Country-Wide July 2018 by NZ Farmlife Media

GROWING NZ FARMING

SPECIAL FEATURE Mycoplasma bovis

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July 2018

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Wanganui farmers Brian Thompson and son Kerry have profited from removing stock of steep land. p65

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EDITOR’S NOTE

Testing times

W NEXT ISSUE Country-Wide August includes: • MYCOPLASMA BOVIS: How to avoid the disease and, if necessary, manage it • MAJOR INFLUENCES: Branding is the key to true premiums and farmers telling their story will profit • YOUNG COUNTRY: We chat with Tararua Shepherd of the year Emma Lewin. • DEER FARMER: A selection of stories from the Deer Industry Conference.

@CountryWideNZ @CountryWideNZ

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hen the Government announced it would try to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis it seemed to be the right

option. On the face of it, the disease is not highly infectious and the Ministry for Primary Industries could trace the farms to where calves and cows had gone. A phased culling programme would be devastating to many individuals in the short term, but ridding New Zealand of the disease seemed worth the estimated $886 million. However, as the Country-Wide team put together the M bovis special (p20) my doubts grew because with anything, the devil lies in the detail. Not having an accurate and reliable test is a major problem. Suspected cattle are tested and retested. Even then there can be false positives. I heard of a case where there was a positive test which turned out be false, after the whole herd was culled. Suspected infected cattle need to be located before any testing takes place. MPI tracked this M bovis strain to have been on a Southland dairy farm in 2015. The animal movements from that farm are likely to connect hundreds of other farms. Those farms are then connected to many others so the problem keeps spreading and likely to mean thousands of farms need testing. There are now well over 3000 farms. That’s the known ones. Noncompliance with NAIT is widespread and where has the infected raw milk gone? Could the money be better spent elsewhere? Massey University infectious disease specialist Cord Heuer does not support the eradication policy (p30). He says there is a stronger economic case for eradicating BVD.

The M bovis eradication programme will be reviewed in October and hopefully by then officials will have an accurate picture of the situation. If eradication is to have any chance of success it needs honesty and trust in the industry. A North Island couple running a finishing operation trusted their stock agent to buy in about 300 calves. The calves fell sick and MPI rang to tell them they were from a M bovis-infected farm. The calves should have been sourced from the North Island, but the stock agent had lied. Most were from the South Island. Farmers have a mistrust of politicians and government officials. The layers of bureaucracy and a lack of farming nous within MPI is not helping. Also, water finds its own level and with any system a government sets up there will be people trying to exploit it. After the Christchurch earthquake people with pre-existing damage to property received generous payouts while those with genuine claims were left stranded. The M bovis compensation process needs to be flexible and quick to allow farmers to restock. If the rules are too tight and the process too onerous, genuine victims will miss out. Spot checks can pick up anyone who tries to cheat the system. Where full compensation is difficult to work out and likely to take time, perhaps the Government should facilitate interest-free loans to get farmers back farming quickly. It is in the nation’s interest to do so.

Terry Brosnahan

Got any feedback? Contact the editor direct: terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz or call 03 471 5272. Facebook.com/terry.brosnahan

More: p38

BOUNDARIES Thirsty work for dog trialists.

Questioning M bovis actions.

HOME BLOCK Paul Burt is busy keeping the robots at bay.

Mark Chamberlain ruminates on our biggest invasion in decades.

Suzy Corboy reckons success is all in the timing.

Dani Darke bids farewell to her favourite huntaway.

David Walston is persevering with a wet English spring. 15 Julius Cousins experiences a harsh Scottish winter.

NOTEBOOK 18

What’s on when and who’s doing what

FACTS

Good time to be a sheep farmer.

BUSINESS 20

Mycoplasma bovis: Keep calm and carry on. Acid test for calf milk.

Big herds, calves the problem overseas. Eradication feasible but immense task – vets.

Contents 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 Editor: Terry Brosnahan, ph 03 471 5272; mob 027 249 0200; terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz Deputy Editor: Cheyenne Nicholson, ph 06 280 3168; cheyenne.nicholson@nzfarmlife.co.nz Managing Editor: Tony Leggett, ph 06 280 3162 mob 0274 746 093, tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Extension 350: Get people involved in your business. Andy Macfarlane recognised.

Recruitment: Land your dream job. New ways of attracting staff needed.

Golden gumboot vs golden tea towel.

Deer Farmer Editor: Lynda Gray, ph 03 448 6222, lyndagray@xtra.co.nz

Partnerships Managers: Janine Gray, Auckland, Waikato, Bay of Plenty Ph 027 890 0015

Sub Editor: Andy Maciver, ph 06 280 3166, andy.maciver@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Janine.gray@nzfarmlife.co.nz Tony Leggett, Lower North Island, Ph 027 474 6093 Janine.gray@nzfarmlife.co.nz David Paterson, South Island, 027 289 2326 david.paterson@nzfarmlife.co.nz Subscriptions: nzfarmlife.co.nz/shop ph 0800 224 782 or subs@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Designer: Joanne Hannam, ph 06 280 3167 Junior designer: Cassandra Cleland Production Planning: ph 06 280 3164

Reporters Andrew Swallow ph 021 745 183 Anne Hughes ph 07 863 Printed by PMP Print, Riccarton, Christchurch 3361; Lynda Gray ph 03 448 6222; Robert Pattison ph +64 ISSN 1179-9854 (Print) ISSN 2253-2307 (Online) 27 889 8444; Sandra Taylor ph 021 151 8685; Tim McVeagh 06 329 4797; James Hoban ph 027 251 1986; Russell Priest ph 06 328 9852; Jo Cuttance ph 03 976 5599; Rebecca Harper ph 06 376 2884. nzfarmlife.co.nz

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July 2018

More: p46

LIVESTOCK Simon and Elle Joblin find keeping it simple pays.

Body condition counts: Keeping score.

BCS: James Hoban reckons it’s never too late to start. 48 Weaner nutrition has deer velvet legacy.

Drench resistance: Cattle survey needed.

Slips put damper on calving.

Gene talk: Milking the fat off their backs.

Stock check: Terroir – the flair from the land.

Grass grubs and porina: Rotations make the difference. 58 47

Jim Gibbs: When the beet won’t pack on the beef.

PLANT AND MACHINERY Telehandlers: That extra reach.

ENVIRONMENT

Farm forestry: The value of grey hair.

TECHNOLOGY Windows 10: Making access easier.

Reboot your phone for better performance.

73 74

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July 2018

SOLUTIONS Staffing: The whole package.

82 83

ESTATE Central Otago: Opportunity on Dansey’s Pass.

Wairarapa: Support block between the vines.

When a split happens.

FARMING IN FOCUS 92

OUR COVER Wanganui farmers Brian Thompson and son Kerry have profited from removing stock off steep land. Photo: Brad Hanson

YOUNG COUNTRY

Bark off: the most important command.

Irrigation: Polarised in the Mackenzie Basin.

Rachel Rule: Steering her own course.

Setting up shop for farmers.

More photos from this month’s Country-Wide.

Raising breeding cow performance at Brunswick.

COMMUNITY

Early disease detection in focus..

CROP AND FORAGE

More: p62

More: p65 7

BOUNDARIES

EWE SCORING Ida Valley Station managers Callum and Dayna Paterson have been body condition scoring their ewes for three years. Sandra Taylor spoke to farmers who body condition score their ewes. See page 46. Picture: Beef+Lamb NZ.

Thirsty work

WORDS: ANNABELLE LATZ

revor Gibson takes some time out with his team of dogs at the zig zag Huntaway event, during the recent South Island and New Zealand championship. He was one of more than 300 competing at Meadowbank Station in Marlborough during the week-long competition. Wanganui’s Alex Matthews made history, taking home both national Huntaway titles, with two different dogs. Neville Child from Whangarei won the long head, while Guy Peacock of Dannevirke topped the table for the short head and yard. Dog trials have been held at Meadowbank Station since 1937, and the last national final was held there 10 years ago. More on the dog trials in Country Wide August.

WHERE IT HURTS A cop was rushed to the hospital with an inflamed appendix. The doctors operated and advised him that all was well: however, the cop kept feeling something pulling at the hairs in his crotch. Worried that it might be a second surgery and the doctors hadn’t told him about it, he finally got enough energy to pull his hospital gown up enough so he could look at what was making him so uncomfortable. Taped firmly across his pubic hair and private parts were three wide strips of adhesive tape, the kind that doesn’t come off easily – if at all. Written on the tape in large black letters was the sentence – “Get well soon, from the nurse in the red Toyota you pulled over last week.”.

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BOUNDARIES | MYCOPLASMA BOVIS

MPI ACCUSED OF LACKING FARMING NOUS

NOT JUST FARMERS AT FAULT

ERADICATION NOW UNLIKELY Any moderately educated agricultural lay person reading up on Mycoplasma bovis would be amazed at the eradicate option given it is endemic in every agriculturally important nation. Every scientific paper refers to how hard the pathogen is to detect and eliminate, other than by destocking. Sometimes, as in the first case detected in New Zealand it causes severe disease symptoms, animal suffering, and production losses. However, often it lies latent and undetected in carrier cattle. Even when whole herds are tested carriers are not always identified due to the difficulty of obtaining samples containing the pathogen. Before herds can be tested potentially infected cattle need to be found. MPI has back-traced the disease to a 2400-cow dairy unit in Southland in December 2015. If that’s correct then tracing the calf, bull, grazing stock and trading cow movements from that farm alone would likely lead to hundreds of connected farms by now. Add movements from each of those, and you’re possibly into testing thousands of farms. Why it took MPI until May to

NAIT should have made tracing animals from suspected Mycoplasma bovis farms simple but farmer non-compliance was rife. MPI has been quick to blame farmers but it should have known what was happening. NAIT is a subsidiary of OSPRI which has a stakeholder council. The council includes MPI, Federated Farmers, Beef + Lamb NZ, Dairy NZ and other industry representatives. MPI is equally culpable for failing to drive through the NAIT review or any compliance drive. If those individuals on that council didn’t know NAIT was a colander case, they’re out of touch and should resign. OSPRI’s 2016/17 report, listed as a ‘highlight’ 3.7 million animals registered in NAIT, but Stats NZ’s June 2017 figures showed 10 million cattle and 850,000 deer in the country. That means seven million head were non-compliant. We’re lucky this is only M. bovis we’re dealing with.

realise this is beyond belief.

CRYING OVER SPILT MILK? Mycoplasma bovis typically manifests itself when an animal’s under stress, such as at calving. Mycoplasmal mastitis is highly likely as the cow comes into milk. Where does that go? Into the red vat, and on to a calf-rearing shed. If that’s on the same farm, there’s a reasonable chance calves infected this way would be found. Where the red milk was collected by a rearer for use elsewhere, it’s highly likely infected calves will never be traced. Most would have been sold by Christmas, and by now may well have been traded-on again. At every sale the number of contacts grows, especially if they passed through a sale yard. Trace all the possible contacts from such premises and only farms running strictly closed herds and flocks will be left. Why has Government backed a billion dollar eradication plan when the odds appear so immensely stacked against it? Populist politics and perhaps advice from an expert panel which would love to be part of a world-first eradication attempt. How accurate is the data and assumptions behind MPI’s modelling of the outbreak.? It seems too late for eradication and NZ needs to move to managing the disease. ›› More on M Bovis p20 Country-Wide

July 2018

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Keeping the robots at bay Bay of Plenty farmer Paul Burt tells how his dad could have done with tracking technology for an adventurous 12-year-old.

could tell it was serious. “There is a problem with your ping,” he said in a grave tone. Don’t be alarmed, he wasn’t a doctor talking about something personal. As is prudent for a middle-aged man I’ve been scanned, poked, prodded and bled and other than a bit of wear and tear commensurate with the mileage, I’m fine. No, this ping is something else but for some its importance is right up there with their heart continuing to beat. When it comes to ping, smaller is better and our ping is 865 when it should be 50. A few days ago I was in blissful ignorance of ping but it is useful to know why your internet is slow and costs three times as much as in town. Wikipedia explains ping as a computer network administration softwear utility used to test the reachability of a host on an internet protocol network. The name comes from active sonar terminology that ominous sound on a submarine in a war movie. For someone who could quite happily exist without a lot of modern conveniences (or necessities, depending on your view) I find the pressure to keep up with modern technology just that, a pressure. Stress kills people so part of my stress management is not to adopt the latest and greatest until someone else proves whether or not it will be a bastard-child With my attitude to technology, do I have a future in agriculture? Many would say no, but have they considered what farming will look like in years to come. Husbandry of the land and animals has been intrinsic to human development and traditional types of farming will

MATATA

retain an allure precisely because they don’t owe modern technology for their existence. There will be a nostalgia for the real and honest life that was and we slow adopters will be rewarded. Just like the stove pipe trousers and paisley shirts I’ve saved from the 1970s, we will be fashionable once more. In the future, farmers who are able will deal directly with their customers. They will be selling experiences. As well as gastronomic these may be recreational, educational, spiritual, personal and intimate or social, but they will all be inspirational.

Just like the stove pipe trousers and paisley shirts I’ve saved from the 1970s, we will be fashionable once more. Experiences that will put some perspective back into lives burdened with false hopes, fake news and instant but unfulfilling gratification. These farmers will ‘farm’ people in a business model over which they have complete control and I concede it probably will involve some technology, but I hope someone has the kindness to repeat to me every day that I kept those bloody robots at bay for as long as I was able. Despite my protestations I can see the day I will be fitted with a tracking device. My late father would have had his kids implanted if the technology was available back then. To be fair he got worse when at age 10 to 12 my brother, a

cousin and I embarked on a mini circumnavigation of the Rangitaiki Plains without leaving a note. We commandeered HMS Bea, my cousin’s 8ft plywood boat and carried and paddled our way across farmland up canals and down river to arrive back at my cousin’s house on dark. At the time we couldn’t understand why we weren’t congratulated for completing such a hazardous journey successfully. I’ve grown to see the error of my ways and now fret for my own children more than I need to. Unintentionally, I kept causing my old man grief well into his old age. One evening Louise was at home coping with three little ones and Paul was late. An hour after dark she was getting agitated, not for my safety but because I wasn’t there to help with the feeding and bathing (I’m sure I told her I was going hunting after work!) Louise called the cavalry who mounted a one-man search party building a head of steam as he charged about in his trusty Peugeot 504. Even though I was late I was okay, wobbling home on my long-suffering motorbike with a 60kg spiker as a passenger. In the distance I saw lights randomly probing the darkness and gradually caught up with their source. Dad wound down the window and tore strips off me. I was the most stupid inconsiderate ratbag that ever stayed out late without leaving a note. I thought it was wise to accept the telling off and say nothing. After a while he went quiet and said “Anyway, where the …. am I ?” I suddenly felt redeemed being the only one who knew the way home.

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Love me do Farmers need to control the narrative about the devastation in the wake of the arrival of Mycoplasma bovis on our shores, Tapanui sharemilker Mark Chamberlain writes.

oly cow. It is the biggest invasion on our shorelines since the Fab Four turned up from Liverpool in the 1960s. Micro bovis. It doesn’t sound sexy and that’s because it is not. It is just plain nasty. Nasty on bovines, businesses, communities and families. History has shown that many a farming operation has been destroyed by a simple kiss at the boundary fence that no hot-wire could contain. The subsequent dividing of assets, children, dog (and chainsaw) can also put a strain on the community with battle lines TAPANUI often drawn. The boundary fence is now under threat from a different kiss – more of a nose rub, or lick from cow to cow. We all know that financial hardship and even ruin awaits for your business if that transfer of Mycoplasma bovis occurs. This stress is compounded by a perceived (rightly or wrongly) lack of direction and certainty over compensation from MPI. It is easy to throw stones but what we need now are solutions. Development of a conclusive test that can identify M. bovis is the obvious answer. If we can put a man on the moon, surely we have the skills to achieve this. This battle is being waged on several fronts. On any given day one can hear our ill-informed urban friends waxing lyrical about how the farmers shouldn’t be compensated and how they would prefer to let our businesses die on the vine. Farmers have never been very good at getting out in front of the media and

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controlling the narrative. Federated Farmers and other industry leaders should perhaps take a leaf from Trump’s book – positive or negative he is always ahead of the story and he controls the news cycle. It is important that the anti-farming brigade clearly understand (or at least be willing to listen) that the dairy and red meat industries are vital to the economic success of our nation. On another battlefront is the emotional war being waged within those dealing with this new foe. Beautiful herds and aspiring young stock, that have not yet even reached the start line of production, being sent to slaughter in their thousands. I truly feel for you guys. Farming has long struggled with difficulties around mental health and this new foe will inevitably lead to further devastation among those battling it. Keep talking, use your phone, stay connected. The politics of this all is a bit of a shambles and, to be fair to Damian

O’Connor, he truly did receive a hospital pass from Nathan Guy – who I can only just imagine was doing cartwheels on the night of National’s election loss. But when Labour have had the chance to show strength and leadership, I feel they seem to have faltered. I was recently surprised to learn that O’Connor’s seating position in the House of Representatives is only two spots from the exit door. Such a lowly position for the minister in charge of the industries that are the backbone of the New Zealand economy. An affected farmer spoke on talkback radio the other night, stating that “MPI is the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, a slow-moving one at that, but they are all we have”. We must as an industry do our best to support their efforts to control the spread of M. bovis but we should also be unafraid to question their battle plan. But here is the problem. Apart from getting better at using NAIT, we haven’t been asked to change any of our core farming practices. We are taking precautions, of course, but I can’t help but be suspicious that it was something well out of the ordinary that introduced this invisible foe to our shores. If you are the person, or persons, who have committed an illegal act and thereby brought this virus to our shores – you’ve also unwittingly brought tears, heartache and sheer waste. Think about that.

To stay mentally healthy, farmers need to stick together, use their phones and keep talking to each other.

HOME BLOCK | COLUMN

Success – it’s all in the timing A range of breeds have arrived on the Catlins farm of Suzie Corboy and husband Paul as they test what breed might suit their once-mated heifer system best.

t has been said that the slippery airstrip road. It all fell into place, difference between a good but caused me a few hours of unwanted farmer and a great farmer is stress making it happen. timing. On that definition we We bought 102 weaned beef heifer won’t be ranked great farmers calves, mainly at the first Balclutha calf this year. This is the first season sale. They are a range of breeds including we have farmed together in six years, Charolais, Simmental, Angus and even and one of the more difficult seasons for three Speckle Parks (very cute). a while, with a dry, hot summer then Our idea with the range, is to get a late summer rain and a burst of grass an idea of what breed might suit our growth. once-mated heifer system best. This We made the right decisions early with will include trying to compare in-calf selling store lambs, rates, calving ease, but delayed weaning calf growth rates and our once-mated heifer and calf weaning I find it very rewarding weights. heifers and their helping people, which growth rates suffered, It will not be a and we now have scientific study, more a is not what I expected, to winter a lot more case of Suzie and Paul’s because I always of them than we opinion along with thought I didn’t really should have, due to some help from the them being too light like people much, I was cattle scales. to kill over 220kg As I mentioned, more of an animal-lover. carcaseweight. Paul went away for a We also were a well-deserved 10-day bit late putting our holiday in May with a order in for fertiliser to truck on to the group of friends from his Lincoln days. paddocks and fly on to the hill. As a They visited Great Barrier Island and result it was early May before it actually Waiheke Island, then Paul had three days happened, due to delays from the plane with his parents in Otorohanga. and truck, mainly weather-related. Paul I chose to stay at home, look after chose a great week to be on holiday, and the farm and enjoy having the house I was left to change fertiliser orders to to myself again. Pity about the farming, get a different type of sulphur, cancel the could have been quite relaxing nitrogen as it was too late to get enough otherwise. benefit, and then get loaded trucks up a I got a paid casual job at Balclutha St

John in January as an EMA (emergency medical assistant) and have been studying OWAKA for my National Diploma in Ambulance Practice, so have had quite a few days away from the farm, along with continuing my voluntary St John night shifts for Balclutha and Owaka. My only regret is I didn’t start doing it 20 years ago. I find it very rewarding helping people, which is not what I expected, because I always thought I didn’t really like people much, I was more of an animal-lover. On the farm we are into winter mode, and by the time you read this we will probably have cattle and sheep being break-fed on winter crops. We have quite a bit of fencing maintenance to do over the winter, as well as some fencing for new lanes and to fence off some waterways. Add to this a few shelterbelts to plant, some firewood to cut for next winter from fallen trees, and the usual bit of stockwork and we will fill in the short winter days. In fact, I can be sure we will get to lambing and calving in spring and still not have finished all the jobs we hoped to get done over winter. Hopefully, winter will be good to us all and you will hear from me how our winter was, come spring.

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RIP Cooper – the dog who made me a farmer King Country farmer Dani Darke laments the passing of chief Huntaway, the dog who brought her in from the rural cold. ARIA

ast month started off in a sad way. One morning my mainstay Huntaway, Cooper, wasn’t eagerly waiting to be let out of his kennel, instead he had died overnight from a probable twisted bowel. This was gutting for me – I had lost a best mate, but I realised it was more than that, as I ruminated over him not being around anymore. Bear with me as I try to explain. When Anthony and I moved on to the farm 10 years ago and tried to get to grips with a new career there were times when I definitely felt like a spare wheel. Especially after having a baby – it was hard to figure out where I fitted into this whole farming gig. Although I had studied Ag at Massey and been a rural banker, I was embarrassed to own up to the fact I was from Wellington, and I was not very confident about the whole thing. Soon enough though I was lucky to be given some decent young pups and had the help of dog trial legend Gary Murphy to train them. With the help of Coop and my heading dog Flo, it wasn’t long before I could do any of the mustering jobs the blokes could do.

I remember in the early days surprising Anthony’s dad that I had mustered in ewes and lambs out of a difficult paddock at docking without leaving a single lamb behind. Slowly I stopped hiding the fact I grew up in a city, because I was confident that I could be useful on the farm. This got me thinking that dogs are pretty incredible, really, in that they allow us to be better versions of ourselves. Me plus a dog equalled fitting in and having a role to play. Me without a dog equalled lots of frustration, sore legs and a feeling that I would be better off somewhere else. Of course, people with sight difficulties and autistic children have long known different ways that dogs can add to our lives, and it was a shame that it took me losing my mate to really understand it. After Coop died I realised it was actually he who turned me into a proper farmer, and gave me the confidence to get stuck in. Each of the dogs gets an extra pat now, to acknowledge the part they have played in who I am now, and what I can get done on the farm. Number two huntaway Libby is on a steep learning curve to fill the gap, but we are getting the job done, albeit with

a bit more yelling and a bit more exercise on my behalf. This week I was involved in a lunch put on by the Agri-Womens Development Trust along with ANZ. It was about collaboration between rural and urbanites and involved several AWDT Alumni and several influential urban women (such as the founder of Eco-Store Melanie Rands and the founder of Abe’s Bagels Megan Sargent). Conversations were around what’s important to both urban and rural perspectives – in particular how we manage consumer expectations and production realities around the supply of healthy and sustainable food. Some pretty awesome discussions were had and some great ideas floated. Watch this space for the initiatives that come out of it. The farm has had an exciting month as we continue to spend our tree harvest money. Our cattle yards are all but finished and the roof is on our covered sheep yards. The bulls are either all sold or locked down into cell systems and the ewes are on their winter round. Here’s hoping for a relatively easy one.

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Pushing on, despite the wet After a cold winter, constant rain made clay soils very heavy for David Walston in Cambridgeshire, England.

hen I wrote a few months back we were just coming out of a very cold spell, which we survived without too many problems. What I did not know was that we were heading into a few weeks that were going to be as soaking as the previous ones had been freezing. Towards the end of March the lighter fields were just, barely, getting into a dry enough state to start thinking about drilling. First on the agenda was a field of spring barley, which we double drilled, at different angles, to try and give us an extra edge on weed competition. Next up were two fields of peas, which went smoothly. The last job for our air drill was to put in 85 hectares of spring oats, on our very heaviest clay land. Conditions were really marginal, and in an ideal world we would have waited another week or so to let the soil dry. However, rain was forecast, and I was nervous of having to wait another two or three weeks to get back to square one again - so we pushed on and got that job done as well. At the same time, we started on the now-annual ritual of trying to establish our sugar beet with a strip-till machine. This proved pretty tricky since the cover crop, planted in August, had grown really very well, and the machinery was struggling to deal with all of the crop residue. At first it seemed an impossible task, as it would block up within 20 metres every time. To my great relief, as the stalks dried after lunch, we managed to get going properly, although still slowly. After the

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semi-disaster of 2017, I decided that putting in the strips at the same time as drilling the seed just wasn’t going to work, so we went for two separate passes. Obviously, this adds a lot of time to the process, which was in short supply since the ideal drilling date was already two weeks in the past. After four days the initial strips had been cultivated, and we started back at the beginning with the drill mounted on the back of the strip-till machine. While nowhere near as bad as last year, drilling was still a slow, frustrating, and lowquality affair. We struggled badly clearing the residues, and achieving a consistent seed depth. Five painful days later, all the drilling was complete.

This spring has certainly been a big reminder….. a crystal ball would be a seriously useful tool for farmers.

The forecast rain did indeed come, and then it really didn’t want to stop. Over three weeks there was 65mm, spaced fairly evenly so the ground was constantly saturated. This was unprecedented for us, and when the dust settled (or more accurately, when it started to fly again), we were left with a mix of results. The crops on lighter ground were adequate, whereas the oats on heavy clay had really struggled, and in one field we lost around a third of the crop where the seed just rotted away - a new experience,

being exclusively light land farmers until a few years back. The sugar beet was a mixed, and disappointing bag. One field has come up fairly well, whereas the other has very patchy areas, in particular where we used a pre-emergence herbicide. This seems to have soaked through the soil and affected germination very badly, which is obvious as we only sprayed about a quarter of the field. The pain was complete when the older generation noticed what had happened, and I was summoned to give an account of why I had ruined the spring drilling. Hopefully I gave a half-decent account of myself, and why it wasn’t totally my fault. This spring has certainly been a big reminder, if one was needed, that a crystal ball would be a seriously useful tool for farmers.

HOME BLOCK | COLUMN

A harsh Scottish winter Manawatu’s Julius Cousins, on his OE in Europe, experienced intensive sheep farming in the winter of northern Scotland at latitude 57 north.

y girlfriend, Ange Wilmshurst, and I arrived at Fearn Farm in the middle of winter, to find 6000 ewes - crossbred and pedigree Texel, Aberfield and New Zealand Suffolk - grazing on forage crops and baleage. The cattle component of this very motivated farming business consists of 100 Beef Shorthorn and 90 Lung cows. An hour’s drive south of John’O’Groats and sometimes wrapped in thick sea fog, due to its proximity to the ocean, the farm’s east coast location contributes to its greatest strength, free-draining soils, allowing the daily breaks of fodder beet to be fed efficiently, with very little mud to hamper the operation. Winter 2018 happened to be the harshest in Scotland for 15 years, with snow drifts of up to two metres, giving me a greater appreciation of the Manawatu. The ewes scanned 185% which set the scene for a very busy lambing. The ewes had been mated to achieve four different lambing dates, to spread the risk of bad weather, assist with management and maximising the availability of the lambing sheds. The indoor lambing began on February 7 for the broken mouth ewes, with the aim to kill the lambs at 40kg by mid-June when the schedule is

traditionally at £5 (NZ$8.00/kg). The cull ewes are killed soon after weaning, targeting Ramadan. The management sequence for the February-born lambs is: at 10 days old, the ewes and lambs were put into a woodland for shelter and while the lambs were creep-fed ,the ewes were fed draf, a by-product from the local whisky distillery. Nothing like a wee dram on a cold night! The pedigree ewes were lambed inside, starting on March 15. The ease of lambing was rated from 1 to 5, 1 being unassisted and 5 being a caesarean, very foreign to a Kiwi. Lamb birth weight and liveliness were also recorded. The commercial ewes started lambing on April 1 with the aim to lamb twins outside, while the singles and triplets lambed inside enabling a triplet to be mothered on to a single. However, due to the slow spring (sounds familiar) the number of ewes lambed outside was less than planned. One very pleasant little interlude we had, was a long weekend trip further north to Orkney. A mere half hour ferry journey, before we drove past famous locations like Scapa Flow and the Churchill Barrier. Orkney is a peaceful location on ‘island time’ and far from the madding crowd. The indoor lamb feeding regime was based on a morning and night feed of concentrate, 18% protein rolls. Ewes with lambs at foot receive 2kg/

day, scanned twins/triplets 1.25kg/day, scanned singles- 0.75kg/day, plus hay to all ewes. Animal health was the greatest challenge, especially highly contagious watery mouth in young lambs. The ewes lambed in straw-bedded pens ranging from 25 to 100 ewes once giving birth they were moved into an individual pen for 24 to 36 hours after lambing, to allow for maximum bonding, before moving into the hardening zone which consisted of a pen with 10 to 40 ewes before departure to the fields via an Ifor Williams stock trailer. Lamb death rates were 15% indoors and a further 10% once outside. Indoor-lambing is incredibly labourintensive requiring about one labour unit per 400 ewes with 24-hour watch. The outside lambing of twin ewes required an intensive lambing beat, four rounds a day. Fortunately, the weather was forgiving, however foxes and badgers (protected in the United Kingdom) were forever lurking, thus the 10% death rate. Sheep farming is easier in New Zealand. Fearn Farm is not a typical Scottish sheep farm, as grazing ewes on fodder beet behind electric fences and lambing outdoors are the result of consultation with Trevor Cook of Totally Vets, Feilding. A typical croft in Scotland has 150 ewes lambed indoors, summer grazing on common ground, land shared by several crofters and is heavily supported by subsidies. Our six months at Fearn Farm, with a new crop of nearly 8000 lambs on the ground, has come to an end and we are about to embark on 12 months’ roaming around Europe, in our recently purchased 1993 Talbot Express campervan.

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NOTEBOOK

PICK OF THE CROP FMG Young Farmer of the year contest reaches its conclusion with the grand final at Invercargill on July 5, 6, and 7. Thursday July 5 is the technical day including the opening parade and 50 year celebration dinner. Friday, July 6 is the practical day, with the New Holland National awards dinner in the evening. Saturday, July 7 is wrapped up in the evening with the quiz and awards presentation. More? www.fmgyoungfarmercontest.co.nz

DISRUPTIVE INNOVATIONS IN FOOD TALKING SHEEP AND BEEF Beef+Lamb New Zealand is holding its annual consultation meetings with sheep and beef farmers through June and July. More? beeflambnz.com/events

The ProteinTECH conference will cover what alternative protein means for the New Zealand primary industries and what opportunities we have. It is is aimed at people in the food production and farming industries, as well as those who have an interest or expertise in emerging food technologies. Novotel Auckland Airport Hotel, July 24. More? proteintech.event

DEER TECHNOLOGY EXPO

CLOSING THE YIELD GAP Foundation for Arable Research is holding a workshop specifically aimed at upskilling industry reps who are new to the arable sector. Dunsandel Community Centre, July 27. More? www.far.org.nz/events

Deer Industry NZ with support from Canterbury West Coast Branch of NZDFA is running a full day expo at Ashburton where farmers can talk one on one with a wide array of technology providers to the deer industry. Hotel Ashburton, July 27. More? https://bit.ly/2Jzp78t

NEW BEGINNINGS The Oversew Fashion Awards is New Zealandâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s only upcycled Fashion Awards Show and design competition, celebrating its sixth year in 2018. Entrants must use at least 80% pre-worn clothing as their materials. Carterton events centre, July 21 and 22. More? www.oversewfashion.com

FEELING GOOD Kiwi band The Feelers mark their 25th anniversary with a nationwide tour through July and early August, kicking off in Timaru on June30. More? https://bit.ly/2JtROaS

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July 2018

FACTS

Good time to be a sheep farmer Lambs are fetching record prices for the time of year and there are no immediate signs of a let-up, AgriHQ analyst Reece Brick reports. 2011-12 when lamb priced itself off many menus, and ultimately damaged demand for lamb across multiple years. Mutton is flying high too, though few are being killed because of where we are in the year. However, mutton’s schedules are providing the in-lamb ewe market with a very strong base to work off. It will be interesting to see if breeders are willing to out-bid works buyers, or if we’ll see New Zealand’s breeding flock shrink even further. In-lamb ewes are selling above slaughterlevels in the North Island to date, often $180-$200, but it is still too early to make a call on the South Island. Anyone opting for winter shearing should expect mixed results, assuming they sell their wool fairly quickly. For the third year running coarse ewe fleeces are

Coarse ewe fleeces are floundering, whereas fine-micron wool is moving from strength-to-strength.

floundering around the $3.50/kg (clean weight), whereas fine-micron wool is moving from strength-to-strength. Midmicron fleeces (26-28 micron) have made $10.50-$13.25/kg lately, up about 30% on what’s been paid in the past two years. Merino wools are still two months away from selling in any decent volume, however 18-21-micron wools out of Australia are selling 35% above this point a year ago.

US french rack price

11.0 10.0 US$/lb

onfidence at the farmgate in sheep is the strongest we’ve seen since 2011. Nearly all of this comes down to schedules. At the time of writing lambs in the North Island were making $7.50-$7.70/kg carcaseweight at slaughter, the highest-ever level for this point in the year, with the South Island trailing by 10-20c/kg. The question on everyone’s lips is how long this can be maintained. For the next three or so months the prospects are good. Various July and August contracts have already been released in the North Island around $7.80$7.90/kg CW, and it’s not very often the spot-market falls too short on these levels. With that said, any lifts are likely to come directly from short-term competition for lambs rather than any long-term trend. There’s already evidence of processors paying above the odds for lamb this season. The latest export data shows processors putting 71% of average export revenues into slaughter prices through April. Normally this level would be 6568%.

9.0 8.0 7.0

We certainly don’t want a repeat of 2011-12 when lamb priced itself off many menus, and ultimately damaged demand for lamb across multiple years.

6.0

Oct

Dec 5-yr ave

Feb

Apr

2016-1 7

Jun 2017-1 8

Aug

Oct

Source: AgriHQ

North Island lamb slaughter price

8.0 7.5

Reports indicate overseas buyers are very reluctant to meet any more price increases given they’re already paying very strong levels on many lamb cuts. This could potentially be a good move for the longterm success of lamb, however. We certainly don’t want a repeat of

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July 2018

$/kgCW

7.0 6.5 6.0 5.5 5.0 4.5

Oct

Dec 5-yr ave

Feb 2016-1 7

Apr

Jun 2017-1 8

Aug

Oct

Source: AgriHQ

BUSINESS | MYCOPLASMA BOVIS

Keep calm and carry on As Mycoplasma bovis continues to spread across the country Country-Wide writers have been finding out what farmers need to know to protect their farms from the disease. WORDS: ANDREW SWALLOW

he Ministry for Primary Industries says it expects all farmers not under movement control to carry on business as usual in the coming calf sale

season. In answer to questions about M bovis, the ministry says as long as movements are fully recorded in NAIT it would be able to follow any cattle that may be of interest, and any farm that is potentially infected will be under movement control. However, it seems there have been, and indeed still are, no such restrictions on some farms with calves reared last spring which originally came from what are now known to be infected farms. Only when a positive test result on an animal is received have movement restrictions been put in place. Stock agents say some potential buyers are contacting them asking about the M bovis status of lines, but they do not

necessarily know the answer. One said he’s just been passing on vendors’ contact details so buyers can make their own inquiries. Asked how it is prioritising testing, and at what point a notice of direction(NOD) is issued, MPI says it assesses risk based on imports from infected or suspected infected properties and lab results that raise questions. Farms are put under NOD if perceived as high risk and prioritised for testing. MPI was asked for further details on this risk assessment process but failed to respond before [italics]Country-Wide went to press. Calves from M bovis-free properties that passed through saleyards last spring or subsequently, on the same day as calves or stock now known to be infected, will not be traced. “The short time the animals spend in the sales yard and the grouping into sales cohorts means there is minimal risk to other animals in the yards,” MPI says it has been advised.

SHEEP RESTRICTIONS MPI says research shows attempts to infect sheep with M bovis fail and sheep will not pass infection to other animals, including cows. However, MPI is imposing restrictions on non-bovines on suspect and infected farms to prevent disease spread via mud and muck on hooves or wool.

However, it would be tracing all animals from calf-rearers likely to have had infected calves on their properties. [italics] Country-Wide understands some such farms had thousands of calves, which have now been sold on to multiple buyers, some of whom may have already on-sold the calves again. The number of trace farms was nearly 3000. How many of those had been tested, remained to be tested, and how many animals were involved was not answered by MPI, nor did it give a break down on the type of properties other than to say that, as of the end of May, eight of the then 35 infected properties were calfrearers. The number of farms being traced due to waste milk connections with infected farms was another figure MPI failed to provide but it says its “in-depth engagement with farmers who bought or sold waste milk” includes onfarm investigations of waste milk sales and bank records. MPI considers feeding contaminated unpasteurised milk to calves “may be a significant risk,” but a lesser risk than prolonged animal-to-animal contact. Casual, over-the-fence contamination is not considered high risk. “We have seen no example of this in NZ.”

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July 2018

Strains, tests and vaccines MPI says the strain of Mycoplasma bovis in New Zealand is most closely related to the strain circulating in Europe and North America, and is not the same strain as in Australia. Despite vet Meryln Hay’s report to the NZVA’s Dairy Cattle Vets conference in December that virulence and rate of disease caused by M bovis on the first farm in NZ found infected was unprecedented in global literature, MPI says virulence now appears the same as that for M bovis internationally. ELISA testing of blood samples for antibodies is the primary surveillance tool being used with PCR (ie DNA) testing of nasal swabs collected at the same time as bloods, and/or milk on dairy farms, used to confirm, if possible, infection. Neither test is reliable due to a limited and highly variable period when infected animals produce antibodies, and/or shed bacteria to places where infection may easily be detected, such as the nostrils, vagina or milk. Hence MPI’s use of multiple tests, three to four weeks apart, to assess likelihood of infection. “There’s no maximum number of rounds of testing, only a minimum of two,” MPI says. “We will continue to test a farm until we are certain of its status. If a farm tests as clear of Mycoplasma bovis - as the majority do - then they will be able to continue farming as they were before. We encourage farms that have tested clear to maintain scrupulous hygiene and biosecurity standards.”

MPI ON NZ M BOVIS One strain, “closely related” to Europe and North America’s. Infection risk: prolonged contact > infected milk > casual contact > fomites. Minimum two rounds of tests before cleared. Tracing all suspect calves and on-farm contacts “to end destination”. Saleyard contacts minimal risk so no tracing. 3000 traces and rising. Progress on testing not disclosed.

Cultures grown from milk or swab samples are analysed in more detail to gather more information about an infection’s genetic history if infection is confirmed. MPI says PCR tests are commercially available and farmers can discuss this with their vet. A commercial ELISA testing service is being worked on. It appears NZ’s M bovis originates from a single strain imported around December 2015, so could a vaccine specific to that strain - a so-called autogenous vaccine - be useful? MPI says the possibility has been explored. “All we can say with certainty at this stage is that vaccination is not an adequate option for our aim of eradicating the disease from NZ.”

Calves from M bovis-free properties that passed through saleyards last spring or subsequently, on the same day as calves or stock now known to be infected, will not be traced. Country-Wide

July 2018

BUSINESS | M BOVIS

SEPARATION AND RECORDS KEY FOR BEEF BREEDERS Keep breeding herds separate from imported rearing stock and have the records to prove that, Beef + Lamb New Zealand says. While it is predicted Mycoplasma bovis will have minimal impact in NZ beef systems under the phased eradication plan, an imported animal found to be infected will trigger whole-herd depopulation. However, if separation has been maintained and can be proved prior to the infected import’s arrival, culling may be limited to the herd the import has run with, rather than all cattle on a farm. B+LNZ says create two-metre buffers, if necessary using hot-wires, between herds, neighbours, and along all roads and lanes. When disinfecting yards, ensure surfaces are clean and use a bactericidal product safe for you, cattle and the environment. Leaving a day between yarding mobs reduces need for disinfection. More? See www.beeflambnz.com

KEY TIPS FOR CALF-REARERS If buying calves, Beef + Lamb NZ and Dairy NZ say minimise sources, buy direct, via agent(s) if necessary, and ask about M bovis testing and cow and calf health in the previous two years. There’s a question checklist at www.dairynz.co.nz/mbovis. Ask transports to avoid mixing calves with other mobs in yards or onboard and keep calves isolated for seven days after arrival and monitor for disease. Milk replacer users should order now to ensure supply and whole milk users should avoid mastitis or other discard milk. Pasteurisation or acidifying to pH5 for five to eight hours, or pH4 for an hour, no lower, will kill any mycoplasma present. Potassium sorbate preservative will not kill mycoplasma in milk and yoghurtising is unreliable.

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BUSINESS | MYCOPLASMA BOVIS

Acid test for calf milk WORDS: SHERYL BROWN

dding citric acid to whole milk is a practical and costeffective method to reduce the risk of infecting calves with Mycoplasma bovisinfected milk. Top-Notch Calves has recently completed milk trials with Fonterra and DairyNZ to lower the pH of whole milk using citric acid and yoghurt. Joanne and her husband Jonathan are dairy farmers and owners of Top-Notch Calves, a large-scale Waikato calf-rearing operation. In the past 14 years they have reared 1400-8000 calves each season with no serious disease outbreaks. Joanne says feeding infected M bovis milk to calves is the second-biggest risk of spreading the disease, behind stock movement. Milk that has the lowest risk of containing M bovis bacteria comes in three forms, feeding calf milk replacement powder, acidified milk or pasteurised milk. Acidification to a pH of less than 5 for at least eight hours kills M bovis bacteria. She says feeding acidified milk is a cheaper option than buying pasteurising equipment or calf milk replacement powder, and utilises the whole milk available on farms. “If this (acidification) is done right you can eliminate the risk of M bovis. Otherwise you’ll run into issues with (milk powder) supply and there will be a lot of milk sitting around on farms which is often a byproduct.” Calf rearers need to achieve a pH level below 5 to ensure all the M bovis bacteria

is killed. It’s best to aim to get down to a level of 4.5. Anything under 4 pH becomes unpalatable for calves. The Top-Notch acidification trials added yoghurt and citric acid to vats of 3000l of whole milk and monitored the pH level of the milk which was then fed to three-tofour-week old calves. The yoghurt took six days to drop the milk pH from 6.7 to 4.8, whereas adding 15kg of citric acid took two hours to drop the pH to 4.5 and adding 16.5kg dropped the pH to 4.3 immediately. The best option therefore is to use 5.5g of citric acid per litre of whole milk, or 5.5kg/1000l. “We are not recommending yoghurt, it takes too long and it’s too temperature dependent and is too unreliable what the result will be.” Milk below 5 pH does separate, but with gentle mixing it goes back into a homogenous solution. Continuous mixing causes coagulation as does vigorous mixing. Joanne has found different grades of citric acid online, ranging from $38 to $98 for a 25kg bag. The pH strips can also be bought online or from farm merchant stores. If newborn calves do not drink this milk mixture, it maybe a good idea to start them on a 50/50 mix of milk powder and citric acid treated milk for the first few weeks, she says. Red milk is the highest-risk milk that can be fed to calves, and should be avoided altogether. Farmers and calf-rearers alike who are buying or selling calves or milk need to consider their actions and should be doing everything in their control to minimise the

MILK ACIDIFICATION TRIAL Vat 1: 2x Easiyo yoghurt sachets added to 10 litres of warm water and added into 3000 litres of whole milk. Results: No change to pH after 24 hours, took six days to reduce pH from 6.7 to 4.8. Vat 2: 15.5kg citric acid added to 3000l whole milk. Results: Within 24 hours pH dropped from 6.7 to 4.5 and stayed there. Milk was stirred once when citric acid was added for one hour. Milk separated, but reconstituted well after being stirred. Vat 3: 16.5kg citric acid added to 3000l whole milk. Results: pH dropped immediately to 4.3 and stayed there.

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July 2018

risk of M bovis this season. “People need to think about the whole industry and not their own pocket, we have to think about the long term and we have to be in this together. “We all need to be working toward eradication.” Joanne is encouraging all calf-rearers to develop a procedure for their staff for treating whole milk and increased biosecurity protocols onfarm. “It’s a year that we all need to be more cautious and rethink how we do things to minimise our risk.” At Top-Notch staff will be treating the milk with citric acid as soon as it arrives on their calf-rearing block, they will test the milk pH immediately and then test the pH level again before feeding it to the calves. They have bought a set of kitchen scales to measure the citric acid and will stir the milk twice a week. All visitors will be required to leave their vehicle at the entrance and clean boots in a foot bath. For farmers and calf-rearers alike it’s about finding balance between minimising risk and shutting their business or the industry down, Joanne says. “It’s about coming up with a plan for your property and then we’ve got to get on with the business of farming. You can only control what you can.” Every calf-rearer must consider M bovis this season, however, and where possible they should minimise the number of places they buy calves or milk from and know exactly where those calves are coming from, she says. NAIT transfers need to be 100% recorded, even if it’s one calf sold to the small lifestyle block owner down the road. More on M bovis precuations for calf-rearing, visit www.dairynz.co.nz

BUSINESS | MYCOPLASMA BOVIS

Large mobs a problem Much media coverage of Mycoplasma bovis has focused on dairying, but calf-rearing is where the pathogen causes most problems overseas, as Andrew Swallow found out when he talked to one of the world’s leading experts.

arge herds and communal calf-rearing systems are where Mycoplasma bovis causes most problems overseas, a United Kingdom expert on the pathogen Dr Robin Nicholas says. Nicholas is on the Ministry for Primary Industries’ (MPI) technical advisory group (TAG) dealing with the incursion and while that prevented him from answering many questions, he detailed how M bovis has gone from novel organism in 1961 to a growing global gremlin of feedlots and large-scale dairying. “The disease is worse in feedlot systems where calves are kept in high concentrations and in poorly ventilated housing. Most of Europe is affected, in particular UK, Italy, Hungary, and Germany; also the United States and Canada where feedlots exceed several thousand cattle,” he says. M bovis is now the main causative agent in a quarter to a third of calf pneumonia

cases in Europe and 30-40% of UK calf pneumonias involve it too, though Nicholas says reliable data is limited. “My belief for a long time is that this is a very important but under-reported disease in the UK… I have been on farms where there is 20-30% calf mortality and there is no cure as antibiotics used frequently for control are no longer effective because of antibiotic resistance. In the feedlots/ veal farms of many European countries it is the most important bovine respiratory disease.” In dairy herds the extent of the disease, typically manifesting as mastitis and/or arthritis, is directly related to herd size: the larger the herd, particularly over 500-head, the more prevalent the disease. “The main problems are in the western USA.” A 2012 report by Fox in Food Animal Practice put M bovis prevalence at more than 3% of bulk milk tanks in the northeast and Midwest US but at 9.4% in

KEY POINTS • Overseas insights into M bovis • Worst in mob-housed calf systems. • Main pathogen in a third of pneumonias. • 20-30% mortality in some cases. • Dairy herd cases more sporadic. • Bigger herds more likely to harbour it.

the large herds of the west, Nicholas noted in a 2016 Veterinary Journal paper. Mastitic samples from 100 farms in Britain found only one case of M bovis, a similar prevalence to reports from France, almost certainly because of small herd sizes, though dairy prevalence “may

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July 2018

be somewhat higher in other European countries,” he says. Interestingly, given the frequently reported comment in New Zealand media that Norway is Mycoplasmafree, Nicholas’ 2016 paper refers to his observation, albeit unpublished, of a case there in 2014.

contact with other herds are the main preventions used. However, transfer of the pathogen into the herd via visiting people or equipment should not be ruled out. “Very few [Irish] farmers would have specific protocols in place for preventing M bovis entering the herd but probably have general biosecurity measures in place.”

THE IRISH EXPERIENCE In Ireland, where dairy systems are increasingly similar to NZ, albeit on a smaller scale, M bovis was first reported in 1994. University College Dublin’s Catherine Carty, part of UCD’s herd health group, wrote a review article on M bovis for the Veterinary Ireland Journal in 2017 and says it now appears endemic. “Anecdotally we have seen an increase in herd outbreaks in the past few years which has coincided with the rapid expansion of the dairy herd post-abolition of milk quota here in Ireland. This is only an observation, and perhaps more vets are just referring these cases: we do not have national prevalence data.” She says M bovis is generally assumed to have a short survival time outside the host, hence reducing imports of stock and

‘In the feedlots/veal farms of many European countries it is the most important bovine respiratory disease.’ How to manage a herd if it becomes infected depends on how M bovis presents as disease, if at all. “In the outbreaks we see, it seems to be most often combinations of mastitis – typically rapid between quarter transmission and multiple quarters affected – and/or polyarthritis.” There may also be calf involvement, but that’s not a given, and there are herds that

only seem to suffer with calves – where the adult herd appears to have no symptoms. “In calves, presentations include polyarthritis; inner ear infections causing neurological deficits resulting in drooping ears and head tilts – in severe cases we have seen these tracking all the way into the brain – and pneumonia.” When high numbers of calves are affected often it’s associated with feeding whole milk or waste milk from the adult herd, which appears to be an efficient means of transmission. In all cases response to treatment is poor, she says. “Some of the outbreaks we have dealt with have been quite explosive with large proportions of the herd – up to 50% of the adult herd – affected.” How outbreaks are tackled depends on the symptoms. Presumed infected cows, based on clinical signs, should be kept separate, with strict milking shed hygiene to prevent intramammary spread. Mastitis cases may be culled. “We also use PCR to test all animals in the milking herd, first by pooled samples then testing any positive pools as some animals may have no clinical signs and be shedding via milk.”

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Regular bulk milk tests are used to monitor clean and ‘infected’ groups regularly until an outbreak is under control in such situations. In calf cases, any whole milk feeding is stopped immediately, and replaced with powder; clinical animals are separated then treated, although treatment is often unrewarding. “The other issue we will look at is any concurrent stressor or immunosuppressor,” Carty says. “In most of the outbreaks we have investigated, we have identified either the pathogen introduced into a naïve herd, and/or the presence of significant stressors on animals – overstocking, feed restriction, negative energy balance etc.” Whether outbreaks are in fact in a naïve herd, or are the result of some form of immunosuppression in a herd that was carrying M bovis without showing symptoms, is a regular discussion point. “Both are probably occurring.” In a 2011 Veterinary Record paper Nicholas noted the role of immunosuppression in disease developing, either from M bovis itself or because of M bovis having a modulatory effect, predisposing the respiratory tract to invasion by other bacterial pathogens, in particular Mannheimia haemolytica. “The association between M bovis and viruses is less clear, but the immune deficiency caused by bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) virus is suspected as an underlying cause of M bovis-associated disease.” As for Carty’s point about not ruling out visiting personnel or equipment, while that’s correct, he has never seen any evidence of such transmission in the field. “Semen and waste milk are the only other real risk factors, besides stock movements.”

NZ’S PLACE IN M BOVIS HISTORY Mycoplasma bovis was first isolated in 1961 in the United States from a case of severe mastitis in cattle. “It then appears to have spread, often silently, via animal movements worldwide to many countries, including Israel (1964), Spain (1967), Australia (1970), France (1974), Britain (1974), Czechoslovakia (1975), Germany (1977), Denmark (1981), Switzerland (1983), Morocco (1988), South Korea (1989), Brazil (1989), Northern Ireland (1993), Republic of Ireland (1994), Chile (2000), South Africa (2005), the Czech Republic (2007) and mostly recently China (2008),” UK expert Robin Nicholas wrote in an April 2011 edition of Vet Record. “There are few countries, with the exception of Norway and New Zealand, which are free of M. bovis today.” However, that had changed by 2016. “Outbreaks of mycoplasma mastitis have been reported in… Norway, which, until 2014, had been M. bovis-free (R. Nicholas, unpublished observations),” he wrote in a 2016 Veterinary Journal paper. At that time, he said NZ was probably free of M. bovis, given McDonald et al’s 2009 NZ Veterinary Journal report of a bulk milk survey.

Mycoplasma bovis timeline 2017 17th

MPI hotline notified of potential problems on a dairy farm near Oamaru. Samples sent for testing.

23rd

The farm, part of the Van Leeuwen Dairy Group (VLDG) put under biosecurity lockdown.

JUL 22nd 26

Four properties in Oamaru test positive.

Mycoplasma bovis confirmed.

31st

ANTIBIOTIC AND VACCINE OPTIONS LIMITED It’s been widely reported Mycoplasma bovis doesn’t respond to antibiotics and there’s no vaccine, but as with many things to do with this disease, that’s an over-simplification. It all depends what you use, where the organism sits in the animal, and what strain of M bovis you have. That said, none of the drugs or vaccines work well, hence the focus on prevention, not just here but globally. Some of the most widely used veterinary antibiotics, such as the sulphonamides,

MPI begin cull of cattle on infected farms.

MPI starts farmer meetings.

AUG

However, that had changed by 2016. “Outbreaks of mycoplasma mastitis have been reported in… Norway, which, until 2014, had been M bovis-free (R. Nicholas, unpublished observations),” he wrote in a 2016 Veterinary Journal paper. At that time, he said NZ was probably free of M bovis, given McDonald et al’s 2009 NZ Veterinary Journal report of a bulk milk survey.

NOV

M. bovis confirmed in Southland and Hawke’s Bay.

DEC

Second VLDG farm confirmed.

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July 2018

A stock truck loads cattle at a sale yard.

ß-lactams and polymixins, have never worked on mycoplasmas, in the latter’s case because they act on bacterial cell walls, and mycoplasmas don’t have one. Some tetracyclines, macrolides, triamilides and quinolones do have, or at least did have, some efficacy. The problem is getting them to the site of infection in the animal in sufficient concentration to be effective, and the ability of mycoplasmas to develop resistance. UK-based M bovis specialist, Dr Robin Nicholas, says minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) of most tetracyclines, macrolides such as tylosin, tilmicosin, and tulathromycin, and the phenicols, chlorphenicol and florfenicol for control of M bovis, are now high. “This has changed in the last 20 years; MICs have increased significantly over this time. The only ones that have remained the same are the fluoroquinolones, though there have been some alarming results from Turkey,” he says.

Calf-rearing is where the pathogen causes most problems overseas.

However, use of fluoroquinolones is discouraged in Europe because they are “the last line of defence [against antimicrobial resistance] for humans,” he says. Overseas, Zoetis (formerly Pfizer) promotes use of Draxxin (active ingredient tulathromycin) as an M bovis control, in some cases prophylactically. Nicholas notes that’s despite a high MIC,

3rd Government and industry announce $85 million of extra funding. Ashburton farm tested positive.

JAN Milk testing

12th expanded. Country-Wide

July 2018

26th

Disease confirmed in Pahiatua – the second North Island Farm

MPI directs the cull of remaining animals on all known infected farms – 28 in total.

MAR 28th

MPI conducts warranted searches at three locations in North and South islands.

9th

Disease confirmed on beef farm in North Canterbury.

Zoetis arguing it works by stimulating the immune system so the animal itself is better able to combat the infection. Meanwhile, tetracyclines have some anti-inflammatory action which may help them work against M bovis, or at least alleviate symptoms and disease in the animal, if not eliminating the causative agent. Similarly, some antibiotics which near 14th Farm Cambridge tests positive.

18th

Number of infected properties at 38.

Wairarapa sheep and beef farm tests positive.

Work begins on implementing recommendations from an independent review on NAIT.

24th

MAY 10th

8th

Cabinet agrees that phased eradication is the best option.

JUNE 15th

Minister and industry commit to making a decision about next steps in next few weeks. 27

no off-the-shelf M bovis vaccines available internationally, despite considerable research effort. “No one has found the right one yet,” Nicholas says. Zoetis says Draxxin is available in NZ, but not widely used as bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is relatively rare here. However, elsewhere in the world BRD is “massive” and M bovis is one of the key pathogens in the complex, Zoetis NZ’s technical development manager Wayne Clough says. “We also don’t have some of the other contributing factors,” he says, referring to outdoor systems and low pathogenicity

of the IBR herpes strain present in NZ, another contributor to BRD. “The fact we don’t see a lot of pneumonia in calves is testament that our conventional rearing facilities are pretty good. We see the odd sporadic case, but it’s not really BRD.” If M bovis established itself in NZ, that could change, he believes, but even then the BRD might not be as bad as in other countries due to the environmental differences. “As long as we’re going for eradication it [treatment] is a moot point really. Everything gets slaughtered and treatment isn’t an option.”

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are ineffective against mycoplasmas are still beneficial in a pneumonia/bovine respiratory disease (BRD) outbreak where M bovis is present because they combat other pathogens such as pasteurella and mannheimia leaving just M bovis for the animal’s immune system to deal with. Using combinations of antimicrobials against M bovis “may help, but probably not for long,” Nicholas says, due to the ability of mycoplasmas to develop resistance, which stems from a naturally high mutation rate and ability to protect themselves with a biofilm. Antimicrobials also have little effect on mycoplasmal mastitis, due to the drugs being inherently ineffective or resistance having developed, and the infection persisting in other parts of the animal. “Most investigators have concluded that, based on their field therapy experience, antibiotic therapy of mycoplasma mastitis is not an economically viable control strategy,” Nicholas wrote in a 2016 Veterinary Journal paper on the disease. There’s some literature on using autogenous vaccines – a herd-specific vaccine created using extracts of a pathogen already present in some animals in a herd – to combat M bovis but there are

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BUSINESS | MYCOPLASMA BOVIS

Eradication feasible but immense task – NZVA WORDS: ANDREW SWALLOW

In some infected animals you can swab the cheeks and get an wo risk factors stand M bovis isolate, and from some head and shoulders animals you’ll get it from a swab above all others from the back of the throat… so in when it comes to the theory, yes, it could be picked up.” risk of picking up However, stock are in saleyard Mycoplasma bovis, New Zealand Dr Helen Beattie: pens for a limited time and not all Tricky little bug. Veterinary Association chief infected animals are permanently veterinary officer Dr Helen Beattie shedding, she says. Also, as says: prolonged contact with an infected MPI tracks the incursion and imposes animal, and ingestion of infected milk by movement restrictions, only animals from calves. farms believed to be free of the disease “Everything else pales in significance in should be reaching saleyards. comparison,” she told Country-Wide. That said, saleyards are not a great idea The minuscule, wall-less bacteria doesn’t from a disease-control perspective in survive more than a few hours outside general, not just from an M bovis one, she the animal or milk, hence the emphasis says. on prolonged contact for transmission. Eradication is “definitely feasible”, Saleyards, where an animal might go in Beattie believes, but it is going to be a big a pen after another animal, or be in a job and not easy to achieve because M neighbouring pen, or walk the same races, bovis is “such a tricky little bug”. Infected are a potential but less likely transmission animals are frequently subclinical and route, she believes. even when disease develops, the agent, M “There’s definitely the potential for bovis, is hard to find and test for. infection via those routes. But they “It [eradication] is bigger than Ben-Hur,” are much less concerning than animal Beattie says, referring to the 1959 movie movements and subsequent prolonged which smashed all previous records for contact with new animals, and the movie budgets, casts and sets. “A whole ingestion of infected milk. bunch of people are going to have to work

PASTEURISATION VS ACIDISING MILK Milk that has the lowest risk of containing Mycoplasma bovis bacteria comes in three forms: calf milk replacer power, pasteurised milk or acidified milk.Pasteurisation: is rapidly heating milk to a temperature of no less than 72C and retaining it at that temperature for no less than 15 seconds; or rapidly heating milk to a temperature of no less than 63C and retaining it at that temperature for no less than 30 minutes. This will kill M bovis if the machine in maintained and instructions followed. The cost: Pasteurising equipment cost: from $23,000+gst for 250-litre system 1500l system from $45,700+gst Acidising: Altering the pH of milk by adding citric acid or propionic acid to a pH of 5 for eight hours or a pH of 4 for one hour will kill M Bovis. Below pH 4, milk becomes progressively unpalatable and calves will drink slowly or refuse to drink all together. Costs: Vary depending on product used. Milk powder: With most calf rearing operations using milk powder as their main source of feed already this is favoured by many. The cost of milk power has been steadily increasing over the past few years. As with other years it pays to buy in bulk pre-season. Prices vary depending on brand from $45-$100+gst per bag.

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July 2018

KEY POINTS • Animal movement and infected milk main risks. • Check stock origins before buying and quarantine. • Feed calves onfarm milk only, wherever possible • Recognise limits of tests available. • Spring surveillance pivotal for eradication plan.

extra hard for a very long time. And it relies on everybody doing the right thing.” Surveillance during the dairy calving season, when stress could provoke shedding and clinical signs from previously undetected M bovis infection, will be key. Having worked in the tail-end of the United Kingdom’s 2001 foot-and-mouth disease epidemic, and the aftermath, Beattie says incursion fatigue, where vigilance and standards slip over time, is a real danger. The NZVA is also concerned farmers will attempt to treat unidentified M bovis cases with antibiotic, and may only seek veterinary advice when treatment fails. “During the incursion, it is really important to seek early veterinary intervention for any unusual or non-responsive cases, particularly of pneumonia in calves, mastitis and arthritis,” she stresses. Testing is only of limited help in preventing introduction of the disease to a herd due to the difficulty of obtaining a sample containing M bovis from an infected animal or, in the case of antibody (serology) tests, the unknown period during which antibodies are present. Research shows varying periods of antibody persistence - as little as a week, or up to two months, or potentially more. “Before you hang your hat on a clear result you have to understand what that test result is really telling us… What is useful, is understanding your risks to M bovis infection. A focus on testing as the panacea isn’t helpful.”

BUSINESS | MYCOPLASMA BOVIS

Slow M bovis spread offers hope WORDS: TIM FULTON

he vet who first reported Mycoplasma bovis in New Zealand has offered farmers hope that the disease can be contained and ultimately eradicated. Van Leeuwen Group vet Merlyn Hay had the rare veterinary experience on July 27 last year of finding an exotic disease causing severe infection on a working farm. Of the 380 dry cows due to start calving on the Van Leeuwen property, more than 200 calved with four-quarter mastitis. There were 35 cases of Mycoplasma arthritis, all of which were from a lactating cow group in the barn. There were about 100 cases of Mycoplasma mastitis from the lactating cows out of the barn and these cows generally had one or more quarters affected. More than 100 calves were euthanised for what appeared to be a congenital infection, she told the Society of Dairy Cattle Veterinarians last year. Reflecting on a tumultuous 12 months, Hay says the severity of the infection on the Van Leeuwen farms was unprecedented “but I think we’d struggle to see that circumstance repeated given that (nationally) all of our tests since have shown very low levels of infection”. Testing and tracing appeared around the country appeared to be identifying infected herds to enable culling. “Because it’s a very slow-moving disease and it hasn’t been here (long) we’re not seeing a large buildup of infection.” Overseas experience suggested that while it could cause severe infection on individual farms, it rarely caused widespread problems on a national herd basis. Hay didn’t believe the risk of the disease spreading would necessarily be higher during calving, provided infected farms had already been identified. “Certainly it can spread by milk but one thing to keep in mind is that we’re going for eradication and a lot of money has been spent on identifying infected farms. And if that is working as everybody hopes, we’re not going to be seeing herds with

Veterinary epidemiology and infectious diseases specialist Professor Cord Heuer believes it would be more productive to eradicate several other diseases before Mycoplasma bovis

active infection this calving season.” Hay says NZ could learn from overseas experience but the disease would probably express differently here because of different grazing and stock-movement systems. NZ would therefore have to “plough its own path.” “It’s very unique to New Zealand so we can’t expect to see the same patterns of disease and paths of transfer.” Massey University infectious diseases specialist Cord Heuer says M bovis is probably spreading more slowly in NZ because cows and calves aren’t housed together like in the United States and Europe, for example. However this calving season will be critical for the eradication push, he says. Heuer understands from industry contacts that MPI will re-evaluate its eradication policy in October, once calving is over. “Calving is preceded by huge (stock) movements and lactation stress. It’s the moment when a lot of signs come out that were not visible before. Also, the tests are more likely to be positive.” Heuer does not support an eradication policy. There is a stronger economic case for eradicating more virulent and fast-spreading diseases like bovine viral diarrhoea, he says.

FARMER QUESTIONS ERADICATION WORDS: SANDRA TAYLOR

Having seen the heartbreak inflicted on farmers who have had to slaughter “beautiful” healthy cows has John Gregan questioning the wisdom of trying to eradicate Mycoplasma bovis. “My feeling is the horse has bolted.” Gregan and his wife Cara own and operate a dairy farm in South Canterbury, close to where the disease was first found in New Zealand nearly a year ago. Since then he has seen and heard from farmers having to kill healthy animals, most of which would not have even had the disease. “We are spending an awful lot of money and a lot of heartache trying to eradicate M bovis and I just wonder if it’s such a big deal anyway.” Endemic in every other country, except Norway, M bovis is successfully managed by farmers around the world and Gregan wonders whether this country’s response is making a mountain out of a molehill. He acknowledges little is known about the strain found in NZ but says very few cows have actually had clinical signs of the disease. Gregan is also concerned about the damage this response is doing to NZ’s reputation internationally and fears it is being used as trade barrier. While he believes the Ministry for Primary Industries has been found wanting in their response to the outbreak, he believes that bringing people in with no understanding of farming or biological systems was never going to work. Ideally, he would have liked to have seen organisations such as DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb New Zealand – who work at the coal face and understand the industry – lead the response. He says people working in government departments have a very different mindset to farmers

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BUSINESS | MYCOPLASMA BOVIS

European vet supports NZ decision for cull WORDS: CHRIS MCCULLOUGH

t may seem a radical step culling more than 120,000 cattle to eradicate a disease, but it appears Mycoplasma bovis has caught the New Zealand Government somewhat off-guard. While investigations continue to probe into how M Bovis entered NZ frantic efforts are underway to first get it under control and then eradicate. A European vet says the massive cull is a good idea in order to eradicate M bovis but that journey will be a long one. Diamond V European food safety and communication specialist Peter Zeiger trained as a vet in Germany. He agrees the NZ government is doing the right thing. “Obviously the disease is a huge issue in New Zealand and I can understand the points of those for the cull and those against. “However, the cull outlined by the Government is the right thing to do to eradicate M Bovis in my opinion, but it will take some time. “There is no real alternative because treating infected animals will not work. The officials must search for infected animals and cull them over the next 10 years if they want to get on top of the disease. “Culling in total only makes sense if a strict detecting and culling programme is established over the next 10 years. This programme must also cover heifers as well,” he says. Farmers and vets, and others within the industry, have been calling for a test that can detect M Bovis. However, as Zeiger says, a

who operate 24-hour-a-day, sevendays-a week businesses. He cites one farmer in his area who had an initial positive test just before Christmas. He then didn’t hear from anyone for another five weeks while government departments took their Christmas and holiday breaks. While his farm has since been

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Vet Peter Zeiger: cull the right thing to do to.

test is not a suitable option to gain complete eradication. “Testing to detect M bovis is not that easy as the disease can be transmitted in so many different ways. “There are indeed some Elisa laboratory blood tests available, but the results have not been consistent. “Mycoplasma bovis is also difficult to detect because it can spread between calves and cows, and it also can be carried and transmitted by vectors like farmers or indeed a vet. “For any test to be successful any infected or suspect animals would have to be tested and retested several times in order to identify correctly infected cows, as most cows are subclinically infected. This could prove tedious and not so accurate. “The benefits of this massive intervention by the New Zealand government will only be apparent in years to come as it will take several years to get rid of, even with such extreme culling,” he says. The British Veterinary Association says it didn’t know enough about the context of the cull decision and didn’t wish to make comment on whether it the right thing to do or not.

cleared, it highlighted the difference between farmers – who are dealing with biological systems and those who, through no fault of their own, have limited understanding of the nature of the business. “I’m not blaming them, but they have a different view of the world and they don’t have skin invested in the game.”

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BUSINESS | EXTENSION

Get people involved in your business

nviting other farmers to provide a fresh perspective on your business is proving invaluable, one year into Northland’s Extension 350 programme. Extension 350 is a farmer-led programme designed to lift profitability, sustainability and wellbeing on Northland farms. By the time the programme winds up in four years’ time, it will have facilitated 10 clusters - three sheep and beef and seven dairy. Each cluster runs over three years and involves five target farmers, who work one-on-one with a mentor farmer and a consultant. Towards the end of the first year, each target farmer invites five associate farmers to learn alongside him - so a total of 25 associate farmers per cluster. The project is supported by Northland Inc, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, DairyNZ, Northland Regional Council and the Ministry for Primary Industries.

‘Get other people – especially farmers – involved in your business. They bring a different perspective and a fresh approach to overcoming challenges.’

Consultant Gareth Baynham is facilitating the first sheep and beef cluster in the Far North. One of the five target farmers in the cluster is a brother duo – Angus and Peter McCraith – who farm 421 hectares at Broadwood, 45 minutes south west of Kaitaia. The operation runs 210 Angus breeding cows and winters up to 600 cattle in total. The brothers are working with Laurie Copland as their

Northland farmer Angus McCraith (right) and farm manager Doug Booth are part of Extension 350 - a Northland-specific programme that aims to improve onfarm profitability and sustainability, as well as farmer wellbeing.

mentor farmer, with Peter Hick providing mentoring support. The first step was a whole-farm assessment, covering the operation’s financial, physical, equity/ assets, staff and goals. A series of key performance indicators were established such as cow performance, weaning weights and operating profit - so progress could be measured during the project. Baynham says the McCraiths are in the “getting it done” phase, with some positive changes underway. “These include improving the water system and access around the farm - both investments aimed at making the farm more efficient to operate.” Associate farmers will come on board in coming months. In the meantime, Baynham says strong messages are coming through.

“Get other people – especially farmers – involved in your business. They bring a different perspective and a fresh approach to overcoming challenges. “Also, spend time thinking about where you want your business to be heading. This makes it easier for people to understand your motivations and goals so they can work with you to make them happen.” The final two sheep and beef clusters are currently being established – one in Mid Northland (Brynderwyns to Mangamukas) led by consultant Kim Leigh-McKenzie, and the other in Lower Northland (Helensville to Brynderwyns) led by veterinarian Trevor Cook. Supplied Beef + Lamb NZ

Want to know more? www.northlandnz.com/business/key-industries/sector-initiatives

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BUSINESS | DEER AWARD

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Andy Macfarlane recognised WORDS: LYNDA GRAY

ndy Macfarlane is this year’s recipient of the Deer Industry Award cosponsored by Country-Wide. The principal of Macfarlane Rural Business, an Ashburton farm advisory company, was chairman of Deer Industry New Zealand from 2010 until his resignation in 2017. He took on the role at a difficult time when farmers were quitting deer in favour of dairying, and NZ venison was facing increased competition in traditional European markets which contributed to the downward slide in the schedule price average to $6.50/kg. Under his leadership the industry started lifting from the doldrums due largely to a ‘Passion to Profit’ (P2P) strategy aimed at lifting profitability across the venison valuechain.

Macfarlane was one of the architects of the strategy, backed in 2015 by $8 million of PGP funding over seven years, which had specific production targets identified in a Productivity Improvement Programme. The broad objective was to lift deer farming performance which lagged behind other land uses, and increase EBIT/kg from $2.34 in 2012 to $3.82/kg by 2022. That target is still a work in progress and plenty of challenges remain for deer farmers, processors and marketers Macfarlane said on receiving the award, but he was proud of the part he had played in helping move the industry to a stronger position.

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July 2018

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BUSINESS | RECRUITMENT

Land your dream job WORDS: CHEYENNE NICHOLSON

n today’s competitive job market, your CV is your sales and marketing tool. Employers may take just 15-20 seconds to scan your CV, so it needs to be well organised and clearly set

out. If you make a good first impression, it is likely your CV will be read more closely. Make your application stand out! Gretchen Parkes from Rural Directions Recruitment & HR gives us some quick tips on sprucing up your CV, interview tips and landing the employee you want.

CV tips • Tailor your CV for each job. Read the job advert carefully for clues on what an employer is looking for. • Make sure your CV is up to date including your contact details. • Include a summary of your key skills relevant to the job/industry. • List all your jobs – Most recent job should be at the top and oldest job should be at the end. It is important to list the duties/activities you were responsible for in each role and the timeframe for which you were in the role. • List your qualifications and relevant courses. • Outline your computer skills and/or farming technology skills. • Make sure if you are putting the name and number of your referees on your CV that their details are correct and that they are aware of the roles you may be applying for. • Do a thorough spell check before submitting your CV and have someone read over it to check for mistakes. • Make sure you include a cover letter

with your application. Your cover letter should tell an employer why they should employ you, what motivates you about the role/business and explain why you want the job. It should outline how your key strengths can be of benefit to the employer.

Interview tips The first essential step towards a successful interview is careful planning. Make sure you know: • The exact time and place where the interview is to take place • The interviewer’s full name and position within the business • Will you be required to perform any tasks or take anything to the interview with you? • Research the business, its structure and the people involved • Thoroughly review the advertisement and position description again (if you have one) to familiarise yourself with what the employers are looking for. Try and determine the focus, challenges, opportunities, tasks and responsibilities involved. Knowing this will help you predict questions for the interview and will help show that you have the right competencies to succeed in the role • Refresh your memory on the facts and figures of your present/former employer • As the employer is determining whether you have the qualifications and experience for the job you must decide if the opportunity offers the growth and development you need. Prepare the questions you will ask during an interview - remember an interview is a two-way street.

GETTING THE EMPLOYEE YOU WANT • The market is highly competitive – there are many strategies and ways of getting access to your ideal employee e.g. social media and online advertising/ recruitment companies. • Your staff are one of your most important assets. When investing in a new employee it is a big business decision and you need to make sure you get the right person. Attitude is a huge thing to get right, skills can be taught. • Employees who are valued and respected are much more likely to stay loyal to your business. If your employees are happy in their work it will reflect favourably on your business reputation enabling you to recruit staff more easily. Employees’ wellbeing should be high on the list of health and safety priorities. • An important aspect for an applicant is what the house is like and will it suit their familiy’s needs, is the house warm, dry and well insulated? From July next year new laws will come into effect regarding meeting the new standards for insulation. • Having a good work/life balance is very important to many of us; therefore having the flexibility in a role to be able to go to the children’s Saturday morning sport, for instance, will be appreciated.

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BUSINESS | RECRUITMENT

New ways of attracting staff needed

he dairy industry should be about people working together helping each other to look after cows. But Kellogg scholar Stu Taylor says somewhere in the upscaling of herds and dairy businesses over the past 30 years the industry has lost its way. Structural changes within the industry mean dairy farmers need new ways of attracting staff to farms, understanding the new culture of farm workers and what drives them so they can be managed more effectively. In his Kellogg project called “The Dream that made Us” Taylor outlined how things have changed from the dream of farm Stu Taylor from OB Group, Santoft, Bulls, ownership that drove behaviour and work with Miller 7, Hunter 9, India 9,Sophia 7: ethic over the past 100 years. making farming fit the new millennium. Taylor’s Kellogg report was written partly as a story of an older established farmer, Brian, who had worked hard and Taylor examines the tension between the long with the help and support of his older generation’s expectations of “doing wife sharemilking for six years before the hard yard’s on farm to progress to farm managing to buy their own small farm in ownership” and the younger millennial the early 1980s and raising their family generation and their expectations of there, surrounded by a close and accessible employment conditions and motivations community catering for their social and for life. sporting needs. “Telling people that are working in the Next he profiled Alex, a young dairy industry that if they forgo income, sharemilker driven by the idea of owning social engagement and their personal his own farm. Alex has to work harder and health - because one day they will own longer hours in their own farm - is more intensive and now an empty larger-scale jobs. promise that we ‘Once we accept that farm He has had to fit in can no longer ownership is an unlikely family, support his give our next outcome, then we are free working wife and generation.” face rising land And the younger to think about new ways to prices. generation may not attract and employ great He despairs of want that anyway. people in the dairy industry.’ ever being able “People born to build enough before the year equity to realise 2000 (millennials) his life’s dream. want to know how His mental and physical health is being the occupation that they are working in strained by stresses around working hours, will deliver what they want for their life.” increased compliance and dealing with He says what they want might include inadequate workers. flexibility to see (and be in contact with) He also has to content with a farm their friends and family, job variety within owner whose old-fashioned management the job, being respected, appreciated and attitudes who sees Alex’s hard work as and to have their input valued, to feel a rite of passage. part of a team, and to learn new skills

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July 2018

and keep learning and progressing. “Once we accept that farm ownership is an unlikely outcome, then we are free to think about new ways to attract and employ great people in the dairy industry.”

Practical solutions: While he says these are not silver bullets, Taylor listed strategies that have helped attract and retain good staff in his Rangitikei OB group of dairy farms. • Limit hours worked per week to 50, and provide a flexible environment so staff can have time off to attend to important things. Having some on hourly rate allows flexibility within the team. • Paying a salary with subsidised accommodation and freebies makes it difficult for people to calculate pay rate. Make it transparent and easily understood. • It pays to invest money and time in human resource (HR) management help to get information and knowhow around running high-performance teams. • Take your time employing people and only take the best. “Good people add to the team and you end up with better people and increased performance. Poor people take from the team and in the chaos they create, you lose good people and end up with more poor people.”

• The market for people has changed because the expectations of people have changed. “We need to change how we employ people so that good people want to work with us.” Use the 90-day trial (with advice on how to use it) and use fixed-term contracts while looking for the correct permanent staff member. • Inspire staff by sharing goals and expectations with them for the farming business. When you share these goals with your team, they then understand the direction you want them to head and they understand how their effort contributes to achieving the farm’s goals. Understand your own passion and purpose then share it with the team. • Learn how to give feedback well. • Learn and practice the basics of conflict management. • Listen to your people, find out what they want in life and at work. It costs nothing but has great results around employee engagement and performance. Where do your people want to be? If it suits the business, how can you help get them there? • Think of H&S and working conditions as “would I want to let my children work there?” • Technology creates real labour efficiencies, but requires investment and training to capture the efficiencies. • Enter contracts only if you can create “win:win or no deal”. Entering into contract arrangements that lead to one party obtaining an unfair advantage over another party will result in negative outcomes. • Staff engagement is not just about the money - it is about how we treat people. Be consistent, ask people how they are and listen to them, be fair, make it a team, train people and get them to where they want to be. • As a team leader, take time to respond to questions - ask a question back seeking their opinion - this buys time and includes the team in decision-making.

THE MILLENNIUM PROJECT The Millennium Farming Project has grown out of Stuart Taylor’s Kellogg project, with a website, and Facebook page set up to promote “farming for the next millennium”. “You can see the new generation coming and wanting to have a go but they are constrained by the culture of previous generations,” Taylor says. Millennium Farming is a non-profit organisation set up to allow space for the next generation to create solutions for a changing world, and as a vehicle to bring in other people in that understand the problem and want to be part of the solution, he says. “We are going to start the conversation around how dairy farmers can get back to calling farming a ‘lifestyle’. It’s about triggering a mindset change, which in turn promotes a culture change onfarm. We want farm workers to have a healthy and fulfilling life and family outside of it.” The website has a mixture of resources and personal stories, blogs and videos on building sustainable teams, building leadership skills, giving feedback and other farm and team management issues. More? Millennium farming www.millenniumfarming. co.nz • First published in NZ Dairy Exporter, October 2017

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BUSINESS | RECRUITMENT

In the lead-up to big events onfarm (eg: calving, lambing, shearing, drafting etc) stock up on nutritious foods to have on-hand for everyone during the day.

Top tips for your team Golden gumboot vs golden tea towel

Role modelling from the employer

Acknowledge everyone’s achievements, big or small. Choose an employee each month to receive the Golden Gumboot. The gumboot acknowledges the employee who went the extra mile to benefit the team or farm. The gumboot could be switched out for something or go along with a wee treat or bonus. The golden tea towel award for the most mistakes is a great way of making light of mistakes that have been made onfarm. Recognise and embrace the idea the working environment is a place for learning, growth and development. It’s okay to make mistakes now and then.

Culture starts with the employer. Employers need to role model putting away tools, maintaining standards and following processes. The team leader should also role model showing appreciation. Please and thank you don’t cost a thing but can go a long way.

A warm welcome

Preparing for the long days

Welcome packs are a great way of welcoming new staff. Fill it with a few treats for the house as well as local information like important telephone numbers, local groups and events, important forms from Inland Revenue, information on signing up with the local medical centre – everything they could need to know to settle into a new area. This is particularly helpful when a worker is from overseas or unfamiliar with the area.

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July 2018

No-blame policy When something goes wrong don’t blame the person, because then others won’t want to confess to muck-ups (which we all make from time to time!). Instead look at the process that allowed the muck-up to happen and see if it can’t be changed to prevent it in the future.

In the lead-up to big events onfarm (eg: calving, lambing, shearing, drafting etc) stock up on nutritious foods to have on-hand for everyone during the day. Long days means extra fuel is needed to get through. Making sure rosters are fair and allow staff to get eight hours sleep is important to prevent burn out.

Tips from our Twitter followers “Wee get togethers off-farm are great to remind everyone you are more than just a farmer. Invite them round for bbq or breaky. I buy presents for my employees’ kids on birthdays and Christmas. My old boss treated us amazingly like this and I’ve in turn taken on the same attitude.” “Support them with their own goals – not everyone wants to own a farm. We’ve helped staff budget to pay off their loans (One of our team just achieved this), helped our guys on visas get their family here. (Achieved this once already). Supported future direction. ITO training. etc.” “Start as you mean to go on. Set up processes for regular formal communication. Don’t be too busy to engage with workers.” “If we have a house for a worker that we wouldn’t live in ourselves, then we don’t expect our workers to either. Even something as simple as a lick of paint and fresh curtains can spruce the place up a bit.”

LIVESTOCK | ONFARM

Keeping it simple pays An innate ability to feed stock well, coupled with an emphasis on simple yet repeatable, profitable systems has proved a winning formula for a Waitahora couple. Rebecca Harper reports. Photos: Brad Hanson.

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imon and Elle Joblin’s three-year average economic farm surplus (EFS) from their Greenhill Station near Dannevirke, is $537/ha, and they have an average return on capital of 6.4%. The average prime lamb price achieved for 2017/18 is $120/head. It was good enough to impress the judges who made them the 2018 Tararua Sheep and Beef Farm Business of the Year. A key driver for the Joblins in entering the competition was to showcase a successful equity partnership. Greenhill Station comprises two adjoining farms that were bought together in 2010 in an equity partnership with south Wairarapa sheep and beef farmers Charlie and Karla Matthews. Family life is a focus for Simon and Elle, who have three young children – Sophie, Harry and James. “We work hard, but make sure we have time to spend with our kids. Our children are a big part of why we do what we do,” Simon says. Simon was born in Nelson. His parents were firstgeneration farmers with big dreams and a big mortgage to match. His pathway has been one from shepherd to head shepherd, stock manager and then equity partner, proving it is possible to progress to farm ownership in the sector. After attending Lincoln University and gaining a Diploma in Farm Management, Simon went shepherding for Wairarapa farmer Mike Falloon.

‘He was an amazing farmer with the ability to feed stock and I admired him for his calm demeanour and positive attitude.’ “He was an amazing farmer with the ability to feed stock and I admired him for his calm demeanour and positive attitude.” Simon moved up to a head shepherd role at Castlepoint Station and it was during this time he met Elle, who was living in Christchurch. Elle grew up on a remote station in the South Island high country and gained a Diploma in Business Management from Christchurch Polytech. KEY POINTS “I have always liked • Made a plan – identified a good challenge and where their expertise lay a damn good party. • Maximise the value of We work to live, not every animal leaving the live to work,” she farm says. At 23 Simon became • Equity partnerships can stock manager at be sustainable and profitable Castlepoint and Elle moved to Palmerston • Simple system – but close North to finish her attention to detail. studies.

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FARM FACTS Greenhill Station – Dannevirke • 1100ha (1070ha effective) – 150ha cultivatable, balance medium to steep hill country • Breeding and finishing, with a trading component • Semi summer safe – 1250mm annual rainfall • Equity partnership run as a limited liability company. • EFS $537/ha, and an average return on capital, 6.4%. Stock: • 5500 Romney Texel cross breeding ewes • 1000 in-lamb hoggets (from a total of 1600) • 250 breeding cows, mainly Angus and Hereford • Up to 200 younger cattle wintered.

ABOVE: Simon focuses on maximising the value of every animal that leaves the property. RIGHT: Simon and Elle own Greenhill Station in an equity partnership with Charlie and Karla Matthews.

ATTENTION TO DETAIL ANZ’s Dan Billing, who facilitated the competition judges, pointed out that while the couple are in a successful equity partnership, that’s not what makes them successful. He says they have their own drivers, pathway and goals. They understand where they want to go and how they will get there. “Simon is the quintessential stockman, while Elle is supporting and acting as the devil’s advocate and keeping tabs on the financials.” It’s a simple business, not overly complicated, but it’s a repeatable, sustainable and profitable system. Field day facilitator, BakerAg’s Ed Harrison agreed. “The theme here is, it’s simple, but the attention to detail is exceptional.”

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He says the job gave him the opportunity to view and be part of trials and develop my stock management skills and animal husbandry, while managing three shepherds and 27,000 stock units. In 2004 Simon moved to work with his father on the family farm, Te Awa, a 20,000su sheep and beef farm in Bideford, as stock manager. After six years here, the decision was made to sell part of the farm to free up capital to give Simon and Elle the chance to farm on their own account. The couple spent a year evaluating investments and opportunities. They recognised their expertise lay in larger scale farming and started to look at equity partnerships. Simon and Elle had a clear pathway mapped out, but they needed a special ingredient to make their dream a reality – good equity partners. They were fortunate to find that partner in the Matthews, who were looking for further investments in the sheep and beef sector. “We had decided farming was our expertise, but bigger would be better for us. This brought them to Greenhill, a farm they had visualised but never seen. It ticked all five of their ‘wish list’ boxes – climate, soil type, contour, locality to school and service centre, and not to be bisected by roads, rivers or gorges. Breeding is at the core of the business, but they are moving towards a greater finishing focus, with the aim of finishing all their own lambs, as well as buying in store lambs for autumn finishing.

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Cows act as the grunt machines, grooming pastures, while young stock get the cream. Steers are usually sold at weaning and cull heifers sometimes before their second winter. There is no set policy, with decisions made based on market conditions and feed levels. Simon and Elle Joblin don’t get hung up on production. They focus on maximising the value of every animal that leaves the farm. High per-head performance delivers high per-hectare returns. The lambing averages 130-135%, but they have reasonably fertile ewes which they could crank up and scan 200%. They don’t as lambing is a big weakness and the weather during it. They are targeting a moderate scanning of 175% and lambing of 140-145%.” The Joblins don’t try to kill lambs off mum. Instead, they wean early at 70 days, with a goal of 27kg weaning weight. “We get them weaned, jetted or shorn, the ewes get back into work mode and the lambs can grow.” Lambs go straight back on clover at a stocking rate of 30/ ha to start rotating. They aim for about 80 lambs finished for every hectare, putting on an average of 12kg. The flock base is a traditional Romney ewe and Simon has started putting a Texel over them to get a more moderate size and encourage earlier finishing. “We want them (lambs) prime at 17.5-18kg but with the ability to take them further, depending on the season.”

RED CLOVER BOOSTS YIELDS The cropping programme at Greenhill is an integral part of the business and a dedicated red clover lamb finishing block provides the finishing power. They have 75ha in red and white clover and 20ha in a plantain/clover mix, with a two-year aim to have 120ha in straight clover. “It gives us the ability to finish through January, February and March. You’re guaranteed to put lambs on it and they go. The drier the summer, the better the

weight gains. The plant likes to get the heat on it and ripen.” Lambs do about 270grams/day on the clover and come in to the area for their last three to four weeks on the farm. The farm generally has a late, slow spring. It cops a lot of weather from the west, with little shelter over lambing and calving, something they identify as a weakness of the business. But the farm normally holds on well into summer,

meaning their real strength is December to February. The clover area is split into 3-5ha blocks and paddocks within a block. Simon targets 20ha/area to enable a good rotation. “Everything is rotated on the clover, never set stocked. Lambs are drenched, come on, do a lap of the block and on the truck.” Soil tests are done before cropping and crops get two tonnes of lime/ha at the start of the programme. Brassicas, usually summer turnips or winter swedes, are used as break crops. Crops get 300-

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500kg/ha of super at sowing, followed up by maintenance dressing of 300kg/ha of Super/year. Full cultivation is used, with very little direct drilling. Simon says a lot of the country is reasonably exposed to the west and they tend to double roll it for soil erosion. “Roller drilling is my flavour of choice.” The red clover generally lasts two to three years, but they have crops that are four years old. Simon’s plan to combat it running out is chemical topping in the autumn and over-sowing more clover. “That will give us more longevity, get away from soil disturbance and keep the weeds at bay.” The red clover is solely for lamb finishing

– it is a weight and yield-boosting tool – and is shut up for several months at the end of June. They don’t lamb on it. “We tried shedding and lambing single ewes on it but had too many bearings and losses.” As soon as they finish lambing, ewes

and lambs come on it and shuffle graze for six weeks. It’s too rich and anything longer than that they found metabolic issues and the lambs start weaning themselves.

›› Making a good marriage p45

Time Series Analysis 2017-18 Description

2015-16

2016-17

2017-18

Average

Effecive hectares

1,075

Total stock units

Physical data 10,350

9,740

9,702

9,931

Stock units pre hectare

9.6

9.1

9.0

9.2

% sheep stock units

70%

71%

76%

72%

Labour units

2.2

Lambing %

133.3%

132.6%

138.6%

134.9%

Claving %

84.6%

93.6%

86.8%

88.4%

Sheep deaths and missing %

6.1%

4.1%

6.9%

5.7%

Cattle deaths and missings %

0.0%

3.0%

2.8%

2.9%

4.2

4.6

4.4

758,468

770,377

1,043,427

857,424

Wool per sheep su Revenue Sheep revenue Cattle revenue

272,005

262,838

241,104

258,649

1,047,270

1,040,156

1,288,967

1,125,464

Standard expenditure

538,790

429,170

431,141

466,367

Economic farm surplus

484,535

487,072

776,161

582,589

55,727

52,529

49,461

52,572

Gross farm revenue

Expenditure Wages Animal health Fertiliser and lime Shearing Freight Feed and foldder crops Weeds and pests Farm working Repairs and maintenace

32,841

34,357

24,858

30,685

136,102

115,562

116,861

122,842

51,184

74,262

55,000

60,149

2,489

2,021

1,278

1,929

62,451

51,138

45,026

52,872

5,402

2,566

6,237

4,735

15,317

9,813

8,547

11,226

116,205

26,245

65,568

69,339

Vehicles

18,024

19,973

18,861

18,953

Administration

13,668

10,636

12,270

12,191

Rates and insurance

29,380

30,068

27,174

28,874

Debt servicing

82,599

65,479

71,676

73,251

51%

41%

33%

42%

Gross farm revenue

974

968

1,199

1,047

Actual farm expenses

501

399

401

434

Economic farm surplus

451

453

722

542

Farm cash income pre hectare

927

887

1,143

986

Farm cash surplus (deficit) per ha

364

509

708

527

Actual expenses as a % of GFR Per ha

Sundry

Ratio of GFR: Land value Return on capital

7.4

6.0

6.9

5.4%

5.5%

8.6%

6.5%

LEFT: Waitahora farmers Simon and Elle Joblin won this year’s Tararua Sheep and Beef Farm Business of the Year. Country-Wide

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DON’T DO HALF A JOB, STICK TO THE PLAN.

It’s important to follow your pre-lamb plan all the way through. From the vital pre-lambing period, through to when lambs exit the farm, a plan with correct vaccination and targeted drenching ensures maximum success with healthier and heavier lambs at weaning. Talk to your animal health advisor or ask in store today. Download your free pre-lamb plan at prelambplan.co.nz. SUCCESS DOESN’T JUST HAPPEN. IT’S PLANNED. Zoetis New Zealand Limited. Tel: 0800 963 847; www.zoetis.co.nz ULTRAVAC®, EWEGUARD®, CYDECTIN® and LIFEGUARD® are registered trade marks of Zoetis. ACVM No. A5979, A9926, A7302, A9122, A9659, A11147, A11146, A3585, A6926, A10191.

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LEFT: The cropping programme at Greenhill is an integral part of the business and a dedicated red clover lamb finishing block provides the finishing power. ABOVE: Family is a big focus for Simon and Elle Joblin, pictured with their children James, 9, Harry, 4, and Sophie, 11.

MAKING A GOOD MARRIAGE It has been said an equity partnership is like a marriage, you need to find the right partner. Though, perhaps unlike a good marriage, you also need a divorce plan from the start. Simon says they started looking at equity partnerships and went on a lot of blind dates with potential partners. It became obvious early on whether there was a chance of it working. “A lot of people were looking for slaves and, in my eyes, that wasn’t how a partnership would work.” Elle says it was about putting themselves out there. They contacted banks, accountants, real estate agents, and farmers they knew were going to sell. “No one was going to come to us if we sat at home waiting.” They had to be proactive and look for opportunities. Six months in, they were lucky enough to be introduced to Charlie and Karla Matthews through a real estate agent. “We hit it off on a good note and had

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similar aspirations, and that’s how the partnership started. We were fairly specific on what we wanted (to buy) and were lucky to strike this place.” Charlie says they didn’t know Simon and Elle from a “bar of soap”. After asking around they were impressed by Simon’s experience with large-scale farms. Pooling their resources, they could afford a bigger farm. Having a shareholders’ agreement is important, and also having an exit strategy from the outset. “We have a majority shareholding, but think it’s vital to have 50:50 voting rights. Right from day one, it was one vote each.” They were also advised to seek independent third-party advice, if needed, and to document their agreement. Communication is also key. Simon and Elle have control over management decisions, but they speak on the phone regularly and the Matthews visit the station four times a year. In the event of the partnership ending, either party has first option on the land

and stock. At this point, everyone is happy and Simon and Elle are able to buy more shares in the business every five years. Share value is determined by a registered valuer for the land, ballpark figures for the stock through an agent, and plant valuation from the accountant. The station is first and foremost, and decisions on capital expenditure are made before any debt repayments or dividends are paid. Simon says there are no plans to expand and it’s business as usual. They would like to get some native plantings going so if they do step aside, then they can be proud of what they have created. “You get one chance at farming and you want to leave the land in a better state than you found it.” Simon says it is not an inter-generational business. They will probably eventually on-sell and help their children like their parents did for them. “In our minds, this will always be sold.”

LIVESTOCK | BODY CONDITION SCORING

Wairarapa farmer Sam Johnston is mentoring other sheep farmers interested in adopting the practice. Photos supplied by Beef & Lamb NZ

Keeping score WORDS: SANDRA TAYLOR

cannon ball and a crow bar may weigh the same but their dimensions are markedly different. It is this logic that proponents of body condition scoring use to promote the practice. Assess sheep on their body condition rather weight. Sandra Taylor spoke to farmers who body condition score their ewes – as well as using a scanner – about the impact the practice has had on their business.

Sam and Sarah Johnston, Wairarapa Wairarapa farmer Sam Johnston has BCS his ewe flock for eight years and is still excited about the benefits of this low-cost management tool. Sam learned to BCS during the grips of a drought and has used it to drop ewe numbers, use feed resources more efficiently and significantly increase productivity. Such is his enthusiasm for BCS, that he is mentoring and encouraging other farmers to adopt the practice and says it is valuable tool irrespective of the season. Plentiful feed resources, as many regions are experiencing this year, doesn’t mean farmers should not BCS their ewes, rather Sam sees it as an opportunity to realise the potential of a good season.

“I made the decision to start Body Condition Scoring in a drought, if you do it in a good year, it will really make a difference.” He lists resistance to change, lack of confidence and a perception that it takes too much time as being amongst the barriers stopping farmers BCS their ewes. Adopting the practice can be confronting as there is a danger that it highlights that a good proportion of the flock is under the ideal BCS 3 – but selling lighter ewes and focusing feed on the balance is what made the big difference to his farm system. Sam says pre-tupping, scanning and weaning are the ideal times for BCS. At scanning each ewe is being pushed up anyway so it is the ideal time to put a hand on and score them. Feed resources, typically tight at the end of winter and early spring, can then be partitioned into the ewes that need it most. “It’s about having the right feed at the right time for the right sheep.” While Sam is a veteran of the practice – and now bases all his management decisions around ewe BCS, he says he is still refining the system. He now runs mobs based on body condition rather than age and says managing this way takes the seasonal factor out of the equation, rather it’s about making the best use of available feed resources.

Geordie Eade and his wife Frances began body condition scoring their composite ewes three years ago.

He encourages farmers to take small steps and not to expect huge changes straight away – rather they will benefit from incremental changes over time. “If you’re lambing 120% you are not going to lambing 150% straight away and similarly adding one to two kilos in lamb weaning weight is a massive change over 90 days – but it is all achievable through more targeted feeding,” he says. Sam is happy to be contacted by farmers looking to adopt BCS at samjohnston@xtra.co.nz

Geordie Eade, Southland Southland farmers Geordie and Frances Eade began to BCS their composite ewes three years ago and says the biggest difference it has made to their business is in improved feed utilisation. It was particularly useful during this year’s dry period as the heavier

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conditioned ewes were identified at weaning and maintained on baleage for several weeks. This freed up feed for the balance of the flock. “That was invaluable to us.” Geordie runs a hand over each of his 2000 composite ewes at weaning and then drafts them every month by eye until mating. At scanning the lighterconditioned ewes are identified and run with the triplet-bearing ewes where they are fed sheep nuts.

‘What you get out of it is so much greater than what you put into it.’ Time wise, he says BCS takes very little time – he can do 2000 ewes in two to three hours – and is well worth the effort He says their composite ewes are already high performing-lambing 165-168% – so he is not looking for gains in reproductive performance, but he is looking to ensure feed is being channelled to the sheep that need it. In future he will look to identify the “repeat offenders”– or those with a consistently low body condition at weaning and more importantly find out why they are putting all their resources into their lambs? It does it to a degree now as all the single-bearing ewes are taken out and identified at lambing.

labour unit so the ewes can be BCS as they go through the race. “It’s the best opportunity to do it as you are seeing each and every sheep and it doesn’t hold the job up. “Ideally, if it has been done well throughout the year, there will be very few ewes at scanning with a score less than 3.” James adds that unless the ewes have been freshly shorn, it is impossible to assess the body condition without handling them and weighing doesn’t tell the full story. BCS through the summer and autumn period – and feeding accordingly – will pay dividends at scanning. “It’s having an eye on consistency.”

Callum and Dayna Paterson, Ida Valley Callum and Dayna Paterson started body condition scoring the 13,000-plus Polwarth ewes on Ida Valley Station three years ago and are sold on the practice. The couple, who manage the 12,500-hectare Central Otago station, learned how to body condition score (BCS) through Chris Mulvaney’s FarmCare programme and have noticed a marked

improvement in ewe condition since adopting the management tool. Dayna says they BCS the ewes premating, at weaning and at other strategic times. “It’s a fantastic and such a good way to keep an eye on what stock are doing.” It also ensures they make the best use of feed resources by targeting the best quality feed into the ewes that need it rather than over-feeding the ewes with a high BCS. Dayna says putting hands on each animal does take time, but it is well worth the time invested. “What you get out of it is so much greater than what you put into it.” The ewes are growing more wool as a result of more targeted feeding and management and the shearers are commenting about their ewe condition, she says. Callum and three staff are able to condition score and the results are shared with the team to ensure everyone is one the same page around management. Danya says the see the benefits of BCS to the whole farm business and they are such fans that they are encouraging other farmers to adopt the practice.

Ida Valley Station managers Callum and Dayna Paterson have been body condition scoring their ewes for three years.

James Wyeth, scanner, Wairarapa James Wyeth has run his North Island scanning business for 15 years and has noted a definite difference in the reproductive performance of regular BCS ewes. He says these ewes are performing much more consistently. James, who scans throughout the Wairarapa and up to Taihape, has found that within his client -ase, those that BCS are consistently in the top 20% based on their scanning percentage. What is most apparent in the flocks that are BCS is their evenness – there is simply not the same number of tail-end ewes. While there will always be a handful of ewes that fall behind, their numbers are very small – usually between 1-5% of the flock. At scanning he believes it is well worthwhile for farmers to pay for an extra

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LIVESTOCK | BODY CONDITION SCORING

Never too late to start

North Canterbury sheep and beef farmer James Hoban was introduced to body condition scoring after a poor scanning.

ody condition scoring (BCS) ewes is a great example of something we know works, but many of us don’t do. There are various reasons why such an obvious and proven change is not implemented. In our case it has been partly generational, partly where information has come from, but mostly time and workload. I am lucky working with my father that generational differences are usually settled successfully – he is more open-minded than some farmers of his generation. That said, picking an idea up is one thing, convincing the rest of the business partners that it is the right move can be quite another. We have always taken light ewes out at

scanning. It took us a long time to accept that by then it is too late to maximise the lambing opportunities. As the vets keep telling us, BCS at mating influences everything – from lambing percentage and lamb birthweight to the ewe’s ability to do the job again next year. The first time I turned the ‘scanning light ewe draft’ into a hands-on exercise my ‘employer’ waited until I was 100 metres away from the yards and boxed them all up again. Introducing an extra job has taken us some time to accept. The main reason we have finally made the effort to introduce a change is that we had a poor scanning in ewes we bought last year. This was for a number of reasons including the severe dry at the time the

rams went out, just 10 days after we bought the ewes. The same year we enjoyed a good lambing in our stud ewes, despite the fact they underwent a shift of farms just before mating so I will not accept that our issue is as simple as blaming our chosen breed. Despite the numerous times we had been told about the benefits and simplicity of using BCS, we never quite managed to do it until the wheels fell off and we had some pressure on to fix a problem. There is nothing like a crisis to inspire action. Another factor driving change has been where we have got our information from. Once we had a problem, I talked to farmers who I trust and who get good performance out of their flocks. Hearing it from those

At Lawrence on Vet LSD®

(Mt Hilton, Hawarden)

GET THE FACTS

Flock A Vet LSD® Treated 1000 ewes tailing 120% = 1200 lambs Flock B: 1000 ewes tailing 112% = 1120 lambs Difference Flock A vs. Flock B = 80 lambs The extra 80 lambs Flock A has at a value of $100 per lamb = $8000 Take out the cost of the Vet LSD® treatment for the ewes in Flock A: $8000 - $280

= extra $7720 income

• At Lawrence is again turning to Vet LSD® as his trusted drench solution this winter, developed locally for farmers’ ewe health needs. • The numbers behind Vet LSD® convinced At there must be something in its formulation that works. • After nearly 30 years farming At says Vet LSD® is one of only two products that have delivered tangible results in ewe health. • Lambing losses are lowered and lambs born full of vigour.

For more information or to purchase Vet LSD® please contact your local vet clinic or visit us online www.vetlsd.co.nz

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Despite the numerous times we had been told about the benefits and simplicity of using BCS, we never quite managed to do it until the wheels fell off and we had some pressure on to fix a problem.

farmers was inevitably more powerful than when it comes from an industry adviser or stranger. When we condition scored all our ewes after weaning it would be fair to say there were two sceptics in the yards, standing at the back of the race while I put my hands on the ewes, making remarks about the merits of what we were doing and lamenting the time we might have saved by taking ewes off at the drafting gate. Once we finished, all involved admitted with a degree of surprise that the light mob was not obviously distinguishable to the eye and some ewes were deceiving. We agreed that if we had tried to run them off at the gate we would have got a different result. We also agreed that it was a much

quicker job than we expected. There was no great science in how we scored ewes. I picked up a friend’s approach where instead of worrying about the specific numbers he went for practical groups of “needs more feed” and “in good order already”. I don’t know if what I considered the condition score cut-off was the same as what someone else would have done but I was assured by several other farmers that as long as we were consistent it would be a good start. This approach resulted in about 30% of our ewes heading into a light mob on to lucerne and chicory and a manageable number of mobs. Our best feed went further and the light ewes improved.

Ideally, we should have done it several times, but with a kind summer and autumn we did not. In a year where feed was tighter, we could have taken the ewes with the most condition out into a separate mob and held them back too. We did it in a way that was simple, practical and repeatable – that is a good starting point for change – we can look at things more intensely over time rather than rushing into anything too new overnight. Radical changes are harder to sustain than incremental tweaks. After a dream autumn there have been no excuses for light ewes at mating but we will face plenty of years when summer and autumn dry makes feeding ewes tough. Preferentially feeding light ewes makes good sense. Knowing that and doing it are too different things. • James and Maria Hoban farm 2500 Corriedale ewes and 150 cattle on a 770ha coastal farm at Waipara in Canterbury. They have two children Alice (6) and William (4).

James Hoban is now a big advocate of body condition scoring.

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LIVESTOCK | VELVET

WEANER NUTRITION

has velvet legacy

Feeding lower-quality baleage to weaners as they reached puberty has proved costly for a Southland deer farmer. Andrew Swallow reports.

oor feed quality for weaner stags over winter will hit velvet returns for years to come, judging by the findings of a leading Southland deer farmer. Dave Lawrence, a veterinarian-turnedfarmer, runs 200 wapiti on 35 hectares near Winton, Southland. In the winter of 2015 he inadvertently gave his weaners a lower-quality batch of balage and he’s still suffering the consequences. “We stuffed up,” he admitted to the recent deer veterinary conference, Cervetec, in Timaru. “I didn’t think it [the balage] was too bad but we were shown to be wrong.” He houses his weaners June to September every year to depopulate the pasture over winter. This gives complete control of feed and to accustom them to human contact for ease of future management. As the 2015 winter progressed the mob looked to be doing well but he was puzzled by “a notable lack of pedicle formation”. Weighing at turn-out revealed another problem: average liveweight gain achieved over the winter was a mere 70g/day, putting them at 114kg average liveweight compared to a nine-year mean LWG of

170g/day and turn-out weight of 133kg. “It was the worst we’d ever done.” Knowing pedicle initiation starts around puberty, usually at five to seven months of age, and that it is significantly affected by body weight and nutrition, Lawrence wasn’t surprised when the mob went on to cut considerably less velvet that spring as spikers (see table). What’s more it was more than a month later than in subsequent years. While he hoped the negative effect on velvet production wouldn’t persist into their second and third seasons, and possibly for life, he feared it might and time is proving that to be the case. In 2016 they cut half a kilo or 10% less velvet than previous mobs of two-year-olds and last year the effect was repeated, cutting 8kg/ stag where the previous year his three-yearolds cut 8.7kg. “Our poor choice of feed that year will probably affect these animals for their lifetime,” he told the conference. At $130/kg of velvet, that 0.5kg reduction as two-year-olds and 0.7kg reductions as three-year-olds has already cost him $156/stag, he calculates. The obvious lesson he’s taken from the

KEY POINTS • Winter feeding future for velvet • Feed high quality forage for pedicle development. • Good red clover or lucerne balage ideal. • Check nose and eye appraisal with tests. • Weigh weaners mid-winter to check progress. • Lifetime legacy if first winter’s feed poor.

experience is not to rely on eye and nose assessment of feed quality alone. Tests of the balage fed in winter 2015, taken after the event in spring, revealed it had only 8.3 megajoules (MJ) metabolisable energy (ME)/kg drymatter (DM) and 9.3% crude protein. While he was also feeding 0.5kg/ head/day of 12.9ME, 15.5% CP deer nuts, that couldn’t make up for the low-quality forage. He also monitors weaners more closely now with a mid-winter weigh-in to check things are on track, “rather than leave it

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until the end of winter and only then finding you’ve got a problem!” The benefit of better winter feeding of weaner Wapiti stags has been evident in subsequent years, with the 2016-born cohort putting on 272g/day of liveweight last winter and cutting an average of 2.2kg of velvet on October 28. That’s seven weeks earlier and 50% more than the 2014-born cohort that had the bad balage. “It’s a very clear and sobering message that if you want deer to express their genetic potential you must feed accordingly,” Lawrence told CountryWide.

‘Our poor choice of feed that year will probably affect these animals for their lifetime.’ Research by Gao et al, and AgResearch’s David Stevens, available through the Advance Party website (https://ap.org. nz) shows a diet averaging 18-20% crude protein is required for unlimited pedicle initiation, and 14-16% for antler growth, Lawrence says. Good quality grazing provides plenty of protein for antler growth, but it is often not available around button drop for older stags so short-term protein supplement is needed until spring pasture growth kicks in. Similarly, there is a case for higher quality feeding of weaner stags in winter to meet that pedicle formation requirement, he believes.

ONGOING DISCUSSION ON VELVET DRIVERS Lawrence’s presentation to mammary gland the Cerevetec conference development so ewes’ provoked discussion as to lifetime milk production what caused the ongoing may also be affected. production effect: the “If they don’t grow size of the pedicle layed out quickly, it takes until down in that first winter, their third lambing to or the development of the reach their potential,” animal’s digestive tract and Stevens said. ability to feed a growing Lawrence said he’d antler. like some research Ian Scott, another undertaken to quantify farming vet with both scientifically the effect deer and dairy stock in he’s observed and what’s Dave Lawrence South Waikato compared driving it. Lawrence’s velvet stag observation “We need to know what is the level of with what happens with dairy heifers: feeding that allows stags to express their unless heifers were grown well in their genetic potential.” first winter, milk yield was limited for Stevens said funding for such work has life. been sought in the past but Velvet Antler After the conference, AgResearch’s David Research New Zealand’s priority had to Stevens said development of the digestive date, “with good cause”, been velvet tract isn’t the driver – that recovers from product efficacy work. short periods of sub-optimal nutrition – However, with the average weight but the way an animal uses nutrients in of Supreme Elk heads entered in later life is influenced by feeding shortly competitions now topping 18kg, prior to, and during puberty. compared to 6kg in 1982, there’s a “We know from Chinese work, which we growing case to revisit nutrition for can interpret to New Zealand conditions, velvet antler production, particularly that the quality of the feed around protein, calcium and phosphorus puberty affects pedicle development requirements, he believes. and subsequently the animal’s lifetime In the meantime, his advice is to performance in velvet production.” feed the best feed possible at pedicle Antler production is effectively a sexual development, preferably a well-made red trait, so the response to pre-puberty clover or lucerne balage. feeding is similar to when ewe lambs “We would advise very strongly against are poorly fed from 12 to 20 weeks, he using standard balage; the type that explained. gets made when you’ve got a surplus of That’s known to limit ovulation as grass. That should not be used at pedicle two-tooths and four-tooths, and possibly development.”

HOUSING NOT THE DRIVER Discussion following Lawrence’s paper also touched on the merits of housing weaners, perhaps in a HerdHome-type building, given the growth rates and subsequent velvet production he’s achieving. However, Lawrence said he believed similarly high growth rates could probably be achieved with deer outdoors “if you did it right”. “It is not the housing that enables us to achieve good results: it is the feed quality. I worry about the deer industry in any way being seen to go down the intensification route. Being a pasture-fed based industry is one of our strengths and it should remain that way.”

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Scott acknowledged that concern, but pointed out there are also environmental constraints coming which, at some point, could force animals off pasture for winter. “There are a lot of complicated discussions that need to be had, and we [the deer industry] need to be careful about setting up our imagery as just paddocks in the mountains because that’s not the reality.” AgResearch’s Jamie Ward chipped into the discussion with a comment about just how fast deer could grow indoors over winter if the photoperiod was manipulated: 600g/day, he said.

LIVESTOCK | DRENCH RESISTANCE

Cattle drench survey needed It is 13 years since a survey of drench resistance in cattle was conducted, but it is likely to have worsened, vets say. Terry Brosnahan reports.

national survey of farms is needed to get a clearer picture of drench resistance in cattle. A study was carried out in 2004/05 on 45 North Island farms where 94% recorded resistance to at least one drench family. No study has been done since so it is unclear how bad drench resistance is. Farmers and vets spoken to by Country-Wide say, given the survey was 13 years ago, the situation is likely to have worsened. Wormwise national spokesperson Simon Marshall says potentially it has deteriorated if farmers haven’t changed their practices. He says another national survey would be timely. In the 2004/05 survey, only 6% had full efficacy to all the drench families. Cooperia is no longer totally controlled by ivermectin and there is concern about resistance building in the more deadly ostertagia. To find out the resistance status on a farm, farmers can carry out

a drench reduction test for cattle which is similar to the one for sheep. However, the number of tests done in cattle is low compared to sheep. Marshall who has been a vet for 16 years, has only carried out two drench reduction tests in cattle during that time. He works for Vet Services Dannevirke and says the practice has only carried out one in the past 10 years. He doesn’t know of a dairy farmer who has done one. “Though this isn’t from the lack of trying.” Drench reduction tests are hard to set up in cattle. He says often the problem is getting a high enough number of parasites in the cattle to do a test on a farm. Some farms won’t get the faecal egg counts high enough to run the test. A population is needed to reduce numbers from. It can be difficult getting cattle which haven’t had a long enough gap between drenches to get a high level faecal egg count (FEC). As cattle are high-value animals farmers can be reluctant to leave them undrenched to allow counts to build.

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The problem is getting a high enough number of parasites in the cattle to do a test on a farm. Some farms won’t get the faecal egg counts high enough to run the test. A faecal sample is taken rectally from the animal. A FEC and larval culture is carried out to see what species and how many are present. The cattle are then drenched to their weight with the different action families. After 7-14 days the FEC and larval culture is repeated. Results are analysed to see what the reduction is from using the drench.

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LIVESTOCK | DRENCH RESISTANCE A drench reduction test for cattle can cost $1500-$2000. This covers about four test groups assessing different active ingredients and their combinations. Marshall says the number of farms with practices in place to minimise resistance to parasites in cattle would be less than compared with sheep. Faecal egg counts are a good tool in lambs but when calves get to 12-15 months of age it is a poor indicator of the parasite challenge. In older stock weight gain is used more as an indicator. He says a drench may be repressing the output of eggs but not killing the adults. The most accurate way is to check with slaughter trials though this is obviously practical in most situations. Refugia is well-researched in sheep but not cattle. Marshall couldn’t see why refugia wouldn’t work in cattle especially in monoculture stock finishing and heifer rearing systems. Farmers would have to be careful not to drench too often or they risk leaving no refugia in the system. They also need to find ways of providing refugia. A lot of the practice’s clients give the last drench for yearlings and give before the second winter but that’s not routine on farms, he says. “It really depends on the farm system.” Marshall says farmers should avoid using single-acting drenches. Instead they should use combination drenches where possible to slow resistance. Oral combinations are best, but the age of cattle and farm facilities may make it too dangerous to administer. Levamisole gives good control of cooperia and macrocyclic lactones in the main control ostertagia. “The only way to truly know is to test at an individual farm level.” In most situations well-fed adult dairy cattle shouldn’t need drenching, he says, but some dairy farmers do drench their herd. It is better to target younger and lighter cattle. Once cattle are yearlings they tend to have good immunity if well-fed.

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Ways to slow drench resistance

ombinations drenches are a good way to slow the development of drench resistance in beef cattle, a top veterinarian says. Balclutha’s John Smart says levamisole is good against cooperia but average at best against ostertagia. The mectins are good against Ostertagia but average against Cooperia. The two actives make an ideal combination each protecting the other’s weakness. In last year’s Country-Wide Beef, Smart gave a guide to drenching cattle and helping to slow drench resistance. The following is some of his advice: Avoid using ‘mectin’-only drenches in cattle up to 15 months of age. Even if the mectins are fully effective (which is very unlikely) on a farm, products containing the less-potent ivermectin should not be used. Use products containing abamectin, doramectin, eprinomectin or moxidectin. Read on – there is one exception to this. Avoid abamectin based drenches in calves less than 120kg (ie: Matrix, Alliance, Switch, Converge, Eclipse, Genesis) as the risk of toxicity resulting in death is high. However, IverMatrix (a triple) is just for use in younger lighter calves which contains the safer ivermectin molecule. The injection version of a ‘mectin’ drench, through achieving higher blood levels of the active will give superior performance to the pour-on version. In other words, Dectomax injection is better than Dectomax pour-on and so on. lways try and use the injectable version rather than the pour-on version of the same product. Some best practice recommendations for beef cattle drenching: When calves are smaller (but greater than 120kg) and easier to handle the number one choice would be to use a triple oral drench like Matrix which comes in 1ml/10kg and 1ml/20kg dose rates. In calves less than 120kg preferably use IverMatrix (a triple) or the likes of Arrest C (a BZ/lev dual). Once calves are too big for oral drenching the next best alternative is a dual mectin/ levamisole combination injection such as

The injection version of a mectin drench will give superior performance to the pour-on version.

Eclipse E or Boss. Note that formulation is very important with these products and some of the other generic “me too” injection products are definitely inferior in that they achieve lower blood levels of actives despite claims to be the “same as Eclipse”. If a pour-on is to be used then a combination such as Eclipse or Boss is good. In most cattleyard set-ups, injections are more or less as quick to administer as pour-ons and an injection results in better performance. In cattle more than 15 months, immunity will have markedly reduced (but not totally eliminated) cooperia. Farmers could consider using single-action mectin products (again preferably as an injection rather than a pouron) as these are often cheaper. However, there will still be some cooperia about and I for one would rather see combination products used at all times as we know this is best practice. Adult beef cattle are usually well-fed and minimal drenching of adult cattle should be required on most farms. Faecal egg counts in adult cattle (more than 12 months) are useless – they bear no correlation to the worm burden. Don’t forget all the other seemingly little points that go to make up good drenching practice. Check the drench gun is working correctly, shake the drench before use, double-check the product and dose. Weigh calves prior to drenching to ensure they are not being under or over-dosed and split into two groups if necessary.

LIVESTOCK | COW ABORTIONS

Slips put damper on calving Natural cow abortions are quite normal, but if their percentage goes above 1% of a herd, it’s time to call in the vet. Cheyenne Nicholson reports.

ating has gone well and you’re staring down the barrel of calving. You’ve got your pregnancy test numbers and are pretty sure you can count of ‘xx’ number of calves this year. But can you? Abortions or slips can put more of a damper on the calving season than the weather. There several different types of abortion. Although not a desirable outcome, abortions are inevitable and occur in about 2-4% of a herd, Massey University associate professor in production and animal health Richard Laven says. The difficulty with diagnosing why cattle abort is that quite often the abortion storms aren’t as big as they might be as with say sheep, so you have fewer samples to test from which means the likelihood of getting a diagnosis is reduced.

“You’re lucky if you get a diagnosis in 40-50% of cases but the key thing is speak to your vet, get a good plan in place and try as much as possible to collect the foetus for testing in the lab. If you can’t get them into the lab then organise with the vet to come out and take the best samples.” If a diagnosis is determined, there often isn’t much that can be done to prevent further abortions this season. Having good biosecurity measures in place is a good starting point for reducing the risk of abortions as well as not introducing new cattle into the pregnant mob. “If you have something like neospora, the cows were likely infected a long time ago and that’s just a waiting game to see if those infected cows will abort or not. For listeria and fungal ones you can identify the bad feed that’s causing it and stop feeding but it won’t mean that no more

cows will abort as they’ve already ingested the feed, you’re still at the mercy of their exposure.” As a rule of thumb, once abortion percentage goes over 1%, particularly if all abortions are occurring over a short period, then it’s time to call the vet in and do some investigating, Laven says. ‘Natural abortions ’occur normally and for no apparent reason. They usually occur at a low rate in the herd. “It’s probably due to an incompatibility between the cow and foetus or could be just chance that the system didn’t work. It seems to be a natural part of the process and not something we know a whole lot about.” Because there are few to no signs of it or definitive cause, managing natural abortions is difficult. Thankfully there doesn’t appear to be a linkage between

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natural abortions and difficulties getting in-calf or abortion the following year. But they do need to be watched carefully. “Cows that abort normally need to be looked after and checked for uterine and reproductive infections.” Abortions, of any type, will cause lower milk production. When a foetus is aborted before it’s time in-utero the mammary glands aren’t fully developed so milk production will be decreased. A reduced fertility is also expected but Laven says that’s not to say they aren’t worth milking or getting back in calf.

Vertical transmission to offspring

LIFE CYCLE OF NEOSPORA CANINUM

FUNGAL ABORTIONS Mycotic abortions (caused by fungi) are quite common. They are caused by fungi like Mortierella wolfii, a species that lives in the soil, on decaying leaves and on other organic material and more importantly mouldy hay and silage. “If you have mould on your silage it doesn’t work just scraping the top layer off. It’s like saying if you cut the top off a mushroom you get rid of it there are still fungal roots and toxins through it all.” Abortions from fungi causes generally occur in late pregnancy. Retained foetal membranes are common and some aborted foetuses exhibit skin lesions like ringworm. Some cows that suffer fungal abortions die shortly afterwards due to fungi travelling to the lungs and causing severe pneumonia. “People talk about the fungal ones always getting sick; some can get systemic illnesses, particularly respiratory disease, we’ve even had one with a brain infection, but there’s a lot of cows out there that abort and don’t get sick after a fungal abortion. It’s a case by case basis” “If you can avoid it, don’t feed dodgy

KEY POINTS • Expect a percentage of abortions • Look at overall cow health. Is the cow sick? Does she present healthy? • If abortions are occurring within a confined time period call the vet • Where possible get the aborted foetus into the vet for testing • Keep an eye out for uterine and reproductive infections • Don’t feed poor quality and mouldy feed to pregnant cows. • Don’t introduce new cows into the pregnant mob.

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Maturation and breeding of congenitally infected heifer

Horizontal transmission from infected dog to cow.

Definitive host

Infected carcase or placenta ingested by dog

silage to pregnant animals. If you need to feed it give it to lower stock classes, you can still get some problems, but they will be less of a cost to your system than losing calves. Ideally if you have mouldy silage, chuck it out.” Proper harvesting and storage of hay and silage is important to ensure good fermentation and reduction in pH to kill bacteria.

NEOSPORA CANINUM Neospora caninum is a protozoan organism that is a major cause of abortion in cattle. Cattle become infected from food or water that has been contaminated by dog faeces. Dogs are the critical host for the organism. Once a cow has consumed contaminated feed or water the organism multiplies in the cow’s body and is transported through the blood stream to the uterus where it can cause damage to the foetus and the placenta. Cows don’t generally present as sick and don’t necessarily always abort their calves but their changes of aborting are increased. If an infected cow gives birth that calf will be infected also and may go onto to mature and have abortions herself or pass on the infection to her offspring. “Most problems with neospora are from cows born infected vertically from their mother rather than being infected with the disease later on in life.” For this reason, it is highly advised that replacements are not produced from cows known to be infected with neospora to avoid a persistence of neospora in the herd. However, those cows can still be kept in the milking herd. For obvious other reasons controlling

stray dogs may help but ultimately, Laven says preventing Neospora infection by controlling dogs is ‘a mugs game’.

BOVINE VIRAL DIARRHOEA (BVD) BVD commonly causes diarrhoea and weight loss in cattle and can cause reproductive losses in breeding cattle. Depending on age there can be a variety of outcomes from failure to conceive, early embryonic loss through to abortion and still born calves. Abortions caused by BVD usually occur in early pregnancy Vaccinations are available to help control this disease.

BACTERIAL Abortions caused by bacteria such as listeria and salmonella are also common. Unlike neospora or natural abortions, cows who have bacterial abortions often abort as part of being sick. Listeria monocytogenes lives in the soil with cattle either accidentally eating soil or through eating poorly made silage. The bacteria don’t survive a proper ensiling process when the pH drops rapidly, but if this doesn’t happen to feed can contain the listeria bacteria. It can cause placentitis and foetal septicaemia. Abortions are usually sporadic. Abortion from salmonella can happen sporadically, but abortion storms can also occur. Contaminated feed or, in the South Island, contact with infected sheep, are the most common sources of salmonella. The disease is characterised by an acute inflammation of the intestines and severe dysentery followed by abortion.

LIVESTOCK | GENE TALK

Milking the fat off their backs

Milking the fat off their backs, is a term sometimes heard from farmers who are conscious of the challenges involved in being able to meet the demand for quality feed from breeding stock throughout the year, Sharl Liebergreen writes.

n times of a feed pinch or adverse weather, having stock that have energy reserves to mobilise can be a useful tool for farmers and body condition scoring (BCS) to monitor those reserves, is just as useful. BCS and its influence on performance is important across agricultural sectors. The sheep, dairy, beef and deer industries all appreciate the importance of accessing the condition of stock at key times of the year. Identifying herd condition issues early and proactively implementing a strategy to deal with it, rather than having to call in the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff, is a heavily promoted message. The dairy industry has gone so far as to automate BCS recording on dairy platforms. Images are taken of cows to create a 3D representation of a cow and after processing indicates the cow’s BCS. This record can obviously be collected regularly across the whole herd and changes in condition closely monitored. The deer industry, while not automating BCS recording, is critically aware of its influence on reproductive capability in particular. The DeerNZ Body Condition Score Chart helps farmers assess hinds in a similar way to the five-point scale in sheep. There is a raft of information on how to BCS ewes and there are some very clear reasons why it’s a key task at least once a year. Simply, if you are looking for low hanging fruit to optimise productivity of your flock, BCS is a no brainer. BCS is not onerous. Obviously, the more ewes you have the longer it will take, but the benefits from physically monitoring the fat cover on an animal and allowing the hand and brain to make a decision, rather than the eye/brain connection as they run up a race, is worth it. The benefits include influencing the amount of lamb weaned, the number of lambs born, lamb survival, ewe milk production, ability of an ewe to conceive

and more. Trevor Cook, Totally Vets veterinarian from the Manawatu and BCS rockstar, has analysed gross margin of $13/ ewe from lifting BCS from 2.0 to 3.0 from weaning through to pre-mating. Farmers can tackle BCS onfarm within their own flock, but they also have the opportunity to score through the genetics of rams they buy from their breeders. BCS was introduced as a research trait in Sheep Improvement Limited in 2015. It has since been rolled out to industry for commercial farmers to consider when buying rams. The heritability of BCS is moderate at about 16-20% but it is a highly repeatable trait. BCS is not a component of the industry standard Sheep Improvement Limited Index NZ Maternal Worth. This is likely due to only 50 or so dual-purpose breeders across NZ BCS recording and connected to other breeders recording the trait. In comparison about 150 of the 400 odd dual-purpose breeders are connected for adult ewe size or wool. Farmers can ask those 50 breeders who are recording body condition score for the additional information alongside NZ maternal worth. In practice, the aim is to physically identify the proportion of ewes that are less than BCS 3 and not rely on the eyes perceived average of the flock. These ewes are not only the tail end of the ewe flock but may also produce the tail end of the lamb crop. The larger the proportion of ewes below three, they larger the scale of corrective action to take. Timing is also important. If the ewes were light at mating, their reproductive capability may have already been compromised. But collecting a BCS at scanning can mean you have the opportunity to influence the performance of the lamb(s) that are born from that ewe.

Body condition score 1

Body condition score 2

Body condition score 3

Body condition score 4

Body condition score 5

Ultimately BCS should not be something measured only every now and then. Regularly gauging the flock, probably around pregnancy scanning and weaning, could mean the difference between general underperformance and meeting targets. Planning to include a BCS measurement any time the ewes are being handled is well worthwhile.

›› More on condition scoring p56

If you are not already familiar with how to body condition score, the Beef+Lamb NZ Knowledge hub has excellent video tutorials: beeflambnz.com/knowledge-hub/PDF/ewe-bcs-fact-sheet

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LIVESTOCK | STOCK CHECK

Terroir: the flair from the land Tradition and tried and tested ways in winemaking can equally apply to farming and a reluctance to change, Trevor Cook writes.

was reminded of recently of a saying that everyone wants progress but no one wants to change. It is so true in so many avenues, including farming. Most farmers want to lift their income yet there is so often resistance to putting in place the actions or policies that could achieve that. An interesting forum I was in recently helped some farmers look out 10 years at the impact of changes today, and some were relatively modest, on their equity and debt. It proved a very powerful motivation for some of those farmers to really engage in the processes of change. We very often cast out just two or three years and expect modest gains to be motivating. The accumulating benefit of lifting profits can be startling. Another term slipped into a recent conversation was the French word terroir. It is an all-encompassing term to describe all the factors that contribute to the taste of wine. It captures the soil, the climate, the terrain and the tradition. I am not sure why it specifically applies to wine, because the concept can be applied to so many things. Farming is a very good example of an activity in which the outcome is influenced by all those factors. The flair or status terroir applies

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to wine would perhaps seem out of place applied to farming, but maybe it is that sentiment that farming needs to allow it to rise above the flotsam of a negative affluent and irrational society. The tradition bit always intrigues me in farming. It is not just family knowledge or values, it captures corporate knowledge and intellectual property. These certainly have a place in successful farming. If we accept that there are multiple aspects of the package that make up the successful/profitable farming business, or the â&#x20AC;&#x153;terroirâ&#x20AC;? of farming, it should be no surprise that it is difficult to get a lot of change. There is no template because it is a combination of many factors. We have templates for various components of the big package but none for the whole thing. I am not sure how we can capture more of that combined package, and in reality we may not be able. That is the basis for almost inherent differences between success and being in the pack. My recent stint working in the United Kingdom challenged some of the above. An impending big cut in their subsidies is provoking many farmers to look at how they can change to remain profitable without that support. Given that most farming businesses struggle to be profitable

without the subsidies, huge changes must happen across farming. What is helping with that change, though, is that some farmers have made the change and now unashamedly make a good profit and get the subsidies. Many are very accessible for other farmers to learn from. The nature of that change is mostly using pastures as the primary feed source. The interest in how to use pastures is widespread, with help of the supporting industry bodies. Despite the unknown of Brexit, the mood was very positive. Their winter from hell has prompted some rethinking, but not abandonment. The biggest barrier is the negative attitude of the government to farming. There is a view that the rural landscape should look like a park. I went to several farms and attended four public farmer days. Foot baths were very evident for attendees to use and any discussions about trading policies were couched in having to be very careful with the source of any purchased stock. Biosecurity was much more evident than it is yet in New Zealand. The repeated advice given to me was that we should do whatever we can to get rid of Mycoplasma bovis. While it is an endemic disease, it can cause big losses and really complicates the cattle trading world, as it is in NZ already. Some of that visit was on the Shetlands where they treasure their island status and have a significantly better animal health status than the mainland. An isolation respect that maybe we have lost to some extent.

CROPS & FORAGE | PESTS

Rotations make the difference

Larval feeding occurs right through spring in the twoyear grass grub life cycle.

WORDS: CHEYENNE NICHOLSON

inter is an important time of year, calving and lambing are in full swing and your pasture management needs to be in top form to ensure you’re set up well for spring and summer. So what can you do to set your farm up for a good spring and summer pasturewise? Holly Phillips, agronomist with PGG Wrightson Seeds, says making small alterations to rotations can make a big difference. “Ryegrass growth is going to slow down over winter and leaf emergence is much slower so in turn farmers need to slow down their rounds to match this. In winter

it might take 15-20 days for one leaf to emerge so really sticking to the three-leaf principle is important.” It might mean stretching out rounds to 60 days to maximise the grass growth and allow reserves to replenish and not put too much stress on the plant. A number of factors make this year different. Last winter and spring was wet for most of the country until the tap was turned off in November and an extended dry period followed. Spring is usually the time where daughter tillers are produced. Each tiller lives about a year so the production of new ones is important for the following season. “The wet then dry weather put ryegrass

under stress and daughter tiller production was impacted. This year most of that daughter tiller production has actually happened in autumn when conditions were more favourable. So this winter farmers need to carefully allow daughter tillers to establish without creating high pasture covers that shade and kill one of the key drivers for next years’ production.” Many farmers struggle with pugging and compaction over winter and the advice remains much the same: on/off grazing with cattle and having a stand-off area or sacrifice paddock to ease the burden. If you have new grass paddocks or those you know are prone to getting wet, then try

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and graze these earlier in the season. “With soil compaction the greatest risk period is during a big downpour and immediately following. High stocking rates or heavy animals on wet paddocks during this time risk damaging the soils’ network of macropores.” This damage reduces the movement of water and air within the profile, ultimately reducing pasture or crop production. To minimise this damage, continue to on/off graze where possible in the days following heavy rain. Winter is also a good time to clean up ‘rank’ pastures that got away over summer and autumn. This helps to reset residuals and promotes leafy growth at the base of the sward. “You still have to be careful not to overgraze but generally ryegrass is pretty forgiving, you can graze it hard once and it will be fine, but repeated hard grazing will reduce persistence.” During winter ryegrass can cope with a hard graze below a residual of 1500kg drymatter (DM)/ha, provided it is given sufficient time to recover

before the next graze. Repeated hard grazings and insufficient recovery time will deplete plant energy reserves leading to reduced pasture persistence. Damage from pests like grass grub and porina become evident in pasture during winter. This makes winter a worthwhile time to get out and investigate patchy or poor performing pastures.

Grass grub Grass grub is prolific in areas with light soils and dry summers, including hot spots of the northern North Island, Hawke’s Bay and the Canterbury Plains. Grass grub larvae live in burrows in the soil, feeding on the roots of pastures. In heavily infested areas damage will appear as yellow unproductive patches.

Right: Porina caterpillars, the critters that do the damage.

Below: Porina moth damage to pasture.

Above: This many grass grubs in a spade full means there’s a problem.

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When this occurs in hill country the bared soils become susceptible to erosion. Damage is most evident in autumn and early winter when larvae feed in the top 2-3cm of the soil profile.

‘High stocking rates or heavy animals on wet paddocks during this time risk damaging the soils’ network of macropores.’

In established pastures production can be reduced by up to 8% per 100 larvae/ square metre and populations can reach more than 1500/sq m. When populations exceed 800/sq m the legume component of pastures can be substantially reduced. Autumn-sown brassica crops and legume seedlings can be severely damaged as larvae sever plant stems and the plants will die. Well-managed and healthy plants will cope with grass grub better than plants under stress. Maintaining good pasture covers during January and February reduces the availability of egg-laying sites. Beetles prefer fresh dung so dispersing it by harrowing may make it less accessible. Cultivation of infested pasture in late spring/early summer may results in high mortality of pupae and larvae allowing establishment of new pasture. Later cultivation may create enough disturbance for larvae to die of starvation but this should be checked before sowing takes place. At sowing insecticide-treated seed such as Superstrike can provide initial protection during establishment. In established pastures insecticide sprays can be effective when applied during rain when the grubs are small and feeding close to the surface. “Another trick if there are a lot of larvae in the top 10cm of soil is to use a heavy roller or mob stock the area in autumn which squashes the larvae,” Holly says.

Flight of porina moths Porina moths fly between spring and early summer through to autumn. There are seven species that fly at different times

Porina moth

of the year and they are considered a major pest in central and southern North Island and throughout the South Island. They generally fly in large numbers and are quite obvious. The moths don’t cause pasture damage but they lay thousands of eggs and the resulting larvae are grazers. “Damage from porina larvae generally becomes more apparent over the winter months as pasture growth slows and this may warrant investigation and control,” Holly says At low densities they are direct competitors with stock for food and reduce the amount of foliage available. At higher densities plants are destroyed allowing inferior plant species to establish thereby reducing long term pasture quality and production. Depending on pasture productivity: • 25-50 porina/sq m (1-2 per eight-inch spade square) equate to grazing one ewe/ ha. Plants are seldom destroyed at this level but production losses may occur. • 50-75 porina/sq m (2-3 per spade) will destroy some plants, open up pasture and allow weed species to establish. Pasture production will be reduced. • 100 or more porina/sq m (4 or more per spade) will result in major pasture

damage. Pasture plants will be destroyed, bare areas in pasture will develop and weed species may establish. The amount of pasture produced and the quality of that pasture will be reduced. AR37 endophyte in ryegrass provides good protection from moderate porina populations, but as endophyte protection doesn’t extend to legumes moth flights and larvae populations should still be monitored in high-risk areas. “Insecticides are effective management and need to be applied 8-10 weeks after you’ve seen moths flying, so it is important to mark the dates the moths are flying on your calendar.” Porina eggs and young larvae numbers are reduced by dry conditions as they favour mild wet summers and long dense pasture. Cultivation increases the likelihood of pasture damage two to three years later as this removes diseases that help regulate porina numbers. In contrast, direct drilling retains these porina diseases in the soil, reducing the likelihood of damage. • For more information on these and other pests check out AgPest.co.nz

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CROPS & FORAGE | FODDER BEET

When the beet won’t pack on the beef Lincoln University vet and ruminant nutrition scientist Jim Gibbs troubleshoots beef liveweight gains in beet grazing systems.

y July, most operations will have been grazing for more than a month, and should be steady on maximum intakes. One feature of beet grazing beet systems is the higher percentage carcase yield that results, typically up from a standard steer 52% on pasture to 56% (British breeds) or 58% (Europeans). Various changes in both the carcase and the gut result from this shift, usually complete by about 30 days on beet, especially in rising two-year-olds (R2). This means liveweight gains measured from this point will be a reliable guide to how your system is going. Liveweight gains before this are typically hard to read, and not much help. I advise a liveweight at 30 days as a baseline measure, then a few more at 30 and 60-day intervals in your first few years. Note, liveweight on beet is highly variable across the day because beet has so much water, and they tend to eat a large proportion of the day’s intake in the first three hours. This ‘loads’ the system with a lot of water (35-50 litres), which is quickly excreted. If your liveweights are at different times of the day, it is easy to have 20kg variation, which messes any chance at measuring real gain. It is best therefore to weigh at the same time after feeding, typically early afternoon when they are full. Target gains for R1 steers at 250kg or above are 1kg/ day over the 130 days, and for R2 steers above 440kg 1.5kg/ day over the 90 days. As gains increase with time on beet, good R1 gains at 60 days are 0.8 and above for R1, and 1.2kg/ day and above for R2. If these aren’t achieved, what should you look for? Beet intake equals liveweight gain. So check these first: 1Are my gains consistent in the mob, or are there stragglers? A long ‘tail’ of poor gains with another group of good gains

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generally suggests transition was done poorly – you have ‘burnt’ some, and taught them not to eat a lot of beet. This won’t be fixed this year. Get it right next year. 2 The rows or square metres of beet eaten divided by the cattle numbers will give you an intake, if your yields are known. Cattle should eat about 2.2% of their weight in drymatter (DM) daily at peak intakes. If they aren’t, see 3-6 below. 3 Intake maximums are only achieved when ample beet is left behind when the break is moved - aim for 25% at 24 hours. This is the most common problem in liveweight gains. 4 Are the cattle getting the right supplement daily? R1 steers require 1kg DM/ day (eaten), and R2 steers 2kg. Too little and too much both kill liveweight gains. So, are your figures correct? How are you delivering it - bale feeders will almost never achieve these targets, as when the allocation is correct some get too much and many get nothing, or everyone gets too much when you give in and increase bale feeder numbers. Get a better design next year. 5 Have they got the correct line access – 1m per beast? If not, some get squeezed out the back, and average gains decline. 6 What cultivar are you feeding? R1 stock in particular are more fussy, and some cultivars are less palatable than others, so reduced intakes result, and very little can rescue this. Just get it right next year. Not all cultivars are the same, and this is not a ‘hard’ or ‘soft’ DM% issue – weaners will happily eat hard sugar beet bulbs. The most palatable NZ cultivar in my experience is Brigadier, and it is commonly the go-to variety for R1 beef and dairy heifers. However, a few palatable cultivars are also suitable for R2 steers, who are less fussy. Good leafy crops are always more palatable, and troubled crops with little

R1 calves tuck in to their fodder beet.

leaf left almost never achieve maximum intakes, regardless of cultivar. Good agronomy always pays for itself. Finally, what won’t it be when liveweight gains are down? In a healthy crop with good leaf, and correct supplement, it won’t be a protein lack. In good crops, it also won’t be a phosphorus problem, either by plant P lack or via vitamin D. This woolly idea is sexy, and there are plenty waving their arms about, or cashing in by selling farmers magic potions, lick blocks and DCP for the supplement. Treat them like a sign from heaven – to get whoever talks to you about them off the farm as quick as you can, because everything they say from there will cost you money. Don’t be tempted by these, no matter what that bloke at the pub says, and remember – lots of things work well when you never needed them anyway.

PLANT & MACHINERY | TELEHANDLERS

That extra reach Telehandlers offer versatility handling materials in places where it’s difficult to get a tractor. Tim McVeagh reports

ith the increase in supplementary feeding and housing of stock, and the ever-present drive for efficiency, farmers are buying telehandlers as an alternative to another tractor. While in some ways not as versatile as a tractor, if the machine is principally intended for lifting, loading, or cleaning out barns, the telehandler is in a class of its own. Wheel loaders have load capacity much greater than a comparable tractor and manoeuvrability through pivot steer, but do not have the reach of a telehandler and most are bigger so limited for indoor work.

Telehandlers’ strong, rigid front axle, makes their load capacity greater than comparable tractors. Their telescopic boom means they can reach far higher or further than a tractor’s loader. Four-wheel steering means they are more manoeuvrable in confined spaces, and with four wheels of the same size they make less mess. Steering can be switched from four-wheel steering for best manoeuvrability, to crab steering to go close to walls and buildings, and to two-wheel steering for road work with less sensitivity in the steering. Schaffer telescopic loaders are pivot steer. With a FOPS (Falling Object Protective

Structure) and a ROPS (Roll Over Protection System), they are safer than a tractor when lifting loads, and they have systems which prevent the load reaching a tipping point. Visibility for lifting is generally better than a tractor’s. And many are easier to drive than a tractor, so more suitable and safer for semi-skilled staff.

Tasks for the TelehandleFarmers are using telehandlers for a range of tasks: • Loading mixer wagons with silage, hard feed, hay, and even the bedding from

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barns. Because their bucket grab is bigger than those of tractors, they can load a mixer wagon in about half the time taken by a tractor. And while a ramp is necessary for some tractors or wheel loaders to load a wagon, it is no stretch for the telehandler. • Cleaning out bedding from loafing pads and barns. Buckets up to 2.4 metres wide make quick work of this task. • Stacking bales with bale spikes, soft hands, or bale clamps means shed space can be optimised. With bale spikes, two bales can be carried safely, simultaneously. • Shifting loose materials like sand, metal, feed. While the telehandler is not suited to digging down on flat ground, it can dig a flat area into sloping ground quite easily. • Making stockpiles of feed or any other loose material. The telehandler can make a higher stockpile than tractors or wheel loaders. • Feeding out hay or balage from a feeder over a fence, from a race. • Hedge cutting – with the extended reach of a telehandler, the tallest of hedges can be trimmed. • Shifting and stacking palleted materials, using the pallet forks they usually come with. • Post ramming.

Telehandler features There’s lots of features to check out on telehandlers so prospective buyers need to work out what’s important to them. Loading, reach, and size characteristics:

FARMERS’ FAVOURITE MODELS: The models most commonly bought by dairy farmers, according to the suppliers: AB Equipment:

Manitou MLT 732; Manitou MLT 735 – 120 SLU.

Claas Harvest Centre:

JCB 526 – 56; JCB 536 – 60; JCB 531 – 70

Glenbrook Machinery:

Schaffer 9630T; Schaffer 8610

Power Farming:

Merlo TF 35.7 – 115; Merlo TF 42.7CS – 140

Webbline Agriculture:

Agristar 37.7 and AgriPlus 40.7

Maximum load. This is indicated in the model number for most brands. Models commonly bought buy dairy farmers have load ratings from 2.5 to 4 tonnes. Maximum lift. This also is indicated in the model number, but this and the maximum load may not be in the same order for all brands. For example the Merlo TF42.7 will lift 4.2 tonnes to a height of 7.1 metres, while the JCB 526-56 will lift 2.6t to a height of 5.6m, the prefix 5 indicating a telehandler. Models commonly bought by dairy farmers have lifting heights up to 7m. Maximum dump height for a bucket; dump angle, and crowd angle. Physical dimensions. A smaller machine may be preferable for enclosed spaces like calf sheds, while a bigger machine can shift material quicker. Compact machines can be as low as 1.9m and 1.8m wide, but still pick up 4.6t. Little or no tail swing to improve manoeuvrability. The counterweight is built into the chassis, rather than have counterweights overhanging the rear. Engine, drive train, hydraulics: Engine, transmission and drive train options vary with brand and model,

Mark Flipp with the sixth telehandler they have had. This Merlo TF42.7CS was bought in December 2017 and had clocked up 300 hours by mid-February

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with diesel engines being the norm, and with hydrostatic, power shift, and torque converter options common. Power and economy drive modes to conserve fuel on the road. Eco Power Drive on Merlo’s is claimed to save 18% of fuel costs compared with traditional machines. Automatic switching to two-wheel drive above a set speed; (19kmh for JCB’s). Maximum hydraulic pump capacities. Limited slip differential. Ease of daily and routine maintenance. Radiator grill back flushing by reversing the direction of the cooling fan. Capacity to fit tow hitches, hydraulics, and even three-point linkages. Telescopic loading features: Quick attachment of implements. Automatic attachment recognition and load sensing specific for each attachment. For example, a 3m long fly jib will have a lower load rating than pallet forks. Boom suspension. This cuts in at a speed of around 3km/h to prevent spilling materials on uneven ground. Below this speed it is not employed so that objects can be placed accurately. When soft hands are opened to release a wrapped bail, the soft hands tend to jump up as the oil pressure is released, and this can result in ripping the plastic wrapping. Merlo’s active boom suspension prevents this. Some machines have the turn-off valve outside the cab so the driver is reluctant to get out and turn it off. With active boom suspension, when the load is slowed to 3km/h, it disengages the boom suspension so there is no spring effect. Frame levelling of the telehandler chassis by rams means the telehandler can be angled to compensate for variations in ground or load. Items like pallets on uneven ground can then be engaged easily. Bucket shake, to release sticky materials. Boom stroke dampening at the end of extension and retraction to reduce spilling of loads. Metering of loads by weight, so that part buckets of a specific amount can be dumped.

Self-levelling of the load as the boom is raised and the boom angle changes. This mean, that for example, pallets would stay level as the boom goes up. Boom side shift, which allows the attached implement to be shifted 250300mm either side of centre to make pickup easier. Cab: Cab space, comfort, visibility, noise level, creature comforts. Cab suspension. Reversing camera Safety Features: Stability status displayed on a monitor in the cab, and even with green / amber / red lights on the cab roof for workers to see. Other considerations: Of course price and after sales service are major considerations as for any machinery purchase.

A versatile machine Mark Flipp runs an enterprising farming business at Glen Oroua in the Manawatu. The 550-cow dairy herd is split evenly into autumn and spring calving, and is the only farm supplying organic milk to Kapiti Milk for pasteurised bottled milk, with the balance going to Fonterra.

The Flipp family recently bought Seymour Transport, so with their own trucks now have 14 on the road. And with the Flipp Motocross Park adjacent to the dairy farm, they have an interesting business portfolio. Flipp bought his first telehandler, a Merlo, in 2004, after one was dropped off for evaluation. In December 2017 they took possession of their sixth Merlo telehandler, a TF 42.7CS, (cab suspension). The bulk of the telehandler’s work involves following and loading hay, baled silage, and straw on to the Flipp Transport trucks as far as Rata, some 50km away. So the Merlo is registered for road use. A second task, best carried out with a telehandler is stockpiling the Osflo fertiliser trucked down from Taranaki, and then loading it into the bulk spreaders. Apart from this the Flipp telehandler is used for lifting silage bins on to truck decks with a pair of extended forks, lifting objects such as logs and large concrete blocks with a versatile grab, stacking hay in sheds with bale forks, sweeping conventional bales, transporting calves in a transport tray, and shifting baleage with soft hands. Another task the telehandler does with a lot less effort than a tractor is collecting

and loading bales on to a tube wrapper. Hydrostatic drive makes approaching bales and the wrapper easier as there’s no gear selection; and travelling over rough ground is easier on the driver, especially with cab suspension. The telehandler is fitted with a tow hitch to tow the bale wrapper. And lifting jobs like pulling an effluent pump out of a sump are a breeze for a telehandler. “There’s lots of stuff you can do with them, they’re such a versatile machine. Most of the work on dairy farms would be loading mixer wagons and shifting bales, but there’s lots of farm jobs like cleaning up wood slash, digging underground cables, they can do, so every year we have clocked up 1000 hours in a telehandler,” Flipp says. “And they’re real easy to drive, they’re as easy to drive as a tractor of about 30 years ago, that most people could drive. Our ground-spreading contractors drive a lot of telehandlers and think the Merlos are as user-friendly and as easy to drive as any. “I don’t think there would be any farmer who has had one, and then done without one,” Flipp says. • This article was first published in NZ Dairy Exporter, March 2018.

Stockpiling Osflo fertiliser is another common task for the Flipp telehandler.

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ENVIRONMENT | ONFARM

Raising breeding cow performance

The Thompson family moved their cattle off steep Wanganui hills to easier land with profitable results. Russell Priest reports. Photos: Brad Hanson.

win-win agreement between father and son, Brian and Kerry Thompson and Horizons Regional Council has seen the Thompsons’ long-established Simmental herd move from extremely steep terrain to gently rolling pastures next door. Since then it hasn’t looked back.

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Kerry (left) and Brian Thompson are running the same sheep numbers and 30% less cattle but making more profit.

In 2013 the Thompson partnership completed a Whole Farm Plan with Horizons as part of the council’s Sustainable Land Use Initiative. Implementation of this plan has resulted in about 500 hectares of steep land planted in forestry or retired in a partnership deal with the council. Capital released from this arrangement has been invested by the Thompsons in 100ha of easy-contoured neighbouring land leaving them with an effective farm area of 400ha down from 800ha previously. They also lease 20ha from a neighbour. “We are now running the same number of ewes and 30% fewer cattle on half the area and it is much more profitable,” Kerry says. Established in the 1980s in response to strong market demand for Simmental cattle, the Thompsons’ pure-bred herd now numbers about 70 cows down from the 100 they used to have when they were run on the hills.

“We used to winter the cows on the hills then bring them on to the flats for calving and to maintain pasture quality over the spring/summer period,” Brian says. “Now we’ve got limited hill country we have to feed out to them for three months over the winter.” Brian ran Angus cows before switching to Simmentals and is adamant the latter performed as well as the former on the hills. Since moving to the easier country however herd performance has moved to a higher level. “Nowadays we lose very few cows but on the hills we used to lose a significant number as a result of them losing their footing.” Consequently, calving percentage used to hover between 75% and 80% for both breeds but now it’s in the early 90s. All weaners used to be wintered and the steers and surplus heifers sold in January at 13-14 months. With the loss of the hills fewer cattle are now wintered and steers are sold as weaners off their mothers

at a relatively young age (calving starts late October). Heifer calves are wintered together with replacement R2 heifers on saved grass and regrowth Pasja/Raphno brassica drilled in the autumn with an annual ryegrass. Surplus weaner heifers are sold in January at 15 months and weaner steers are sold to a repeat private buyer. Last year at six months and 240kg they returned $900 nett. Partly because the Thompsons have an aversion to calving females and partly because they don’t have the facilities to cope with difficult calvings they prefer to calve their heifers as three-year-olds. Kerry openly admits there may be more financially attractive alternatives to breeding cows. However, they do perform an important role in maintaining pasture quality, the benefits of which are difficult to quantify and they enjoy farming them. Well-known Simmental breeder Tony Thompson, Brian’s brother, supplies their bulls.

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KEY POINTS Owners: Tirohanga Partnership (Brian, Kerry, Olive and Julie Thompson) Area: Brunswick - 27km north of Wanganui Land area: 1590ha – 400ha effective (20ha leased) 500ha forestry, 690ha native bush and scrub Altitude: 90m-400m Rainfall: 1295mm evenly spread. Soil fertility: Ps 25 (flats), 15/16 (hills), 8/9 (steep hills) PHs: 5.7 Soil types: Egmont Ash Black Silt Loam Westmere Hill Soils

Left to right: Brian, Olive, Julie and Kerry Thompson.

Three generations Kerry and his wife Julie are the third generation of the Thompson family to farm in the area. They have two daughters; Danielle (18) and Madeleine (16). Kerry’s father Brian and his wife Olive live on the original 51ha block, Tirohanga, settled by his parents (John and Molly) in 1934. The previous owners used it to supply themselves with wild pork. Brian was one of seven children (three boys and four girls) and has lived in the area all his 83 years. His parents milked cows (up to 10), made and sold butter within the local community, fattened Ryeland Romney cross wethers and supplemented their income by shearing and droving. Over the years the area farmed by the Thompson clan waxed and waned but when Kerry returned from Auckland in 2002 after working for Telecom the farm totalled 1490ha of which only 800ha were effective (the rest was in native bush). In 1989/90, driven by low lamb prices and a

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Pohangina Sandy Loam

Raumai Sandy Loam

STOCK: Cattle 72 Simmental cows 15 R2 heifers 41 R1 heifers 3 Bulls Sheep 1500 Perendale ewes 450 Perendale ewe hoggets 24 Perendale rams 1600 Merino ewes 400 Merino ewe hoggets 600 Merino wether hoggets 70 Merino rams

CROPPING ROTATION Year 1(summer): 14ha Pasja/ Raphno brassica. (winter): 14ha regrowth Pasja/Raphno brassica +annual ryegrass. Years 2, 3 and 4: Red/white clover + perennial ryegrass. Year 5: Back to Pasja/Raphno. Financial information 48% of $356,855 income is from sheep sales. 43% of income is from wool. 9% of income is from cattle sales.

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The Merino anomaly desire to diversify, Brian decided to try farming Merinos and bought 200 ewe hoggets. He had been involved in a MAF project running Merinos at Long Acre and Flock House and since he was familiar with sheep thought it prudent to stick with them rather than diversify into deer or goats. In 1996 a small Merino stud was bought from Rotoma in Hawke’s Bay to breed rams for their own use. This has recently been disbanded due to increased performance recording costs and lack of outside sales. The wool on the original 200 ewe hoggets was of a diverse micron range and fleece type. Exposure to the area’s high rainfall quickly revealed those wool types that were not suitable to be grown in their environment.

Any fleeces stronger than 20-micron range and/or any not able to shed water developed varying degrees of discolouration. Footrot has proved to be a non-event. As soon as Brian discovered what micron and wool type suited his environment he decided to replace the Perendale ewes on the Mangaiti block with Merinos. He brought in both Merino ewes and wethers and farmed them on 800ha (only half effective) of his most rugged country. This country has since been planted in trees so the wethers are no longer farmed. Today the Thompsons run 1600 Merino ewes and replacements and are one of a small handful of Merino breeders left in the North Island. Also

farmed are 1500 Perendale ewes and replacements. At wool prices of $17/kg for fleece wool and first pieces the Merino ewes are more profitable than the Perendales ($64/head vs $59/head) and because Merinos eat less than Perendales (at least 10% lighter bodyweight) this margin is even greater if the amount of feed eaten is considered. “At present-day lamb prices a Merino breeder doing 100% lambing is making as much money as a Perendale breeder doing 160% lambing, based on prime lambs fetching $100 and stores $80.” Kerry says. The Thompsons’ Merino breeding programme is strongly focused on improving growth rate while maintaining the micron range

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ABOVE: Mixed-age Merino rams on the Thompsons’ farm. RIGHT: Farm soil profile – Egmont ash black silt loam. BELOW: Shutting the gate on the hill country means less feeding out three months over winter.

between17-20 and increasing the lambing percentage. The latter is likely to be more rapidly achieved according to Kerry through improved ewe nutrition before mating and later in pregnancy thereby increasing number of lambs born, lamb birthweight and lamb survival. Merino lamb losses are 35% from scanning to docking while the corresponding loss in Perendales is about 10-15%. Most of the Merino losses occur at birth due to the weather. Genetically removing the horns is a longer-term priority. Notable Australian sheep classer Gordy McMaster who has been the Thompsons’ foremost Merino mentor considers their

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sheep to be as good as any in the South Island. Mating begins for the Merinos on April 10 at an average two-tooth mating weight of 48kg and MA weight of 5055kg. The corresponding mating weights for the Perendales are 55kg and 55-60kg. Average scanning percentages for the two breeds are 135% and 130%. Kerry is not an advocate of average ewe weights but prefers to focus on condition score as an indicator of a ewe’s physiological state (health). “Condition score is a much more meaningful monitoring tool because it caters for different body types,” Kerry says.

Complementary breeds Merinos and Perendales complement one another in more ways than one. Merino wool prices support Perendales when lamb prices are low and vice versa. The two breeds are not run together in rotation as Merinos are browsers while Perendales will graze pasture to low residuals. Running the Perendales behind the Merinos over winter ensures pastures are “cleaned up” without substantially affecting the productivity of either breed. Because late Merino lambs are a liability (early growth rates are a little over half those of the Perendales) the Thompsons only leave the Merino rams out for 21-28 days then tail up with Perendale rams. The crossbred lambs are able to be finished before the winter and if not are a more saleable option than straight Merinos. All Merino wether lambs are taken through the winter and shorn in August for the first time (2kg average fleece weight). Depending on the feed situation they can be sold as stores straight off the shears or finished at 16-18kg in October/ November. Kerry now prefers the former option as it allows him to free up feed for lambing ewes. “Once the spring arrives Merino growth rates explode,” Kerry says “and they do have the advantage over other breeds in that their teeth don’t erupt until January/ February due to their later maturity pattern. This means there is a good market for them as stores off the shears in the spring.” Merinos are first shorn as hoggets not as lambs.

Kerry (left) and Brian Thompson with a Simmental mixed-age cow.

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ENVIRONMENT | IRRIGATION

Polarised in the Mackenzie Basin South Canterbury’s Mackenzie Basin is the scene of stunning landscapes and a battle over the right to farm, resource management consultant Keri Johnston writes.

he Greenpeace petition “to stop the expansion of industrial dairying and save the Mackenzie” is well on its way to getting the targeted 30,000 signatures (at the time of writing this, it was at 28,199). This has come about as many consent holders, who have spent years in court battles and tenure review processes, begin to give effect to their consents, and development begins, including dairying. There is no doubt the Mackenzie Basin is a special place. Its iconic landscapes surround you, and it is home to many endangered species and significant indigenous biodiversity values. But, it is also home to many farming families and communities who are caught in the crossfire of wanting to make a living from the land, while protecting the outstanding values associated with the area. The Mackenzie certainly polarises people. Many do not support the development that is occurring – in their view, there are areas where perhaps intensive farming is not suited, and the Mackenzie is one. Those on the other side of the argument support allowing farmers who have gone through due process to obtain the necessary consents to actually use them. It is a battleground between those who farm the land and want to be able to make a living from it, and those who have a view on its future, not from a farming perspective, but just simply ‘because’. So, what are the challenges for the Mackenzie Basin? The first is the need to protect water quality from the possible adverse effects of development (and

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associated intensification). The second is the need to maintain a healthy vegetation cover on the land, through managing the threats of animal pest and weed invasion and windblown soil loss. The third is to maintain viable farming in the area.

Attempts to address the challenges has resulted in nigh on 20 years of uncertainty. Between the government call-in of consents following Project Aqua, tenure review, and various plan changes to the Mackenzie District Plan, and all the court processes associated with all of this, and still no real resolution.

Any plans or consents that have resulted are complex and require stringent monitoring, reporting and responses to monitoring (known as adaptive management). There are often off-sets as well, such as requirements to retire more-fragile, high ecological land completely to develop other, lesssensitive areas. The cost of getting to this point has been exorbitant and the cost of compliance is right up there too. There are benefits of allowing smallscale development in the Mackenzie Basin. The Mackenzie Agreement signed in 2013 by many of the interested stakeholders including Federated Farmers, Forest and Bird, Fish and Game and the Environmental Defence Society, states: • Well-designed and managed irrigation can increase revenue and decrease risk in farm businesses; • This could enable rabbit and wildling pine control to be restored to desired levels, and the fencing of sensitive habitats to be provided; • Stock could also be removed from sensitive vegetation during droughts; • Stock on irrigated properties don’t graze dryland pastures as hard, as they are well fed. Unfortunately, I can’t see the battle for the Mackenzie being sorted any time soon, which ultimately means more uncertainty for those still trying to live and farm in the area. I think that is the saddest part of this. At the end of it all, it is the farmers who have fought hard to maintain a position where they can viably farm who are the losers, at the mercy of the vast number of others who have a view on the future of the Mackenzie Basin.

ENVIRONMENT | FARM FORESTRY

The value of grey hair The farm foresters’ annual conference was a time for reflection on the lack of new blood in the tree-growing industry, Denis Hocking writes.

have recently returned from the from Scion. Relevant because with NZ Farm Forestry Association today’s vigorous debate about water annual conference in sunny quality people seem to have forgotten Nelson and can report that that commercial forestry generally has despite the new wave of a benign impact on downstream water enthusiasm for forestry, the quality. NZFFA shows little reinvigoration. While dairy pasture typically leaches The hair, or what’s left of it, is around 60kg N/ha/year, and cropping, overwhelmingly grey or white and while horticulture and especially market the enthusiasm is still very evident, most gardening all average 50kg N/ha/y or of us are a bit past our physical prime. greater, commercial forestry comes in The paucity of younger faces is, to me, at under five, though can be rather a worry because there is a huge amount higher for a year or two at harvest when of collective knowledge, experience and it may match sheep and beef at about wisdom stored under that thinning hair. 20. A profitable land use that not only It would be a pity if so many of our offsets greenhouse gas emissions but also mistakes must be repeated and lessons nutrient pollution in waterways deserves learnt again, the hard way. I don’t see a bit more publicity. Other Scion the research institutions as an adequate presentations discussed the question substitute. Present day grant structures of nutrient depletion under forestry tend to lead to narrowly focused research rotations. Leaving residue on site does projects and a lack of help maintain nutrient long-term, big-picture levels, but raises debris researchers. And I am flow risks in severe It would be a pity if so not the only one who storms. many of our mistakes sees serious problems Then there were must be repeated and of institutional some impressive field amnesia in the lessons learnt again, the day vistas, with the research, regulatory spectacular, and wellhard way. and educational designed Appletons’ world. arboretum being one. For all of that it was But for sheer majesty a very enjoyable few days and notable on an 87-year-old Douglas fir trial at Golden several counts: Downs forest would take some beating. First, a Minister of Forestry showed Trees 70 metres high with immaculate for the first time in years. Shane form and diameters of 60-80cm would Jones opened the conference with his be a very valuable forestry asset but its characteristic enthusiasm and it was nice fame as a spectacle means there would be to feel we have friends in high places. outrage if it was harvested. Secondly, the mood was further Other notable features of the field days buoyed by the very good financial included several excellent stands of the returns members are reporting. Ovensii hybrid cypress. This lusitanicaThirdly, there was some very relevant Chamaaecyparis nootkatensis hybrid has forestry soil and nutrient information been steadily gaining popularity amongst

The Ovensii cypress hybrid contrasting with Leyland hybrids behind.

farm foresters with its good form and health and stands around Nelson reinforced this enthusiasm. However, to be fair most of the cypresses we saw looked good - well-sited and healthier than most I’ve seen. Pruning Ovensii was a job I broke into to attend the conference, so I was in a judgmental mood. The timber of this hybrid is almost identical to the very similar Leyland cypresses - macrocarpanootkatensis hybrids. The timber of both is distinctly yellow and bland, with less amenity value than macrocarpa, but it mills so easily, is very stable and is more durable than macrocarpa. In other words, it’s excellent outdoor timber. But the difference between the hybrids is primarily health - canker resistance, and resulting form and growth. See the photo showing Ovensii on the left and Leyland on the right. However, all cypresses need careful siting, as Nelson demonstrated. We have already found that the hard way.

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July 2018

TECHNOLOGY | WINDOWS 10

Making access easier Kirstin Mills continues her tips for use of Windows 10, with advice on improving accessibility.

ast month we looked at some tips and tricks for Windows 10, but did you know the operating system also has some useful accessibility features? If you have colour blindness you may already know you can now add colour filters to your screen in Windows 10 to make it easier to see. You can use one of two red-green filters if you have deuteranopia, that will enhance green hues. If you have protanopia you can use the other red-green filter that makes red hues easier to see. There is also a blue-yellow filter for people with tritanopia, which will brighten blue hues. There are also three filters to help you see elements on the screen better: inverted (which reverses colours to their colour wheel opposites), grayscale (displays black/white/grey) and grayscale inverted (like grayscale, but reversed). To find these, click on the “start” button in the bottom left of your screen and choose “Settings” (the little cog icon). In the “Windows Settings” box that appears, click on “Ease of Access” and then click on “Colour filters” in the left-hand column. The “Ease of Access” section allows you to do many things to make elements on your screen easier to see. You can adjust text size (under “Display”) and cursor and pointer size, magnify parts of the screen and increase the contrast. You will also see settings for Narrator, a screen-reading app. While Narrator is a great tool for people with sight issues, it can also be useful for anyone to proof-read. It can be hard to see things

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like missing or repeated words or typos when reading your own writing. Having Narrator read it out means you can hear these errors. If you want to use it in this way (rather than setting it up to start automatically to tell you everything that is happening on screen) you can use the Windows search function (the magnifying glass in the bottom left of your screen) to search for “Narrator” or find it on your apps list on the start menu, in the “Windows Ease of Access” folder. Then you put your cursor on the piece of writing you wish to hear and hold down the “Caps Lock” key and hit the “M” key. To pause, hit the “Ctrl’ key. Note that it will not work on all software so you may need to paste into Microsoft Word. Another good tool, particularly if you run more than one screen and are in

the habit of losing your mouse pointer, can be found by clicking on the “start” button in the bottom left of your screen and choosing “Settings” (the little cog icon). In the “Windows Settings” box that appears, click on “Devices” and then “Mouse” in the left-hand column. In the top right, click on “Additional mouse options”. In the box that appears you can click on the “Pointer Options” tab. At the bottom of this box you can check the box beside “Show location of pointer when I press the CTRL key” – this shows you where your mouse is when you hit the control button. You can also opt to display pointer trails, which clearly show the trail of your mouse. Windows also has some tools for people with hearing issues. In the “Audio” section of the “Ease of Access” options, you can convert stereo audio to mono to combine left and right channels into one. You can also turn on visual alerts if hearing audible alerts is difficult. Again, under “Ease of Access” and “Audio”, use the dropdown box under “Show audio alerts visually” to choose the visual response you want.

TECHNOLOGY | SMART PHONES

Reboot your phone for

better performance

An over-worked phone, using too many apps, starts to slow down as it shuffles those apps. It’s time to reboot. Alan Royal reports.

or smart phones with an android operating system, if your device is having problems, the common suggestion is to just do a reboot – turn it off and on again. It is often said the phone performs better even if nothing is obviously wrong. The reason is that the more apps you use, the more you limit availability of the Random Access Memory (RAM). The more apps you are using, the more of that RAM will be used up. Even if you close those apps or they are manually removed from the RAM, bits and pieces of those apps continue to limit the available RAM. The operating system is very smart – it can move apps around to make room for new apps in the RAM. This is when your phone starts to slow down, as the system must both load and shuffle apps.

This is where rebooting your android phone helps. At reboot the RAM is cleared and all the old bits and pieces are removed. Open apps are killed. This means that when you reboot you phone the RAM is starting in a ‘clean’ state, and faster. Most of use just turn off our phone with the power button – this is not rebooting – it is just putting the phone to sleep. To reboot the phone, you need to hold down the power button until other options show on the screen. Those options will normally be Power Off, Restart and Aeroplane mode. The first two options will achieve the clean-up of RAM. Use the Power Off if you are not in immediate need of the phone, but the Restart if you have had a slowdown and want an immediate restart of the system. Note that a new screen will appear when you press any of these buttons to double check your action. You will notice an immediate effect once the phone has been rebooted. The main result will be faster loading and launching of apps. You will also note that switching between apps is faster. The question then is, how often you need to do a reboot. There is no one answer. It depends on how often and what apps you are using. If you notice your phone is slowing down, reboot – it does

You will notice an immediate effect once the phone has been rebooted. The main result will be faster loading and launching of apps. not take long. You could do a regular planned reboot say weekly. With some of the latest android phones you can find settings that will do the reboot automatically say once weekly – this is what I am able to do. A bonus of a reboot is that it often fixes a problem with a particular app. You may close or reopen that app to no effect. A reboot will generally solve the problem. The reason is, that when you close an app, as noted above, some remnants are still left in the RAM. A restart will ensure those remnants are removed from RAM. This may not always solve an app problem, but even if it doesn’t it is not much trouble to give a reboot a try. If a problem remains after a reboot you may have a bigger issue. In such a case, it may be worth attempting to uninstall and then reinstall the app from the Google Play Store. Note that holding down on an app and swiping to the red Remove button that appears, does not uninstall an app. You can only remove the app by going to Settings/Apps and doing an uninstall. If you would like a hard copy of this article email me at: alanroyalnz@gmail.com.

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July 2018

WORK HARD, PLAY HARDER

BARK OFF

Training the young dog

Round the world with Ag

To the Yukon and back again: Ag wasn’t always on the career cards for Rachel, but she wouldn’t look back now. Country-Wide

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PERFECT WOMAN

Steering her own course

Agriculture wasn’t on the recommended career path for Rachel Rule, but it has taken her around the world. Joanna Cuttance reports.

n 2016 Rachel Rule was crowned The Perfect Woman at the annual fundraising event for CanLive Cancer Trust, but since winning the crown she has not been resting on her laurels. Rather the 23-year-old has forged a career in the agricultural industry. Rachel is the stock manager at Longlands, a 352-hectare sheep farm, near Fortrose in Southland. Longlands, owned by Ian and Jeanette Ruddenklau, is close to where Rachel grew up on a small sheep farm near Tokanui. Never had she thought six years out of school she would be running a neighbour’s farm. But good education and being prepared to move around to learn different aspects of farming has left her more than capable. After she graduated high school Rachel was unsure which career path to choose. “The agricultural industry wasn’t something that was recommended in careers,” she says. She did not immediately head into farming. After a couple of years out of school she decided she want to be involved in the agricultural industry. She studied at Telford, near Balclutha, graduated with distinction in 2014 in the top 5%, with certificates in agriculture and in farm management. 76

“It is the ideal place to learn the practical side of farming. Also, the placements you are put on allow you to meet a wide diversity of farmers,” she says about Telford. Rachel believes knowledge is shared by communication and she had a knack for finding mentors who were happy to share their knowledge, whether it was at the local Waimahaka Collie Club or the Puketoi Young Farmers Club. After Telford she went to Landcorp’s Wilanda Downs, near Ohai, working for Neil and Sarah Hassall. Here she was able to apply skills she had learnt at Telford. Landcorp encouraged workers to keep learning and Rachel started an AgITO Level 4 course while there, participated in training days which included quad bike and tractor safety, and first aid courses. It was at Wilanda Downs she started her own team of dogs. When a fulltime casual position arose at Phil and Jo Dowling’s farm in Ranfurly, Rachel leapt at the chance to take on more responsibility. An added incentive was a taste of the high-country by mustering on a lease block the Dowlings had near the Pig Route on tussock country. “The dogs could stretch their legs, and I

enjoyed the challenge of casting them over longer distances. It was a great feeling seeing the rewards, from the hard work I’d put into them,” she says. Working in a much drier climate meant she had to learn the practicalities of irrigation. Phil helped build Rachel’s selfconfidence and encouraged her towards future career opportunities. Next, Rachel secured a job in the Wairarapa working at Wairere Rams. It was an opportunity to learn the genetic side of farming and she quickly realised there was a lot that needed to be learned. The upper management team encouraged learning and were happy to answer her questions. She also engaged with clients to find out what they were looking for. “Most of them are more than happy to tell you about their farming business, location, rainfall and how the season has been going,” she says. The people at Wairere are very knowledgeable and they enjoyed helping young individuals coming through. “It was a great place to learn what you should be striving for to make your own business successful. “You can learn a lot if you are good at listening as not everything in farming is practical,” she says. Country-Wide

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Packing the trophies

Experiencing the Yukon In 2017 Rachel Rule headed to the Yukon Territory in Canada to experience the big game industry. Initially, to prove her work ethic, she went as a volunteer to work for Midnight Sun Outfitting, who owned both a hunting outfit and a horse and cattle farm based 40 minutes from Calgary. “It’s hard to tell someone from the other side of the world you enjoy working rain, hail or shine,” she says. When she arrived in Canada she helped build a cabin, brand cattle and drove them to the summer pastures. Proving her work ethic she was given a job in the hunting outfit. Rachel’s job involved, working with horses, cooking for clients, and helping spot big game animals. Clients flew in for 12 days and had tags to shoot animals, like caribou, bears, wolves, sheep and moose, she says. Rachel and others, over five days would trail 40 horses to base camp in extremely remote areas of the Yukon. It was part of her job to look after the horses so they lasted the season and did not run away. At times, while wrangling, she felt she had been thrown in the deep end. But the challenges and being outside her comfort zone with the thought of predatory bears and wolves around were well worth it for the experiences she gained. “Northern lights, big game animals – moose, I got to experience it all and I’d love to go back,” she says. At some stage Rachel wants to travel to somewhere in New Zealand where she can get a taste of the Kiwi agricultural and hunting lifestyle. Since her stint in Canada Rachel has found another goal, to be a block manager in the high country. “I love the hills and challenges that would bring”. benefiting too.

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TOP ABOVE: Moose and bighorn sheep were among the game animals targeted. ABOVE: Rachel helped build Rae’s cabin.

Rachel started at Longlands at the end of 2017. The farm, with 252ha effective, runs 2500 TEFRom ewes and 700 hoggets, lambing the ewes in September and hoggets in October. There is never a typical day on the farm, which is one of the things she loves. If no sheep work is needed there is maintenance to be done, book work or forward planning. She has enjoyed the challenge of moving from shepherd to stock manager. The key differences are time management and planning, along with doing paper work and keeping records up to date, as well as calling the agricultural representatives. “Being in charge means I’ve got to always be thinking ahead in all aspects.” It is great to have a position where the owner is also a mentor and is prepared to let her make decisions and plan for the following year, she says. “It can’t be easy for any farmer to take a step back and let someone else make decisions”. Since returning to the Southern gateway to the Catlins, Rachel has integrated herself into the community. She is a member of Search and Rescue, participates at the Waimahaka Dog Trial Club days, is learning to sew at community classes and has joined a rugby team, along with being a member of the Fortification Discussion Group which she says is a great place to bounce ideas around at. She doubts she will enter this year’s Perfect Woman competition but says it is definitely something people should get involved in. “It is for a good cause and is a well-put-together weekend with some challenging events,” she says. She has some advice for those thinking of heading into the agricultural industry. “It’s a great lifestyle but you have to have a genuine interest. It’s a lot of hard work but the rewards at the end of the day are satisfying”. Rachel’s goal is to have set up where she could give back to Telford by taking on students and becoming a mentor to others who want a chance in the sector.

‘Most of them are more than happy to tell you about their farming business, location, rainfall and how the season has been going.’

Getting on board • Rachel’s advice for those heading into the agricultural industry: • Be passionate • Rain/hail/shine -stock need shifted • Great lifestyle but hard work • Ask questions • Find a good boss • Gain an understanding of the rural markets.

Rachel Rule and her dogs. 78

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BARK OFF

The most important command Lloyd Smith continues his theme of helping prepare a pup for training with essential handling procedures.

ll young dogs at some stage free, but this is all part of the process so long as demonstrate a reluctance to come they cannot come to any harm. so when this occurs do not let it Once they get the fighting and restraint become a habit, deal with it and aspect out of the system and learn that they teach your pup to come to you on cannot get free it is a lot easier to introduce the instruction. This is the “wayleggo” or “come wayleggo command. to me” command and is the most important I do this on a decent length of light rope command you will teach your dog. (12-15 metres) and work on a principle of This gives you control of your dog because “pressure and release”. I attach the rope to the so long as you can make it come you can then pup and call them to come and apply some override anything else it wants to do. pressure to the rope, tugging gently. This is a non-negotiable command. If When the pup makes a positive move toward you cannot catch your pup you will be pretty me I release the pressure and encourage the pup limited with what you will achieve with it to come up to my leg and assume the position and you cannot take it out and about until we mentioned in the last article also lifting their you can guarantee head and demanding compliance. For the their attention. pup’s welfare and The pup soon realises KEY POINTS safety it gives you the that by coming to 1. Take the time to bond and ability to call it back that position they get develop a good relationship out of potentially recognition and reward 2. A realisation of the need to dangerous situations. but by not coming the conform The second reason tugging on the rope 3. Recognition and response to this command is so can become quite the tone of the voice important is that it is uncomfortable. Do not 4. Complete compliance to the the first of your more reel the pup in like a wayleggo command serious commands fish. To be successful it to be taught so it must be their decision 5. Do not let bad habits develop sets the standard for to come to you. Also, do what’s to follow. If not be any more severe you do not achieve than you need to be. complete compliance, the success of the rest of Remember it is not a discipline issue until they your commands will be compromised. It is a choose to disobey you. waste of time moving on with further training Too many owners fall out with their pups at until your pup conforms to this instruction. this stage and then fail to get back on side with Before you teach your pup the wayleggo them. The secret to reinforcing this command command it is beneficial if the pup has learnt is for the following week or so every time you to be restrained by being tied up on a chain or have your pup off for exercise let it drag the rope to a wall or solid fence where it cannot length of rope around so you can pick it up at harm itself. Make sure the pup cannot climb random and ensure you get obedience. over or through and subsequently get hung up. When you start your young dog on stock The pup will tug at the chain or rope and can you may also need to leave the rope attached become quite acrobatic in their attempt to get as the distraction of stock can lead to them to Country-Wide

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Lloyd Smith demonstrates a control exercise on a puppy.

ignore your instruction. While it is important to ensure your young dog conforms to instruction, the better relationship you and your dog can maintain through training the better your results will be. The less pressure you apply to achieve your goals the easier it becomes to stay on good terms with your dog. From my experience you will never train two dogs of the same type and makeup. All have their unique characteristics, so it becomes vitally important to spend the time to bond with and understand your pup. A good knowledge and appreciation of the way they think and react is of great benefit during training.

TRAINING DAYS • July 12, Amberley Vets,- Vanessa Russell 03 314 8612 • July 13, Marlborough Vets, Tony Smith 03 577 9822 • July 17 Dannevirke, Grant Duff 06 374 7021 • July 18, Waipukurau, Arron Scoble 06 858 9060 • July 19, Hastings, Harold Amner 06 876 7001 • July 20, Wairoa, Beef & Lamb NZ • July 26, Te Awamutu, Vetora Vet Club, Inge Engelen 07 872 0004 • July 27, Piopio, Atkinson & Associates, Lisa 07 877 8106 • August, Hunterville Vets 06 322 8057

COMMUNITY | BUSINESS

Setting up shop for farmers Small towns tend to suffer when big companies close local branches. So one Central Otago farmer decided to do something about it. Words and photos by John Cosgrove.

hat do you do when the big companies pull out of your small rural town? See a need, fill a need. That’s the opportunity Beaumont farmer Dave Robinson, (55) saw when he decided to take his successful mail order farm supply business to the next level and open a proper retail shop. Robinson says he only had a few local clients as he didn’t advertise or push it in Lawrence because he was a firm believer in supporting local town businesses that were affordable and relevant to farmers in the area. But in August last year PGG Wrightson left town citing poor turnover. In the same month, Dave with his wife Karen opened their first physical farm supply store, JR Farm Supplies, in the old PGGW building on the main street in Lawrence. “They moved out to another site a while back because they got a car through the window. It is a far better building, so I brought it off my brother Jim.”

Dave and Karen Robinson outside their farm supply shop in Lawrence

Dave saw that his account with PGGW was $80,000. “That’s just my account. I wasn’t worried about them being there, but when they left it created a hole – no dedicated shop in town to service farmers.” It might have been different if there was a dairy industry in the area, but there were just sheep farmers. “I suppose we don’t spend enough money, but people still need supplies and

can’t afford the big improvements all the time.” But selling has always been a passion for Dave, who started out running a mail order business importing and selling laser sights back in the 1980s to counter a pest problem. “We did Mystery Creek 13 times, and everyone wanted one as they were very good quality.” Robinson says eventually poor-quality

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sights appeared on market and the authorities lowered the laser power rating, so they quit and then he decided to sell animal health products. At the same time he continued to run 8000 stock units on his 1000-hectare sheep and beef farm. “For the past 10-12 years I decided to sell drenches because you couldn’t get what you wanted around here, and industry advice was average.” As a farmer with more than 20 years’ experience he understood what farmers needed so started trading from home. He had never touched a computer and only had a cell phone for a year. But with the help of family Dave moved quickly from direct marketing to internet marketing to sell his directly to farmers around the country. Soon he was servicing up to 2% market share in NZ. When the bigger companies scaled back their commercial operations in Lawrence he saw an opportunity to set up shop. “I remember them building it when I was about five, but I didn’t envisage one day I’d be running it.” Dave says he saw a niche as many of the smaller shops in the town didn’t carry the more-expensive items such as grass seed and agri-chem for fodder beet. Dave believes that if you want to sell the big-ticket items you also need to supply the smaller items at a price which was relevant to your clients. “It’s all about saving money. As sheep farmers the only thing we can have any real influence on is our saving money.” His family has always been entrepreneurial. Brother Jim owns Tuapeka Gold Print and his other brother Mark has Robertson Shearing. Dave’s goal is to make the business strong enough so that no corporation can take it off them, “I’m great believer in small private ownership in small companies because the big ones often self-destruct.” He employs his daughter while son John helps him runs the farm. Not bad for a bloke who has dyslexia and taught himself to read and write after leaving school.

‘For the past 10-12 years I decided to sell drenches because you couldn’t get what you wanted around here, and industry advice was average.’

‘As sheep farmers the only thing we can have any real influence on is our saving money.’ Country-Wide

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SOLUTIONS | STAFFING

THE WHOLE PACKAGE Melissa Vining is a manager and senior human resources consultant for Progressive Consulting. She specialises in the agricultural sector, previously owning and directing a dairy farm.

btaining and retaining great employees is a challenge for any business and I know it is a huge stressor for farm owners, sharemilkers and contract milkers alike. Getting the recruitment process right is a huge step in the right direction to finding balance. The best place to start is to identify the skills you need onfarm. Not every employee can be or should be the whole package. What skills are essential in your new employee? It is not feasible or realistic to expect employees to have strengths in all areas. Concentrate on those gaps that are essential to fill. Never underestimate the planning process when it comes to recruiting staff. Consider creating a skills matrix to identify the “wants” from the “needs”. For this process to be successful you want to complete this matrix for your current workforce; this will help you identify any gaps you have in the team. For example, your farm manager might be fantastic running the farm at max productivity, but they might not be so strong at communicating and dealing with employment issues. If you’re then attempting to fill the 2IC role, you want to ensure the candidate’s communication skills are top notch to fill this skills gap. 82

might fit within the team (or whether there will be clashes) can save headaches down the track.

THE UNIQUE FACTORS

Melissa Vining.

DON’T IGNORE PERSONALITIES Personality matching is as important as obtaining people with the right skills. Farmers must be able to work collaboratively with their workmates and matching personalities goes a long way to making a happier and more productive working environment. This doesn’t mean you want everyone with identical personalities, but equally you don’t want them all in stark contrast. There are formal methods of personality testing including the likes of EDISC modelling. Similarly, situational questions during interviews can help draw out this information. Ensure candidates are as comfortable as possible to ensure their answers are a true reflection of their personality. Identifying how candidate personalities

Ensure each recruitment process is approached uniquely and be an employer people want to work for. What’s important to potential candidates can be unique. The key to obtaining and retaining great employees is to understand what is important to that person. It might be ensuring they don’t have to work Saturdays so they can be involved in the local football team, or it might be having a weekday off regularly to run errands and have a town day. Never assume employees are all the same. Rosters are also a big part of this equation. If you’re still operating a 12 and 2 roster system and struggling to obtain and retain employees, carefully consider a different arrangement. Factors including fatigue and happy employees appear directly linked to the rosters. Not all employees need to be on the same roster. Check out the DairyNZ Roster builder for more information on this. People enjoying their work perform better. A good roster can help prevent disputes down the road. From my experience, disciplinary matters and mistakes tend to rear their ugly head towards the end of particularly long working periods (day 10-12). A shorter work roster may stamp out some of these unnecessary distractions. Country-Wide

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SOLUTIONS | ANIMAL HEALTH

PREPARING FOR SI FIELD DAYS

Heading up efforts to organise South Island Agricultural Field Days 2019 are (from left) Rodney Hadfield, Tineka Johnstone, and Michaela McLeod.

With just under 300 days until the next South Island Agricultural Field Days (SIAFD) take place, organisers are preparing to host the event and exhibitors can now register on-line to reserve a site. SIAFD take place Wednesday, March 27 to Friday, March 29, 2019 at the permanent venue on Courtenay Road, Kirwee, west of Christchurch. This year the SIAFD organising committee has a new secretary and events co-ordinator, Tineka Johnstone. Tineka says an online application form is now available on the SIAFD website, along with a prospectus that provides all the information exhibitors need to know regarding how the field days will be run, payment, advertising options, and award competitions. “We want potential exhibitors to start thinking about their options and register early. We are upgrading the website so at present it looks a bit barebones, but the all necessary information is there. The new-look website will be up and running by the end of June,” she says. SIAFD is well-known for its machinery demonstrations and this will again be a major attraction. Exhibitors are encouraged to put their latest machines through their paces.

More? Call Tineka Johnstone on 03 318 1845 or info@siafd.co.nz or visit www.siafd.co.nz

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Earlier detection a focus for tackling livestock disease As the Government and farmers grapple with the Mycoplasma bovis outbreak facing New Zealand, AgResearch is working on developing new methods to detect diseases hidden at very low levels in livestock. A disease like Mycoplasma bovis can lie dormant at low levels in an animal for months before the illness becomes apparent. Detection at such low levels may help decision-making which can reduce the spread of a disease. AgResearch has been working with OSPRI for more than 25 years on the eradication of bovine tuberculosis (TB) from cattle herds in New Zealand, using diagnostic tools to identify infected animals. As good progress has been made in addressing M. bovis (the bacterium causing TB in the cows) in NZ, attention has recently turned to how to detect the “hard to find” instances of the disease. AgResearch senior scientist Dr Neil Wedlock says although M. bovis is a different organism to that which causes TB (Mycobacterium bovis), there is potential for applying some of the new techniques being developed for TB to a range of “hard to detect” infections. “We are having to be more sophisticated in how we detect low-levels of disease,” Wedlock says. “The earlier we can detect and test the presence of a disease, the better the outcome in terms of applying controls to prevent its spread, and potentially having more choices to manage a disease outbreak.” “Some of the tools we are looking to employ include the use of improved blood-based diagnostics for early detection of an animal’s response to disease. There are technologies we are using that measure compounds that both the bacteria and infectedhost produce. We can then compare the profiles of healthy (uninfected) and infected animals to establish the presence or absence of the bacteria.” The recent use of whole genome (DNA) sequencing of the Mycobacterium bovis organism is also providing detailed information about the paths of localised TB outbreaks in livestock. “In cases where tests for disease may be negative, because the diagnostic tools currently available are not sensitive enough to detect the disease-causing bacteria at very low levels, there are exciting new technologies that are capable of concentrating the dispersed individual disease-causing organisms to levels that allows sensitive diagnostic tools to identify them,” Wedlock says. “Every disease is unique, but as we test different approaches, it may be that we can add to New Zealand’s toolkit, and develop methods to detect a very damaging disease like Mycoplasma bovis earlier, and perhaps with less invasive methods. That could be a game-changer in terms of limiting the impact of a range of these hard to detect diseases.”

Farm Life