darren Storer grew up in the Karamea Village Hotel. He fond ly remembers enjoying a bag of chips and a can of coke, on a wet day, while the old regulars taught him how to play pool.

Nowadays the Karamea Village Hotel is still owned by his mother and in recent years his two sisters have taken on the enjoyable role of providing tourists and locals with good food and accommoda tion. Both his sisters said in their younger days said they would never work in a hotel.

Darren left the Coast after his col lege years and headed overseas for

eight years to New Caledonia and various areas of Australia, build ing bridges and wharfs.

He then moved back to Christ church and continued in the same line of work. Ten years ago, he

moved back to the West Coast and spent his time building sheds as well as conducting property maintenance.

A successful hobby of Darren’s is brewing his own beer, which he

has been doing for few years now.

He has a passion for making a decent drop, and likes to share it with his family and friends, who says he’s on to a good thing.

Darren had been hoping for some

time to find a suitable premises in Westport to set up an official lit tle brewery, but finding a suitable place was challenging.

In October 2021, the Criterion Hotel Westport became available and Darren knew this would be a suitable place for a brewery, so he decided to give it a go. However to focus on the hotel to start with. It was a brave move to take on a hotel in the middle of the Covid pandemic and staffing challenges were extremely tough.

“It was a lot of work” reflects Dar ren “but it was good.”

Fast forward to now, and Darren and partner Julia have had the Criterion for one year. Staffing has still been challenging, however, he tells me with an upbeat tone, “I finally now have some great peo ple to help me out for the summer ahead.”

At some stage in the not too dis tance future, Darren will be able to set up his brewery. After which Westport locals and tourists will be able to enjoy his West port-crafted beer.

In the meantime, if you haven’t visited the Criterion Hotel West port pop down for their famous pizza’s and enjoy a drink in the sunny beer garden.

Award winners of the West Coast Trades Academy. Photo: Supplied.

Darren Storer took over the Criterion Hotel a year ago, a brave move during the Covid pandemic, and is upbeat obout the future and making plans to set up his own brewery. Photos: Supplied.

WEST COAST West Coast Young Farmers on a roll

ELOISE MARTYN

Since the West Coast Young Farmers Club relaunched and started up in Nov 2021, they have been busy. Hosting a ball, a 4WD trip, paintball event and vari ous meetings and social engage ments.

The club has a strong base of members and regular associates in the agricultural sector includ ing vets, builders, mechanics and dairy farmers.

Anthony Laughton, vice-chair, became involved in the West Coast young farmers after he moved to the Coast from Canter bury.

Taking on a dairy manager po sition on a local dairy farm in Atarau where, at their peak, they milk 720 cows. Anthony is in his second season on the farm and says he has a ‘really great boss which makes all the difference’. Anthony said the recent AGM

held by the club was an ‘awesome AGM’. It saw the election of a whole new committee who are keen to build on the already es tablished base of members.

The new committee will be or ganising the same successful events as last year but with ad ditional events such as clay tar get shooting and a fundraiser to enable the club to purchase their own gazebo and sign-written flags to be used at events.

The Young Farmers club is a great place to meet some new people, connect with the food and fibre sector, have some fun, and you don’t have to be a farmer to join.

The West Coast Young Farm ers Club’s meetings are held the first Monday of every month and meeting locations rotate between Moana, Ikamatua, Greymouth and Hokitika. They also hold one ‘fun focused’ social event each month.

If you are interested in connect ing

are aged be

New council finds its feet

The new Buller District Coun cil (BDC) has been sworn in and councillors started their thorough internal induction last week. The new-elected members will attend the Lo cal Government New Zea land training in Hokitika next month, providing a forum to network with other councillors from across the West Coast.

Mayor Jamie Cleine says: “We have a number of new council lors on board, and it may take a while for the newly elected members to come fully up to speed on the various aspects of council’s strategy and day-to day business.”

Council has a busy programme of infrastructure projects un derway post floods on top of the planned activities set out in the 2021 – 2031 Long Term Plan (LTP). Councils’ priorities are to repair key infrastructure, like the port and the old Reef ton landfill, that was damaged during the major flood events, as part of central government’s tranche 2 funding.

Jaime says: “There are some big topics on the near horizon with the Te Tai o Poutini Plan (TTPP) submissions closing in November, the Three Water Reform gaining momentum,

and the draft report on Local Government Reform due to be released this month.” A key focus until the end of the year will be ensuring that the new coun cil is well support ed into their roles.

Jaime says: “I will continue to ensure Buller remains a trusted partner especial ly when working alongside cen tral government on key issues like flood recovery and climate adaptation, which will require significant support.

I have also had discussions with the previous chair of the WCRC and reached out to Buller’s WCRC elected repre sentatives to ensure a positive relationship between BDC and WCRC. This is paramount to the success of the multi-tool business case for flood risk mitigation we have submitted to cabinet.”

Council will continue foster ing the strong relationship with Ngati Waewae and Ngati Apa and remains committed to further develop its cultural understanding and partner

ships. Jaime says: “Having Ned Tauwhare around the council table has added a new lens and enriched conversations and strategic thinking.”

The regular Mon day Mayor chats at the mayor’s office in the Clocktower Chambers will restart.

Members of the public can meet with the mayor personally during these chats. The monthly mayor radio interviews on Coast FM, the weekly Fri day Forums on council’s face book page and in the Westport News, as well as frequent up dates through the Jamie Cleine – Buller Mayor facebook page will continue.

Early in the New Year, coun cillors will come together for a restart workshop to discuss the 2023 strategic workplan and frame how council can best work together to achieve this.

Jaime says: “Your councillors and I have a very busy first few months and we will focus on activities that will set council up for a strong start in the New Year.”

It’s all on the app

Are you?

Local news Sports Events Property Flights

with the West Coast Young Farmers Club, and

tween 16-31 years old, then please contact the club’s liaison person:

Chelsea Kersten on 027 255 3252 or look them up on Facebook.

The West Coast young farmers group. Photo: Supplied.

Jamie Cleine

TASMAN

Thriving Young Farmers Club

The recent AGM of the Tasman Valley Young Farmers saw the election of Rachel Lowe as secre tary. Rachel and her family have a fruit orchard, mainly specialising in apples and stone fruit. Lowes orchard is located in Brightwater and provides fresh, tasty fruit for local market. The rest of execu tive team elected are as follows:

Chair: Blair Anglesey, Vice-Chair Amelia Marsden, Treasurer: Michael Gibbs. Tasman Valley Young Farmers recently celebrat ed the end of calving and lambing by hosting a social BBQ in Dove dale. Earlier in the year the club attended a farm tour of the Ang lesey’s family sheep and beef farm located in Tapawera.

Recently they entered a team of four members into the Tasman North district Young Farmer of the Year contest. Modules con sisted of a pikelet cooking bakeoff, building a birdhouse in under 15 minutes, writing a job advert, tailing a lamb and a few ag re lated quizzes. Everyone enjoyed themselves and learnt something new. The team was successful

and saw Bryce Win take 2nd place and Amelia Marsden take 4th place. The club will travel to Culverden in April 2023 to watch and support Bryce and Amelia to compete in the Tasman Regional final.

The Young Farmers club is plan ning an end of year paintball get together and is always looking for new members. The club is a great place to meet some new people, connect with the food and fibre sector and have some fun. You

don’t have to be a farmer to join, if you have an interest in the rural sector or primary industries you can be part of the club. If you are interested in con necting with the Tasman Valley Young Farmers Club, they meet

the second Wednesday of each month at 7pm and their meeting locations alternate between the Tapawera Pub and the Brightwa ter Pub. Contact Blair Anglesey on 027 845 0355 or look them up on Facebook.

Nelson Federated Farmers report

Federated Farmers, DairyNZ and Beef+LambNZ leaders are unit ed, determined to work closely together to establish common positions to advocate strongly for all farmers, and individual organisations will continue to raise sector-specific issues for the best possible outcomes. They will not accept emissions leakage by getting the targets, price, seques tration, incentives, and other set tings right.

Their core principles to raise di rectly with the government were agreed. These included current methane targets to be reviewed with any target science-based. The system must incentivise farmers to uptake technology and adopt good farming practices that will reduce global emissions.

The future price should be set by the minister on the advice of an independent oversight board ap pointed by all He Waka Eke Noa partners. Levy revenue must be ringfenced, used for administer ing the system, R&D investment, or go back to farmers as incen tives. Administration costs must be minimised. All sequestration

that can be measured and is ad ditive should be counted as in HWEN, with temporary levy re lief if business viability is threat ened. Finally, farmers should be able to form collectives to mea sure, manage, and report their emissions in an efficient way.

Federated Farmers also has its own position to approach the government over the way it pro poses to price agricultural emis sions. President Andrew Hog gard said the organisation is also to make its own submission on the government response to the partnership’s proposal, to reflect members’ demands for stron ger opposition to the proposal.

National council has endorsed a recommendation that the organ isation resists two of the govern ment’s measures: methane reduc tion targets and the risk of carbon leakage. The president said FF wants to see targets that are based on science, not plucked out of the air as these were. The federation is of the view that the GWP mea suring system, in which methane emissions expressed as carbon di oxide equivalent, is more closely

aligned to temperature response, as the issue is about warming not emissions as such.

Another more immediate issue is the winter grazing regula tions as farmers try to cope with wet-weather delays getting last winter’s crop ground ready, and planning for next winter. For the last two years the government has promised that farmers wanting to undertake winter grazing would have three pathways available to them, and eight months ago key Ministers promised that the farm plan pathway would be available in 2022 ready for the 2023 win ter. Despite these promises, the alternative farm plan pathway is not available and government, council and industry estimates 10,000 farmers will need to get a resource consent to undertake winter grazing to comply with the regulations.

These ministers refused Feder ated Farmers call for the regu lations to be delayed until the farm plan pathway was available to avoid the enormous consent financial and unnecessary time burden on councils and farmers.

As usual, farmers have already shown they can carry out man agement changes on their own farms as shown by winter graz ing in a responsible manner, and can plan and operate winter grazing in accordance with the Intensive Winter Grazing Mod ule and guidance produced by Beef+LambNZ and DairyNZ.

Not only will this govern ment-driven debacle unneces sarily add to farm costs for a resource consent, but councils’ processing resources will be se riously challenged and decisions made by staff who may not have the necessary expertise or under standing. This precedent set by government actions, or lack of action, could suggest an agenda to enhance even more centralised control, and move to resource consents for other everyday farm activities.

Among the many submission made to government and local bodies where FF is representing and presenting farmers concerns, is in the proposed submission on firearms regulations. It is com mitted to working with NZ Po

lice to ensure that the firearms register is as cost-effective and easy to use as possible, while still achieving the purpose of its cre ation and meeting the statutory requirements of the act. Clear and effective communica tion about how to use the register, a robust and easy to use system and clear information about se curity and privacy are all pivotal to the success of the project. It is important that all stakeholders work together to ensure that the register both meets the needs of the regulatory system and is ac cessible and usable to farmers and those in the wider firearms community.

The Nelson Province Board meeting report is too late for this month’s paper deadline but social activities for all rural people con tinue with Waimea Rural Con nection’s CommuniTEA 1-3pm. on 2 December and AGCulture free meal and yarn from 6 p.m. on 7 December at Wanderers Rugby Club Rooms, Brightwater. Great opportunities to meet, chat and catch up and support what FF is doing for the rural community.

Tasman Valley Young Farmers at their recent AGM held in Brightwater. Photo: Supplied.

TASMAN

Rai Valley kids demonstrate how to measure water quality

The NZ Landcare Trust and Conservation Kids NZ pooled skills and en thusiasm to demonstrate how landowners can test the health of their stream, and use that data to aid restoration decisions to Rai Valley families.

The project took place over 12 months, and fam ilies adopted their own or a local stream, monitor ing every three months.

Adjacent land use includ ed reserve, grazing, and housing, with native and exotic forest and conser vation land upstream of some sites.

Temperature, conductivity (indicating purity), clari ty, nitrate and phosphate levels were measured and habitat, macro-inverte brate and aquatic plant presence assessed. One-off e-DNA testing revealed the presence of shortfin

and longfin eels, kākahi/ freshwater mussels, koura/ freshwater crayfish, upland bully, brown trout and gal axiid (whitebait) species.

“Two things I found fasci nating about the river test ing was seeing the change in the river over the whole year and how much life was in the river”, said Wil low Watt, aged 10.

The data was used to iden tify areas which could be restored with planting.

Rai Valley School stu dents and landowners plus friends and colleagues pooled together to control weeds and plant seedlings on three sites with further planting and maintenance planned.

Funding from the NZ Wa ter Citizens’ was used to produce an interpretation panel for the local reserve, and a 14min film on You tube.

Well known Golden Bay dairy farm er, Corigan Sowman of Uruwhenua Farms, at Takaka has been elected to the LIC board.

CHERRIE CHUBB President

Spreading the word

I’m not sure if it’s a charac teristic of getting older or the turbulent times we live in, but time flies and I cannot believe that we are so far through the year. University students are heading home, senior school students are in exam mode and we’re starting to plan who’s turning up for Christmas. Thinking ahead for all those cash strapped teens and ur banised family visitors, I urge all farmers to consider what opportunities exist on your farm to expose more people to agriculture.

I know it takes time to train people, that newbies take lots of supervising and kids often aren’t very productive, but is it not a great opportunity to get a few paddocks of thistles grubbed or a shed painted? What about using the extra pair of hands in the dairy shed or sweeping the wool boards? Giving these young influencers

a chance to spend some time soaking up the experiences we take for granted as part of our normal day to day farming routines is an opportunity not to be missed.

As an industry that is facing staffing shortages, sustainabil ity and environmental pres sures, we should all be think ing about how we can do our bit to attract people to farming and to understand the com plex challenges we face.

Even just creating the oppor tunities to have conversations about what really happens on farm, what we are doing to make sure that we are farming more efficiently and sustain ably, is valuable.

With this in mind, Golden Bay Federated Farmers is pleased to again offer Agricultural Tro phies (handsomely construct ed by our Meat & Wool Chair person, Pax Leech) to both the Collingwood Area School and Golden Bay High School. The awards are designed to recog nise students who demonstrate a future focused, problem

solving and positive attitude towards the primary indus tries and who might strive to add their own contribution to wards supporting agriculture’s rich and valued history.

Farming isn’t an industry that can function in isolation and we need all those future sup port industry people, rural professionals, and scientists on our team.

Celebration planned

To help celebrate making it through another year and to provide the opportunity to catch up in person, we are planning an event at the Ana toki Salmon Farm in early De cember.

Fishing, talking and eating –what could be better!

Lastly, Federated Farmers Golden Bay continues to keep abreast of developments with winter grazing, the Tasman District Council’s biodiversity strategy and the Te Waikoro pupu Water Conservation Or der.

He runs the 400ha fam ily owned dairy farm, and is a member of the Fonterra Sustainability Advisory Panel, a group providing independent advice to the Fonterra se nior management team and board.

Sowman says it’s a privilege to be elected to the LIC board. “Dairy farmers are enjoying record

milk prices and have a truly exciting opportunity to provide grass fed nu trition that the world wants.

Corrigan Sowman elected to LIC Federated Farmers Golden Bay report

“But it comes with new responsibilities and chal lenges, and I look forward to contributing to LIC as it supports farmers with science, innovation and services that meet these head on.”

His election means LIC has three directors each for North Island and South Island, as voted by farmer shareholders in 2020.

Wendy Sullivan from NZ Landcare Trust and Willow Watt from Okiwi Bay measure water clarity at Alfred Stream, Rai Valley. Photo: Supplied.

marlborough

Farmers shun “bureaucratic nightmare”

TONY ORMAN

Marlborough Federated Farmers’ vice-president Richard Dawkins says present government propos als for the “Tax on Agricultural Emissions” are a “bureaucratic nightmare” and are simply anoth er burden of taxes on farmers and will achieve nothing but perverse outcomes environmentally.

“While we must seek improve ment, paying taxes doesn’t equal doing our part, and paying taxes doesn’t lower emissions,” he told a public meeting organised by Marlborough Federated Farmers and held at Renwick Sports and Events Centre. The meeting was well attended with some 70 farm ers present.

Richard Dawkins, a third genera tion farmer on the family farm in the lower Waihopai Valley, spoke to the meeting about the gov ernment’s controversial farming emissions’ proposals and winter grazing regulations. Using a car bon price of $105/tonne CO2e (carbon dioxide equivalent), he

said his bill for farming 3,000 stock units would be $7,500, this is despite running a highly-efficient system and 15 percent of the prop erty planted in trees. That income of $7,500 would be far better used to fence or plant trees, instead of wasting it on the “big bureau cratic system” of He Waka Eke Noa, which measures every sin gle farm’s emissions and at a huge cost. “There needs investment in research and development,” he said. “If money is an issue, a simple levy at the works, perhaps a dollar a head, could be set up to get the funding to research and invest in mitigation technologies. I‘m not in favour of that idea as farmers provide significant levy money al ready, but it’s far cheaper than the farm level bureaucratic nightmare that He Waka Eke Noa is.”

A frustrating flaw in proposals is that a tax would hopefully change behaviour, but there were no technologies available to mitigate emissions. So, in other words, it’s just a tax on production.”

Under proposals, New Zealand

farmers will start to pay for emis sions from 2025. It’s a world-first “guinea-pig” scheme with Cabinet signing it off early next year. Newly-elected president Evan White described the public meet ing as highly successful with solid farmer support.

Due to flight difficulties into Blen heim, national Federated Farmers president Andrew Hoggard spoke via zoom, presenting an informa tive and thought-provoking pre sentation. The discussion ensuing developed into a really informa tive discussion around the falla cies of taxing New Zealand farm ers, regarded as the most efficient in the world.

Marlborough vice-president and Meat and Wool executive member Richard Dawkins, concluded the meeting by proposing an alterna tive “Streamlined Emissions Re duction Plan” which was strongly supported by the audience.

“The proposal attempts to decou ple the notion that outlying emis sions taxes equates to emissions reductions when they simply

do not, due to inefficiencies and emission leakage.

“Playing our part” and “doing something” as an industry is re liant on reducing emissions, not necessarily paying taxes. This pro posal streamlines and fast tracks our industry’s path to lower emis sions without the bureaucratic burden of a farm level system,” explained Evan White.

“This is achieved by way of new or repurposed existing research and development levies at the works, development of mitigation tech nologies and by way of working on incentives for farmer uptake. The outcome would be an em powered industry as opposed to a crippled one”

A major problem of He Waka Eke Noa is that government is propos ing to measure emissions at farm level when there are very few, if any, mitigation options available, he said.

“Reduction targets must be sci entific, there must be viable miti gation options available, and they mustn’t be emissions leakage. We

think these bottom lines from Feds are a step in the right direc tion, but don’t go far enough,” said Richard Dawkins.

Havelock sheep and beef farmer Freddy Gane said his biggest issue with the governments’ proposal was the language they were using, talking about gross figures.

“In business, when we do a bud get, it’s all about the bottom line, the net profit, that’s all you operate on in your business. We are prob ably the hardest country to get any traction from a carbon movement, because we are so efficient already.

Government says farmers are 50% of the problem, but we are not. In net (warming) terms we are not 50% of the problem.”

Freddy, who farms 8,000 stock units, said nevertheless, every business should look at its foot print. Everyone has a responsi bility to reduce emissions and should be seeking progress in that regard.

“I want to at least show the pub lic that as a farmer, I’m doing my bit,” he said.

Grape Growers Collective add decades of experience to their top team

The country’s only wine cooperative is growing.

Marlborough Grape Growers’ Cooperative has a new hire, with decades of experience, dedicated to their members’ yields, and profits.

Craig Thomson, who’s been in the wine industry since 1994, has joined the co-op as membership manager.

A former grower liaison, Craig says his new role will help the coop’s growers optimise their return and adapt to changing forces.

“There are massive shifts that have happened [in the wine industry] and will continue to happen,” he says.

“Over thirty years we’ve changed how we grow, how we work in the environment and how we react to outside pressures.

“We don’t have an ever-increasing supply of grapes, so the demand is strong.”

Craig says positioning their products for a premium price, in the restaurant trade and higher tier brands, is one way they plan to grow. With land at a premium

in Marlborough, there are far less opportunities to do large scale developments.

“It’s a maturing of the industry,” he says.

Co-op chief executive Mike Brown says co-operatives are very popular in New Zealand, and many daily purchases are the product of Kiwi co-ops.

He says the model often suits farmers, or people looking to build long-term inter-generational wealth.

“All our profits are returned to the members. We’re not investing in stainless steel or flash cellar doors,” he says.

“18 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP is earned via co-operatives. This is in contrast to Australia, with only 1 per cent.”

Mike says two-thirds of the coop’s business is in the US – but they also make wine for export markets in the UK, Australia and Germany. The co-operative has about 80 members, and is suitable for any size vineyard, Mike says.

“We’re an equally good home for a small or a large grower.”

“Our smallest grower has less than one hectare; our largest –

more than 100 hectares.”

He says for larger growers, it can be part of a portfolio of supply: a low risk but high return on a portion of their vineyard.

Mike says Craig’s new role is unique in Marlborough, and compares it to a stock and station agent.

“Our best interest is via our member’s business, we aim to grow their prosperity.”

“If they’re thriving, we’re thriving.”

Craig says with his three decades of experience, he’s seen what works and what doesn’t.

“The whole idea is I need to understand where a vineyard business is at; sit down and see what we can do to enhance the profitability of that business.

“Most businesses aren’t the same –what works for one might not for another.”

Mike says the co-operative is governed by its members, with the board elected from among the growers.

“We’re not beholden to corporate structures.”

“Collaboration – it’s in our DNA. We like working with others.”

MATT BROWN

Marlborough Grape Growers’ Co-operative chief executive Mike Brown with the newest member of their team, membership manager Craig Thomson.

marlborough

Marlborough deer farming head optimistic

TONY ORMAN

The outlook for deer farming is positive, says Jason Rentoul, new chairman of the Marlborough branch New Zealand Deer farm ers’ Association.

“Venison prices are improving with demand strong while velvet has particularly exciting pros pects,” he said. Expanding on the promising outlook for velvet, Ja son described the velvet sector as a real industry with strong prices and grounds for optimism.

Deer Industry New Zealand has predicted velvet could reach $200 million in sales a year over the next 10 years, with potential sales growth in several markets includ ing Korea and China and other Asian markets. More opportuni

ties are emerging in South Korea’s healthy foods market where com panies are investing. NZ Trade and Enterprise workshops are helping NZ velvet to connect better with Korean consumers and more in novative products are in the pipe line. Despite covid’s impact and other obstacles, China represents a significant opportunity for growth where currently consumption is natural and organic and entry to the market must be well managed to replicate what has been done in Korea.

As well, investigations are un derway in Taiwan where Korean company KGC recently reported success for a second new velvet product.

With the venison market, moves are being mooted to move more

NZ venison to the US in the hope of boosting prices.

“Venison needs to be $2 /a kg better than lamb for viability,” ex plains Jason. “At the moment it’s not but there’s endeavours to at tain that margin above lamb.”

Jason Rentoul is a fourth gen eration of his family, running a 1400-hectare mixed livestock farm at Wye hills in the Wairau valley. The area usually gets 1,100mm of rain and tends to be dry in sum mer. The farm comprises mostly hills with just under 100 hectares flat and just over 50 hectares irri gated.

The deer farming side of Wye Hills has 1200 deer made up of 500 hinds, 220 velvet stags and fin ishing stock. Other stock carried comprises 85 Angus cattle and

Rentoul

3,200 sheep. Of the latter there are 650 crossbred and just over 2,500 merinos. Adding to the diversifi cation is 85 beehives and, typically Marlborough, a 17-hectare vine

yard. The deer side of Wye Hills was initiated by Jason’s father Euan in 1998 when Jason was 19 years of age. Three hundred hinds for venison production were sharefarmed by Jason, his brother Sam and father Euan. A neighbouring 147 ha. was bought in 2010. Irri gation over 54 ha. was installed. Jason’s brother opted out to forge a new career and Jason focused on improving the deer farming side. So far, 223 ha are deer-fenced with another 39 ha. scheduled for the near future.

Despite his venture into added deer production, Marlborough’s farmed deer numbers have de clined somewhat as vineyard development continues in the re gion. Currently there are about 20 deer farms in Marlborough.

Twenty-two years on Molesworth Station

BARBARA STUART

Jim Ward has managed the iconic Molesworth Station, New Zea land’s largest farm of 182,000 hectares (500,000 acres, or over 700 square miles), for the past twenty-two years. The station is leased from the crown by PAMU (Landcorp) who own the build ings, fences, and stock.

It was back in 1987 when Jim be came the successful candidate for a head shepherd job on a station in Wairoa near Gisborne. When he arrived to the newly appoint ed position there had been a change in circumstances and at only twenty-six Jim, unexpect edly, landed the managers job. A few years on and the company he worked for later expanded and purchased the Waiouru Station in the Central North Island, which Jim managed successfully for a number of years. During this time, he met and married his wife Tracey and within a week he was offered another position work

ing for the Kelly Land company owned by the Plimmer family. Jim and Tracey spent nine happy years with them.

After nine years Jim began look ing for another challenge and when the Molesworth managers role was advertised, he chuckles, “Tracey and I pulled together a

CV, applied, scrambled through the interview process and were successful”. Arriving on the job at the iconic Molesworth Station with such huge history and mana did not intimidate Jim. He says the place was immaculate when he arrived. In typical farmer fash ion he just wanted to do a good

job and eventually to leave the place better than when he ar rived. Twenty-two years into the job he modestly says it’s been a collaborative effort of the station Team and PAMU team who have access to some fantastic expertise. In 2016 the business plan was to lower the properties physical footprint from 10,000 head to 5,300 head.

One major change has seen all weaner steers and cull heifers leave the property in April the balance leaving in October and November. Wintering 3,000 breeding cows, 1,100 heifers and 1,100 yearlings. All weaners are transported to leased land in Hamner for finishing. The plan has been largely successful in not only lowering the physical footprint, but it has also brought economic benefit to Molesworth Station. The partnership with PAMU has aided the stations success with the organisation being pro-active at the coal face of adapting to climate and emis

sions.

Talking about his Molesworth team, Jim says “From day one on the property we have had an eth ic of stepping up and lifting our performance. Each new arriv al has an induction week where they learn about the property and our culture. They learn if you don’t do the right thing by the property, she can bite! Therefore, we work within the safety param eters of respect for the weather, what we ask of the land and the animals. This place can be harsh, but it also draws good qualities from everyone in the team.”

Jim says with pride “We expect everyone to use good judgement and to make good decisions. In camp our team must clean the huts and keep them tidy. No one knocks off without looking after the stock, horses, and dogs first, then it’s us. Nothing gives me greater pride than to see and hear of young men who’ve worked here go on to new adventures and do well.”

Jason

Jim and Tracey Ward, managers of Molesworth Station. Photo: Supplied.

Women who drive those big logging trucks

BARBARA STUART

Labour

in the trucking industry has en abled wider acceptance of women drivers.

Bubbly Mandy Donnelly, with her slight frame and a high ponytail, is the Aussie-born daughter of a cou ple of Kiwi’s. “I was almost born behind the wheel of a big truck.” Due to her mother’s ill health, her won derful truck driver dad became her main carer, form ing what forever remained a close father-daughter

relationship. Mandy is also proud to be a fourth-gen eration trucker. “It’s in my blood,” she claims.

As a tiny tot she accompa nied her dad in his truck, hugging the wheel when she was allowed. At five years old Mandy announced she wanted to drive big trucks just like the dad she idolised. But Mandy’s dad always dis couraged her. He thought she could do better and be safer in another occupation. Finally, at eighteen, she be gan driving stock trucks in Taranaki, thirty-one years ago. There were challeng es back then and questions to the office asking if she was single. Sometimes she struck farmers who thought the job was no place for a young woman. She chuck les, “I showed them.” These days Mandy says there is greater acceptance. She says humour helped her, she throws the first joke and won the respect of the male drivers by being as capable as them and presenting as

bright and bubbly. The big gest problems for women on the job are finding a toilet and getting parking. Mandy gave up truck driving for five years on the death of her father from cancer. Sit ting in a cab thinking got to her and she just couldn’t do it anymore. Eventually the grief passed and with her partners encourage ment she’s now back behind the wheel driving a logging truck and loving it. “I know my dad would be stoked that I’m back behind the wheel again.”

Kirsten Wells says she’s ru

ral born and bred, coming from both extensive farming and a dairy background. For twenty years she was a land scaper and even drove a con crete truck. She’s a capable woman with personal cour age who broke with tradi tion, proving she’s got what it takes to drive the big trucks. Six months into the job and loving it, Kirsten arrived in Nelson with a class one li cence and attended NMIT to get all the relevant licences. She highly recommends the courses and now her hus band’s joined her driving the log trucks too. In fact, it

was sitting alongside him in his truck that set her off on the path, his encouragement and practical support.

Jess Threadgill took on the challenge of driving a log ging truck because techni cally it was a male dominated role and deemed unsuitable for women. Now five years later, she says women are ac cepted and treated as equals.

Mastering tricky situations in wet weather on muddy forestry roads is what she loves best about the job. She also acknowledges the great people in the logging indus try, they value and respect the women as equals. Her hobby is dirt biking, so she’s used to the mud and the dry dust. “I don’t know what’s the worst,” she smiles. She says the trucker language is “pretty raw,” but you get used to it. “Underneath, we all value and respect one anoth er and I like that!” Jess also enjoys the variety of the job; every day is different. We get to go to some awesome plac es with beautiful scenery.

Mandy Donnelly and Kirsten Wells. Photo: Barbara Stuart.

Head winds predicted for the future

gree given global shipping issues, financial difficulties, and rampant inflation, however what “head winds” should a snail expect?

December already and I’m sure many of us are wondering how 2022 has “come and gone” at such a pace?

Whilst time has flown by, most observers of the wool industry are more likely wondering why the wool market has continued to meander along at a snail’s pace despite much positive noise about the benefits and new use opportunities particularly for coarse wool.

In speaking to a few wool export ers during the past month or so, most have signaled that we could expect some head winds for the wool market into 2023 which, I guess, is understandable to a de

At wool auctions held during No vember, the price graph for most wool types showed either a flat or softening market.

Whilst some (certainly not wool growers) may argue that the fine wool price graph (merino types in particular) could handle a slight easing in prices, all would agree that the mid-micron and coarse wool graphs certainly can not support any further decrease in prices.

In my view there are no sheep farmers who can afford to pro duce wool, regardless of type or breed, and receive anything less than the current market price. While coarse wool types have been in the doldrums for several seasons, and seem destined to re main so for a while yet, mid-mi

cron wool prices during similar periods have been almost impos sible to predict from one month to the next, apart from perhaps the odd finer than 25 micron type or those which have been locked into a direct-to-market forward priced contract, therefore in gen eral terms growers of wool mea suring coarser than around 25 microns have all been producing wool at either a significant loss or, at best, a break-even basis for sev eral years.

Merino wool growers have been better rewarded for their prod uct during the same time frames, however when considering the physical and geographic farming situation of many merino farm ers who rely almost solely on wool returns to finance their op erations, still none can afford any downside to the market.

All costs associated with wool production have skyrocketed and

because a vast majority of wool produced in New Zealand is ex ported to various destinations around the world, transport and energy costs alone continue to bite.

During the past few seasons as China has imported lesser quan tities of New Zealand wool than previously, it has become appar ent that the reliance on that coun try over many decades was huge and, although many other nations continue to import New Zealand wool as a preference over wool from other origins, the signifi cance of Chinese wool processors and manufac turers remains extremely im portant now and into the foreseeable future. With many sheep and beef prop

NZ Beef and Lamb lowest carbon footprints in the world

STAFF REPORTER

A recently published study, by AgResearch, of the full life-cycle carbon footprint of NZ’s beef and sheep meat has found that it has one of the lowest carbon footprints in the world.

The AgResearch study, joint ly funded by MPI, B+LNZ

Meat Industry As sociation, found that since 1990 there’s been a 30% re duction in absolute green house gases from sheep and beef farming. There are also fewer sheep farmer in New Zealand compared to 20 years ago which means that there are much less emis sions of methane from these

animals.

The study found that a kg of New Zealand sheep meat has a carbon footprint of just under 15kgs of CO2 equiv alent emissions per kg. The full life cycle of the beef pro duced in New Zealand was about 22kgs of CO2 per kg of meat, compared to 35kgs of CO2 per kg of meat in the

US for example.

Overall New Zealand’s onfarm footprint is around half the average of other coun tries in the study, one main difference being that the ani mals here are farmed on pas ture year-round. Farmers are now urging the government to rethink current methane emissions targets.

erties across the country moving away from livestock to forestry opportunities, wool production in general could be expected to reduce during the next few years and, with most forestry conver sions currently affecting coarse woolled sheep numbers, a vol ume reduction may in fact be welcome? Time will tell!

The festive season is upon us and whilst there is still plenty to do on the farm, here’s hoping ev eryone finds time to spend with family and friends. Have a Happy Christmas and Bright New Year. That’s my view.

Dental

Dentists: Janette Wilcox, Amy Langfield & Pierre Gill

Deborah Pratt & Vikki Neilson Along with the friendly support team of dental assistants, practice manager and receptionists caring for your dental health and well-being.

fertilizer

Reflections on the year

JOHN BARNES Managing Director Fertilizer New Zealand

It is the time of the year to reflect on 2022. There have been interruptions by Covid, there have been floods, dry spells, demonstrations and the list goes on. The one thing that is of certainty is that people still need food, and regardless of what the city folk think and say, farmers are at the fore front of food production.

Farmers are the people who put milk on the table and spuds on the plate. They are ones who take out a mortgage to buy land, who get out of bed while almost everyone is still sleeping, and they work to provide what we need to sustain our food supply. What some of these farmers are getting in return is more bureaucracy and more taxes and less respect from the general public.

At Fertilizer New Zealand we recognise that our farmers are under a lot of stress and our aim is to take some of the pressure from our hard-working farmers. We have developed products and pro grams that will generate good results while not cost ing the earth. We are making a positive difference to so many farms and farmers. To all our valued farmers and prospective farmers, we want to pay tribute to both your hard work and dedication for what you have achieved during this year. We also want to wish you a very happy festive sea son, and if it is possible take a break with your fam ily and loved ones.

Take care and we look forward to working with you again in 2023.

You can contact our team on 0800 337 869 or visit our website www.fertnz.co.nz

No miracles in the pipeline

soil surface.

Those waiting for a revolutionary breakthrough that will take farming from the emission belching monster the government seems hell bent on believing it is to a utopian activity free of mud and dead animals will be for ever disappointed.

The future as always lies somewhere between those two worlds and chang es to both the models used to calculate emissions and farming practises must be made for progress to take place.

The government’s models are essen tially flawed by the assumption that pastoral farming results in a loss of soil carbon with resultant environ mental degradation.

No matter how logical they may seem, following the models will lead to a scarcity of food and even greater en vironmental damage.

The quickest way to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere is under intensive pastoral farming where car bon dioxide, a plant food, is converted to usable energy via photosynthesis, with most of the carbon fraction held in the soil as humus.

That’s not to say that all current farm ing practises are those best suited to the sustainable provision of food. Currently in some regions, there is a mismatch between the number of heavy animals and the land suitable for wintering them on.

Heavy soils prone to pugging are not suited to the wintering of large num bers of heavy cattle, whether dairy or beef. That land is primarily sheep

country.

During winter there will always be some soil damage, more so in wet win ters, and is best confined to relatively small areas that can be recovered by cultivation and crop establishment.

The real issue with current practise as we see it is the reliance on synthetic nitrogen for annual pasture growth. Regular applications at any time are environmentally harmful, wasteful, and expensive.

Harmful because at best only 50% of applied nitrogen is taken up by plants with the remainder entering ground water as nitrate nitrogen.

As it travels down through the soil profile it takes with it the most avail able cation, primarily calcium, which must be replenished with lime appli cations.

There’s no such problem with nitro gen fixed by clover. There’s a natural balance between supply and demand, with excess held by the continuously sequestered carbon from dung, decay ing root matter and litter forming the

Synthetic nitrogen can be beneficial ly used for crop establishment, and applied six weeks prior to a budgeted feed deficit. With the recent hike in urea prices there are now more finan cially viable ways of filling feed defi cits.

Growing clover-dense pasture from now until the end of April provides the nitrogen necessary for maximum pasture growth. Not only fixing nitro gen free of charge, clover also provides the best possible tucker for milk pro duction and rapid growth of animals. The nutrient requirements for clover are different to those of grasses in that clover contains 3 to 4 times the calci um of grasses and extra, rapidly-cy cling calcium is necessary for best results.

CalciZest, a lime based product made by Functional Fertiliser, has proven to be highly successful at stimulat ing vigorous strong-stemmed clover when applied in spring.

Containing soft carbon inoculat ed with a wide range of soil friendly fungi and bacteria, recent work has shown that it is likely to provide a worthwhile reduction in grass grub and porina numbers.

Spread by conventional groundspread at 400kg/ha it is a cost-effective way of increasing total pasture production over summer and early autumn as well as increasing its digestibility.

Farmers applying for the first time often report improved pasture palat ability, animals spending more time ruminating and less time grazing, with a resultant increase in milk solid production and the growth of young animals.

For more information call Peter 0800 843 809.

Got something to buy, sell or promote? Contact us: sales@ nmf.co.nz Farming

Delicious clover-based mixed pasture - providing sustainable N as required. Photo: Supplied.

horticulture

Frustrated by the rush

NADINE TUNLEY HortNZ

I have been meeting face to face with growers over the past few weeks, and my visits continue until the end of November.

At the same time, the government is accelerating its overly ambi tious reform programme, given that it is now less than a year to the general election in 2023 and because, come June-July next year, the focus will be on cam paigning rather than the general business of government.

All the growers I have met have expressed a similar sentiment. They are frustrated – and that was before the Resource Management Act (RMA) reforms moved for ward yesterday, with the release

of draft legislation to replace the RMA. What growers are seeing does not make sense. On the one hand, horticulture offers the country numerous solutions in a move to food security and a low emissions economy. But on the other hand, the land available to horticulture is shrinking in size and growers are ploughing in let tuces because they can’t get staff. What’s coming out of the gov ernment at the moment doesn’t align, when you stand back and look at the big picture. Some policy decisions and proposals have merit but are flawed because the consultation was or is being rushed or lacks transparency. For example, with the RMA re forms, we have repeatedly asked for food security to be given pri

ority alongside support for the country’s development. However, our repeated advocacy once again appears to have been ignored with food security re moved from the draft legislation to replace the RMA. Grower concerns essentially come down to two big ticket items: one, labour, and two, the environment, including land, water and emis sions. In both areas, a lot is hap pening as this government tries to finish its reform programme before June-July 2023. But in the rush, the number of mistakes be ing made are so numerous that you begin to wonder whether it is a ‘cock up or a conspiracy sit uation?’

Give yourselves a break – from wildfire

DARREN CRAWFORD FENZ

Robbie Thomson is a person on a mission, a wildfire start at St Arnaud could be dev astating, Robbie’s focus is to help his community reduce the risk of a fire start and to be in a high state of readiness should a wildfire occur.

Robbie is a volunteer fire fighter at the Lake Rotoiti/St Arnaud Fire Station, he has been in the brigade for 10 years, he joined because he felt the community and those passing through it should have some form of help if they need it. “It’s innate that people want to help their fel low person” Robbie says.

Although Robbie is a keen contributor to the fire bri gade, his real passion is Risk Reduction, “I have always had an interest in reducing the risk of accident, as a builder, an accident can impact your life and income significantly, preventing an accident from happening has a huge im pact – the conundrum is how do people see or understand something that hasn’t hap pened!”

Robbie certainly brings this to the wildfire space.

“Climate change has created a less stable wildfire environ ment and greater potential for more regular, and more severe wildfire events”.

Robbie and other key bri gade and community mem bers have been working with homeowners and the De partment of Conservation to promote, educate and assist property owners to create de fensible spaces and the plant low flammability plants, such as Griselinia (which has been propagated from locally sourced native plants).

Currently around 80 homes have made a good progress with about 10 homes achiev ing a very good ‘fire smart’ status.

Defensible spaces are areas around your property that are free from high flammability plants, bark chips, long grass, firewood, and leaf litter.

“Understanding is increas ing, I am still driven to move forward with this project and will feel satisfied when our efforts are more visible” says Robbie “we have made a good start but I want to push hard

over the next two years, after this I hope people can see the benefit and be motivated to take over so I can back off and enjoy the areas walks and beauty”.

I really admire Robbie and his team – they have just rolled their sleeves up and got stuck in, Robbie had to gain permission from landowners, form relationships and part nerships with the Depart ment of Conservation, farm ers, and the community.

“I just had to pick away in a diplomatic way” Robbie says.

“The population of St Ar naud is likely to increase over time and although this can increase risk of a fire start, it also gives us more hands to help” I think that’s a hint to those moving to St Arnaud/ Lake Rotoiti to expect contact from Robbie.

For those wanting to know more about protecting your property and community from wildfire, either contact your local fire station or email darren.crawford@fireande mergency.nz for a copy of the ‘Wildfire safer housing guide’ and further information.

Like our industry, the govern ment sector is short of labour. For the government, this results in people new to portfolios and therefore limited insti tutional knowledge, be ing asked to complete quite massive reform – reform that will have impact for more than a decade. To help im prove this situation, the horticulture industry is doing all it can to get officials into the field, so they can under stand first-hand the challenges and can see first-hand why some of the solutions proposed won’t work. But some government departments seem reluctant to engage or, is it just because they don’t have the time, given the

volume of reform and the tight timeframes? Either way, this is an unacceptable situation and will result in outcomes that are not good for horticulture and could have been avoided.

The RMA is more than 30 years old and has been amended just about as many times. All politi cal parties agree the RMA needs changing and has not been fit for purpose. What we’d like the cur rent government to do is learn from this lesson. Slow down and listen, so that reform delivers for New Zealand in areas such as food security and employment relations. This way, key industries such as ours will be able to be come sustainable in the full sense of the word: environmentally, economically and ethically.

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motoring

The three litre powerhouse

Part 2

Off the Road

With petrol like acceleration, mo mentum is easily both obtained and held. This is evident in both mud and deep water.

A couple of months ago I wrote about the new Ford Ranger line up with its carry over engine, two litre Bi-Turbo in the XLT mid spec model, identified like others in the range with its C+D day light running lights.

Recently I spent a delightful time in the ‘powerhouse V6 - 184kW 600Nm turbo diesel’ top spec Wildtrak. There is also a just re leased Raptor, interestingly now with a twin turbo Petrol V6. Well, petrol is cheaper than diesel!

Sadly the city-based motoring journo’s have never nominated NZ’s best selling vehicle for the past seven years. The buying pub lic though, is more discerning. Now the Wildtrak is definitely the ‘boss’s car’ with all the fruit in cluding the self park assist. While the 2 litre Bi turbo Wildtrak is listed at $75,990 plus Jacinda tax the V6 asks a hefty $82,490 plus tax. Is it worth that? Answer in a few moments.

Interior Seats are ebony coloured leather clad heated and 8-way powered for the driver and passenger have orange accented stitching... Ex tremely supportive and provide long under knee and lumbar comfort.

I liked the surround camera vi sion too on the bigger 12” por trait screen that also houses all the entertainment cruise and 4WD controls other than the low ratio dial.

Great too, is the easy to find tyre pressure monitoring for the big ger 255/65/18 Goodyear Wran glers on the 6-inch screen in front of driver. This also houses most of the engine management and has infotainment functions duplicat ed for ease of use for the driver.

On the Road

This is where the Ranger shines. Drive to the 100km/h limit comes up in a shade over seven seconds

while 160 on a private road was found in 18.

It would be quicker, I believe, though the metalled rutted sur face could have slowed it.

If you tow a trailer this is the ve hicle for you.

All Rangers come with a tow hitch, though I didn’t tow on this occasion, the Ranger will be very capable, particularly with the

standard brake controller and the Blind Spot Monitor for trailers I outlined for the 2 litre Ranger. For me the most impressive fea tures are the quietness and the near-neutral handling even with out a load in the electric roller covered tray. The four wheel disc brakes pull up the 2100kg Ranger easily without fuss. Fuel use over all was 8.9l/100km.

Okay, the pic above shows shal low water, but we did drive through 600mm [wading depth 800mm] with the Wildtrak able to boost speed at will in the soft shingle base. Safe and confidence inspiring.

The technology in the Active and Braked Traction Controls is su per quick to react to wheel spin and easy to engage/disengage the electronic diff lock.

Overall

The 3 Litre Wildtrak could just be the best ute available in NZ. Retaining its great on road status while setting new standards off road and ease of towing makes it my pick, and when you look how Rangers hold their value, is worth the asking price.

Have a happy safe festive season, while we look forward to some positive changes for 2023.

The V6 Diesel has permanent 4WD, which like the outgoing VW Amarok locks and unlocks the centre diff.

Country MOTORING

with Ken Strungnell

12 inch portrait screen duplicates physical controls, nice touch.

One year for Waimea Rural Connections

Waimea Rural Connections is a new charitable trust that has been formed by a small group of people already active in the agri culture sector.

Waimea Rural Connections has been operating for just on one year.

The main aim of the trust is to provide opportunities for farm ers, growers and primary sector workers to come together to up skill, network and connect in the Waimea region.

They focus on reducing the iso lation that many face in the pri mary industries as well as bring

ing rural families together. One of their main aims is to connect people of all ages and stages in the agricultural industry by pro viding pan sector get togethers.

Waimea Rural Connections re cently held a ‘Burger Trial’ night at Wanderers Rugby Club rooms in Brightwater.

The purpose of the night was to connect and engage with local farmers, growers and primary industry workers in the Waimea region to determine if there is an interest to holding regular pan sector evenings.

The information gathered is still

Golden Bay Councillor forging friendships and trust

BARBARA STUART

Councillor Celia Butler has lived in Gold en Bay since 1978 and credits her career as a health professional for her profile in her com munity. Plus, she says it’s given her the ability to study an issue and make decisions that will help people.

Over her years as a midwife in Golden Bay she noted many young couples say they don’t want a baby to arrive during calving but in fact that’s what happened to a number. It’s during those circumstances you forge friendships and learn to trust each other.

Recently re-elected as a Golden Bay representative for another term on Tasman District Council she says it’s taken the first three-year term to find her way at the council table because of the huge amount of new legislation coming down from central government.

Celia says, she is enjoying the job of councilor, engaging with issues and understanding how she can communicate her communities’ views at council level.

Having some family background in farming she’s aware of issues facing the farming sector and says, the Golden Bay farming community is mainly forward looking. There’s a lot of col laboration between farmers who share knowl edge between each other which keeps the in dustry moving in the right direction.

“We are all waiting for the final decision on Te Waikorupupu Springs water conservation or der and anticipating what it will look like. We can’t change regulation, but we can add people’s opinions into the mix through the consultation process,” she says.

When asked how she can meet the expectations of a diverse community, Celia says her focus is to avoid extreme views and to engage with ev eryone constructively and as a community.

being processed however there was overwhelming support and all sectors that attended agreed that a pan sector space would strengthen the Waimea region.

There will be a second and final ‘Burger Trial’ night held on the 7th Dec at Wanderers Rugby Club rooms in Brightwater at 6pm.

It is free to attend however reg istering is essential, to register please email waimearuralcon nections@gmail.com

Logo designed by Tayla Pearless.