GROWING NZ FARMING
The Winning
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January 2018
Country-Wide January 2018
THE DEER FARMER 1
It’s a lot easier protecting against them than spelling them.
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Country-Wide January 2018
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EDITOR’S NOTE
Avery book a top read
H
ow did 2017 turn out for you? On the face of it, 2017 was a shocker for me and my family. A brain tumour was removed in April followed by a cancerous kidney in June. With the cancer travelling in the blood there is a high probability it will come back. So it’s blood tests and scans every six months. However, you quickly learn there are a lot of people battling cancer and worse off than yourself. There are positives from my experience. One was the overwhelming support from family, friends and people I hardly knew, it was humbling. Support included working bees around the house and garden, rides to appointments and home baking. The meals were a godsend for my wife Eleanor. She was busy in a new job as well as running around after me and our girls. Before we were swamped with meals and our big chest freezer filled, I was going to have a sign at the door “Only enter with home-baking”. Interestingly, all of the home baking came from people who either grew up on a farm or in small provincial towns. After any brain surgery you can’t drive for a year so I’ve been walking, biking (see e-bike p30) and even joined a gym. I’m the fittest I’ve been in 20 years.
Languishing in hospitals and recuperating allowed me time to read more books this year than I’ve read for the past decade. Of all of them Sir Ray Avery’s autobiography “Rebel without a cause” was the best. What a great humanitarian and no wonder he was a New Zealander of Year. He shows that with self-belief, dedication and the right people you don’t need a lot of money to make a huge difference to people’s lives. All Kiwis, especially anyone working in government agencies, NGOs and charities should read this book. In this issue we review the year from a farmer and industry perspective (p20). The farmer-bashing by politicians and urban media annoyed me the most. TVNZ’s “The price of milk” was a prime example – a shocker. It was a beat up on dairy farming and poor journalism. It was great to see the lift in farmgate prices especially sheepmeat – hope the weather plays its part. Thank-you for subscribing to CountryWide, have a very Merry Christmas and a great New Year.
Terry Brosnahan
Got any feedback? Contact the editor direct: terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz or call 03 471 5272.
NEXT ISSUE • HIGHLAND BEEF: We chat with Drew and Lauril Stein about their venture selling Highland beef into supermarkets in the mid 2000s – how it got started and why it closed up shop. • SKIN DEEP: A study showing lambs with thicker skins have a better chance of survival could be worth big dollars for the industry. • ONFARM: John and Donna Journeaux have seized the opportunity of owning their own farm and turning it into a highly productive unit by combining astute management with new technology. • OUT-OF-SEASON LAMBING
@CountryWideNZ @CountryWideNZ
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More: p46
BOUNDARIES Frost-free among the vines.
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Old-fashioned fun at Dobbin Derby.
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HOME BLOCK Dani Darke reflects on the vagaries of the weather. 10 Chris Biddles remembers a match of 50 years ago. 11 12
Charlotte Rietveld calls a truce with Wonder Boy. For Roger Barton it looks like 1977.
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Julius Cousins crosses Canada en route to UK OE.
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David Walston’s companions verge on out-of-control. 15 Robert Carter sees the Whanganui river levels fall. 16 17
Blair Drysdale experiences diversity.
NOTEBOOK
What’s on when and who’s doing what.
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FACTS
Merino flourishes as course wools flounder.
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IMPACT PLAYERS
Contents
Weather: A high rainfall headache.
20
Biosecurity: A great leap forward with eASDs.
22
Wellness: Opening up to stress.
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25
Farmgate: Strong result for beef.
Technology: All about the e-bike.
27 29
Technology: Investment cranks up.
30
Foreign investment: Playing the waiting game.
31
Science: Boost ahead for R&D.
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Sub Editor: Andy Maciver, ph 06 280 3166, andy.maciver@nzfarmlife.co.nz Designer: Joanne Hannam, ph 06 280 3167 Junior designer: Cassandra Cleland Production Planning: ph 06 280 3164
Deputy Editor: Cheyenne Nicholson, ph 06 280 3168; cheyenne.nicholson@nzfarmlife.co.nz
Reporters Andrew Swallow ph 021 745 183 Anne Calcinai ph 07 894 5069; Lynda Gray ph 03 448 6222; Robert Pattison ph +64 27 889 8444; Sandra Taylor, ph 021 1518685; Tim McVeagh 06 3294797; James Hoban 027 2511986; Russell Priest 06 328 9852; Jo Cuttance 03 976 5599.
Managing Editor: Tony Leggett, ph 06 280 3162 mob 0274 746 093, tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz
Account Managers: Warren McDonald, National Sales Manager, ph 06 323 0143,
Editor: Terry Brosnahan, ph 03 471 5272; mob 027 249 0200; terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz
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Wellness: You’re not alone.
Deer Farmer Editor: Lynda Gray, ph 03 448 6222, lyndagray@xtra.co.nz
Country-Wide is published by NZ Farm Life Media PO Box 218, Feilding 4740 General enquiries: Toll free 0800 2AG SUB (0800 224 782) www.nzfarmlife.co.nz
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Biosecurity: Invasions make year busy.
Lloyd Davy, Auckland/Northland, ph 027 474 6091, Janine Gray, Waikato and Bay of Plenty, ph 0274 746 094, Donna Hirst, Lower North Island & international, ph 06 323 0739, Aleisha Serong, South Island, ph 027 474 6091, Shirley Howard, real estate, ph 06 323 0760, Debbie Brown, classifieds & employment, ph 06 323 0765, Nigel Ramsden, Livestock, ph 06 323 0761 Subscriptions: nzfarmlife.co.nz/shop ph 0800 224 782 or subs@nzfarmlife.co.nz Printed by PMP Print, Riccarton, Christchurch ISSN 1179-9854 (Print)
ISSN 2253-2307 (Online)
nzfarmlife.co.nz
Country-Wide January 2018
More: p76 34
Labour challenges: A pitch to a young generation. Politics: Turmoil as rules change.
35
Politics: Damian O’Connor: Shake-up promised for ag.
37
Emerging Leaders: James Hoban and Katie Milne.
38
Business: Catching up with featured farmers.
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DEER FARMER Making the little things count.
42
Velvet offers osteoporosis hope.
45
Balage a better winter option.
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50
Timely decisions lift profit. Finishing: More lambs the better.
YOUNG COUNTRY
Trudy’s winning ticket.
72
Bark off: Patience is a virtue.
75
COMMUNITY 76
Hunterville Huntaway Festival.
SOLUTIONS
LIVESTOCK Feeding underpins success.
More: p62
53
54
Genetalk: A New Harvest.
55
Stock check: Getting the message across.
FORAGE Right time for side dressings. Hill country research to fore.
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58
Flight of the Howard Condor.
77
NZ’s new flystrike solution.
78
ESTATE 79
Fertility at Donnellys Crossing. Sheep and beef on Waitomo hills.
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Confidence boosts sale prices.
81
FARMING IN FOCUS More photos from this month’s Country-Wide.
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ARABLE Precision pays A$0.5m over decade.
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PLANT AND MACHINERY
OUR COVER
Agritechnia metal heaven.
62
Bridges for troubled water.
64
Goats give Trudy Robertson a point of difference from rearing sheep and beef cattle.
ENVIRONMENT
Farming for the future. Water: The importance of timeframes. Farm forestry: Getting a fair suck of the sav.
Country-Wide January 2018
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More: p72
Photo: Sarah Ivey
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BOUNDARIES | VINEYARDS
Frost free
Stu Powell.
Joanna Grigg
M
arlborough grape growers had an uncommon reprieve in spring, with no air frosts recorded in the main vineyard areas. Stu Powell, a climate consultant who provides frost forecasting, said it was the first time in his 13 years of monitoring that he hasn’t recorded an air frost from mid-September onwards. He classifies an air frost as zero degrees 1.2 metres above the ground. This type of spring has happened before but is rare; about four times over 70 years, he says. Parts of western Victoria and South Australia have seen the
complete opposite with a serious late frost on November 4 affecting grapevines, almonds, legumes and cereals. Powell describes it as their worst frost season for 30 years. David Jochinke, President of the Victorian Farmers Federation reported it was one of the worst natural disasters he had seen hit farmers in the region. “Their vines were ahead of normal growth with good rains and a warmer start, then boom, the frost hit,” Powell said.
Back in New Zealand, Powell predicts that while summer may remain dry, La Nina means there is almost twice the risk of a wet harvest for grape growers than you would see with El Nino conditions. “With La Nina, the chance of a wet autumn goes from one in five, to two in five.”
See Weather predictions p23
Bunny beware Submissions on the application to introduce and use the Rabbit Haemorrhagic Virus Disease RHDV1-K5 closed in mid-December. RHDV (Czech strain) was introduced in 1997, but its effectiveness has reduced over time. The latest application, made by the Canterbury Regional Council, is for a Korean strain that has a good knock down rate, based on trials in Australia. At a Beef +Lamb NZ field day at Matakanui station in November Otago Regional Council’s Haines Battrick said the new variant of the virus was up to 40% more effective than the old strain and non-target animals such as pet rabbits would be protected with the existing vaccine. If the application was successful a coordinated release at 300 sites in the north and south of the country would start in autumn. The release sites would be strategically located to achieve a three to five kilometre weekly spread. He said the main threat to a successful release of the Korean strain was the illegal introduction of RHDV-2, a European strain which had got a foothold in Australia but was less-effective and had no non-target vaccine.
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Country-Wide January 2018
BOUNDARIES | DOBBIN DAY
Good old-fashioned fun Who needs engines when you’ve got a good slope and hard grass? More than a hundred cubs and scouts from across South Canterbury descended (pun intended) on a paddock on David Oliver’s farm near Pleasant Point recently for their annual Dobbin Derby. The rules are simple: no engines, no trikes, helmets compulsory, and the first to the bottom in each heat goes through to the next round. Losers get another go in a repechage, not to mention unofficial races after the event which went on until it was too dark to see the track. Good on ’em.
Country-Wide January 2018
Beggar gangs Be careful who you give money to when visiting the big cities. A South Island man recently spent a weekend in Auckland was shocked to see the number of beggars. One woman asked and money for water yet was dressed in brand new Nike shoes and pulling a new suitcase. Beggar gangs are working the streets and malls. Like something straight out of Oliver Twist, they are coordinated by a Faganlike person. Wellington and Christchurch appear to have similar problems. Police and authorities are telling would-be donors not to give money to beggars, rather give to charities like the Salvation Army or City Mission who know who the real beggars are. An Auckland local told the visitor he was sitting in a shopping mall car park when a woman pulled up on scooter and knocked on the window asking for money. He refused and then noticed her and others reporting back to a man in a white van.
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HOME BLOCK | COLUMN
The vagaries of the weather
Dani Darke Aria, King Country
I
sit here writing this on a beautiful, breezy sunny day. One of the downsides of being a farmer is that I find it difficult to enjoy a good summer like I used to in my past life as a beach-goer and general happygo-lucky Massey Ag student. Those were the days when every long hot day was cherished and gins were drunk in sun. These days as my responsibilities have gone up a notch it’s taken some of the shine off a good summer. I now find myself balancing between being happy that it’s raining (but annoyed we can’t get the boat out), to being annoyed that it’s too sunny (and we have to make each blade of grass go a bit further). As we head into late spring and eyeing up summer there is a bit of talk of a dry season. I’m just hopeful that if it happens we can take something good from the conditions – like spending time boating with the kids and enjoying the sun, but I’m sure the reality of it won’t be so picturesque. We have just come to the end of harvesting a small block of trees which has been fun to watch from the deck. Our normal morning sleep-in has been interrupted at 5am by logging trucks rumbling up the driveway, followed by chainsaws and trees crashing down periodically throughout the day, catching me unawares. It has made for good entertainment and the loggers are a great bunch of guys.
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They happily agreed to cut down three massive old poplars on the driveway, which made me wonder what kind of debacle would have ensued had a ‘townie’ tried to get this job done in Auckland or Wellington –probably a $15,000 exercise. With our few hectares-worth of log income we are planning to build a new woolshed, new covered yards, new cattle yards, and update about 20km of fencing… dreams are free. Recently we had the privilege of having a look around Barry Tatham’s farm in Piopio to see the bush blocks and planting he has protected and enhanced for the last 20 plus years. Barry has done some incredible work – a lot of it, he tells us, is just getting the stock out and given time the plants come back themselves. Blackberry is a big problem around
Our normal morning sleep-in has been interrupted at 5am by logging trucks rumbling up the driveway, followed by chainsaws and trees crashing down periodically throughout the day, catching me unawares.
our area, but Barry showed us that once the trees are big enough to shade the blackberry out it disappears. This has given us the inspiration to put our pine block back into bush rather than replanting into more forestry or the grass option. I’m not convinced forestry is as good as it is touted to be – harvesting has caused some pretty serious damage to the topsoil, and the never-ending rain through September and October made it near impossible to manage sediment runoff. We are now trying to work out where in our system we can make changes to
We have just come to the end of harvesting a small block of trees.
get fewer bearings and better production. Hubby is pretty staunch that our genetics are the most-suited to our environment but I think our environment may be changing as we get our fertility better and our ability to feed them increases. As an eternal optimist I’m hopeful that we will get the winning formula next year, but it’s a hard lesson for me in patience that we have to wait 12 months to see the results of our system tinkering. I’m in charge of our primary school’s stock scheme, so I’m presently ringing around farmers asking them to support our school by carrying a beefy for a year. Every year parents and the community pitch in to host up to 800 people for a weekend for the Aria Two-Day Bike Ride. Regulars from as far as Wellington and Auckland bring their motocross bikes and rip around 150km of tracks through farms in the area. Bikies don’t tend to be mindful not to make a mess on a crossing or in a gateway: they just hit everything at full noise (even the odd strainer post). It’s a great two-day event though, and raises funds to support our small school and other community facilities. Lately, I’ve been trying to get our girls to realise how lucky we are living where we do, and getting to call ourselves farmers. Sometimes it’s easy to get caught up in the daggy ewes, bearings and overexcited dogs and I forget how lucky I am. Growing up in Wellington and always wanting to be a farmer, it takes me just a second to step back and remind myself where I am, and to be grateful that my days are full of fresh air, movement, animals, and sunshine (with the odd bit of rain peppered in for good measure). • Dani Darke and husband Anthony farm Ridgeway Farms, 412 hectares, 385 effective at Aria in the King Country, running 1400 Romneys plus replacements, 60 breeding cows, 30 steers, 380-400 Friesian bulls.
Country-Wide January 2018
HOME BLOCK | COLUMN
Memorable morning on the radio
Chris Biddles Te Kopuru, Northland
Apart from the All Blacks we also saw great rugby in the provincial season with our own Northland team playing some pretty exciting rugby and doing it on a shoestring budget compared with many of the teams in the same division. Onfarm the season is panning out much as I thought (or feared) it would. By the end of September we had passed our 35-year annual total and it was on the 26th that we had our last significant rain, 46mm. Since then we have had 80mm total but mostly in fours and fives so the sand country has burnt off. We still have good cover thanks to the wet winter that the coast loves. Our sires are all digging holes to China having been withdrawn from the cows after 34 days of mating and are all in close proximity to each other before being returned to the bull paddock for hopefully not too much fighting when first in contact. Mating was frenetic in the first cycle with the cows in good condition and cycling well before the bulls were joined with them. Our bull sale was extremely satisfying. We offered 96 yearling Angus bulls (all our best bulls are sold as yearlings) for a total clearance of all 96 at an average of $3700, considerable up on last year. We had no significantly high prices, three in the $5000 mark but it was evident most clients were prepared to pay between $3000 and $4000 for bulls. Many of our dairy clients were paying this money. With a four-day calf market often at $250
It is the last Sunday in November and I have just finished watching another outstanding game of rugby. All Blacks vs Wales. Like last week against Scotland, what a game. Fantastic to see the Northern Hemisphere teams actually taking it to the All Blacks and playing rugby. This morning’s defence from the All Blacks was superb. The only disappointing thing for me was that the Welsh crowd only sang their national anthem. Normally the Cardiff crowd is in song regularly during a match. The first time I heard this was 50 years ago. As a third former at boarding school I sneaked out of the dormitory to my fagmaster’s (prefect) study to listen to Wales play the All Blacks. It was an amazing experience, November 1967, 3.00 in the morning listening to this game on the radio commentated by Bill McLaren. Sir Brian Lohore was the New Zealand captain and the Welsh crowd was in full voice with those wonderful hymns. NZ won 13-6 and as a young boy I found it a memorable experience. This morning’s game has brought the NZ season to a close and we have certainly seen some amazing rugby. Apart from the super series, that for me, starts too early and is far to disjointed with the draw biased against NZ teams, we have seen some tremendous rugby. I loved the Lions series which An experience with the Welsh started with a sell-out crowd in crowd in full voice. Whangarei and ended with that “interesting” draw at Eden Park.
Country-Wide January 2018
What a catch: Lake Rotoiti gave up these trout.
they recognised the worth of spending on the right bulls. Readers who have had the misfortune of following my writings over the years (it was November 2006 when I wrote my first for Country-Wide will be well aware of my love of trout fishing in our 97-year-old clinker boat at Lake Rotoiti. The shack we share was built by my great grandfather AH Wallis in 1922 and still stands. For the last 20 years I have fished opening and closing seasons at Rotoiti with two cousins, John Biddles and Peter Arthur. Only Peter and I were there this October as we buried John in September. John was our only Biddles relation outside my siblings, a lovely gentle man who never said an ill word about anyone. We missed him at the shack but regularly drank to his memory. We also caught a good lot of trout. • Chris and Karren Biddles farm on the west coast of Northland on the Pouto Peninsula. They farm 500ha of the 880ha they own. Daughter Joanne and her husband Charles lease the balance. • They have an Angus stud of 260 cows selling all bulls as yearlings. They also run a commercial Angus Jersey X herd with all progeny finished.
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A rebel army not to be messed with; Wonder Boy Adam Dickey and Charlotte Rietveld with Ralph (5 months) and Lucy (almost 2).
HOME BLOCK | COLUMN
Truce for Wonder Boy and Her Indoors
Charlotte Rietveld Rakaia Gorge, Canterbury
As we farewell yet another year, it’s only natural to look back in review. We began the year by temporarily leaving our home at Middle Rock, a 1000-hectare sheep farm up mid-Canterbury’s Rakaia Gorge for a four-year ‘breeding sabbatical’. Instead of my husband Vince doing the daily commute to our Christchurch-based off-farm business Ironman 4X4, we are now living just out of Christchurch from where I make the 50-minute commute to the farm, with two small children in tow, once or twice a week. Despite assuring myself I was irreplaceable, it turns out my parents, Bruce and Lyn Nell (otherwise known as The Boss and The Chief Inspector) have carried on farming quite happily without me. This may have something to do with my shepherding self being replaced by a lanky lad little over half my age. While I keenly await the day my parents advise that they desperately need me back full-time, in the interim it seems
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Wonder Boy has got me foxed and I am to remain Her Indoors for the time being. That said, in the spirit of Christmas and forgiveness, New Year’s, new beginnings and all that hoopla, job-stealing Wonder Boy and I have made our peace. Well, sort of. Kind of like Snoopy and the Red Baron sitting down for a dram. We’ll call it a temporary cease fire. You see, before Christmas The Boss and The Chief Inspector fled the country for a quick holiday. Wisely or not, with moisture levels dropping rapidly, Wonder Boy and I decided to go against The Boss’s decision and proceed with drafting a light mob off the ewe hoggets. A simple, easily reversible manoeuvre you may say.
Naturally I won’t hesitate to behave like one of those small children should The Boss launch a special investigation into this nonpermitted activity.
But those in the know will recognise this as a vigilante group with all the hallmarks of a clandestine, guerrilla warfare leadership coup. Rodrigo Duterte would have had us executed on the spot. Trump would have fired us via immediate Twitter declaration and Jacinda at the very least had us marked as part of Aunty Helen’s ‘the haters and the wreckers’.
By goodness, ol’ Wonder Boy and I sure know how to spark a revolution. Just bring in a mob of ewes and watch democracy teeter. Still overseas, The Boss is yet to discover there’s been a staffing rebellion. If you don’t hear from me again, you can be sure I am a political prisoner under house arrest enduring 24-hour surveillance, otherwise known as daily life at home with two small children. Naturally I won’t hesitate to behave like one of those small children should The Boss launch a special investigation into this non-permitted activity. Wonder Boy might think he can keep this ol’ breeding dam quiet while she’s drafted out with the condition score five ewes, but I’ve got news for him. Her Indoors is all too ready to throw Wonder Boy under the bus should our little leadership coup fail and heads start rolling. Our brief strategic alliance of confidence and supply will be over faster than I can say “he started it…” But in truth, I’m not having a lot of success in the deal-making department lately. Those who recall my previous column might remember my highly immoral trade-off of a christening for a boat. Turns out I am not much of a negotiator. The baby has had a dip in the water, but I am still waiting for mine. As this goes to print you can be sure I am holding high hopes for what could turn up in a Christmas stocking. Otherwise I might suggest my dear husband looks up the tactics of history’s most successful negotiator, Lysistrata.
Country-Wide January 2018
HOME BLOCK | COLUMN
Musings of an increasingly grumpy man
Sheep values are looking so buoyant but capitalising on them may be difficult under current growth rates. .
Roger Barton Greytown, Wairarapa
It’s only about 10 weeks ago that we were still trying to do things like drain water out of laneways and avoid creating more mess under wet and trying conditions. For those who remember the Wairarapa in 1977 it is looking like a repeat exercise. That winter was devastating – large slips and land movement and very high lamb and calf losses over that critical August/September period. This year has been wet but not to that magnitude. Back then I was in my second year of shepherding at Wairere under the guidance of the legendary John Daniell. So it’s exactly 40 years since those memories. Some are as distinct as yesterday. Now with a supportive wife and four children (well adults really) we are in that strong planning phase around family succession and pending retirement in one form or another. We now own a second property with
Country-Wide January 2018
our son in full charge there with me in a minimal supportive role. That farm is 654 hectares with a bit of forestry and waste and a 2.7ha lake. It is largely a limestone base with not a lot of flat but about 140 hectares of drillable country so quite versatile. The water sources are excellent as is the case in most limestone country. We run about 3600 ewes plus replacements and 160 cattle. Home is 500ha but only 215 grow grass. We have a large chunk of QE2 area (243ha) and the balance is grazable scrub and a bit of regenerating bush. We have down-sized (previously 330ha effective) to release capital for purchasing the other block so now run 1350 ewes of which half are SIL recorded. We usually winter 200 fully recorded ram hoggets plus replacement ewe hoggets and finishing cattle. Around that 2500 stock units –these days there is a bit of an argument about what the definition of a stock unit should be. We tend to get more focused on liveweight wintered per hectare on both farms because that is what drives feed demand at critical times. Rupert operates mostly by himself with a little bit of permanent casual and some king hits at big jobs with an extra hand. The pick for this extra work is Josh our soon-to-become son-in-law. He and Meg (24) got engaged a short time ago. They are both made to farm. It will be interesting to watch their progress. Josh has been leasing 150ha in Apiti, mostly deer with some ewes to a terminal sire and cattle where warranted. At 21,
when the lease started, most people are being frivolous and enjoying the spoils of a late youth. Not so Josh, he is very focused on the future. Other than the continual issue of gorse control our home block is pretty well established. Good facilities for sheep handling and cattle yards completed on a new site 18 months or so ago make for a mostly enjoyable workplace. Two new hips over the last four years enables me to chase sheep more comfortably but still not fast enough. That’s unlikely to get any better. The push now will be to fine-tune this system a bit more and reduce the day-to-day workload a bit more. Running more cattle has appeal but the strong capital cost of entry has precluded any fast swing in that direction. I understand sheep better anyway. Further to that I still enjoy shearing. SHE doesn’t share my enthusiasm but at this stage I just potter away in my own time. Logical it may not be, but I get enormous satisfaction from it – just a pity about the value of crossbred wool. The most pressing issue right now is the distinct lack of rain we have had over November. Sheep values are looking so buoyant but capitalising on them may be difficult under current growth rates. Crop establishment is looking decidedly ordinary. This seems to be a Wairarapa-wide problem so we are not alone. If we don’t get a good rain soon I’m going to be a grumpy old man and it will take more than Santa to cheer me up. Here’s to a wet Christmas day!
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HOME BLOCK | COLUMN
Across Canada for a UK OE Julius’ steed while working at Rooksnest Estate.
Julius and Ange with the GMC camper.
Julius Cousins Aberfeldy, Scotland
Departing New Zealand my girlfriend Ange and I, began our overseas experience with a two-month road trip across Canada, landing in Vancouver and then driving my brother’s 1976 GMC camper 8000km to Halifax. This trip took us through the heart of Canada as well as seven states in the United States. The scenery was spectacular and the locals very friendly and hospitable making us feel comfortable travelling through their country in Guido’s trusty old V8 camper. From Halifax we flew south to New York. The Big Apple certainly lived up to its name and we ticked off all the must-do’s in New York including a trip to Trump Tower where the two very heavily armed security guards standing at attention in the entrance, were not to be messed with! A week later and ready to see a bit of green grass again we departed JFK and landed in Heathrow where our first mission in the United Kingdom was to buy a car. The Chevrolet we bought
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turned out to have a broken odometer so the cheap car may be a lemon. Our first three months was spent at Rooksnest Estate, one and a half hours west of London. It is a 1620-hectare arable property with plenty of big toys. My time there was primarily spent driving either an 820 or 936 Fendt tractor towing a 16-tonne chaser bin around the over-crowded hedge-lined roads with nowhere to go other than backwards if you came across another vehicle. The harvest began with the 200ha of canola which should have been a mere five days work for the brand new Claas Lexon 780 with a 13-metre front and an extra long spout so the chaser bin could drive along the tram lines as the property was aiming for total CTF (controlled traffic farming). However, due to the unpredictability of the English summer, we finally finished the canola 15 days later. The average yield of the canola was 4.8t/ha with a budgeted yield of 4t/ha while the moisture was 9%. We continued into the wheat and barley and on wet days we did fencing using a post driver attached to the front of a telehandler or topping the margins around all the crop fields which are deliberately left in grass allowing wild flowers to establish for the butterflies and bees, to maximise the subsidy. Traditionally in the UK many farms store their grain in a leased depot, however our estate had an abundance of quality storage facilities with underfloor drying grates and stirrers which could successfully lower the moisture by 2%. The final crop to be harvested were beans which are primarily part of the
crop rotation as a break crop with the added benefit of being a legume. During my harvest, Ange worked at the local pub called the Pheasant Inn. It was certainly not like a New Zealand pub, with very upmarket food at a hefty price. The 38oz Chateaubriand set the tone for an expensive night at £70 (NZ$135). We didn’t eat there ourselves too often. Once the harvest was finished we packed our lives into the Chevy and drifted north through the very attractive English countryside, highlights being Norfolk and a hot air balloon ride in the Lake District. We are now in Aberfeldy, Scotland, on an organic sheep and beef property 1½ hours north west of Edinburgh. The ewes are split into flocks, 400 Mule ewes, a cross between a Blue Faced Leicester and a Blacky which is a Scottish hill sheep. Meanwhile the remaining 550 ewes are Texel. The Mule ewes lamb inside, however, only the triplet Texels will lamb inside and then a lamb is removed and mothered on to a single so ewes will only ever rear twins. Lambs are generally sold for £70 at 18.5kg with only a small premium for being organic. Organic farms are still allowed to administer animal health remedies such as a drench, as long as a faecal egg count is undertaken. The 70 beef cows are primarily Limousin and a few Salers. The cows are brought inside for 150 days requiring a lot of baleage and straw. The main purpose for wintering indoors is because of tradition and a subsidy requirement, as if you are seen to be pugging the soils the subsidy will be reduced. Six months have sped by and we have met a lot of interesting people and are very much enjoying our many new experiences which are all part of an OE. • Julius Cousins is the twin brother of Guido who featured last issue. Prior to his OE, he spent time on the family farm in the Manawatu as well as a harvest in Australia and three months on a sheep farm in the Falklands.
Country-Wide January 2018
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Companions almost out of control
David Walston Cambridge, England
It’s been a fairly average sort of autumn in Cambridgeshire so far – quite wet to begin with, then quite warm later on, but nothing to get really bothered about. The contrast to last year is remarkable, however, when it was so dry our oilseed rape really struggled to get going at all, and it took until late spring before the fields stopped looking like stubble and started looking like a crop.
We have put in a couple of fields of hybrid cereal rye, as the market for this crop is growing fast in the United Kingdom.
This year we already have waist-high plants and the companion species are verging on the out-of-control. In particular the vetch we put in there for weed suppression and nitrogen fixing is huge, and is threatening to drag down the rape plants over the winter. We’re going to have to spray it off soon, a couple of months ahead of schedule. I’m certainly not complaining about this though, it’s a nice change to have a good-looking crop at this time of year and hopefully one that is big enough to deter pigeons from totally destroying it in February and March. Elsewhere on the farm it was a little wetter than ideal when we started to drill our winter wheat and in hindsight we went a bit too early, given that in the middle of October everything was much drier and more friendly. Overall it looks fairly decent, with no real slug activity to speak of. Unfortunately the warm weather has
Country-Wide January 2018
meant we did need to treat a few fields for aphids, which is not something I like doing at all. Most of the area that we sprayed was done as half fields, so we can see if there is a big effect next year – it’s so important to not spray everything all of the time, otherwise how do you know if your money is going to good use? This seems so self-evident to me I can’t believe more farmers don’t do it; in fact, some even argue actively that trying this out is a bad idea. Crazy. After growing winter oats and barley for the last couple of years, we’ve decided to drop them from the rotation. This may look an odd decision, as winter barley was the only crop that produced a decent yield for us last harvest, but it doesn’t really add much to our rotation – and as my Dad likes to say, “Don’t farm last year”. Easy to say, not always easy to do. Instead we have put in a couple of fields of hybrid cereal rye, as the market for this crop is growing fast in the United Kingdom. I’ve got a few neighbours who swear it performs much better than wheat on our light land at the south of the farm, and also when drilled late after sugar beet. This brings me nicely on to the next topic, the beet. In my last column I wrote “we started planting sugar beet in the middle of March using a one-pass system which combined strip tillage with the drill. Results have been mixed, with the light soil field working reasonably well, but the heavier areas range from mediocre to disastrous”. It turns out that I was, very happily, wrong on this. The heavier land came through in the end and although it’s not a brilliant crop, we never had to write any of it off, which was a nice surprise. That one is still in the ground, and will be until after Christmas, but the other field has been half-harvested. Considering how mediocre it looked, and the fact it was accidentally drilled at
only just above half the target seed rate, an adjusted yield of 91 tonnes/ha (14.5t/ ha of sugar) is getting close to miracle status. True, we are probably 10% down on neighbours who used conventional establishment systems, but we would have been relieved with anything over 75t/ha. I think if the seed rate had been correct we would have easily broken into three figures. The sunflowers are part of an over-winter multi-species cover crop.
The blue-flowered linseed is part of a companion crop with an oilseed rape cash crop.
The elephant in the room for UK farming (actually there are two, Brexit being the other) is the looming European Union decision on whether to re-license glyphosate. Unfortunately there is huge pressure on regulators to ignore science and go with a populist-led anti-Monsanto sentiment. Whether it succeeds or not is unclear, but it could be disastrous for any attempts to farm more sustainably in the future. We have fingers crossed.
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After the wet comes the dry
Challenges aplenty with exposed shingle beds on the Whanganui River.
Robert Carter Kirikau, Taumarunui
As I write this Suzanne and I are in a state of trepidation and anticipation as the arrival of our fourth grandchild is imminent. Our daughter Hayley and husband Aaron have produced three lovely girls so far and so the next is about to arrive on the scene. Grandchildren are your reward for not strangling one’s teenagers, our daughter was a boundary-pusher but eventually it seemed that I came right and she stayed as she always was, just lovely. On the subject of the winter past, the wettest winter ever has just morphed into a dry period which happily ended yesterday with some very nice late afternoon heat showers. Only problem was the lightning strike that smoked the modem, hence to send this in I’ve had to employ one of the lazy kereru to take it in to town and find a wifi hotspot. Big ask for a kereru, but it must have worked as you are reading this now. My part time job as a tourist guide on the Whanganui River with Forgotten World Jets was starting to get interesting with the river running as low as 35 cumecs, certain obstacles and shingle beds requiring even more focus from us. It’s interesting having tourists as a captive audience in a boat for a few hours at a time, friendships can be forged and at least there is time to discuss some of the big issues such as the environment, particularly water quality. The Whanganui River has just been accorded a special status, that of a living being and kaitiaki or guardians have been
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appointed, one of them is our own Dame Tariana Turia. The river is also known as Te Awanui A Rua, (the big river of two), as at Taumarunui, at a place called Ngahuinga, the Whanganui is joined by the other major tributary, the Ongaruhe river. In the dry months the water from the Ongaruhe is very important as without that volume, navigation by canoe or jet boat would be very difficult indeed. The headwaters of the Whanganui rise on the northern slopes of Ruapehu, Ngauruhoe and Tongariro. These waters flow north to Taumarunui and at Ngahuinga they mix with the waters from the Ongaruhe and turn southwest for the 250 km journey to the sea. Whanganui headwaters are intercepted by the Tongariro power scheme, taking 22% of our original flow, on average. So the subject of water quality is a focus for us. In the run from Taumarunui to Ohinepane we pass through tracts of farmland where we can observe animals
A special carrier-pigeon, the kereru.
standing in and drinking from the river. To my mind, that is not ideal. I do feel that in a short time it will be necessary to run at least a hot wire along the edge, above the flood line as tourists do see the cattle and they take plenty of photos too. Sheep never seem to stand in the water as cattle do and if they can still graze to the edge the weeds can be kept in check. Below Ohinepane the river becomes less-accessible to farmed animals and the main issue is the turbidity of the water from fine particles of soil in suspension after heavy rainfall. Reducing this will take time and effort. We have not been resting and wondering, already many local farmers have taken up the challenge and have made great progress towards the goal of improving water quality. Our regional council has been encouraging the use of the sustainable land use initiative (SLUI) whereby farmers are encouraged to develop whole farm plans. These plans seek to retain the growing media (soil) on the hills as well as establishing an economic yield gap from current use and output compared to future use and output. The assumption is that the land will be better managed by a focus on the better parts of each farm and an appropriate treatment of the less productive areas. So a way forward has already been set for the Whanganui. We have a fantastic example of how people can work together to protect the taonga ( treasure) that is our river.
Country-Wide January 2018
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Diversity in a variable climate
Blair Drysdale
Balfour, northern Southland Surprised and shocked would accurately describe my reaction to being asked to pen a column for a publication I love and have read from front to back for more than 20 years. It’s somewhat daunting given the calibre of the other columnists. Along with my wife Jody and three children Carly (9), Fletcher (7) and Leah (5) we farm 325 hectares in Balfour, northern Southland with my parents Fiona and Ken still living on farm. Our farming operation consists of arable, beef, dairy grazing, sheep and land leased out to tulip growers annually. It’s a diverse operation which spreads our risk across both our variable climate and commodity cycles, neither of which we can control or influence. We can have wet winters and very dry summers, with all four seasons turning up the same day occasionally just for a laugh. Like all regions it has its challenges, A floral carpet covers land leased to tulip growers.
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but if it were easy every man and his dog would want a crack. Family and community involvement is important to us both. With all three children now at school and Jody being president of Balfour Home and Schools she spends a fair bit of time on it not only at home, but also at school along with other parents doing working bees, fundraising events and having just had Agri-week and pet day. Jody also works for Sgt Dan Stockfoods in Gore and fits in a bit of representative golf as well. Meanwhile, I have been a volunteer fireman for 21 years and the treasurer for the last 10. It’s a big commitment with weekly practices, monthly meetings and callouts at any time day or night meaning everything else gets dropped to attend. But helping people in their time of need, regardless of the situation is very rewarding. While it deals up some very rough days, most of the time the role brings a great deal of satisfaction. After a relatively straightforward and relaxing winter (a fair bit of time spent skiing with the family), the start of August means we spring into action and it’s all go. Calf rearing begins, start of the fertiliser and spray programme on all the cereals and cultivation of the winter feed areas almost keeps me out of trouble for the month. September was really just more of the same with a little bit of lambing thrown into the mix and a relatively
normal month as far as the weather was concerned, albeit a little dry. The only abnormal event for the month of coarse happened on the 23rd. Under MMP we got a coalition of Labour and NZ First, with the Green Party essentially on a three-year hand-holding exercise. As I said earlier we are very prone to getting dry and this year is no exception with only 23mm of rain for October and 45mm so far in late November. We require 25mm a week to get by and while the cereal crops are looking very good, they won’t make the combine work too hard if we don’t get good rain asap to fill the heads.
“If it were easy every man and his dog would want a crack.”
While our pasture covers are very good and growing well, that won’t last much longer and the winter feed crops are really going to struggle to establish if the weather pattern remains like this. A highlight recently was most certainly Agri-week at our local school where the children learned, watched and participated in processing foods they consume. Meat chickens reared from one day old, wheat milled into flour for flat breads, cow’s milk for ice cream and seafood gathered on school camps. This all became lunch at the week’s end and it was a real thrill, not only for the children but also the parents to observe it all. It’s a huge credit to all of our wonderful teachers and the parents involved that made it all happen. Food and its origins is a hot topic. If we are to inform the wider public about the real, healthy and sustainable food we produce, we must at first make sure our own children know the full story of food production and know it very well. They are of course the very best of story tellers and the key to our future and survival. Until next time have a great Christmas and a safe journey into a prosperous new year, Cheers!
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NOTEBOOK
Old rockers
“Rock Steady” featuring members from the multi platinum selling bands Bad Company and Foreigner make a summer tour of holiday haunts in January, playing hits from Bad Company, Free and Foreigner. Beginning at the Duke of Marlborough, Russell, January 2, venues include: Mangawhai, Whakatane, Mt Maunganui, New Plymouth, Nelson, Napier, Christchurch, Hamilton, Gisborne, Feilding, Upper Hutt. More? www.toplineentertainment.co.nz
Steam to the vines
Classics of the sky Tauranga City Air Show, January 20, Tauranga City Airport with a display of ex-military and aerobatic aircraft, including RNZAF Black Falcons with their Texan aircraft. More? www.classicflyersnz.com
Pop-up Bard Pop-up Globe has returned to Auckland to present some of Shakespeare’s most famous masterworks including Julius Caesar on Monday, January 8, and The Merchant of Venice, January 9. More? www.eventfinda.co.nz
Antler competition
For its first season the Marlborough Flyer heritage steam train takes passengers from Picton to Blenheim on selected Sundays throughout summer till March. More? www.marlboroughflyer.co.nz
Music festival
A video sale of elite stags and hinds is a new addition to the Elk & Wapiti Society’s annual velvet and hard antler competition on January 27 at the Morgan family’s Raincliff station, South Canterbury. The prize-giving, a spit-roast BBQ dinner and auction will be held at the nearby scout camp where accommodation is available. More? Contact Paul Waller: 027 292 4424, pwallerelk@gmail.com
Tauranga A&P Lifestyle Show, January 14, Tauranga Racecourse. www.taurangashow.co.nz Wairoa A&P Show, January 19, at Wairoa Showgrounds, Ruataniwha Road, Wairoa. www.wairoashow.co.nz Golden Bay A&P Show, January 20, Golden Bay Recreation Park, Takaka. goldenbayshow@gmail.com
Little River Show. January 20, Banks Peninsula A&P Showgrounds, Awa-iti Domain, Akaroa Highway, Little River. www.littlerivershow.org.nz Winton A&P Show, January 20, Winton Racecourse, Winton www.wintonapshow.co.nz Otago Taieri A&P Show, January 27, 28 Showgrounds, 320 Gordon Rd, Mosgiel. www.goo.gl/UMWgpR
A&P Shows Akaroa Music Festival returns for its eleventh year, January 12-28. International musicians provide lessons, masterclasses and concerts. More? www.eventfinda.co.nz
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Duvauchelle Show, January 13 Duvauchelle Showgrounds, Akaroa. www.akaroa.com/duvauchelle-ap-show Lake Hayes Show, January 13, Lake County A&P Showgrounds, Gibbston Highway, Queenstown. www.lakehayesshow.com
NOTE BOOK
If you have something you think might be suitable for the Notebook page please send it in a word document (.doc) to andy.maciver@ nzfarmlife.co.nz along with any pictures as jpgs.
Country-Wide January 2018
Bales of Merino wool ready for the market.
FACTS
Merino flourishes as coarse wools flounder Coarse-crossbred wool indicator
AGRIHQ ANALYST
Fleece contrasts: Country-Wide January 2018
$/kg
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hile near-record schedules have sheep farmers bubbling with a level of optimism not found for a number of years, wool is still a thorn deflating potential onfarm revenue. The state of the crossbred wool market can only be described as depressed. Less than two years ago Chinese buyers were competing heavily for coarse wools, but this competition subsequently made products such as synthetics more appealing, drawing buyers away from wool. To re-affirm this point, China took 27% less 35-plus micron wool in the year-to-October. There have been glimpses of improvements, but these have mainly come from shortterm targeted buying, and all signs suggest they’ll won’t be any significant improvement for the next few months. Quality is another issue for wool sellers. Many farmers refrained from selling wool when the market fell a year ago, and the quality of the wool has often deteriorated while sitting in bales. Large volumes of bales still sit in storage throughout the country. The one positive factor in recent months is the better clearance rates at auction. Over the last three months 80% of wool offered has been sold compared to just 71% a year ago. This should ensure backlogs of wool are
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Sep 5-yr ave
Nov
Jan
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Mar 2017-18
May Source: NZWSI
Av erage f ine wool prices 30.0 20.0 $/kg
Reece Brick
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10.0 0.0
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16-18m Merino
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25-27m Mid-micron
worked through with a bit more pace. Recently 37-micron wools were trading at $3.20/kg clean-on-floor (COF), down 20% on a year ago and a far cry from the $5.90/kg two years ago. To say there’s a sharp contrast between the fortunes of coarse and fine wools would be an understatement. Although most farmers are barely breaking-even on shearing costs, those running Merinos are raking in more money than any time in recent history. Fashion trends have moved in these wools’ favour, actually pulling more
Merino 16-18-micron $25.50/kg COF
2016
of these wools away from Europe into China. In recent months 16-18-micron wools have averaged about $25.50/kg COF, at least 30% more than a year ago. The year-on-year premium falls away rapidly for anything coarser, but all wools under 30 micron making more than a year ago.
Crossbred 37-micron $3.20/kg COF 19
10 IMPACT PLAYERS OF 2017 What will 2017 be remembered for on your farm – good or bad? We’ve looked back over the past year and pulled out what we considered were the top 10 influences or ‘Impact players’ on farming.
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High rainfall HEADACHE Sheryl Brown
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wings and roundabouts. That’s how Federated Farmers Meat and Fibre chairperson Miles Anderson sums up the overall weather effect on sheep and beef
farmers. A difficult autumn for many meant a lot of stock wasn’t finished. The long, wet winter was tough going but a relatively mild and wet spring produced a good lambing result and pasture. That said, a lack of sunshine post-winter has put young stock on the back foot.
Year to Date Rainfall January-September Ruakura recorded 1234mm from January-September Wettest year since records began in 1905. Christchurch: 766mm. Annual norm: 594mm Wettest year 1951: 988mm Hamilton Airport: 1459mm. Annual norm:1200mm Wettest year 1956:1671mm
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He says indications are that there is a lack of spring lambs but the extent of that won’t be known until the New Year at meat processors. He estimates the overall weather effect on beef and lamb farmers as “cost neutral”. However, the effects of prolonged wet conditions linger. “Because it’s been wet for so long there will be a lot of pasture renewal over the next few months.” Alliance livestock and shareholder services general manager Heather Stacy says rain-sodden ground created glitches with transport access. However, overall the weather has not affected processing throughput. Drier-than-normal summer conditions in Southland and Central Otago could make it necessary to bring forward capacity by adding on more chains, or extending shifts. She says the 2017-18 kill is projected to be up on last season although that could change if farmers decide to retain more replacement ewe lambs. Cropping farmers in most parts of the country have borne the brunt of a much-wetter than usual year, Federated Farmers arable sector chairman and South Canterbury farmer Guy Wigley says. “It’s fair to say arable farmers like it on
It’s been a challenging year, with half the country receiving its full annual norm of rainfall by October.
the dry side rather than extreme wet, so this year’s rain has compromised yields.” A handful of harvest days, and a very limited window of opportunity to get crops in the ground made autumn
Country-Wide January 2018
Record rain and chilly temperatures Most farms received their annual rainfall by spring and have experienced cooler temperatures than they have in years. “New Zealand had a bulls-eye on its back for low pressure this year,” MetService meteorologist Georgina Griffiths says. She says it has been rather extreme on rainfall and temperature fronts for all regions and nobody really missed out. Stormy south westerlies hit the country at the start of the year and brought increased rainfall and cooler temperatures and a quick end to everybody’s summer. From autumn onwards NZ was hit from a lot of Tasman lows, which brought quite changeable temperatures through autumn and winter. “Last year we saw a mild winter, this year temperatures slipped through the year every couple of weeks.” The temperatures were lower than have been seen for a number of years, Griffiths says. She says farmers are starting to use Ensemble forecasting to give them higher accuracy pushing out to a four-week window. Ensemble uses multiple models to give a more robust forecast than a single model. “It’s because there is power in the pack. “We’ve got a lot of rural customers that now use the four-week ensemble information which really helps with their planning. If they knew they were going to be in for an extended run of really hot weather over the South Island and less but still warmer than normal weather over the North Island, then that gives them information to do something with.” Ensemble forecasting goes well beyond two weeks out to four weeks and picks up the big highs or lows and rainfall events or drought events really well. To subscribe to the Rural Outlook visit www.metservice.com/rural/monthly-outlook
extremely difficult for Canterbury crop farmers. Many had to hold off autumn plantings due to the saturated soils and have sown spring barley rather than oil seed rape. Nick Murney, managing director of Pure Oil, a Canterbury oilseed crush plant, says it’s been tough going due to the three months of rain from midFebruary which led to a 35% reduction in the planted area of oil seed rape in Southland and Canterbury
The climate is what we expect, the weather is what we get -Mark Twain. “The crops that got through are looking good. A lot has been spring planted but it doesn’t yield as well… it’s a vulnerable crop at the establishment phase so you do need to nurse it.” This year’s barley plantings are significantly up on the previous year and back to normal levels, although yield is likely to be down due to the late rather than early spring sowing. Last year’s reduced barley production was an anomaly, the upshot of reduced demand from the dairy sector. Country-Wide January 2018
In the North Island many maize growers struggled to harvest and get crop in the ground
Another consequence of a wet 2017 is the lack of break crops leading into next year’s wheat crop. In the North Island many maize growers struggled to harvest and get crop in the ground, with many plantings about two to three weeks later than usual. This had led to the planting of early maturing – and lower yielding – varieties, especially for silage. Federated Farmers Waikato vice president and maize grower John Hodge says increased demand for the faster-maturing varieties created a shortage. Like many other growers he still didn’t have his maize crop in the ground at the start of November because contractors were so far behind. Farms on the Hauraki Plains had been particularly hard hit. “The water table is so high on some farms that after a shower of rain the water ponds in any dips.” Although the upside of a higher water table meant that if there was a summer-dry spell maize roots had the ability to grow down and tap into water reserves. “My message to farmers has been not to panic, I’ve seen maize crops planted late due to insect and bird damage and it does catch up... a week of good weather can make a big difference.” 21
10 IMPACT PLAYERS OF 2017 2
GIA timely
Electronic ASDs were successfully piloted during 2017 and the aim is to rolled out as fast as possible.
The great leap forward Andrew Swallow
Act, eASDs can be tuned to an individual processor’s and/or their customers’ Adoption of online Animal requirements, for example with Status Declaration (ASD) information on antibiotic use, forms is “the biggest feeds, and other management potential game changer” for practices. biosecurity in New Zealand, “They have the ability to says Beef +Lamb NZ’s Chris support all sorts of additional Houston. customer assurances.” Electronic ASDs (eASDs), Houston says BLNZ and the developed by the Red Meat Chris Houston, Beef RMPP aims to have every meat Profit Partnership (RMPP), +Lamb NZ technical company in were piloted during 2017 policy manager. the country offering an eASD and Houston’s keen to see alternative to the paper system them rolled out as fast as within the next possible. year. Initially that would be as an optional alternative to the current paper system but over time would hopefully become standard practice. Paper ASDs are time consuming for both farmer and processor even in regular trading and in the event of a trace-back for certain biosecurity purposes, such as a fast moving animal disease, that time taken can be critical, he explains. “We’ll then look at how we encourage “On some farms you’ll find them sitting uptake for farm to farm and farm to in a box in the woolshed, in no particular saleyard movements, so that they cover order. In an investigation sorting that all changes of ownership.” out can be quite time consuming, for MPI has indicated it will lead a bigger example names and addresses can be discussion about traceability and some spelled in different ways or change over legislative tweaks may be required, he time in ways which aren’t immediately adds. apparent. These issues are common Another key biosecurity area to across many paper different based address is the availability of accurate systems.” data about the geographical location of Besides meeting core traceability livestock farms. requirements under the Animal Products
‘On some farms you’ll find them sitting in a box in the woolshed, in no particular order.’
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The horror effects of biosecurity breaches were highlighted in 2017 with the appearance of Mycoplasma Bovis in South Canterbury. More than 5000 cattle will be slaughtered as a result of the disease, with 1000 of those added to the cull list in November. As whole herds were trucked off to the meat works, it’s been a grim reminder to just how vulnerable the agricultural sector and indeed the whole country is to biosecurity threats. Livestock sectors including DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb and the deer industry are seeking a mandate from farmers they represent so they can sign up to the Government Industry Agreement (GIA) Deed for biosecurity. Signing up to the GIA will not only give farmers representation in deciding how responses to incursions are carried out, it will also give them a greater voice when it comes to their expectations for stopping incursions at the border in the first place. “The most important thing in a disease outbreak is knowing where the farms with susceptible species of livestock are,” Houston says, who studied veterinary epidemiology in the immediate aftermath of the devastating UK footand-mouth epidemic of 2001. “I was taught by some of the people who were the leaders in the investigation of that outbreak.” Farmers may believe they know what animals are where in their district, but in practice that information isn’t always accurate and it certainly isn’t rapidly available to those that need to know in the event of a disease outbreak: the Government vets. “In every other developed country where there are large numbers of cattle, sheep, pigs or deer, with the exception of the US, biosecurity services require information about where farms are – including lifestylers. For a country as dependent on farming as we are, it seems sensible for us to take every reasonable and proportionate step to making sure we have this information, even if it means making it mandatory.”
Country-Wide January 2018
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Invasions make year busy Andrew Swallow
In the cropping sector FAR’s Ivan Lawrie says he’s hoping 2018 will be a quieter one in terms of biosecurity than the year just gone. “Last year there was certainly a lot of activity,” he says, reflecting on the ongoing battles with velvet leaf, pea weevil and blackgrass, and emergence of another pest, red clover case bearer moth (RCCB). Of those, velvet leaf was and is the most concerning, even though there were no repeat cases found related to the contaminated beet seed incursion of 2015. “It is the most concerning because of its widespread distribution and the unknown implication of buried seed that might not have been detected.” Unchecked, the tall, large-leaved weed competes aggressively with crops and sheds prodigious amounts of seed with up to 50-year viability.
‘Everything that could possibly be put in place with beet has been done. Now we need to make sure there are similar standards for all imports of seed.’ About 20 Waikato farmers now know that to their cost, as infestations, thought to have originated from seed spread in maize silage and possibly on contracting equipment, have sapped maize yields and caused harvesting headaches. Lawrie says while it’s the same weed species involved in the Waikato and the 2015/16 beet crops, it’s behaved quite differently in the two situations, suggesting different strains of velvet leaf are involved. “There is research underway by MPI
Country-Wide January 2018
to find out more about the biology of them.” Other lessons have already been learnt and stricter border controls implemented, such as requiring unpelleted samples of any seed imported in a coating. Overseas seed production procedures are better understood and there are stronger links with MPI’s counterparts in countries New Zealand imports seed from, he adds. “Everything that could possibly be put in place with beet has been done. Now we need to make sure there are similar standards for all imports of seed.” The pea weevil incursion in Wairarapa has seen a similar raising of import standards, with soak testing now mandatory. “It’s a density test. If the seed’s been eaten out inside by the weevil, which is actually a bruchid beetle, there’s a difference in density and it floats.” Fumigation of pea seed imports was mandatory before the incursion but as that’s normally carried out overseas, processes to ensure it happens properly have been improved, he adds. As for blackgrass, intensive surveillance of all properties with links to the original find has found nothing on all but two farms, both of which have a link to the seed origin. Response work is now focused on eradicating the weed from those three farms. Blackgrass is the number one weed problem in northern European cereal crops and has developed resistance to many herbicides. The source of the NZ incursion is thought to have been a 2007 import of ryegrass seed from the United Kingdom, before blackgrass (Alopecurus myosuroides) was on the unwanted organisms list. Federated Farmers’ national biosecurity spokesman Guy Wigley says eradication looks likely which would be “a wonderful outcome”.
Velvet leaf was and is the most concerning crop infestation.
Meanwhile on the livestock side he’s hopeful the same can be achieved with Mycoplasma bovis, though there has and will be a huge cost involved. “One thing that has come out of it is the need for dairy farms to create a buffer between them and their neighbour with a double fence and boundary plantings to create a physical barrier between them and neighbouring properties.” Wigley says that is “absolutely” something sheep and beef farmers should work towards too, though with generally much longer boundaries it will not always be possible. Across all the incursions in play in 2017 a common theme is the need for tighter on-arm biosecurity, as well as identifying where the import standards were at fault, he says. Ensuring equipment moving from farm-to-farms, and even paddock-topaddock, is clean is a key lesson. “I think farmers in general are much more aware of the need for onfarm biosecurity than they were. The livestock industry has had a big scare from Mycoplasma bovis and even though it looks like being kept very local it really highlights the hazards and impacts of a biosecurity incursion.” Lawrie too says a positive from the cropping incursions is that they’ve highlighted areas where biosecurity practices were lacking. Also, industry and MPI have learnt to work more closely together as a result of them and the sector is making progress towards a government industry agreement.
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10 IMPACT PLAYERS OF 2017 3 Opening up to wellness Jackie Harrigan
While the pressures of farming may not have let up on farmers, they are proving better at finding and adopting strategies to combat mental health stresses and conditions. A survey from the past year by Farmstrong found farmers have increased ability to cope with the ups and downs of farming life and are getting better at sharing and opening up about issues they face. Gerard Vaughan, spokesman for the Farmstrong initiative says he has noticed a lot more openness in talking about mental health challenges. “I spend a lot of time hanging out and having conversations in rural settings and I have noticed that mental health and wellness are much more on people’s radar.” Farmstrong was founded by FMG and the Mental Health Foundation with funding support from the Movember Foundation and strategic partner ACC. The increased use of the Farmstrong website shows through in the digital stats and Vaughan says other factors have helped - Good Yarn workshops, Doug
Avery’s talks and book on resilience, the Healthy Thinking Workshops and other collaborations across the sector. All Black Sam Whitelock has been an ambassador for the initiative for the past year and Vaughan says he has attracted a crowd wherever he has been. “Everyone loves a celebrity and a sporting one, but Sam is very relatable he is very humble and loves chatting to people and having a cup of tea,,” Vaughan says the added benefit is having someone who can draw parallels between operating as a sportsperson and a busy farming business person - the stresses, expectations and reliance of others. Sam is sharing practical strategies, tips and knowledge of how important management of mental wellbeing and performance is in that circumstance - over 300,000 people have watched Farmstrong video clips of his and others’ messages. Vaughan says the mental side of performance is the winning edge - that top two inches of the brain which is involved in managing loss, disappointment, visualising how things should go - it is totally similar to
Initiatives like Farmstrong are helping farmers develop coping strategies for stress.
managing healthy emotions and has been translated into the Healthy Thinking workshops. “Bedding-in thinking strategies and personal WOF checks for mind and body will come from farmer-to-farmer persuasion and storytelling.” Farmstrong plans to build on their platforms and include interactive skillbased learning while continuing to create opportunities for community events and to extend the reach of the audience to farming partners and families.
Support Agencies 1737 Need to Talk: Text or call 1737 for someone to talk to Other support agencies: farmstrong.co.nz/contact-support Depression Helpline: 0800 111 757 Lifeline: 0800 543 354 Rural Support Trust: 0800 787 254 Youthline: 0800 376 633
Testosterone the chief problem Paul Burt
The brief was to write a few words about maintaining health and wellbeing. Even though I’ve been married for 30 years I’m not experienced enough to comment on what makes women tick so I’ll start simply by addressing the main problem affecting men. Testosterone. Because of the strife testosterone causes it should really be a pharmacyonly supplement, having it freely available is just asking for trouble. It takes about 60 years for a man to learn to control testosterone. For most of his life it pushes him to believe he’s invincible, to work too
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hard, to hide his real feelings and not to ask for help when he needs to. Testosterone drives other functions as well and these can be dangerous especially if the brain becomes disengaged. It’s been observed that a man has a brain and a penis but only enough blood to operate one at a time. To make sense of it, a man must realise, when things are turning to custard, the best approach is to slow down and talk about it. Unfortunately, as I said, it takes about 60 years for that wisdom to
surface. It’s ironic that we only start to take care of our bodies when we have three quarters worn them out. You are extremely lucky if you reach the end of your days without mind or body failing. Courtesy of modern medicine a lot of problems, if detected in time, can be managed. Have your check- ups, take your pills, endure the procedures. Just change doctors if you feel his fingers are abnormally large. The physical aspect of wellbeing is easier to manage than the mental processes. When your body is malfunctioning it can usually be observed or shown on a
Country-Wide January 2018
You’re not alone
Terry Brosnahan
Glenys Christian
Julie Jonker is a master of disguise - disguising mental health messages for farmers by incorporating them into events which draw communities together so they know they are not alone. Northland’s Rural Support Trust co-ordinator has been in the job for the last seven years during which time the role has changed considerably. “But it became clear there was a bigger need if people felt overwhelmed,” she says. In the north a series of collaboration dinners have been held over the last two years, attracting more than 500 people to take some time off-farm. She says the dinners will have their time again. “People can get tired of the message that they need to look after their mental wellness, so you need to disguise it.” She says men will often deal with stress by going out on the farm and working harder. “But women will want to talk about it and get a solution and that can cause a lot of disharmony.” It’s important for friends to know when and where to have the courageous conversations which may be required as a result. “But people don’t know how to make that approach or what they can say to someone who is obviously struggling,” she says. “They will get a person and from there we can work out what help they need.”
The first step is often to see the local GP to be referred to the best agency to help. Or phone 0800 RURAL HELP.
Five ways to well-bring The initiative by the Rural Health Alliance (RHANZ) federation and trust was trialled at Fieldays this year and gives farmers five simple tools to maintain wellbeing.
Connect Stay involved in your community.
Give This can be as simple as offering to help out by feeding the neighbour’s dogs while they are away.
Be active A lot of farmers don’t notice that for a variety of reasons they’re not getting the exercise they used to.
Take notice Stop sometimes to look at the small things such as the view when you’re getting the cows in.
Learn something new This can be carried out off-farm, such as studying a new language, or onfarm, by attending discussion groups. • Great suggestions and strategies are on the Farmstrong website: farmstrong.co.nz
graph or index – it’s easier for others to comprehend. It’s much harder to see inside your head and when the brain is not right you are very vulnerable and no-one else has a clue. Stress, trauma, tragedy, failure. That testosterone drip is making men carry this load on a physical and mental framework that can crack. Only you can turn the switch to override and seek help. Depression means fighting yourself, you can win, but not alone. Be rational, there is no point worrying about things beyond your control. As the energy and enthusiasm of youth has long faded for most cockies it’s often helpful to break life down to smaller bites. Change what you need to change and get up each morning with only one intention – to enjoy the day. • Paul is a sheep farmer at Matata, Bay of Plenty.
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Big C gives shake-up
Julie Jonker.
Health-wise, 2017 was a crap year for me. Early in April I was struck by a thunderclap headache which felt like someone had hit me with a fence batten. A scan showed bleeding from a cancerous tumour on my brain behind the left ear. It was secondary and a body scan showed the real culprit, cancer in the right kidney. I have regular health check-ups but there were no obvious signs like back pain or blood in the urine. Thankfully we still have a neurosurgical unit in Dunedin and the brain tumour was quickly removed in the public hospital. The kidney was taken out at Mercy, the private hospital. With the public health system (my wife Eleanor and I) learned quickly you only listen to the consultants and surgeons. Early on, when I was still bewildered with what was happening to me, a junior doctor sat on my bed and told me the outlook was not good. Statistically he was right as the cancer had travelled in the blood and there was a 30% chance of living past five years. However, the consultants later said the stats include a large portion of elderly people and renal cancer outcomes are very much case-by-case. Good health and a positive attitude help. We also learned one needs champions in the health system otherwise you are in danger of falling through the cracks. Make sure you have a good, proactive GP. Use any medical friends or contacts for advice and what questions to ask the consultants. Take extra support people to medical meetings. A couple is too involved and someone lessinvolved hears clearly what the surgeon or consultant is saying. I have moaned for 16 years about paying private insurance premiums but it has been worth every cent being able to jump waiting lists for surgery, scans and consultations. Be proactive with scans and treatment. Don’t rely on them remembering or you may slip through the gaps. There seemed to be a lack of communication between the neurology and urology teams treating me so I went privately to an oncologist. He was able to keep a watching brief and ensure I got the right scans and treatments early. Finally, surround yourself with positive people. In hospital you only want positive people visiting. My cancer is more than likely to come back, but depending on how much and where, there is a range of treatment options available to nail it. Now, every day is a good day and nothing is a problem.
See e-bike p30
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10 IMPACT PLAYERS OF 2017 4
Strong result for beef Mel Croad
Farmgate beef prices have held well above average throughout 2017 after a relatively strong start to the season compared to previous years. This has been somewhat of a surprise as earlier expectations pointed to the beef market easing in response to higher global beef production. Concerns regarding increasing United States beef production stifling any further pricing improvements were soon put to rest. Autumn turned out to be one of the best on record. This led to beef supplies tightening across the country as farmers need stock to control autumn growth. It also had an impact on the volume and timing of the autumn cow kill. NZ beef exports through March and April posted the lowest volumes for those months in more than five years as a direct result of fewer cattle being slaughtered. Overseas markets rallied to secure product from NZ. North Island farmgate beef prices lifted on average by 55-65c/
kg for manufacturing beef between January and April and 40-45c/kg for prime and local trade. Typically farmgate prices fall between 10-25c/kg through this period. It was a similar situation in the South Island where prices lifted by 25-35c/ kg. Supporting NZ’s cause was much tighter Australian beef supplies - a result of the second year of herd rebuilding. It wasn’t until well into June and July that NZ beef exports finally lifted, reflecting the late run of cull dairy cows. This was much later than previous years and slowed the usual farmgate pricing upside normally seen through these months. US imported beef prices also tapered off through late winter as concerns mounted again about the supply of beef in the US in the second half of 2017. It is expected strong global economic conditions will support beef demand into the New Year. However, demand will need to continue to grow to offset lifts in global beef production and prevent prices from sliding below historical levels.
Dairy’s rollercoaster ride Amy Castleton
Falling milk production in the second half of 2016 triggered a recovery in dairy commodity prices through 2017. But dairy markets are always a rollercoaster ride and now look to be heading back down again. Fonterra’s initial forecast for the 2016-17 season was $4.25/kg of milksolids (MS). The final price paid ended up at $6.12/kg MS, reflecting a remarkably better season than anticipated. The 2016-17 season finished with production down just 0.6% on the previous season, as a very poor spring
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was tempered by an exceptional autumn. History is repeating itself this season, as a very wet spring resulted in poor production. But the market is paying little attention. Whole milk powder (WMP) prices, which would normally trend with NZ production figures, have slipped below US$3000/tonne in November. Expectations are for WMP prices to remain fairly flat. The falls in commodity prices mean Fonterra’s $6.75/kg MS forecast for 201718 will be very challenging to achieve. However, a price above $6/kg MS is still looking likely, so turning a profit should still be achievable.
Ram sales strong
Terry Brosnahan
Ram sales have lifted with the improvement in ewe and lamb sales but a wary eye is being kept on the weather. North Canterbury ram breeder Sam Holland is booked up with sales after two years of drought in the region. People are a lot happier with the improved farmgate prices, but it is starting to dry out again. “It is tempering the mood a wee bit.” His Hemingford stud has 2000 stud ewes and sales have kept kept rising even through the drought years. Wairere’s Derek Daniell says farmers want resilient sheep. The number of rams sold by the stud in 2016/17 were down 1% but revenue was up 5%. “Farmers still want good genetics”. This year the stud is on target to sell 2700 rams and ram lambs straight from Wairere. Ram sales in the Australian market are growing, going from 130 to 300. Daniell says demand can easily grow to 500 plus. Another 250 rams were sold in the United Kingdom and 120 in South America. Joint-ventures in NZ sold 400 rams. Daniell says there is pressure to use DNA testing to identify sheep when there is no compelling reason to do so. It would cost the stud $240,000 which would have to be added to the ram cost and would be hard to justify. “That would pay a lot of wages.” Gowan Braes Mike McElrea in west Otago says it was tough selling rams last season but this year is totally different. Farmers are ordering more of his Perendale rams and there are new clients.
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0800 73 73 73 www.hawkeye.farm 28
INSIGHT TO ACTION
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10 IMPACT PLAYERS OF 2017 Smart tech
5 Tech investment cranks up Lynda Gray
Globally an estimated $4.6 billion in 2016 was invested in agri and food technology companies across a broad spectrum including e-commerce, robotics, biotechnology and drone technologies. And it was expected to continue in 2017. “There’s an upwards trend (in technology development) because people are increasingly interested in ways to produce more food but in more sustainable and efficient ways and they’re looking for solutions,” Hadyn Craig an Abacus Bio consultant with special interest in emerging technologies. Traditionally, tech developments within the New Zealand agri sector have been “incremental” rather than “disruptive”, however this is starting to change. Craig says technology such as variablerate irrigation, robotic milking is still about doing the same thing but more efficiently, although walk-over weighing in the dairy industry is a good example of technology that’s led to a new way of
doing things. Also, there is a big focus on generating data to improve decision making, and the best tech products and applications analyse and present the information in a user-friendly way. Hawkeye from Ravensdown is a tool just released to be able to upload, share and track soils and nutrient data across users and making analysis, accurate application and tracking and monitoring fertiliser usage easy and automated. New technology will redefine and in many cases challenge traditional livestock, crop and farming production. Plant-based protein production systems are up and running using the latest technology and could prove to be disruptive in every sense. “I think a lot of people are underestimating how it could change agriculture.” At the same time improved technology is bringing much-needed cost efficiency to vertical story and hydroponic plant growing systems. Robotics was another potential cost-efficient technology which Craig
Common sense tech David and Hilary Ward, winners of the Deer Industry’s 2017 Gallagher Technology Innovation award use a range of technologies to sustainably manage and monitor inputs on their and carefully monitor inputs and management intensive irrigated crop, lamb and weaner deer finishing farm at Fairton near Ashburton.. They nitrogen test feed, whole paddock soil test, and use neutron probes to measure soil moisture. “It’s just good common sense. Understanding your soils is key. We measure soil quality and inputs and use those to guide best management practices.” GPS has also been ushered in on all harvesting equipment and for fertiliser applications over the last three years. They haven’t got Green Tick certification as yet which would require Variable Rate Irrigation (VRI). “Our paddocks aren’t as variable as on some farms but we’ll continue to look at VRI.”
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CRV Ambreed’s milk urea nitrogen (MUN) breeding value is an excellent example of relevant technology because it is a smart and practical solution for reducing nitrogen excretion and leaching, Hadyn Craig says. He also rates highly AgriTrack, a phone-based farm logistics system that let farmers monitor in real time harvest operations. Auto-steer or self-driving technology has been widely adopted and made a real difference in the cropping sector since release in 2003 by increasing precision and reducing driver stress, Precision agriculture specialist Dan Bloomer says. GPS and camera-based technology that allows farmers to more precisely line up implements for cultivation, cropping and harvest is another example of practical and value-adding technology. saw in action at the recent AgriTech Investment Showcase in London where a small prototype tractor automated for cultivations and sowing was showcased. “It sounds out there but it had the same functionality as a normal tractor and was lighter, safer because it removed the risk of injury or harm to a driver, and is a solution to labour shortages.” Developments in agri-biotechnology and genomics would continue and had the ability to be transformative. “There are lots of animal and plant breeding technology developments that really have potential to create greater efficiency.” His advice on whether or not to buy the latest gadget software or subscribe to the latest app boiled down to exactly how it will benefit your own farming system. The cost benefit is an obvious consideration, and in his opinion EID was an example of a technology that offered long term economic benefits due to better breeding and culling decisions based on stock performance data. But there were other intangible, social and environmental benefits of a tech application were also important, especially as consumer perception and expectations around production systems were starting to have more influence. More technology p31
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All about the e-bike Terry Brosnahan
For someone who can’t drive a car an electric bike is a good option though a limited one in rural areas. In New Zealand, any form of brain surgery means a mandatory stand-down from driving for 12 months. So to help regain some independence I bought an e-bike. E-bikes have a motor which assists the rider, especially when riding up hills or biking into winds. The rider still has to pedal but extra power makes riding up hills a breeze. The only time I bike is when camping yet we (the motor and I) were able to pedal up Dunedin’s Stuart St at average of 20km/hour. Rather than walk home after work, I would take an e-bike home overnight. I tested a number with rear hub and mid drive motors which put out 250-300 watts of power. All were good. There are more powerful bikes overseas, but in NZ anything over 300W requires a licence. A rear hub bike has the motor on the back wheel, is cheaper and more-suited for the road. A mid-drive has the motor on the crank, has more torque and better for trail bike riding. Some detect when you start pedalling and the motor automatically assists, others have a manual throttle. Some bikes have both. Depending on the bike there can be up six different levels of assistance. The bikes don’t charge while cycling so the removable battery needs to be recharged. The manufacturers say 35-150km, but it depends on the level of power assistance used. A battery’s life can be 500-1000plus charges depending on the quality and some cost $500 or more to replace. For $6000, a farmer can get a mountain bike with full suspension which would be a good alternative to farm motorbikes. Shifting cows down lanes and moving or checking stock would be good exercise, but with the ability to move quickly or not pedal at all when required. They are also a lot of fun to ride and are coming down in price. A businessman friend who does a lot of importing looked at bringing bikes but decided against it. He said there were already a number of businesses importing the bikes and once the Warehouse got involved the prices and margins would tumble. I bought a Magnum Peak from Electrify.nz for $2500($250 off for Mercury customers) which has a 300W rear-hub motor and a large, 48V battery. It is good for around town and rail trails if I ever decide to do one. E-bikes have different carrying weight ranges, the ones I tested were for a 120kg maximum load. Carriers can be fitted and many have an LED headlight running off the battery or can be fitted. The bikes had a top speed of 35-40km/ hour. As well as getting fit, farmers could ride to the local pub and have a few drinks without the fear of a drinking- driving prosecution.
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Farm productivity Alan Royal
A number of technologies and tools have become available in the past decade which can improve farm productivity. The problem is knowing what they are, where to find them and how to manage them. Nearly all of the productivity material available requires a reasonable understanding of computers and access to the internet. The rural scene is still lacking in formal support in both of these areas. However, there has been a massive increase in the amount of free internet-based learning modules. The collection listed below, compiled over the last few years, contains both computer learning modules and a wide range of other courses. Remote computer access allows one farm office to link wirelessly, and to communicate and shift information in real time with other staff or businesses’ computers. The only requirement is that linked computers have internet access. Operating systems have built-in remote access tools but, as yet not all systems talk to one another. One app is TeamViewer, which, incidentally, also allows you to link your smartphone to your remote or local computers. Remote ‘cloud’ storage access is one of the big advances in the last decade. Much of this storage gives considerable free and secure data storage. The biggest advantage is that you can give secure access (limited or total) to others to access your cloud storage. Common sources of cloud storage include those systems built in to Google’s Drive (dependent on a Google account), Microsoft’s One Drive, Apple’s Icloud, Mega and Dropbox. Most have free and business options. By the way, the learning material noted above is accessed through my personal cloud storage. Cloud storage also allows you to store and provide
access to files that are too large to be sent via your email provider. Just provide a link to those you wish to have access. Providing you have reasonable internet access the talk, video and chat tools such as Whats App, Viber and of course Skype have provided great tools for onfarm communication. The main advantage is they do not use much of your smartphone or internet data allocation provided you have the video turned off. Most New Zealand libraries now provide access to a range of material for subscribers. The major benefits include the ability to read online, a massive range of learning material, books, newspapers and magazines, free. Many companies provide large technical and annnual reports. The developing tendency is to encourage you to sign up for, and receive these online rather than hard copy. Tip: store them, and other documentaton on your cloud storage for easy future access. The most popular map programme is still provided by Google, but for farmers Land Information NZ maps are valuable. In today’s environment one must mention the advances in environmental management tools, by NIWA.
Where to find them • Computer skills learning: bit.ly/onlinecourses2017 • Remote computer access TeamViewer (teamviewer.com/en) • Remote ‘cloud’ storage access: Google Drive (dependent on a Google account), Microsoft’s One Drive, Apple’s Icloud Mega (mega.nz), Dropbox (dropbox. com) • Talk, video and chat tools: Whats App (whatsapp.com) and Viber (www.viber.com) • Environmental management tools: NIWA (niwa.co.nz).
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10 IMPACT PLAYERS OF 2017 6
Investors play the waiting game Jackie Harrigan
Overseas investors do not drive young Kiwi farmers out of the first farm ownership market. MyFarm executive chairman Grant Rowan, pictured, says it is a media beatup and being rolled out by politicians while being 100% wrong. He says they are two “wildly” different markets. “Overseas investors are essentially active in the $10 million-plus range, but first farms are in the $3m and less bracket.” Rowan says the past year or 18 months has been very quiet in terms of dairy sector foreign investment. “Everyone has been sitting on their hands a bit trying to figure out where the value sits.” Rowan says New Zealand companies had still been active in other sectors. Settling up equity partnerships and investments in the sector and then managing the portfolio was bread and butter for MyFarm over the past 20 years. The company, riding a wave of low land prices and good returns, invested in and converted many dairy farms, later selling, divesting or managing for overseas and local investors. He says transaction costs are high for overseas buyers. They are up to $100,000/transaction by the time the OIO and legal costs are covered, and all overseas investor farms need a management overhead - also expensive on a small farm. There are not large numbers of domestic buyers with appetites to buy farms over $10m. The indebtedness of Kiwi dairy farmers is a factor holding back local investment. “We strongly believe that we can’t keep continuing on with existing farmers buying others out - there is a limit to how much debt the industry can build.” He says new money needs to come from outside the existing local pool, from institutional investors or from overseas.
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The Reserve Bank warns the dairy industry has $41 billion of debt with the average farm holding debt of $22.60/kg milksolids (MS) and 40% of farmers having debt of more than $30/kg MS. Rowan says Kiwi investment from other sectors and from institutional investors has also been subdued due to the volatile nature of earnings and the very resilient land prices in the face of those lower prices. “In our assessment the value of good quality land has only come back by 7%. Assets have held their value despite lower earnings - so clearly that indicates there is optimism about the future of the industry. “But the sharemarket has represented better value in the past couple of years.” He is confident the tide will turn but it will be a measured growth. Investment returns are low all around
the world and money is looking for a safe return. NZ is a well-run and safe economy, which makes it attractive to investors - not just in agriculture but in other parts of the economy as well. Dairying is still the country’s largest primary industry and one of the larger NZ industries. He believes there will continue to be some interest, but not a landslide of overseas investment. On the flip side, Rowan says foreign investment has brought many positives into local communities who by and large welcome them. There has been greater productivity and more employment in regions where conversions have taken place. The OIO monitoring programme requires annual reporting and auditing which Rowan says is “a pretty solid” process to make sure the conditions of the investment are met.
Five hectares directive in force From December 15, 2017, overseas buyers of five hectares or more of rural land need to show they will deliver “substantial and identifiable” benefits over and above those which would occur from a local change of ownership. Previously this was only necessary if a farm was 10 times the average size for its sector. The Government says restrictions in sales generally applied to sheep and beef farms over 7146ha or a dairy farm more than 1987ha. The exception is overseas buyers intending to live on the farm or forestry purchases, where it seems overseas ownership is welcome, on the proviso resulting timber is processed here. Craigmore Sustainables’ chief executive Che Charteris say regular reviews of overseas investment rules made sense but even under the previous Government requirements were rigorous with applications often running to 100 pages and detailed annual reports required for four years post purchase. “You can’t just say you’ll create 10 extra full-time positions. It all has to be justified.” Charteris believes there should be more emphasis on control, with the people controlling the business living in the communities in which they operate so they feel the consequences of their decisions, as they do in Craigmore’s model, he adds. All the changes were detailed in a directive letter from Finance Minister Grant Robertson to Land Information New Zealand chief executive Andrew Crisp. The letter, and the one from Bill English in December 2010 which it replaces, are under the regulatory tab at www.linz.govt.nz
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Nitrogen management with the power of 4. Stacking up the benefits 1
Huge reduction in N leaching from the urine patch - up to 89% depending on sward blend*
2
Increases feed quality and/or supply during summer and autumn
3
Improves speed of sward recovery after summer dry
4
Improves cool season activity of pasture base
5
An ideal source of minerals for animal health and performance
B RO U G H T TO YO U BY:
*Lincoln University lysimeter studies (Woods, 2017) 32
AGC 1575
The future is in your hands
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10 IMPACT PLAYERS OF 2017 7
Boost ahead for R&D Staff writers
Science has underpinned the development of the agricultural sector over many decades, Research, Science and Innovation minister Megan Woods says. As agriculture faces a range of significant challenges there also comes opportunities. “The Government has signalled its intention to move more rapidly on greenhouse gas emissions and freshwater goals, and for the agricultural sector to play its part in this. Science and innovation will continue to play a key role in supporting the adaptation needed to meet these challenges.” The Government wants to raise economy-wide investment in research and development to 2% of GDP over the next 10 years.
SUSTAINABILITY PROGRAMME Plant & Food Research has launched a new Sustainable Agro-Ecosystems programme (SAE) that prioritises scientific research specifically aimed at enhancing the productivity and resilience of primary industries, while at the same time reducing environmental footprint. The projects within the programme sit under three key research themes: land use suitability, plants for the environment and future farming. • The potential of no-tillage or minimum tillage practices to establish fodder beet and kale to reduce soil compaction and improve the performance of subsequent crops, including reducing the risk of N losses.
• Field and laboratory experiments to provide more accurate estimates of the mineralisation of nitrogen from soil organic matter and residues so that nitrogen applications can be better matched to plant requirements and reduce the risk of leaching. • A programme of work aimed at betterquantifying soil carbon processes. For example, investigating how different cultivation and soil management techniques might increase the opportunity to sequester more soil carbon under different land uses. • Working with farmers to demonstrate the benefits of catch crops sown following winter grazing to mop up nitrogen that can otherwise be leached and to provide a high-quality feed source in spring. • Developing models that can help explore the predicted impacts of future climate scenarios and identify adaptation practices that will help farmers respond to new pressures. • Quantified the potential benefits of variable rate nutrient management strategies on productivity, profitability and environmental outcomes.
PLANT REDUCES N LEACHING Seed company Agricom has bred a specific plantain genotype Ecotain that reduces nitrogen leaching from the urine patch in four ways: it increases the volume of cows’ urine which dilutes the concentration of nitrogen, it reduces the total amount of nitrogen in animals’ urine, it delays the process of turning ammonium into nitrate in the urine patch, and it restricts the accumulation of
Breeding greener cows CRV Ambreed’s genetic discovery anticipates it will reduce nitrogen leaching on NZ farms by 20% within 20 years. LowN Sires were introduced in March 2017.The bulls will reduce the milk urea and milk urea nitrogen concentrations in their progeny. Milk urea nitrogen concentration is directly related to urinary nitrogen output per day, cows sired by LowN Sires are expected to have reduced nitrogen excretion, reducing leaching into groundwater and waterways. Modelling, over a 20-year period, shows N leaching is potentially reduced by 20% through breeding. There is potential application of LowN Sires to beef and other species such as sheep.
Country-Wide January 2018
An EU ban on glyphosate would have impacted on New Zealand.
nitrate in Ecotain-growing soil. The environmental plantain was bred by Agricom which is working alongside Lincoln, Massey University and Plant & Food Research. In one of the research programmes where Ecotain is used there was a reduction in nitrogen leaching by as much as 89% from the urine patch.
Herbicide’s use renewed The European Union vote allowing the use of glyphosate for another five years will bring a collective sigh of relief among New Zealand exporters. The European Commission initially supported the herbicide’s use for another decade but growing opposition after a claim it may caused cancer led to only approving it for five years. There was a fear it would disrupt global trade.The vote took place towards the end of November with the licence due to expire on December 15 A total of 18 out of the 28 states supported the renewal which was a close vote as there had to be a clear majority. Opposition mounted after a World Health Organisation agency, IARC(International Agency for Research on Cancer) concluded it probably caused cancer. Even though the European Food Safety Authority (a food safety watchdog ) said it was safe in September this year, opposition remained strong. Other agencies and organisations have also said glyphosate is unlikely to cause cancer in humans.
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10 IMPACT PLAYERS OF 2017 8
A pitch to a young generation Anne Hughes
Understanding the younger generation could help bring new blood into the farming industry. Lone Star Farms general manager Boyd Macdonald says to keep younger staff on the land and contributing to the farming industry, it helps to try understanding their priorities. Expectations of newcomers to the industry are very different to 20-30 years ago, he says. Lone Star established a scholarship four years ago to assist students intending to study a diploma in farm management at Lincoln University.
The scholarship encourages Dip Ag students to go on to a second year of study. Macdonald says it is also an opportunity for the company to interact with the next generation of farmers, find what they are looking for in a job and what is important to them in their career.
Contract worker delays Anne Hughes Delays in approval for seasonal migrant workers are leaving some rural contractors sweating when preparing for the busy season. Planning and preparation for the peak season – usually starting in summer, but as early as spring for some contractors – starts well in advance and contractors need to know early on that they have their staffing requirements filled. Rural Contractors New Zealand president Steve Levet, pictured, says registered contractors are bringing in about 600 skilled machinery operators with approval in principle from Immigration New Zealand. Being approved in principle allows contractors to hire as many migrant workers with essential skills as they need, without repeating the labour market test. Approval in principle makes the process easier for employer and employee. Levet says it does work, but there have been some major delays in receiving approvals. One contractor lodged his application in January for the 2017-18 season, which was not approved until July. Levet says contractors really need their labour sorted for the coming season well before then. Ideally, approval in principle numbers will be issued in February, so migrant workers can get the work visa process under way. “We’re hoping we’ll get more clarity and more decisive decisions being made.” Dealing with a bureaucratic organisation also has its challenges. Levet says the shifting of Immigration New Zealand’s head office from Wellington to Christchurch and regular personnel changes are among those challenges. “You’re telling them the same story year-in, year-out and that gets frustrating.” Rural contractors have had to get on board with health and safety requirements and Levet says most farmers they work for have now also embraced it. His own Wellsford-based contracting business carries out random drug tests on employees in an effort to maintain a safe workplace. Levet says the whole issue of drug testing is pretty straightforward, as long as it is spelt out clearly in the employment contract. “There’s a lot at stake. You want your own peace of mind.”
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It makes an onfarm position available to the successful recipient, once they have completed their studies. He says it takes a special kind of farm manager and good people skills to work successfully with employees in their first year of farming. It is important to give these people a good first experience, so they are not put off pursuing a career in farming. With seven farms and 45 staff, Lone Star has the advantage of scale, allowing the company to employ its own human resources and health and safety administrator. Macdonald says this makes employment processes and compliance much easier for him and his team, but they do take a positive approach to processes such as staff inductions and health and safety. “As long as you take a practical approach to health and safety and realise it’s about keeping people safe, it’s a good thing and adds to the overall team culture. “For a lot of this compliance and regulation it is a lot easier for an organisation like ourselves because we’ve got a resource. For individual owner/operators it would be a huge undertaking.” The seasonal nature of farming does mean the company needs to be conscious of the hours staff work, particularly during the big jobs such as weaning and docking, that staff are not working too long, thus risking health and safety. The increase to the minimal wage is also a factor that needs to be considered to ensure that, especially during those busy periods, staff are not underpaid. It’s good to monitor hours worked to avoid that becoming a health and safety risk. “And if they’re working it’s really only fair that they are being paid.”
Country-Wide January 2018
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Turmoil as the rules change Nigel Stirling
Politics was to the fore again in 2017 as elections at home and overseas collided with New Zealand farmers. At the start of the year United States President Donald Trump fulfilled his campaign pledge and withdrew from the TransPacific Partnership (TPP). Almost a decade in the making the 12-country deal was briefly imperilled and with it hundreds of millions of dollars of annual gains for this country’s exporters. But the protectionist-in-chief wasn’t finished there as he flirted with a 20% border tax on all imports which could have wreaked havoc with NZ beef, lamb, dairy and growing wine sales to the US if it had been implemented. As the year drew to a close Trump was challenging China forcefully over its status as a non-market economy. This battle of wills has the potential to escalate in to a full-blown trade war in 2018 if neither side backs down. Reverberations from the 2016 Brexit vote continued with Theresa May’s Conservatives returned to power in the United Kingdom with a much-reduced majority in June. Trade-watchers in this part of the world
A battle of wills for the protectionist-in-chief.
theorised that the result was a rejection of May’s plan for a clean break from the European Union and could work in favour of NZ meat exporters battling to retain full access to the British and EU markets when the UK finally departs in March 2019. But a visit by Liam Fox here in late November left that theory in tatters with the British international trade secretary making it clear the UK intends to play hardball on the tariff-free quota which underpins still NZ’s single most valuable market for sheep meat. At home September’s election threw up a number of policies from the Labour Party in particular which spooked farmers.
At the forefront was David Parker, shaping up as the minister to have the most influence over farming in the coming term. Regularly baited by National MPs in Parliament for “hating farmers” he started the campaign with a promise to introduce a water royalty but the idea didn’t survive coalition talks. Fortunately Parker also averred from previous critical comments aimed at the TPP and re-committed NZ to the deal during APEC trade talks in Vietnam soon after being sworn in as Trade Minister. He had followed up within days with a toughening of rules for foreigners seeking to buy land here. Parker brushed aside property rights concerns by arguing young NZ farmers shouldn’t have to compete with the global super-rich to get their first farm and somewhat surprisingly had Federated Farmers in his corner. But it as Environment Minister that Parker could have his biggest impact. A long-time critic of dairy intensification the former water lawyer can be expected to push even stricter limits on farming practises. ›› More politics
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Frustration at new rules Anne Lee
Immigration policy was again one of the biggest influencers on the farm labour market in 2017. New rules implemented in August mean dairy staff, other than those at farm manager level, are likely to have to renew their work permits annually for up to a maximum of three years. After three years they must stand down for a year which means they’ll have to leave the country. The addition of pay bands to the essential skills visa requirements means anyone earning less than $35.24/hour is deemed “lower skilled” and so is likely to fall into the annual renewal category. Federated Farmers dairy industry group chairman and national
Country-Wide January 2018
spokesperson on immigration and labour Chris Lewis, pictured, says the new rules relating to “lower-skilled” staff are a complete frustration to farmers and their migrant staff. “Every year we’re going to see people have to reapply and then wait to hear.” The rules were brought in by the National Government and Lewis is hoping that despite the pre-election bluster on immigration the new Labour Government will take a more pragmatic view. The South Island Contribution visa is a one-off chance to obtain a workto-residence visa and must be applied for before May 2018. It was introduced in May this year and has had strong interest. It’s estimated about 1600 staff already living in the South Island
could be eligible. Lewis says no such provision was granted for North Island staff and that’s something that will be discussed with the new minister too. They want a situation where, as long as farmers have followed good process, advertised and been genuine in their search for a New Zealander, they should be free to employ immigrant staff onfarm. He says farmers have a number of rules and regulations they have to work under now such as health and safety. “So we can’t afford to have just anyone turn up on a farm and work on it.” They have to be able to follow farm policy, keep themselves safe and be ideally suited to farming otherwise farmers are going to be in the headlines because the wrong people have been employed.
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Protecting your farm Biosecurity is about reducing the risk of diseases, weeds or pests entering, spreading, or leaving your farm. Protecting profits
Protecting health
Disease outbreaks, new pasture pests and weeds can
Some diseases can be passed from animals to humans.
have serious long-term financial impacts.
Biosecurity planning helps protect the health of your stock, family, farm team, and visitors.
Use this checklist to identify ways you can help protect your farm
Checklist Disease status of new stock is considered carefully before animals are bought or moved Visitors arrive with clean equipment, clothing and footwear and disinfect upon arrival Boundary fences are secure and prevent nose-to-nose contact with neighbouring stock
Young calves are given special protection
Potential weeds and pasture pests are identified and prevented
Animal pests are controlled
Biosecurity signs are clearly visible and easy to follow
For more info dairynz.co.nz/biosecurity
10 IMPACT PLAYERS OF 2017 9 Shake-up promised for ag Bob Edlin
Big changes are ahead for the farming industry under the new Government especially with issues such climate change and water quality, agriculture minister Damien O’Connor says. Leading the charge against the threat from plant-based alternatives to dairy and meat products is high on his agenda, too. The focus on environmental management and best practice with animal welfare was to uphold the reputation of the country and its food brands, he told Country-Wide. “We have to be beyond reproach when it comes to the perception that when you buy something from New Zealand, you are buying safe, highquality and the finest produce.” O’Connor questions whether the meat and dairy industries are awake to surging consumer demand for non-dairy and non-meat foodstuffs. “We’re facing major disruption around artificial protein, or substitute protein, both in meat and in dairy.”
He says a big dilemma facing NZ and producers is determining whether consumers want natural products or ones that have less effect on the environment through the production system. “It’s not mutually exclusive but we have to look at those two alternatives and work out where we sit in the long term.” It is not obvious to O’Connor that Fonterra and the big meat companies recognise the threat. Developing a strategy to deal with it is urgent, he says, and the Government has a responsibility to lead, given the industry’s apparent slowness to react. Just believing that people need meat or milk isn’t enough. Biosecurity is a top priority for O’Connor, who has concerns about the way the mycoplasma bovis outbreak has been handled (“potentially it has a huge impact across the livestock sector – we’ve got to get on top of that”). The focus must be on containment and eradication if possible but ensuring a mistake like this doesn’t happen again is important, too.
Wool blockage needs removing.
He wants a review of what happened. O’Connor says the meat industry must gear up to meet the threat from alternative proteins, too. In dairying, new legislation must be passed by May next year when competition-focused measures in the DIRA will lapse. With wool best practise must be allowed to prevail. “Remove the blockage from what are effectively self-interested players across agri-business who just want to keep things as they are.” The hastening of a review of NAIT is on O’Connor’s agenda, because he questions whether the scheme has worked as intended. He has concern about the level of technology and utilisation on farms and the accuracy of the reporting of stock movements. “The whole thing needs to be looked at carefully to make sure the database and identification implementation works for our long-term interests, not just for the interests of individuals or companies.”
Making sure they understand Bob Edlin
Beef +Lamb New Zealand and Federated Farmers aim to maintain good relations – and influence – with the new coalition Government. Federated Farmers president Katie Milne says they never expect to be heard ‘sympathetically’, regardless of the government or council they speak to. All the Feds can do is make sure the impact of any regulation is fully understood by the people making them. The Feds worked extensively in the last year with ministers and officials on regulations such as for animal welfare, stock exclusion and tax calculation. They had worked closely with WorkSafe to achieve “a sensible outcome” for the carriage of passengers on quads.
Country-Wide January 2018
The Feds had helped gain crossparty support for an amendment to telecommunications legislation which enabled installation of fibre optic cable along overhead powerlines crossing farmland, with a connection discount for the affected landowner. The Government had accepted their arguments it was illogical and unfair to put agricultural livestock emissions under the Emission Trading Scheme when there were few mitigation measures farmers could take. The Federation was always optimistic Kiwis eventually would begin to realise farmers had been working to improve waterways and water management for more than a decade. This would show up in improving water quality, “so it’s not just about changing urban people’s perceptions
but also the reality”. Hopefully water quality then might be less of an emotive issue. Beef +Lamb chief executive Sam McIvor says the organisation worked with previous Government and officials in areas such as supporting NZ efforts for greater access for meat exports to global markets. It also advocated on behalf of farmers on issues such as biosecurity and the environment. It welcomed the Government’s focus on regional economic development, and research and development. The sheep and beef sector directly and indirectly supports around 80,000 jobs in NZ, most of them in the regions. McIvor reiterated the sector’s commitment to improving water quality and further reducing its greenhouse gas emissions, both high in the new Government’s priorities.
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10 IMPACT PLAYERS OF 2017 10
Charging through the ranks Sandra Taylor
With a penchant for Corriedale sheep and vintage farm machinery, it is hard to believe James Hoban, pictured, is only in his early thirties. But with this appreciation of all things old comes a wisdom beyond his years, and when this North Canterbury sheep and beef farmer talks, people listen – the notable exception being his infinitely patient wife Maria and two children Alice (6) and William (3). James, who has a degree in resource management, is Beef +Lamb New Zealand Northern South Island Farmer Council chairman, Corriedale Society president, has twice been a finalist in the Young Farmer of the Year competition and was the Royal Agricultural Society’s NZ Rural Ambassador in 2014. An environmentalist – although a blue shade of green – James captured the zeitgeist of balancing environment and production long before it became main stream. He was, for several years, the judging co-ordinator for the Ballance Farm Environment Awards and a
member of the local committee. He has been instrumental in forming a Landcare Group representing dryland farmers in North Canterbury and has been involved in the North Canterbury drought and earthquake response committees.
James was one of a group of strong young farming leaders who emerged in North Canterbury from the adversity created by draconian environmental regulations, drought and an earthquake. As well as being a full-time farmer, James facilitates a local Deer Industry New Zealand Advance Party and runs B+LNZ’s regional Farm Environment Plan workshops. James’ strengths are his communication skills. He is an articulate speaker and an excellent writer. As well as being a regular contributor to Country-Wide he has written four local history books. The Hoban family have recently upscaled and moved their sheep and beef operation from Culverden to a 770-hectare coastal farm at Waipara. James’ easy-going, affable nature belies his intelligence and ability to process a situation quickly, and respond in a measured and sound manner. He is the go-to person when it comes to summing up field days and there is always a good deal of humour peppered among the insights.
Regaining trust Anne Hardie
Earning the public’s trust again is a key goal for Federated Farmers president, Katie Milne, and she is seizing every opportunity to remind them farming is about producing food. The West Coast dairy farmer has been a farming advocate since her early 20s when she realised she had to stand up and tell her farming side of the story to politicians and regulators making the rules.These days she rarely has time to milk the cows on the 200cow farm near Lake Brunner she shares with partner, Ian Whitmore, and instead advocates for the wider agriculture industry on issues such as the urbanrural disconnect, the Emissions Trading Scheme and genetically-modified
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organisms. All are big nuggety issues she says someone has to tackle, while farmers get on with the job of producing food. More than ever, Katie says a farming entity such as Federated Farmers is needed to speak up for the industry and it needs sufficient resources to get the best out of the new Government and a new way of communicating with people to get positive messages to the public. It’s been quite a journey for the farm girl who started working life in a freezing works –at one stage the only woman in the slaughter room – to a job that takes her to the capital every week to rub shoulders with government officials. Her commitment to the dairy industry in particular has earned her
the Dairy Woman of the Year award, before being the first woman elected Federated Farmers president in its 118year history. A woman at the top of the political farming ladder is a novelty in mainstream media and she says that has given her a valuable platform to get positive farming messages to an urban audience.
Country-Wide January 2018
BUSINESS | CATCH-UP
The year in Review
A good year for condition
We asked some of the farmers who have appeared in Country-Wide how 2017 panned out for them
Contract grazing success Lynda Gray For Maniototo farmers Geoff and Lauren Shaw, 2017 was a good year and they’re hoping for more of the same in 2018. A good spring, a good lambing, and a low dollar which has flowed on to good lamb and beef prices left little to complain about, Geoff says. The Shaws (Country-Wide, August 2016) changed from a traditional sheep breeding finishing, brassica and ryegrass to a contract grazing and downsized sheep breeding system on 840-hectares of dryland, lucerne-based pastures near Ranfurly. The grazing side of their business
is ticking over well, and in midNovember, with dry weather starting to take hold, they had already had several phone calls about possible grazing. “We’ve got plenty of feed on hand so if the weather keeps on the way it is we could be getting a few more calls.” The unknown would be demand for dairy heifer grazing. “A lot of dairy farmers decided to graze their heifers at home so it will be interesting to see if they do that again this season.” No dramatic changes are planned on the farming front although a few of the older lucerne-based pastures are being replaced.
Rain and distance cause angst Jo Grigg A challenge for Simon and Lynda Harvey, and son Tom on their Awatere Valley highcountry farm was the miserable weather in August-September and dodging the rain to get the shearing done (appeared CountryWide February 2017). Distance has been an issue in supplying their preferred lamb market, due to the Kaikoura earthquake blocking the main highway to Canterbury. Overall lambing percentage this season is back a shade, to 117%, reflecting poorerquality tupping feed and a wet lambing. Lamb growth was a bit slower initially but has picked up with warmer weather. At least 50% of their Merino-cross lambs are expected to be killed off the ewe. Their Glen Orkney stud ewe flock is being used primarily to produce rams for home use, although some are sold. Individual worm egg counts (WEC)
Country-Wide January 2018
Simon and Lynda Harvey: Miserable weather.
have, once again, been taken from the ram hoggets this spring. Challenging weather conditions over lambing reminded them of the importance of breeding lambs that have positive breeding values for fat and muscle, to help improve survival. Simon says the best money for the year has to be selling old ewes. Ten years ago they made $30 but are now bringing in at least $120/head. Coupled with her wool this makes a Merino ewe a tidy earner.
Lynda Gray Improved scanning and an excellent lamb drop are edging west Otago farmer John Herbert closer to his holy grail: a ewe that each year clips a 6kg fleece and turns out two early finishing 18kg carcaseweight lambs (appeared Country-Wide June 2017). This year mixed-age ewes scanned 180% and the two-tooths 171% which collectively has pulled up the long-term 175-178% average. John puts the improvement down largely to better feeding, although the introduction of Romney genetics to the Perendale flock – which included the 2017 West Otago twotooth competition winners – may have had an influence. “It was a good year for putting condition on the ewes, so they went to the ram in good order.” Lambing went well although a dampener was abortion in the twotooths. Another dampener in every sense was heavy rain, followed by snow that completely washed out 35 hectares of newly sown grass. Five hectares of fodder beet was grown as a trial for the wintering of ewes but it won’t be repeated. “It was good but it’s not costeffective for us, despite the fringe benefits. In short, to feed our sheep we’d need to grow about 40ha which would cost about $100,000 whereas I can grow 60ha of chou and swedes for about $36,000.” To keep stock performance moving in the right direction is the high level goal for the coming year, but more specifically John says he’ll be making a point of spending on capital fertiliser. “There’s always something I want to do better. You’re never finished on a farm.”
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BUSINESS | CATCH-UP
Deer leading the charge Joanna Grigg
and 1400 ewes. Deer progeny are finished on lucerne while the hinds summer on irrigated A pre-Christmas catch up with areas. Tahi Doonan, Awatere Valley, Another 40 hectares has finds him very happy with been deer-fenced and the plan is deer returns. In 2014 Young to increase stag numbers to 200 Country visited Tahi after two and gradually reduce ewes. years in the industry. Since Olivia spearheads sales and then, the farm’s deer sale marketing in the family business carcaseweight average has Tupari Wines and another increased by more than 10kg. Tahi Doonan. 11ha of grapevines were planted Tahi puts this dramatic in spring. increase down to lucerne rotations Deer are not giving way completely to and using Elk terminal sires. With the grapes however. schedule rocketing from below $7/kg to “I’ll always have the hills for the deer,” more than $10/kg, Tahi is a staunch deer Tahi says. industry supporter. A highlight for Tahi was winning The latest line of 11-month Elk/Red the local Maiden Handy Dog class stags sold in October for more than with his huntaway Nui. $600/head while the 40 velveting stags “I got talked into running Nui so went brought in $130/kg for velvet. and had a go, then we managed to win “Deer have really bounced back and are the series and had to go to Winchester for well ahead of our sheep. All you have to the South Islands. do is feed them. “We won this so thought we’d go to “No fly, no feet issues or crutching.” the Nationals and won that!” Tahi and Olivia run 450 breeding hinds
Fly in the ointment Things were hotting up in the Wairarapa in early December for sheep and beef farmer Derek Neal, pictured, and his family (appeared in CountryWide November 2016). The region was experiencing late January-early February weather and instead of topping pastures, they were struggling to find quality feed. The last financial year was good for the Neals after a very good autumn. Beef prices were reasonable and lamb prices were up significantly on the previous year. Better returns from bull beef means cattle numbers have slowly been lifted. The winter and spring were wet with about 2.5 metres of rain falling from October 2016 to October 2017. Derek says the outlook for this financial year still looked very good even though the weather could be the “fly in the ointment”. With no drought predicted, Derek believes it is just a dry spell.
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New joint venture For Neil and Lyn Campbell 2017 was “a transition year” on their farm, Parkwood, near Fairlie, South Canterbury, who featured in Country-Wide in September 2016. “We’ve started a joint venture with a couple working their way into farming and leased two-thirds of the farm to it [the JV],” Neil says. He works in the JV both practically and in an advisory capacity while also running their 600 hinds plus finishers on the remaining third of the 770-hectare farm, Deer were “obviously top of the pile” for profit in 2017 but beef and lamb finishing also performed well. Their JV partners run Lyn and Neil Campbell: a separate breeding Prize trip to Europe property so it’s
Time to sell Rock Farm Andrew Swallow As they approach retirement age, South Canterbury farmers Herstall, pictured, and Aly Ulrich are putting succession plans into practice with their home farm. Rock Farm at Cave is on the market for the first time in three generations. Not that the family is getting out of farming: son Alex with wife Ashleigh runs their 350-cow indoor dairy unit nearby and youngest daughter Rosie is dairying in Bay of Plenty. The Ulriches and the transformation lucerne has brought to Rock Farm in the past decade featured in CountryWide in January 2017. They go into 2018 confident last year’s wet fully recharged groundwater reserves. “We know the lucerne will hold on into the dry because there’s moisture in the clay.” The wet caused some feed quality problems for the dairy unit but improved milk prices are a move in the right direction. A new 50-hectare lease adjoining the dairy unit should replace feed previously transferred from Rock Farm. Meanwhile, on Rock Farm the mild winter produced “exceptional pasture production” and “earlier and heavier” sales of over-wintered lambs and hoggets as a result. “The negative was the crossbred wool price. Unless you can prove weaned lambs grow better with their wool off, shearing lambs is a cost to the business now.” The general election campaign was another negative, with farming whipped by emotive and often dishonest rhetoric.
anticipated that will provide store stock for finishing in future. A highlight of the year was winning what turned out to be the last Lincoln South Island Farmer of the Year title and he and Lyn are planning a trip to Europe to look at various aspects of farming there as their prize. “I’m a big fan of fodder beet and I think we could learn a lot about growing it from what they do over there.” How Brexit plays out is another area of interest for the year ahead.
Country-Wide January 2018
Velvet offers osteoporosis hope Change to balage offers better winter option
Making the
little things count The Stodarts’ small changes are yielding big results Country-Wide January 2018
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DEER | ONFARM
Wintered stock 2017 Sheep (Peters Genetics Romney) • 2300 ewes • 700 hoggets Deer • 850 hinds (Red with emphasis on velvet genetics) • 820 weaners (incl 280 hybrid) • 170 velvet stags Cattle (Hereford-Angus) • 44 breeding cows • 80 R1 MS weaners Deer contribute about 50% of farm income.
Planning for family succession is high on the priority list for David and Jackie Stodart.
Making the
little things count A series of small changes has brought western Southland farmers David And Jackie Stodart’s operation to a new level. Lynda Gray reports.
Key facts • David and Jackie Stodart • Deer, sheep and cattle breeding/ finishing and velvet production on two farms: • Crownlea: Whare Creek, Te Anau basin. • 441ha, includes 90ha of deer fencing, of mostly developed rolling hill country for sheep breeding/finishing, deer finishing and velvet production. • Dunrobin Valley, Mossburn: 155ha mostly developed river flat and heavy terrace country for hind breeding and cattle grazing.
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B
ringing forward weaning by 10 days has reaped the biggest reward at the Stodart family’s Te Anau basin farm. As well as helping improve hind condition, the management tweak has bumped up the fawning percentage from the late-80s to 90%-plus over the last three years. It’s one example of several small changes, the sum of which is taking the deer side of David and Jackie Stodart’s farming business to a new level. The couple say the motivation to make and follow through the changes has been driven by the Southland Elk and Wapiti Advance party which they joined in 2015. Since then they’ve taken on the challenge of pushing for more by tagging fawning percentage, weaner growth rates and velvet growth as particular areas for improvement. The upward trend in fawning percentage, driven largely by earlier weaning, WHARE has been satisfying CREEK but David says there’s potential for more
through the fine-tuning of management in the lead-up to and during fawning. “It’s so important to give them space so that they have somewhere to hide their fawn.” In practical terms that will mean reducing the hind stocking rate to keep pasture covers high, as well as fencing off some of the wetter paddock areas which invariably act like a magnet to fawning hinds. Weaner finishing is the mainstay of the deer farming side and was a key reason for the family’s decision to move from Avondale, near Wreys Bush, to Crownlea in 2012. David and Jackie were keen to increase the scale of weaner finishing and at the same time build the overall farming business for family succession. The farm has fulfilled all their expectations: it has a good range of soils that hang on well during a dry summer, and although it’s generally cooler and snow can linger during winter the deer do better than in the damper Southland climate. Increasing the growth rate of weaners is being tackled through a combination of feeding and breeding. Most significant was the decision in 2014, at the suggestion of some advance party members, to increase the number of hinds mated to wapiti sires from 150 to 270-280, and at the same time reduce hind numbers. The more kilograms of weaner from fewer hinds strategy is working well and David says they’ll further increase the number mated to wapiti. High growth rate red stags are also being considered as a way of increasing hind and hopefully progeny size across the maternal mob. On the feeding front a move from winter block feeding to the break feeding of swedes and kale in 2016 has improved crop utilisation and weaner post-winter condition. Previously mobs of about 200 grazed 3ha paddocks for three weeks to a month
Country-Wide January 2018
David with half a 17kgplus head from a 10-yearold stag. Semen has been taken from the stag for possible AI of hinds.
The bigger picture Crownlea is a 45 minute, 53 kilometre drive away from the Dunrobin block. David and Jackie bought Dunrobin 10 years ago while living and farming at Avondale where they leased an 80ha deer unit on the Stodart’s family farm, and owned a 212 ha sheep and cattle farm. In 2012 they sold the 212ha to buy the then 364ha Crownlea farm. The five-year plan is to sell Dunrobin and buy another deer farm in the Te Anau basin. “It would cut the travelling and streamline things. Dunrobin has been good but it’s time to move on,” David says. The move would also help pave the way for succession for the Stodarts’ children Hayley (26) a primary school teacher, Aimee (23) a vet nurse, and Shaun (21) a trainee Silver Fern Farms farm drafter and Southland Stags player. All three live in Southland, are keen on farming and help out when they can. “Having two developed farms in the Te Anau basin would be great for succession,” Jackie says. ASB rural manager Richard Henderson, and trustee Trevor Wilson help keep David and Jackie on track and focussed. For the past seven years the four have met three times annually to review farm progress and plan ahead. Wilson has been a trustee for the Stodart family for the past 40 years and is the former livestock manager at Alliance Group. “It’s great because they’ll make suggestions we mightn’t have thought of and help put figures around ideas we have,” Jackie says. The Stodarts’ purpose statement, developed at the suggestion of their accountant and pinned up on the office wall, sums up nicely their past, present and future farming endeavours: to passionately develop and improve our land and livestock to secure our family’s future.
Velvet cut and ready for sale.
Breeding the difference 35TH ANNUAL ELITE SIRE STAG SALE - MONDAY 8TH JANUARY 2018 @ 1PM Exceptional Breeding stags plus Commercial/Trophy stags on offer.
MCCAW
GREGOR
ALEXANDER
FITZROY
Offering to include 2, 3, 4 & 5 year stags sons of:
GREGOR, ALEXANDER, MCCAW, FITZROY, HOUGHTON, LORD HAKA, DAVIDSON, AMADEUS, FAULTY TOWERS, HENRY JAMES, MORPHEUS, HENRY VIII, PRINCE PHILIP, WINDSOR, KANE Catalogues will be posted out in December
ALL ENQUIRIES: Barry Gard 021 222 8964, after hours 03 431 2803 bgard@foverandeerpark.co.nz | www.foverandeerpark.co.nz
Country-Wide January 2018
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Replacement hinds need to be 87kg by midJanuary to be retained for the breeding herd.
before being moved on. Now all deer at Cloverlea, weaners as well as velvet stags which used to winter on grass with supplements of lucerne balage, are crop-grazed to save pastures for spring. The number in the winter weaner mobs was reduced to 100-150 to reduce competition. Break fences are moved every four to seven days depending on the weather. “It’s more work for us but the benefits have definitely made it worthwhile. Our biggest challenge is trying to hold their autumn weight through winter and break feeding has certainly helped.”
CONNEMARA WAPITI
However, not everything with the new feeding regime has gone according to plan due to a well-intentioned but unsuccessful change in swede variety. Triumph, a higher drymatter swede was grown in 2017 instead of Aparima Gold but the change was not appreciated by the picky weaners. “They ate the leaf but only picked at the bulbs so it put them back by about three weeks.” David wants to stick with swedes given that the crop usually yield around 1400kg DM/ha and will try Clutha Gold, a next generation-type Aparima Gold, for the coming winter. Fodder beet has been considered but side-lined in the meantime due to the high costs of establishment. “I’m tempted to grow it, but not this year. But if the swedes don’t perform we’ll do it the following year.” Regular weighing, vigilant health treatment and the revisiting of target slaughter weights has helped smarten the weaner system. Fawns get an oral Scanda drench in February, along with a dose of Revive, a mineral supplement the Stodarts have taken on and now distribute following a successful trial three years ago. “We use it on deer and sheep at weaning and any time they’re under stress,” Jackie says. At weaning on March 10 fawns get their first triple drench and Yersinia jab, and another dose of Revive before being weighed on to a truck to Crownlea. On arrival mobs of 50 to 80 are drafted off and grazed on high-quality pasture for five to six weeks and supplements of balage. After a third drench, a second Yersinia jab and another Revive they graze winter crop from the end of May until mid-August. They are separated into weight mobs in midOctober and the first draft leaves Crownlea about three weeks later. The Stodarts used to work to a slaughter target weight of 100kg but reduced that in 2014 to 95kg. The move has reduced grazing pressure over the crucial autumn period and left the pastures in better condition for spring feeding of weaners.
Velvet vision Velvet production has become more of a focus since buying a neighbouring 77ha bare block in 2016 and developing it for deer. The move provided the scope for the almost doubling of the velvet herd to 170 mixed age stags. About one tonne is cut each year – a 5.8kg across-the-board average. Once again a combination of breeding and feeding is helping drive velvet performance. Four years ago 40 elite hinds were bought from Mt Cecil for mating to Netherdale Reds, the progeny of which are selected from for velvet replacements. “We’re just starting to see the good stuff coming through,” David says. Feeding from button drop has been changed with five tonnes of deer nuts replacing the 10t of barley that used to be fed from August 20 until the end of September. The Stodarts have increased the two-year-old velvet herd threshold from 2.5kg to2.8kg. The longer-term target is 3kg.
VENISON - VELVET - TEMPERAMENT
7TH ANNUAL SIRE BULL AUCTION
Keeping on task Welcome for inspection from 1.00pm On the property at MI & BM Hagan, 415 Weir Road, Manapouri
On offer approx. 30 - NZ & Fiordland Wap x Bulls
Enquiries:
Murray Hagen 021 220 7889 Jim Cameron 021 220 7871 Auctioneers: Craig North 027 473 0864 (Rural Livestock) Adam Whaanga 027 418 3438 44
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Sunday 14th January 2018
David and Jackie set and revise target weights and dates to keep pushing performance. Examples are: • Regular weighing of weaners. They are weighed onto the truck at weaning and a sample is weighed each time they’re in the yards. • A target liveweight of at least 87kg at 20 January for yearling hinds destined for the breeding herd. • Increasing the two-year-old velvet herd threshold from 2.5kg to2.8kg. • Reducing the target slaughter weight from 100kg to 95kg to ensure slaughter of all yearlings by the end of March. • Quality testing of balage and some pastures.
Country-Wide January 2018
DEER | VELVET
Velvet offers osteoporosis hope Lynda Gray
Country-Wide January 2018
Chuny Li, velvet biology expert.
around the cells and tissues that initiate the growth and shape of antler. Restructuring of Invermay led to break-up of the team and Chuny Li’s departure in 2013. New Zealand’s loss has been China’s gain with Li now leading the world’s largest velvet antler research facility at the State Key Lab for Molecular Biology of Special Economic Animals in Changchun, northeast China. The government-funded organisation employs 300 scientists working over 11 broad research divisions. Each division receives about NZ$550, 000 annually for up to four years. “We choose the research direction, the only requirement is that we keep on with the project.” The velvet antler division employs 30 scientists plus technicians who are
working on a number of projects which includes the osteoporosis-focused research. In Li’s view it is unfortunate NZ no longer has the velvet research capability to match the size of the farmed deer industry. However, he is forever grateful for the excellent early career experience at Invermay and still has family and professional connections in Otago. His son attends the University of Otago, and one of his graduate masters students is also at Otago completing a PhD with Dr Dawn Coates, a former Invermay antler researcher. Li is also taking steps to establish a joint antler research project with Deer Industry New Zealand. “I am hoping that by doing so I may be able to re-establish some antler research capability in New Zealand.”
Dave & Toni Fowell 144 Jackson Road, RD 6 Rotorua 3096
Rotorua Deer Transport For all general and specialised deer transport in the North Island
P: 07 345 3327 F: 07 281 9432 M: 0274 930 241 E: rotoruadeertransport@gmail.com
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Depletion and regeneration of stag bone during velvet growth could help pave the way to an osteoporosis cure. Globally osteoporosis, commonly referred to as brittle bone disease, is the fourth-leading chronic condition, world leading velvet biology expert Chuny Li says. But unlocking the molecular biological mechanisms at work during the rapid velvet growth process could throw new light on the disease. The growth process creates an insatiable demand for calcium and minerals which no amount of feeding will satisfy forcing the stag to draw on its calcium and mineral skeletal storehouse. The rapid depletion of these minerals causes weak, porous – osteoporotic bones which in a 3-D X-ray have an almost honeycomb appearance. However, following hardening of the velvet rapid bone regeneration occurs over a few weeks. “Deer and human bone are completely the same but when humans get osteoporosis it can’t be reversed,” Li says. His goal is to understand the molecular mechanisms that lead to bone regeneration. He stops short of saying that such knowledge will lead to a cure, but says it could lead on to promising “biomedical developments”. Li was a leading light in AgResearch’s former Invermay Velvet Antler Research Group, which from the mid-1980s until the mid-2000s was the leading force in velvet research. The Invermay connection started with a Chinese government-funded scholarship awarded in 1990 to further pursue his research in deer antler. The young scientist wasted no time in contacting the Invermay group which at that time was regarded as the world centre for velvet research. The scholarship led to a 23-year research stint at Invermay during which Li made ground-breaking discoveries
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DEER | FEED
Jim Cameron (left) and Murray Hagen’s switch from silage to balage winter feeding is driven by feed quality and cost.
Balage a better winter option Lynda Gray Feeding balage rather than silage will reduce hind wintering costs by an estimated $6000 at Connemara, near Manapouri, western Southland. It sounds unlikely given that silage is generally regarded as a cheap yet high-quality winter feed.
Key points • Switching from silage to balage because it’s a higher quality, cheaper wintering feed. • Balage is tested by Hills Laboratory one month after baling. • Aiming for balage ME of 10.5. • Will grow ryecorn after winter to mop-up any leached nitrogen on run-off area.
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But Connemara farm manager Jim Cameron says that’s only half the story. Sure, it costs $7 less to feed a hind on silage (see below) but it takes another $15 to add back the condition lost over the four months. Until 2015 Connemara hinds were wintered across four silage pads, each with a two to three-hectare run-off.
Jim and owner Murray Hagen, winners of the 2015 Deer Industry Gallagher and Technology Innovation Award, saw silage as a good-quality maintenance feed. But they started questioning its true worth and looking for an alternative when the first and second calving hinds came off the pads down in condition.
Feed Analysis: Balage versus silage Feed Type
Dry matter %
Crude Protein %
Metabolisable Energy (ME)
Digestibility
pH
Pasture balage for hinds on pad (Connemara test average result)
38.1
12.0
10.3
64.2
5.1
Hills Laboratory pasture balage pad range
35-41
14-20
9-11
65-75
4.04.7
Pasture silage for hinds on pad (Connemara test average result)
45.3
9.9
8.8
55.2
4.6
25-30
14-20
9-11
65-75
3.74.5
Hills laboratory pasture silage pad range
Country-Wide January 2018
Quality tested The main motivator for the silage-to-balage move is feed quality. “For us feed quality is a big factor because the higher quality you grow the less you need to feed to hold body condition score.” The balage was tested a month after making by Hills Laboratory. For Jim the most important quality measure is metabolisable energy (ME) and ideally needs to be at least 10.5 to get stock growing. Aside from the quality there are other advantages of balage over silage. Noticeable to Jim was the reduced competition at the feeding face which is probably due to the longer chop pasture. “They can get a decent mouthful and they’ll walk away eat it, and chew their cud so they’re satisfied for longer.” Also, there is no run-off which is a big bonus.
Balage vs silage cost comparison Balage Hind requires 2.4kg/DM/day @ est growing cost of .16c/kg/DM x 120 days Plus hay
$46.08 $7.00
TOTAL
$53.08
Silage Hind requires 2.7kg/DM/day @ est growing cost of .12c/kg/DM x 120 days
$38.88
Plus extra feed to maintain Condition Score
$15.00
Plus hay
$7.00
TOTAL
$60.80
DIFFERENCE
$7.72
“After talking I found it was a problem for others as well, so decided to try balage,” Jim says. As a test, last year first and second calvers were fed balage through silage crates on pads in a system similar to one Jim had used when wintering cattle indoors. The bales were placed across the face in a staggered formation and every second day the recessed bale was pushed forward and a new one added. The test of success was achieving a Condition Score average of four at the end of winter. This year the balage treatment will be rolled out to all the hinds. As with the silage system they will be wintered in age-based mobs of 150-200 on the pads, each with a run-off. The remainder of last year’s will be fed first, then the higher quality new season bales. “That’s another advantage you can mix and match quality in terms of what’s fed when.” In preparation 1000 bales off 8-10-year-old pasture was cut in November. Having their own gear meant they could pick and choose when to cut. “We were able to cut paddocks at optimum quality whereas with silage we had to wait for the contractors.” The actual feeding time of the 800 hinds should be around two hours with the help of a recently purchased Goweil round bale slicer which grips and slices open the bale for deposit into feeders. At the end of winter a nitrogen mop-up crop, probably ryecorn, will be sown on the run-off areas. Murray is keen to trial the crop on the strength of Lincoln University trials that reported a 20% reduction in leaching when a mop-up crop was grown.
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LIVESTOCK | ONFARM
Feeding underpins success Lucerne is the critical element in getting a Marlborough couple’s breeding stock through the summer dry. Sandra Taylor reports.
R
ichard and Victoria Gorman’s success in this year’s Westpac and Bayleys Marlborough Sheep and Beef Farmer of the Year competition comes down to one simple factor – feed. It is their ability to feed stock consistently well throughout the year that allows them to realise the genetic potential of their Landmark composite ewes. This drives productivity and profitability and ensures their business is generating a strong financial performance year-on-year. With a gross farm income of $909/ ha (three-year weighted average), farm working expenses of $434/ha and earnings before interest, tax and rent of $475/ha, their business is generating a 6.1% return on capital and this largely comes to down to their ability to grow and utilise feed. The Gormans farm Dumgree, a 770-hectare hill country farm near Blenheim. With an annual rainfall of about 700mm, their farm system has been set up to grow and sell lambs as quickly as possible so they can look after their capital breeding stock through the summer dry period. Lucerne is a critical part of their operation and a 160ha platform of the forage is what drives their business. Coupled with the subterranean clover endemic in their hill country pastures, these legumes drive lactation and preweaning growth rates averaging 315g/ day. “The lucerne platform on our better country was what gave us a nudge ahead in this competition,” Richard says. This lucerne, along with winter brassica and Italian ryegrass crops, ensures their capital stock are fed to maximise performance all year round and summer brassicas are used for growing out ewe lambs. The Gormans’ ewes are large-going to the ram weighing around 76kg – but Richard says they need to run large ewes to get the large, fast-growing
48
lambs they require in their summer-dry environment. “We need to have lambs that grow really fast and we can only do that with a good-size ewe,” Richard says. These mixed-age ewes are lambing between 145-150% and Richard believes they have the potential to be consistently lambing as much as 160%. Richard and Victoria sell 72% of their lambs finished straight off their mothers. They begin skim-drafting their lambs in November to a minimum of 38kg liveweight and all lambs are weaned by December 15.
‘We need to have lambs that grow really fast and we can only do that with a good-size ewe.’
At this stage the drafting weight is reduced to 34kg liveweight. Depending on the season and feed availability, remaining lambs are either sold store or finished on lucerne or summer brassica – but the couple will not compromise the performance of their capital breeding stock by struggling to finish all of their lambs in a dry season. Blenheim-based vet, competition judge and Stockcare consultant Peter Anderson says the Dumgree ewes are producing 52kg of lamb per ewe mated. This measure of efficiency puts the Gormans 6kg of lamb per ewe mated ahead of the top quartile of farmers in the nationwide StockCare programme. “They are big ewes that are milking well and having lots of lambs – and they are efficient.” Hoggets are a class of stock Richard takes particular pride in. Their 900 replacement ewe lambs are the highest-priority stock class on the
Richard and Victoria Gorman were this winners of the Westpac and Bayleys Marlborough Sheep and Beef Farmer of the Year competition.
farm over summer, as they strive to get them as heavy as possible going into mating.This average mating weight has increased incrementally over the years and this year the ewe lambs went to the ram weighing 54kg. The couple monitor the hoggets throughout winter to ensure they are continuing to grow. This year they scanned 146% with 13% dry (these were sold) and lambed 107%. Richard and Victoria would like to see them consistently lambing 120%. In 2016, the hogget lambs grew at an average of 300g/day so 62% were finished off their mothers at 18.2 kg carcaseweight (CW). Conscious of maintaining their performance as two-tooths, the couple feed them as well as possible over summer. “We need to keep looking after them and focus on them going back to the ram at a good, even body condition.” This year, the two-tooths went to the ram weighing 74kg. The couple retain a high number of ewe lambs as they aim to speed up the genetic progress of their flock and will retain 300 ewe lambs from the hoggets as replacements. They will be looking to reduce the number of replacements
Country-Wide January 2018
Left: A 160ha lucerne platform on the easy country is the engineroom of their business. Right: With an annual rainfall of 700mm, the Gormans’ farm system is et up to minimise the number of trading stock they carry through summer.
Forage covers critical Richard, who was part of Beef+Lamb New Zealand’s North Canterbury Sheep Profit Partnership programme, says one of the most important management strategies he learnt through the programme was the importance of having good forage covers to lamb on. “Set-stocking on good covers will give us good lamb survival and then high lamb growth rates through to drafting.” Richard defines good covers as 1600kg drymatter (DM)/ha – or a minimum of 150mm for lucerne – and it is critical that mixed-age ewes are set-stocked lightly – at just three to four mixed-age ewes/ ha – so covers won’t be mined over that lambing period. If plant growth rates are slow in that early spring period, the Gormans will use nitrogen to boost covers and in a particularly growthy year they will set-stock the ewes earlier, up to 10 days before lambing. The Gormans make every effort to keep the ewes at an even Body Condition Score of 3-3.5 throughout the year. In early January they go through and take all the lower condition score ewes and will give them priority feed. This ensures all the ewes are going to the ram at a minimum BCS of 3 on March 10. Richard says a lot of thought goes into preparing the ewes for mating. “It’s one of the key times of the year and we’ve got to get it right, we need to be scanning 190% plus.” The ewes are body condition scored again at scanning and heading into lambing, Richard feeds the ewes as well as possible. The couple grow winter brassica and Italian ryegrass for wintering ewes. These crops allow the lucerne to be spelled over winter and most importantly, allow covers to be built for that critical lambing period. The Gormans lease 250ha of vineyards in winter and this provides them with an opportunity to finish trading lambs over winter and graze ewes- again taking pressure off the rest of the farm. Cattle play a minor role in the
Country-Wide January 2018
Gormans’ business, although they are used for managing pasture quality, particularly on their hill country. They run 87 Angus and Simmental cows and while the calves are typically sold at weaning, this is a flexible policy as when there are feed surpluses they will look to carrying them through for finishing. In winter they may also finish 20-50 trading cattle on pasture – cattle do not graze the lucerne. Large areas of lucerne have been established in the past seven years, but it has been the key to the success of the Gormans’ business.
“It’s one of the key times of the year and we’ve got to get it right, we need to be scanning 190% plus.”
While they have 160ha in the forage, they aim to have 200ha within the next two years. Richard is fastidious about its grazing and weed management and believes by looking after it, they will get between six and 12 years out of each stand. This means that apart from a few weeks over lambing, the stands are rotationally grazed and then grazed very hard before being spelled over the winter months. To ensure the ewes and lambs are getting enough fibre in their diet, the couple leave areas of the lucerne
paddocks in unimproved pasture. Having established an efficient lucerne system, Richard and Victoria are turning their attention to developing their hill country. They say their key limitations are fencing and fertility so by focusing on sub-division, fertiliser and water they will be better able to manage and utilise the subterranean clover that exists in their pastures. Once this in place, they may look at lifting ewe numbers or have the confidence to consistently finish all of their lambs within their operation. The couple have articulated their vision for their business with a strategic business plan and are striving to have a highproducing profitable farm that has high quality infrastructure which looks great and works well. “We aim to reduce weed levels on the farm and have a simple system that can handle climatic and management variation.” They say their business must be financially and environmentally sustainable. “Based around composite sheep and Angus cattle, we strive to have highperforming capital stock.” The couple are striving to increase production and profit while maintaining a good work/life balance and protecting and enhancing their environment. They have clear farm business goals which include increasing the area in lucerne to 200ha, getting a 160% lambing from their mixed-age ewes while maintaining lamb growth rates of 300g/ day and increasing the volume of sheep meat sold to 130 tonnes (93t was sold in 2013). These would drive financial performance to their target EBITRs of $200,000 by 2017 and $300,000 by 2022.
Ewes and lambs on lucerne. This forage is driving average lamb growth rates of 315g/day.
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LIVESTOCK | ONFARM
Brassica crops provide high quality feed for their lambs in summer.
Timely decisions lift profit Rebecca Harper A focus on maximising the potential of their breeding flock and the number of lambs on the ground is paying off for Simon and Trudy Hales. Simon is the fourth generation to farm Kereru. The couple bought the neighbouring farm in 2014, now running it as one block. They predominantly run sheep, which account for 85% of overall feed demand.
‘All our cropping systems work around having security and enough feed for our ewes. If we have more feed then there’s an opportunity for a trade, or we have heavier ewes.’
Their goals are to reach full ownership of the farming company and develop the land to realise its full potential. They aim to improve productivity, fertility and therefore, profitability. They hope to reduce debt and become a sustainable farming unit, both economically and environmentally.
50
They started working with farm consultant, John Cannon, about two seasons ago when Simon felt he was having trouble making timely decisions. “I felt I had good ideas, but I wasn’t hitting the right timing and also secondguessing myself. A lot of profit made onfarm is made from making the right decision at the right time – that’s where John comes in.” At the recent Beef+Lamb New Zealand Tararua farming for profit field day they discussed how they make decisions about summer feed use. Summer lamb liveweight gain performance on the farm is not strong enough on grass alone and brassica crops provide high-quality feed for their lambs during this period. At Kereru it takes 14.9kg drymatter (DM) to produce one kg carcaseweight (CW) when feeding lambs on crop, versus 22kg DM to produce a kg of product on grass. Simon sees the crops as insurance against climatic events, like drought. His target mating weight is 65kg plus and summer crops free up more pasture, enabling him to feed ewes better, year round. “For us, it’s all about the ewes, breeding stock, ewe hoggets and two-tooths and trying to maximise ewe potential. We’ve lifted scanning and lambing percentages considerably by focusing on our ewe weights, getting the bottom up and feeding hoggets better – not having it in the forefront of your
FARM FACTS Kereru Farm, Weber, Tararua District • Area: 970 hectares (800ha effective) • Average rainfall: 1100mm • Soil types: Argillite, mudstone, others • Breeding/finishing/cattle trading • Estimated gross farm income for 2017/18, $1192/ha.
mind to get a fat lamb all the time,” he says. “It’s all about lambs on the ground. All our cropping systems work around having security and enough feed for our ewes. If we have more feed then there’s an opportunity for a trade, or we have heavier ewes.”Simon also targets lambing percentage and docked 145% this year with an average weaning liveweight of 29.5kg. Lamb survival from scanning to docking is another important KPI and 2017 lambing losses were 16.1%.They put in winter crops to ensure adequate ewe nutrition six weeks prior to lambing and in early lactation, and say the cropping programme also enhances new pasture establishment.
Country-Wide January 2018
LIVESTOCK | ONFARM
Numbers stack up Farmax shows the Hales are on track to achieve gross farm income of $1192/ha for 2017/18. When determining his cropping programme, Simon Hales makes a plan after scanning as to how many lambs will be fattened and works the crops backwards from there. He has 15ha in Pasja and this year has sown clover and plantain in the mix as a trial. A wet season has put things behind and, although he would ideally have been grazing it in mid-November, the plan now is to first graze it when the terminals are weaned, around December 10. Lambs that are 34kg or more go onto the Pasja crop as soon as they are weaned. The heavier lambs will do 250-260 grams/ day on the crop. Oats were sown, drilled into a clover
paddock in May and cattle on the oats did 670 grams a day. He has now sprayed out the grass and drilled rape into the paddock. “I hope to have quality feed for the lambs in January.” Ewes were fed on 13ha of kale over winter and the light ewes, anything body condition score (BCS) 2 or less, go on pre-tup. “If there is a tail in the ewes I throw them on the kale and after 10 days they are all over BCS 3. I marked those ewes with a raddle and when they came through at scanning there were hardly any that weren’t a twin.” When questioned over the use of kale versus swedes, Hales says it was the kale’s multi-grazability that made it preferable. A grazing can be taken in the autumn with the kale and still get a 10-tonne crop out of it in winter. “Personally, I like it and it’s so wet here in winter sometimes you’d be searching for swedes.
Weber farmer Simon Hales sees his crops as insurance against climatic events and helping maximise ewe performance.
›› Continues p52
There’s no good time to have toxoplasmosis and campylobacteriosis. But there’s a really good time to vaccinate.
CONTROL THE RISK OF TOXOPLASMA
CONTROL THE RISK OF CAMPYLOBACTER
When you think abortion storms, you probably think toxoplasmosis. Toxoplasma is everywhere and any ewe that contracts it may abort. But campylobacter also causes abortion, is nearly as prevalent and equally as deadly. Campylobacter can cost you 20-30% of your lambs. There are two diseases that cause abortion storms and preventing them takes two vaccines. So talk to your vet about how the Toxovax® + Campyvax4® combination gives you the best protection against abortion storms.
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Country-Wide January 2018
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They carry rape through to the winter because it is good for summer fattening. He says kale is a better way of storing feed for the winter. “We get a bit of stem rot with the rape because of the wet.” Farm consultant John Cannon agrees sheep must be the focus at Kereru, given 85% of stock on the farm are sheep, and the cropping programme is about making strategic decisions to get the ewes to perform to their best over their lifetime. They use Farmax as a tool to help make decisions. “You still have to farm, but it does allow us to monitor performance and make some strategic decisions.” The farm grows about 6.5 tonnes DM/ ha, with a low level of nitrogen, and 5.5t of that feed is consumed. They are targeting 82-84% feed utilisation and 245kg of product/ha. The Hales finish about 2200 lambs on crop annually and a further 700 that are not on crop. As soon as the crops come to an end, the lambs are out the door. “We’re ruthless. If crops failed, we would kill lambs lighter, because the priority is the breeding stock.” One issue they struggled with in the past was ewe lamb performance and twotooth weights going to the ram. “We have mitigated some of that this year by forcing ourselves to look after them better by lambing more hoggets. We will wean the two-tooths earlier, take the lambs off them and give them three more weeks to get up to weight to help drive mixed age ewe scanning up a few per cent,” Simon says. The summer crops deliver good weaning weights, working on achieving in excess of 20c/kg DM for the crops, and the winter crops help them get to the weaning weights. Cannon says there is good logic behind the summer cropping programme.
There’s a perfectly good argument that growing summer crops to finish lambs is not always the most profitable exercise. But the store market can be vulnerable and we look at the summer crops as insurance to get a $100 lamb. Hales agrees. They make a plan to fit all our KPIs in and for them, the cropping system safeguards the plan, no matter what happens to the store price or the schedule. “That’s how we keep the gross farm income up there.” He is big on planning and monitoring, and keeping a tight rein on expenses. “We keep the working expenses down, even to the point where we have done direct drilling this year. We have 51% expenses, the EFS comes out looking pretty good. I spend several hours every week going over the budget. I’m re-budgeting every week and keeping a close eye on expenses. Without knowledge and information in front of you, you can’t make a decent decision.” Cannon says the best farmers are always measuring and monitoring - BCS of ewes, weight of ewes, pasture covers. “They have figured out the drivers of profitability and they make their system work. If you’re not measuring, you’re guessing.”
Farm consultant John Cannon has been working with Simon and Trudy Hales for two seasons with a strong focus on ewe performance.
More lambs the better Rebecca Harper More lambs on the ground with a good weaning weight will always trump fewer lambs with a higher average BakerAg farm consultant sale price. Richmond Beetham. BakerAg consultant Richmond Beetham challenged farmers at the Hales’ field day to think about the reason for holding on to trade lambs and whether there might be greater benefit gained from looking after lighter ewes and ewe lambs, to maximise capital stock performance. Beetham spoke about summer lamb finishing on traditionally summer-dry East Coast hill country properties and how it impacts on the system. While trade lambs have a place, every season presents different variables, like climatic events and prices, and it is worth considering whether the margin on a trade lamb is worth enough to your business – or could the feed be
Historic Lamb Margin Dec to March? •
1500 x $17 = $25,500.
•
364 Lbs @ $70 = $25,500.
•
3000 Ewes 125% to 135% = 300Lbs.
•
64 Lbs from Hgts.
•
Lifetime performance.
Lamb Trade Dec-Mar (28kg-17.2kg cw, 100g/day)
Early triplet ewes and lambs on red and white clover, which has been drilled with Italian ryegrass.
52
Mgn/Head
c/kg/DM
2004-05
$ 14.50
$ 0.11
2005-06
-$ 0.16
-$ 0.00
2006-07
$ 7.27
$ 0.06
2007-08
$ 23.41
$ 0.18
2008-09
$ 31.88
$ 0.24
2009-10
$ 17.84
$ 0.14
2010-11
$ 41.91
$ 0.32
2011-12
-$ 0.83
-$ 0.01
2012-13
$ 14.27
$ 0.11
2013-14
$ 15.92
$ 0.12
2014-15
$ 13.40
$ 0.10
2015-16
$ 19.57
$ 0.15
2016-17
$ 24.69
$ 0.19
$ 17.20
$ 0.13
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Store
Store Lamb Lamb Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
1
2
3
4
2013-14
$3.20
$3.00
$3.00
$2.90
$2.80
$2.80
$2.70
$2.60
$2.60
$2.55
$2.55
$2.60
$2.70
$2.55
$2.50
$2.40
$2.40
$2.60
2014-15
$3.20
$3.20
$3.10
$3.00
$2.70
$2.45
$2.55
$2.50
$2.20
$2.10
$2.00
$2.10
$2.20
$2.20
$2.20
$2.20
$2.35
$2.40
2015-16
$3.20
$2.80
$2.70
$2.50
$2.30
$2.20
$2.10
$2.10
$2.15
$2.25
$2.35
$2.30
$2.30
$2.20
$2.10
$2.10
$2.30
$2.30
2016-17
$2.80
$2.80
$2.75
$2.70
$2.40
$2.35
$2.35
$2.15
$2.15
$2.35
$2.40
$2.40
$2.60
$2.80
$2.65
$2.75
$2.85
$3.05
Grass & Low Supply Average
$3.10
$2.95
$2.89
$2.78
$2.55
% Drop
5%
2%
4%
8%
Month Av
$2.9
$2.45
$2.43
$2.34
4%
1%
4%
$2.5
$2.28
$2.31
$2.33
$2.33
$2.3
percentage will come from reducing the number of poor-condition ewes in your flock.” Beetham said the clients he worked with who did a good job of growing out two-tooths achieved more-consistent ewe reproduction and profitability. Income is secured with a high-performing ewe flock, meaning variation around production and profitability is never as great. Using data collected by BakerAg over 10 years Beetham presented the margin on a 28kg store lamb, killed in March at an average of 17.1kg carcaseweight (CW). “The 10-year average summer lamb trade margin (December to March) is $17.20 – it’s not that exciting. ” This equates to a return of 13 cents/ kg of drymatter (DM). “Are there other ways to make up that margin on summer lambs? Summer lamb finishing is risky, you’re on a falling schedule – you’re on a downward path, unless you’re locked into contracts. “If you sell lambs early you can still have a profitable system. Even marketing a light lamb earlier can be better than Price waiting.” Risk factors include a falling schedule and the climate from December to March being variable – coinciding with the period when farmers have the most priority classes of Apr May Jun stock on.
RISKS
$5.70
Works Lamb
$5.40 $5.10 $4.80 $4.50 Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
RISKS Works Lamb
Nov
Dec
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
Jun
Average Prime
$5.56
$5.10
$4.76
$4.67
$4.63
$4.74
$4.93
$5.19
Store
$2.54
$2.19
$2.13
$2.10
$2.09
$2.19
$2.32
$2.36
Price drop on previous
-2.9%
-8.2%
-6.8%
-1.9%
-0.7%
2.2%
4.1%
5.2%
$ by month
-$0.17
-$0.45
-$0.34
-$0.09
-$0.03
$0.10
$0.19
$0.26
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$2.32
$2.27
$2.23
$2.35
$2.43
3% $2.3
better utilised elsewhere for higher return? Beetham said total kilograms of lambweaned a hectare was a key profit driver in terms of gross farm revenue (GFR). Typically, sheep income on a hill country farm fitting this profile is derived from 14% works ewes, 15% wool and 71% weaned lambs. Beetham said the average price of cull ewes could make a big difference, and the top farmers were generally very good at selling at the right time, and typically had heavier stock. With 50-60% of total GFR relating directly to the value of the lamb crop at weaning, it is worth asking questions about decisions made at this time. “Know a good dollar when you see one. If it’s better than your budgeted figure, you make some decisions. A light store lamb in November might be worth less in December on a sliding store price,” he said. “Your biggest jump in scanning
$6.00
$2.40
$2.3
Prioritising stock post-weaning: Tail-end ewes are priority, especially lifting ewes below BCS 3 and light two-tooths. Replacement ewe lambs are next, for the lifetime potential of your flock – set aside a non-negotiable area for ewe lambs where you can see them regularly. The best time to grow their frame is from weaning to July, monitor and weigh them regularly Trade lambs are last, the decision to sell trade lambs should be based on condition of breeding ewes and ewe lambs hitting their target weights.
Lifting a ewe from body condition score (BCS) 2 to 3 would lift the gross margin on a ewe by $13 and required 30kg DM, resulting in a return of 43c/kg DM. Mating ewe hoggets was also profitable, he said, and the extra feed needed over and above a dry hogget returned 41c/kg DM annually. There could be better returns over that period and it’s worth investigating how they stack up versus 13c/kg DM return on a summer lamb. Beetham spoke about the importance of building levers into your system, including grazing out dry ewe hoggets, offloading trade hoggets earlier, selling down lambs quicker, use of pre-lamb nitrogen, set stocking cull ewes separately and sending them to the works earlier, selling ewes with lambs at foot or grazing cattle out. “I’m not saying don’t finish lambs over summer, but understand the risks and which animals to add value to. I don’t get worried if I see a light two-tooth on a summer crop.”
53
LIVESTOCK | GENETALK
A New Harvest Sharl Liebergreen
I really enjoy the prospect of new influential technology. Transport, clothing, banking, education are a few areas of my life where technology is impacting. The one closest to my heart, though, is food. I’ve been fascinated by the progression of not only agricultural and horticultural technology, but also the alternate food-based sciences hitting the headlines. Pitched according to the side of the fence you are on, lab-based meat, synthetic meat, fake food or cellular agriculture, clean meat, alternative protein is all about change and humans hate that. Rather than sit in New Zealand being fed whatever I could scratch from social media and the internet, I decided to find out for myself what this change is all about. Is it imminent? Is it safe? Will it affect me or my grandkids? I needed answers, so off I went to the 2017 New Harvest conference in Brooklyn, New York. I had little in the way of expectations. I just wanted to be informed. Over two days, my head was filled with meat science, art, sociology, engineering, law, marketing, tissue culturing and nanoarchitechtonics… Google it. Something that impressed me was the breadth of the subject matter. The organisers, for whom this was only their second conference, described this pipeline of innovation well. It wasn’t over-stated or bullish, it was measured and designed, identifying the terrific advancements that have been made in cell culturing for consumption already but also the hurdles yet to be tackled. The science seems very well developed, starting with four sessions about cell biology, growing stem cells and their scaffolds, growing mediums and finally bioreactors or “fermenters”. The requirements of each of these steps is well understood. Growth media and how to feed cells is still being developed, ideally requiring a move away from Foetal Bovine Serum, but alternatives are being actively investigated.
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Bioreactor technology for providing an environment within which to grow cells exponentially seemed a roadblock at the time. Yet since the conference, seed grants for bioreactor design projects have already been floated. Actually, on reflection, funding and access to money does not seem to be an issue. An anticipated section was a panel discussion featuring two farming producers (one a Kiwi dairy farmer) and two proponents of cellular agriculture. While generally a very cordial conversation, it was suggested traditional farming was effectively “in the sights” of this wave of technology. ‘Agree to disagree’ seemed to be the outcome, which was probably no surprise. The farmers were well aware of the need to adapt when appropriate and it was discussed how farmers are very good at changing, given the correct signals.
Over two days, my head was filled with meat science, art, sociology, engineering, law, marketing, tissue culturing and nanoarchitechtonics…
We have seen a sign of that already in NZ with a conversion from dairy to horticulture. Day two was entirely different and looked at structural issues facing the fledgling industry and some very interesting case studies from individuals. Regulation was an interesting debate. While slow to the point of being overtaken by technology, regulation and process via the USDSA and FDA were not being underestimated. A bump in this road could break the axles for others who follow, so careful consideration is needed to ensure any lightning rod out front paves an appropriate path in the eyes of the law and consumers.
Panellists at the New Harvest Conference.
Suggestions of product on shelves within a short number of years are all well and good, but I got the feeling that a slightly more modest pace was viewed as desirable by some. We were reminded that consumers will have an all-important role to play in this innovation. Not only in terms of fundamental acceptance of buying cultured meat, but also in terms of taste, flavour and appearance. Lunch was interspersed with some very tasty plant-based meatball-and-pattylooking morsels, but there were certainly no New York cuts or shanks on the table. Don’t get me wrong. I think they’ll get there, but probably not by next year’s conference. This year, I tried a genetically modified apple that doesn’t go brown when cut. It tasted like apple. Next year who knows? Eggs that aren’t from chickens? Lettuce from algae? On the way home and after some fascinating conversations with other alternative protein voyeurs at the post conference drinks, I couldn’t help but think about one deafening fact. “The current world population of 7.3 billion is expected to reach 8.5b by 2030, 9.7b in 2050 and 11.2b in 2100, according to a new UN DESA report”. That’s a lot more mouths to feed and I suspect we’ll need all the technology in the world, contemporary or traditional. In the meantime, the quote of the conference for a technophile was “People love innovation almost as much as they hate change”, Jack Bobo. I’m looking forward to New Harvest 2018.
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LIVESTOCK | STOCK CHECK
Getting the message across STOCK CHECK Trevor Cook I have commented before on the special place of working dogs on farms. The relationship between dogs and owners is something I respect highly and enjoy observing. This is just one aspect of farming that exposes how much of farming is about people. Apart from the obvious of needing people to operate a farm, there is much more about people that influence the outcomes. Relationships with service providers, staff and neighbours has a big impact on the effectiveness of whoever is managing a farming system.
At seminars in their various forms, presenters, including myself, notoriously give lots of options, hide messages behind the back story or make messages too complex.
This applies to most vocations. A director on my board is always reminding us we are a people business that trades in animal health. Staff and clients drive the success of the business. The key is communication and influences so much of how successful farmers can be. I recently went around the farms of an institution, one that has in its grasp many of the country’s “experts” on farming. I observed practices contrary to what those experts would advise. I sometimes talk to farmers who have attended a seminar and am surprised with their take on what was presented. This is particularly pertinent to me when I was the one delivering messages and
Country-Wide January 2018
what they heard was different from what I thought I had presented. From time to time farmers buy products on the basis of advertising but their choice is not correct. Not because the advertising was wrong, but because what was heard was wrong. The most humbling disconnect is when I advise a farmer directly and the actions taken are different, and subsequently justified because that was what was heard. It would be simplistic and unfair to say such farmers failed to hear. I lay almost all the blame on the deliverer. The institution’s experts had advised correctly but had not given that advice enough importance or explained how that advice might be applied. In the absence of either it is highly likely that what was being done before will continue. At seminars in their various forms, presenters, including myself, notoriously give lots of options, hide messages behind the back story or make messages too complex. Advertisers are prone to triggering wrong outcomes because they have a very limited exposure window, either in time or space to fully explain. I am letting advertisers off lightly here. Some of what they present is very misleading and exploits the limited exposure time. An action being taken on one of the institution’s farms above that would have made the expert cringe was justified by how prominent the advertising for a particular product was. When I was more involved with the fight against worms, we were aware any best-practice messages that were broadcast could be swamped by animal health company advertising, which very often compromised that best practice advice. But that is life and has always been the case. The best farming performers take a lot of care over where they get advice and do question it. An exception I encountered recently concerned the use of Vitamin B12 supplements on two different highperforming farms. B12 was to be given to lambs at weaning and from time-to-time after that. I queried the need and both managers could not really justify it other than that others in the district do it. In both cases I took some liver biopsies from lambs just before weaning and found the storage levels were high. If B12 was to get low enough to hinder weight
Every injection that goes into a lamb increases the risk of a carcase downgrade.
gain then it was not going to be for some time. I know B12 injections are cheap if the short-acting form is used. Apart from it being a waste if it is not needed, it is not dealing with a deficiency well enough if it is low. These injections only lift the storage level for less than a month, so if they are weight-gainlimiting low then that supplementing needs to be very frequent and regular. There may be other supplementation options. Every injection that goes into a lamb increases the risk of a carcase downgrade. Despite the advertising that would have you think every B12 injection will lift weight gains, most give none because the storage levels in the lambs are not low enough. One of the tragedies of artificial meat, apart from the possible environmental degradation and chemical contamination, will be the loss of all of these people interactions that make farming so complex and interesting. But they will continue producing super products that wealthy and rational people want to eat. I am puzzled as to why the millions of ruminants that roamed the earth a few thousand years ago did not destroy it as they are being blamed for now.
55
FORAGE | CROPS
Right time for side dressings Joanna Grigg
M
ost winter crops are in the ground but the job’s not finished yet. Summer is the time to consider applying side-dressings of fertiliser to forage crops and to keep an eye on pests and weed incursions and control them. Forage crops like kale, rape, turnips and swedes are planted on about 40,000 hectares of New Zealand soil each year. How much nitrogen to apply, when and in what form, takes planning and opinions range across fertiliser company representatives on the topic. A tool for farmers to set fertiliser requirements based on actual paddock measurements is on the horizon, but still a year away. This would give much more certainty in matching fertiliser to crop requirements. The Quick Test Mass Balance method, designed for calculating nitrogen (N) fertiliser requirements in real-time, out in the field, for different crops, is due 2019 according to Diana Mathers, FAR Research Manager. Meantwhile, the general guide from some fertiliser company brochures is to apply 90 to 100kg N/ha four to six weeks
Rob Flynn, Soil Matters, in a crop he describes as showing the benefits of a decent fallow prep and a double weed spray.
post-germination, depending on the N status of the soil before sowing. This can be followed up with another dressing at eight to 12 weeks post-emergence (the canopy closure stage).
“To move to this system requires planning ahead with capital fertiliser and monitoring during growth.”
Brassica crop calculators are available on-line to assist in setting fertiliser inputs of mainly potassium (K) and phosphorus (P), but they are designed for capital dressings and as a guide only. Rob Flynn, fertiliser consultant, Soil Matters, says about 80% of his clients don’t side-dress N on winter fodder crops. Those that do mainly use urea ammonium nitrate (liquid form) on the smaller emerging plants. He has seen a reduction in rates of nitrogen applications. “To move to this system requires planning ahead with capital fertiliser and
monitoring during growth,” he says. “Some clients that were applying 120kg of urea as a second dressing have gone to 60kg of urea mixed with 20% lime as a side-dressing at 10 weeks, the leaf closure stage.” He queries why the same rate of N should be applied to plants when they are at different growth stages. He recommends a herbage test before application. Eye-appraisal is a common method to gauge if the crop needs a second dressing at 12 weeks post-germination. Ideally farmers would have soil-tested the block the previous autumn or spring, he says, and corrected the pH, K and sulphur (S) status. The AMN test (Anaerobic Mineralisable Nitrogen) measures organic N in the soil by incubating the soil sample at 40C and extracting and measuring the ammonium-N produced. The main outcome is an indication of low, medium or high organic N. It is almost like estimating what’s in the pantry for the season. This soil test can be used to inform the amount of side-dressed N. However, there can be a difference between N tests taken pre-planting and what actually becomes available for the plant during the season. A Quick N strip nitrate test for soil is
available commercially but to get the best out of it, tables of crop requirements are also required. Yield seldom responds to S applications and the crop requirement for S is low. Applying S when it is not needed can lead to animal health issues during grazing, especially in kale. Brassica crops take up significant amounts of potassium (K) in the soil but the yield seldom responds to K applications after four weeks. Replacing K post-crop is important for the next crop. Phosphate is most effective when applied down the spout (at sowing). The optimum pH for brassica is listed by the Forage Brassica Group as 6.2, although Flynn believes 6.4 is the ideal. A pH adjustment takes time so should be done a year out. Boron is important to reduce the chance of brown heart in swedes, kale and turnips. By the time the problem is visual it is too late to supplement. Boron is not suited to apply at sowing time, so apply as a capital fertiliser before sowing. Boron requirements are estimated at 18 to 45 grams/ha for yields from six to 15 tonnes/ha respectively. Leading into autumn, it is recommended brassicas should not be fertilised with N within one month of grazing as it can raise the risk of nitrate toxicity. An experiment at Lincoln, (NZ Institute
of Plant & Food Research 2009), looked at nitrate nitrogen (NO3-N) in four forage brassica crops (turnips, rape, kale and swedes) following three N fertilizer treatments (either early N, late N or double N). Results showed that, averaged across all species, plant NO3-N content was greater in crops that received the double rate of N than either the early or late N treatments. Importantly, the late N treatment (3.7mg/g) accumulated almost double the plant NO3-N content of the early N treatment (2.0mg/g). Low sunlight intensities, low temperatures and rainfall following prolonged drought all alter the metabolism of N in the plant and can result in the accumulation of high NO3-N. For this reason late applications of N fertiliser are likely to increase the animal health risks in these conditions. Flynn said this was very obvious postdrought in North Canterbury. “Farmers would apply N if it looked like rain but it didn’t rain then they applied more N before the next rain and the forage was at toxic levels come autumn.” “Potassium nitrate is gun-powder.” Pest and weed control is another significant factor in a flourishing stand of feed. Heavier soils will retain more water
and crops with fewer weeds will have less competition for available water. Most brassica crops will extract water to a depth of one meter.
A Canterbury kale crop on January 10 on its way to becoming what the farmer described as a good winter crop. It had capital lime, magnesium and boron, was drilled with potassium and sulphur, but no side-dressings of nitrogen were applied.
Nitrate quick test still a year away A colour stick test to measure soil nitrogen (N) status of the soil is already available to farmers. What is holding it back from widespread use however is that research is still needed to take it to the really useful stage. This is where the test result is fed into an equation with the expected crop N requirements, to spit out a useful and validated figure of required fertiliser N at that time. This is a Quick Test Mass Balance calculation. Ultimately farmers could have an app where they put in their Nitrate Quick test result and up pops a recommendation for their particular crop. The is one of the goals of the research underway by the NZ Institute of Plant and Food Research with funding from MPI Sustainable Farming Fund, FAR, Potatoes NZ, Hort NZ, Waikato Regional Council, Ravensdown and Ballance AgriNutrients. Diana Mathers, FAR research manager, who oversees the project, says they
Country-Wide January 2018
currently don’t recommend farmers use the Nitrate Quick Test unless they have a fertiliser representative to help provide predictions of expected crop uptake of N. “Crops all differ based on type and age, and tables are needed.” “We are about half way through a three-year project and expect tables for farmers or an app by 2019.” “Ultimately it would take the guess work out of nitrogen applications for forage crops which has considerable environmental benefits.” The Nitrate Quick Test was developed by NZ Plant & Food Research in 2014 and measures mineral N in the top 30cm of soil. This is the zone where the more plantavailable nitrate-N is the predominant form of mineral N. This colour indicator test is done ‘on site’ and is quick to do. The process involves mixing a 10ml sample of soil with 30ml of calcium chloride solution and leaving it to stand for 30 minutes.
A test strip is then dipped into the solution and left for one minute to develop in colour. The test result needs to be plugged into a calculation to determine the side dressing allocation of N however. Other measurements to go into the equation are how much N the crop needs to achieve its potential, and how much N will be supplied by the soil. Put all together, this calculation is known as the Quick Test Mass Balance method. It is this calculation research is validating for all types of crops, with maize the first to be tested. Recent findings on maize trials showing the Quick N Strip (as it is also known) is an appropriate method for estimating the soil N supply for the mass balance calculation. “We will validate it for a range of crops; vegetable, arable and the main brassicas,” Mathers says. “It is one to watch for as it is not main stream in New Zealand yet.”
57
FORAGE | GRASSLANDS
Hill Country research Cheyenne Nicholson
It means research into hill country and improving hill land is becoming increasingly important. Recent trends of land use in New Zealand A selection of papers focused on hill has created pressure to finish a larger country research were presented at the number of sheep and beef animals on 2017 Grassland Association conference. hill country farms, largely due to the The basis for achieving pasture more productive finishing land being productivity gains in New Zealand hill converted to dairy production or land lies in the ecological concepts dairy support. described by Sears and levy in 1960 and 1970 Phosphate fertiliser application and white respectively. clover cultivar introduction for hill Nitrogen (N) is the pasture improvement. nutrient most strongly limiting pasture growth in Animal liveweight gain (kg/ha/year, mean of four hill pastures followed by years) from pastures based on the resident white phosphorus (P). clover ecotype or the cultivars Tahora and Huia and The classical pasture receiving four fertiliser treatments. Means with the improvement sequence same letter for pasture type and fertiliser treatment addresses the N limitation do not differ significantly (P>0.05) by first reducing the soil P deficiency to create an Pasture environment favourable Fertiliser Treatment Type to legume growth. Control P 8.5 P 22.5 P 26.5 Mean This increase in clover in turn stimulated Resident 213 388 476 440 379 b biological nitrogen Tahora 300 436 486 477 425 a fixation and nutrient Huia 215 380 417 442 364 b cycling processes. Mean 243 c 401 b 460 a 453 a White clover cultivars bred specifically for NZ
58
hill environments have been around since the 1990s but while there is a lot of agronomic information available from small-plot studies with white clover cultivars in hill country, the impacts of cultivar introduction on animal production aren’t known. With a range of factors that influence hill land productivity it is un-wise to assume results seen in small, simple plot experiments will translate to higher animal production in self-contained grazing systems. A research project that originally began in the mid-1980s and presented at the 2017 Grassland conference looked to compare the animal production response to P fertiliser application with the introduction of white clover cultivars in hill country.
The how Combinations of four P fertiliser rates and three pasture types with different white clover germplasms were compared in self-contained, replicated farmlets grazed by sheep over four years. The trial was done on the low-fertility no improvement hill land at Ballantrae Hill Country Research station. White
Country-Wide January 2018
Hoggets on hill country brassica.
The introduction of Tahora white clover increased white clover and total sward HA and nitrogen fixation compared with the resident and Huiasown swards. Sheep liveweight gain was greater in all systems fertilised with P and in systems sown with Tahora.
Practical implications: Managing for improved productivity. A mean 12% improvement in animal performance from the introduction of a persistent adapted clover cultivar, at low initial cost, appears to offer an economically viable strategy for improving hill land production. The three fertilised treatments produced an average 80% greater liveweight gain/ha compared with unfertilised. “The established recommendation of viewing cultivar introduction as a compliment to fertiliser use, not as a replacement remains valid and should be considered in any management decision concerning improvement strategies for hill land.”
The study was carried out at Massey University’s Tuapaka Agricultural Experiment Station. Two small sub-catchments were selected for the study and features sloped ranging from 0-28 degrees and contrasting soil types. Crop type: swedes. Soil damage caused by the winter grazing of the swedes generated sediment losses that were 5.5 times greater on the imperfectly drained soil than the welldrained soil. Surface run-off over three months resulted in losses of 1.1 tonnes/ha of sediment, 0.85kg of P and 5.4kg of N/ha from the poorly drained soil. The key risk period contributed between 99-99% of the total annual sediment and total N and P losses compared to pasture and crop establishment phase. A comparison with two other sediment and nutrient loss studies on the same farm suggested the losses associated with winter cropping in the landscape may be extreme. It highlighted the need for targeted mitigation strategies and strategic grazing management to reduce soil and
Sediment and nutrient losses under winter cropping on hill country soils clover germplasms: The resident clover (first introduce in 1986) Huia and Tahora. Fertiliser rates: 0,8.5, 22.5 and 26.5 kg/ha/year of citrate – soluble P. Grazing management “wasn’t terribly sophisticated” and ran on a twopaddock, two-week on two-week off system. Pasture covers were monitored on all plots and stocking rate adjusted to utilise pasture growth in a give and take type system.
‘The established recommendation of viewing cultivar introduction as a compliment to fertiliser use, not as a replacement remains valid.’
“The results of this experiment were clear. Both P fertiliser addition and white clover cultivar introduction significantly increase animal production (measured as liveweight gain/ha/year). There were no significant interactions between fertiliser inputs and pasture type for any of the variables. Fertiliser increased white clover herbage accumulate (HA) three to fourfold compared with the control treatment increasing total sward HA by 50%.
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Surface runoff depth (mm) and sediment and nutrient loads (kg/ha) resulting from establishment and grazing of a winter swede crops in hill country from October 2015 to October 2016
Soil type
Depth
Sediment
Total P
Total N
DRP
Nitrate-N
Ammonium-N
Grazed pasture and non-grazed crop Korokoro
30
7
0.08
0.26
0.04
0
0.01
Ramiha
11
4
0.02
0.1
0
0.01
0
Korokoro
5
104
0.12
0.75
0.01
0
0.14
Ramiha
0.9
4
0.01
0.06
0
0.01
0.01
Grazed crop
Non-grazed crop stubble Korokoro
100
1006
0.71
4.63
0.06
0.12
1.1
Ramiha
43
196
0.14
1.16
0.02
0.2
0.16
Korokoro
135
1117
0.91
5.64
0.11
0.12
1.25
Ramiha
55
204
0.17
1.32
0.02
0.22
0.18
Total annual loads
Aerial Spraying and surface seeding of winter crops in uncultivable hill country is being rapidly adopted as a method of increasing winter feed supply and as a precursor to regrassing. There is little research on the sediment and nutrient losses that may result from this practise. Given the current focus on the environmental aspects of farming, one research paper looked to quantify sediment and nutrient losses from hill country cropping.
nutrient losses to minimise the impacts on waterways of winter grazing of hill country crops. Further research is required to assess the practicality of different mitigation options. • For full papers and others presented at the 2017 Grassland conference see: www. grassland.org.nz/proceedings.php • See Country-Wide February for more papers from this conference.
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ARABLE | FEED
Precision pays A$0.5m over decade Does it pay? It’s the first question most farmers ask about precision agriculture but one that’s rarely adequately answered. Australian grower Mark Branson grasped that nettle at the recent multi-national precision agriculture conference in Hamilton. Andrew Swallow reports.
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outh Australian grower Mark Branson calculates he’s more than half a million dollars better off thanks to practicing precision agriculture across the 1200 hectares he farms near Stockport over the past decade. “That’s half a million dollars (Australian) we’ve earnt that the neighbours haven’t,” he commented to a Foundation for Arable Research organised workshop in Timaru. Branson, who earlier in the week spoke in Hamilton at PA17 – The International Tri-Conference for Precision Agriculture, said his first step towards precision agriculture was in 1997 with yield monitoring but it wasn’t until he did a Nuffield Scholarship-funded study into it in 2005 that he started to capitalise on that. “The yield map drew some boundaries in the paddocks that I knew were there already. The question was: how were we going to make any money out of it?” His first step was to start variably applying phosphate based on off-take of the previous crop, as illustrated by yield maps. “Phosphate’s a fairly stable nutrient that doesn’t move. We’ve saved money by not over-applying it in areas where the
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crop’s not been using it.” Every year that’s worth A$16/ha based on an average reduction in annual tonnage applied from 96 tonnes to 80t. Nitrogen is also now variably applied, saving an average of A$33.78/ha/year. “When I did my Nuffield everyone said you’ll never get nitrogen right but now I reckon we’re reasonably close,” he told the FAR workshop. “We use management zone yield expectations and in-season sensors to variably apply it.” Management zones are determined using yield map records, supported with soil depth and textural information generated by electro-magnetic (EM) scanning. That highlights the occasional area where physical constraints to yield, such as soil depth or poor drainage, puts a ceiling on yield potential so there’s no point applying nitrogen for a yield above that, he explained. The in-season sensors are a hand-held Greenseeker for taking NDVI (normalised difference vegetative index) readings from a short reference strip in each paddock and two cab-mounted Topcon CropSpec sensors on the sprayer. “They can go on the spreader, but the console I use in the tractor doesn’t talk to the CropSpecs so I have kept them on the sprayer.” The reference strips are given excess
Nitrogen is variably applied according to crop need, as determined by NDVI readings from reference strips (inset) and the rest of the crop.
Fire set-back Branson says a wildfire which swept across 85,000ha of South Australia, including most of his farm, in late November 2015 has slashed output since. “We lost a lot of carbon and subsequent wind erosion took some of the top soil and nutrients away.” Lack of stubble in the ensuing weeks also saw soil bake under the mid-summer sun with consequent loss of biological activity. Normally stubble is left 30-40cm long to shade soil and maximise header output by minimising straw intake. Precision guidance systems allow subsequent crops to be drilled between the 23cm rows of the previous crop. Based on long-term yield trends, and comparing figures from similar seasons before and after the fire, he estimates returns are down $100/ha across the farm as a result.
nitrogen to ensure no deficiency and scanned once or twice a week during critical growth stages with the Greenseeker. Those readings are then compared with NDVI values from the CropSpec sensors as they traverse the rest of the paddock. “It lets the plant tell you if it needs any nitrogen; not only how much, but when,” explained Branson, who uses a calculator from Oklahoma State University to convert differences in NDVI readings between the reference strip and the rest of the paddock to determine how much nitrogen is needed to correct the deficiency. In ground moisture probes and his knowledge of local conditions including season rainfall fine-tune application rates. If he’s applying liquid urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) the NDVI of the crop can be read and the amount of nitrogen applied varied in the same pass. When
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Precision pay-back in A$ Component
Value/ha/year
Yield gains
A$7.87/ha
Elimination of seed, fert & chem overlaps
A$7.24/ha
Nutrient savings
A$54.14/ha (P $16/ha, N $34/ha, Gypsum/lime $4/ ha)
Total savings & gains/year
A$69.25/ha
Added machinery expenses ($100,000 over 10yrs & 900ha)
A$11.11/ha
RTK GPS signal sub
A$0.17/ha
Extra management time
A$1/ha
Total PA expenses/year
A$12.28/ha
Profit attributable to PA
A$56.97/ha
PA return/year for farm
A$51,271
using solid urea, the paddock’s scanned with a sprayer pass to produce an application map which is then passed to the spreader to vary the urea rates accordingly. In practice, he’s found his mostly clay soils are providing more nitrogen during the growing season than models used for nitrogen application in Australia predict, a virtue he puts down to 13 years of controlled traffic operations and at least 15 years of no-till and returned crop residues. “We’ve been exclusively no-till since 2002 and used it on-off before that.” Not that no-till has been all good: it’s probably the main reason he and many other Australian growers are grappling with herbicide resistant strains of annual ryegrass, wild oats, and wild radish, he says, acknowledging that eventually he may have to reintroduce tillage at some point in the rotation, especially if glyphosate resistance becomes more widespread. “If we lose glyphosate I lose my farming system.” Public pressure to ban burning of crop residue – a tool Branson only uses on canola swaths – could add to the problems. “I would think in 10 years we’ll lose burning. The town and city folk are becoming less tolerant of it and the vineyards don’t like it either because it can taint the grapes.” But precision tools are providing a solution. Hundreds of images taken by a drone flown over his paddocks at 95 metres, then stitched together overnight by US-based service provider Drone Deploy, are used to target weed patches. At about A$1600 for the Phantom 4 drone, plus about US$1000/year for Drone Deploy, it’s a better solution than satellite imagery, he believes, because it’s not as dependent on clear skies and he’s in control of when images are taken. “To get a decent image with the drone you still need stable light intensity: either full sun or full cloud cover. Intermittent
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clouds cause problems because the light intensity changes during the flight but with satellite I couldn’t get a decent image at all during winter because of the cloud cover. With this [drone] I’m on to an emerging weed problem the next day.” Branson says he’s not calculated the return on variable rate herbicides yet. “It’s the one part of the economics I haven’t done. The patching of seed rates and targeted use of chemical is easy, but the long-term yield implications are very hard to calculate. Maybe I need to talk to our weed scientists on how to work this out.” Nonetheless, he’s confident the benefit of variable rate weed management is “economically substantial”. Reduced pesticide use isn’t the only environmental advantage to his precision practices. Improving yields mean his wheat’s water use efficiency has improved 2.2% annually from 2002 to 2013 thanks to PA, double the industry average of 1.1% improvement per year. Averaged across his 900ha he values yield gains attributable to PA over the same period at $7.87/ha. Removing overlaps in field operations with GPS steering systems has also saved $7.24/ha/ year but precision nutrient application has provided the biggest returns to date:
Mark Branson.
$16/ha for phosphate, $33.78/ha for nitrogen, and $4.36/ha for variable rate gypsum and lime. That last figure is set to get a lot higher in future thanks to a new dedicated lime spreader being able to match application to need as dictated by precision pH maps produced using a Veris sampler, he adds. On the other side of the ledger, on average he’s invested A$100,000/ year in techno-tools which, across his 900ha, equates to A$11.11/ha. Extra management time demanded by PA is put in at A$1/ha/year, though he admits he might be “underestimating that a bit”, and the RTK GPS signal service comes in at A$0.17/year giving total expenses due to PA of $12.28/ha/year and a return on PA of A$56.97/ha/year, or $51,271/ha/ year between 2002 and 2013. “And I reckon I’m getting still more savings with PA now than I was two years ago when I did these figures,” he told the FAR audience, stressing that precision agriculture is about solving practical problems rather than buying trendy tools and services. “PA is profitable if you choose the right tools and the right approaches. The only way we’re going to feed a growing world population with depleted resources is to adopt PA technology.”
Precision decisions Branson suggests there are five key steps to go through when assessing whether a precision approach will pay: • Identify within-paddock variability: if there’s little or none, most variable rate precision agriculture tools will not be justified. • Fix physical problems that can be fixed: eg soil pH variability, phosphate levels, drainage. • Use variable rate to match inputs to yield limits in areas where physical problems cannot be fixed. • Only use precision agriculture to fix a problem: it won’t make money if there’s no problem to fix. • Choose the right PA tool for your farm and your capabilities. Beware trendy toys.
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PLANT & MACHINERY | OVERSEAS
Agritechnia metal heaven While there were heaps of mainstream machinery launches at the world’s biggest machinery show in Germany last month, tucked away in various crooks and crannies were a ruck of more unusual oddities. Nick Fone rounds up a few of the weird and wonderful bits and pieces.
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hen it comes to big ploughs, it’s not all about length, sometimes it’s more depth that counts. This monster Moro Aratri single furrow reversible can dig down more than a metre. Usually used when replanting vineyards and forestry plantations, it’s strong enough to cut through roots and bring entire root-balls to the surface. On peaty ground with underlying clay it is also employed to bring a bit of extra ‘body’ to the surface. The massive mouldboards are faced with plastic to ensure claggy clay doesn’t have a chance to stick. Unlike a normal plough with skimmers up front, it has a set of standard-sized bodies running behind the main mouldboards to chop the resulting furrow in half. All this heavy metal means plenty of poke is required in the yoke. MoroAratri suggests no less than 350hp up front.
STW electric tractor concept (Germany)
Moro Aratri monster plough (Italy)
Mitsubishi Mahindra (Japan/India)
This striking looking Mitsubishi rubbertracked crawler was one of a number of products you might not have expected to see on the stand of Mahindra.
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Standing alongside Finnish-made Sampo combines and Turkish Armatrac/Erkunt tractors, it reflects the Indian tractor giant’s strategy for global domination. Not satisfied by being the world’s largest tractor manufacturer by numbers, to widen its reach in Europe and the Far East the company has bought stakes in Scandinavia’s leading harvester specialist, Mitsubishi’s agricultural division and one of Turkey’s biggest tractor producers. Aside from a 138hp Caterpillar engine, everything else on the Mitsubishi GCR 1380 is built in-house in the Japanese firm’s own production facilities. It is sold under the Mahindra badge in the United States but as yet there are no plans to start marketing it in Europe.
While on the subject of volts and amps for agricultural kit, this unusual looking oddity is a concept vehicle put together by electrification specialist STW. The German company supplies a lot of the clever kit for Fendt’s E100 batterypowered compact tractor and is working with Ropa on a diesel-electric driveline for beet harvesters that is hoped to improve their efficiency by as much as 25%. Unlikely ever to make it to market, the firm’s semi-autonomous SymonE concept tractor is instead being used as a demonstration platform for STW’s technology and as a research ‘mule’ for electrically driven implements. The rig is based on a French Noremat systems tractor with the usual diesel engine ripped out and a 100kWh lithium ion battery in its place. This gives the vehicle three to five hours run time depending on the work it’s doing and will re-charge in just one hour.
Paus swivel loader (Germany) Best-known in the world of mining machinery, Paus had a pivot-steer loader on display with an extra trick up its sleeve. Like the hundreds of other similar handlers at the show, it bends in the middle to steer and has a telescopic
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Cosmeco wheel ditcher (Italy) If you want a quick way of cutting shallow ditches and drainage channels across fields then the Big Storm double-wheel ditcher could be the tool. Claimed to be the biggest rotary ditcher in the world, twin 1800mm diameter rotors each equipped with 24 blades cut a V-shaped trench which can be up to 1450mm deep. With each spinning disc weighing in at over 500kg, it needs a minimum of 150hp-200hp up front but that weight means sheer inertia helps to keep the blades cutting through densely compacted soil. Smaller versions are available which use two different sized wheels, enabling them to throw the spoil out to just one side – handy if you don’t want to upset the neighbours. Although the workrates of 0.4kph to 0.7kph might sound steady, having the potential to carve out 7km of drainage channels in one day makes doing the job with a digger look pedestrian. Prices start from about NZ$11,180 (€6500).
Sacho cover crop chopper roller (Spain) boom to stack loads at height. Where it differs is that it has a turntable at the base of the boom, enabling it to swivel its attachment to 90 degrees left or right. Key advantage of this optional extra is said to be that it can be used to accurately position materials in cramped areas without lots of shunting or bent steelwork. In a livestock situation dropping bales into straw yards over feed barriers from a central passage would become a whole lot easier, likewise pushing up silage. The TSL 8.7 model on show will lift a maximum of 2.4 tonnes, will reach up to 4.8m, has a 73hp Deutz engine and hydrostatic transmission. It costs about NZ$120,000, depending on specifications.
SIP 5-gang trailed mo-co (Slovenia) Having made a bit of a splash at the UK Grassland event earlier in 2017, Slovenian grass kit manufacturer SIP wowed the crowds in Germany with a five-gang trailed mower-conditioner set-up. The Disco 1500 TFC couples up four 3.27m beds in a folding frame which add up to a 14.55m total cut width when combined with another perched on the nose of the tractor providing the muscle. Folding up to under 3m for transport, the big rig weighs in just shy of 9t and realistically needs a tug capable of pumping out 350hp-400hp to do a decent job. That bulk and power requirement is matched
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by the pricetag – it is expected to cost in the region of NZ$206,000 when it goes on sale next year.
UFKES chipper (Holland) Dutch firm UFKES makes a range of wood-chippers including this self-loading tractor-driven version with a high-tip hopper. The chipper itself will handle timber up to 550mm in diameter and requires a minimum of 170hp at the shaft although with a 300hp reversedrive tractor coupled up it runs a treat, according to the company. With the operator’s seat spun to face the pile of timber he can see to use the crane to load the chipper at the same time as directing the flow of material out of the chute. 8, 13, 20 and 25cu.m bunkers are available, all capable of discharging their load to a height of 4.5m. While prices for the big machine come in at about NZ$309,000. UFKES builds a smaller version for NZ$172,000.
Designed to deal with the tough stalks left after grain maize harvest and to help in accelerating the breakdown of covercrops, the Sacho Geacut chopper roller has one novel feature up its sleeve. Its clever rubber-damped hubs mean the rig can run at more than 30km/h without shaking itself to bits. The big diameter bearing on the end of each drum connects to the frame via a five-pointed star. At the tip of each point there’s a hefty rubber doughnut to smooth out any shock-loads generated as the rolls whisk over stubbles. Made from Hardox 450 re-inforced steel, the blades are bolted on for easy replacement. While the 6m folding rig weighs 5.2t empty, the drums can be filled with 1800-litres of water to take it to more than 7t. Sacho is a sister company to TMC Cancela which makes the flail toppers sold by Spaldings in the United Kingdom. As yet it’s not clear whether the rolls will make it to our shores but on the Continent they sell for just over NZ$51,000.
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PLANT & MACHINERY | BRIDGES
Dairy farmer, vintage machinery buff, and engineer Brian Schnell built this Bailey bridge on the Bunnythorpe farm run by him and son-in-law Greg Gemmell.
Bridges for troubled water Tim McVeagh Regulatory pressure and environmental awareness have increased the demand for farm bridges in recent years. The advantages of bridges compared to fords include less erosion, better access during floods, quicker and safer crossing, cleaner water and a better habitat for aquatic life. They also add value to the farm. Watercourse characteristics will largely dictate whether a ford, culvert, or bridge is most appropriate. The proposed traffic may be pedestrian only, or may include livestock or light or heavy vehicles. Each case needs to be considered separately, but there are some generalisations. Fords are more suitable where water flow is low and where stock and vehicle traffic movements are infrequent. They are discouraged by regional councils as they allow sediment from vehicles and effluent from stock to enter the watercourse. They can also be a significant barrier to fish passage. Culverts are suitable for smaller spans and where flooding is less likely. The upstream end can act as a dam allowing water to build up, so the embankment must be designed to act like a dam. Tree and rock debris blocking the culvert during a flood can result in loss of the crossing. Larger culverts with high embankments should include a spillway in the design to allow excess water past the crossing. Increased water velocities at the inlet and outlet may result in scouring of the bed and stream banks, and so need protection works. Construction requires working in the watercourse, which may be prohibited at certain times of year. Culverts will generally cost less than bridges, but diverting the watercourse to
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install the culvert must be factored in. Culverts may be circular or “box” type as used in stock underpasses. A small culvert for farm vehicle crossing can cost between $2500 and $25,000. Bridges which span the entire stream or river are less likely to interfere with the watercourse. They are more suitable for greater spans and high banks, and where debris such as logs or rock movement is an issue. Fish passage is seldom affected by a bridge, particularly where flow velocities are largely unaltered. They are generally more expensive than culverts.
Getting a bridge built Farmers may hire a reputable bridgebuilding company to manage the whole project. Alternatively, the farmer or a consulting engineer can manage the project, with design work by the engineer. There are six major steps to farm bridge building.
1. Site inspection: The engineer will collate information such as the watercourse hydrology, likelihood of flooding, aquatic ecology, soil properties, foundation stability, abutment and pier requirements, span and height above flood level, as well as the farmer’s requirements (stock, types of heavy vehicles, road approaches, health and safety). A survey to locate significant features and pick up relative ground, water and stream bed levels will be necessary for the design and construction. A cross-sectional drawing of the watercourse and a preliminary drawing of the bridge should be drawn up. Site, location, legal identity and ownership details are documented. At this stage the engineer and farmer will consider some basics of the bridge design. Location: Bridges are best located on
straight stretches of the watercourse as these are generally more stable and bank erosion is less likely. The bridge should cross the watercourse at right angles to simplify construction and keep costs down. Local knowledge of past flooding and channel behaviour is a valuable guide to location. Height: The clearance under the bridge superstructure (main beams or girders) is determined by the flood heights. Additional clearance (free board) is required to allow floating debris to pass under the bridge. Unless a local authority specifies the design standard (eg: a 50-year flood capacity), the design will be based on the risk the farmer is prepared to take. An essential crossing would likely be designed for a 100-year flood as the risk of overtopping or failure must be low. A temporary structure for the harvest of a forestry block may be appropriately designed for a 10-year standard. The free-board required may vary between regional councils. Some require onemetre clearance between the bridge and the floodwater level. Others specify the bridge must be 0.5m above the surrounding ground level so a flood can wash around the bridge. Length: The bridge should preferably be longer than the stream’s width so the abutments are clear of the stream and do not restrict flows. In order to reduce cost, bridge abutments can encroach on the waterway. This can occur provided afflux (the increase in upstream depth due to installation of a bridge) is accounted for and increased velocities through the bridge opening are acceptable. Increased scour can result if bridge constrictions are excessive. Width: Most single-lane vehicle bridges will be 3.5m to 4.5m wide, which allows
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for heavy traffic such as trucks. Large-herd dairy farmers may prefer a wider bridge so the cows do not meet a bottleneck on their way to the shed. Wing walls: These should be extended down into the bank to prevent undercutting, and project above expected flood levels. Single span/multi span: Multi-span bridges affect stream flow, can collect flood debris and result in scouring around piers. They are also more expensive. Single-span bridges of up to 20m are provided by at least one of the bridge suppliers. Safety aspects: Edge railings and handrails make for a safer bridge. Kerbs assist with keeping wheels away from the edge of the deck. However, kerbs and railings will collect flood debris if the bridge is overtopped. Run-off: The water run-off from the bridge will probably be loaded with soil and manure, so should be directed back on to the banks rather than being allowed to enter the watercourse.
2. Regional council consents: Requirements vary between regional councils. For some, the construction and use of farm bridges in some situations are a permitted activity. This means no resource consent is needed. The main concerns are effects on the environment, neighbours and other river users, while the building consent is concerned with structural details. If a resource consent is needed, the documents produced by the engineer are used in the application. It’s advisable to discuss the proposal with the council to determine their requirements before the expense of a full set of working drawings. For resource consent, be prepared to provide detailed information on: • Legal description of the land involved, including a site survey. Photographs are very useful. • Bridge description: This will include design aspects such as a location diagram, preliminary plans and watercourse cross-sectional diagrams. It will also include installation information such as machinery to be used, water diversion needed and proposed start and completion dates for the works. • Environmental description: This can include details on water characteristics, the surrounding area, physical resources, ecosystem information and recreational aspects. • Consultation: This may include consultation with Fish and Game, the Department of Conservation, local iwi/hapu, river users and downstream users or residents. • Possible adverse effects: This includes effects on water flow characteristics and quality, erosion, debris trapping, riparian vegetation, fish passage, sediment release and natural character. • Mitigation measures: This includes machinery and fuel constraints during construction, removal of construction materials from the watercourse and fish passage considerations. Regional councils are generally able to offer on-site advice. The result of the resource consent application will be either approval, rejection, or approval with conditions on the structure or its installation. At this stage, the farmer can decide whether to go ahead with the project or abandon it.
3. Working drawings: A full set of engineering drawings are then prepared by the engineer in accordance with New Zealand industry standards. They will show the bridge and features such as abutments, wing walls and river protection details. A producer statement is completed by the engineer outlining the work to be done.
4. Costings: While the major cost will be the bridge and its installation, allowance must also be made for the resource and building consents. Standard designs often allow more accurate costings
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Future-proofing An Atiamuri farmer called upon the services of Humes Pipelines after a flash flood during cyclone Debbie wiped out several crossings on his dairy farm. Together with Dave Casey of Humes, the decision was made to install a Humes 10 metre Double T bridge at one of the crossings. This would enable farm machinery and stock to access parts of the farm safely with no risk of future washouts. GDC Consultants of Hamilton carried out site design work which included geo tech testing for pile specifications and design work for the protection of abutments and piles by a system of Gabion baskets. The new bridge is 10m long and 4m wide, and meets class 1 loading, which enables the farmer access with heavy machinery. The bridge sections were transported in, then craned into place by McLeod Cranes of Taupo with their 80-tonne crane. The bridge components fit together like a giant Lego set and made the install a straightforward process for Waikato-based contractor Steve Curin from Curin Contracting. “Other than the tight deadline there were no complications with installing this bridge, although the weather and mud were against the contractor at times. But despite this the install went extremely well, and we look forward to working with the client again,” Casey said. A Humes Double T bridge has replaced a washed out culvert at this Atiamuri dairy farm. Bridge sections are craned in and mounted on the abutments, fitting in to each other like a giant Lego set. Geo tech testing allows design work for the piles and abutments, and Gabion baskets protect these. (Photos supplied by Humes).
to be made. Some of the factors which affect the cost are farm location, access to the site, abutments and wing walls needed and erosion protection work required. Ballpark costs for one pre-cast concrete bridge system are $70,000 to $120,000 for a 12-16m span bridge.
5. District council consents: A consent for site preparation and a consent for the bridge construction (building consent) must be secured from the local district council before construction starts.
6. Construction: For most farmers the actual construction work will be in the hands of experienced contractors. With many bridges, including the popular pre-cast concrete bridges, the components are trucked to the site for the construction work. The job should be completed by fitting weight and speed restriction signs at both ends of the bridge.
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Bryce and Aneta at the top of the farm.
ENVIRONMENT
FARMING FOR THE FUTURE Hugh Stringleman
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hat happens on Te Opu Farm goes into the mighty Kaipara Harbour, part-owner and farmer Bryce Lupton told a Beef + Lamb New Zealand field day. It was the first event for a new Northland Project Farm for three years, aimed at demonstrating bestpractice sustainability, and called “Food Production – Yesterday, today and forever”. The 392-hectare (360ha effective) sheep and beef farm occupies one of the dozens of small peninsulas that fringe the harbour and is bounded on eastern and western sides by Opu creek and Whakapirau creek respectively.
Among the sustainability objectives for Bryce and his wife Aneta was an improvement in water quality leaving the farm to ensure whitebait flourished in those streams. Throughout more than 125 years farmed by generations of the Lupton family, the risk posed by the farm to the Kaipara was sedimentary loss. Opus consultant Kathryne Easton, speaking on behalf of the Integrated Kaipara Harbour Management Group, said the harbour was filling up with silt at the rate of 8-10mm a year. It was much finer sediment than in the past, when sand formed the bays, banks and sea-grass beds that were the spawning grounds for all the west coast North Island snapper fishery. Fine silt carrying phosphorus smothered the shellfish, spread
Farm facts Stock on Hand, November 30 Hoggets/odds 25 Autumn-born bull calves 448 15-month bulls 192 18-month bulls 447 Total 1112 (13 su/ha) mangroves and restricted the whitebait egg-laying sites. Te Opu was now farmed with low inputs, finishing and trading stock flexibility, and the knowledge and objectives arising out of a very comprehensive Land and Environment Plan (LEP), Bryce said.
From the highest point on Te Opu, showing the Opu creek and the Kaipara Harbour, with mangrove inundation obvious.
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“Having a LEP will be a licence to farm in future, so we have worked with the Northland Regional Council to ensure that what is written down is manageable for us,” Bryce said. All streams and shorelines have been fenced for years and two man-made lakes were riparian planted and were now the sources for reticulated stock watering. Associated wetlands were now being fenced, planted and retired from grazing. When the cattle could access the estuaries they kept the mangroves from advancing, but inter-tidal zones were now filling up with the trees. Erosion-prone land had been stabilised with poplar and willow planting and some of that work was now having to be re-done as huge Matsudana willows fell over and posed health and safety risks.
Having a LEP will be a licence to farm in future, so we have worked with the Northland Regional Council to ensure that what is written down is manageable for us.
Over the past three years Te Opu had been farmed by the White Rock Hills company, which was an equity partnership between Auckland-based medical professionals Peter and Prue Vincent and the Luptons. This came about when Bryce as farm operator for the past 30 years sought outside capital to buy out other members of the Lupton family, and to provide money for continued development. The partnership now had formalised governance, with an independent chairman and monthly stock reconciliations, bank statements,
Poplars to replace willows Replacing giant willows with poplars better suited to the erosion prevention requirement in the most economic manner would be a feature of the Northland Project Farm tenure on Te Opu Farm, Maungaturoto. Mistaken advice in the 1980s had led to the Lupton family, among many other Northland farmers, using Matsudana willows for slip stabilisation, AgFirst Northland consultant Bob Cathcart said. In the limestone/clay country on the northern Kaipara, comparatively gentle slopes were prone to slipping because of lubricating effects between the soil stratas. The willow fibrous root system was more suited to stream banks, or for tunnel and gully erosion. Poplars had large root systems that stabilised the soils and reached into the underlying regolith, Cathcart said. Until four years ago, he was chief land information officer for Northland Regional Council, but he wasn’t working in the province during the 80s. After massive storms and subsequent erosion around the Kaipara Harbour in the 70s, poplars were distributed by the catchment commission and grown on slips, only to fall prey to poplar rust. Therefore the official advice shifted in favour of willows. Those 30-year-old willows were now huge and dangerous and needed to be removed and replaced. Because both poplars and willows had long fibres they were technically hard woods, and had commercial value for paper manufacture. The size of the potential resource in Northland was huge, although the economics had to be investigated. Te Opu farmer Bryce Lupton had already cut down some old willows, stacked the trunks for burning and planted protected Kawa poplar poles in the slope. Another possible treatment was poisoning in situ with glyphosate or metsulfuron, after which the trees would fall and rot or even rot standing up. The third treatment option was to mulch the standing trees with a giant machine, but the resulting chip would take decades to break down and require nitrogen input to grow any grass. A fourth option was to cut down and chip the wood, and then cart it away for paper manufacture, calf pens, biofuel, and various mulching uses. All the options would be costed and trialled during the project farm period. cashflow, and year-to-date comparisons. The Vincents had taken a keen interest in all farm matters and had values and objectives that aligned with the Luptons, although they didn’t attend the field day. At the top of the farm goals was profitability, to provide a consistent return to shareholders, Bryce said. Next came stewardship and sustainability while further development
would be targeted at diversification through farm stays and the employment of an extra labour unit to improve worklife balance. Winter production was maximised, because pasture growth continued during the winter months, by bringing on 3500 lambs for finishing and making sure that all young bulls were sold before their second winter.
Te Opu Farm and the lines of willows, poplars and some macrocarpas that have to be felled.
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Store lambs were purchased between April and June and sold between July and November at 18-19kg carcaseweight. Friesian weaner bulls were purchased when they reached 110kg liveweight and kept until 420 to 480kg LW by 20-22 months of age. Some were killable at that age, but most were on-sold for finishing. Bulls were grazed in a 60ha intensive beef system and a 70ha cellular system. Income was $5435/ha in the 201617 financial year, which contained a summer/autumn drought, livestock purchases were $2354. So the net income was just over $3000/ ha minus farm working expenses around $500/ha (including administration but no wages). Bryce said he was targeting 300kg/ha CW – last year the outcome was 284kg and the year before 331kg. “We changed from a breeding and finishing unit into a trading and finishing unit and that gave us huge flexibility. “I have lots of levers to pull, including buy and sell dates for livestock, according to Mother Nature or what the markets are doing.” The LEP had formalised the Te Opu soils, predominately Aponga clay, Whakapara clay loam, Arapohue clay and
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Cattle with the QEII reserve in the background.
a small area of Kaipara clay. They were winter wet and summer dry, therefore heavy cattle were not viable. Soils tests showed consistent pH of 6.06.5 and Olsen P readings from 20 to 30. The annual fertiliser cost was just under $200/ha. The property has its own limestone rock quarry and the contour is mainly rolling hills, with the highest point 100m above sea level. The furthest point of the peninsula was a Department of Conservation reserve that had no public access and Te Opu had 3.5ha of covenanted bush
and a further 1ha of fenced bush. Bryce recently passed his restricted chemicals handling certificate enabling him to set poison for possums and other pests. In the bush reserves adjacent to the stream that fed the Kaipara, the second target after possums would be rats, which fed on whitebait eggs. White Rock Hills entered the 2017 Northland Balance Farm Environment Awards and won the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Livestock Award and the Balance Agri-Nutrients Soil Management Award.
Country-Wide January 2018
ENVIRONMENT | WATER
A resource consent is not an unlimited right for unfettered access to a resource, or to undertake an activity.
The importance of timeframes Keri Johnstone Christmas seems to be a magic deadline for people – apparently December 25 is the date the professional world as we know it will cease to exist and heaven help us if we miss it. While Christmas is more of a perceived deadline for things, you should be aware of some real resource consent timeframes or deadlines. As over-allocation of our resources has become an issue, so have the methods councils can use to reduce over-allocation. This is where timeframes around consenting are beginning to bite and councils are actually using their powers. The first is the lapse date on a resource consent. This is not the expiry date, but rather the “use it or lose it” date. From the date of grant of a consent, you have up to five years to use the consent, or you lose it. This is particularly important in over-allocated water catchments for example as lapsing a consent is one of the mechanisms a council will use to claw back over-allocation. You may apply to the council to extend your lapse date, but you have to be able to demonstrate to the council that you have taken considerable action towards actually using the consent. The maximum extension normally be given is a further two years. Even if a consent has been used before the lapse date, it can still re-lapse if it is not used for a five-year period after that, so this is something you also need to be aware of. This is referred to as cancellation of a consent. There are also important deadlines around renewing resource consents. An
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application to renew a consent received by the council at least six months before expiry of the consent is guaranteed to be given ‘continuation’. What this means is that you can continue to operate under your existing consent until such time that a decision is made on the replacement. Getting continuation is critical if processing the renewal is likely to take considerable time like we have seen here in Canterbury where renewal applications have spent years in process waiting on plans to be developed.
You can continue to operate under your existing consent until such time that a decision is made on the replacement.
A renewal application received after six months but before three months of the expiry date may get continuation, but it is at the council’s discretion. Securing continuation also means you have priority to a resource over someone else competing for the same resource. So again, if we think water permits where a resource is nearing its full allocation, you want to be able to re-secure your access to that water ahead of a new user. If you find yourself within the threemonth window, then continuation cannot be given, and you must cease your activity at the expiry date. If you are in an over-allocation situation again, this
may cause issues with your renewal, and there is a risk of the council not granting the renewal consent (another way to claw back over-allocation). Once a consent expires, and if no application has been received by the council to renew the consent within the required timeframes, you no longer hold a consent to undertake that activity or have any right at all to renew it. If you find yourself in this situation, and you do want to carry on your consented activity, then you have to apply as if you are a brand-new consent. In over-allocated areas, you may not even be able to apply for consent as many councils have now made it a prohibited activity to apply for consent in overallocated areas. Prohibited means you cannot even apply to the council – the door is shut tight. These dates are all things any consentholder needs to know. A resource consent is not an unlimited right for unfettered access to a resource, or to undertake an activity. It can be revoked by not using it, or by failing to meet the timeframes around the renewal process. Also, here’s a small request from this consultant. An application for resource consent can take a fair amount of time to prepare – even if it is for a renewal, the amount of information required to be supplied is just the same as it is for a new application. Therefore, please give your consultant plenty of time to get the application in – it is no good fronting up a week before the application must be submitted and expecting it can and will be done in that timeframe, and the same goes for that magic Christmas deadline…
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ENVIRONMENT | FARM FORESTRY
Does forestry get a fair suck of the sav? Denis Hocking Inevitably for we lesser mortals, our awareness and understanding of the outside world is determined in very large part by what media outlets choose to feed us. It seems the next step in the evolution of society, I hesitate to say civilisation, is instant access to just the media that feeds and caresses your existing beliefs and prejudices, as seen in the United States. Apparently people should be spared the effort of weighing up the pros and cons of any option in an effort to reach a well-informed opinion and just settle for reinforced ignorance. We are all guilty to some extent, but some much more than others I fancy. And so we come to forestry and farm forestry. Last month I welcomed the emergence of forestry in the media with the changes promised by the new coalition Government. After an initial flurry of generally supportive responses from forestry interests, the media lost interest in such a low-priority issue. Wool has had significantly more coverage recently. There have been exceptions, a few articles mentioning the strong log markets and just a couple on major advances in sequencing the pine genome at Scion. No mean task, this latter, as the rather inefficient pine has a genome of 25 billion base pairs, eight times what we need.
Of course forestry does have its downsides, as do all land uses, but on balance I think it deserve much better press and enthusiasm.
But I have also noticed considerable negative reaction to the idea of tree promotion in various opinion pieces. The idea that areas of hill country might be better in trees than low-quality pasture is by no means universally accepted despite the fact that forestry is a better earner per hectare for the owner, usually, the country almost always and on most hill country soils forest cover dramatically reduces erosion.
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Post-harvest debris flows from forestry is seen as evidence of the evils of forestry, while extensive erosion on pastoral hill country garners sympathy.
There are exceptions and (post)harvesting can certainly be a vulnerable period, but am I alone in sensing that post-harvest debris flows from forestry is seen as evidence of the evils of forestry, while extensive erosion on pastoral hill country garners sympathy and support for farmers suffering the vagaries of nature. Regarding other environmental “sins” of forestry, a recent report “The Effects of Exotic Trees on Soil, Groundwater, Water Quality, Air Quality & Native Flora & Fauna” by Bob Cathcart and published by AgFirst Northland, concludes pine forests are equivalent to native forests on almost all these scores. Kauri, however is in a class of its own, a real soil destroyer. Of course forestry does have its downsides, as do all land uses, but on balance I think it deserve much better press and enthusiasm. Which leads me back to the Government’s one billion trees in 10 years promise. I said last month I thought it was achievable but would take time to ramp up. However, a survey of nurseries suggests that alongside the 55 million pine seedlings germinating for next winter, there are also about 30 million native seedlings, meaning if these are included they are 85% of the way to the 100,000 for the first year, with reasonable flexibility in your definition of “tree”. However, manuka, (is it a tree, is it a shrub?) may be limited next year as some nurseries wait to see how myrtle rust plays out. Including native seedlings may well be a way out for the Government, and
there are undoubtedly areas – significant areas, too – where assisted regeneration would be entirely appropriate. But it will not provide the longer-term economic stimulus, nor will it sequester carbon quickly. I will show my personal bias and say I hope they will encourage a wider range of production forestry species, hopefully on a scale which will lead to sustainable processing industries. Among the other forestry stories the media have missed recently was the Forest Growers Research Conference and Annual Research Report release in October. Research accounts for 60% of the money raised from the forestry levy and some good work is emerging. They are certainly aware of public attitudes and there is significant expenditure in the Licence to Operate section, including road engineering, run-off management, wilding control and debris flow avoidance and recovery. Interestingly, in a forest regeneration environment debris flow damage to waterways recovers quite quickly and they even suggest depositing wood debris in streams, as they do in the United States. Another notable research area is steepland harvesting which has produced some impressive technology. So there is plenty going on in forestry but in the end dollars are the most persuasive argument. Suffice to say that short of some catastrophe, I expect forestry to be the top financial performer on my property this season – as usual.
Country-Wide January 2018
WORK HARD, PLAY HARDER
BARK OFF: The Virtue of Patience Why it’s a vital part of training your dog.p75
winning ticket
The
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ONFARM
winning ticket
The
Goats give Feilding saleyard drover Trudy Robertson a point of difference from rearing sheep and beef cattle. Cheyenne Nicholson reports.
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raffle prize was Manawatu local Trudy Robertson’s ticket into starting her own Hereford stud. Quite literally too, the raffle prize being a Hereford in calf Yearling Heifer. The 27-year-old grew up in Feilding, Manawatu, on her parents’ South Devon Stud cattle farm. She was a regular at cattle shows all around the country and helped out both her parents, and her grandparents who had a Murray Grey stud. Although farming and cattle were a big passion in her life, teaching was something else that struck a chord with her. But after a short stint at teachers’ college she soon made her way to Telford. “I think in hindsight I probably chose the wrong degree to do and I didn’t end up enjoying it.” Mid 2010 Trudy headed down to Telford to study Certificate in Agriculture followed by her diploma in Rural Business in 2012.
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From there she headed to the vast plains of Canterbury to get stuck into the dairy industry. “I got over dairy farming pretty quickly. I had a bad manager to end my dairy career so I came back to the Manawatu, did calf-rearing for a season. While I was doing that I started part time at the saleyards in Feilding.” Now Trudy works part time at the saleyards as a drover. She mainly works the cattle section and shifts cattle into their pens in the mornings and after the sale as well as helping out with general maintenance around the yards. Alongside her job at the saleyards she works and does what she needs to on the farm owned by her partner Pete. “The social aspect of the job is great and it’s pretty flexible which is good for me because I have to balance this with working on the farm.” When Country-Wide caught up with Trudy she was in the midst of one of her busier times of the year
with four sales in one week. “We had our normal Monday boner/ fat sale, Tuesday was a ram sale, Thursday was the IHC dairy beef sale and then the normal Friday store sale.” November to May is their peak time with weaner fairs and in-calf dairy sales. Back on the farm Trudy puts her hand to a bit of everything. Although a seemingly normal sheep and beef farm a few oddities make it a bit special. The presence of goats add a twist to her and partner Pete’s farming operation. They inherited the goats from Pete’s sister who got them originally to supplement her kids’ high milk consumption. Once she moved to town Trudy and Pete were given the goats and left scratching their heads as to what to do with them. “I thought the milk might be good to help my eczema but it was a pain to pasteurise it in such small quantities. I decided one year to rear some lambs and calves on it and it worked well.” Now they run the goats as a micro
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dairy farm, taking the kids off at a few days old after they get their colostrum off mum then they are bottle fed. At the same time as they are kidding they are lambing as well. “Any lambs that need to be bottle-fed are popped on to the goats’ milk. We had 60 sets of triplets this year so the ones we took off all got goats’ milk.” She also has eight calves being reared off goats’ milk. Now into their second year
Trudy and her trusty companion Flynn.
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‘Any lambs that need to be bottle-fed are popped on to the goats’ milk. We had 60 sets of triplets this year so the ones we took off all got goats’ milk.’ using goats’ milk they are seeing good results. Although they haven’t done any official measuring or weighing to see the benefit Trudy uses eye appraisal to keep tabs on the calves and lambs on goats’ milk. “This year Pete’s hand-rearing some calves on milk powder. You can’t really
tell the difference between his lot and my lot on goats’ milk. We’ve found they transition well on to the goats’ milk. It’s basically whole milk on to whole milk even though the milk’s composed slightly differently.” The farm is split into the main 380-acre farm which Pete’s mum lives on and the 10-acre lifestyle block he and Trudy live on. The farm features lots of native bush and plantations and runs about 400 ewes and 70 of last year’s calves that have been reared for fattening stock. Trudy runs her own small Hereford stud and what’s left of her Dexter stud. “The Dexters are on their way out. I started them really as a hobby but we end up with too many bulls and too many different mobs having them and the Herefords. It’s simpler and more economical to keep the Herefords.” Pete has come on board with the Herefords having bought a bunch of commercial stock so Trudy’s bull has more ladies to keep him occupied. The Hereford stud didn’t come about
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in the usual way of making a pointed decision to buy stock. Trudy won her first-ever Hereford heifer in a raffle at the Manawatu Country Living Expo. Awhea Amethyst 002 was the first prize which started Trudy off on this new venture. Her long-term plan for the stud is to build numbers to about 30 and enter into the commercial space. Although Beef Expo is questionable territory right now Trudy is hopeful the national sale will continue and hopes to get one bull into the national sale at some point. “I want to get the quality of my stock up. They aren’t too bad right now but coming from the stud world I’m quite fussy. I started with about six animals and culled them back to two and have built my numbers up again.” Trudy isn’t looking for a big rangy animal when she’s looking at a Hereford. She prefers the traditional modest-sized animal with traditional colouring and good structure. “To me a Hereford shouldn’t be as big as a South Devon and if they are then they are too big in my book.” She has some work to do on the colouring and is aiming to get better pigment around the eyes but one area she is winning is the size department. Her bull she has now is close to her ideal. His progeny have been coming out at about 32kg birth weight. “I’ve never had birth weights like that before. Although he’s smaller build he has fantastic muscling and that’s really what I want – low birth weights with good growth and good muscle. I want my animals to be above breed average for growth.” Trudy only buys a new bull every three or so years. With small numbers a new bull every year doesn’t make a lot of sense genetically or financially. In the off years Trudy road trips to Hereford sales within reasonable distance to scout what animals and breeders she likes so she knows who to target when she’s in the market for new genetics. To keep track of her progress and gauge if she’s getting it right with her breeding Trudy is still active in the cattle showing scene. “It’s a good way of knowing whether you’re getting it right structurally. I want to keep showing and one day if we have kids get them involved as well. It’s a great thing to be part of and I really enjoyed it when I was growing up.” Trudy was heavily involved in cattle showing growing up, competing in numerous events and taking out many handler classes. In 2010- she won the Beef Ambassador award at the Future Beef competition held at Beef Expo each year. She’s a big believer in the Future Beef programme and hopes to donate a steer each year for one competitor to use for the competition. When it comes to long-term plans Trudy is happy to play it by ear. She jokes that she probably put a spanner in the works for partner Pete’s farming plans when she moved in and brought her cattle with her but they aren’t ruling out anything or risking getting tunnel vision by having specific goals. “We have some mini goals in mind but we are open to opportunities that come our way. Whether that’s leasing my parents’ farm when they are ready to step back or even expanding Pete’s farm here.”
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“What you laughing at human?”
Goats milk makes a good alternative to milk powder.
Country-Wide January 2018
BARK OFF Words by Lloyd Smith
Patience is a virtue
T
he age-old saying, patience is a virtue, is particularly relevant when training and working dogs. A few minutes spent in the training paddock can save hours later in the work situation whether it be exacting a command or just building a dog’s confidence. The reasons trainers have difficulty training dogs are many and varied but one of the most obvious ones I encounter is the lack of patience shown by many. In these circumstances the dog is the innocent party and the fault lies entirely with its owner/trainer. It is a problem that not only applies to young trainers but is probably more apparent among this group and the less-informed where they do not realise and understand the implications of trying to train a dog before that dog is ready. If a dog is not ready you can’t make it ready and pressure applied attempting to do so will only accentuate the problem and take away any existing confidence. I have said in previous articles that training dogs is not about when we are ready to train them it is more about when the dog is ready to be trained. It needs to be demonstrating a genuine desire to work stock and be confident in its attitude and its environment. Certain criteria need to be met at the puppy stage that prepare the pup to be trained but teaching stock-related commands should not commence until the dog reaches the above-mentioned stage. This means, we the trainers, need to show patience offering the dog the opportunity to work stock but waiting until we are sure the desire and
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confidence are at satisfactory levels before we commence training. A good level of desire to work is essential otherwise as we attempt to train the dog it will lose interest and show a reluctance or even refusal to work. To maintain a good level of confidence is also necessary or the same result will occur. This is because each and every command we teach our dog requires a certain amount of pressure to get the dog to conform, consequently taking away a little confidence, just how much depends on the make-up of the dog and its willingness to conform. But if you lower its confidence to a level where it becomes uncomfortable about training then once again it will lose focus and get the same result.
THERE IS TREMENDOUS BENEFIT TO BE GAINED BY SHOWING PATIENCE BETWEEN EACH STEP AND ALLOWING THE DOG THE OPPORTUNITY TO APPLY AND UNDERSTAND HOW EACH NEWLY TAUGHT COMMAND RELATES TO THE HANDLING OF STOCK. The old saying that timing is everything is very relevant at this stage because if training is not started within a certain timespan when the dog reaches this desirable stage other problems can develop. The desire can become determination and the
confidence can become cockiness which are both undesirable and can cause associated complications. I have mentioned previously that training should be a step-by-step process where each step should logically follow the one before and at any given point you are preparing your dog to take the next step. This is where patience becomes particularly relevant as the tendency is to push the dog on through the steps as they occur. There is tremendous benefit to be gained by showing patience between each step and allowing the dog the opportunity to apply and understand how each newly taught command relates to the handling of stock. It may extend the time taken to complete your training programme but I am confident you will have less confusion and a bettertrained dog because of it. The time taken aspect will vary greatly from dog to dog as some are more trainable than others reinforcing the need for teaching the requirement to conform instilled at the puppy-stage. Training a dog is a long-term project and there are no shortcuts. Some are more trainable than others but I know from experience that short-cuts taken during training result in associated problems later in the work situation. There are many aspects of training a dog that we do not have the power to change because they are predetermined by the make-up and breeding but the timing of when and how we apply our training programme is totally our decision and as such I would recommend to all trainers “Let patience be the single most governing influence guiding you”.
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COMMUNITY | HUNTERVILLE HUNTAWAY FESTIVAL
What a Shemozzle The ultimate gift With Christmas only days away contributors and readers were asked for good and bad pressie ideas in return for anonymity. Here are some of the replies. •
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Pictures: Sarah Ivey
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ore than 5000 people turned up to the 20th annual Hunterville Huntaway Festival in October to cheer on competitors and their four-legged pals in a muddy, wet and chaotic obstacle race. The event, originally thought up by locals at the pub, has evolved over the past 20 years and is the only one of its kind in the North Island. Contestants raced with their canines to the top of steep hills, drank interesting concoctions, ate barley, carried bulls’ testicles in their mouths and run through a spray dip before dragging their dogs in a wool pack, going over a rope swing and carrying their dogs in a wheelbarrow to the finish line. A test of human and canine alike. National MP for Rangitikei Ian McKelvie’s son Angus and his dog Red took out the top title. Children’s Shemozzle winner: Harvey Meyer. Teen shemozzle winner: Flynn Kowaleswski. Interschool Challenge winner: Whanganui Collegiate. Teen Ag Challenge winner: Palmerston North Boys High School.
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My father once bought my mother a new cistern for the loo. She was unimpressed! Never, ever, ever buy the significant woman in your life a mundane, home appliance such as an iron, ironing board, vacuum cleaner or electric canopener. When a farmer bought his wife a garden hose she was initially furious, but then warmed to the present though it didn’t reach all around the house. So the following year her Christmas present was more hose and a connector. A husband was given a lamb feeding kit so he didn’t steal kitchen utensils during lambing. Don’t try and fob off as a specially selected gift something you found at 11.30pm on Xmas eve after a desperate rummage in a cupboard. An example is the music DVD, bought by a husband and used several months earlier then hastily wrapped and presented on Christmas morning. It was a big, big mistake as the wife knew exactly when and for whom (not her) the DVD was bought. One woman was given a good, small, rechargeable light (great for camping, hunting trips etc) at Kathmandu – reckon it would be good for any male into the outdoors/hunting. A woman was given her own tool box full of tools which she says is great. It isn’t allowed to leave the house. A wife is getting a canvas meat safe made for her husband which will be able to hang, with a pulley, in the garage and it zips up completely – so no flies can get in. They don’t have a killing house or a chiller to hang a deer or mutton, so she’s hoping it will fit. Another idea is to give trees (nice natives) to plant in the garden or onfarm, for those hard-to-buy-for people. A Country-Wide sub Country-Wide January 2018
CLASSIFIEDS
SOLUTIONS | MOWERS
Flight of the Howard Condor
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he Howard Condor has landed in New Zealand. The Condor is a new generation of mowers from Howard, Australia. The range has been designed for general mowing in a wide variety of applications, including parks, sports grounds and turf farms, as well as the wilder and more demanding conditions of reserves and roadsides. Howard Australia (a Power Farming-owned brand) has a 100-year history of mower and slasher development. Recently, it has met Australians’ demands for a flexible, high-performance, practical, easy-clean and easy to maintain, all-conditions mower. Designed by Power Farming’s full time designers, the Condor Range has been developed to meet those demands. Graeme Leigh, general manager of Power Farming’s Machinery Division says the company expects it to quickly gain traction amongst discerning mower operators. “As there may be an abundance of grass around later this summer, it could be just the machine needed by councils and private operators. Its versatility and design enable it to perform in both fine and heavy cutting conditions and it provides very good distribution of the mown grass.” The Condor flies high in numerous categories. Providing versatility: • Its easily adjustable rollers provide precision height control and allow the Condor to tackle conditions that other mowers can’t. • Cutting height indicators ensure even height settings.
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• The blade and blade beam is designed to accommodate fine and heavy cutting conditions. • The high, blade tip speed provides an excellent clean cut every time. • Improved belt engagement on larger drive pulleys reduces any slippage in heavier grass conditions. • A two-year warranty on the extra strongly designed spindle and beam. • The Condor can be used with tractors with a low power of 30-70 hp, but can also be used with a higher hp tractor, up to 110hp. Providing safety: • Hydraulic wing locks to prevent accidental lowering during transit. The electro-hydraulic safety switch must be activated at same time as the tractor’s hydraulics. • The Condor’s unique and convenient transport lock leads to a smoother ride and even greater ease of operation. Providing practicality: • The Condor is easy to clean, the open design assures easy maintenance and therefore greater longevity. • The hot dipped galvanised body provides extra strength and a lengthened life span. • With ease of operation and easy maintenance the Condor is a user-friendly machine. The Howard Condor Range offers three mowers with overall widths of 1.78 metres, 2.50m and 3.61m. The largest model is proving the most popular in the Australian market.
More? Contact your local Power Farming dealership, or see the Power Farming website at www.powerfarming.co.nz
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SOLUTIONS | ANIMAL HEALTH
New Zealand’s new flystrike solution New Zealand sheep producers now have a new solution to tackle blowfly strike in sheep. Available now through veterinarians, StrikeForce-S Sprayon Sheep Blowfly Treatment gives Kiwi sheep farmers a new solution to tackle blowfly strike. StrikeForce-S is the result of years of research, Jurox head of sales and marketing Joe Bown says. “This is a unique sheep blowfly treatment, which is another example of the formulation expertise Jurox has worked hard to develop in recent years“. The product solves a key problem for sheep producers, who until now, have been unable to provide long term blowfly strike protection with the flexibility of short withholding periods. “StrikeForce-S provides farmers with up to 18 weeks of protection against blowfly strike, whilst having a short WHP (meat) of 14 days,” Bown says. Strikeforce-S contains dicyclanil, the most-trusted and effective active available for the protection of sheep against blowfly strike. Dr Liz Ferguson, technical services veterinarian for Jurox says: “The “S” stands for solution, meaning that the dicyclanil molecules are dissolved in the formulation, not suspended, and therefore able to move to the surface of the skin, adhering to the lanolin, rather than sticking as large particles to the upper portion of the wool fibres. “First stage fly larvae are active on the skin and in the first 5mm of wool, so they are readily exposed to the dicyclanil, which acts to inhibit their progression to pathogenic mature larval stages.” The result is a highly efficacious spray-on for the prevention of blowfly strike. This easy-to-use, low viscosity solution moves from the area of application to spread around the sheep’s body, meaning that all first-stage larvae are exposed to the active, not just those on the
WS3150 Aussie Chopper shown here.
backline or on the breech. The result is high levels of protection from body strike. In addition, field studies have concluded StrikeForce-S does not readily wash off during periods of rainfall, as the dicyclanil molecules remain stable in the lanolin. StrikeForce-S is easy to apply and contains a highly visible red pigment to ensure accurate application on the body. Other benefits of StrikeForce-S include that the product does not need to be shaken before use and it can be used with standard sprayon applicators. Bown says Jurox is proud to release Strikeforce-S, after years of robust testing. “The research shows it can be used on any breed sheep or class of stock, both in long and short wool, and market options can remain flexible, without compromising on the duration of activity, providing farmers with all-round peace of mind.”
More? Contact your local Jurox territory manager, Jurox Customer Service team on 0800 587 696 or visit www.jurox.com/nz/strikeforce-s
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With flystrike, first stage fly larvae are active on the skin and in the first 5mm of wool.
Country-Wide January 2018
ESTATE | NORTHLAND
Fertility at Donnellys Crossing
F
ertile volcanic soils, mostly very easy contour and a good rainfall combine on a 356-hectare farm between Kaikohe and Dargaville that is for sale at a fraction of the price of farms in other regions with a price tag of $2.15 million or $6039 per hectare. The highly productive grazing and finishing property has four titles and bounds the headwaters of the Mangakahia River on its plateau which sits about 700 metres and captures summer rain. From the plateau, the farm spills over predominantly easy rolling country to flats, with 95% in effective grazing and the remaining 5% in native bush.
‘It’s very traditionally farmed and they can finish all their stock as well as buy in some store stock to finish.’
It sits near Donnellys Crossing, 32km from Kaikohe and about the same distance from Dargaville, which gives it plenty of options in both directions and a good farm community primary school at Aranga. Kaikohe is the beef hub of Northland with a sale every Wednesday from sale yards set up with scales and technology to sell stock. Donnellys Crossing itself is named after the former isolated Kaihu Valley railway line built to carry timber which closed in 1959. Stewart Ruddell from Bayleys says the farm has been farmed faithfully by the vendors since they bought it in 1979, initially under their own management Country-Wide January 2018
and then with employed managers. Good access tracks along with new fencing has produced a well-presented, efficient operation, supported by the necessary facilities such as a four-bay implement shed, a three-stand woolshed and two sets of cattle yards. Natural water sources include various streams flowing through the property. “They have always kept up maintenance and older fences get repaired, fertility is good and present stock units are upward of 3000. It’s very traditionally farmed and they can finish all their stock as well as buy in some store stock to finish. In July they processed about 300 lambs and about 40 bulls.” In March this year, the farm carried 980 ewes, 320 hoggets, 610 mixedsex lambs, 93 breeding cows, 14 R2 heifers, 122 R2 bulls and 157 R1 cattle. “So it’s very productive for the price; it’s value for money. You go way down country and they’re chasing $12,000 to $15,000/ ha, whereas up here they’re usually somewhere between $6000 and $12,000.” On the Donnellys Crossing farm at about $6000/ha, buyers get fertility, contour, rainfall, plus a large threebedroom family home, in a location that is within 50km of the Bay of Islands
and not far from the Whangaroa and Hokianga harbours. Ruddell says the region is getting more and more interest from buyers further afield who recognise the land is good value for money and buoyed by good beef and lamb prices. He expects interest to pick up further as the political scene settles into the new Government. He says the farm is ideally set up for an investor who wants to have a manager in charge of the day-to-day running of the operation. To view the farm, visit www. bayleys.co.nz/1050160 and for further information contact Stewart Ruddell on 0800 80 20 40 or 027 273 6860.
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ESTATE | NELSON
Sheep, beef and deer in Tutaki Valley Two adjoining Nelson properties totalling 576 hectares are for sale together or separately and have the scope to expand their sheep, beef and deer operations. The farms in the Tutaki Valley, about 15 minutes from Murchison and oneand-a-half hours from Nelson, have been farmed together, but with sheep and beef on one property and a deer unit on the other.
‘It has a big hidden terrace up on top of the farm with a lot of workable area and they take a lot of balage and hay off there.’
Plenty of upside is possible on the 326ha deer unit which grazes 235 mixedage hinds, 25 R1s, 35 R2s and 12 stags, as well as some ewes and grazing cows. Good deer-handling facilities are in place that include a shed that handles up to 300 deer, a crush, vetting race and loading race. A three-stand raisedboard woolshed and two quality homes
complete the property which is for sale at $2.1 million. Toby Randall from Harcourts says areas of the farm can still be cleared and pasture can be improved to lift production further. “There’s a lot of workable land at the top of the property that hasn’t been worked that could be cropped or regrassed and there’s some land that could still be cleared and put back into the farm to increase the productive area.” Adjoining the deer unit is the 250ha sheep and beef property which is a versatile, elevated block in good heart and ranges over good-quality flats, some hill country, to gentle-rolling pastures. Completing this property is quality water, good fencing, yards, two hay sheds and an air strip with a concrete fertiliser bin. It’s for sale at $1.9 million and Randall says is has a lot of good country tucked away from the road. “It has a big hidden terrace up on top
of the farm with a lot of workable area and they take a lot of balage and hay off there. It’s mostly beefies on the flat area and sheep on the hills behind which are also used to clean up behind the cattle.” Both properties have good access and tracks to paddocks and while the sheep and beef block has a reticulation scheme supplying water, the deer block has good natural water sources. To view the properties visit www. harcourts.co.nz NN9879 and NN9885. For further information contact Toby Randall on 027 233 9170 or John Hollis on 0274 388 031.
Sheep and beef on Waitomo hills ‘It has good rainfall which is relatively evenly spread to provide good, strong summer growth. You could finish your lambs on the farm and at $635 per stock unit it is very good buying.’ In the heart of the King Country, 1270 hectares of easy hill country carries 8500 stock units and is for sale at $635 per stock unit. The farm is 21km from Waitomo and 39km from Te Kuiti which has one of the biggest stock sale yards in the country. On 1000ha effective, it carries the 8500 stock units in a sheep and beef breeding operation, with climate and a balance of contour providing versatility. This is generally summer-safe country on a range of contour from easy to medium to steep hill, with natural water supplying the 52 paddocks and more new fencing in progress. Les Old from Farmlands Real Estate says the property is great buying with huge potential, especially as a breeding 80
block to supply stock for finishing. Three thousand mixed-age ewes are carried, along with 1500 two tooths and 1580 hoggets. On the cattle side it has 208 mixed-age breeding cows, 60 R2 in-calf heifers, 85 R1 heifers and herd sire bulls. All stock are grass-fed with no need for supplementary feed. “It has good rainfall which is relatively evenly spread to provide good, strong summer growth. You could finish your lambs on the farm and at $635 per stock unit it is very good buying.” Hunting on its boundary provides opportunities for hunting tourism and Old says a second dwelling is ideally located near the bush to develop into accommodation for hunters. The main four-bedroom family
home has an open-plan kitchen and dining, plus a separate lounge. Other improvements extend to a five-stand woolshed with a night pen for 1400 ewes, plus two three-bay implement sheds, a three-bay hay shed, two covered cattle yards and four satellite sheep yards. The farm is for sale at $5.4 million. It can be viewed at www.farmlands.co.nz ID TK1035 and for further information contact Les Old on 027 248 2667. Country-Wide January 2018
Glen Tui is well set up for farming sheep, beef and deer.
ESTATE | SNAPSHOT
Confidence boosts sale prices Anne Hardie Confidence in the sheep and beef industries is bolstering land prices. Spring sales started strongly in the Tararua district of the North Island, indicating a lift in the market compared to last year. Bayleys rural real estate agent for Tararua and Hawke’s Bay Vic Ellingham says buoyancy in the sheep and beef sector is flowing through to rural real estate. “Properties in the Hawke’s Bay have sold well – that filters down into our smaller areas.” Farmland around Dannevirke is typically considered summer-safe, creating demand from landowners nearby and in other districts, looking for a summer-safe block for lamb finishing. With average annual rainfall of 11501250mm and cooler temperatures than some nearby coastal areas, Tararua does not dry off too quickly during summer. A high-performing farm north-east of Dannevirke sold at auction in November for $11,400/ha. The farm, Maunga Awa, has won several environment and farming
The newly renovated home on Glen Tui.
Country-Wide January 2018
awards over the years. Ellingham says an auction was a good selling option for this property, because of its quality and sought-after location. “People are prepared to pay for it so it’s making for good sales. “There’s a lift in people’s moods and they can see the future in sheep and beef is strong.”
‘There’s a lift in people’s moods and they can see the future in sheep and beef is strong.’
The 540-hectare farm is well subdivided into 80 paddocks, with 180ha of cultivatable flats, which have been developed into predominantly clover/ herb and high-performing ryegrass for lamb and cattle finishing. Despite the wet winter and start to spring, Ellingham says many Tararua farmers have achieved good lamb survivability and docking results. Bayleys is marketing Glen Tui – a 311ha sheep, beef and deer farm north-east
The farm has almost 50ha of flats. Photos provided.
of Dannevirke, in Mangahei – an area renowned for good fertility and good spring growth. Glen Tui is 25km north-east of Dannevirke and 35km south-east of Waipukurau, on strong limestone country, with several areas of native bush. For sale by negotiation, the farm has about 65 main paddocks, including a 60ha deer block. Contour is mostly easy rolling, with 46ha of flats, 50ha of steeper country, 31ha of pine trees and a small lease block. The high standard of improvements and infrastructure includes satellite yards, woolshed, laneways, cattle and sheep yards and a deer shed and a recently renovated home. Olsen P levels range from 11 on the hills to 36 on the more productive land and Ph is between 5.5 and 6. For Farms NZ real estate agent Jerome Pitt says farm prices in Tararua have seen a gradual lift in the past 12 months, but prices are still competitive compared to many other districts. Pitt says demand is high for all types and sizes of farm, depending on where buyers are at in their stage of life and where they see the most value for money. He recently sold a grazing/finishing block just over 300ha, which had been on the market since last year and not sold. “It was relisted in late October and went unconditional within the month,” Pitt says. “I believe that this is a sign that the market is strong, that quality farms are being sought by quality buyers and that there is confidence in the market.” He says there are still good value properties coming onto the market, including a new listing of a 700ha property for $3.65million. 81
FARMING IN FOCUS
Hunterville’s 20th annual Huntaway Festival
More photos from this month’s Country-Wide.
A wheely good race.
The Shemozzle race takes balls. A quick dip.
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Country-Wide January 2018
Trudy and her stud Hereford bull.
Pure Velvet - some of the entries at the annual South Canterbury & North Otago DFA annual Velvet & Hard Antler competition.
Country-Wide Editor Terry Brosnahan testing out an e-bike.
David and Jackie Stodart on their Te Anau basin farm.
Morning chats with the goats.
Balage being fed out of a feeder on Jim Camerons farm.
Country-Wide January 2018
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New Zealand’s new flystrike solution. STRIKEFORCE-S SPRAY-ON SHEEP BLOWFLY TREATMENT. ACTIVE CONSTITUENT: 50 g/L DICYCLANIL
Dicyclanil in a unique solution
Short term withholding period
Long term blowfly strike prevention
Any breed of sheep with any length wool
This unique formulation provides farmers with up to 18 weeks of protection against blowfly strike, whilst having the flexibility of a low meat WHP of 14 days.
ONLY AVAILABLE FROM YOUR LOCAL VETERINARIAN
* Up to 2 months before shearing.
New Zealand’s new flystrike solution. www.jurox.co.nz Products that work. People who care. ACVM registration Number A11349
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Jurox New Zealand Limited 8 Kordel Place, East Tamaki, Auckland, 2013 Customer service 0800 587 696 customerservice@jurox.co.nz
®Registered Trademark of Jurox Pty Limited Country-Wide January 2018