Country-Wide December 2016 by NZ Farmlife Media

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PUBLISHER’S NOTE

Enjoy the read

lot has happened in the more than seven years since NZX bought the right to publish Country-Wide in May 2009. The sale itself raised a few heckles initially, mostly from rival publishers concerned about the share market operator’s agri-sector expansion plans. But I am proud to say the 90 issues published since that sale have reinforced what is great about this title. Every issue delivers an unrivalled depth of reporting on what matters behind the farm gate. We sprinkle some content through each issue on topical challenges and industry news, but the core of each issue remains focused onfarm, helping subscribers generate better profits and lifestyles to future-proof their businesses. Not surprisingly, and not for the first time in the nearly 40 years since the first issue of Country-Wide rolled off the press, it’s been a challenging period for publishing and the red meat sector. Beef prices have been excellent, but farmgate returns for lamb languish under $100. Buying in at the bottom of a cycle is often considered good business practice. It’s what I’m hoping to emulate with the purchase of Country-Wide from NZX. I’ve established a new publishing business, NZ Farm Life Media, and also bought NZX’s other dairy farm management title, Dairy Exporter. Together with a small but highly capable team of editors, reporters, sub-editor, designer plus subscriptions/ administration staff, I want to breathe new life into both titles.

Most of my mates think I’m completely nuts, creating a business that publishes subscription magazines at a time when media globally is heading at great pace to online delivery of content. Call me old school, but I don’t believe print is dead. In fact, a very recent rural readership survey found that print media is the biggest source of news, information and advice for the farming sector. That doesn’t mean we’ll be resting on our laurels. Our team is ready to embrace all that digital media offers. It’s just the core of the business will remain delivering the best monthly red meat sector magazine in the country. It will land in your letterbox about the middle of each month, in pristine condition inside its cellophane wrap. I also have real “skin” the game. I’m a part-owner of a 420ha hill country property near Alfredton in Wairarapa, running 4500 stock units. I also have a half share in Willowgrove Dairies, a 190cow dairy unit in the beautiful Rai Valley, smack in the middle between Nelson and my old home town of Blenheim.

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Finally, I want to offer you my personal guarantee that the magazine you receive on subscription will provide exceptional value for money. If you’re not completely satisfied, I’ll refund your remaining subscription fee without any questions or fuss. It’s the least we can do for your loyalty and financial support as a subscriber. Meantime, sit back, take some “me time” and enjoy the read.

Tony Leggett

Publisher

Country-Wide January includes: • ENTREPRENEUR – Tim Mason’s climb to farm ownership • HOW FARMERS LEARN – One of the country’s longest running farm discussion groups • FORAGE – More from the 2016 Grassland conference • POST QUAKE – Farmers and communities recovery • Got any earthquake pics or stories? Contact the editor direct: terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Wairere turned our scanning into profit “Our composite flock was scanning well but only lambing at up to 130%. A big ram change five years ago to Wairere Romney has seen an increase to 150% survival to sale, and a 3 to 4kg increase in weaning weight to 32-33kg. The big gains have been in both ewe and lamb survival, as well as the total wool clip doubling.” Tim and Sonya Martin farm around 400ha of hill country on the north Taranaki coast near Waikawau. The property is running 2000 ewes, plus their hoggets, along with 300 breeding and finishing cattle.

Making your sheepfarming easier and more profitable

www.wairererams.co.nz | 0800 924 7373 Country-Wide December 2016

More: p36

BOUNDARIES Grassland award-winners.

AngusPure special reserve launched.

HOME BLOCK Joanna Davies welcomes a new arrival.

Spring brings a grass bonanza for Andrew Bendall.

John Horrocks says sheep nuts made all the difference.

Man from the bank gives lessons on figures to Paul Burt. 14 15

Bedrock comes to Pongaroa for Rebecca Greaves. Letter to editor.

FACTS

Reece Brick sees a tough season ahead.

NOTEBOOK

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on when and whoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s doing what.

BUSINESS HOW FARMERS LEARN Sharing the knowledge.

Harvesting your accounts.

Anne Hughes asks how farmers get the message. Time well spent.

Learning along the way.

22 25

DOG FOOD SPECIAL Tim McVeagh presents his annual round-up of dog tucker.

Contents

26 Vet Stuart Burrough breeds a pup from a star past.

Massey researchers are on the hunt for the perfect dog.

LIVESTOCK The McKinnons make the most of a short season.

Sub Editor: Andy Maciver, ph 06 323 0731, andy.maciver@ nzfarmlife.co.nz

Editor: Terry Brosnahan, ph 03 471 5272; mob 027 249 0200; terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz Managing Editor: Tony Leggett, ph 06 323 0730 mob 0274 746 093, tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz Deer Farmer Editor: Lynda Gray, ph 03 448 6222, lyndagray@xtra.co.nz

Bruce McCorkindale looks at benefits of using terminal sires.

Country-Wide is published by NZ Farm Life Media PO Box 218, Feilding 4740 General enquiries: Toll free 0800 85 25 80 www.nzfarmlife.co.nz

Reporters Andrew Swallow ph 021 745 183 Anne Calcinai ph 07 894 5069; Lynda Gray ph 03 448 6222; Gerard Hall ph 03 409 8386; Jackie Harrigan ph 06 323 0734; Robert Pattison ph +64 27 889 8444; Marie Taylor ph 06 836 7018; Sandra Taylor, ph 021 1518685; Tim McVeagh 06 3294797; James Hoban 027 2511986; Russell Priest 06 328 9852; Jo Cuttance 03 976 5599; Amanda Bowes 0274 998 421. Account Managers: Warren McDonald, National Advertising Manager, ph 06 323 0143 John McMaster, Auckland/Northland, ph 0274 443 143 Janine Gray, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, ph 0274 746 094 Donna Hirst, Lower North Island, ph 06 323 0739 Shirley Howard, real estate & international, ph 06 323 0760

Debbie Brown, classifieds & employment, ph 06 323 0765 John Watson, livestock, ph 06 323 0761 David Paterson, South Island, ph 03 382 6143 Designer: Joanne Hannam Production Planning: ph 06 323 0736 Subscriptions: agriHQ.co.nz/shop ph 0800 85 25 80 or subs@nzx.com Printed by PMP Print, Riccarton, Christchurch ISSN 1179-9854 (Print)

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Country-Wide December 2016

More: p26

More: p80 43

Steers pack it on in a Grain Assist trial. The Seymours welcome triplet lambs.

The science of monitoring heifer growth.

Trevor Cook advises on keeping dogs’ tapeworms at bay. 53

Canterbury’s Chamberlains lamb ewes on fodder beet.

ARABLE Thumbs up for a second-hand combine.

Trans-Tasman growers exchange views.

PLANT AND MACHINERY Crops test for the no-till seed drills.

ENVIRONMENT

Worms are vital to healthy soil, Tony Davoren says.

Keri Johnson finds communities are weighing in on rivers. 68 Denis Hocking: buyers don’t realise the value of woodlots. 74

TECHNOLOGY

Alan Royal outlines the myriad uses of a smart phone. Kirstin Mills gives tips for avoiding travellers’ traps.

COMMUNITY Louise McNutt answers the call of the wild in a trek.

Stephen Bell’s Skye shows farm dogs can go to town.

SOLUTIONS Vaccination helps heifer potential.

David O’Neill’s tractors cover the ground.

Purple Bales aid Starship hospital.

ESTATE Manuka sweetens the deal for Taranaki farms.

Planted margins are not the answer for Roger MacGibbon. 66

Lloyd Smith takes to the road training dogs.

Andrew Swallow reports on the Grasslands Association’s

Richard Barley makes the most of manuka honey.

FORAGE conference.

YOUNG COUNTRY

Annabelle Latz heads for the Aussie outback.

Deer beneath the Ruahines. Grazing in South Otago.

Grazing blocks in northern Southland.

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FARMING IN FOCUS More photos from this month’s Country-Wide.

OUR COVER

Massey PhD student Katja Isaksen with Max, June and Georgie is on the hunt for the prefect farm working dog. Photo: Graeme Brown

More: p76 Country-Wide December 2016

More: p34

BOUNDARIES | FEEDBACK

Hardship ewe wouldn’t imagine Dear Charlotte Rietveld, Your column in Country-Wide September displayed the usual flair and humour that readers who follow your work have become accustomed to. It was pleasing to read your account of family relationships and how these translate to business roles. It was particularly exciting to read that Rietveld has joined the workforce at a young age. Unfortunately your tendency to perpetuate stereotypes extended beyond the realm of harmless humour. A typical Corriedale ewe is a solo mother. In most cases she has been subjected to an arranged relationship which started with her leering suitor chasing her until she was too tired to resist. The interaction from that point tends to be brief and bereft of affection. Unfortunately for the ewe the relationship never develops into a marriage or even an informal medium to long-term arrangement. At best, she may meet the same ‘man’ in a similar brief manner a year or two later. The ewe is seldom offered any support from a midwife. During her pregnancy she attends a crude, makeshift ultrasound clinic once and does not get to view the screen or take a printout of her progeny home. She is not given any information about the gender or health of her unborn. At various points throughout her

pregnancy she is subjected to any number of health treatments – mostly painful and all delivered by a health (semi) professional who general lacks in terms of bed-side manner. Late pregnancy sees the ewe’s offspring act as parasites. She will often lose weight and is offered a limited diet (this is different to a pregnant lady choosing not to eat a variety of foods while pregnant because of paranoia and ridiculous advice from the experts – the ewe’s options are limited to what is available). If the offspring are unsuccessful in seeing their mother waste away to the point of death, they are born. If they can then negotiate a barrage of life-threatening hurdles they begin to continue their parasitic assault on their mother’s resources. Faced with the prospect of eventually losing her young ones in a mere 80-100 days the ewe can surely be forgiven for occasionally trying to shortcut the process and enjoy some time alone. It is unclear how a young mother of your own standing could be excused for behaving like any ewe when the ewe’s road to parenthood is fully considered. Most unfortunate was your insinuation that a ewe finds herself in this position at least partly because of her breed. Instead of reminding you of the unparalleled strengths of the world’s only true dualpurpose sheep breed, I will leave that

Grassland award-winners Two local farmers, a consultant turned industry director and a scientist were recognised with awards at the Grassland conference dinner, with Lincoln University’s lucerne guru Derrick Moot, pictured, taking New Zealand Grassland Trust’s top accolade, the Ray Brougham Trophy. Moot had been instrumental in the economic, social and environmental transformation of pastoral farms in the the dry east thanks to his outstanding research and communication skills, John Caradus of Grasslanz, who presented the award on behalf of the trust, said. Dairy farmers Judith and Alvin Reid,

and sheep and beef farmers Andrea and Warren Leslie landed farmer awards while former consultant, now Irrigation NZ chairman, Nicky Hyslop was recognised for her outstanding contribution to farm consultancy. “It would be fair to say her influence has helped many farms in the region raise their productivity substantially over a period of nearly two decades,” Caradus said. Reid’s robotic dairy farm at Pleasant Point was among the field day stops during the conference. More on Grassland conference p54.

for another time and hope your father reminds you of these things in the meantime.

James Hoban President New Zealand Corriedale Society

Landcare Trust To mark its 20 years of supporting rural communities deliver sustainable land and water management projects, the New Zealand Landcare Trust surveyed its stakeholders on the availability and value of resources aimed at supporting water quality improvement. Results confirmed that information supporting catchment management was of primary interest to stakeholders, board of trustees chair Richard Thompson said. This suggested the trust’s current work programme was on the right track, where the target was to deliver at least one catchment-specific project in each region of operation. “Sustainability has now become a common term, yet 20 years ago things were very different. The trust was at the forefront of change, helping to shift perception and encouraging people to adopt sustainable land management practices.” Respondents to the survey believed it was important to highlight stories about farmers who have already successfully adopted sustainable farming systems. However the term Farm Champion was not universally supported, with many respondents stating it was counter-productive and put too much pressure on the farmers involved. While some farmers might enjoy being labelled a farm champion many more would not. The survey results also highlighted areas such as ‘farm planning’ where confusion existed over the different types of farm plan and the benefits of having one. While farm leaders valued the plans and saw them as an important resource, it appeared that many farmers did not see them as a priority. More? Visit www.landcare.org.nz/

Country-Wide December 2016

AngusPure brand ambassador Jess Pryles barbecues a Special Reserve steak.

BOUNDARIES | PRIME CUTS

AngusPure Special Reserve launched Twelve years after the launch of AngusPure, the company is making a play for the Asian and United States export markets for prime cuts with a new brand. While the original Angus Pure had grading targets to meet and required proof of Angus lineage, the Special Reserve product will have higher specifications, including marbling score of more than two on the Ausmeat grading system. For producers, the carcases must be grown and finished on a rising plane of nutrition, with no checks causing

unsightly ossification in the muscle. It is a harder target to meet, but AngusPure chairman Tim Brittain says producers will be rewarded with better feedback from the meat works. Grades, pH, meat and fat colour and marbling level will be reported back along with carcase identification linking back to breeding information. Premiums will also be paid for carcases making the grade. In an initiative funded by 36 Angus breeders, the North and South Islandbased AngusPure field officers will be charged with building supply and ensuring the information loop is

Winners just super South Canterbury couple Neil and Lyn Campbell, pictured, are the South Island’s top farmers. The husband-and-wife won the 2016 Lincoln University Foundation’s South Island Farmer of the Year title. They were described by judges as a “super team”. The Campbells, who appeared in Country-Wide, September this year, won because of their efficient, incredibly flexible and adaptive way they have developed their dryland farm. The Campbells’ farm 769ha of rolling hills and flats in Middle Valley near Fairlie running sheep, deer breeding and finishing and growing a variety of crops. The Campbells deliver each product at the time it is most profitable. Hard data is analysed to compare and choose between the different enterprises on the farm. The Campbells won a $20,000 travel grant for study and/or to further their business.

Quake appeal In the wake of November 14’s devastating Hanmer earthquake many will have seen Kaikoura farms featured on the news, such as the stranded cows. Digital media and agridata consultant and former NZX Agri head of intelligence Julian Gairdner has set up a GiveaLittle page to raise funds to support the general relief effort in the region. Funds being raised are going 50% to Red Cross NZ and 50% to North Canterbury Rural Support Trust. If you felt minded to donate, Gairdner says ‘I know the guys affected would be very grateful’. Just looking to do something to support them. To donate: www.givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/palmy4quake

Country-Wide December 2016

complete. That all cattle are suitably identified to allow full traceability and will work with breeders and commercial farmers to produce suitable-quality AngusPure beef. Wearing an Angus Track and Trace tag will be a requirement of the scheme to ensure full traceability to farm of origin and to sire records. Brittain said it would take two years for the volume to build up for export but AngusPure Special Reserve would be sold in New Zealand.

More? Reverse sear, P16

Media movers Top marks to the Pathways for the Pomahaka group for instigating a ‘Meet the Media’ day held in Tapanui, west Otago. The aim of the day organised by Landcare Trust and the group, whose goal is to improve water quality in the 2000-square kilometre Pomahaka catchment, was two-way networking between farmer members and representatives from radio, print and social media. Landcare Trust’s Janet Gregory said it was a forum she hoped would give farmers a better understanding of the requirements of various media and ideas on the types of topics and stories each outlet was interested in. The day included a session of “speed dating”, the prospect of which sent the pulse rates of some media hacks to rise until it was explained that the purpose of the 10-minute liaisons was for farmers to brainstorm and share possible followup Pomahaka-related stories with each media representative. It was a win-win networking and uplifting day – especially for the media reps who as well as speed dating got to take home chocolate and a bottle of wine – that could easily be replicated by other agri-based groups.

HOME BLOCK | COLUMN

Welcome to the farm Joanna Davies Toko Mouth, Otago

n August we welcomed our second daughter, Juliette Jacqueline Davies, to the family. While still high on the adrenalin and pain killers of having a newborn baby we took her to the Silver Fern Farms Pasture to Plate awards. What a great function it was. I have not been at such a positive farming event since I was a singleton at some Young Farmers dance back in the 1990s. The people we met at the awards were passionate about the industry and you couldn’t help but leave feeling positive about the rural sector and the great opportunities it offers. That was my last real social outing and looking after Juliette and Georgina, 3, has kept me pretty much housebound since then. Driving Georgina to day care in Milton does not count as an outing. Being housebound is not really a problem, but rather the feeling of not making any contribution to the farm is. I know people say don’t worry about it, raising children is the most important job in the world. But it is still difficult to get my head around that financially and physically I’m not doing much to keep this farming venture going. Added to this, it is me who is spending all the money, groceries, swimming lessons, Christmas presents, clothes and treats. It all mounts up. The solemn words “We will have to watch our spending this season,” have been uttered. So in the spirit of preventing the farm going into bankruptcy, I suggested for my Christmas present that Simon gives me three full days, not necessarily in a row, of him looking after the children, so I can get

Proud big sister Georgina with baby Juliette.

done all the things I want to do. The farmer perked up at this idea, until I added the stipulation that they must be on sunny days. Apparently the farm is not completely in dire straits so a gift which can be bought is what I’m to be given. I do have opportunities to contribute to the farm and just as soon as the children start sleeping through the night and I can get that much-longed-for one good night’s sleep, I’ll be on to them.

I do have opportunities to contribute to the farm and just as soon as the children start sleeping through the night and I can get that much-longed-for one good night’s sleep, I’ll be on to them.

The first is to get the holiday cottage humming again with a focus of tapping into the increased number of overseas tourists visiting the area. I’ve had a few overseas groups stay and the comments received have been fantastic as they really appreciate the authentic rural experience. We give authentic, right down to the farmer swearing at his dogs when they send the sheep the wrong way, and shearers and shed hands walking around

with no shirts on during smoko. The tourists just see whatever is happening on the day and that is what they seem to enjoy. It is an easy way to make extra income especially when you compare it to running another 200 ewes, which would make about the same money. In an effort to reduce our mortgage we have started subdividing off some seaview sections. It is a long process but we have researched the costs and it is worth doing. After Christmas I plan to get stuck into this project, propagate a heap of native trees for the area and help Simon with the paperwork. All going well we should be able to start selling mid-2017 just in time for people to build their bach and spend next Christmas down here. For those visiting Toko Mouth we have opened the Coombe Hay Riverside Walkway which lets people walk through our farm and alongside the Tokomairiro River. They can enjoy the lovely scenery and see many of New Zealand’s wading birds. It also gives easy access for anglers to get to the river through our farm. As expected at this time of the year the farm is ticking along and looking good. Like most other farms in the area we are having a great growing season, lambs are getting heavier and crops are bursting through. Farmers are still moaning about lamb prices and add in the comments “we need some rain,” or “we’ve had enough rain now”, in equal measures and that about covers what is happening on the farm.

Country-Wide December 2016

HOME BLOCK | COLUMN

Amazing spring exceeds expectations Andrew Bendall Cromwell, Central Otago

Let’s back the truck up a bit to get this spring into perspective. We had great autumn, but I guess we only say that because we hadn’t had an autumn the previous year, followed by a mild winter for Central Otago, that’s less than 10 consecutive frosts and not many days below freezing. An early indication of spring arrived which we always get and everyone suddenly thinks winter is over and there a rush to get tractors turning over paddocks, again this is normally a false spring and another three to four weeks of winter hits with vengeance, but not this year. Yes, we have had late spring snow and some cold days but we have had little wind and magnificent grass growth. We were looking at starting irrigating early September but nice timely rains arrived so we have not had to irrigate seriously till mid-October and the dreaded K-lines have just been started, largely from lack of enthusiasm towards someone having to move them daily for about three to four hours. So what have we done with all this grass? Well, we have been able hang on to R2 steers and bulls that didn’t put on as much weight on fodder beet as we expected or budgeted. Why was this when they were ad-lib

Country-Wide December 2016

fed both high quality beet and good quality balage? Possibly we budgeted at what was the best of what others had done (bloody consultants). What we know now is there is a massive variation of weight gains within a mob over a 120day period. When you looked at what we did achieve, it was similar to a lot of other farmers around our area when you compare whole mob averages not just what the top end were doing.

So what have we done with all this grass? Well, we have been able hang on to R2 steers and bulls that didn’t put on as much weight on fodder beet as we expected or budgeted.

Where we can we improve quality and quantity of balage, but then that defeats the purpose of utilising low-cost fodder beet. Better genetics is an area I believe could yield great benefits. Mob sizes, especially bulls, made a difference. So, what was achieved was a weight gain over 120 days that averaged between 0.9-1.1kg a day but ranges of 0.2kg/day to more than 2kg/day and 0.8kg/day for the R1 bulls who didn’t have as good quality balage. However, they are all doing exceptionally well now on spring grass. Our 300 dairy heifers have been ad lib feeding since September and were mated at weights over 290kg. They had a 12 day AI programme and now have bulls running with them. With only 17mm of rainfall in September lambing went well, as to be expected. There are no excuses due to weather for losses, but they still occur –

from a scanning of 185% we tailed 150% to ewes mated. I was disappointed by a decision I made in the autumn to retain some trade ewe hoggets that lambed as hoggets instead of buying some two-tooth replacements. My theory, apart from keeping my expenses down, was that they got in lamb at very low body weights on a negative plane of nutrition and that they all reared a lamb. Not so. They only scanned 158% as 60kg two-tooths and tailed 124%. There is no substitute for well-bred genetics and I should have known better. Now replacements will be kept. Can we get 120% lambing from hoggets? I believe so. Staying on the good genetics theme, the first of 500 contracted Friesian bull calves (100kg) have arrived and will all be onfarm by mid-November. It’s not all plan sailing, as frequent rainfall during October has meant our ag contractor is running slightly behind, so we may be about seven to 10 days later than expected getting our fodder beet planted. But with good soil moisture, irrigation and rising ground temperatures we should catch up. A cost to hanging on to the older cattle is that there have been no silage paddocks shut yet and we may look at buying some locally. It wouldn’t be a Home Block piece without a little health and safety so we at Lochar Downs are incorporating a pre-Christmas barbecue for our preferred contractors, to update and inform them of any changes to our hazard list and code of conduct and say thank you for their work over the year. Then comes crazy December when everything has to be done before Christmas – why I’m not sure as apart from corporates most of us are back on deck soon after Boxing Day. Anyway, hope you all have a great Christmas and happy New Year and may 2017 be another great one.

HOME BLOCK | COLUMN

Sheep nuts praised

John Horrocks Merino Downs, Otago

A wonderful spring in Southland cannot hide what appears as dark clouds on the horizon for sheep returns this year. I don’t always take to heart price predictions and last year was an example of how wrong they can be. However, having just shorn my hoggets and receiving $3.41/kg compared to $4.55/kg last year, the signs are ominous. I have just read an article in the Guardian Weekly, dated October 21, 2016: “The United States is awash in pork, beef, eggs, milk and bountiful harvests. US meat companies are producing 5% more beef than in 2015, thanks in part to plentiful feed supplies...” No mention of lamb, but you get the picture that sheep meat has got a lot of competition in the US, one of our betterpaying markets. The last two years I have experimented with how I feed my ewes at crucial times of the year. It didn’t start as an experiment – more of a necessity but morphed into an experiment. Two years ago when our terrible spring, summer dry and being the peak of the clover root infestation – there was a dramatic feed shortage in our district. I started feeding sheep nuts in mid January and carried on right through until lambing. I used the high-energy nuts because I liked the idea of the mineral and vitamin additives – in particular the iodine and magnesium. It worked a treat. Last year I had my best lambing at 158%, the lowest number of ewe deaths ever and averaged 19kg for lambs. I began to wonder whether the sheep nuts were the reason for this

performance, bearing in mind that most people in our area had one of their poorer lambings for a while. I decided to repeat the exercise this year but with some refinements. Sheep nuts aren’t cheap but I was prepared for some extra expenditure despite the fantastic growing season we had this summer and autumn. I also had to throw into the equation the fact I only had 150 two-tooth ewes coming into the flock (instead of 550) so I hadn’t culled any ewes for age. I started feeding the high-energy nuts four weeks before mating (April 12) and continued until the end of May. The ewes were pretty big before mating and I had at least six inches of grass in every paddock at mating time so I was a bit concerned they would be overcooked. Straight away I noticed the feed residue at tupping was excellent so that was one benefit of feeding nuts at this time. Tupping ewes in Southland is a bit like playing Russian roulette as you are always wary of how much feed grows back to winter on.

‘We tailed 3020 lambs from 2000 ewes and still have 30 ewes to lamb. This will give us a lambing percentage of 152% but without the abortion I think we would be nearer or just over 160%.’

I started feeding sheep nuts again at the end of July. Everything was going to plan up to mid-August. From weaning until then I had lost only three ewes. From mid-August it was a different story. We got struck again by Salmonella Brandenberg and up to and including lambing, we had more than 100 ewes abort out of 2000. We also lost more than 80 ewes. In the process I stopped feeding nuts as initially I wasn’t sure whether they were having an impact. Despite the pain of the Salmonella disaster, the sheep continued to lamb extremely well with in excess of 200% drop and the usual quote of triplets and

John Horrocks checks a ram’s feet. Feeding the ewes high energy nuts help negate the ravages of Salmonella Brandenberg.

quads – not bad for Romneys. The upshot is that we tailed 3020 lambs from 2000 ewes and still have 30 ewes to lamb. This will give us a lambing percentage of 152% but without the abortion I think we would be nearer or just over 160%. In conclusion, I am convinced the nuts are well worth feeding. The daily drip feed of those necessary minerals and vitamins and the complementary diet with grass seems to work. There is a cost factor, however, at about $10,000 for 2000 ewes but if you sell an extra 100 lambs and your ewes are heavier with more wool, you will come out about even. There is great satisfaction in seeing your sheep in tip-top condition and with that bloom that only grain can give. Despite this year’s hiccup, I will try my sheep nut regime for another year.

Country-Wide December 2016

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Will Wilson rode into town with the ANZ wagon train and shot holes in Paul Burt’s hubris.

HOME BLOCK | COLUMN

Lessons behind the figures Paul Burt

Matata, Bay of Plenty For years our farm has provided annual statistics to Beef + Lamb New Zealand (and its predecessors) and the feedback provided in the form of detailed business analysis has been very valuable and informative. Recently, I was proudly reading some of the latest sheep production figures that showed nationally we have pushed lambing percentage to 127% and the average carcase weight of lamb to 18.1kgs. This is a vast improvement on averages of 25 years ago and suggests we are holding our own against the other agricultural sectors. You can imagine my surprise when Will Wilson rides into town with the ANZ wagon train and shoots holes in my hubris. Not content with that he strapped on his spurs and proceeded to prod my pride with statistics that show our industry has increased its total output by only 5.8% in 25 years (138kg of meat and fibre per hectare in 1990 to only 146kg/ha in 2015). It’s hardly worth getting out of bed for and a real disappointment. Will says exposing the truth hasn’t made him popular, but he’s a nice guy with a wealth of knowledge to impart so we won’t hold it against him. Actually, he has done us a huge favour and facing the truth may be the shakeup

we need to halt the slide in the sheep and beef industry. Static productivity in a world of inescapable cost rises and viable alternatives certainly provides a clue to the disappearance of 50% of the national flock. What Will also does well is highlight the huge range of production and profit on dry stock farms around the country, and therein we can glimpse the golden eggs he goes on to talk about. Primary production in NZ seems to have more than its share of conditions and limitations beyond its control and we have whinged about them for as long as I can remember. If you don’t think you’re getting a fair deal it’s human nature to complain and try to effect change but if all that effort and energy can’t shift the status quo, maybe it’s time to refocus on areas of the business that have a greater chance of increasing overall profit.

“So where in the shadow of these supermen do the rest of us fall? All over the place, I imagine..”

The elite performers who regularly achieve per hectare production between two and three times the national average also achieve high profit margins. Their policies achieve near-maximum production and highest product value in the most cost-efficient way. Needless to say they are expert stockmen who know how to feed animals to potential and I imagine they are competitive and have a real passion for

what they do. They would also share an analytical approach to business and not hesitate to buck tradition if it was limiting potential. So where in the shadow of these supermen do the rest of us fall? All over the place, I imagine, as we trot out the old chestnuts to why we are languishing. Poor prices, crap climate, age, debtloading, the list goes on. Can we change? Will we change? The answers to these questions are farm-specific and depend on motivation and ability and the physical constraints of climate and topography, soil fertility and infrastructure. If the motivation is there, a first step would be a land-use capability study of the farm which will reveal the potential of different policy options. Because of the limiting factors mentioned some farms will already be operating close to potential, but if increased production and profit requires a radical change in approach most farmers will need help and would benefit from a mentor or coach. Because of the science surrounding feed conversion efficiency, finishing young animals to slaughter will always show higher production outputs. Sorry breeders, the amount of feed required to maintain our flocks and herds will always mean we have less product to sell. Breeding systems have typically longer production cycles and higher losses. As a rough example a high-producing ewe flock can produce about 300kg of meat and fibre a hectare but the process takes 365 days. To achieve 300kg/ha from finishing lambs would only take 150 days – eg: bought at 30kg LWT sold at 40kg LWT, 20 head a hectare, growing at 200g a day, taking 50 days with the process repeated three times. The amount of live weight carried per hectare, 20 x 30-40kg lambs or 10 x 70kg ewes is similar in both cases. ›› p15

Country-Wide December 2016

HOME BLOCK | COLUMN

Bringing Bedrock to Pongaroa Rebecca Greaves

Pongaroa, Tararua It seems Pongaroa is the place to be at the moment. The Seven Sharp TV cameras rolled into town to film the inaugural Puketoi Young Farmers Bark Up competition, which featured both dogs and humans on all fours giving it their best go at barking, and receiving a score out of 10 for their efforts. City slicker journo Rebecca Edwards seemed a little surprised to be asked to join the prestigious judging panel, but stepped up and got into the spirit of the event. For those who didn’t get stage fright and managed to speak up on cue in front of a large assembled crowd there were some great prizes. Puketoi Young Farmers Club is newly formed, but seems to be going from strength to strength, thanks to the efforts of some passionate young people in the district. Having been heavily involved with Young Farmers before I became too ancient to be considered a ‘young’ farmer, it’s great to see the organisation active in the area. The club hosted its first YF contest district final at the local domain during the day and many stayed on for the evening Bark Up event. It was impressive to see 18 people entered, which I would imagine would be considered a great turnout for any district final. Even though finishing has more production potential, making it sustainable and profitable requires a real understanding of the market and an ability to provide cheap high ME feed out of season. However, the finishers can’t operate without the breeders and sheep prices would suggest high-quality breeding ewes are well undervalued. Over the years, farmer behaviour has shown we are individuals first. Conservative, more solo than cooperative, and when someone suggests

Country-Wide December 2016

The standard was extremely high and many local people volunteered to run modules, from health and safety and human resources to the more-practical tractor work and horse modules. I helped Ali Matthews, who was judging the equine module, and though a couple did put the saddle on backwards, the standard was good. The poor horse had the patience of a saint, still standing quietly even for the 18th person to catch it and saddle up. October also featured the annual Top Team event, run on the first weekend of the month, where teams compete against each other in golf, squash, pool and darts, netball and claybird shooting. With points for dress up, we were lucky to have a clever team member who whipped up Flintstones costumes at very short notice, including a Dino outfit complete with tail. Not only did we take out the overall competition but also the prize for best-dressed, so it was well worth having to play squash and netball in a dress and wig. But it hasn’t all been fun and games and there’s been plenty to do on farm, as the busy time of the year cranks up. Being our first year of farm ownership we are still pretty keen to save a dollar where we can, so family and friends all

get roped in to help with docking with the promise of payment in love and food, which seems to have worked so far. Docking is all finished and we had good survival from scanning to docking, exceeding our target of 3700 lambs docked and having low ewe death numbers, so that was something to be happy about. We’d be even happier if the lamb schedule went up, but I guess you can’t have everything you want! Our first lamb drench has also been completed and ewe shearing is about to kick off - once again we are shearing some of our own to save money - before weaning starts in early November. One of our major goals since purchasing the farm has been around fencing, with plans to double the number of paddocks. Richard (husband) has been busy putting posts in over winter while the ground is softer. Five new paddocks are nearly completed, so it is rewarding to see the progress. Weather has been quite changeable, with rainfall about normal for what we have been told to expect in this area. We’ve had a good spring, a bit more sun would be nice but we definitely won’t be complaining about rain at this time of the year.

Ali Matthews judging Jacques Reinhardt in the equine module at the Puketoi Young Farmers District Final, with Sahara the horse proving the perfect model.

I should lamb three times in two years, or worse still, milk the ewes, I will have my excuses ready. We farm for many and varied reasons and that’s part of the allure. When we bought our farm 27 years ago we hadn’t heard of land-use capability studies but we recognised a portion of land that would never support high livestock production. Radiata forestry has proved an excellent investment for us. The first harvest, picking a market peak and with minimal roading costs,

netted $50,000/ha. When this is discounted in today’s dollars to account for establishment and silviculture costs, it still shows a return of $1600 a hectare a year. As a comparison using Statistics New Zealand figures for the average meat and fibre output in 2015 ($5.97/ kg and subtracting costs at 45% of gross) animal production would have to be about 500kg/ha to give a comparable net reward. Considering the difference in the land quality that reflects these results, there is much food for thought.

HOME BLOCK | LETTERS

Quake highlights broadband need Dear Sir, In Country-Wide November issue Dan Shand was wrong when he says “the Government is going to fall very short of providing real farmers with what is required to increase profit and support the communities”. We set a goal of ensuring that by 2025, 99% of New Zealanders will have access to broadband peak speeds of at least 50Mbps, and everyone, at least 10Mbps. About 300,000 rural households and businesses are accessing better broadband after the first phase of our Rural Broadband Initiative(RBI). This doesn’t include people in towns and cities connected under the Ultra-Fast Broadband programme. While the two programmes are connected, they have different objectives and policy settings. The aim of RBI is to seek out hard-toreach communities, farms and businesses, then partner with providers (both regional and national) and councils to get broadband to as many people as possible. The next step is phase two of the RBI and the Mobile Blackspot Fund. The request for proposals is open to any telecommunications technology that meets a set of defined user outcomes. This means we’re open to both national and regional operators who want to put forward innovative solutions to serve as

many rural farms, homes and businesses as possible. More information on RBI2 and the MBSF can be found at http://www. crownfibre.govt.nz/ufbinitiative/rbi2-mobileblack-spot-fund/ Minister of Communications, Amy Adams (abridged – Ed)

Dan Shand replies: Never has the importance of broadband in remote rural areas been more evident than when the third largest earthquake to ever hit the country was centred in my local town of Culverden. My family and I live up a remote gorge in a brick building built in 1877 so we know the feeling of isolation well. When the earthquake struck and the power went out it was not the thought of increasing the farm’s productivity but the concern for my family, extended family and friends that was at front of mind. Within10 minutes with the help of a small generator, we were connected to the world again. Not by the phone, cell or power lines but through our wi-fi connection. Streaming radio, calling using voice over IP, messenger and Skype. Thanks to the investment of our local

provider my family’s remoteness was lessened. As I watch the news regarding the Kaikoura area I can only wonder the difference the communication would have been if the approach had included more flexible remote systems. The broadcasting and communication minister can make the biggest difference to enabling rural New Zealand. I am pleased to see that RBI2 is going to include investment in smaller providers and the establishment of the Agricultural technical advisory group is encouraging. However, if the Government is going to provide financial support it should also consider discussing with providers what changes they need to general user radio licence for fixed radio link devices frequency availability to be successful. As a passionate farmer and member of the rural community, I too want the Government to be successful in its quest to provide the infrastructure required for a sustainable future and will watch with interest in the coming months. I would like to meet with the minister at some stage if possible to discuss how she could help us deliver the Government’s 2025 goals. (abridged – Ed)

Reverse sear from Texas Jackie Harrigan Hardcore carnivore Jess Pryles always travels with her meat thermometer and a pocket knife – in case she needs to whip up a reverse-seared eye fillet. The Melbourne-born, Texas-adoptee is self-educated in all things meat and barbeque and has developed a career as cook, meat-chef educator and food blogger. The AngusPure ambassador told Angus seedstock and commercial producers during a Beef Masterclass BBQ demo at the recent launch of AngusPure Special Reserve in Hunterville, a meat thermometer takes all the guesswork out of cooking beef to the perfect level. Aim for 52C for rare steak, 54-57C for medium rare, 60C for medium well done

and 63C for well done. Resting for five-10 minutes is also mandatory, for the protein strands to relax and for even distribution of juices through the meat. Jess advocates the reverse sear of eye fillet, sirloin or whole porterhouse – cooking in a low oven for an hour to come up to internal temperature of doneness, followed by resting then searing for a minute on each side on a smoking hot griddle, pan or BBQ. The reverse sear achieves more even cooking, Jess says, and although the meat cools slightly during resting it is quickly brought back to heat with the sear, which also gives a great crust. Impressed with the quality of New Zealand grass-fed beef, she appreciated how more rich, buttery and deep the

Jess Pryles, Hardcore Carnivore and AngusPure ambassador says BBQ aficionado Americans in her adopted state of Texas would love New Zealand’s grass-fed beef

taste was compared to United States grain-fed beef. She says there are two types of consumers in the United States looking for grass-fed beef. One group is looking for a natural, pure and healthy product, the other are meat nerds who spend their lives on the BBQ, social media and Youtube. “Meat aficionados are all about the taste of the meat and the experience of cooking and eating it.”

Country-Wide December 2016

FACTS

Coming season set to be tougher Reece Brick

nly the more optimistic farmers would be more confident about this new season than the one just completed. While the situation in both lamb and beef sectors is far from dire, a number of issues, mainly in international markets, will hold back farm profitability in the coming months. For lamb, it is a case of one issue being replaced by another. A sharp downwards correction in Chinese demand for lamb put a cap on what was achievable last season, not helped by similar disinterest from Middle Eastern buyers. While each of these markets has risen to a more sustainable level, any gains have been offset by the deterioration of the United Kingdom market. An increased desire to stock locally produced lamb, along with a decline in the volume of UK lamb exports, has slowly worn at demand for New Zealand product. This has been exaggerated by the lifting NZD:GBP exchange rate,

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which has eaten away at exporter returns. One particular issue with the poor UK market is the volume of lamb it takes. Although only about 20% of shipments are sent to the UK, it typically takes around 75% of lamb legs. Because of this, exporters have been forced to look for alternative markets to recuperate some returns, but have found it somewhat difficult so far. As usual, it is all about the United States for beef. While the US imported beef market rallied just a little through the second half of October, the fundamental aspects

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Country-Wide December 2016

which have driven demand are simply not at the same level as earlier in the year. End-user demand for beef has continued to be stifled by competing proteins such as chicken and pork, and unless there’s further downwards movement in prices, this is unlikely to improve in the short term.

The latest inventory data out of the US indicates there is still much more pork and chicken in storage than usual, which will continue to put pressure on interest in beef.

The latest inventory data out of the US indicates there is still much more pork and chicken in storage than usual, which will continue to put pressure on interest in beef. US imported beef prices may be at a similar level to last year, in US dollar terms, however this is a little misleading as to how firm the market is. Imported beef supply is tight, with Australian volumes especially low, and once kill volumes in NZ begin their seasonal lift from late-November onwards, there’s limited confidence in prices holding at this level.

NOTEBOOK Circle this one

The Foundation for Arable Research’s major field day, CROPS 2016, is on Wednesday, December 7, from 9am-7pm at the FAR Arable Site, SH1, Chertsey. A dozen speakers will cover a range of subjects relevant to cropping in Canterbury. Gates open at 9am and the event will end with a dinner after the last talks finish at 5.30pm. Go to www.far.org.nz/events for more information.

Santa on parade The 70th Christchurch Santa Parade, presented by the Christchurch Children’s Christmas Parade Trust is on Sunday, December 4. The parade starts at 2pm at the corner of Wharenui and Riccarton roads and ends about 3.15pm at the corner of Mandeville St and Riccarton Rd. Celebrities, spectacular floats, fantasy, popular characters, clowns, animals, marching girls, music and of course the guy in the red suit, Santa, will all feature along the way. The route is 1.9km long and if postponed will be held the following Sunday, December 11. • Go to www.christchurchsantaparade.co.nz for more information.

on November 10 on a countback. She then made the most of her opportunity to qualify third from the semi-finals and take second-place behind Henare to earn national selection. Henare, the 2012 world champion, is set to contest his third world championship at the age of just 25.

Farm safety Christmas at the Zoo

More A&P shows • Whangarei A&P Show is on at Barge Showgrounds at Maunu, Whangarei, December 3. Go to www. whangareishow.co.nz • Golden Bay A&P Show, Golden Bay Showgrounds January 21, 2017. Contact goldenbayshow@gmail.com • Kaikohe A&P Show, corner of SH12 and Ngawha Springs Rd, Kaikohe, January 21. Go to www.ras.org.nz

Good earth

Parengarenga Incorporation – at 6636 Far North Rd, Te Kao, Northland – is hosting a B+LNZ farm safety management system workshop on Friday, December 2, from 12-3.30pm. Attendees will get a free copy of the safety management system and learn how to apply it onfarm. A representative from WorkSafe NZ will also be on-hand to answer questions. Go to www.beeflambnz.com/newsevents for more information.

Fleece champions Gisborne’s Mary-Anne Baty completed a remarkable three weeks to be named alongside Joel Henare in the CP Wool Shearing Sports New Zealand Woolhandling team. The team will compete at the 2017 World Shearing and Woolhandling championships in Invercargill in February. Baty had to rely on a strong finish in the final qualifier of the six-event year-long series in Hastings recently to sneak into the six-person selection final

A Kiwiana Christmas show, carolling elves, face painting, giveaways, delicious kai and of course, Santa. Along with the Christmas concert, there will be special animal encounters where you can see some of Auckland Zoo’s animals unwrapping their own presents. Auckland Zoo, 99 Motions Rd, Western Springs, Auckland Saturday 3 December 2016 5:00pm – 8:00pm Go to www.aucklandzoo.co.nz/ sites/plan-your-visit/whats-on/ event?event=8999 for more information

The New Zealand Society of Soil Science and Soil Science Australia will hold a joint conference: Soil, a balancing act downunder in Queenstown from December 12-16. It will reflect on the challenges faced in managing soils to reach a careful balance between many, often competing, landuse, productivity and environmental aspirations. Go to www.nzsssconference.co.nz

Feilding A&P Show It’s showtime in Feilding with A&P show at Manfeild on Friday, December 2 and Saturday, December 3, 8:30am5:30pm. As well as traditional livestock judging, equestrian events include a World Cup Indoor Show Jumping Round. Admission free, South Street, Feilding. Go to www.feildingshow.co.nz

NOTE BOOK

If you have something you think might be suitable for the Notebook page please send it in a word document (.doc) to editorial@nzx.com along with any pictures as .jpg attachments.

Country-Wide December 2016

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BUSINESS | HOW FARMERS LEARN

Sharing the knowledge In the first of a new series, the Country-Wide team examines how farmers gather information to learn and improve their farm businesses. Anne Hughes Farmers who keep learning, exploring and developing skills are likely to be more successful. Farm consultant John Stantiall says that as it becomes more difficult for any business to stay profitable, learning is increasingly important. Stantiall facilitates six discussion groups – three including farm owners, lessees or managers (with significant input into policy and budgets). The others are for farm managers and 2IC staff. A discussion group provides a comfortable environment to learn from others, ask questions and have discussions with other farmers and farm staff. The facilitator can help moderate discussions if needed and carry out fair analysis of different options. Stantiall says the discussion group approach builds management skills, also providing support and friendship. “While each person wants to learn, they also develop a culture of wanting to help each other – especially if someone is in a difficult situation.” Each discussion group meeting generally focuses on issues relevant to the host farm. Stantiall also includes some brief analysis of different enterprises, systems or ways of doing things. He says this helps provide some good analysis for the issue in question and also demonstrates the analysis process so members themselves can develop and use these tools and processes. As a strong believer in feed planning, he likes to facilitate some discussion on feed planning at most meetings. “After all, we are pastoral farmers, so why should we not use objective feedplanning tools for successful decisionmaking on farms?” For homework, members are expected to calculate daily livestock feed demand/ ha on pasture for their farm at the time of the discussion group meeting. These figures are summarised and often provoke discussion about planning for the months ahead. People join discussion groups with different expectations, but they all want to learn and improve. Stantiall says 20

different methods suit different farmers. In a facilitation role he encourages group members to undertake their own analysis to identify which options best suit them. “People who just want answers find this very frustrating.” Anyone who joins a discussion group does so with a desire to learn. Not everyone has that learning mentality and Stantiall says it is difficult to help those who do not want to learn. Veterinarian and consultant Trevor Cook rates discussion groups as one of the best ways to learn.

“While each person wants to learn, they also develop a culture of wanting to help each other – especially if someone is in a difficult situation.”

“You’re accountable because you pay to join and people come along to look at your farm,” Cook says. “People join because they want to be better.” Cook says farming can be a lonely job, so just getting a group of farmers together who don’t necessarily usually socialise with each other, has value. It can also create good networking opportunities. Cook facilitates four discussion groups around the North Island, each with similar formats and structures. The groups meet about five times each year, with each member taking turns hosting meetings on their farm. Topics for each meeting are based on the objectives of the host farm – usually something they want to do differently or better. Cook will then use these objectives as a basis for extending the group’s knowledge and promoting best practice in a particular area. “Everyone that comes along that day has to benefit. “I very often will write out a best practice package for a particular

enterprise we might see on a farm – that won’t necessarily be how that particular farm is doing it. “Everyone needs to know what is the best practice approach.”

GROUP MAKEUP Each group has a chairperson. Members fund the discussion groups themselves and decide on membership and group size. Members do need to share certain productive and financial information, so confidentiality within the group is important. Their annual accounts are analysed and benchmarked against each other, and any other good financial data Cook can source. He says benchmarking is very relevant because it’s of farmers in the same area, dealing with similar challenges and situations. It could take up to four years for each member of the group to host a discussion day. By that time, new members might have joined or existing members might have changed some of their farming systems, providing a new focus for discussions. Membership fees for discussion groups vary greatly and can range from $300 a year to more than $1000. LOOK OVER THE FENCE Farmers might employ their own consultant, as well as being part of a discussion group. Some might even join more than one group. Cook says farmers who don’t take part in discussion groups might be part of a wider farming group, such as a corporate farming group, where they have learning and development programmes delivered in a different way. Or, they simply might just be happy with the progress they are making. Discussion groups are not exclusive to higher-performing farmers, but it is often the best farmers who always want to be looking at what other people are doing. “If you’re a farmer that’s really wanting to progress, it’s a great opportunity to get on to good farms and look at them.” Country-Wide December 2016

BUSINESS | HOW FARMERS LEARN

Harvesting your accounts Rebecca Harper Benchmarking is a great way to identify what you’re doing well, and where there are opportunities to improve performance. Speaking at the B+LNZ Wairarapa Farming for Profit workshop, held at Willie Falloon’s Longbush property, BakerAg consultant Sully Alsop encouraged all attendees to undertake simple benchmarking using information all farmers have from their accountant. Quoting the statistic that 80% of farmers believe they’re in the top 10%, Alsop said benchmarking was not something to be scared of. “It’s better to know you’re below average and be doing something about it than to be below average but convince yourself you’re doing a great job.”

SULLY ALSOP’S TOP FOUR KPIS • Gross farm revenue (GFR) per ha and per stock unit • Standard farm expenses (SFE) per ha and % of GFR • Economic farm surplus (EFS) per ha • Interest and rent (debt servicing per ha and % of GFR) GROSS FARM REVENUE Includes all your sales, minus all your purchases and includes income from things like rebates, wool and cropping. It is important to make sure stock adjustments have been taken into account.

BakerAg consultant, Sully Alsop, encourages farmers to undertake simple benchmarking using their accounts.

You can find your GFR in the statement of financial position in your accounts (sometimes called the statement of profit and loss). Divide the GFR by the effective area of your farm to get GFR/ha.

Working out your SFE as a percentage of your GFR (SFE divided by GFR) is a good indicator of how efficient your spending is – are you spending money to make money?

STANDARD FARM EXPENSES This is all the costs to run a farm, excluding depreciation, interest, rent and debt repayment. Look for the schedule of expenses in your accounts for a breakdown of SFE. Check if your interest and rent have been included as standing charges, if so, you might need to pull them out.

ECONOMIC FARM SURPLUS The EFS is what you have left when you take GFR and minus SFE (which you already have) and depreciation and wages of management.

Why benchmark? Know where your business performance lies Know what you do better than most – take your strengths and consolidate them Know what your weaknesses are and improve on them – change your business to get rid of weaknesses, or buy in expertise Develop a plan to leverage your strengths and eliminate your weaknesses. Alsop talked about business planning and the use of key performance indicators (KPIs) as a useful tool to work out the bits that are most important to your business. Using your accounts, which have already been prepared by your accountant, is a good way to get started on benchmarking. All the KPIs will be included in your accounts. Once you have the KPIs, you can do your own benchmarking by comparing your numbers with the B+LNZ average for that year, which is available on their website http://beeflambnz. com/benchmarking-data/. “Every farm business has to get accounts done. You’re already paying your accountant, so make the most of it.”

Country-Wide December 2016

INTEREST AND RENT This includes interest and rent, and also hire purchases. Calculating your debt servicing as a percentage of GFR is useful, 20-25% is a safe range. If this is high, is it a risk? Do you need to address this or speak to your bank manager? KEY TAKE HOME MESSAGES: • Don’t worry if you’re below average, you’re better off knowing • If you are above average there are always some things you can improve on • You don’t need to know everything, just the key bits • You can get more out of your accounts, you already pay for them. If you start this discussion with your accountant they will probably be stoked. 21

BUSINESS | HOW FARMERS LEARN

Getting the message Most farmers have goals of better performance, productivity or farm income. What is the best way to achieve these? Knowledge plays an important role, but farmers learn in different ways. Anne Hughes asked a selection of farmers discuss their preferred and most effective ways to learn. North Waikato bull beef farmer Neil Aicken is not afraid to try something new. Whether it fails, works well or needs some fine-tuning, it is always a learning process. Neil reads all the farming publications and takes the chance to pick the brains of people who attend field days on his farm, or he meets at other field days and events. He also learns a lot through involvement in industry groups, such as the mid-North Island farmer council, the Farm Research Advisory Group and the Franklin-Waikato Farming for Profit group.

groups, field days and reading farming publications. Te Atarangi Angus was a monitor farm for three years from 2003, which was a great learning opportunity. Chris says a good farm consultant is invaluable. Someone coming on to your farm from the outside will often see things you miss or take for granted. Chris attended the Beef + Lamb New Zealand annual meeting this year and was impressed with the use of technology that provided attendees with three farm tours in the space of just one hour. Virtual tours were recorded by drone, combined with interviews of the farmers or landowners, some of whom also attended the meeting to speak and answer questions.

Northern Hawke’s Bay farmer John McGurk learns a lot from his local farm discussion group. “When you’re looking around other farms in your own area you can get a better handle on best practice management and stocking policies,” John, who farms with his wife Linda and their family in the Ruakituri Valley says. “We have an accounts analysis each year and I find it a good benchmarking exercise.” John says it is important to keep up-todate with prices and trends, to help with marketing. “It can be quite financially rewarding, just getting your timing right when you’re selling stock.” He also enjoys reading farming publications, especially case studies about different farming operations.

A former monitor farm facilitator, who did not want to be named, says the best way to learn is to have an open mind and be receptive to new ideas and information. “If you’re passionate about farming and it’s not just a job, if you really do love it and want to keep improving it, you will be learning. “I learn every time I come in contact with people.” He reads the farming publications cover-to-cover, as well as the Baker and Associates AgLetter. Recent involvement in the management team of a monitor farm programme also paid off, putting him in frequent contact with top farmers. “You’re surrounding yourself with good farmers and people who are passionate. “Surround yourself with the top 5% and it rubs off.” His own time as a monitor farmer was a great learning opportunity and very motivational. The monitor farm group served like its own mini discussion group. “Every time we had a community day the room was packed full with top farmers and they were all focused on your farm. “It was a huge opportunity being able to tap into their brains.” The telephone is also a great tool. When you have a problem or a question

Northland Angus breeder Chris Biddles says while he is now busy completing the farm development and with off-farm commitments, in the past he took every opportunity to improve and learn. This included employing a farm consultant, attending discussion 22

think – who can help me with this? “It’s all free and the payback’s huge.” He will always pick the vets’ brain if they are visiting the farm and also benefits from being a farm mentor. “You can learn from anyone and you never know when you’re going to pick up something useful.” Mentoring doesn’t have to take up a lot of time, he says. Once the mentor has visited the farm, phone calls are often all that is required. Having a mentor is a good way to transfer knowledge, keep yourself on track and try to do things better and on time. “I think the mentoring is underrated. “Most farmers wouldn’t charge you for mentoring and you’ve got a top farmer on tap.”

NEVER STOP LEARNING Talking with their Taupo Beef consumers is a great opportunity for Mike and Sharon Barton to learn more about their wants and expectations. Despite trading in their education careers to go farming, Mike and Sharon Barton often feel they have never left the learning environment. “I don’t want to ever think that I know it all,” Sharon says. Since forming their own branded meat business Taupo Beef, the couple have had many conversations with the end consumer. “So we’ve learnt an awful lot in the last few years about our consumers – about what they want and what they expect from us,” Mike says. The couple work with eight farmers who supply the Taupo Beef brand and are also farming within the Lake Taupo catchment under a nitrogen cap. While they might not be a part of a formal discussion group, they talk regularly with these fellow farmers and Mike is an avid reader. The permanent Landcare Research site on their farm brings all sorts of visitors from New Zealand and around the world to their farm – particularly scientists, university students, policymakers and other interested groups. “These are bright people and innovative thinkers – they challenge us all the time.” The Taupo Lakecare group still distributes a newsletter every two months for farmers and other parties with a vested interested in the lake’s water quality. The Bartons say this is a great forum for spreading information relating to farming in this particular catchment. Country-Wide December 2016

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BUSINESS | HOW FARMERS LEARN

Time well spent Anne Hughes It’s not easy making time to learn, upskill and share ideas with other farmers. It is however, usually time well spent, on a professional and personal level. Wairarapa Moana Incorporation general manager Nick Hume says it is hard for farm managers and staff to fit learning and development into their busy schedules, but it is something the incorporation insists on. Wairarapa Moana runs 12 dairy farms and three dairy support blocks in the central North Island. Farm managers meet every 10 days to discuss what is happening around the farms, feed situations, staff issues and health and safety. Discussions at these meetings often centre on seasonal topics, such as mating programmes in the leadup to spring.

‘There are opportunities for staff at all levels, aimed at not only equipping them with the skills and knowledge for their current and future roles, but to also help them be happier in their personal lives.’

In addition, the incorporation runs four or five group training sessions each year. These cover topics including effluent management, pasture management, mating, and health and safety, often bringing in outside experts or industry people to deliver information in specific areas. One of these sessions is a new season induction day, covering the values of the incorporation and giving new and existing staff a chance to get to know each other. 24

Landcorp’s Future Farmer scheme gives young people a head start to their farming career. Landcorp considers staff training and development an important investment.

“It’s quite a hard balance in the dairy industry because of the demands on their time, so getting them along to a meeting or discussion group can be difficult,” Hume says. “But it’s really helpful to get together and talk with a whole lot of other staff with similar problems.” Farm managers are also in regular contact with operations managers Phil McKinnon and David March, who look over the farm every three weeks to see what’s happening and help the manager deal with any issues being faced. Hume says the incorporation picks up most new technology, provided it is going to make the job easier. “We use Ag Hub, Minda and most of our sheds have automatic weighing and drafting, but in farming sometimes just doing the basics well can get you a really good result.” New Zealand’s largest farmer considers keeping staff up-to-date with new information and technology an important investment. Landcorp budgets to spend about $1500/year on training and development for each employee. Landcorp organisational development manager Celyn Fenwick says training and development ranges from safety and leadership to more technical on-farm subjects such as pasture management. “There are opportunities for staff at all levels, aimed at not only equipping them with the skills and knowledge for their current and future roles, but to also help them be happier in their personal lives,” Fenwick says.

A recent focus of the organisation has been leadership, while keeping staff mentally and physically safe remains a high priority. During 2015 and 2016, farm and business managers attended three-day leadership programmes, designed to equip them with the skills and knowledge required to successfully deliver the company’s strategy. During the next 12 months all staff will attend a safety leadership programme, ranging from one to four days, depending on their position. Landcorp also runs about 40 onfarm discussion groups throughout the country every year, on a range of topics including sheep, beef, deer, 2IC roles, milk quality and pasture. Staff mostly have face-to-face training in the regions when new systems or technology are launched, or in Wellington when new farm managers join. “With an increasing need for staff to operate computers and having staff spread nationwide, we are currently working through ways to improve our approach,” Fenwick says. Landcorp staff are encouraged to take part in industry-provided training and events. About half of all staff are enrolled in programmes with PrimaryITO, while dairy farm staff engage with DairyNZ training. Staff are encouraged to host and attend Beef + Lamb New Zealand, and other regional field days, as they wish.

aahughes@gisborne.net.nz Country-Wide December 2016

Simon O’Meara – rewarding learning.

BUSINESS | HOW FARMERS LEARN

Part of the group Group learning and farm consultants have kept West Otago farmer Simon O’Meara up with new farming thinking. He has used three farm consultants over the years to help with particular projects or issues, such as when buying Quinbrook, the family’s hill country farm in the upper reaches of the Pomahaka catchment and more recently to help

Pete Adam – good experience.

crunch numbers for a farm environment plan. Intensive learning happened during time as a West Otago monitor farm, which although rewarding was demanding at times. Simon’s learning is now mostly environmentally focused. He’s a member of the Pathways to Pomahaka water care group, and Beef + Lamb NZ’s Otago and Southland environmental group which meets twice a year. Entering the Ballance Farm Awards was a good learning experience for Pete and Sarah Adam of Wilden Station, but an ongoing forum that has stood the test of time is the West Otago Land Management Group. Formed in 2001 with a membership of about 16 farmers, the group benchmarks key financial data across farms which is a very powerful

tool, another group member Fe Hancox says. “It helps you work out your cost structures and relativity to others. For us the discussion group has been absolutely essential but I also read a lot of print and online information as well.”

lyndagray@xtra.conz

Learning along the way Alfredton sheep and beef farmers Rob and Lucy Thorneycroft gather information through a variety of channels, including discussion groups, field days, courses and trial and error. The Thorneycrofts are members of their local Alfredton Discussion Group and regularly attend field days such as Beef +Lamb NZ Wairarapa Farming for Profit and the Keinzley AgVet Wairarapa Farm Business of the Year field days. The role of women in agriculture is a particular passion of Lucy’s, and her work in this area provides her with opportunities to learn more about the industry. She is a founding member of the Wairarapa Rural Women’s Initiative discussion group, which is so popular it now has two groups, and she usually attends both groups. “They are such interesting groups of women with different stories and business approaches, and I always come away with new ideas and feeling inspired.” Lucy enjoys reading the BakerAg AgLetter, weekly farming papers and magazines like Country-Wide. “It helps keep us fresh and motivated by letting us see what other people are Country-Wide December 2016

Lucy and Rob Thorneycroft.

doing and providing ideas.” As well, the Thorneycrofts learn from other farmers, neighbours and by trial and error. “A lot of my learning come from listening to other people,” Lucy says. Rob learns from on-farm trials and talking with industry experts like their farm consultant, vet, accountant, and sales reps.

Lucy completed the Agri-Women’s Development Trust Understanding Your Farm Business course and the couple attend other courses, like the Cashmanager RURAL Better Budgeting workshop. Finally, they utilise programmes like Cashmanager RURAL and Farmax Lite to help forecast where they are heading throughout the year. 25

BUSINESS | DOG FOOD

TUCKER TIME Fuelling your farm’s working dogs for optimum performance can involve a food-fight around data, claims and manufacturers’ assertions. In this annual round-up Tim McVeagh picks through the most recent information. The latest dog tucker product specs provided by manufacturers are presented in three tables; general information, nutrtional data, and ration/cost data. The basics of farm dog nutrition, as presented in Country-Wide, each year remain unchanged.

NOTES FOR TABLE 1 • AAFCO status: “Approved” indicates the dog food has passed independent AAFCO testing, is considered non-toxic

and is a complete and balanced diet. “Formulated” indicates good intent to meet AAFCO standards but does not include AAFCO testing. “FEDIAF” indicates the product complies with the European Federation of Pet Food Manufacturers’ (FEDIAF) standards. “Exceed” indicates the product exceeds AAFCO standards. • Ingredients list: Ingredients are listed in order of proportion, with

the highest listed first. Only the first three ingredients are listed in this table – in general, where the first is a high-quality ingredient, the shorter the full list, the higher the food quality. • Mighty Mix recommends feeding their frozen concentrate with Mighty Mix Large Dog Formula, either together or alternately. • All products listed are claimed to be “complete and balanced” diets.

Table 1: Summary of general information provided by dog food suppliers Product name

Type

AAFCO status

Ingredients list (first three only). Listed In order of proportion (highest listed first).

Refrigeration needed?

Made in

Acana Sport and Agility

Kibble

Formulated

Fresh Chicken Meat (16%), Chicken Meal (16%), Turkey Meal (14%)

Canada

Champ Max Biscuits

Biscuit

Formulated

Wheat, meat and bone derived from beef and lamb, animal fat.

Levin

Chunky Pet Food; Original

Pet Roll

Formulated

Beef, Lamb, Selected Cereals

Once opened

CopRice Working Dog Food

Kibble

Formulated

Animal Protein meals and by-products (poultry, beef), Natural cereal grains (rice, wheat, sorghum), Rice bran

Australia

Country Mile Vitality Biscuit

Biscuit

Formulated

Cereal & cereal by-products; Meat and meat-meal; Animal fat.

Country Mile Vitality Kibble

Kibble

Formulated

Wholegrain cereals & cereal meals; Meat and meat by-product meals; Animal fat.

Australia

Eukanuba Premium Performance

Kibble

Approved

Chicken, Chicken By-product meal, Corn Meal

Nth America

Hills Science Diet Adult Active

Kibble

Approved

Whole Grain Corn, Chicken By-Product Meal, Animal Fat , Dried Beet Pulp, Flaxseed, Soybean Oil

USA

Country-Wide December 2016

Product name

Type

AAFCO status

K9 Natural Frozen Beef Feast

Frozen Raw

Exceeds

Mighty Mix Large Dog Formula

Biscuit

Formulated

Mighty Mix Frozen Concentrate

Frozen Concentrate

Nutrience Performance

Kibble

Formulated

Chicken meal; Oatmeal, Chicken fat.

Canada

PROPLAN All Sizes All Ages Performance with OPTIPOWER

Kibble

Approved

Chicken (dehydrated chicken - natural glucosamine source, chicken); whole grain wheat; animal fat preserved with mixed-tocopherols (form of vitamin E)

Australia

Pet Roll

Formulated

Possum Meat,Lamb and/or Beef, selected cereals

Once opened

Possyum

Ingredients list (first three only). Listed In order of proportion (highest listed first).

Refrigeration needed?

Made in

Beef, Beef Blood, Beef Tripe

Yes

Wholegrain Cereal; Meat Products and Fats (Beef and Sheep);Honey

Levin

Fats,Meats and products derived from Meat (Beef,Sheep, Pork) Salmon,Wholegrain cereal

Yes

Blenheim

Royal Canin Endurance 4800

Kibble

FEDIAF

Dehydrated poultry protein, animal fats, rice

France

Royal Canin Trail 4300

Kibble

FEDIAF

Dehydrated poultry protein, rice, maize flour

France

Tux Energy

Biscuit

Approved

Cereals &/or cereal by-products, meat & animal by products & fats derived from beef/sheep/poultry/ goat or venison, natural flavour

Tux Energy Nuts

Kibble

Approved

Wholegrain cereals & cereal &/or vegetable by products; meat & meat by-products &/or poultry by-products, tallow

Australia

Ultra Active Working Dog

Kibble

Exceeds

Beef meal, ground corn, dried blood

Wag Original

Dog Roll

Formulated

Chicken, Beef, Lamb

Yes

Wag Garlic and Rice

Dog Roll

Formulated

Chicken, Lamb, Rice

Yes

An investment

Dene Noonan who manages a finishing block at Windwhistle in Canterbury switched his dogs from a kibble dog food to K9 Natural Frozen Beef Feast, on a trial basis. The trial, and the new diet, were successful. His dogs now work longer and harder, and there are none of the skin allergies that prompted the change.”

Country-Wide December 2016

Dene Noonan manages an intensive sheep and beef finishing farm in Windwhistle, in Mid Canterbury, and switched his team of four dogs to K9 Natural in February. The change from a kibble-based diet was influenced by one of his younger dogs experiencing bad skin allergies, in conjunction with an effort to find a food that kept his dogs in top form during the busy summer months. “No matter how much I was feeding them, none of them would gain weight, they didn’t look good at all and I knew I could do better. I was also sick of having a busy day of dog work and seeing them lose their energy and focus around mid-afternoon. “At first I was put off by the price of K9 Natural and thought I’d just give it go for a month, but I wouldn’t go with anything else now. The results have blown me away. I’m still getting comments on their condition and they work noticeably harder and for longer hours. They’ve always got energy to burn. “I look at their food as an investment now,” Noonan said.

NOTES FOR TABLE 2 Suppliers describe the content of fat, protein and other ingredients in various ways. These may be specific like “20%”; or quite vague such as “at least 20%”, “up to 20%” or “20% maximum”. • Fat content: Fat provides the energy for endurance work. Guidelines provided by the Veterinary Enterprises Group (VetEnt) indicate dog tucker for hardworking farm dogs should have at least 20% animal fat. • Protein content: Good-quality protein is needed for repair and recovery. VetEnt’s recommendation for hardworking farm dogs is a minimum of 30% animal protein. • Fibre content: Fibre is the indigestible carbohydrate portion and as a general rule should not be more than 10%. • Carbohydrate content: Carbohydrates are needed for sprint-type energy. • Energy: Farm dogs get most of their energy from fat. Energy may be quoted as “energy”, “gross energy”, “digestible energy” or the most relevant, “metabolisable energy (ME)” which is the energy available to the dog. Energy requirements should consider the intensity, frequency and duration of work. The consensus of most veterinarians is that a working dog’s diet should be based on high fat and protein and “low” or “low to moderate” carbohydrate. • Nutritional data is presented on a drymatter basis.

Daily rations will depend on dog size, age, reproductive status, climatic conditions, and of course intensity, duration, and frequency of work. These dogs get a ride to work. Following a horse or bike adds to the daily work load and food requirement.

Booster for the pups Rose Lockwood and her partner Kim farm at Rangiwahia in northern Manawatu. They have found Wag Garlic and Rice the ideal food for the huntaway and heading dog pups they breed. For the recent litter of seven heading dog pups Rose started feeding them Wag from four weeks old, mixing it with warm whole milk to form a “porridge”. At three months old, she weaned the pups off milk, and carried on feeding them Wag, chopped into chunks. They were still on Wag when they were sold. “They put on weight just fine and it gave them a very shiny coat. I’ve tried other dog rolls, but always found Wag best. Dogs love it,” Rose said. She also feeds the pups Tux Energy Nuts which she believes compliment the Wag well. Maggie, the pups’ mother, is also fed Wag. She is on medication after a leg injury which couldn’t be put right by surgery. So her pill is concealed in the Wag Garlic and Rice. “A far easier way to administer medicine than trying to get it down her throat,” Rose said.

Table 2: Summary of nutritional information provided by dog food suppliers Product

Fat (%)

Protein (%)

Acana Sport and Agility

22.0

35.00

Champ Max Biscuits

15.0

Fibre (%)

Carbohydrates (%)

Moisture (%)

M Energy kcal/kg

5.0

18%

3725

2.0

40.0

3200

Chunky Pet Food; Original*

10, min

21, min

1.1, max

62%

No data

4000

CopRice Working Dog Food

15.0

4.0

30.0

3870

Country Mile Vitality Biscuit

18.0

4.0

Not tested

5.0

Not tested

Country Mile Dog Kibble Eukanuba Premium Performance Hills Science Diet Adult Active K9 Natural Freeze-Dried Beef Feast Mighty Mix Large Dog Formula Mighty Mix Frozen Concentrate Nutrience Performance PRO PLAN All Size All Ages Performance with OPTIPOWER Possyum*

15.0

4.0

No data

Not tested

20, min

30, min

4% Crude

33.6%

10 Max

3919

24.4

28.00

1.7

33.1

7.5

4211

44.9%, crude

35.2%, crude

2.7

3.7

8% max

4792

12.1

23.28

1.9

42.3

3729

53.0

25.3

5.1

11.7

31.1

5800

20 min

30 min

3.0 max

23.0

10.0 max

3920

21.0

30.00

4 max

27.0

12.0

3860

8, min

21.5, min

1.09, max

65%

No data

4000

Royal Canin Endurance 4800

30.0

32.00

6.0

15.9

8 Max

4549

Royal Canin Trail 4800

21.0

28.0

7.1

28.3

8 Max

4085

Tux Energy

18.0

20.0

1.7

46.4

8.7

3750

Tux Energy Nuts

16.0

24.0

4.5 max

40.0

7.9

3570

15, min

30, min

4, max

No data

10, max

3187

Wag Original

28.0

39.00

3.7

18.0

Dry Basis

4350

Wag Garlic and Rice

28.0

39.00

3.7

17.0

Dry Basis

4400

Ultra Active Working Dog

* Data quoted on drymatter basis although they are moist foods. 28

Country-Wide December 2016

NOTES FOR TABLE 3 A dog’s nutritional requirements vary with size, age, workload, reproductive status and climatic conditions. Daily rations quoted are those recommended by suppliers and may be based on different nutritional assumptions. Monitoring body condition is the best way to fine-tune ration sizes for a particular food. It has been considered that farm dogs should ideally have a condition score of 4 on the Nestle Purina Body Condition System, “Ribs easily palpable, with minimal fat covering. Waist easily noted, viewed from above. Abdominal tuck evident”. Work carried out at Massey University is looking at farm dog weight, condition and fat. This work will be covered in next month’s Country-Wide. Recommended retail prices given by suppliers may vary from those seen at retailers, and bulk purchasing and specials reduce costs. Actual prices may vary from those in this table. Prices include GST. Dog food prices can be misleading. Different bag sizes make the price for each bag irrelevant. Price per kilogram also has little relevance because daily rations vary widely between products. The calculated cost for each dog per day must be balanced against food quality, which should be the major consideration for working dogs. For hard-working farm dogs, energy is an important factor in assessing rations. A 25kg dog has a resting energy requirement (RER) of about 820kcal per day. For dogs’ mustering, it’s more likely to be three to five times their RER, equating to about 2500kcal4000kcal. This is a wide range but then so is their workload. Knowing the ME of a specific food means a daily energy requirement (DER) can be used to determine the daily ration of a food needed to provide this energy. • Daily ration (kg) = DER (kcal) / ME (kcal/kg) For example, the daily ration of a dog food of 4000kcal/kg to provide 2500kcal DER = 2500 / 4000 = 0.625kg or 625g. tim.mcv@gmail.com Country-Wide December 2016

Table 3: Summary of daily rations recommended by dog food suppliers Product

25kg highly-active dog required/day

Pack/price details

Grams of food/ day

$/day

Pack size (kg)

RRP ($)

Acana Sport and Agility

315

3.01

160

Champ Max Biscuits

510

1.33

64.99

Chunky Pet Food; Original

440

1.58

2.2

7.90

CopRice Working Dog Food

510

1.53

59.99

Country Mile Vitality Biscuit

500

1.16

57.99

Country Mile Dog Kibble

563

1.41

49.99

Eukanuba Premium Performance

355

2.48

139.90

Hills Science Diet Adult Active

297

2.62

22.67

199.95

K9 Natural Frozen Beef Feast

500

4.87

194.99

Mighty Mix Large Dog Formula

352

1.65

94.00

Mighty Mix Frozen Concentrate

225

0.85

94.00

Mighty Mix Frozen + Large Dog

288.5

1.25

25 + 20

94+94

Nutrience Performance

422

4.17

148.35

PROPLAN All Sizes All Ages Performance with OPTIPOWER

405

3.14

154.90

Possyum

400

2.00

9.98

Royal Canin Endurance 4800

550

3.82

139.00

Royal Canin Trail 4300

450

3.68

139.00

Tux Energy

490

1.50

76.50

Tux Energy Nuts

450

1.68

74.50

Ultra Active Working Dog

200

1.25

125.00

Wag Original

1200

2.96

7.39

Wag Garlic and Rice

1200

2.96

7.39

A diverse range of dog food is available. And with different prices, pack sizes, food quality and ration sizes, it takes time to sort the wheat from the chaff. 29

BUSINESS | DOG ARTIFICIAL INSEMINATION

Genes from a past performer Vet Stuart Burrough has trained in Australia to use TCI – a nonsurgical technique for artificially inseminating dogs. Photo supplied.

Anne Hughes Two decades after turning heads in the high country, heading dog Brook has sired one very special pup. The single-litter dog pup was born by caesarean in July, after the puppy’s mother was artificially inseminated with Brook’s semen, which had been collected and frozen 20 years ago. As a two-year-old, Brook had already produced some very good pups when owner Michael Warren read about a procedure, quite new to New Zealand at the time, for the collection and storage of dog semen. “I think every farmer in New Zealand wishes they could get back some good genetics at some stage,” Michael says. Michael had the team at The Vet Centre Marlborough in Blenheim perform the procedure on Brook, freezing and storing his semen. He continued to breed from Brook naturally and is working the fifth generation of Brook’s progeny on the farm he manages in North Canterbury. “We were running wethers in the high country. He could put pressure on a big mob and he had a really beautiful touch with tricky sheep. “There was just nothing he couldn’t do and he could work for miles.” Brook was retired from work after injuring his leg, then developed cancer and had to be put down at age 11. Michael has spent the past 20 years waiting for the right heading bitch to produce Brook’s final direct progeny, eventually deciding on his three-year-old Sting. “I had a really good run with his sons and daughters – the line bred so well that I was pretty well covered for heading dogs all these years.” Sting is a full sister to Lloyd Smith’s Check, who placed second in the short

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Country-Wide December 2016

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The Vet Centre Marlborough has a 75% success rate in achieving pregnancies from artificial insemination with frozen semen. Photo supplied.

head at this year’s national dog trial championships. Sting was artificially inseminated with Brook’s semen earlier this year and a single dog pup was born by caesarean on July 11. Vet Stuart Burrough says a single pup litter is unusual. Burrough says labour sometimes doesn’t get initiated properly in a single pup litter and Sting had gone overdue, so they elected for a caesarean. There is no limit to how long semen can be stored, but 20 years is the longest The Vet Centre Marlborough has had it stored and used for a successful pregnancy. Michael and his partner Lyn Haynes have since taken special care of their precious pup. “He’s a delightful little bloke and really inquisitive. We couldn’t be happier with him,” Michael says. It was worth the expense and the wait to breed another pup directly from Brook. “I’ve probably lost six good dogs over my career that I wish I’d been able to breed from. “If you want to preserve the genetics of a good dog, it’s a brilliant tool.” Brook’s pup is the second dog Michael owns that was born by artificial insemination. He also has a two-year-old huntaway, whose father had to be put down five years ago, after being injured by a cow. “You just don’t know when their next muster is going to be their last muster.”

A breeding insurance policy Freezing semen can be an insurance policy against working dog injury, death or infertility later in life. Vet Centre Marlborough vet and director Stuart Burrough says freezing semen can preserve and protect good genetics by breeding that genetic material into future generations. Semen storage allows the introduction of fresh genetic material – through semen sales and importation from other countries. Stuart says the process is mostly used in breeding and showing dogs, followed by pig dogs and a smaller number of farm working dogs. The specialised service is offered by just seven veterinary practices nationwide. Semen is collected into small straws – thin plastic tubes each containing 0.5 millilitres of semen (containing about 70 million sperm). Stuart says at least four straws and as many as 36 are collected, depending on the quality and quantity of semen, which often depends on age and genetics. It is quite common for people to wait until the dog gets older before deciding to have semen frozen, when they realise there might not be much time left. This is not always a good policy, as fertility declines with age and the semen quality may not be good enough to freeze. The optimum age to freeze a dog’s semen is between two and six-years-old. Frozen semen is stored in liquid nitrogen tanks. When the semen is used, 150-200 million sperm are used per insemination and timing is critical. Blood tests measure progesterone hormone levels to determine when the bitch is ovulating. Four days after ovulation starts is the best time to inseminate. While insemination using frozen semen is most commonly done surgically through the abdomen, the Vet Centre Marlborough uses a non-surgical technique trans-cervical insemination (TCI), which Stuart trained for in Australia. An endoscope is connected to a camera transmitting to a monitor to navigate a catheter through the opening of the cervix into the uterus. This way, the animal remains conscious, assisting the process of transporting the semen up to the fallopian tubes where the eggs are fertilised. “It’s a smaller dose of semen than in a natural mating, so it needs a more direct route,” Stuart says. The Vet Centre Marlborough has a 75% success rate in achieving pregnancies from frozen semen. Litter sizes are often smaller with frozen semen AI than natural mating. The centre’s average litter size from the process is six, so the single heading pup litter earlier this year was quite unusual. The centre charges $575 to collect, evaluate quality and freeze the semen. That fee includes one year of storage. Dog owners then pay an annual storage fee and for the AI when they decide to use the semen. The Vet Centre Marlborough also chills semen, so it can be transported around NZ for artificial insemination (AI), rather than having to transport dogs for mating.

This single-litter heading dog pup, born earlier this year, was sired by semen frozen 20 years ago. Photo supplied.

aahughes@gisborne.net.nz 32

Country-Wide December 2016

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workingfarmdogs.co.nz Country-Wide December 2016

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BUSINESS | DOGS

Massey University PhD student Katja Isaksen and senior lecturer at Massey University veterinary school Dr Naomi Cogger hope new research into working dogs will enable performance measures to be developed.

The making of a perfect dog Anne Hughes What exactly does a year in the life of a working dog involve? Barking, hunting, heading, running up hill, downhill, hard slog in the yards, a quick dinner and hopefully a good night’s rest in a warm, comfortable kennel. Research is starting soon to record the finer details of working dog activity as part of a larger project, led by Massey University’s Working Dog Centre, into what makes a working dog excellent. Massey veterinary school senior lecturer Dr Naomi Cogger says to find out, they first need to understand the physical demands placed on dogs. Tiny monitors will be attached to the collars of 150 working dogs to record information about their activity, sleep quality and temperature for a year. Workload and activity levels vary in the course of a year, so the dogs will be monitored throughout to get a complete picture. The Heyrex monitors are like a fitbit for dogs, Cogger says, measuring every aspect of a dog’s activity such as steps taken, speed, maximum acceleration and peak velocities. The monitors also measure temperature, so researchers will know if the dogs are warm enough overnight 34

Dr Naomi Cogger, senior lecturer at Massey University veterinary school, says to find out what makes a working dog excellent they first need to understand the physical demands being placed on dogs.

student Katja Isaksen, who will spend the next three to four years researching what makes a working dog excellent. Isaksen will also interview owners about their best dogs and what makes them stand out. By finding out what makes a good dog, Isaksen hopes they will be able to devise a way to reliably measure working dog performance. “Farmers already know what a good dog is, but I’m going to work on finding a way to do the measuring in a systematic way,” Isaksen says.

‘Farmers have clear ideas about what makes a working dog excellent, but scientifically we haven’t been able to tap into that yet.’ and will even know when the dogs are scratching. “We don’t know with a quantifiable amount of data what these dogs are being asked to do on a day-to-day basis,” Cogger says. “Farmers have clear ideas about what makes a working dog excellent, but scientifically we haven’t been able to tap into that yet.” Data will be analysed by Massey PhD

“That tool can hopefully be used by farmers and vets and researchers to, for example, pick good dogs to breed, or find out if diet or housing or training methods have an impact on working performance, or many other things.” Country-Wide December 2016

This research will be able to tap into the database of dogs and owners involved in the large-scale observational study TeamMate. Dogs being monitored are also part of TeamMate, which includes twice-yearly medical examinations and is a five-year project run by Vetlife in association with the working dog centre. Cogger says TeamMate has been a great catalyst for further research projects, such as a new study into the effectiveness of dog worming products. The working dog centre was formed eight years ago. Since then, Cogger says interest has grown, particularly from the veterinary profession, in better understanding working dogs and what influences their health and longevity. aahughes@gisborne.net.nz

More on dogs ›› Bark off P79 ›› Farm dogs can go to town P82

Bryce Visser (from left), Dr Naomi Cogger and Katja Isaksen attaching the monitors to Bryce’s farm dog Max. The monitors are like a fitbit for dogs.

What makes them tick? Katja Isaksen could well be an expert on what makes a working dog tick by the time she completes her new research project. The 32-year-old from Norway is impressed by what she has seen so far of New Zealand working dogs in action on the farm. After qualifying as a vet nurse at Bristol’s University of the West of England, Katja worked in small animal clinics before joining the University of Oslo as a laboratory animal technician. She left for further study – an MSc in Animal Welfare Science, Ethics and Law at the University of Glasgow – researching the assessment of welfare in sheep after abdominal surgery.

After graduating last year, Katja’s desire to continue studying bought her to NZ to earn a PhD in what makes a working dog excellent. “I wanted to do something that benefits the quality of life and welfare of animals and that can be of practical use in general,” Katja says. Katja is enjoying learning more about working dogs. “The things they can do are very impressive, both in terms of their level of training and learning commands and how they control stock with such a huge level of precision. “I think it’s very exciting that we will learn more about these dogs and their lives, and that we’ll be able to pass this information on to farmers and vets who can put it to good use.”

How farmers and dogs learn

A new study will measure the physical demands placed on working dogs.

Country-Wide December 2016

LIVESTOCK | ONFARM

Pam and Phil with some of their dog team.

SHORT AND TO THE POINT

FARM FACTS Phil and Pam McKinnon – two farms, both in the northern Manawatu • Sheep and beef breeding and finishing • Total area – 690ha (600ha effective) • Altitude – 335-671m asl • Rainfall – 1200-1300mm • Contour – 5% cultivatable, 5% easy hill, the rest medium-to-steep hill • Soils – ash, sandstone and mudstone (papa) • Climate – average of three annual snowfalls and numerous hard frosts • Soil fertility – phosphate: 10-15 on the hills, 25-plus on the flats, pH: 5.7-5.8 Stock • 3643 ewes • 1050 ewe hoggets • 80 mixed-sex hoggets • 40 rams • 125 cows • 25 R2 heifers • 35 weaners • 5 bulls Total stock units – 6952 Stocking rate – 11.6su/ha Angus herd sire.

The McKinnons of Rangiwahia need to achieve high utilisation rates from their pastures during a short growing season. Russell Priest explains. Photos Graeme Brown.

focus on a narrow window of opportunity to convert grass to profit sees Phil and Pam McKinnon, of Rangiwahia, achieve a high level of efficiency in their sheep breeding enterprise in a challenging environment. With the imposing and often snowclad Ruahine Ranges at their doorstep, the McKinnons are constantly reminded of the need to achieve high utilisation rates from their pastures during a short growing season. 36

“We have long, cold winters up here with little pasture growth, so we’ve got to make the most of the spring flush when it finally arrives,” Phil says. The reference to “cold” is disputed by Phil’s wife, Pam, who comes from the north of Scotland and can’t understand what he is complaining about in spite of the three to four snowfalls and numerous hard frosts they get annually. A high-performing and efficient ewe flock developed over 45 years of using rams almost exclusively from the same breeder is the means by which the

McKinnons harvest most of their grass. Since Phil has been involved in the business several enterprises have been tried to complement the ewe flock including finishing deer, bulls and extra lambs. While each has been quite profitable in its own right, all have significantly reduced the profitability of the ewes. “The ewe flock is the engine room of our business and to maintain its Country-Wide December 2016

Tail-end weaners eat fodder beet.

profitability we can’t afford to run too many priority mobs.” They’ve even successfully tried mating hoggets, but this was one priority mob too many. Breeding cows has proved the best complementary stock class; they don’t compete with the ewes for the betterquality feed, primarily because they are calved late (end of September). Their role is to maintain pasture quality for the sheep and young stock and convert poorer-quality feed into a maintenance diet. “We run breeding cows to do a job – they work bloody hard at times,” Phil says. “In spite of this they still manage to produce a valuable product.”

The McKinnons farm two properties in the northern Manawatu totalling 690 hectares (600ha effective) – one at Rangiwahia called Range View of 330ha (55 paddocks) and the other 20km away near Mangaweka – 360ha in 30 paddocks. The original 166ha Rangiwahia block constituting the home farm was bought in 1967 by Phil’s father Roger. He added another 40ha late in the 1980s. Early in the 1990s Phil returned home from the United Kingdom where he had been shearing and formed a partnership with his father before buying an adjacent 124ha. He continued to shear for another five or six years in local gangs to supplement his farm income. Phil and Pam have three children and the two older ones are keen on farming. At 18, Jack helps Phil on the farm when he is available and does casual work around the district. Hayley, 16, attends Feilding High School and is planning to study for a Certificate in Agriculture. Nikki, 13, wants to be a chef. The Mangaweka farm was bought in 2000 and added to in 2004. Both blocks have required substantial capital inputs to improve infrastructure and fertility. The two farms run about the same number of stock. The more elevated Rangiwahia block is up to 671m and has

The McKinnons’ stock consume a tonne of multimineral salt blocks a year.

more flat (40ha) and easy hills (30ha), with the balance medium hill. The soils are mainly ash overlaying sandstone with average phosphate and pH levels at 14 and 5.8 respectively. The flats have a phosphate level in excess of 25. The Mangaweka block is around 335m and is medium-to-steep hill country covered in sedimentary soils derived mainly from sandstone and mudstone. Average phosphate and pH levels are about 11 and 5.7 respectively. Annual average rainfall at Rangiwahia is 1200mm and at Mangaweka 1250mm.

A narrow window

The McKinnons four-tooth ewes.

Country-Wide December 2016

Faced with limited pasture growth and a big crop of lambs Phil and Pam McKinnon plan to get rid of as many lambs as possible off their mothers and sell a significant number as stores before the price collapses. This leaves them with a manageable number to finish before the winter. Phil is also careful not to neglect his ewes while catering for other stock classes. His philosophy is to maintain his ewes in good condition for as much of the year as possible with minimal fluctuation in their condition score. It’s not surprising, therefore, that he doesn’t have to flush his ewes before the rams go out to achieve his creditable 155% lambing on the home block and 150% on the medium-tosteep Mangaweka farm.

Phil and Pam McKinnon farm in a challenging environment at Rangiwahia

Focus on the lamb crop Maintaining ewe bodyweight after weaning is one of Phil’s priorities as he strives to maximise the reproductive potential of his flock. Because he doesn’t flush his ewes before mating he knows that if body weights drop the lambing percentage will probably suffer. Mating begins earlier on the Mangaweka farm (April 10-13) in order to spread the workload later in the year and because of its lower altitude. At Rangiwahia it begins April 23-25. Coopworth rams are mated to two-thirds of the ewes (A flock) and are harnessed after 21 days to identify the less-fertile 38

ones. Blackface rams are mated to the remaining (B-flock/poorer) ewes. “Most of the ewes are mated in the first 14 days and normally only about 110 are marked,” Phil says. “There is always a larger percentage of dries in those marked.” Restricting the mating period not only results in a compact lambing and a more even line of lambs for sale, it also removes the less fecund and fertile ewes, preventing their genes from entering the flock. Ewes are drafted into mobs of 500-650 after mating and rotated through the winter using two-day shifts.

This ensures paddocks are not overgrazed. Scanning identifies ewes carrying multiples, singles and dries. The latter are culled along with some of the poorer ewes, which generally includes half of the five-year-olds. These are sold as being scanned inlamb. This removes about 300 ewes, leaving a relatively young flock of 3350 to lamb. Last year the dry rate was 1%. Ewes are set-stocked for lambing at the end of August/early September on to pasture covers of 1200-1400kg/ha boosted by the application of 130kg/ha Country-Wide December 2016

Bought-in R2 herd-replacement heifers.

of DAP 15S on the home farm on August 10. The Mangaweka farm gets a dressing of Flexi-N super. Mixed-age, multiple-bearing ewes are stocked at 8/ha and singles at

10/ha. Two-tooth ewes are lambed on the easier-contour paddocks at a slightly lower stocking rate than the older ewes. Phil is strongly opposed to lambing

Phil and Pam McKinnon building new yards.

A chance to perform Phil McKinnon gives his ewe flock every opportunity to perform at a high level and they don’t let him down. They excel in an environment where the weather and contour have a big say in how well they do. At an average lambing percentage in the mid-150s, average ewe mating weight of around 61kg, and average lamb weaning weight of 32kg, the McKinnons’ “girls” wean on average a little over 80% of their body weight – no mean feat for hill-country ewes. Phil’s father Roger began buying Coopworth rams from Bill Carthew in Wairarapa 45 years ago and, apart from the occasional introduction of rams from other studs, the ewe flock is predominantly Carthew breeding. “Over the years we tried the occasional rams from other studs but always came back to the Carthews,” Phil says. “We place a lot of emphasis on genetics when we select our rams. “We pick from the top 10% on the Sheep Improvement Ltd’s dual-purpose overall index and pay particular attention to the early growth estimated breeding value (EBV).” One of the things that appeals to Phil in buying Carthew Coopworths is their focus on ewe efficiency in their breeding programme. Phil is not keen on big ewes, preferring them to be of a more moderate size (60-63kg) with a good spring of ribs, not too long and with good constitution. “I select rams that appear to be robust, with good bone, moderate length, sound feet and a structurally sound fleece.”

Country-Wide December 2016

beats and is a firm advocate of feeding ewes well before and after lambing. “Well-fed ewes are more settled at lambing. Their lamb survival is better, they milk better, they bond more strongly with their lambs and they wean heavier lambs. “You only get one crack at producing a lamb crop each year so if you don’t get it right your income can be seriously affected.” To reduce the increased stocking rate resulting from his large lamb crop, Phil drafts all single lambs (including ewe lambs) in mid-December. Nearly all these are killed at an average weight of 16.5kg. “Between Christmas and New Year the lambs on the home farm really pile on the weight.” Weaning takes place early in January when all Coopworth twin lambs from multiple pregnancies are drafted into one mob. All other lambs are weighed and drafted into weight ranges – 28kg and under, 28-34kg, and 34kg and over. The latter are killed and all males in the 28-34kg range that are visually acceptable are sold as stores. Any remaining single ewe lambs and black faces are run on the flats for two to three weeks before being killed at the end of January at around 18kg carcaseweight. All ewe lambs retained for breeding together with all lambs under 28kg are shorn between January 3-12 and drenched. “Our stocking rate gets so high that if we didn’t sell some lambs as stores we would run out of feed.” By the end of January about 2500 lambs of about 5300 weaned will have been sold, leaving 1500-1600 to finish between the end of January and June. Some ewe lambs are sometimes also sold for breeding. Ewe hoggets are shorn in October and again in March as two-tooths. The main mob of ewes is shorn at the end of May and again in January. 39

Heifers have their first calf as three-year-olds.

The perfect complement

Pam and Phil McKinnon harvest fodder beet. McKinnons’ herd sire.

Phil McKinnon and his work horse dwarfed by the Ruahine Ranges. 40

Breeding cows have proved to be the best enterprise to complement the McKinnon sheep flock. Their role is to support the sheep enterprise, enabling it to express its genetic potential and perform at the level it does. It is a relatively recent addition to the McKinnons’ farming business but has already proved its worth. With so much of the contour too steep for mechanical mowing and uneconomic for subdivision, the best option for maintaining pasture quality is the humble breeding cow. Phil’s cattle breeding programme is fairly simple. R2 Angus females are bought in the autumn at 360-370kg liveweight (LW) and mated as two year olds to Angus and Hereford bulls. “I prefer Angus females but I don’t mind a few white heads and I’m happy buying second-cut heifers but I won’t buy someone’s culls,” Phil says. Most of the calves (80%) are sold as weaners with the bottom 20% (steers and heifers) being wintered and sold at 18 months. The weaners this year averaged 240kg LW and sold for $800. Bulls go out on December 15 for 50 days and are rotated between mobs after each cycle to minimise the possibility of mating failure. Phil runs five bulls and their selection criteria are quite simple because of their role as terminal sires. Country-Wide December 2016

Confession of an all-grass farmer

Phil McKinnon in his crop of “sprayand-pray” rape and turnips.

“All I am interested in is the direct calving ease EBV and the 200 and 400day growth EBVs. They must also be sound, of course.” Cows are used as toppers over the spring/summer period, then are setstocked after weaning with a few in each paddock until the end of August. R2 heifers move ahead of the ewes in their winter rotation – one of the few times cattle get preference over sheep. Weaning occurs late in April and cow numbers are reduced from 145 to 125 after dries and culls are removed. Last year there were 12 dries from 145 cows (8.3%) and 114 calves weaned from 125 cows (91.2%). The mixed-age cows are set-stocked for calving on saved pasture at Mangaweka while the first and second calvers are calved on saved pasture behind a hot wire and fed balage and hay at Rangiwahia. “We found we were getting a few too many dries in our second calvers so we’re running them with the first calvers this year to see if the reduced competition for feed makes any difference.” Some of the paddocks at Mangaweka are too steep to calve on so they are avoided. Calving problems are nonexistent in the mixed-age cows, but one or two first calvers are assisted just as a precaution. Calved cows are drifted out among the ewes and lambs after lambing has finished because Phil doesn’t like cattle in the lambing paddocks while ewes are lambing. Cows are injected annually with 5-in-1 vaccine and selenium, receive a copper capsule, and are drenched for liver fluke. The McKinnons get through a tonne of multi-mineral salt blocks a year. Country-Wide December 2016

Phil McKinnon would prefer to be an all-grass farmer but confesses he does do a bit of cropping. A hectare of fodder beet is grown to winter tail-end weaners for three months during which time they put on significant weight. Last year the crop yielded 26-28 tonnes a hectare but this year Phil thinks it will be more like 20t/ha. Fodder beet is grown because the soils on his flats are infected with club root. The “spray and pray” technique is used to establish 6-7ha of turnips and rape on easier hills on the home block as a winter feed for the ewe hoggets. This carries twothirds of them for two months from July to the beginning of September. The ewe hoggets at Mangaweka are wintered on grass on a rotation. “I prefer using south-facing slopes to establish the crop because we generally get a better strike.” The area is returned to pasture in spring using Rohan ryegrass and Bounty and Apex white clovers. Some balage (80-90 bales) is made and used to transition the weaners on to fodder beet and to supplement the young cows at calving. Hay (60 bales) is bought to also feed the cows at calving and as an insurance if the weather forces Phil to bring the cows off the hills early.

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Stock check

LIVESTOCK | LAMBS

Impact of using terminal sires maternal sires for growth Table 1: Impact of percentage of ewes mated to a terminal and meat production, there sire, on percentage of ewe lambs kept as replacements are some gains to be made. An average terminal sire Percentage of ewes mated to a terminal sire 0% 40% could produce progeny with Ewes 1000 1000 genetic merit for weaning Ewes to maternal sire 1000 600 weight (WWT) 0.5kg heavier than the average maternal Ewes to terminal sire 0 400 sire. That might not seem Weaning % in ewes to maternal sire 140% 140% a lot but added up across Terminal sires are under-utilised in our Maternal ewe lambs weaned 700 420 a flock, that’s a lot of extra sheep industry. This isn’t the first time Replacement ewe lambs required 300 300 weight weaned. this has been said, but I’m going to say Differences in average it again with perhaps a slightly different Percentage of ewe lambs kept as replacements 43% 71% lean meat yield amount angle. extra value per 100 ewes mated to the to 0.15kg of extra lean We can calculate that when the average terminal sire. meat per lamb carcase in the progeny of weaning rate reaches 140% or so and the I suspect part of the reason for underterminal sire rams compared to maternal replacement rate is 30%, up to 40% of utilisation of terminal sires is that sires. This is where the terminal sires ewes can be mated to a terminal sire. This commercial farmers like to have a lot of really start to pay in systems that reward still leaves a good amount of room (~70% ewe lambs to select flock replacements lean meat per carcase and this is just retained) for selection of replacement from and maybe because of complexity. average terminal sires. Back to the hybrid maternal ewe lambs (see Table 1). Funnily enough, having lots of potential vigour aspect; it’s been a long time since I estimate about 10% to 15% of ewes replacements to select from actually research was done in NZ sheep on the nationally are mated to terminal sires. reduces the impact any maternal sire impact of hybrid vigour, but another two The industry average weaning rate in can have on the flock. So the slightly kilograms of WWT through growth of 2015/2016 according to Beef + Lamb New different angle I have is this. The great lean meat as a result of hybrid vigour is Zealand Economic Service was 121%, so I thing about using more terminal sires is realistic. wouldn’t expect 40% of ewes, nationally, that, somewhat counterintuitively, this Hybrid vigour will also add something to be mated to terminal sires. However, increases the impact maternal sires have in lamb survival and a reasonable for the 25% to 30% of flocks that have a on the flock. estimate from earlier research is that it weaning rate greater than 140%, there is If more terminal sires are used, then could add up to three percentage points definitely room for more use of terminal a greater proportion of the daughters in weaning rate. This is a lot of gain in sires. Benefits of using terminal sires stem of maternal sires are retained, and survival, a trait that is difficult to select from hybrid vigour, including higher so the fewer maternal rams required for genetically. lamb survival rates and higher weaning individually have a much more enduring The value to the bottom line of all weights. Putting those aside for now impact on the flock, through their these factors associated with terminal sire though, and just looking at the genetic daughters and further descendants. usage is significant. Table 2 shows the merit of terminal sires compared to The message here is that if you’ve got your flock to a point where you can Table 2: Extra value per 100 ewes mated to the terminal sire boost terminal sire usage, then also take Ewes mated to Ewes mated to a hard look at the maternal sires you’re maternal sire terminal sire using. Have the rams you’re using been selected for the traits that contribute Ewes 100 100 to your profitability? You’ll be paid a Weaning rate - hybrid vigour effect on lamb survival (3%) 140% 143% handsome sum, in sheep farming terms, Number of lambs weaned per 100 ewes 140 143 if you buy fewer and better maternal Weaning weight - Genetic merit for growth and lean meat 31kg 33.65kg rams specific to your needs, and an (+0.65kg) and hybrid vigour (+2kg) increased number of high merit terminal. This will have a much bigger impact Price per kg of weaning weight $2.40 $2.40 on the profitability of your flock than Value per lamb at weaning $74 $81 will having more ewe lambs to select Lamb revenue $10,416 $11,549 replacements from. Ram cost (1 ram per 100 ewes) $1,200 $800 Of course, if you’re already using really good maternal sires, then get on with Lamb revenue minus ram cost $9,216 $10,749 boosting the use of high genetic merit Value per ewe mated $92.16 $107.49 terminal sires and cash in on the benefits Margin per ewe mated to terminal sire ($) $15.33 this can bring.

IN THE GENES

Tim Byrne

Country-Wide December 2016

1.8

LIVESTOCK | FEED GRAIN

R2 grain assist growth rate/day Treatment group

1.6 1.56

Daily liveweight gain (g/day)

Grain assist a winner

Control group

1.4 1.305

1.2 1

1.175

1.18

1.07

0.8

0.776

0.78

0.6 0.48

0.4 0.2

Rebecca Harper Steers fed a specially formulated concentrate feed alongside a winter rape crop outperformed those fed on crop alone in an R2 Grain Assist trial. The trial was one of four projects that have just wrapped up at Spring Valley, the farm of Wairarapa farmers Matt and Lynley Wyeth. For the past three years the Wyeths have been a Beef + Lamb New Zealand demonstration farm. The grain assist project was introduced with the aim of efficiently utilising a winter crop and significantly increasing the weight gain of R2 steers over winter. The results have been so good the

Year 1

project has been adopted as policy at Spring Valley. A crop test analysis was carried out first and the concentrate feed was specially formulated to address any deficit in the crop, rather than providing a whole diet. Farm manager Andrew McKay said the group of steers receiving the grain, the treatment mob, grew more and ate less of the crop, compared to the control mob. The treatment group was fed once-

Year 2

Year 3

Average

a-day breaks on the rape crop at 6kg drymatter (DM) a day, as well as 1.2kg a day a head of Multifeed concentrate feed. The control group was fed once-a day-breaks on the rape crop at 8kg DM/ day. Both groups were also fed one bale of hay, contributing 1kg DM/day to their diet. Over the three years the project ran the treatment group grew an average of 1.305kg/day compared with the control

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mob, which grew at an average of 0.776kg/day. So, on average, the treatment mob grew 0.529kg/day faster than the control mob over the three year period. In the third year the project provided a 187% return on investment, due to a higher growth rate and better store price. “Now it’s a no-brainer, we are rolling this out every year,” McKay said.

Per Head

Year 1-60 cattle ($)

Year 2-45 cattle ($)

Year 3-45 cattle ($)

Grain

54.17

33.73

36.11

Labour input

15.83

21.11

Total

70.00

54.84

57.22

Crop

17.07

11.67

20.00

LWG

63.50

62.24

130.20

8.33

17.78

14.22

Total

88.91

91.69

164.42

Profit (per head)

18.91

36.84

107.20

Profit (Total)

1,134

1,658

4,824

Expenditure

Savings

Less hay

The group of steers receiving the grain, the treatment mob, grew more and ate less of the crop, compared to the control mob.

He stressed it was important to measure the crop and get it assessed, to design the concentrate feed correctly and ensure cattle were getting what they actually needed. Farm owner Matt Wyeth said

identifying what mineral or fibre was missing from the cattle’s diet was key to improving feed utilisation. The tests revealed starch and nondigestible fibre had been the missing elements at Spring Valley. They are now looking at hitting the Silver Fern Farms Beef Eating Quality specifications with the cattle and are getting 50% of animals in spec, so there is room to improve. Results showed there was no difference in yield between the two mobs of steers, though.

McKay said the reason rape crops were used for the project was because they were in anyway as summer crops for lamb fattening, but they were now trialling fodder beet with the same grain assist system. He highlighted the grain assist project as one thing that stood out to him from the demonstration farm projects. “It’s easy, there’s no risk and it gets results.”

becca.harper@nzx.com

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Country-Wide December 2016

LIVESTOCK | ONFARM

Triplets always welcome Respected Gisborne farmers Kerry and Charlie Seymour target fertility so are happy when their ewes come up with the goods in the form of triplets. Russell Priest reports. Photos by Joanna Higgins-Ware. Forty years ago twins on hill country were frowned upon; twins are now commonplace and triplets are a problem. Not so for Gisborne farmers Kerry and Charlie Seymour, who welcome triplets with open arms. “They are our most productive ewes,” Charlie says. “We ask for fertility from them and these are the ones that have come up with the goods.” On the home farm 33% of the mixedage ewes and 21% of the two-tooths are scanned with triplets. Charlie stresses they are not without their problems – bearings, cast ewes, mastitis and premature udder collapse – so the triplet paddocks get regular visits at lambing, not shepherded only when the weather is bad and at the peak. Once ewes have lambed few problems are encountered. Charlie is adamant triplet-bearing ewes must be managed separately from twins after being identified at scanning. Extra

feed comes their way before and after lambing because he believes they need all the help they can get. “Leaving scanned triplet-bearing ewes with your twinning mob is running away from the issue. “They probably will produce three lambs, but the ewe will arrive at the shearing shed in poor condition with three small lambs. She is unlikely to supply you with multiple lambs next season. “Good management is all about ensuring a repeat performance.” During lambing triplet ewes are stocked at 6-6.5 a hectare in small, easy-contoured, sheltered paddocks and consistently dock around 220%. Charlie says triplet lambs are improving each year. He credits ram breeders for producing the genetics that drive this improvement and challenges commercial farmers to better exploit the potential of those genes. ›› Family affair p46

The Seymours with some of their R1 Angus bulls.

FARM FACTS Kerry and Charlie Seymour and family Running four farms in the Wairoa/ Gisborne area Total area farmed is 2170ha (2070ha effective). Sheep and cattle breeding and finishing business with a small deer finishing component. STOCK NUMBERS: • Sheep: • Ewes: 5300 including 1200 to terminal sires • Ewe hoggets: 1700 to the ram • Rams: 96 CATTLE: • Breeding cows: 588 • R2 in-calf heifers: 114 • R2 steers: 190 • R1 heifers: 280 • R1 steers: 190 • R1 bulls: 120 • Herd sires: 25 • Total stock units: 18,516 • Stocking rate: 8.9su/ha • Sheep-to-cattle ratio: 54:46 PRODUCTION: • Lambs killed: 7100@18-19kg • Cull ewes: 1150 • Wool: 40,000kg • Cull heifers: 120@220-230kg • Cull cows: 106 • 30-month steers: 190@310320kg • 18-month bulls: 120@300-310kg • Hinds: 70@50kg.

A third of the mixed-age ewes are scanned with triplets.

Country-Wide December 2016

Triplet ewes are lambed on some of the easier country.

Triplet-rearing ewes are the Seymours’ most productive sheep.

FAMILY AFFAIR Kerry and Charlie Seymour own Kohata, a 700 hectare hill-country farm at Whangara, about 40km north of Gisborne. They also own a 240ha finishing block 20km away at Tolaga Gorge (bought in 2011) and a 650ha farm at Putere (bought in 2014) near Lake Waikaremoana. The latter is farmed by their daughter Jamie and her husband, James Jarden. Another 580ha leased hill-country farm nearby known as Wensleydale is managed by Kerry and Charlie’s son Henry. Some stock movement occurs between the farms with some of the Wensleydale lambs being finished on the Tolaga Gorge block as the former often dries out in the summer. The farm at Putere runs up to 460m, has predominantly pumice soils and is run as a sheep breeding/finishing operation. The original composite ewe flock has been nearly replaced by Coopworths. Wensleydale is mainly a sheep and cattle breeding farm and works in closely with Kohata where breeding and finishing of sheep and cattle occurs. The Seymours believe farming is all about harvesting what happens naturally

and they do all they can to achieve a good harvest each year. The Seymour name has been associated with Whangara since 1875 when Charlie’s great-grandfather and three siblings took up an 8500ha lease in the area after emigrating from South Australia. The four siblings subsequently bought 2024ha of the lease and divided it between themselves. Charlie’s great-

grandfather, who was the youngest, acquired the largest but least-developed of the four blocks. This was named Kohata and is now home to Kerry and Charlie. Kohata was originally covered in heavy bush (puriri, titoki, kahikatea, tawa and small areas of kanuka) which Charlie’s great-grandfather felled and converted to pasture.

Genetic potential The Seymours work closely as a team and their stockmanship is legendary. They aim to work with their stock to achieve the best possible financial outcome. This involves creating the most favourable cost-effective production environment so animals can express their genetic potential. “We spend a whole year planning and preparing to allow the potential of these genes to be expressed,” Charlie says. “Scanning percentage is the first indicator of how well this potential has been expressed and ewe bodyweight is easily the biggest driver of this.” Scanning percentage for the Seymours’ mainly Coopworth ewes is usually in excess of 200% with a docking percent of between 170-175%. The aim is to keep the ewes in good condition all year round which may explain why they perform so well. “Ewes should be used for pasture control not as a clean-up tool,” Charlie says. Drench capsules are administered pre-lambing to all multiple-bearing ewes and hoggets. Charlie believes they are a cost-effective management tool for maintaining ewe bodyweight and producing more wool and heavier lambs.

Country-Wide December 2016

Ewe hoggets go to the ram at 45-50kg.

MICRO-MANAGING A HIGH LAMBING PERCENTAGE The Seymours farm according to their belief that high lambing percentages and high stocking rates are antagonistic. “A sheep’s worst enemy is another sheep,” Charlie says. “Ten per cent fewer ewes in a lambing paddock make a big difference.” Charlie believes big, well-fed ewes develop large placenta resulting in goodsized lambs at birth and excellent survival rates. Well-conditioned ewes will also milk well and produce higher volumes of colostrum and for longer. The Seymours have responded to steady increases in lambing percentages on Kohata by reducing the stocking rate.

Their paddock stocking rate at lambing is based on not only the number of ewes but also the number of expected lambs. Ewe and lamb condition is assessed at docking and the stocking rate adjusted if need be. Docking is a critical time as the Seymours try to minimise the number of mis-mothered lambs by docking in small mobs. Multiple lambs are particularly vulnerable. “There is nothing more distressing than riding past a bunch of motherless lambs where you were docking yesterday,” Charlie says. He knows docking in small mobs is

difficult to achieve on large stations, but says that if it can be done the rewards are significant. Docking mobs on the Seymour farms are ideally restricted to 100-120 ewes and 170-200 lambs with the operation completed by mid-afternoon so lambs have a chance to mother up before dark. Multiple docking sites are often used in larger paddocks to reduce mob size. Leaving ewes and lambs in holding paddocks overnight after docking is frowned upon because it prevents them from returning to their territory. “Don’t be in a hurry to wean unless the weather forces you to” is another successful piece of Seymour management advice. Having to consistently wean early suggests to them that the stocking rate is probably too high. They take the view that a lamb’s highest growth rate is achieved pre-weaning so why would you not take advantage of it. What’s more, unweaned ewes and lambs achieve better pasture control than weaned ones and also the most profitable lambs are those that are drafted off their mothers. The Seymours’ goal at weaning is to have 30kg lambs and ewes weighing more than 65kg. The aim is to maintain this ewe weight over the summer because

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a favourable autumn allowing ewes to be flushed can never be guaranteed. Charlie says having to market lambs later facing a falling schedule is one of the major disadvantages of a high lambing percentage. In spite of this, two good lambs will always be worth more than one. Selling store lambs or cattle is not an option for the Seymours because they believe in adding as much value as possible to a product.

Coopworth rams in a relaxed mood.

THE CYCLE ON KOHATA Two Coopworth ewe flocks are run on Kohata – an A flock that generates replacements and is mated to Coopworth rams, and a B flock mated to Suffolks. Suffolk rams go out early in February and Coopworths on March 1 for two cycles. Suffolk-Coopworth ram lambs go out with the ewe hoggets (average weight 45-50kg) on April 1. The hogget scanning percentage varies between 145156%, delivering a docking percentage of around 130%. “The results from hogget mating are quite variable, probably reflecting their level of maturity,” Charlie says. Normally any dry hoggets would be culled, but because the business is in a flock replacement phase on the Putere farm, all dry hoggets are sent there. Hogget lamb losses are

One hundred and twenty R1 bulls are wintered on the flats on Kohata.

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normally minimal, especially since the introduction of Suffolk-Coopworth mating sires. No single-bearing ewes are lambed on Kohata. They go to Putere to build Coopworth numbers. Two-weekly draftings of the Suffolkcross lambs off their mothers begin early in November in an endeavour to capture the early season premiums. Most of these lambs are gone by Christmas. All crossbred lambs are drenched after the first pick is taken. Coopworth ewes and lambs are shorn early in December after which lambs are drenched and returned to their mothers. A well-structured heavy fleece is still sought by the Seymours as a means of returning the best value for money from their shearing costs. Weaning and shearing of the Coopworth lambs and ewes used to occur at the end of November. Because it proved difficult to get worthwhile numbers of multiples up to a reasonable weight by this date, lambs are now left on their mothers until mid-January when good numbers are drafted at 18-20kg. The remainder are drafted into weight ranges, drenched and spread out thinly among cattle on good finishing pasture. At the beginning of February replacement ewe lambs get a drench capsule and sensitising vaccinations of

Calving of R2 heifers has been adopted only recently.

Soils on Kohata are mostly volcanic ash over sedimentary material.

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One of the Seymours’ 25 herd sires.

campylovexin and toxovax before being spread out like the finishing lambs. They are brought in a month later to receive their booster vaccinations. “Administering a drench capsule to the ewe lambs at this time is under review and may be replaced by three oral drenches,” Charlie says. All ewes are set-stocked over the summer and shorn again in mid-April and ewe hoggets at the end of May. Twotooth ewes get a barber’s pole drench at the end of February.

TWO PRIORITY MOBS Cattle form a large part of the Seymours’ business and perform well in their environment. The cow herd is split between Kohata and Wensleydale, with the former running the younger cows. A small mob is also run on the Tolaga Gorge farm. “Cows are farmed to maintain pasture quality but we don’t abuse them,” Charlie says. “Farming two priority mobs (wet hoggets and heifers) means the cows’ pasture-grooming role is vitally important.” All progeny are finished except for replacement heifers. Some bull calves are left entire and killed at 18 months. Steers are carried through two winters and killed at 30 months, as are cull heifers. Mating of cows and 15-month heifers begins on October 1 and calving is the middle of July. Heifers have been mated for only the past four years so the Seymours are still learning appropriate calving management practices for them. “We find the heifers don’t take the bull as readily as the cows so they generally

calve later,” Charlie says. “Their calving pattern probably fits the pasture growth curve better than the cows.” Heifers calve to low birthweight EBV bulls from Turihaua Angus Stud. The Angus bulls mated to the mixed-age cows are selected on temperament, fertility and conformation with growth not a high priority trait. Charlie believes that when running a large mob of cows fertility is an important trait and mating heifers helps in the selection for this. Good temperament is a strongly sought trait. The Seymours handle cattle quietly and expect them to respond in a quiet manner. If they don’t their number is taken and their fate is sealed. Cows and heifers are set-stocked for calving on saved pasture previously grazed by weaners. Visual assessment of closeness to calving is used to determine when females need to be drafted to the calving paddocks. Cows and calves stay on these until after lambs are weaned and are then used to maintain pasture quality in the lamb paddocks. This works well for the Seymours. “As lambing percentage has increased there has been a greater requirement for having cattle among the ewes and lambs to maintain pasture quality,” Charlie says. Weaner heifers and steers are setstocked with the ewe hoggets over much of the winter. Weaner bulls are run on the flats and fed silage in early spring when feed begins to get a bit short. Calf weaning occurs late February to early March after which cows are mobbed up and rotated around paddocks cleaning up any roughage. Calf weaning percentage for cows is in the early nineties, but the heifers pull the overall percentage back to the late eighties. To make use of their deer fencing the Seymours buy 70 cull weaner hinds for finishing. The only attention they receive is a drench on arrival. They are run among other stock before being killed in September. All the young cows are calved on Kohata.

The Seymours run their 70 finishing hinds with sheep and cattle.

The environment Kohata experiences an annual rainfall of 1000mm. A lot of this can fall in winter, making the heavy clay-panned soils extremely wet. Heavy dumps of 150-200mm are not uncommon and these generally come from the southeast. The predominant wind is a drying westerly and easterlies bring light, drizzly rain that tends to persist for lengthy periods. Rushes used to thrive on Kohata’s heavy soils but many hours of toil with the help of weed wipers and Roundup have almost eliminated them. Soils on the three farms consist mainly of volcanic ash over different types of sediments with Olsen phosphate levels in the low 20s. The younger ash soil (pumice) at Putere needs more potash and sulphur and the livestock need supplementing with copper and selenium. Darker, often deep, well-structured ash soils are found on the other farms. Over the four farms about 2% of the area is flat, 43% medium hill, and 55% steep. Average paddock size is 15ha.

Country-Wide December 2016

LIVESTOCK | HEIFER GROWTH

An ideal time to monitor the pre-calving target is when the firstcalvers leave their winter grazing.

The science of monitoring growth Nicola Dennis Abacus Bio Grazing dairy heifers has become an industry in itself in recent years and they are finding their way on to a diverse range of farms up and down the country. This means almost no-one can escape the frenzy of enthusiasm rural professionals are showing for weighing, tracking and improving dairy heifer growth. It has led to a wealth of innovation and research, but also to some confusion. How heavy should a heifer be? How do we know if she’s on track? And can we adapt these methods for other farming stock? When dealing with heifers there are two liveweight targets farmers need to be concerned about – the mating target when heifers are about 15 months old and the pre-calving target when they are about 22 months old. Research shows bodyweight is a key driver of puberty in cattle. Heifers begin cycling when they weigh about 45% of their mature liveweight. The first few Country-Wide December 2016

ovarian cycles can be hit-and-miss in terms of fertility, so the mating target has been set at 60% of mature weight, to ensure heifers are ready to conceive at the start of mating. I consider the mating target the more important target because it affects fertility in the first mating, but also in subsequent matings because later-calving heifers have less time to recover before the next mating season starts. Another reason to focus on the mating target is because it is the easier target to achieve. If the heifers are behind before mating, it can be challenging to put extra weight on them through winter and once they begin diverting their energy into pregnancy. The second target, pre-calving, is 90% of mature liveweight. This target is important because it means the first-calver is entering the herd in a well-grown state. I have noticed some confusion about what the calving target weight includes. The 90% includes everything – the cow, the calf she is gestating and all the liquids and jiggly bits. An ideal time to monitor the precalving target is when the first-calvers leave their winter grazing. Both targets rely on estimating how big the heifers will be when they are fully mature. There are three methods for doing this.

The best method for a group of animals depends on personal preference and the information available. The easiest method is to look up the average mature liveweight for the breed from a reference like the DairyNZ website and resources, which lists 423kg for Jersey, 499kg for Friesians and 467kg for crossbreds. If multiple breeds, crossbreeding and imported genetics are involved, choosing the breed can be open to a fair bit of interpretation. However, on the whole this is a user-friendly approach and there is only one target to remember for each breed. If you have an unusual mix of breeds, or if the liveweights from the book or internet look wrong, another method is to weigh mature cows from the same herd. This is a tall order for most heifer graziers. Cows continue to mature for a few years after they start milking, so it is best to weigh those that are more than six years old, leaving out any cows that have excessively high or low body condition scores. Then you can use the average liveweight for each breed to set the targets. The method most often recommended uses estimated breeding values (BV) for liveweight. Using this method takes out some of the guesswork in choosing breeds and some applications such as MINDA Weights will do the calculation for you. To estimate mature liveweight, add the heifer’s BV for liveweight to the liveweight of the genetic base cow – the “average” cow that is used to formulate BVs. The genetic base cow has slimmed down in recent years, because of an increase in cross-breeding and breeding for increased efficiency and now tilts the scales somewhere about 470kg (not finalised at the time of writing). Programmes such as InCalf are likely to use the old base weight of 503kg until the official base weight has been decided. Using this method, if a heifer has a liveweight BV of +10kg, we would estimate that her mature liveweight would be somewhere around 480kg (470 + 10kg).

SAFETY IN LARGER NUMBERS The confidence intervals in the estimated mature liveweight predictions for any method are large. When setting a target, the “true” mature liveweight for any individual is somewhere in a 70kg range around the predicted mature liveweight. If a heifer is 30kg below the calculated calving target, her weight alone can’t tell you if she is 30kg underweight or the target has been overestimated by 30kg. That brings us to the conclusion that individual liveweight targets have substantial limitations. However, when 51

used for a group of animals, most of the individual errors cancel each other out and the range for error is much smaller. The larger the group of heifers the more confidence we can have in our target. For example, a group of 15 heifers has an error margin of about 9kg either side of the target, which is pretty acceptable in my book. In a group of 50 heifers this reduces to about 5kg, which is even better. Therefore, the correct way to assess if heifers are growing correctly is to take the average liveweight and see if it is adequate when compared with the average target. It doesn’t matter how the herd liveweight targets are achieved, as long as they are achieved. There is no evidence to suggest heifers growing at a consistent rate throughout the seasons are any better off than heifers that slow down for a period over winter or summer, as long as the herd meets its targets. It is possible to over-invest in heifers and it is not worth chasing every last kilogram. If the herd is already on target, adding an extra kilogram or so for good luck only makes sense when pasture is abundant. It is true that fatter cows produce more milk, but this is a temporary benefit. Once that extra body fat has been used for milk production, it is gone for good.

BV average If the liveweight BV method is too confusing, don’t despair. As it turns out, the BV method isn’t much more accurate than other methods for estimating mature liveweight. The liveweight BV is based on what few mature liveweight records are available for the daughters of the heifer’s sire and maternal grandsire. Also, BVs are calculated by taking the average of the parents’ BVs. They are informative on what is happening on average, which is fantastic for their original purpose in breeding programmes, but an individual heifer can inherit any combination of her parents’ genes, which can make her larger or smaller than expected. Overall, the confidence interval of a mature liveweight BV prediction on any individual animal is a 70kg range – the prediction plus or minus 35kg. This is only marginally – about 4kg either way – more accurate than choosing a mature liveweight from the New Zealand statistics or by weighing the herd. If turning high-cost supplements into milk is appealing, it is much more efficient to feed those supplements to a cow that is already in-milk. That way, the supplement goes directly to milk production rather than sitting on a heifer’s back as fat, waiting to be metabolised into milk at a later date. Monitoring heifer liveweight is a great tool to maintain or improve the fertility and longevity of the milking herd. There is understandably some excitement in this space in the dairy industry, but can we use these lessons in other stock? Surely astute beef farmers could follow these steps to set targets for beef maternal replacements. After all, fertility and

milking ability are important traits in the maternal beef cow. Perhaps with a little ingenuity these methods could be adapted to other ruminants as well. If nothing else, all farmers could benefit from remembering there is a fair bit of natural variation in stock and always some errors involved when setting liveweight targets. Try not to get too fixated on individual animal weights. In most cases the average liveweight is much more accurate and a lot more informative for farm management decisions. • Nicola Dennis is a genetic consultant for Abacus Bio in Dunedin.

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Country-Wide December 2016

LIVESTOCK | ANIMAL HEALTH

Keeping the tapeworms at bay STOCK CHECK Trevor Cook Working dogs on farms are one of the delights of hill country farming. Their skill, the skill of their owner, the relationship of the two and the personality of the dogs make up a very fascinating dynamic. The frustration created by dogs is often the most obvious sentiment in that overall interaction and a sentiment well recognised by me from the behaviour of my Huntaway. Generally, dogs on farms get well looked after, with the amount and type of feed being fed having overwhelmingly the biggest influence on their condition. The animal health treatment that is mostly commonly administered is for worms. Many get monthly praziquantal to reduce the risk of sheep measles in lamb or hogget carcases. I have questions about two aspects of this routine treatment because of their consequences. First, it must surely happen that Taenia tapeworms in dogs will become resistant to praziquantal. Preventing a parasite from reproducing is a sure way to select for those that can. We have applied this treatment for many years and there is little evidence of resistance. But nobody is looking. The consequence of allowing the tapeworm to reproduce is that there is a higher risk of sheep having measles found in them at slaughter. Ovis Management reports show plenty of carcases with measles in them. While there have been big gains in reducing the incidence there it is still there enough to be of concern. Periodic peaks in incidence is probably the biggest challenge. How much of that persistent incidence is because the treatment is not fully effective? Could the pre-patent period for some tapeworm populations be shorter than 30 days? The bundles of unused praziquantal tablets I not infrequently Country-Wide December 2016

see on farms would certainly contribute to ongoing incidence. But is hinging a control programme just on treating the primary host ever going to be fully effective? Preventing dogs eating carcases is a very important part of the control programme and really the treating of the dogs is just to cover how impossible it is to totally prevent this dead-sheep eating on a hill country farm. In many cases the treating of the dogs is seen as the primary, if not only point of attack. I was on a farm not long ago on which 20% of hogget carcases in the spring had sheep measles. This farm had a history of a very low incidence â&#x20AC;&#x201C; the outcome of very robust preventative actions â&#x20AC;&#x201C; dog treatments and good dog control.

We eliminated hydatids from New Zealand by 1991 through a similar programme to that used for controlling sheep measles.

Because these measles were able to be aged (they were about three months old) it was possible to narrow down when and where these hoggets had been. Even then it was impossible to be sure where it came from but highlighted the possibility of visiting dogs being the culprits. Nothing had changed with the existing control programme so it had to be other dogs, and the time window identified that possibility. Can a fleeting visit by an untreated dog really create such a spike? We eliminated hydatids from New Zealand by 1991 through a similar programme to that used for controlling sheep measles. But the very different drivers for the control of sheep measles have meant it has not been as effective. Hydatids eradication backed by law helped a lot back then but it being a human health issue and being strongly pushed by the Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Division of Federated Farmers gave that programme a huge momentum. Other countries have had to use vaccines to get on top of hydatids, but vaccination will never eradicate, so the

programme that ran for more than 30 years in NZ was very impressive in what it achieved. For dogs on a regular dosing programme there is often a full wormer included from time to time. Usually four times a year. But there is virtually no evidence of a need for this. A Massey University survey of dogs from a variety of sources over several years showed only very low levels of infestation in adult dogs. The story for pups is very different though and they do need regular treatment from a young age. They can get their infection from their mothers which is very different from the worms that we are used to in our grazing systems. The choice of product is important for pups as not all wormers will eliminate all of the worms pups have. The cheapest from the supermarket is usually not a good bet. Even some of the more expensive ones do not necessarily cover all the worms possibly present. Even for dogs, good advice is important.

FORAGE | GRASSLANDS

Science of systems way forward The New Zealand Grassland Association held its 78th annual conference in November with more than 30 papers on the latest pastoral science and on-farm techniques presented. Andrew Swallow reports on a couple of keynote papers and provides a flavour of the science stories still to come.

astoral scientists have been urged to consider new ways of working. Delivering his presidential address to the New Zealand Grassland Association’s annual conference in Timaru in November, Agresearch’s David Stevens said there was a need for more holistic agricultural research, analysing systems, not just component parts. “Systems research is how to put these first principles back together and make something more than what you can see. It’s about synthesis, rather than reductionism.” The traditional approach was to break down a system to its component parts, isolate issues and production processes and examine those, he explained. However, that could only take learning so far and sometimes research analysing the behaviour of the whole system was needed. Stevens used the analogy of a bicycle to make his point. The components were not a bicycle until they were put together in the right way. Different components produced different types of bicycle and the bicycle went nowhere until it had a rider. “Then, all of a sudden, you have a system.” The bicycle had to suit the rider, their purpose and the environment it was operating in: the road network, the track, wind, other traffic. The system of bicycle and rider interpreted its environment and learnt from it. It learnt that you had to dodge motorists, brake when going downhill etc, Stevens said. The system evolved too: we used to have penny-farthings; they were replaced by chain-driven bicycles, then we had 10-speeds, 18-speeds and mountain bikes. Riders change too, from young athletic

types to more sedate riders. And so it was in farming: given similar components or resources on a farm, outcomes could be very different depending on how the farmer put them together and used them, Stevens said. “The role of systems science is to understand the drivers of the system. Systems research is not about saying this is the best: it’s about saying here are your options and this is where your likely outcomes are.” Scientists should aim to better understand systems so research extension specialists could direct systems properties to make something new and better, he argued. It would also enable more-informed responses to change, be that in the price of product, government policy, technology or in the local economy – for example, a rise in tourism. “My proposition is not to throw out what we know now, but to add to it with a whole deeper level of understanding. “Do we continue to just use that pragmatic approach to solve problems, one problem at a time, fitting some sort of new technology into an old system, or do we change focus and take the lesson from the bicycle?” In his address Stevens cross-referenced to Richard Green’s Levy Oration at the conference.

PASTURE-FED BRAND NEEDED New Zealand’s agri-food industry needs a pasture-fed brand that promotes such product as the new super-food, New Zealand Grassland Association conference keynote speaker Richard Green says. Delivering the conference’s Levy Oration, Green said the paradigm of intensification to grow business used in recent decades had reached its limit and aggressively re-engineering value-chains to target premium-paying customers

is the future. The Levy Oration was introduced to the NZGA conference in 2012 in honour of grassland science pioneer Sir Bruce Levy. The oration provides an invited speaker with a platform to talk on a topic of their choosing. (See www.grassland.org.nz/ aboutus.php) Such premium value-chains must be supported with traceability, compliance with local and global environmental best practice, deep customer understanding and connection, and co-branding across sectors. Supply of product must be year-round or, if seasonal, used to promote value through rarity. “To underpin this pasture-fed brand we need to develop our own unique agriculture story around our methods of production, our heritage and our farming culture,” Green said. Historically, discipline hadn’t been part of the national psyche but that needed to change, he said, citing the shift in culture of the All Blacks as an example. “We won the first world cup in 1987 because we were good. We won the last two because we had disciplined systems and were process-driven.” Innovation and adoption of technology will be more critical to success than in the past, with synergistic benefits across systems, such as traceable use of a new plant species to produce an animal product with particular values. “We can and will attract serious international money into our research programmes.” Global companies increasingly recognised NZ’s agri-food sector had close links with science, education, industry and business, as well as with government as the regulator, and all those parties had “a thirst for change and progress”, Green said. However, the country was playing

Country-Wide December 2016

catch-up in marketing and urgently need to train staff with the skills to connect branded product with high end consumers. Such staff needed to live inmarket and while a few companies, such as Zespri, had always done this many more were needed. “Even if we started this today we are about 10 years too late.” Developing points of difference for NZ’s brands required investment in intangible assets, but understanding of intangible assets was generally poor and financing investment in them difficult. A shift to more equity in business structures would facilitate such investment. Green also called for agriculture to work more closely with tourism, and “leverage off each other to make the NZ experience truly enduring”. Proactive action on climate change and animal welfare standards was also needed. “My vision is that the pastoral industry will be customer focused, highly profitable with an ever-decreasing environmental footprint and an everincreasing investment into branding, research, innovation and staff training. We need to be attracting the best and brightest into our sector, and rewarding them well.” NZ could be “the restaurant for 50 million high net worth foodies of the world,” he added. “If we don’t grab this opportunity, then other countries will claim this moral high ground and the market positioning it enables.”

The Grassland conference was told New Zealand needed to resume development and deployment of genetic modification technology or its pastoral sector would be left behind.

TWIN CALL FOR GM RETHINK A scene-setting paper by local farmer and industry leader Don Macfarlane, and a farmer-perspective paper by Federated Farmers president William Rolleston, whose family farm is situated in the hinterland of Timaru, both called for New Zealand to resume its development and deployment of GM technology. “GM is a tool New Zealand is denying itself and there are ways of handling the process,” Macfarlane told the conference. “I’m not saying there should be a general release, and we need good processes, but the debate has been hijacked to some extent.” Rolleston followed with a paper outlining the situation globally with GM and why he believes certain products

AgResearch’s Grasslanz high metaboliseable energy ryegrass.

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using the technology could be deployed without jeopardising markets. “I think politicians need to stand up and be brave about this and actually have the conversation,” he told the audience of more than 300 scientists, industry representatives and farmers. Unless they did, NZ’s farmers would be left behind as other nations took advantage of developments such as AgResearch’s Grasslanz high metaboliseable energy ryegrass (HME) that grows 40-50% more grass, with 10% higher ME and, potentially, 30% lower water demand. “You can use less grass for the same weight gain and end up with less nutrients going into the water, less nitrogen going into the atmosphere, so there’s some really desirable traits.” No country demanded labelling of animal product as to whether it had been fed on GM feed and even if they did, growth of organic or non-GMO markets was grossly overstated and they remained niche outlets, he said.

EARTHWORMS WORK WONDERS A healthy and abundant earthworm population under your pasture is worth $365-$440 a hectare in increased production, a paper presented at the New Zealand Grassland Association conference by AgResearch’s Nicole Schon suggests. And that’s just the difference between the deep-burrowing earthworm Aporrectodea longa, or blackhead worm, being present or not. The difference between no worms and a mix of shallowliving and deep-burrowing species would likely be even greater, Schon said. The conference paper presented a study by Schon and her colleagues of pasture production on paired plots with or without Aporrectodea longa. They used three sites in the North Island: a free-draining soil at Mounganui, near Taihape; poorly drained soil at Rangitoto

on the east coast near Porangahau; and moderately well-drained soil at AgResearch’s Ballantrae in the foothills of the Ruahines near Woodville. The deep-burrowing earthworm had been introduced more than a decade previously at each site but was yet to establish in all areas, enabling comparison of pasture productivity on plots of similar slope and aspect with or without the earthworm. They found between 5% and 45% more pasture grew where the earthworm was present. “We were quite surprised by the size of the increase in pasture production but those were the results we got,” Schon told the conference. Plugging the numbers into Farmax, they calculated the extra pasture grown was worth $365-$440/ha in extra gross margin. Schon and colleagues acknowledge increased production cannot be directly attributed to A. longa’s presence, but note other studies have also reported increased production after its introduction and the introduction of the topsoil active grey worm, Aporrectodea caliginosa. In their study, the effect of A. longa earthworms remained when urea or superphosphate was used, with a greater response to phosphate fertiliser seen where the earthworm was present, but a reduced response to urea. “This study suggests that earthworms were able to increase the value received from fertilisers by stimulating pasture production, especially in the case of superphosphate application,” the paper said. More fertiliser usually meant more organic matter (and hence food) produced which in turn boosted earthworm populations, busting the myth that conventional fertilisers killed worms, Schon said. Cultivation reduced populations so soil disturbance should be minimised to preserve populations, she advised. Attempts to farm and distribute the earthworm species beneficial to pasture

Earthworms are able to increase the value received from fertilisers by stimulating pasture production.

production have proved problematic as they do not breed prolifically, unlike tiger or other compost-type worms. “Previous work has looked at spreading turfs to try to introduce them,” she noted. Areas cleared of forestry and put into pasture, devoid of worms at the time of going into pasture, have been found to still be wormless a decade later. “So it’s definitely worth looking at ways to introduce them and boost numbers.” Schon is working on an ongoing MPI-funded Sustainable Farming Fund project monitoring 30 farms that have introduced A. longa. Ideally a square spade spit of soil should have one dung-worm, about 14 grey worms, and one deep burrowing species, she said. Such numbers would normally only be found from late autumn through to late spring when earthworms were active in the upper layers of soil. “Once the soil starts to dry out they go deeper to avoid drying out.” • Schon’s was one of more than 30 research papers presented at the New Zealand Grassland Association and Agronomy Society conferences in Timaru. Look out for more from both events in forthcoming issues of Country-Wide.

Survey findings soon

More than 100 responses were received by Schon in the Beef + Lamb New Zealand-funded Great Kiwi Earthworm Survey conducted in 2015. The survey, which involved farmers assessing populations using a guide supplied by AgResearch, found sites typically contained two to four earthworm species with all regions having dung and topsoil earthworms present. Deep burrowing earthworms were reported from Southland for the first time but deep burrowers were not observed in photos from Bay of Plenty/ East Cape, Central Plateau, and Canterbury/North Otago, showing such earthworms were still absent from large areas of land. More detail on the survey findings will be presented at the New Zealand Society of Soil Science conference in Queenstown, December 12-16.

Country-Wide December 2016

FORAGE | FODDER BEET

Peter Chamberlain in the drafting pens. Photos Johnny Houston

Sandra Taylor Lambing ewes on fodder beet was never in the Chamberlains’ game plan but it turned out to be quite a success. Tom Chamberlain who, alongside his parents Peter and Helen, farms 674 hectares of partially irrigated country at Norwood in Central Canterbury, went to shift a break one foggy morning in August and was confronted with 15 sets of twins. A quick calculation revealed an entire ram, used as a teaser, had done more than just tease. Neither ewes or lambs showed any ill-effects from the high sugar diet and the ewes – with their lambs at foot – were shifted straight on to grass with no transitional issues.

Drymatter content needs to be taken into account when selecting fodder beet varieties. Low drymatter varieties – with a softer bulb that sits high out of the ground, are more suitable for sheep.

Lambing on the beet

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This was the first year the family had grown fodder beet and they decided to use it for mixed-age and two-tooth twin-bearing ewes. This was because they didn’t have enough cattle to eat it all and their traditionally used rape crops hadn’t yielded as well as usual. It worked very well, but Tom says the hardest part of grazing sheep on fodder beet was opening the crop – once they had opened the face and learnt to eat it they were away. They started feeding the crop in late

Sheep and lambs in the lucerne.

May, initially running the ewes on and off the crop as the sheep gradually learnt to eat the bulb – and not just the leaf. Meadow hay and ryegrass straw was fed as a supplement in those first few weeks. After two weeks, the ewes were going straight to the bulb and from then on were given as much fodder beet as they could eat in each break. In month two, the Chamberlains supplemented the crop with protein-rich lucerne baleage to off-set fodder beet’s low protein content. With dry weather, feed utilisation was high and Tom says the ewes thrived on the crop. The two-tooths went on to lamb better than any other mob, tailing 184%. Farmlands agronomist Sam Lucas says transition is important when shifting any stock on to fodder beet and while cattle are at a higher risk of acidosis than sheep, it should still be a gradual process taking two to three weeks. Clostridial diseases are a risk for sheep grazing fodder beet so they should be fully vaccinated before running onto the crop. PGG Wrightson veterinarian Ben Eller says the leaf (rich in protein) to bulb ratio of the different varieties of fodder beet determines how much protein or mineral supplementation is required. He recommends shifting breaks at least every three days, preferably more frequently. This is because sheep will eat all the leaf (which is high in protein) on day one and if the interval between shifting breaks is too long, then protein deficiency becomes more of a risk. Drymatter content needs to be taken into account when selecting fodder beet varieties. Low drymatter varieties – with a softer bulb that sits high out of the ground, are more suitable for sheep. While mixed-age ewes do well on fodder beet, Eller says the crop is not as suitable for younger stock. Calcium deficiency can be a problem in growing hoggets and rickets is appearing in lambs born to hoggets that have been wintered on fodder beet. Broken teeth can also be an issue in hoggets so Eller recommends

checking the teeth of any young animals not doing well on the feed.

POTENTIAL WITH WATER The Chamberlain family have some big decisions to make over the next two years. Having bought shares in Central Plains Water, the family’s 647ha partially irrigated farm has the potential to be fully irrigated in two years. How they will generate the greatest return on their investment while complying with environment regulations has yet to be determined, but bull beef is an option they are considering. It is a matter of deciding which enterprises will be the most efficient at converting the extra feed grown into meat. Cropping is – and will continue to be – an essential part of their business and Peter says with the right crops and inputs they can get some good results. The range of cash crops include peas, wheat, barley and small seeds such as white clover and radish and all are grown under irrigation. Pasture plays an important part in the crop rotation and Peter says paddocks are a long time in pasture before going into crops which benefits soil health. They

Peas a one of the cash crops grown by the Chamberlains.

grow 20ha of lucerne and while it grows well, Peter doesn’t believe the crop offers much advantage when water is freely available. They run 2880 composite breeding ewes, 800 hoggets and up to 200 beef trading cattle in what is a flexible cattle policy. Depending on the season and price, they will also buy and finish store lambs. As 200ha of the farm is currently dryland, the family are unapologetic about their conservative stocking policy

Peter Chamberlain in the sheep yards at his farm in central Canterbury.

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on what are very light, drought-prone soils. Rather, they focus on running highproducing ewes and finishing all the progeny as early in the season as possible. As Peter says, while their per-hectare performance isn’t outstanding, their perhead performance is.

FAST FINISHING One of the strengths of the farm is its early-season production. Although subterranean clover has not been planted for more than 60 years, a seed bank of this early-season legume remains in the ground and this plant, along with other clovers, is what helps drive lamb growth rates. The Chamberlains have never had to sell lambs as store and take several preweaning drafts – which can be as early as mid-October. They will typically get a big cut of lambs away before the main weaning in late November. The lambs are finished to an average of 18kg carcaseweight, but Peter says with those early drafts they are selecting on condition rather than weight. “I believe a good drafter can help you a lot,” Peter says. He is also complimentary of ram breeders, whose focus on fertility means their composite ewes consistently scan upwards of 180%, irrespective of feed conditions at mating. Similarly, their hoggets – all of which are mated – are scanning 141% and tailing more than 100%. The mixed-age ewes are now put to Coopworth rams (from Lincoln University) for breeding replacements while South Dorset and Suftex are used as terminal sires. All ewes (including hoggets) are given the standard toxoplasmosis and campylobacter vaccines along with a long-acting five-in-one treatment prelambing. For the first time, the ewes were given iodine in May and Tom believes this has

Lambs in the yards ready for drafting.

made a real difference, with fewer weak lambs born. The ewes tailed 172%, but on a ewes to ram basis, the tally was 165%. Peter says there were very few singles at scanning, and while 80 out of 800 hoggets scanned dry, they still tailed over 100%. “Quite a few do lose their pregnancies so there is still room for improvement there.”

WELL-FED HOGGETS PAY DIVIDENDS Running a conservative stocking rate allows the Chamberlains to feed their hoggets well – and this pays dividends in their reproductive performance. “You get the best return from feeding young stock – with old ewes they just get bigger and bigger,” Peter says. “Here it is a no-brainer, we are understocked so we can either put feed into trading lambs or hoggets, but one of the advantages of feeding hoggets so well is they are so good as two-tooths.” Peter admits that in the past, he had restricted feed in the hoggets in the later parts of pregnancy to prevent the lambs from getting too big. Tom has corrected

this management strategy and dystocia is no longer the problem it was when the hoggets were underfed. Peter admits the hoggets can be “skittish” mothers, but they go on to make good mothers as two-tooths. Both Tom and Peter have a philosophy of minimal interference with their hoggets and believe this contributes to their better than average hogget lambing percentages. Tom will be the fourth generation of the Chamberlain family to farm the property. Peter jokes that his grandfather bought the farm as a stepping stone – but never left. Over the years the family has farmed to the property’s strengths including early production, access to water and proximity to town. They began irrigating in the 1970s and this enabled them to grow a range of crops. Now, with the potential to be fully irrigated, the business will be entering a new phase and it will be a matter of determining what the best return on their investment will be.

Moving from traditional dryland grazing to centre pivot irrigation will make a massive difference to achieving early weight gains in lambs. Country-Wide December 2016

FORAGE | RESEARCH

Legumes driving dryland production Sandra Taylor They are the most important 100 days in most dryland sheep and beef farming businesses. The 100 days in spring when farmers have the opportunity to capitalise on soil moisture and maximise drymatter and livestock production before summer dry conditions kick in. Developing systems that drive this spring production have been the focus of on-going dryland forage trials on Lincoln University’s Ashley Dene farm. Professor Derrick Moot, who has run the Beef + Lamb New Zealand-funded trials, says 70% of annual dry matter production and 70-80% of liveweight gain on dryland farms occurs within the 100 days of spring. It means that, for lambs to reach 35kg in 100 days, they need to grow at 300g/day, hence the importance of having high-quality pasture species that perform at that critical time. As spring turns to summer, lambs start competing with ewes for feed – compromising the performance of both – and drymatter quality and production also start to decline. The trials have focused on early-season nitrogen-fixing legumes and legume-grass mixes, recognising that nitrogen (N) determines a pasture’s ability to use soil water efficiently. Moot says all grass-dominant dryland pasture is nitrogen-deficient and farmers need to find ways of increasing their N component by using either urea or legumes – and legumes are the most economically, environmentally and

socially sustainable option. The soils on Ashley Dene are extremely light and stony, with limited water holding capacity. Despite this, lucerne has been the most productive species in the trials. But, on Ashley Dene’s soils, it only grows two to three weeks longer in spring, compared to grass. “The real advantage with lucerne is where it is in deep soils; it can access soil moisture deep within the profile,” Moot says. Cocksfoot has been the most persistent grass in the trials and, when sown with an appropriate clover, the nitrogenhungry cocksfoot is productive, persistent and palatable. In long-term trials on deeper Templeton soils at the Lincoln University campus, lucerne was by far the best performer, followed by cocksfoot and subterranean clover. Ryegrass and clover plots were the poorest-performing, with the ryegrass disappearing at 10% per year, possibly due to grass grub.

THE VALUE OF NITROGEN Nitrogen is critical, if pastures are to reach their productive potential. This was a key finding of a trial that looked at the effects of nitrogen and severe drought on the production of cocksfoot, tall fescue, brome and perennial ryegrass. The experiment was carried out at two sites – one at Ladbrooks on deeper soils with a greater water-holding capacity and the other on Ashley Dene’s shallow soils. At Ladbrooks, where soil moisture was available, all the grasses produced twice as much drymatter when adequate nitrogen was provided, compared to the

treatments that received no nitrogen. Severe drought conditions on Ashley Dene meant the tall fescue, brome and perennial ryegrass did not respond to nitrogen applications. Cocksfoot, however, did respond and produced 2.5 tonnes DM/ha more than the other pasture species.

‘The real advantage with lucerne is where it is in deep soils; it can access soil moisture deep within the profile.’

Doctoral student Shirin Sharifiamina ran the experiments. She says the yield potential of all the grasses in the trial was 20tDM/ha, but – to achieve this – the herbage needed to contain 3.5-4% nitrogen. This equates to 700-800kgN/ha and it is not possible – economically or environmentally – to apply this amount of nitrogenous fertiliser. Therefore, the inclusion of a legume is important. Inadequate nitrogen results in small leaves and poor light interception and photosynthesis. While only in its first year, this trial highlighted the value of nitrogen and showed that, under severe moisture stress, cocksfoot was the most-productive pasture species – responding quickly to summer rainfall, but only when nitrogen was available. This trial is on-going.

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animal growth rates. The hoggets gained an average of 300g/day between August and October. The lucerne continued to grow, showing no ill-effect from this early grazing. However, it will be spelled in autumn to recharge its root reserves.

Professor Derrick Moot.

MIXING IT UP WITH LUCERNE In a multi-year B+LNZ-funded trial, the performance and production (dry matter and animal liveweight) of lucerne mixes were compared with a pure sward – and the pure sward won out. Professor Derrick Moot says it is difficult to achieve balance with mixes and growing pure stands within a forage system is a better option. The mixes and results were: • Lucerne and brome – brome dominated. • Lucerne and cocksfoot – performed well for the first three years, but the cocksfoot began to dominate the sward in year four. • Lucerne and prairie grass – the prairie grass died out after three years and, while lucerne now dominates, weeds encroached on the sward. The lucerne was sown in spring and the grasses broadcast in autumn. Suggestion: Run-out lucerne paddocks can be oversown with a short-term perennial grass to get two-to-three more years of production. Or use an autumnsown annual ryegrass to generate good spring feed, before the paddock is renovated. LUCERNE: EARLY GRAZING POTENTIAL Where once farmers used to wait until a lucerne crop had flowered before harvesting, now scientists at Lincoln University are pushing the boundaries to see how early the forage can be grazed in late winter and early spring. This year, Dr Alistair Black ran hoggets on to trial blocks of lucerne at Ashley Dene on August 17. The crop, which had been spelled since May, was only 5cm high (1100kgDM/ha), but had started to grow. The animals were allocated 2kgDM/ head/day and shifted around the blocks on a six-day rotation. Alistair says that, at 5cm high, 84% of the lucerne was leaf and petiole and the rest was stem – so it was nice, leafy feed. The quality of the feed was reflected in

Country-Wide December 2016

THE POTENTIAL OF ANNUAL CLOVERS With the correct management, annual clovers can be some of the most valuable forages in a dryland forage system. They provide high-quality, proteinrich feed early in spring, which drives lactation and lamb growth rates. Subterranean (sub) clover is the most common annual clover and is endemic in soils throughout east coast hill country and plains, thanks to over-sowing and drilling that took place in the 1960s. Despite this, Dick Lucas from Lincoln University says, for farmers to make full use of this clover, it needs to be actively managed. This has been highlighted in the “Maxannuals” trials run on a particularly stony site on Ashley Dene. In autumn 2013, four different pasture species were established with two varieties of late-flowering sub clover (Denmark and Rosabrook), with and without the top-flowering balansa clover. Tonic plantain and Nomad white clover were also included in every mix. The mixes were: • Cocksfoot and sub clover • Cocksfoot, sub and balansa clovers • Ryegrass, fescue and sub clover, and • Ryegrass, fescue, sub and balansa clovers. The plots were grazed by ewes and lambs in spring, and these clovers drove growth rates in excess of 300g/head/day in early spring. The plots were closed up and allowed to flower and set-seed in early summer. Weaned lambs were

returned to the plots to graze in late summer and autumn. Ewes and hoggets were used to clean up and maintenancegraze the plots over late autumn and winter. Extreme drought impacted on the trial, with the ryegrass dying in its first year and attempts to re-establish it failed.

SEED BANK EXHAUSTED Within three years, drought and false strikes decimated the subterranean clover seed bank in the trial area – from about 600kg seeds/ha to just 5kg seeds/ha. In 2013, after allowing the clovers to set-seed, there was 600kg seeds/ha in the soil. An extremely dry spring in 2014 meant this was reduced to 250kg/ha. In January this year, rain event triggered a false strike, with some seeds germinating. A subsequent lack of moisture meant all the seedlings were dead by early March. A second false strike occurred in March and, again, the seedlings all died. In September, the seed bank was less than 5kg/ha. Two years ago, the cocksfoot/clover treatment contained 25% clover. The plantain – which persisted after the ryegrass died – contained 40% clover. Now there are an average of 10 sub clover plants per metre square, while Lucas says there should be more like 500 plants per metre square. As well as the false strikes, there was inadequate soil moisture and two lateflowering varieties of sub were used in the treatments. Late-flowering subs take five weeks to reach maturity and, with extremely dry conditions, the plants wilted before they could produce seed. This meant mining the bank of sub clover seed in the ground to produce plants the following year.

Supplied by Beef + Lamb New Zealand

Ewes with newborn lambs on lucerne at Lincoln University’s Ashley Dene Farm.

FARM FACTS

ARABLE | OVERSEAS

ND Dibben Farms Ltd, near Blandford, Dorset • Farmed area: 400ha Varied soils -light chalk to clay cap with flints • Cropping: Winter wheat 100ha, spring barley 120ha, winter barley 40ha , oil seed rape 40ha, spring beans 28ha, wild bird seed 10ha, nectar and pollen mix 4ha – remainder in permanent pasture, woodland.

James Reed has had a good run out of his second-hand combine.

Thumbs up for header

ive years ago Dorset grower James Reed bought a 57-plate John Deere CTS 9780i with 1200 drum hours on the clock. Responsible for clearing about 330 hectares of mixed cropping each season, since its arrival it has run up a further 400 hours work. British writer Nick Fone quizzed him about the pros and cons of the combine.

WHY A JOHN DEERE CTS? “Until 2011 we had been running a John Deere 2064 but it had done 3000 hours and was beginning to become unreliable. It had injector issues and the shaker shoe broke up. We took that as a sign that there might be more trouble on the way so we decided a change was sensible. “We wanted extra capacity to cut crops at their driest and the CTS’s combination of a conventional drum up front with twin rotors in the rear offered that – it’s pretty much like a Lexion in design. “The big advantage Deere had was that they offered full body levelling with HillMaster. We had a couple of fields where we thought this would make a difference but on our rolling ground it is amazing how active it is.” WHAT’S IT CAPABLE OF? “In good standing wheat the CTS will easily churn out 30-35 tonnes an hour. When we’re chopping straw it drops back a bit – the main limiting factor is power. “In damp, green straw we deliberately slow up to make sure the crop is properly threshed, just as we would with the old straw walker machine. In fact, straw quality is never an issue – we’ve never once had a complaint from baling

contractors and keep some straw for our own livestock.”

IS THE CHOPPER ANY GOOD? “The chopper runs all the time whether you’re swathing or chopping. That way whatever comes off the chaff pan gets spread to the full width which makes good sense. “When we channel the straw through it, it generally makes a good job and

being able to adjust the left-to-right bias from the cab is brilliant in avoiding material being thrown into the next bout of crop.”

CAB AND CONTROLS? “The controls are really simple – it’s great to have individual buttons for each function without having to scroll through a load of computer screen menus.” WHAT DID IT COST? “We paid £89,000 ($NZ157,530) for the CTS with 1200 drum hours on the clock. Hunt’s had a choice of machines they had maintained and that really gave us confidence. “We then spent a further $13275 on a nearly new Zurn rape extension and side-knives. It’s dead easy to fit – four

James Reed’s CTS 9780i in action.

Likes and gripes LIKES • Narrow chassis, easy to move • Output – high capacity machine so can pick and choose to cut crops at their driest • HillMaster – full body levelling maintains output across slopes • Pre-cleaner – draws grain direct from drum to clean grain maximising output.

GRIPES • Fire risk – has a tendency to trap around exhaust • Unloading auger sock – needs to be longer to stop losses of small seeds such as grass and OSR particularly when levelling • Cooling – radiators require blowing out at least once a day.

Country-Wide December 2016

ARABLE | AGRITECH

Trans-Tasman grower exchange Dan Bloomer and staff writers Significant benefits can be gained from variable rate irrigation, but there is a lot to learn says a Tasmanian farmer who visited New Zealand earlier this year. Robbie Tole was one of 20 Australian growers, agronomists and researchers attending the LandWISE AgriTech conference. Most of the Australian group members have been part of a three-year government-funded research project investigating the use of precision farming technologies in cropping and horticulture. Tole says decisions that needed him to develop new skills included learning how to use the software to make an irrigation zone. “Where do you make the irrigation zone boundaries, what is the soil waterholding capacity and how do you actually get these zones in the right place?” he asked. To gather farm data he used EM38 soil mapping, NDVI maps captured by a commercial service flying regular regional surveys from light aircraft and soil grid nutrient testing. Tole farms using RTK GPS and autosteer, tramlining and a number of apps. His farm uses centre pivot irrigators incorporating NZ-designed Lindsay Precision variable-rate irrigation technology. The various precision agriculture tools provide layers of information, but he says it is essential to ground-truth data. And

over-centre latches, a couple of skids and a belt. Cutting rape with it is much easier, with the extra table depth allowing you to use the reel.”

RELIABLE? “It came with a full service history and we get Hunts(dealer) to do a major service each year so we hope they’ll pick up on anything we don’t see. “That seems to have paid off as we’ve had very little go wrong over the last five harvests. Initially we had some issues with an oil pressure sensor but the parts came overnight and we were up and running the next day.

Country-Wide December 2016

Delegates watch heavy lift UAVs in action at the LandWISE 2016 Conference: Value of smart farming

while high accuracy GPS can be used, not all systems are the same and not all correctly line up so farmers must be aware and make adjustments accordingly. He is motivated by a desire to get a higher return from the irrigated areas, need to reduce costs and remain sustainable and his enjoyment of new challenges and technology. But he stressed it is important to get the horse before the cart – business first, technology second. Ben Moore is a member of the Kalbar Grower Group in Queensland. His family runs a mixed farming operation with 130ha of cropping including carrots, green beans, pumpkin and sweet corn. Like many NZ farmers, they adopted GPS and autosteer. This allows them to fit more rows in paddock, reduce driver fatigue and reduce input costs in spreading and spraying operations. Through the Precision Horticulture project Ben’s family began investigating variable rate technologies, something not previously considered. There was evidence of variability in crops, seen as uneven tasselling in sweetcorn and uneven flowering of green beans. They linked these factors to uneven maturity at harvest, reduced yields and reduced margins. The equipment used for variable rate includes Green Seeker sensors, EM soil mapping and satellite imagery and a yield monitor to collect data. An Amazone variable rate spreader and Landaco belt spreader enable them to respond

to variation identified. Every farm is different and Moore identified a history of laser levelling, soil type variations, lack of uniformity in irrigation and poorly drained areas as key causes of variability at their farm. The abundance of good quality data collected has provided several layers of information confirming variability trends. These guide development of prescription maps for variable application of required inputs. Both Tole and Moore use a five-step plan for variable-rate management: • Collect data • Create layers of data to confirm variation • Ground truth variability investigate the cause of variation • Create zones in field • Apply variable rate The Australian tour party was led by Ian Layden and Julie O’Halloran from the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries. The group spent a week visiting farms and packhouses as well as attending the LandWISE conference and sharing experiences and ideas with NZ growers. The experiences outlined by the Australians parallel those of LandWISE farmers in NZ. There are amazing technologies available and more arriving each week. But there is no silver bullet, and each farm and farm manager must sort through the catalogue and bring together the package that best suits their production system, skills and temperament.

“This season we’ve had a threshing sensor play up but it hasn’t stopped us.”

WOULD YOU HAVE ANOTHER? “I really like the CTS concept – it’s such a shame that Deere doesn’t build them anymore. We get the output and, despite it using rotors, it keeps going in the damp. “For now everything is running fine and we’d expect to easily get another couple of years work out of it. We’ll probably swap it in eventually for a fresher version of the same thing – something like a C670i if the right machine is available.”

James says the controls are simple with individual buttons for each function. 63

PLANT & MACHINERY | OVERSEAS

No-till drills crop tested No-till drills will suit different systems and until one is tried on a farm, no-one really knows how it will perform. British machinery writer Nick Fone visited a farmer who set up a trial to assess the performance of crops sown with three different drills.

rguments for and against no-till crop establishment are by no means clear-cut. Inevitably it comes down to the individual farm, its soils and what best suits the farming system that’s already in place. For Cambridgeshire grower David Walston it’s a topic he’s spent a lot of time researching as part of a wider objective of improving the soils at Thriplow Farms. “For years we, like many other farms, had run with a fairly conventional mintill system to establish mono-culture crops.” But when he started looking closely at the yield maps and the spend on inputs over the past couple of decades, it became obvious they were shelling out more money for very little extra tonnage. “When you took varietal improvements into account, we were seeing a decline in yields – something I was obviously very keen to reverse.” Delving deeper into the data, Walston became convinced the drop off in crop

David Walston was surprised how the two purpose-made direct drills coped with coulter penetration in the relatively dry, hard soils.

performance and increased spend on inputs were down to a couple of key issues – a fall in soil organic matter and a lack of diversity in flora and fauna on the soil surface. He quickly realised one way to halt this decline was to use cover cropping to ensure stubbles did not go bare but that was just a small part of the picture. Keen to investigate what more he could do he secured a Nuffield scholarship and embarked on a two year research project to discover what he could learn from other growers facing similar issues around the world. The key message was that although soil health is a difficult concept to pin down, organic matter is very important for maintaining and improving soil condition. Across the globe the most common practice in conserving organic matter in the soil is no-till drilling. To Walston that seemed the obvious first step in improving soil health– which he described as, “how good a crop you can grow with no inputs at all”. However in the UK no-till isn’t common practice and until recently there hadn’t been much choice in drills capable of working in their conditions. “It seems those farms that are doing it have had to spend extraordinary amounts of money on the bits of kit to do the job.” Walston wasn’t convinced vast capital expenditure was necessary – or justifiable – to set out down the direct-drilling route. “On our easy-working soils, I couldn’t see why our 16-year-old Horsch CO8 tine drill wouldn’t do a decent job in the right conditions.”

FARM FACTS Thriplow Farms, near Royston, Hertfordshire, England • Farmed area 800ha • Cropping: Winter wheat 275ha, winter barley 46ha, spring barley 95ha, OSR 92ha, winter beans 37ha, spring beans 51ha, spring linseed 20ha, winter oats 24ha, spring oats 24ha, spring peas 53ha, grain maize 7ha, herbal leys 19ha, permanent pasture 15ha • Machinery: Tractors – Fendt 714, 724 and 930; Loader – Claas Scorpion 7045; Combine – Claas Lexion 760TT with 10.5m header; Sprayer – 6000-litre trailed Horsch Leeb with 30m booms; Drill – Horsch CO8 • Staff: David Walston plus two fulltimers and another two at harvest. So they tried it and it worked. The crops came up and yielded just as well as the more conventionally established ones. But he said the CO8 had its pitfalls. “Without any proper slot-closing you rely on easily friable soils crumbling in over the seed, and its wide row spacing also isn’t ideal for all crops. He wanted to see how well a disc-type drill would work in their conditions. With this in mind Walston decided he needed to set up a proper fieldscale trial at Thriplow using the CO8, a demonstration John Deere 750A directdrill and a contractor’s Cross Slot. Designed in New Zealand and built in the United Kingdom by Primewest, the Cross Slot is often put on a pedestal

Country-Wide December 2016

This aerial view of the trial field clearly shows how much thicker and greener the John Deere-established plot, left, was as the crop came up last autumn. In October 2015, Cross-Slot, John Deere 750A and Horsch CO8 drills were used to sow wheat directly into stubble at Thriplow Farms in Cambridgeshire.

as the ultimate no-till seeder with a pricetag to match – a four-metre version costs £116,000 ($NZ206,000) while a 6m Kiwi-built version will set a buyer back $NZ302,400. By contrast, a 4m 750A lists at $NZ122,610 and the 6m model comes in at $NZ176,785. Intrigued by how such an outlay could be justified, Walston wanted to see exactly how crops established with the three different machines would perform on his own land, side-by-side in one field. So in October last year each was given a tonne of wheat seed and a 4.4ha plot to drill. “The field in question has a fairly high clay content, but also lots of calcium, so it is relatively easy working. With each drill set to work at 30-40mm deep, seed placement wasn’t an issue. “At first look, John Deere appeared to be causing more surface disturbance than the Cross Slot but that was probably due to its narrower row spacing. It has 50% more openers per meter so disturbance per coulter was probably about the same.” What was surprising was how the two purpose-made direct drills coped with

coulter penetration in the relatively dry, hard soils. The 6m John Deere weighs about 6.5 tonnes empty, giving a theoretical coulter pressure of 175kg per opener. In contrast, the 5m Cross Slot crosses the weighbridge at a massive 12t empty, thanks to its frame being filled with steel. That means there’s a monstrous 571kg of downforce generated by each coulter.

Designed in New Zealand and built in the United Kingdom by Primewest, the Cross Slot is often put on a pedestal as the ultimate no-till seeder with a pricetag to match.

Despite this at the lower end of the trial field where the soil was heaviest, the NZ-designed machine needed every ounce of its heavyweight bulk to place seed at the correct depth. “Last autumn wasn’t too dry and conditions weren’t that challenging but

Table 1 Tillers/m2 December

Tillers/m2 January

Tillers/m2 February

Tillers/ m2 March

Tillers/m2 Early April

Tillers/m2 Late April

CS Light Land

241

327

653

681

725

628

750a Light Land

309

396

978

949

1003

931

CO8 Light Land

337

398

657

691

720

624

CS Heavy Land

245

441

642

655

768

831

750a Heavy Land

432

720

774

792

954

1071

CO8 Heavy Land

348

588

648

672

810

852

Country-Wide December 2016

you could still see the Cross Slot’s weight was essential to keep its openers in the ground”. “I find this very worrying given that the conditions were soft. In a dry autumn I really doubt that no-till would be possible on these heavier fields with the Cross Slot.” Interestingly, as an experiment, the demonstration John Deere drill was fitted with two different types of closing wheel. One half of the machine had the company’s standard smooth rubber press wheels while the other was equipped with serrated Guttler Prisma rings. On the day it looked like the retro-fit rings were doing a better job but that didn’t translate into improved establishment – plant populations were similar on either side of the drill pass. As the crop came up plant counts were done to add a degree of scientific credibility to the trial. The John Deere’s plots scored best with 85% establishment while rates for the Cross Slot and Horsch were in the high 60s. Since then tiller counts have been done each month to monitor exactly how well the different plots are performing. By mid spring some marked differences had started to show themselves. It appeared that the areas drilled with the John Deere 750A had between 25-50% more tillers than the parts of the field sown with the Horsch CO8 and the Cross Slot. “I am surprised that we’ve seen such a dramatic difference in crop performance – back in the autumn I thought we’d see no variation at all. “Honestly I can’t say exactly why it is but at a guess would suggest that it might be down to slugs.” He said it was warm and wet as the seedlings started to emerge so perhaps the slots made by the Horsch and Cross Slot provided a better home for them than the Deere’s drill row. “There might be something in that as many of the NZ Cross Slots are sold with a built-in pelleter.” The question that arises out of this is what that could mean for the way crops could be treated. Walston said the main difference of the wheat drilled with the Deere was that despite it having the same number of plants per row there were higher plant populations because it had the narrower row spacing – 167mm rather than the Cross Slot’s 238mm or the Horsch’s 250mm. “Potentially that could give us the option to reduce seed rates by 20% and save £10-£20/ha. He said any decisions would wait until the harvest results were in. Next issue: The harvested results.

ENVIRONMENT | WATERWAYS

Planted margins not always the answer Lynda Gray Strategies to significantly reduce nutrient loss could be implemented at little cost, Opus market sector manager Roger MacGibbon says, and the best recipe would be different for each farm. At a West Otago ‘Protect and Grow’ environmental workshop, MacGibbon gave overviews of practical nutrient, sediment and faecal-mitigating strategies. Excluding cattle from all permanent waterways was a logical first step because they tended to stand in the water and were a major cause of sediment and phosphorus loss and faecal contamination. But there was no reason on flat land waterways to add riparian plantings. “It won’t be necessary because there won’t be any run-off.” Filter strips or planted margins of

waterways were often the “go-to” water degradation mitigation strategy prescribed in many district water plans but were a waste of time and money if not placed and planted correctly. The ideal siting was in areas where water converged, which was not necessarily along the sides of a stream. How to plant out these margins depended on what the end goal was. “If it’s aquatic life you want to encourage then trees and shrubs will provide the shade they need.” But large trees and shrubs were not good filters of surface run-off and a better option was sedges, rushes, grasses and multi-tillered plants. Planted margins were not good at dealing with nitrogen because it leached into the soil rather than across the land as run-off. Natural remnant wetlands, although visually appealing, were not generally

effective at filtering phosphorous and sediment. But constructed, planted wetlands no deeper than 50cm – so UV light could penetrate the surface – were highly effective at killing faecal pathogens in run-off.

The best location for a wetland was where seepage points and springs surfaced so nitrates within the sub-surface water could be effectively removed.

They were also effective at dealing with nitrogen with a wetland of between 1-3% of the catchment size extracting between 30 and 70% of nitrate and total nitrogen so long as the water was left to settle for at least a day. The best location for a wetland was where seepage points and springs surfaced so nitrates within the sub-surface water could be effectively removed. A series of sediment retention traps or retention ponds that slowed and intercepted run-off before it entered a waterway was a good way of dealing with phosphorous, provided they were cleaned out regularly. “If you allow them to build up the sediment collects on the bottom and then starts releasing phosphorus. You need to excavate it and put it away from any waterway. It could be re-applied as fertiliser later.” Run-off from farm tracks also needed to be managed so the sediment, ›› p67 Country-Wide December 2016

ENVIRONMENT | SOILS

The importance of worms Rebecca Harper Good quality pasture soils in winter should contain 30 worms in two spadefuls of soil – if not, you might want to think about the health of your soil. Consultant Dr Tony Davoren, of HydroServices, addressed the B+LNZ my farm as a business workshop in Wairarapa on the subject of soil quality and the importance of looking after your soil. He explained the importance of the surface or ‘A’ horizon of dark soil, where most things end up – organic and inorganic material, water, air, organisms and fertiliser. “It’s the source of everything for what you are trying to grow. And it needs to have a really good structure to maximise the amount of roots in that layer,” he said. “We take it for granted that it (soil) is there and we’re going to grow grass in it.” But Davoren said activities farmers undertake can destroy what has taken thousands of years to develop, in a few days or weeks. Farmers should always be looking to increase the organic matter in their soils. Organic matter is an accumulation of partially decayed and partially resynthesised plant and animal residues (non-living). It can include things like phosphorus and dung didn’t run directly into waterways. Simple solutions were cut-outs to draw water off the track or swales or sediment traps to intercept and settle out the runoff. “Anything that slows the flow of the water will help.”

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Country-Wide December 2016

dung and dead animals. “The more residue you can get into your soil the better the quality of the soil.” Why is organic matter important? • It provides the glue that holds soil aggregates together • It helps make the soil resilient • Affects its water holding capacity • Improves aeration and drainage • Buffers the soil from high salt levels, toxic chemicals and sharp pH changes. In a nutshell, the more organic matter

you have, the better your soil structure will be. Every time you cultivate soil, you burn off large amounts of organic matter. How can I increase my organic matter? • Use no-till practices (no soil disturbance and more residue left) • Rule of 1-2 years of pasture for every 4-5 years of cropping • Grow green manure crops rather than fallow • Graze forage crops in-situ • Don’t remove or burn crop residue • Incorporate organic material like compost or chicken litter • Seed earthworms – they break down residues and mix in the soil. Davoren said worms were an excellent indicator of soil health. Worms improve the structural condition of the soil and should be the dominant organism in the soil, especially under pastures. The role of the worm is to aerate the soil and mix the organic matter in the top soil with the mineral components. A lack or worms shows there is not enough residue going back at the surface and therefore nothing for them to eat and turn into organic matter. “That’s caused by the way you are farming, or what you spray with. You need to think about why, if you don’t have enough or no worms.” Davoren finished by saying that good soil structure was better than any fertiliser you could put on. “You need to look after that soil.”

UNDERSTAND THE BASICS Understanding the basics of water movement and the nutrients it transported was the key to coming up with effective nutrient loss mitigation strategies, Roger MacGibbon said. “Don’t commit to expensive nutrient management practices until you fully understand the sources, causes and transport modes of nutrients on your farm.” There were two routes of water flow: across the surface, which was how phosphorus, sediment and faecal waste travelled. They could be intercepted and extracted anywhere where run-off was trapped and stored. The second direction of water flow was leaching through the soil, which was how nitrogen moved. Once nitrate moved below the plant root zone there were very few ways to

intercept and extract it, although springs, seeps and sub-surface drainage could be effective. Another point worth remembering was that nutrient loss was greatest where the water volume and speed was greatest. He had no definitive answer on how much farmers should spend on mitigation strategies but said investment in the right information was crucial. Also, monitoring of water quality should be done to understand the cause and effect of different management practices. It was a cost, but could be reduced if done collectively with neighbours. “Do your homework and get the right technical knowledge so that you have confidence in what you do otherwise there could be lots of wasted money with little environmental gain.”

HydroServices consultant Tony Davoren.

ENVIRONMENT | WATER REGULATIONS

More than 900 submissions were received on Environment Southland’s Water and Land Plan.

Communities weigh in on rivers Keri Johnston After my last article where I’m sure you could see the steam coming out of my ears as you read it, this time, I am focusing on the good news things happening around the place. Further submissions on Environment Southland’s Water and Land Plan have closed. More than 900 submissions were received on the plan despite requests made by the public to extend the timeframes for submission to be lodged, worried that the quality of submissions would suffer because of people rushing to get them in. Why the rush? Many farmers only became well informed about the content of the plan in the fortnight leading up to the close of submissions. This was the result of a concerted effort by local farmers and industry groups to get as many people aware of what the plan would mean for them and make submissions – and that they did. This is evident in the large number of submissions received (in contrast, Environment Canterbury’s Plan Change 5, which rewrites the water quality rules, only received 129 submissions). This is fantastic to see – farmers supported by industry groups rallying to engage the troops and get people involved in the process. They need to follow through now and work together to produce robust evidence at the hearing to support their submissions. Watch this space. The other plan making waves is Waikato’s Healthy Rivers Plan for

Change. The aim of this plan is to make the Waikato and Waipa rivers suitable for swimming and food gathering over an 80-year timeframe. The plan places constraints on the ability to change land use, and requires full stock exclusion from waterways and introduces the use of a nitrogen reference point to guide farming practices.

Agriculture is not very good at telling its good news stories and there are so many more examples of people and communities out there that are doing great things.

The plan has been described as groundbreaking, but its impacts are large. So much so that the Waikato regional councillors were split 7-7 on a motion to approve the plan, which only passed on the casting vote of the chairperson. The plan was notified on September 15, with a lengthy submission period and submissions not closing until March 8, 2017. I am of two minds about the long submission period. On one hand, it gives adequate time to understand the plan and prepare comprehensive submissions, but on the other hand, momentum could be lost as the process drags on.

However, back to the good things. This plan invoked a large response from the farming, public and industry groups, and given its potential impacts, this is truly heartening to see. I hope the momentum can be maintained and strong, robust submissions lodged on the plan. If you are not a submitter, then you lose any right to a part of the process going forward. Therefore, if you are a farmer in the Waikato or Waipa catchments, lodging a submission is the best decision you could possibly make. Another good news story that has caught my attention is about the three finalists in the River Story Awards. The awards recognise examples of a community or individual working hard to restore the health of their local river or stream. The three finalists this year hail from North Otago – the Kingans and Waiareka Creek, Te Anau – a community group and the Lower Mararoa River, and Bay of Plenty – a community group and the Waitoa River. When you read comments like “…set out to restore the health of the river and ended up restoring their community” and “... it’s for future people to have the opportunity to farm the farm”, it makes me happy. As an industry, agriculture is not very good at telling its good news stories and there are so many more examples of people and communities out there that are doing great things. We need to get those stories out there. • Keri Johnston, Irricon Resource Solutions. Email: keri@irricon.co.nz

Country-Wide December 2016

ENVIRONMENT | FARM FORESTRY

Most potential purchasers and plenty of vendors are not interested in trees and don’t realise the real value of woodlots.

Fishhooks in paradise Denis Hocking Life isn’t supposed to be easy, but I do wonder why one aspect of farm forestry has to be quite so problematic. Selling a property with significant areas of woodlot has complications and fishhooks both parties need to be aware of. In many cases awareness will not be enough – good legal and accounting advice from experienced practitioners will be necessary. Good real estate agents will be aware of the complications, some less so. The problems arise in three general areas: The first is the obvious shortcoming of the present property market’s failure to recognise the true value of standing trees. Most potential purchasers and plenty of vendors, are not interested in trees and don’t realise the real value of woodlots. Nor do may vendors in particular, recognise features reducing this value, notably accessibility, likely logging costs, tree quality/age, and, in the short term, log market fluctuations.

Harvesting is messy. Tracks and fences are at risk, livestock operations can be seriously disrupted, land may need to be replanted and there is much room for friction.

Alternative species introduce other complications. Cypresses, (macrocarpa), and Douglas fir are generally readily saleable, though getting full value may be a challenge, while with eucalypts you must know your species. This all necessitates credible valuations accepted by both parties. The parties may decide the best option is the vendor retaining a forestry right so they can harvest a woodlot(s) a year or three after the land sale and ensure they get the full value. In family succession situations this may be relatively straightforward, though I am aware of cases where parental superannuation

Country-Wide December 2016

blocks didn’t work out at all well. For arms’ length sales a resilient, legal agreement is needed specifying precisely the rights and responsibilities of each party and a time limit. Harvesting is messy. Tracks and fences are at risk, livestock operations can be seriously disrupted, land may need to be replanted and there is much room for friction. A lawyer is needed to ensure the agreement means what you think it means. One possibility for a sizable plantation might be a joint venture forestry right between vendor and purchaser to lubricate relationships. Note, too, that a forestry right will linger on a land title till actively removed. Taxation arrangements for the sale of standing trees can be an unexpected surprise. Tax rules say you have had your tax deductions at the establishment and silvicultural stages of a plantation and that you shall pay tax at sale time regardless of whether the trees are harvested or sold standing, akin to a standing crop. Meanwhile, a purchaser may not claim a tax deduction at purchase, only at harvest or on-sale. The purchase price has to be entered in a “cost of bush” account where inflation can whittle it away before it is deducted from harvest returns before tax being paid. Obviously this means the vendor wants to minimise the price paid for the woodlots, to minimise tax paid; for the purchaser the reverse. This may take a bit of adjustment since I suspect most purchasers are much more interested in the land than any trees adorning it. But we all know reducing tax is a powerful incentive. Apparently there was a case where an under-informed vendor allowed the price of a property to be loaded on to the trees only to find IRD demanding hundreds of thousands of extra tax. The courts found against him since he had willingly, if ignorantly, signed the agreement. The third complication is carbon. A local real estate agent tells me people were reasonably well-informed about carbon eight to nine years ago when the ETS was introduced, but the collapse of the market expunged much understanding. Carbon rights and responsibilities

travel with the land and not the trees, so a purchaser needs to know what they are taking on board. If a plantation is a pre-1990 forest (was forested in 1990) you may harvest the block without hindrance, but you then have three options: pay the carbon price of some thousands of dollars a hectare and deforest, re-establish the forest by replanting or natural regeneration, or you can establish an equivalent forest block on other land – off-set replanting. If it is a post-1989 forest you need to find out if previous owner(s) have claimed carbon. If no carbon has been claimed there are no restrictions, but if it has the purchaser will probably need to repurchase this carbon, on a rising market, before harvesting. It gets complicated with a carry-over carbon allowance that survives harvest, but with fishhooks. If there is post-89 forestry and carbon has been claimed, check it out with the Primary Industries Ministry and an experienced lawyer. And the ETS rules are changing. So, lots of complications. What disappoints me most is that all this makes forestry a rather ineffective way of enhancing a farm’s commercial value. This is a pity, especially when governments are trying to encourage more tree-planting.

TECHNOLOGY | SMARTPHONES

Plus, you can make phone calls Alan Royal

ndroid is a mobile operating system developed by Google for use in smartphones. About 325 million Android devices are used worldwide. In the second quarter of 2016 Android-based systems were used in 87.6% of the market compared with iOS (Apple) 11.7%, Windows (phone) 0.4% and others 0.3%. Note that many of the Android features are also available in the Android tablet. Down to business. Most of us think of the smartphone as, you guessed it – a phone. As noted above the smartphone is a mobile operating system that can perform most of the tasks of a full computer, recognising that size and performance may be limited. I will outline some of the useful features that can extend your use of this smartphone, with or without the need for downloading apps from the Google Play Store. The camera is a good starting point. It can just be used as a camera, but there are many uses beyond taking a snapshot of your favourite pet goldfish. It can be used as a magnifying glass to view small objects or fine print (or photographing and storing such material). I have quite a collection of shots – drug labels and instructions for equipment. The camera is a useful tax tool for permanently recording receipts. I find

this particularly useful for receipts that are prone to fading. The Google Photos tool helps this process by automatically storing Android shots in a dated sequence for ready retrieval. If you are working on equipment, especially with limited access (under the ute!) you can view and photograph such areas (using the flash where necessary) and magnify them at the same time.

The camera can be used to store valuable documents such as passports, driver’s licences, credit cards, insurance, land titles, wills.

The camera can be used to store valuable documents such as passports, driver’s licences, credit cards, insurance, land titles, wills. The choices are endless. As noted above, all this material can be stored (securely) if you have a Google account that will automatically add your images to Google Photos on your Google Drive. Other camera uses can be found in the attached links. Did you know that once you have your camera open you can use the volume button to snap a photo? I have briefly mentioned the use

of a flashlight. Many Android phone systems have a built in flashlight. Some Android have a built-in command found by pulling down twice on your home screen. You can also use the Google Voice command (press the microphone in the Google search and say ‘turn on/ off flashlight’). Here bit.ly/2ejn9dU are six alternative tricks to turn on your flashlight with apps or particular builds. I have introduced you above to the control of your phone’s features by your voice. Using Google voice commands. Go to bit.ly/2ejrE8r find out the simple setup and use of this powerful feature. Put ‘Google voice commands’ in your Google search to find the amazing lists of commands you can use to control your phone. I hope I have whet your appetite enough to search for the many more outstanding features and uses for your Android phone. I have just scratched the surface of what you can do by using the examples above. One of the best sources for finding out about what your particular phone can do is to get its full manual from a Google search (find the model in Settings/About phone). If you wish to delve further into tips and tricks for using your phone put the keywords ‘smartphone tricks android’ into your Google search. For a copy of this article, with active links, email Alan Royal at a.royal@paradise.net.nz.

Country-Wide December 2016

TECHNOLOGY | DATA ROAMING

Avoiding a travellers’ trap Kirstin Mills Readers in southern New Zealand may remember a story earlier this year about a Southern District Health Board (SDHB) staff member who came home from an overseas holiday to discover he had amassed a $11,300 bill for his digital device. It was a timely reminder to anyone who travels with a smartphone or tablet (and that’s pretty much all of us), to be wary of international data roaming charges. The data that costs you very little in NZ can be excessive when you’re overseas. The cost of mobile data (accessed over a cellular network rather than wi-fi) in NZ varies depending on your carrier and plan, but it’s generally well below half a cent per megabyte (MB). (Casual data rates tend to be pricier, but even then you’re unlikely to pay more than 0.20c/MB.) Contrast that to what you pay overseas. For example, I’m heading to Rarotonga for a holiday soon. If I turn on my phone or tablet while there to use data, I’ll be charged $5/MB. If I spent some time on Facebook, uploaded a few photos and looked at my favourite news websites, I could use around 50MB of data. Back home that sort of usage is included in my plan and the per MB charge works out to around 0.03c/MB. So 50MB costs me about $1.59. The same usage in Rarotonga would set me back $250. Multiply that by a week’s holiday and you’re talking $1750. And that’s quite conservative use – you could

Country-Wide December 2016

easily use more than 50MB of data a day, particularly if you’re using Google Maps’ navigation features and watching videos. The SDHB staffer racked up that several-thousand-dollar bill in just 12 days. The key thing you need to do before you leave NZ is find out the charges for the country (or countries) you are visiting and see if there are any special packages. My carrier has a very handy app that clearly sets out charges and packages for each country. Even if your provider doesn’t have an app, the details will be on their website or (if you want to brave call centre hell) you can call them. The good news about roaming while travelling is that providers now offer packages for some countries. If I were travelling to Fiji rather than Rarotonga, I’d have a couple of options with my carrier. The first is “per like use”, so if my use is pretty much like what I use at home, then I pay just $10 a day. If you think you’re likely to use more data than normal, then you can opt for

a package. The dearest per megabyte for Fiji with my carrier is $20 to get 100MB of data. At 20c/MB that’s way above my usual charges, but much better than that casual rate in Rarotonga. Another option is to buy a SIM card in the country you are travelling to, put it in your phone and use prepay options. It’ll change your phone number of course and you’ll lose any contacts stored on your SIM card, but the costs should be lower for data (again check the costs before doing this). Lastly, the option I intend to take is to block my phone from roaming at all. There will be a setting on your phone to do this – just make sure you turn blocking on before you leave the country. You can still make and receive calls and texts. Even with data roaming off, you can still use wi-fi at your accommodation or at public places like cafes and libraries. Just be aware that the charges and speed of such wifi is variable and you can never assume it’s completely secure. Another option is to switch your phone to airplane mode, which will not only turn off data, but also calls and texts. Or you could go really old-school and leave the phone at home.

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Pregnancy testing In the Aussie outback

Hive Business

Richard Barleyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s foray into manuka honey p76 Country-Wide December 2016

OUTBACK

Relaxing at the 300-acre lake at Railview Station.

Young Country’s Annabelle Latz packed up her riding boots and cattle yard gear, and headed to the red dust of the Australian outback. She shares her insights into a two-week fix of cattle, horses and all things pregnancy testing, among a culture of strong community spirit, passion for the land and plenty of grit.

o hard and fast rules apply when choosing a life of grazing stock in the Australian outback. In nearly three decades on Queensland’s Railview Station Michelle and David Fryer learn something new every year. On their 22,000-hectare “mediumsized” property almost 350km south-west of Townsville, they run about 3000 head of Brahman, Charolais and cross-bred cattle. Railview lies a couple of kilometres from the town of Prairie – population about 50. Life in northern Queensland is as beautiful as it is tough. During my recent 10-day stint I was shown the ropes of farm life and cattle pregnancy testing by Michelle and David. Both from other areas of Queensland originally, they have raised three children on Railview and share a mutual love for the 74

Prairie Pub: The local watering hole.

Camels carry beneficial bacteria they pass onto the cows through drinking in the same water troughs.

freedom of the outback, and the community they are heavily involved in. The weekend I was there coincided with the annual Prairie gallops, a major event on the community calendar for Michelle and David. Because it is their choice to live with the dust and the harsh challenges, they are sure never to complain when things get tough. Five of us were in the yards each day – pushing stock through the race, drafting calves, back-lining, pregnancy-testing, recording data and working the head crush.

The annual Prairie Gallops, a highlight on the social calendar.

The brand for Railview Station.

It was all go for us and the two Aussie backpackers Jesse and Liam, as we pregnancytested about 700 Charolais-Brahman cows and drafted the young stock. Now and again a cow would have a mark on her back or neck, which I was told was a bite from a dingo or a peck from an eagle. David prefers manual pregnancy testing to ultrasound. “I enjoy the animal husbandry side of things,” he said, gently coaxing the cows around the yard, and working quietly with them in the crush. Country-Wide December 2016

David rarely uses a loud voice or big body movements when he’s around stock. His cows know and trust him. The key to getting stock to do what you want was all about body language, he said. “It’s about showing them the way. Cows have a natural flight path,” he explained, as we watched the cows move to where they needed to be in the yards with just the gentle guidance of a waddy stick, a length of polyethylene. One must never forget the unforgiving nature of the outback. Cows only get one chance at missing with the bull – an orange tag in the ear means one miss. One more miss and they’re down the road. Life in the bush is tough and there’s no spare grass for stock that are not performing. They aim for around an 80% pregnancy rate, which they usually strike. David said it has a lot to do with condition and fertility of the cows. “We run the Brahman bulls with the cows for around three to four months, never any longer, unless it’s particularly dry, and we need more options with pregnant cows,” he said. It’s been the greenest winter for a good few years and Michelle and David are breathing a sigh of relief. They talked openly about the recent drought. Summer 2012 signalled the start of the toughest three years of dry they had experienced since buying the property 27 years ago. Usually, it’s expected between 450-500mm of rain will fall between November and February. But summer 2012 was different. The rain stopped at 150mm, followed by severe winter frosts burning off what grass they did have. For the next two summers they saw only drops of rain and it always fell late. Throughout the area farmers were losing stock and having to sell off. At Railview they destocked to a minimum, battened down the hatches and just made do. “Fair dinkum, we’re very lucky. We’ve come out with cattle at the other end.”

Self-sufficient living Even during non-drought years Michelle and David have self-sufficient living down to a tee. They eat meat they produce, including pork, grow some of their own fruit and vegetables, and back in the day they even milked a house cow. David darns socks, puts up hems, sows leather and tinkers with old tractors, while Michelle corns the beef, makes relish and Country-Wide December 2016

GPS mapping, outback style.

The cattle are very good to move around the yards, a strong focus for David and Michelle.

creates meals that always beg a second helping. They both work tirelessly on the land. “We’ve got to be organised because we can’t just pop to the shops,” Michelle said, recalling when there was a small grocery shop in Prairie a few years back, but no longer. Daily farm life is like clockwork. Breakfast at 6am, smoko at 9.30am, lunch around 1pm, then through until the end of the day, however long that may be. Hughenden is the nearest town with a supermarket, about 45km east, along the Flinders highway. Life is always busy on the farm, so a fortnightly grocery restock is about right. It wasn’t just in the paddocks where the effects of the drought could be seen. Around the house wildlife would regularly visit, Michelle said. “You’d look over the fence from the lawn and see kangaroos, and there’d be birds everywhere. They’d all be looking for water,” she said. Animals make up a huge part of the culture at Railview. Galahs and bright green budgies scatter the sky, while two guinea fowls share their time amongst interacting with the Jack Russell terriers Millie and Dottie mingling with the three pet calves RB, Hollie and Red. Pet galah Golly sits in his giant cage and just watches everything.

Mustering on horses was a great way to learn about animal behaviour, of the cows and horses.

The quintessential windmill of the outback.

In the back blocks there are even about 80 head of camel, which eat the seeds and blossom of the unwanted prickly acacia, and aid cattle health due to beneficial gut bacteria they carry and pass on to the cattle through shared water troughs. “You ain’t been kicked until you’ve been kicked by a camel, they lift you along a bit,” David said, adding they can be very hard on fences one morning when he pointed out a half-broken fence as we pulled over in the Land Cruiser to fix it. The occasional emu struts around keeping its distance and koalas sit up in the trees. Small mounds of dirt scatter the paddocks as evidence that echidna have been mooching, while snakes keep their distance. The weather took a turn for the better during Christmas 2015, and the La Niña weather pattern the “out west” northern Queensland is in meant they saw some muchneeded rain. During my 10-day stay on Railview Station we even saw 25mm fall in 24 hours, which David and Michelle said was unusual and they were very grateful for. When it comes to rainfall, luck has a lot to do with it. But the couple’s wonderful life at Railview is due to sheer hard work, a passion for the land, their radiating kindness and a contagious energy for life in the outback. 75

MANUKA HONEY Words by Rebecca Harper

Hives of industry

t 15 years old Richard Barley’s first business venture was growing and selling sweetcorn and watermelon from his family’s back paddock in Twyford, Hawke’s Bay. It was the first step in an entrepreneurial career that has seen him start and run a number of companies in New Zealand and overseas, from importing a 12-seater banana boat from China to give rides to punters on Lake Taupo, to overseeing a five-star luxury hotel development in the Seychelles. His latest foray, into manuka honey, has resulted in the successful Melita honey company, riding the huge wave of growth in the industry and producing top-quality manuka honey for export. It was nearly six years ago when Richard met his soon-to-be business partner, Hamish Janson on a boys’ trip to Thailand. Hamish was a beekeeper and Richard was keen to come back to NZ after years living overseas. “We were sitting in the airport on the way home and saw this jar of New Zealand Manuka honey – it was a crazy price.” It turned out Hamish’s family was selling honey in bulk to the company that produced that jar of honey. With Hamish’s knowledge of beekeeping and Richard’s sales experience, they hit on the idea to produce and market their own honey and nutted out a business plan on an Air New Zealand napkin on the flight home. “Manuka was still quite new and was just taking off. We thought if Hamish focused on producing good quality honey, I would focus on selling it.” Within two months of that trip they had a

Melita managing director Richard Barley has had an entrepreneurial bent since he was young, and is making the most of the growing manuka honey industry.

brand, Melita, a packing line and honey. For their name, the criteria was something that could be both a brand and a company, was one word, and was catchy. Melita is Greek for sweet honey. As it turns out, Melita is also just one syllable off manuka in Chinese, so the name has worked well. From small beginnings and with supply from only 1000 hives they now have about 8000 hives under their care and a thriving business. “We agreed not to muck around with retail sales in New Zealand because there were a lot of good companies in NZ and they were all

competing on price. We wanted to sell boxes and pallets. Rather than selling one jar to 10,000 people we wanted to sell 10,000 jars to one person,” Richard says. “Initially we set out to produce premium New Zealand manuka honey and sell it to the world. Now, we’re fully vertically integrated from the hive to the table.” Not only is honey a business but it is a family affair for both the Barleys and Jansons. Richard and Hamish both have brothers who are beekeepers and many family members are involved in the business itself or the industry.

Country-Wide December 2016

Busy at work. Melita aims to produce premium New Zealand manuka honey and sell it to the world.

An entrepreneurial bent The oldest of seven children, Richard Barley grew up on a farm in Hawke’s Bay. His father was a builder and had his own building company. His mother’s family were in the apple and kiwifruit industries. From the beginning Richard dreamed big and loved the idea of being his own boss. “I grew up being exposed to hands-on building, picking and thinning apples. As a young guy I had an objective of travelling the world.” Sadly, Richard’s father had a massive heart attack, in front of him, when he was 15 and passed away. Richard’s mother was nine months pregnant at the time and his youngest sister was born 12 hours later. “That event changed me quickly. I suddenly took on a lot more responsibility that I didn’t have before. That probably gave me more confidence in my

ability to go and try things and knock on doors. “Mum deserves the credit because she raised seven children on her own. This story should be about her really, not me.” While Richard learned a lot of life skills from his dad, his mum was someone who believed in him and encouraged him from the beginning. “When I was 19 I started a business selling industrial hand cleaner. I needed $20,000 to start that business. No bank would lend it to me, and she did. I paid it all back, with interest, but she was the first person to say ‘I believe in you and I want to support you’.” His initial sweetcorn and watermelon business earned him enough money to buy his first car, which enabled him to start his second business, mowing lawns for about 10 local people every week.

Choppering hives in to a collection site.

“I didn’t like the idea of having a boss. I couldn’t see the excitement in that and liked the challenge of trying to do something yourself. I guess it’s a Kiwi trait to say, I started that.” From there, stints travelling overseas were interspersed with study at Waikato University towards a Bachelor of Business Management, and more new business ventures, like banana boat rides and the water skiing business on Lake Taupo, and the industrial hand cleaner business. “The biggest thing I learned from that business was door-to-door sales. It’s a real confidence builder, or destroyer, depending on how you look at it…coldcalling and introducing yourself and selling, you have to believe in what you’re selling. That’s so important for starting any business. “I also learned how to take rejection and see it as a positive by learning from it. Leading staff was also very important. I was employing mates. Training them and then motivating them to sell was a great learning curve.”

The Melita range of products.

Country-Wide December 2016

Sweet honey Having agreed on their name, picked up a secondhand packing line and put it together themselves, Richard and Hamish needed to find a market. “The first year and a half was pretty hard. “We contacted everybody we knew, talked to other businesses selling overseas, specifically New Zealand wine companies, and local businessmen we knew had done well. We joined the local chamber of commerce and business association and pitched to everyone we met.” In that time business was slow. A deal to sell five pallets of honey to China, their biggest sale in that time, took more than nine months to close. “It did our head in. Part of it was our own naivety and partly it was the cultural differences.” They were almost ready to close the doors, but not long after that they scored a deal that virtually made their business, overnight. “We were fortunate to get introduced to a contact who was looking for honey. He came out, met us, and signed a contract to buy 15 containers into China. (there are about 12 tonnes of manuka honey in each container). The focus shifted from how do we sell this stuff to how do we now produce enough?” They started looking for more hives to buy and got lucky again, coming across a beekeeper in Wanganui who had set up a new operation but wanted out after a life-changing event. “We were in the right place at the right time and were really lucky to buy that operation. Wanganui produces high active manuka honey, that’s why we bought there.

Melita co-founder Richard Barley at a trade show in China. Picture: supplied.

Melita co-founder Hamish Janson with his wife Shannon and their sons Roman and Asher.

We bought it and doubled that business within a year, was a big challenge, but we needed the supply,” Richard says. “The industry, year-on-year, has continued to grow. In the last five years we’ve probably got more things wrong than right, but the strength of the industry has really carried us.”

What’s in it for farmers? Richard would encourage anyone to get involved in the honey industry, especially farmers with manuka on their land.

“Farmers have the biggest opportunity because they own the land. Generally the marginal land is unproductive anyway so bees may allow a supplementary income for that marginal land.” They are developing a product for farmers to run their own hives on their property, with support from Melita. This represents an opportunity for farmers to add another income stream on the land they already have. “You can’t necessarily increase your land, but beekeeping is one way to potentially maximise returns from the same land.” The new model means farmers can share in the risk, but also achieve a greater return. “The traditional model is simple. The farmer takes no risk and gets a small return. If a farmer wants to increase the return from their marginal land they can share in the risk of running hives, but would also share in a greater reward,” Richard says. “Many farmers don’t have the time or desire to learn beekeeping, processing requirements or develop their own brand. There are also a lot of MPI compliance requirements that are always changing. Buying the bee hives is actually the easiest part, it’s all the other stuff that goes with it that’s harder and has a lot more cost than most understand. “The biggest requirement is knowledge and farmers want accurate advice they can trust, from people with experience.” Read more about how Melita is working with farmers at www.melitahoney.com

Lessons learned If you’re going to export you have to get up and into the markets – you can’t do it sitting in New Zealand. Meet your customers in their market. Talk to everybody you can – if you have a unique idea for a product or service there’s no point keeping it a secret. Choose your business partner(s) wisely and find someone who can complement your skill set. Don’t hire staff just because they have the right qualifications or happen to be available. Hire people who will add to and help grow the culture of your business. You want people who show up because they really believe in what you’re all trying to achieve. Focus on the big picture. Don’t get bogged down in the day-to-day stuff, focus on the bigger objective and what you’re trying to achieve. Outsource. For branding, imagery and website design etc. employ someone to do it for you so you can focus on getting your product to market. Be careful about the advice you get – get information from people who have been successful and have experience. Have a crack. Don’t be afraid – the worst thing that will happen is you might fail. If you have an idea, have a go, you never know if you will be in the right place at the right time.

Country-Wide December 2016

BARK OFF Words by Lloyd Smith

Ramblings from the road

n July Linda and I travelled north from Palmerston and did 4442km, and 12 training courses over 19 days. By the time we returned home we had been up the longest no-exit road in New Zealand and drove past the place with the longest name in the world, and still remained married. As always we met some special people. It is pleasing to see the ongoing enthusiasm and dedication of people young and old, male and female, interested in training their dogs to a level that allows them to manage and handle stock in a manner that is beneficial to all. Stock work becomes a pleasure when the operator, the dogs and consequently the stock are calm and under control. The numbers attending these days varied from more than 100 at an Eastland Vets day at Gisborne down to eight or 10 where private stations put on a day for their staff. Thank you, and well done to all those that support the concept of providing dog training days and give their staff, students and clients the opportunity to up-skill and improve their training systems and techniques and consequently their results. It is disappointing to hear where some attendees are keen to train their dogs in their own time but their employers will not oblige and provide some sheep to train on. This is a short-sighted attitude that defies logic as they would be the direct beneficiary of any improvement in their employeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; dogs by better control of the stock being handled on an everyday basis. We are often asked to go on to sheep stations to take training days and work oneon-one with staff, offering advice and solving problems with their dogs, most of which should never have been allowed to develop in the first place. I enjoy delivering these days as they are usually informal with small numbers

Country-Wide December 2016

involved. Consequently those present are relaxed and more forthcoming with their views and information. I usually leave these days satisfied and confident those present have benefited immensely from the opportunity provided by their employers. While these stations are often isolated they can be a great starting point for aspiring shepherds as the owners and managers aware of the negative aspects involved compensate by providing a healthy work environment and offer opportunities where staff can learn and develop their skills.

SUCH PLACES CAN BE CHALLENGING WITH HARSH AND UNPREDICTABLE CLIMATES, LARGE NUMBERS OF STOCK TO CARE-FOR AND CONTROL AND NONE OF THIS IS POSSIBLE WITHOUT A COMPETENT WORK FORCE WHICH CAN PROVIDE ITS OWN CHALLENGES. There are some very inspirational owners and managers in control of most these stations at present, husband and wife teams who set high standards and are prepared to do what it takes to achieve good results. They are there because they have a passion for the land and the stock they farm. Such places can be challenging with harsh and unpredictable climates, large numbers of stock to care-for and control and none of this is possible without a competent work force which can provide its own challenges. These

people are making a difference and as such I applaud them. As a rule they show a genuine appreciation of good staff and are prepared to offer the opportunity to learn and up-skill in aspects relevant to their career including training their dogs. We also visit ag training farms where they are preparing cadets or students for a career in agriculture. While a few students fail to appreciate the opportunity being offered most are passionate about their future in farming and achieve to good levels setting themselves up for the future. We have taken dog training courses at most of these facilities and have been impressed with the level of training provided and the opportunities offered. They are a credit to those in charge and fill a critical void between tertiary education and the big wide world by making those involved more employable. From observation of those attending these training facilities I believe a twoyear course prepares and produces a better result as opposed to a one-year course where the trainees spend the first half of the year adjusting and getting focused so consequently they only have six months of effective training. Another valuable member of the stations and associated establishments is the cook. I am a great believer that these particular members are crucial in providing a healthy work environment and overall job satisfaction, especially where young shepherds and trainees are involved. Many thanks to all the good cooks we meet and get to enjoy their efforts. As this is the December Issue I wish you all a very enjoyable festive season and look forward to catching up in 2017. â&#x20AC;˘ Lloyd Smith has published Pup Pen to Paddock, a DVD and book guide to rearing and training better sheep dogs. See www.puppentopaddock.co.nz

COMMUNITY | TREKKING

Louise McNutt and Koru, the wild Kaimanawa stallion she adopted from this year’s muster.

CALL OF THE WILD Rebecca Harper Breaking-in and training three horses, including a wild Kaimanawa stallion, has been a huge learning curve for Louise McNutt. McNutt, 29, who grew up on her parents’ sheep and beef farm at Wanstead in central Hawke’s Bay, is preparing the horses for a 2500 kilometre solo journey the length of the country. In November she began her ride from Bluff to Cape Reinga, packing and carrying all her provisions on horseback. The trip is expected to take eight months. Louise grew up riding and competing ponies and the dream of riding the country has been in her plans for a long time. This year she decided to take the plunge. She studied for a Masters of Science in Applied Ecology at Hedmark University, Norway, and her strong interest in wildlife conservation has taken her around the world, working with species like wolves, cougars, reindeer, tigers and snow leopards. While working in Alaska she picked up a contract with a hunting company, which specialised in guided hunts on horseback and learned how to pack horses. This knowledge will be invaluable as she plans to pack and carry all her supplies on horseback during her trip. “It’s a personal challenge for me to plan, prepare and pull off such a trek, a

chance to discover what I’m capable of.” She sees it as the perfect opportunity to explore New Zealand. “With a horse you travel so much slower so can take in the scenery and really appreciate our beautiful country. “Life is short, you never know what’s around the corner, so make the most of it. I hope my ride will inspire others to do something they have always wanted to do. It’s easy to put things aside and place them in the too-hard basket. With a bit of focus and determination, I hope to show you can make it happen.” Having sold all her horses and gear years ago, she had to start from scratch. Louise bought two unbroken Kaimanawa cross horses at the beginning of the year and adopted a wild Kaimanawa stallion from this year’s muster. Named Koru, he has just been started under saddle and she hopes he

will be ready for the trip, though there is a long way to go yet. Her sister Felicity, who manages a station near Gisborne and is a capable horsewoman, helped in starting preparation of the two Kaimanawa cross horses, Pedro and Nova. Since then, Louise has been busy getting them out and about – to the beaches, on the hills and around town – trying to get them used to anything they might face on the trip. She is currently back on the family farm where she is preparing for the trip and helping with the stock work.

BREAKING IN A WILD STALLION It was another dream of Louise’s to adopt a wild Kaimanawa stallion and challenge herself to see if she could train and domesticate him.

A 2500km journey requires a lot of equipment for the horses and to carry supplies.

Country-Wide December 2016

Louise with wolf cubs she had crawled in and retrieved from the den. Photo: Dr Zeus

“It’s been a huge learning curve. But I have been amazed at how quickly these Kaimanawas adapt to domestic life – never once has he shown any aggression.” She spent hours getting him used to her presence, reading the horse’s behaviour to make sure he wasn’t feeling stressed. “Initially he was very wary and standoffish. So it was about building his trust, getting him used to me being there until he would come up and take hay out of my hand. From there I went on to touch him from a distance with a pole, then finally by hand. It took hours and hours of time and lots of patience.” Some days, progress was slow, other days he improved in leaps and bounds. “One day I was doing desensitisation work, standing on a bucket rubbing him from different sides. He seemed pretty chilled out, so I just lay on him. That was

Louise packing horses in Alaska, while working for a hunting outfitter.

the first time he was backed. It’s about timing, some days you just know when it’s right. “Being the first horse I have started, I really don’t have a fixed plan, I just feel my way through it. I’m learning every day.”

WHAT LOUISE HAS LEARNED: • For wild horses you need good facilities – high solid railed fences. “We have deer yards, which made it easy.” • Having experienced horse people who you trust and can talk to for advice is invaluable. • Learn to read the horse’s behaviour when handling them. Timing is everything. • Train them through pressure and release. Make the right thing easy and the wrong thing hard. • Patience is the key. You can’t always push things and you will learn to know when they’re ready.

Wild, wild horses The Kaimanawa ranges are home to a number of unique native plant species, which are at risk of extinction due to trampling and over grazing by the wild horses that inhabit the area. In order to protect these native plants the Department of Conservation devised an annual culling programme to manage the numbers of Kaimanawa horses roaming in this area. In 1997 it was estimated 1700 wild Kaimanawa horses – descended from Exmoor and Welsh Mountain pony stock released in the1870s and cavalry escapees from Waiouru – roamed the tussocklands of the Kaimanawa ranges. With the new management plan tolerating a maximum of 500 individuals, 1100 horses were culled during the 1997 muster. In 2010, changes in the Wild Horse Management Plan, saw the herd size reduced to 300 individuals. This continues to remain the accepted limit for wild horses in the Kaimanawa ranges. Today the Kaimanawa Wild Horse Advisory Group (KWHAG) is responsible for all decisions relating to the management of the Kaimanawa wild horses. This group is comprised of a number of interest groups including the Department of Conservation (DoC) and the Kaimanawa Heritage Horses (KHH) society.

Country-Wide December 2016

“I do a lot of desensitisation work, exposing the horses to a variety of movement and objects – sacking, flags on sticks etc. “

CARE OF WILD HORSES: • They will have worms when they come in, so it’s important to have a good worming programme in place. • They are herd animals so have them paddocked next to or with another horse. This stops them stressing and they will learn from the domesticated horse (ie: what a trough is). • Introduce new feed supplements slowly. • If they are in light condition, they may require dental work. “I also like to add minerals and oil to their feed to help improve their body condition.” • You can follow Louise’s preparation, adventures, and learn about her experiences training the horses on her Facebook page Gingernutt Journeys and website www.loumcnutt.com.

Fitting a radio collar to a wolf she live captured unharmed in Montana. With the collar, biologists can monitor the pack’s movements and numbers. Photo: Taylor McDowell.

COMMUNITY | OFF THE FARM

Stephen Bell with Sky.

Farm dogs can go to town Stephen Bell I was a bit disappointed when I failed to convince the authorities my last dog was a working beast. I claimed it was a farm dog in a bid to get cheaper registration. It was a cross between a toy poodle and a Maltese terrier, a mean little critter about the size of and bearing a striking resemblance to a fluffy slipper. I tried to register him as a farm dog. I claimed I was a farmer because I had a worm farm in a plastic box at the bottom of the garden and used the dog to keep the worms under control. The council was having none of it. Sadly, he’s gone after 17 years but I have another dog. And what a contrast. The wee dog was easy to exercise and didn’t shed hair. The second dog is a real farm dog. She was bred on a Taranaki farm where both her parents are working heading dogs. She came to me via a couple of owners then a dog pound. The ranger rang

various dog club people looking for someone who wanted a new dog and would exercise her well and give her something to do. Having a clever, extremely active farm dog in town is not something to be taken on lightly. When Skye arrived she tried to evict the little fella, Dusty. Every morning for about two weeks she collected his toys, bed and bowls and left them in a heap in the farthest corner of the garden. She also had an appetite for library books, brushes and anything plastic. She’d devour buckets but wouldn’t eat the handles so if anyone wants a bucket handle I’ve got some going spare. Clearly she needed something to do. I’m fortunate the two towns I’ve lived in while I’ve had her have good dog exercise areas, where dogs can run loose and they also have dog training clubs. First off was obedience training. I took her through the grades to competition level but I don’t really have the patience for obedience trials.

I go in for agility, which I had done with Dusty. Farm dogs are particularly suited to it too. They are fast, agile, trainable, enthusiastic and clever. Well, the heading dogs, border collies, beardies and the like are. Huntaways tend to be a bit thick. If you want to do obedience then the same dogs do well as do German shepherds, which tend to be a bit slow for agility. But any dog can do obedience – it just depends on your levels of patience and tolerance. Training dogs is a good way of gaining insight into your own temperament. If you don’t want a farm dog there are heaps of others that are good for dog sports. Poodles make particularly good competitors and though they are at the top of the intelligence tree they, like terriers, can be downright bloody minded if they don’t want to do something. People who’ve led active farming lives might think small dogs that can be exercised with a spin round the back yard are not for them. But many small dogs have tons of energy, more so than large breeds and can be heaps of fun. Farm dogs can be kept in town if retiring farmers, say, want to keep a living connection with their old lives. But they do need plenty of exercise and something to occupy their brains. Dog clubs are also a good way to get to know other people in town, though they usually also have members who are farmers. As well as obedience and agility most clubs also have good canine citizen groups, and Rally-O classes. The latter is a mix of obedience and agility but more relaxed than either. Some clubs also run fly-ball groups – a combination of agility and fetching, and even social walking groups. I do agility to keep me and the dog active and going to competitions means a relaxing day out. • Stephen Bell is Farmers Weekly chief sub-editor. For more information about dogs, club lists and contacts visit www.nzkc.org.nz

Country-Wide December 2016

SOLUTIONS | DIRECT DRILLING

BVD vaccination helps heifer potential

B AT T E R Y A D D I T I V E

heifer-screening programme had shown there had been exposure of stock to bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDv), so the disease was in the frame as a possible culprit for the less-than-stellar reproductive performance in the heifers. Beckett says bulk milk tests for BVD were not showing anything significant, but the disease is “sneaky” so couldn’t be ruled out. Bulls are a well-known pathway for BVD infection, but those used for Beckett’s heifers are all tested and vaccinated. Kingsland says no persistently infected (PI) animals were found among the heifers, so any transient infection may have come from “over the fence” contact with PI animals or contact with other mobs on the grazing property. It is also a working sheep and beef farm and beef cattle are traded regularly, providing plenty of opportunity for the disease to find its way into the grazed heifers. Biosecurity was a likely issue but it wasn’t going to be possible to prevent contact with other cattle, either over the fence on neighbouring properties or at the grazing property. On the advice of her veterinarian, Beckett has started an annual vaccination Maximum programme with Battery Bovilis BVD to Performance

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protect her heifers. She’s noticed an immediate improvement. “This year we had 80% of our heifers calved within the first three weeks and by the end of August only four were left to calve. The empty rate is also much lower now.” The calves, once at least four months of age, receive their initial sensitiser and booster shots four weeks apart before they go off to grazing. As adults they receive an annual booster, four weeks before mating. Beckett now vaccinates her entire herd to help manage the risk to her productivity from BVD. “There’s definitely a cost involved, but it’s hard to put a price on getting all your heifers in calf and calving early.” She’s now signed up to LIC’s BVD testing scheme as part of an ongoing monitoring programme to shut the door on the disease.

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Verena Beckett, left, and veterinary technician, Jess Kingsland.

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hen you’re raising big, strong, healthy looking heifers to bring into the milking herd, it can be extremely frustrating when they fail to fire. That’s what was happening for northern Waikato farmer Verena Beckett and she was keen to find out what was holding the first calvers back. Beckett runs a 400-cow dairy herd on her father’s 160-hectare property at Rotongaro, west of Huntly. But it was on her own adjacent 165ha farm, also running 400 Friesians, where the trouble was brewing. Her replacements are raised as part of a grazing scheme run by Franklin Vets (Te Kauwhata) on a separate sheep and beef property northeast of Te Kauwhata. They were, according to veterinary technician Jess Kingsland, “monster” heifers in great condition. But the naturally mated animals were experiencing empty rates of 8-10% and calving was very spread out. Kingsland says blood tests several years ago under an MSD Animal Health

SOLUTIONS | MACHINERY

Covering the ground David O’Neill’s dad had a Massey Ferguson on their North Island farm so it’s no surprise it was his first tractor. “I started contracting when I was 16. I had two tractors when I was still at school.” Since then he’s owned more than 20 Fergies. He and his wife Prue have 16 tractors and 10 trucks powering their Central Otago business, David O’Neill Contracting. They include eight Massey Ferguson and seven Fendt tractors, all from JJs Timaru. The business is based at Omarama and services include cultivation, baling, silage, direct drilling and mulching. At the height of the season they employ up to 22 staff. Clients are mostly sheep and beef farmers with usually large paddocks on

David O’Neill’s contracting business covers big parts of South Canterbury and North Otago.

the flats which means David has wide implements such as a five-metre directdrill. His oldest is a 2002 MF 8240. It’s 180hp and has worked 13,000 hours. “I keep it because it is a good old, simple tractor. I don’t use it much now, but it can do anything and it’s a back up.” The newest is a 2015 MF 7618 with a

RIPping into the books What is the #1 most-hated task in business? Bookkeeping. Want to close the lid on it forever? Get RIP. RIP knows farmers have a million better things to do than sitting in front of a computer screen processing accounts —so let’s just ditch ’em. RIP has finally come up with the solution, RIP (Receipt & Invoice Processing), that will clear your desk of paper and give you time to get down to the things that matter. No fancy accounting system here, just

some good old-fashioned kiwi common sense. RIP grab the invoices, statements and receipts directly from your merchant’s software system, apply your coding/job number/purchase justification at the counter and you get back to growing food while they get busy shuffling paper. Using a bit of cloud technology RIP match invoices to statements, do the payment reconciliations and pay your accounts. All of your data is available on-

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Dyna-6 transmission. It spends most of its life pulling a four-rotor rake. The three latest – the MF 7618 and two MF 7622 feature the latest SCR technology to cut exhaust emissions and improve fuel economy. David says they are as fuel efficient as his Fendts. He started buying Fendt tractors about 10 years ago after trialling one and keeping it for six years. “Then we got another.” David says he likes the reliability and the comfort of his Fendt tractors, as well as the 50km/h road speed. His drivers travel up to 110km to get to clients, so that road speed matters. And the Vario transmissions in the Fendt tractors make every job easier.

More? AGCO NZ manager Peter Scott at 272 708 027 or Peter.Scott@agcocorp.com demand to you, but kept completely safe and secure – locked away from anyone else. If you already use an accounting system RIP can automatically push all your transactional data to it without you touching a button. No clicking, no touching and no screen time required. If you don’t, no worries, RIP can store your information or send it to your accountant. This system is offered by hero merchants who understand their customers. So register your interest and let RIP know where you want to shop — they’ll do the rest. RIP to bookkeeping, it’s gone to a better place.

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Country-Wide December 2016

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Purple Bales aid Starship Zeus Packaging has pledged a minimum donation of $25,000 to Auckland’s Starship Children’s Hospital as part of its Purple Bale Wrap charity initiative. In conjunction with Starship, Zeus will be offering limited stocks of purple bale and net wrap with a guaranteed donation to Starship Children’s Hospital at the end of the season. Extensively tested and used throughout New Zealand last year, the Zeus Epicrop range of products has been further enhanced this season to meet the full requirements of Kiwi contractors and farmers, Zeus NZ chief executive Andre Syben says. “In the United Kingdom and Irish markets alone Zeus sells more than one and a half times the entire value of the NZ market each year. These are markets that are micro-analysed for quality and value. All products available here are manufactured specifically for New Zealand conditions with extra UV protection,” Syben says. “We have reached agreements with all the major NZ merchants so that contractors and farmers who want to charge back via their local supplier can do so. A full nation-wide warehousing and distribution network is in place for the coming season to provide fast and efficient service to our many valued Zeus clients.”

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ANIMAL SUPPLEMENTS Epicrop netwraps were tried and tested and with all brands of balers in NZ last season and proved to be hugely successful and well accepted, he says. Produced with 100% virgin polymers in Europe with a 150 micron thickness Epicrop pit covers are of the highest quality. They are available in widths of 12 metres, 15m, 18m and 20m, all on bulk rolls 300m in length. New this season is the ‘2 n 1’ combo cover that features a 127 micron black/white cover and 40 micron cling film underlay. While more expensive on a per metre basis initially, the benefits in terms of silage quality and return on investment make this bulk silage pit cover system the way of the future, Syben says.

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Country-Wide December 2016

This hill country farm bordering Lake Rotorangi in the Taranaki is on the market. Photo supplied.

ESTATE | SNAPSHOT

MANUKA SWEETENS THE DEAL Anne Hughes Growing demand for manuka country is providing great opportunities for dry stock farmers. Bayleys Taranaki country sales manager Mark Monckton says most of the larger dry stock farm sales in the region during the past year have been manuka properties. Manuka blocks range in size – anywhere from 100 hectares to 1600ha. A year ago these blocks, some of which still have areas of good grazing, were selling for $3000-$3500/ha. More recently these farms have exceeded $4000/ha. Interest from manuka honey producers can be a good chance for sellers to profit from rising values for this type of land – enabling them to buy better-contoured and easier-to-manage grazing blocks, Monckton says. “The swing to manuka has given people the opportunity to exit the industry from these marginal blocks,” Monckton says. It can also be a good time for sheep and beef farmers to subdivide their more marginal land already in manuka or wellsuited to manuka, then buy more land or reduce debt.

This Taranaki farm for sale is already a productive manuka honey block, also running sheep and beef. Photo supplied.

Inquiry for manuka blocks in Taranaki comes anywhere from Canterbury to Northland. The busy season for honey production runs from December into autumn, so many manuka blocks are bought when the market would otherwise be reasonably quiet. “They’re very active over winter, looking to secure properties for the coming season.” Some farmers are taking these opportunities to sell, however the market is not flush with dry stock farms for sale at the moment, Monckton says. Manuka demand may be high, but the strong beef schedule has also helped improve cash flows for some farmers, with many opting to hold on to their farms and take advantage of the lift. When dairy conversions took off in parts of the South Island and land prices there lifted some years ago, areas like Taranaki were seen as a good option to buy a reasonably sized farm at good value. Monckton says demand is high for properties carrying 6000-plus stock units, with strong interest locally as well as from the King Country and South Island. Rather than a significant drop in

prices, he says the number of dairy farm transactions in Taranaki tend to slow. “The mood is more positive now, with a lift in the milk payout forecast and coming out of a wet winter.” Bayleys recently sold a 450ha dry stock farm near Stratford for more than $5500/ ha. The farm will continue to be grazed, but also has some areas of manuka on it and some well-contoured easier country to complement the steeper hills. The company is marketing for tender a 760ha steep hill country farm inland from Hawera, bordering Lake Rotorangi. The property already consists of productive manuka honey blocks, as well as running about 4500SU of sheep and beef. First National Taranaki rural real estate agent Owen Mills was unsure early in the season how improved optimism would impact sales of dairy farms and support or grazing blocks. Early interest from buyers appears similar to the previous season and while prices are not likely to lift dramatically, values are holding. Late autumn dairy farm sales saw premium dairy land still fetch around $70,000/ha, Mills says. Better-contoured small grazing and support blocks (40-50ha) were selling for $40-50,000/ha last season. “We’re just hopeful that we’ll see the market levels stay reasonably stable to where they’ve been,” he says. With stable values and continued low interest rates, Mills says it’s a good time to be looking to invest in dairy. However, those looking to progress into owning their first farm might still be reeling from the low payouts of previous seasons and the consequent effect on cow prices. “They might have to consolidate for a couple of years. I think we will see first dairy farm buyers hang fire for a year or two.”

aahughes@gisborne.net.nz

Country-Wide December 2016

Paddocks dotted with mature totara trees are ideal for the deer operation.

Deer beneath the Ruahines In the past couple of decades, Tim Aitken and Lucy Robertshawe have created an award-winning farming business on their 316-hectare property, The Steyning, winning international supplier, environmental and Hawke’s Bay Farmer of the Year awards. The couple are now selling The Steyning which sits in the lee of the Ruahine Ranges where it captures summer moisture on paddocks dotted with mature totara trees that have proved ideal for their deer operation. It’s a deer breeding and finishing, plus Wagyu beef operation that supplies 70% of all its animals into a differentiated, vertically-integrated supply chain. Today the farm winters 580 stud hinds, 500 R1 stags and hinds, 100 trading deer, up to 70 R2 stags for sale and master stags, alongside 100 Wagyu R2s of mixed sex and 50 R3 bulls. Through the years they have been proactive environmentalists; fencing 8ha as conservation reserve, planting three wetlands and excluding stock from waterways, as well as managing pests to encourage bird life. Between running one of the best venison herds in the country and their environmental work, they have won multiple awards including the Marks and Spencer’s International Supplier of the Year and the Land Stewardship Award at this year’s Ballance Environmental Awards East Coast. Tim and Lucy took over the property in 1993 and transformed it into a deer unit that eventually focused solely on venison

that supplies Firstlight Venison and more recently Wagyu beef for Firstlight Wagyu. “We began concentrating on venison production about 2003 and focused on the selection of animals for temperament, weaning weights, early conception and eye muscle measurement. The production we get off the deer is now exceptional,” Tim says. Their production goal is to get weaners between 95kg and 100kg liveweight at May 1 so they can be slaughtered through winter.

Cattle complement the deer operation by controlling the worm burden and assisting pasture control on the property which flows over 100ha of flat land to easy rolling hills with the remnants of the totara forest. “The totara and natural cover is fantastic for the deer and we don’t get that fence-pacing, and the deer fawn under the trees.” All 55 paddocks are deer-fenced, with a central lane leading to the deer shed – a 165square metre complex built in 2010. Implement sheds, haybarns, a woolshed and stables add to the infrastructure that

has been built up over the years. The three-bedroom, three-bathroom homestead was one of the original buildings, built in the 1920s as a villa and then extensively renovated in the late 90s. Aitken says everything has been completed on the farm, so a new owner will be able to farm it without the need to spend any money. “There’s really nothing else that needs to be done.” As well as venison and beef, peas provide a further income stream and most years about 10ha is sown on contract for McCains and the paddocks are resown as part of the farm’s regrassing programme. This year 20ha of peas was sown instead of buying in the usual trading cattle which were high priced. Environmentally, the farm has a plan that identifies 6000 trees excluding the conservation reserve, which were counted to calculate a carbon footprint for a sustainable farming fund project. A large wetland covering 1.9ha has been developed into a duck-shooting lake, with native plantings and natural vegetation making it an ideal duckbreeding habitat. Other wetlands have been developed on the farm with shooting restricted. “We fenced off the 8ha of DOC reserve 24 years ago and it is starting to show some amazing stuff in there. We’ve been doing pest management for the past 20 years and the bird life around here has increased.” Between the groves and scatterings of totara trees, wetlands, conservation reserve and shelter belts, the farm is a picturesque landscape with the Ruahine Ranges forming a backdrop and the plains of Central Hawke’s Bay spreading out to the east. The small village of Tikokino with its well-recognised primary school lies just 12km away and Waipukurau 33kms. Pat Portas from Property Brokers says the farm lies in a good location that receives summer rain and few farms are ever available in that area. The Steyning will be auctioned on December 13. It has a rateable valuation of $3.97 million. To view the farm visit www.propertybrokers.co.nz ID WR51954

More? Contact Portas on 06 928 0521 or 027 447 0612. The Ruahine Ranges form a western backdrop to The Steyning.

Country-Wide December 2016

A large wetland covering 1.9ha has been developed into a duck-shooting lake.

ESTATE

Grazing in South Otago An extensive development programme has been carried out on a 917-hectare beef, finishing and dairy grazing property in South Otago which is now for sale by negotiation. The Slopedown property spreads over flat and rolling contour to hill country, 25km from Clinton, where it is farmed in conjunction with the vendor’s neighbouring dairy farm. A small part of the property has been carrying milking dairy cows, with beef and dairy cattle on the remainder. During this past winter the property carried 550 mixed-age cows, 220 R2 dairy heifers, 195 R1 heifers, 350 trading bulls, steers and heifers, plus 110 mixed-age

cows and heifers to calve and run as beef cows. The 770 dairy cows and heifers were wintered on the beef unit for about 14 weeks. Each year it also produces 300,000kg drymatter of balage for wintering stock as well as providing supplement for the dairy farm. Patrick Bowden from Farmlands Real Estate says the owners have carried out extensive development on the property including new pastures, water scheme and fencing. “They’ve spent a lot of money on developing its own water scheme and they’ve put a lot of fertiliser and lime on to lift fertility,” he says.

Infrastructure includes a four-stand woolshed, covered yards and cattle yards.

“They run large numbers of bull beef and the dairy farm next door will continue to provide the option of doing winter grazing for extra income.” About 417ha of the property can been cultivated and 73% of this will be in winter crop or has been regrassed in the past few years. Other areas have been oversown. A substantial forestry replanting programme has been undertaken, using mainly pinus radiata and Bowden says the vendors are happy to retain the cutting rights if a new owner preferred not to pay for the value of the young trees. The 70 paddocks on the farm are easily accessed from a number of allweather farm lanes leading to 10 holding paddocks and infrastructure that includes a four-stand woolshed, covered yards used for calf rearing and cattle yards. Several good building sites have been identified for a house. To view the property visit www.farmlandsrealestate.co.nz ID DU2460

More? Contact Patrick Bowdon on 027 436 5161 or Derek Ayson on 027 667 9601.

The Slopedown property spreads over flat and rolling contours.

Deer and beef in Dunrobin Valley A versatile deer and beef unit in northern Southland with a good balance of flat and terraced contour is for sale at $3.95 million. The property usually carries 850 breeding hinds

The 155-hectare property lies in the Dunrobin Valley, a private location about 18km from Mossburn and 38km from Lumsden, where it runs a combined

deer and beef unit. It usually carries 850 breeding hinds and 30 beef cows, with fawns and calves heading away at weaning. Dallas Lucas from Southern Wide Real Estate says it’s also well-suited as a combined heifer grazing and wintering operation subject to the necessary consents. A mix of stony soils running to heavier clay loam lies beneath 23 paddocks that are all deer fenced and link to a central metalled race that leads to top-quality covered stock handling facilities used for deer and cattle. A large storage area and enclosed workshop complete the complex.

Country-Wide December 2016

ESTATE

On the flat The scale and flat contour of Goodwood, a 512-hectare Southland property, is a rarity in the sought-after location near Mossburn which is for sale by tender. Its owners of 43 years have run a sheep breeding and finishing operation that winters 5000 Coopdale ewes and 1350 hoggets with a lambing percentage averaging 140%. Andrew Patterson from PGG Wrightson Real Estate says the owners are now retiring and Goodwood reflects their efforts over the years to achieve a high standard. “The inputs that have gone into the property have been done properly,” he says. “We don’t get many farms of that scale, contour and location come to the market.” Goodwood is entirely flat and split into two blocks of 402ha and 110ha, with the option of buying them separately or together. The main Goodwood block is subdivided into 34 paddocks with a central stock lane leading to facilities including a four-stand, raised-board woolshed and large covered yards for 1300 ewes. This block also has an aircraft hangar, three-bay fully enclosed workshop with hydraulic hoist, plus a range of barns, implement sheds and even an old blacksmith workshop and stable. The other block has 15 paddocks and another

Goodwood is in a sought-after location near Mossburn.

four-stand woolshed with covered yards for 1200 ewes plus a five-bay implement shed. A quality stock water system is sourced from a well on the Goodwood block and pumped to a pressure tank before being reticulated via 25mm alkathene to troughs, while the other block uses the Matuku water scheme. The Goodwood homestead, built in 1973, is a substantial and attractive twostoried Summerhill stone house with four bedrooms and a modernised kitchen. The home is set in a large, established garden

with a good outdoor living and expansive lawns. A second house on the Goodwood block is a two-bedroom weatherboard cottage. On the 110ha block is a threebedroom brick and roughcast home. Goodwood is for sale by tender with three options – two individual properties or together – with tenders closing December 6. To view the property visit www.pggwre.co.nz ID INV24325

More? Contact Andrew Patterson on 03 211 3144 or 027 434 7636.

A reticulated water supply feeds all paddocks which includes nearly 20ha of new grass planted in the past five years. In a typical year, the property can make 130 bales of hay, 50 bales of balage and between 400 and 500 wet tonnes of silage. Shelter belts of native trees, toi toi and eucalyptus have been planted around the paddocks, adding aesthetically to the property as well as shelter. An attractive three-bedroom bungalow constructed from concrete block exterior with a heavy rib roof enjoys the private location, while the four-bedroom shearers’ quarters adds further accommodation. The farm’s location provides good fishing in the nearby Aparima River and Hamilton Burn, plus hunting in the Takatimu mountains. It’s also just an hour to Te Anau and one-and-a-half hours to Queenstown. The property can be viewed at www. southernwide.co.nz ref SWI1698

More? Contact Dallas Lucas on 03 218 2795 or 0274 325 774.

Country-Wide December 2016

Beef cattle make up the balance of stock.

FARMING IN FOCUS More photos from this month’s Country-Wide. The “Range View” dog team take a ride. Charlie and Kerry Seymour’s Kohata Station.

Pam and Phil McKinnon with pets.

Louise working with Kaimanawa stallion Koru. Photo: Simon Bainbridge.

Stephen Bell puts Sky through her paces.

Pam and Phil McKinnon’s 70-year-old 45 HP David Brown.

Dog artificial insemination.

Max - Bryce Visser’s dog from Ballance.

Max the dog drives while Pam and Phil McKinnon feeds out.

Country-Wide December 2016

Mustering cattle in the outback.

Annabelle Latz gets to the bottom of pregnancy testing.

Millie and Dottie are as close to cattle dogs as there will be at Railview Station.

David and Michelle bringing in a big herd for pregnancy testing.

Michelle never misses a beat with the record taking.

It’s a dogs’ life. There is a fair bit of standing around for the cattle, but they don’t’ seem to mind.

Country-Wide December 2016

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MERIAL NZ LTD. LEVEL 3, MERIAL BUILDING, OSTERLEY WAY, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND | WWW.MERIAL.CO.NZ | ALL PRODUCTS ARE ® REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF MERIAL. REGISTERED PURSUANT TO THE ACVM ACT 1997 NO.S A6416, A6417, A10640, A9270, A7191, A010801, A010759, A10399, A10222, A10018, A6859, A7189, A7456, A9888, A7353, A9822, A9222, A10120, A6481, A9544, A10131, A9390, A10132, A9418, A9964, A10274, A11138, A9970, December 2016 Country-Wide A10734 | ©COPYRIGHT 2016 MERIAL NZ LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NZ-16-MAL-123.