Rural News 3 April 2012

better bull buying More profit demands cunning use of genetics. page 34

parvo vaccinations Don’t let a good dog die. page 40

Rural NEWS

just a guy Politics runs in this family.

page 18

to all farmers, for all farmers

april 3, 2012: Issue 512

www.ruralnews.co.nz

Wool levy revisit p e t e r bu r k e

BEEF + LAMB NZ is to re-evaluate a commodity levy for wool following an overwhelming vote for such a move.

The vote was on a remit put to the recent annual meeting by Wairarapa farmer Derek Daniell.

BLNZ says in notes attached to the voting paper that if there was support for the remit it would be important to “re-test farmer opinion” at the 2013 annual meeting. Further support for the proposal there will likely prompt the inclusion of wool in the commodity levy referendum by B+LNZ due in 2014.

At the recent annual meeting views

on the remit appeared evenly divided; so it seems those not present swung the vote. The scrapping of the wool levy in 2009 was contentious and since then many farmers have expressed concern at lack of unity and progress in the sector.

Chairman Mike Petersen told the meeting “we’re living in volatile times” with prices for lamb at the farm gate dropping and farmers getting nervous.

The Red Meat Sector Strategy calls for farmers to develop more supply contracts with meat companies, but

farmers and meat companies must be prepared to meet that contractual commitment, which often hasn’t happened.

“Farmers generally think they can be better off selling stock on the day,” Petersen said.

Silver Fern Farms chairman Eoin Garden questioned Petersen, saying farmers should lock in supply contracts in the same way as they do mortgages.

But at least one farmer present claimed companies had been known to break contracts. Why should farmers honour them? he asked.

Petersen says one obstacle preventing farmers realising their potential is they don’t know how they are performing relative to other farmers, so BLNZ is considering performance benchmarking tools.

He is also concerned that much knowledge and science now available is not being taken up by farmers. “We need to understand why… farmers who don’t want to change are content doing what they are doing yet they don’t believe they are profitable enough.”

More from the meeting: p7

ripper start The first of the autumn’s calf sales at Temuka, South Canterbury, was “a ripper”, says PGW’s regional livestock manager, Joe Higgins.

“The first pen made $730/ head and the average was up $50 on last year.”

The 885 Hereford and Hereford/Angus x calves from the Glen Lyon and Huxley Gorge stations in the Mackenzie were sought after by a strong gallery of repeat buyers.

“The appeal is they’re quiet, and their size. They’re not the biggest calves so they won’t wreck the place.”

The result bodes well for remaining sales which are weekly or twice weekly to the end of April.

“All the indications are good.

It’s a grass fed market because the schedule is actually 40-50c back on where it was last year.”

Profit up 18% – Fonterra pa m t i pa

PRODUCTION UP 10%, sales 5%, revenue 7% and profit after tax 18% ahead of last year.

Those are the headline figures from Fonterra’s half year results announced late last week.

Revenue of just over $10 billion saw normalised earnings before interest and tax up 8%, generating an after-tax profit of $346 million for the six months to January 31.

Chairman Henry van der Heyden said at the results announcement the production increase was a national highlight.

“It’s from a good early spring, good grass in spring and plentiful rainfall through summer.”

Despite recent market falls Fonterra confirmed its current forecast payout range before retentions for 2011/12 at $6.75-6.85 for a fully shared-up farmer, made up of a milk price of $6.35/kgMS and net profit after tax range of $570-720m, equating to 40-50c/share.

Earnings per share were up 14% and the interim dividend of 12c/ share – up 8c/share on the same period in 2011 – would be paid April 20.

“The board has approved a change to the co-operative’s dividend policy so that a greater proportion of dividends can be to page 3

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Rural News // april 3, 2012

news 3 issue 512 Dividend payout policy change

www.ruralnews.co.nz

from page 1

News ������������������������������ 1-21 World ������������������������ 22-23 Agribusiness ����������� 24-25 Markets �������������������� 26-27 Hound, Edna ������������������� 28 Contacts ������������������������� 29 Opinion ����������������������� 28-31 Management ����������� 32-37 Animal Health �������� 38-44 Machinery and Products ������������������ 45-54 Rural Trader ���������� 54-55

Head Office Top Floor, 29 Northcroft Street, Takapuna, Auckland 0622 Phone: 09-307 0399 Fax: 09-307 0122 Postal Address PO Box 3855, Shortland Street, Auckland 1140 Published by: Rural News Group Printed by: PMP Print Contacts Editorial: editor@ruralnews.co.nz Advertising material: davef@ruralnews.co.nz Rural News online: www.ruralnews.co.nz Subscriptions: fionas@ruralnews.co.nz ABC audited circulation 80,879 as at 31.12.2011

paid out at the half year,” van der Heyden said. Previously the co-op’s policy allowed only 30% of the forecast full-year dividend to be paid out at half year; this had increased to 40-50%.

Van der Heyden said pricing in the Global Dairy Trade (GDT) drove Fonterra’s revenue and flagged the fact other players now sell through GDT. Prices on GDT for the first six months of this financial year compared to the first half last year were similar but prices spiked in the last six months of the previous financial year, he said.

Prices for the current six months are 12% down on that spike.

“The key point here is the Global Dairy Trade is a very important mechanism for Fonterra as that is what drives the farmgate price.”

Van der Heyden said four or five key weather events had caused some anguish in the half year.

“We had snow storms in Canterbury; we couldn’t collect milk off farms for a couple of days. Right in the peak of the season we had the Maui gas [pipe-

line leak] when a good number of our plants in the centre of the North Island and Northland couldn’t run because we didn’t have gas.”

Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings said in his six months with the company there’s been something happening every month, keeping the crisis management team active.

Australia/New Zealand revenue was down 4% but up 2% if a Western Australian business sold last year is excluded from the result. Spierings said the “retail war” in Australia pressured margins.

Revenue for Asia/Africa and Middle East (Asia/AME) was up 7% and Latin America was down 5%. The stronger New Zealand dollar had a negative impact on earnings for both.

Spierings said strong milk production was expected for the rest of the year, but New Zealand shared this with the US, Europe and Latin America. This was the first year in four-five years when production had been so strong globally, putting pressure on price. Demand would remain robust.

TAF and strategy latest pam t i pa

A SPECIAL meeting on TAF would be called by Fonterra if 5% of farmers wanted it, chairman Henry van der Heyden says. But he has a “high degree of confidence” TAF will go through.

“But under our constitution if 5% of farmers want to call a special meeting, and if they get that, we’ll call a special meeting,” he told a meeting to announce Fonterra’s halfyear result.

“We’ve got a mandate from farmers, we’re going through an extensive due-diligence process and 100% ownership and control by our farmers is non-negotiable.”

He believed the silent majority were letting Fonterra go through the due-diligence process and would “see what happens after that”. As a co-op, making fundamental changes

and taking farmers with them would always be a complex process.

Without TAF, Fonterra’s planned strategy would not be able to go ahead and they would have to “start to make other choices.”

In answer to questions on strategy, Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings said for Fonterra to maintain its market share with milk demand expected to grow by 100 billion litres by 2020, its New Zealand farms would need to produce 4 billion litres of that, with another 4 billion from milk pools overseas. This would either be from Fonterra farms or local farmers.

In his ‘strategy refresh’ statement, Spierings said Fonterra’s milk production in China would be accelerated and integrated with its local business by manufacturing products for Chinese customers.

• More from Spierings: p25

Co-ops key to NZ economy PETER BURKE

AT LEAST 200 people last week attended a function to mark the official launch of the United Nations Year of the Cooperatives in New Zealand.

Hosted by Minister of Commerce Craig Foss in Wellington, the crowd included representatives of New Zealand’s many cooperatives, business people, MPs – even the Netherlandsbased chair of Rabobank, Peit Moerland, and the Netherlands Ambassador to New Zealand, Arie van der Wiel.

The New Zealand Cooperatives Association has 50 members headed by former Fonterra Shareholders Council chair Blue Read.

He told the gathering the International Year of Cooperatives can highlight the success and raise awareness

of such organisations globally and in New Zealand.

“In New Zealand cooperatives have been around since 1871 when eight dairy farmers joined forces and invested one pound each to start their own cheese factory in Otago.

“The cooperative ethos suits the New Zealand psyche. Compared to other countries cooperatives and mutuals are a relatively large part of the New Zealand economy, being almost 10% of the country’s top 200 businesses as represented by turnover.

“New Zealanders have an innate knack of looking at a situation and quickly working out what’s a fair deal and what’s not. As a result we have embraced the cooperative model.”

The top 40 cooperatives’ combined revenues exceed $39.6 billion. Fonter-

Commerce Minister Craig Foss (right) and NZ Cooperatives Association member John O’Connor.

ra’s out front with $19.8 billion, then Foodstuffs with close to $8 billion.

And others in the top 40 are agricultural: Silver Fern Farms, Alliance, CRT, Farmlands, Ravensdown, West-

land Dairy and Rabobank.

Cooperatives employ 43,000 people and contribute 3% of New Zealand’s GDP. Internationally cooperatives employ 100 million people.

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Rural News // April 3, 2012

4 news

Tsunami of The Large Herds Association last week held its annual meeting and conference – The Dairy Business Conference – in Palmerston North.

Sudesh Kissun reports Changing times: Large Herds’ chair Bryan Beeston says they need to attract the 40-something generation.

Industry changes prompt postponement FARMERS’ DECLINING interest in the annual Dairy Business Conference has prompted the organisers to announce a one-year breather.

The New Zealand Large Herds Association (NZLHA) – the organiser – will join DairyNZ in surveying farmers before deciding on a new format for the 2014 conference.

The event has lost money for three years, says president Brian Beeston. Sponsor and professional sector interest is strong but farmers are staying away because of “changing dynamics” in the dairy industry.

“Previously we could easily attract farmer owners to the conference. Now, more farms are owned by investors, large corporates and iwi

and run by managers... They don’t come to the conference,” he told Rural News.

Beeston believes Fonterra’s formation has also taken farmers’ interest away from the event. “In 1990, there were 16 dairy companies and farmers came to these conferences to find out what the next-door co-op was doing. Our backyard now is New Zealand.”

Beeston hopes the farmer survey will give them ideas on attracting the “40-year old farmer.”

“We have to get the next-generation farmer who uses an iPad and laptop to our conference.”

Beeston estimates at least 50% of 280 attendees last week were

sponsors and industry professionals. The three-day conference costs $280,000-320,000, including $35,000 for the exhibition space for sponsors.

He agrees too many conferences about March affect attendance, including the Dairy Womens Network conference and New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards finals.

Last week’s NZLHA annual meeting heard suggestions to hold the event in June, but this would clash with the South Island Dairy Event.

Another suggestion was a North Island equivalent of SIDE. “So there will be a conference in 2014 but we will decide the format after the survey,” says Beeston.

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DAIRY FARMERS can expect a ‘tsunami’ of policy on sustainability to head their way, says Fonterra’s general manager sustainability policy and carbon, John Hutchings.

He warned the confer-

ence’s 250 farmers to stay on top of their game or get drowned in policy.

And he urged the industry to work closely with regional councils and other stakeholders on formulating policy.

Fighting costly battles with regional councils should be avoided, Hutchings warned, citing the Waikato Regional Council’s Variation 6 water allocation policy, finalised in the Environment Court

China slowdown not all bad CHINA’S economy is losing momentum but it’s not bad news for our dairy exports.

Rabobank head of financial markets research Asia Pacific, Adrian Foster, expects China’s economy to grow 8% over the next two years after peaking at 12% in 2010. He says 11.7 million people are still moving annually to cities in China, opening new markets for dairy products.

“Just keep in mind 650 million Chinese people are yet to move,” he told last week’s Dairy Business Conference in Palmerston North. He spoke on ‘State of Play- a global perspective.’

Foster says the Chinese economy Adrian Foster, Rabobank. faces two big problems: over-supply of property and indebted local government.

“Recently the European Central Bank “But we should keep these risks in perspective and think about the outlook,” he has provided effectively unlimited liquidity says. “My view is the combination of the to the eurozone’s financial system and this global backdrop, the cyclical risks con- has seen risks subside noticeably, and will fronting China’s economy and the under- over time support growth in the broader lying factors supporting their trend growth economy. I don’t think a financial crisis is momentum will resolve themselves with brewing in the EU.” On the US economy, Foster sees signs growth of circa 8% year-on-year in their the economy is picking up. But until the economy this year and next.”

He also brushed aside concerns on the labour market shows marked improveUS and EU economies. “The headlines are ment interest rates are likely to remain low for two years. With demand for the US overstating the negatives.”

Since Greece’s bailout, attention is dollar low, the Kiwi dollar will be popular.

Foster doubts there will be much respite turning to Italy, the EU’s third largest economy. But Foster believes there’s nothing to for the strong New Zealand dollar. “It looks set to stay high.” worry about.

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news 5

policy looming respected seat at the table but we also have to play our part.”

LAWF is expected to release results of its second phase in three months which Hutchings says will be far reaching.

“There will be clear guidelines set for minimum standards that everyone has to work for.

“We have to argue strongly in LAWF. We have to win our respected seat at the table but we also have to play our part.”

No good spirit came out of WRC’s style of Variation 6 policy making, he says: “It left blood on the floor and was a costly exercise for everyone.”

Hutchings says the Land and Water Forum (LAWF), an umbrella body for formulating water policy, is a good example of collaboration between stakeholders. “We have to argue strongly in LAWF. We have to win our

LAWF is a good example of collaboration whereby we avoid debating on the front pages of newspapers.”

Hutchings warns competition for water will be fierce and dairy farmers’ efforts to protect water quality will remain under scrutiny. Farmers are doing their bit: Fonterra’s Dairying and Clean Streams Accord has enabled 78% of streams

and waterways to be fenced.

But he concedes effluent management is the industry’s “Achilles heel”, though the co-op is improving effluent management through its ‘every

farm every year’ initiative.

Hutchings says significant non-compliance has dropped from 17% last year to 11% this year. The co-op now has 14 sustainable dairy advisers working with farmers.

About half the 250 delegates at the Dairy Business Conference were non-farmers.

Front foot it says Feds’ rep FEDERATED FARMERS Dairy vice chairman Andrew Hoggard says farmers need to get on the front foot on sustainability. He told the Dairy Business Conference that fencing waterways, proper effluent systems and nutrient plans should be top priorities. Farmers should also stop worrying about what neighbouring farmers are doing.

“Don’t worry about your neighbours.

If the sheep-and-beef farmers are not doing it, it’s not your problem. Sustainability is not going away. We need to get on the front foot.”

Hoggard, who spent seven weeks pushing the Feds’ case at the Environment Court over Horizon Regional Council’s One Plan, says he could have spent the time planting trees and fencing waterways on his farm.

He describes the council’s original One Plan released in 2006 as “unreal-

istic”. Hoggard is still leading the Feds’ work on the water quality section that affects dairying in the One Plan.

In 2006, DairyNZ was not in existence and Fonterra had only a handful of sustainability advisers leaving farmers with not enough resources to fight the council.

Hoggard says instead of spending money on lawyers the industry should get behind its Dairying and Clean Streams Accord.

“The RMA process is timeconsuming and not achieving anything.

We’ve been spending all our money on lawyers. It’s by lawyers, for lawyers. The DCSA should be our vision and will help get the public behind us.”

He’s also calling for more science on dealing with soil and water quality.

“If someone says we can’t put cows in an area, we need to have the science to prove them wrong.”

PASTORAL DAIRY Investments (PDI) is enthusiastic about the level of response from the “rural heartland” to its public share offering in New Zealand dairy farms.

From Ashburton, to Gore and New Plymouth, people who are not normally interested in shares,

but understand farming as retired farmers or through family and friends, are taking an interest, MyFarm director Andrew Watters told Rural News.

“They normally have their money on deposit in the bank.”

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after a long struggle between the council and farmers.

He says WRC’s first proposal allocated all but 3.6% of the water flow to Mighty River Power, risking the region’s dairy sector. After “engaging vigorously” the industry secured an extra 1.4% water flow for farmers.

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Rural News // April 3, 2012

6 news

Fauna and flora survey fears e r e n a m c caw

BE WARY of apparently well-meaning surveys of flora and fauna on your land because the findings could come back to haunt you, warns a Federated Farmers national board member.

Feds Meat and Fibre group chair Jeanette Maxwell is referring to a voluntary biodiversity survey done in conjunction with Ashburton District Council (ADC).

The Mid-Canterbury foothills farmer says she has no problem with district councils wanting to identify local indigenous biodiversity areas.

“But the important thing is that landowners

understand clearly what the information will be used for and by whom.

Will it be included in future district plans? If so, what will be the likely outcomes for farmers?”

Information given freely by farmers in the interest of protecting areas of high conservation value has in the past resulted in ordinary farming practices being curtailed, she says.

“Mid Canterbury high country farmers who assisted in the Protected Natural Areas programme in the late 1980s did so in good faith only to find they had effectively put their heads in a noose.”

Areas of potential interest were identified but full

assessment and selection of sites worth including in the PNA programme were not done. Lacking its own database, ADC adopted the PNA survey’s preliminary data in its entirety and noted all sites in its next district plan.

Despite an Environment Court ruling that some areas in dispute be re-assessed within five years, the notifications and subsequent farming restrictions remain.

Maxwell is concerned history may be about to repeat itself.

Recent changes to the RMA mean that rather than having ‘regard for’ regional biodiversity policies, district councils must now enact them.

In 2010, frustrated by Environment Canterbury’s (ECan) tardiness in developing a regional biodiversity statement, ADC launched its own initiative. It set up a community-based biodiversity working group, telling it to develop and implement a plan giving effect to ECan’s proposed regional policy statement. Maxwell and Robin Grigg were appointed the group’s Feds representatives.

Maxwell worries that ADC’s mission statement refers not only to indigenous biodiversity but also to habitats and systems which support indigenous biodiversity – systems such as shelter-belts.

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Check what biodiversity survey information will be used for, says Feds Meat & Fibre chair, Jeanette Maxwell (inset.).

Nothing to fear says ACD THERE IS no hidden agenda to regulate Ashburton district landowners with ‘biodiversity sites’ identified on their properties in a roadside survey of Ashburton plains’ dryland vegetation.

So says Ashburton Biodiversity Working Group chairperson Alicia Jenkins in answer to Federated Farmers concerns that landowners could be adversely affected by participating in the voluntary survey.

Jenkins, who is also Ashburton District Council (ADC) policy advisor, says anything spotted on private land during the survey was examined only with the landowner’s permission.

The few landowners involved “were pleased… to discover any important pieces of vegetation and point the team to other things they had noticed.” While the roadside data will be openly available, information concerning private sites will not.

ment’s vague, warm-fuzzy terminology is open to wide interpretation and gives regard to biodiversity full-stop. It allows the working group to capture virtually anything it wants, and given the strong conservation leaning of its membership, that capture is pretty green.”

She and Grigg have withdrawn from the

The working group has not at this stage recommended the sites be included as an amendment to ADC’s district plan.

Sites will be prioritised in significance; management recommendations will be made for each.

Jenkins says the group’s biodiversity action plan is concerned firstly with the protection and management of indigenous species and habitats.

“The decision to include systems which support indigenous biodiversity recognises the importance of our total biodiversity as it has evolved and introduced species have become naturalised.”

Jenkins answers Feds concern that Forest & Bird has undue influence on the working group by saying the organisation has the same representation as DoC, Environment Canterbury, Fish & Game, ADC and landcare groups.

group, saying Feds cannot be seen as supporting an ADC/Forest & Bird-driven initiative to survey and virtually classify local indigenous biodiversity.

Grigg says the survey builds on a previous limited vegetation survey of Ashburton Plains roadsides but has been broadened to “looking over fences onto private land.”

He fears that in the absence of other data ADC will use the survey’s raw information to define outstanding indigenous biodiversity values, elevating all sites to ‘outstanding’ status no matter how lowvalue or repeated they are.

Once listed in the district plan, the sites will become subject to council monitoring and rules.

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Rural News // april 3, 2012

new 7

Feds president backs fence call ‘in principle’ PETER BURKE

BEEF + LAMB New Zealand’s call for sheep-andbeef farmers to fence waterways where practical is supported “in principle” by Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills.

He told Rural News Feds has said the same thing for a long time but the problem lies in implementation.

Wills was at BLNZ’s annual meeting last month in Hawke’s Bay when Petersen came out strongly on environmental issues saying a delineation between dairying and sheep-and-beef no longer exists.

Petersen says intensive sheep-and-beef farmers on classes of land similar to dairy need to be proac-

tive and start fencing their waterways, while acknowledging such a proposal on steep hill country would be “impractical”.

While Wills clearly sees merit in Petersen’s call for action, he repeatedly tiptoed around the issue when talking to Rural News, probably because some Feds’ members would be less than happy or not fully up with the play on environmental issues.

The federation is doing a lot of work on water issues and is participating fully in the work of the Land and Water Forum (LAWF), Wills points out.

Sheep-and-beef farmers are also now carrying drystock for dairy farmers, and the “conversation” is broadening to protect

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waterways as best farmers can.

“But it’s a difficult one with drystock properties.

There are lots of different options and we are having regular discussions within Federated Farmers on how we can set some sensible parameters to do the right thing with water.”

Like Petersen, Wills says the idea of fencing streams in the steep hill country is not practical and even if it was it would be massively expensive.

Options include alternative water sources and shade provision to stop cattle resting in streams to keep cool. He concedes they must look at the issue “a little more vigorously.”

Petersen had no qualms about fronting the issue. He concedes BLNZ

cannot dictate what farmers should do, but at the annual meeting clearly warned what the future might hold.

“The risk is that we will be regulated. LAWF is delivering its report shortly to the Cabinet and I’m sure there will be increased scrutiny of the sheep-and-beef sector as a result of that piece of work.”

BLNZ president Mike Petersen, Minister for Primary Industries David Carter, and Federated Farmers president Bruce Wills at BLNZ’s recent AGM.

Petersen also referred his audience to the recently released Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment (PEC) report on the science relating to water

quality, noting the point about sediment being one of the main pollutants of rivers, something he says sheep-and-beef farmers can do something about.

“The key thing for me

is that farmers have got to map their resources first and determine what action they need to take, [then] they may find the amount of work to be done is relatively small.”

Carter’s comments PRIMARY INDUSTRY Minister David Carter warns BLNZ it must perform well.

He reminded the annual meeting that the next commodity levy vote is looming and survival of the industry-good body depends on farmers confidence in it.

“As we saw in the wool vote in 2009, the meat industry would face an uncertain future without

BLNZ. Farmers must better understand what they are voting for. They can rightfully expect a red meat sector showing greater unity than in the past.”

Carter acknowledges BLNZ, the Meat Industry Association and MAF are working closely together to enact the Red Meat Sector Strategy, but says behavioural change and transformation are essential.

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Rural News // april 3, 2012

news 9

Wood’s tough times set to improve PETER BURKE

ASSOCIATE MINISTER for Primary Industry Nathan Guy says the outlook for wood remains challenging, with depressed market conditions prevailing overseas.

Guy, responsible for forestry in the Government, told the industry’s recent Forestwood Conference to “lead the thinking.”

“Short-term it looks like we’re in for a bumpy ride. Long-term economic conditions are set to improve. We have the Christchurch rebuild ahead of us and we expect construction to pick as the economy starts to recover.

“Longer term we also know there’s going

Fert demand prompts new plane

“Here in New Zealand we expect an increase in annual wood availability of 40% by the 2020s.” to be strong demand as the world’s population grows and standards of living increase. By 2020 we expect the Asia Pacific region will have 4.2 billion people, about 50% of the world’s population. This will create opportunities for New Zealand.”

Behind the two giants India and China are other large, fast-growing economies such as Indonesia, Russia, Brazil, Turkey and Mexico. In the past five years the developed world’s cumulative GDP grew 3%, but emerging

economies 46%.

“Here in New Zealand we expect an increase in annual wood availability of 40% by the 2020s, and we need to make the most of this ‘mountain of wood’.”

But the forests supplying this extra wood are more geographically spread than forests now being harvested. Many are on steeper land distant from infrastructure and processing.

In the past year forestry exports earned $4.8 billion, third after dairy and meat. Guy welcomed the

Nathan Guy

sector’s ‘ambitious goal’ of increasing export earnings to $12 billion by 2022.

“The Strategic Action Plan produced by the New Zealand Forest and Wood Products Industry sets out the benefits this would bring. The challenge for your industry now is to turn that into action.”

GROWING HILL country demand for fertiliser has prompted Ballance AgriNutrients subsidiary Super Air to add a 16th aircraft to its fleet.

The demand stems from better sheepand-beef returns on the back of firmer prices and excellent pasture growth, the firm says.

“Continuing optimism in the sheepand-beef sector means farmers are planning ahead and looking at their farm nutrition requirements on top of maintenance fertiliser applications. This has increased our workload,” says Super Air manager Graeme Martin.

Already more fertiliser’s gone on than this time last year. “And we’re just getting

into the busy autumn period.”

The Cresco plane has a 2t payload and adds 20,000t/year to the firm’s spreading capacity. It will be based in Te Kuiti, moving around the North Island as required.

“The Cresco has become the plane of choice for aerial topdressing. It was based on the Fletcher and is more powerful and more efficient, but it remains strong and safe to operate.”

Pilot safety is the number one priority of Super Air, a fully-owned subsidiary of Ballance Agri-Nutrients. In December 2011 it marked an industry milestone of 1500 days without a lost-time injury.

• Record N use figures and nutrient benchmarks: p10

Let’s get down to business

13-16 June 2012 www.fieldays.co.nz

KingSt10715_RN_A

Rural News // April 3, 2012

10 news

Total Fertiliser Consumption in New Zealand 1961 - 2011

Nitrogen use hits new record

Tours also planned to...

2009-10

2007-08

2005-06

2003-04

2001-02

1999-00

1995-96

1997-98

1993-94

1991-92

1989-90

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1985-86

1983-84

1981-82

1979-80

1977-78

1975-76

1973-74

1971-72

1969-70

1967-68

1965-66

1963-64

1961-62

300 250 200 150 100 50 2010/11

2008/09

2006/07

2004/05

2002/03

2000/01

1998/99

1996/97

1994/95

1992/93

1990/91

1988/89

1986/87

1984/85

1982/83

1980/81

1978/79

1976/77

1974/75

1972/73

1970/71

0

Nutrient benchmarks to raise awareness

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10’s 2.3mt though still well short of the 2004-5 peak of 3.3mt.

Elemental potassium use is comparable with use 19 years ago and remains well below the 134,000t peak use hit in 2002-03.

Elemental phosphorus use also increased for the first time in three years to 147,400t but remains well below the 2004-5 peak of 218,600t.

350

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have a breakdown of where the increased use of the various nutrients is occurring, but Mladenov says a combination of improving farm incomes, particularly in the sheep and beef sector, and depletion of soil nutrient reserves, contributed to the increases overall.

Total use, at just over 3 million tonnes, was more than a third up on 2009-

400

1966/67

WINTER IN THE SUN – JUNE 2012

years ago.”

Speaking to Rural News, Mladenov said he was “simply reporting the data as he saw it.”

As for Edmeades’ view farms are using nitrogen to cover up other problems, Mladenov acknowledges “there may be some individual farmers doing that but we don’t see it as a trend.”

Fert Research doesn’t

N Consumption in New Zealand 1961 - 2011

1964/65

with Edmeades.

“These are all excuses.

In every case I look at there are underlying fertility problems.”

The Fert Research announcement appeared to play down the nitrogen figure, despite it being 3% more than the previous peak of 355,000t hit in 2004-5.

“Elemental nitrogen use increased by about

1962/63

Doug Edmeades

QUEENSLAND 2012

Farm To Farm Tours

8% over the previous year 3,500,000 to 367,000 tonnes, which brings it3,000,000 into line with the previous2,500,000 seasonal peak use figure established in 2,000,000 2005,” it quoted Mlad1,500,000 enov.

1,000,000 “Since 2005 elemental nitrogen use has moved 500,000 within a relatively 0 narrow band, and use of this important and strategic nutrient is now back to where it was six

tonnes

NEW ZEALAND’S use of nitrogen fertiliser hit a record high last year at 367,000t, according to Fert Research data released last week.

Phosphate and potash use also rose, though neither are close to previous highs.

Fert Research chief executive Philip Mladenov says the figures show farmers are reinvesting in their properties to improve production capacity and agricultural export potential.

“These are initiatives the fertiliser industry welcomes.”

However, the nitrogen use raises concerns with

independent fertiliser specialist Doug Edmeades.

“In terms of the increase P,K, S etc, this is a good sign: it indicates farmers are now replenishing their soil nutrient levels but the bad news is the nitrogen figure.

“A lot of fertiliser nitrogen is being used where it’s not required and it’s being used to cover up underlying soil fertility problems limiting clover growth, and we all know clover nitrogen is about five times cheaper than bag N.” Arguments that the nitrogen is needed to compensate for pests such as clover root weevil or clover flea, or recover from drought, don’t wash

000's tonnes

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BENCHMARKS FOR nitrogen conversion, leaching and phosphorus loss have been set nationwide by Dairy NZ and Fert Research.

They follow checks late last year on 3200 farms and were calculated using the Overseer nutrient budget model, as used by 98% of dairy farmers.

Dairy NZ regional representatives are now introducing the benchmarks to farmers to raise understanding of efficient nutrient use and loss, Dairy NZ sustainability team leader Mike Scarsbrook says. This must be understood if the dairy industry is to maintain its global edge, he says.

And he warns that regional councils are also looking into nutrient losses. “It’s talked about a lot at regional councils how nitrogen goes through the farm system and where it goes to but it’s not something farmers think about

too much,” he told Rural News. “The more efficient you make the farm system, the better it is for your pocket in productivity gains.”

Horizons Regional Council, Rotorua District Council and Taupo District Council either already have nutrient caps in place or are putting the final touches to nutrient caps, he notes.

Farmers can expect more regional councils to move on this sooner rather than later, so getting a grip on it is important.

Phosphate loss is generally easily understood, as it’s tied to soil loss so proper race design and good soil and effluent management keep it under control, but nitrogen efficiency is harder to grasp, he says.

“A lot of water needs to go under the bridge in respect of nutrient use and efficiency for farmers.”

The benchmarks are at www.dairynz.co.nz/page/ pageid/2145874223/Nutrient_Use_Efficiency

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12 news Farmer flags environment angle in Northland floods Garet h G ill att

NORTHLAND FARMERS are calling for a revision of the Hikurangi Flood Control Plan after being hit with a third 100-year flood in five years.

A 200mm deluge on

March 18-20 inundated farmland, closed roads and delayed milk collections.

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Collective pasture renewal costs are estimated at $49m, but Smith says the effects on the river and the Kaipara Harbour worry him most.

“It’s an environmental time bomb... We’ve been liasing with the council and fencing off waterways but what’s the point when something like this happens?” he said to Rural News.

Smith blames an outdated catchment and river management system for the situation and says changes are needed throughout the Wairua River and Kaipara Harbour catchment.

Whangarei District Council waste and drainage manager Andrew Carvell says the Hikurangi flood control system was designed in the 1960s to handle a one-in-five-year storm, but recent large storms have prompted suggestions the design is

out-of-date.

The council has raised the future of the scheme with farmers and other stakeholders and council’s immediate aim is to repair damaged stop banks and adjust spillways.

“Our main goal is to get the flood control system working to its intended capacity,” says Carvell.

Resource consents allow 40,000L/sec. to be pumped into the Wairua River. Carvell says the council and farmers are further limited because they can’t pump when the river is already full.

The council is working with a Kaipara Harbour water quality focus group to find a whole-system solution but the number of people and organisations involved make it difficult.

“Kaipara Harbour encompasses two regional councils and three district councils... Things can get very complicated.”

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Leanne Otene, the school’s principal, says it is an important milestone for Northland children and the community.

“Improving our kids’ nutrition is an absolute priority and it’s wonderful to be able to offer students a serving of milk every school day.”

Manaia View is one of at least 100 Northland schools now providing milk to 10,000 children daily, a move Chris Farrelly, chief executive of Manaia Health, sees as a game-changer for the wellbeing of children.

Fonterra will monitor the pilot for three terms, intending nationwide start in 2013, says Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings.

“Our motivation is to get more Kiwis drinking more milk, starting with our kids.

“Milk is one of the most nutritious foods, and as leaders in dairy nutrition we want to do what we can to make it more accessible to New Zealanders.”

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14 news

Careers eye-opener a hit su e ed m o nds

SENIOR STUDENTS interested in careers in agriculture turned up in droves to the first of this year’s Get Ahead Experience days, held at the Karapiro Domain, Waikato.

Each school party was

allocated to one of ten different groups to circulate around various problem-solving activities. The activities represented a variety of jobs likely to crop up on-farm or in related or consultative areas.

How much are my lambs worth today? Are

they the right weight for what the works want?

Should I hold off for another week? A trailer full of lambs was judged, condition scored, and the ups and downs of the meat schedules were examined.

My farm has numerous different environments and uses. What should

happen in each area? How does effluent drainage work? What do I do with native bush, or wetlands, and what should be in the streams around my farm?

Some teams were clued up, others had a lot to discover about caring for farm environments.

Which pasture plants

are which, and what do their seeds look like?

What sort of fertiliser mixes should be used where, and can you tell one from another? This bit was certainly easier for kids from farms, but the others learned from watching and listening.

Coping with nasties – Which seeds make which product?

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whether fungal, insect species or weeds and pests – let students discover what products to use on each and what the words on the containers mean.

The complexities of shipping farm produce to other countries, and finding suitable ships sailing at appropriate times, had the maths whizzes leading the charge.

Working out which countries take our meat, and investigating the differences required in packaging was knowledge beyond many students, who needed to read a few more newspapers and farming papers to brush up their knowledge of what brings in a good chunk of New Zealand’s export income.

Calculating pasture quality, stock energy requirements and quantity wasn’t as easy as a first glance at the pictures might appear.

Naming and matching up containers of various seeds with the products they get turned into caused much discussion, and obviously some hadn’t

given raw materials much thought, while others were brashly confident.

A variety of ‘things’ in jars of formalin produced a mixture of reactions, and there were obviously some who weren’t going to be vets, while others found the contents fascinating.

The afternoon was spent ‘speed dating’ with representatives from the variety of industries who talked about what they do in their jobs.

Some students spoken to at lunchtime were decided on what they wanted to do next year; others appeared blown away by the huge range of choices and the knowledge required for them.

Ten such events will be held this year, six in the North Island and four in the South, the final ones in June, funded jointly by DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb New Zealand.

The organisation of each experience day has been handed over to Young Farmers members, who urged their teams on and made sure the shy ones participated.

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Rural News // april 3, 2012

news 17

Dairy women say celebrate success pa m t i pa

“IT IS wonderful to be here in the powerhouse of New Zealand dairy.”

The packed audience of mainly dairy farmer women burst into applause at those opening words from Fonterra director Nicola Shadbolt at the Dairy Womens Network gala dinner during its annual conference at Rotorua.

“We tend to keep our lights under a bushel … but I know New Zealand dairy can’t succeed the way it does without the contribution [of] women. If we compare ourselves around the world we are efficient on-farm because of strong partnerships on-farm.”

Citing recent studies showing a correlation between women on boards and business success, she said: “There’s room at the table for more.”

Her sentiments summed up the mood and spirit of the conference held at the Millennium Hotel in Rotorua on March 20 and 21, attended by a record 360 women and including the first-ever Dairy Woman of the Year award contest.

Barbara Kuriger, a Taranaki farmer, mother, grandmother and industry representative who loves to foster potential in others, won the title and a $25,000 scholarship on the prestigious Women in Leadership 12-month

course run by Global Women. The scholarship is sponsored by Fonterra Milk Supply.

The women attending were youthful, enthusiastic and confident, but speaker after speaker called on dairy industry women to keep learning, push themselves forward and aim higher.

RD1 chief executive Sarah Kennedy and BNZ director Dr Susan Macken outlined their colourful and not always smooth pathways to the top, illustrating the ‘Resilience’ theme of the conference and urging others to follow in their footsteps.

“I am amazed and dismayed at how we as women underestimate our

abilities,” Kennedy said, as she went on to urge mothers in the audience to “affirm their daughters” so they would meet their full potential.

In workshops, motivational speakers such as Dame Susan Devoy covered topics such as fitness, networking, organisation, management and teamwork. And nitty-gritty on-

Community leadership award

farm material abounded – examining cow uterus (workshop on the uterine disease), endometritis; and a seminar on breeding cows for profit no matter what the payout.

Second-day main speaker Theo Spierings, Fonterra CEO, spoke about market strategy and said Fonterra needed to improve its image.

TANIA EARNSHAW , Reporoa, won the Community Leadership Award from the Dairy Womens Network at its conference dinner in Rotorua.

Earnshaw is DWN’s Rotorua regional convenor who during the past year has helped establish and mentor two new groups in BOP – Taupo and Opotiki. She was also on the conference organising committee this year.

“Tania is always enthusiastic and supportive and has good ideas about how the network can keep improving and growing,” says network chief executive Sarah Speight.

“I enjoy her input and attitude. This award recognises her passion for dairying and DWN and her energetic leadership.”

Largest yet DAIRY WOMEN’S Network chief executive Sarah Speight says the 360 delegates to this year’s conference make it the largest yet.

The speakers, workshops and panel discussions clearly appealed to many dairy women regardless of

their level of involvement on farm.

“The gala dinner announcing the inaugural Dairy Woman of the Year was a highlight. The winner, Barbara Kuriger, is already an inspiration to many.” Speight says she enjoyed the energy and the positive feeling

of the conference. “It is a very different conference from others in the dairy industry due, I believe, to the ‘feminine perspective’ of the voluntary organising committee.”

Next year’s conference will be in Nelson, March 20-21.

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Rural News // April 3, 2012

18 news

Another Guy in politics MP for Otaki Nathan Guy was made Associate Minister for Primary Industry following the November election. He is ranked 18th on the National’s Party list and seen by some as the most likely successor to incumbent minister David Carter. Peter Burke reports POLITICS AND farming are in the genes of 42-year-old Nathan Guy. His father Malcolm chaired the Horowhenua County Council and in 1989, following local government reform, he became the district’s first mayor.

The Guy family have been dairy farmers at Koputaroa just north of Levin since 1933. Although close to Levin, this district feels seriously rural.

You know you’re close to his place when you see a ‘cows crossing’ sign.

Guy went to the local Waiopehu College, then Massey University, graduating with agriculture degree and a diploma in rural studies; then back to the farm, but always with a view to entering politics.

“I was brought up with a long history of rural politics and local government stuff. My father encouraged me into local body politics, saying you can do almost a full day’s work then go to a meeting at 4pm, so you get the best of both worlds. Central government politics evolved from that.”

Guy and his family own three dairy farms around Koputaroa, running about 1400 cows, all with managers.

Guy and his wife Erica and three children live in Wellington during the week, but try to get to the farm at weekends to reconnect with the rural lifestyle.

He says it’s important young people are encouraged into careers in agriculture, and he applauds the promotion work of Federated Farmers, DairyNZ, Fonterra and BLNZ. The sector competes for the best young people with medicine and other professions.

“Farming is such a big, valuable business that we need to attract those with the right intellectual grunt

who can perform for the sector.”

Guy sees not so much a ‘divide’ between urban and rural New Zealand as a ‘disconnect.’ Why? Fewer young people nowadays get opportunity to visit a farm, so the Feds’ annual farm days are important.

Guy disputes claims that farmers are not aware of their environmental obligations. They know the requirements are tough and likely to get even tougher, he says.

Sheep-and-beef will have to follow the lead of the dairy industry, albeit with something of a lag. Market assurance is the main thing in this.

“In the case of big supermarket chains such as Tesco or Sainsbury’s, they once may have come here and looked at our meat processing plants… in which we were a world leader in hygiene and food safety. Now they’re more interested in where the animal came from, the animal welfare conditions, and how the animal was fed, watered and transported. Those issues we’re now all having to deal with, and environmental issues are tied in with those.”

Guy believes farmers are tuned to the importance of protecting their markets. Farming practices have changed dramatically from when farmers used to put effluent down the drain, and clean-stream rules and fenced waterways will be mandatory.

“A lot of this until now has been ‘carrot’; what you’ll see in future is the ‘stick’ getting quite a bit longer.”

As Associate Minister for Primary Industry, Nathan Guy has been given specific responsibility for forestry. He’s also Minister of Immigration, Racing and Veterans’ Affairs.

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news 21

Near perfect run at Te Puke to n y h o p k i nso n

ASK JOHN Payne how many working dogs he has owned and he can only guess.

“About 200.”

Hardly surprising considering he got his first pup in 1944.

“When you’re running teams of 10-12 dogs they tend to come and go, so after 66 years of running and trialling dogs I can only give an approximate answer,” says the 84-yearold from Tauranga.

And he’s still at the top of the sport, winning the short head and yard at the recent Te Puke dog trials with an impressive 99 points out of 100.

He started work in 1943 for the O’Neill family,

Wanganui, and got his first pup, four months old, from Fraser Smith of Awakino, Taranaki.

His first job was on Maewa Station on the Paraparas, a 3000ha property running 12,000 ewes and replacements, plus cattle.

He was there 17 years, the last seven as manager. Then he managed Pouakani Corporation block west of Lake Taupo for five years, another 3000ha unit this time with 14,000 ewes, replacements, 1000 Angus breeding cows, with all stock fattened.

Leaving farming he worked for Dalgetys, Cambridge, for 10 years before retiring to Tauranga.

He trialled his first dog

in 1946, and in 1949 was a foundation member of the Parapara dog trial club.

They hosted the North Island and New Zealand Championships 1949.

“At those first trials there were 200 entries and I got second highest on aggregate in the heading events.”

Payne has enjoyed

66 years of dog trialling, making many friends while competing from North Cape to Christchurch. He’s also notched up 42 years as a trials judge, done a similar time as secretary for different clubs and was secretary of the Waikato Centre Association for 14 years.

Frost is his latest dog,

and he’s had him from six weeks old. He’s been a town dog all his life but Payne’s son has 52ha on the outskirts of Tauranga where Frost gets exercise and training. Having won at Te Puke, he’s qualified for the North Island championships in Kaikohe in May.

John Payne

in brief Don’t forget sulphur FAILURE TO apply sulphur to deficient hill country can reduce pasture growth up to 1500kgDM/year, Altum commercial manager John Elliot reminds growers.

Soil doesn’t retain sulphur and while elemental sulphur isn’t water soluble – reducing the chance of it leaching – it is difficult to spread, he explains.

“Combining the sulphur with other nutrients in granular form was our solution to the problem.”

The resulting product – pHased S – enables farmers to apply fine elemental sulphur, lime to help maintain the soil pH, and SustaiN (protected nitrogen), in a single application.

“Our advice is to use autumn to set up for spring and pHased S should be considered an option that addresses some key challenges in supplying nutrients on to hill country in a cost effective manner.”

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The 420ha, 425-cow farm, near Mangonui, is owned by Murray and Liz Walden and sharemilked by their son Clive and wife Jorja.

The property had once been a dairy farm but when Waldens bought it in 2005 it was intensive beef; they began converting to dairy in 2008.

Awards judges say the farm is a well-planned developing property with “well-spent” strategic investment to re-engineer the farm dairy, upgrade effluent systems, instal a feed pad, stand-off pad, feed bunkers and good stock handling facilities.

Environmental enhancement and protection includes fencing streams, native bush and wetlands. Half the farm borders the Oruaiti Stream, which flows into Doubtless Bay, and the protection of this waterway has been a top priority.

Awards’ judges say the cohesive family unit provides mutual business and social support. A succession plan is in place and “the family has the potential to showcase dairying and become leaders in the industry”.

A field day will be held on farm Wednesday, May 2.

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Rural News // April 3, 2012

22 world

Mental health link to red meat RED MEAT is a good mood food, but an Australian report says getting the right amount is much like the dilemma Goldilocks faced.

Eating less than the

recommended amount of red meat – or consuming too much – both relate to depression and anxiety in women.

Deakin University health researchers investigated the relationship between the consumption

of beef and lamb and the presence of depressive and anxiety disorders in more than 1,000 women in the state of Victoria.

They found women consuming less than the recommended amount of red meat were twice as

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likely to have a diagnosed depressive or anxiety disorder as those consuming the recommended amount.

But Associate Professor Felice Jacka says itis also not a good idea to eat too much red meat.

“We found that regularly eating more than the recommended amount of red meat was also related to increased depression and anxiety.”

The researchers originally thought that red meat might not be good for mental health, as other studies had found red meat consumption to be associated with physical health risks.

“It turns out that it actually may be quite important,” Jacka says.

“Even when we took

Good mood food – in moderation.

into account the overall healthiness of the women’s diets, as well as other factors such as their socioeconomic status, physical activity levels, smoking, weight and age, the relationship between low red meat intake and mental health remained.”

The research team found there was no relationship between other forms of protein, such as chicken, pork, fish or plant-based proteins, and mental health.

“Vegetarianism was not the explanation either,” Jacka says.

“Only 19 women in the study were vegetarians, and the results were the same when they were excluded from the study analyses.”

Given the results, Jacka believes following the recommended weekly intake of red meat could boost our mental health.

“We already know that the overall quality of your diet is important to mental

health,” she says. “But it seems that eating a moderate amount of lean red meat, which is roughly 3-4 small, palm-sized serves a week, may also be important.”

Jacka suggests sticking with grass fed meats.

“We know that red meat in Australia is a healthy product as it contains high levels of nutrients, including the omega-3 fatty acids that are important to mental and physical health.

Aussies pilot soil carbon payments FARMERS IN New South Wales have been awarded contracts for payment to store carbon on their land. The 11 farmers are the first in the government-sponsored soil carbon trading scheme.

NSW Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson says the aim of the five-year pilot is to develop and test a market-based instrument (MBI) to sequester soil carbon.

“Storing carbon in the soil is one way farmers can help reduce green-

house gas emissions,” she says. “Soil organic carbon can also benefit farm productivity, as it improves soil waterholding capacity and nutrient retention.

“What makes this project unique is that farmers are playing a key role in determining how much carbon they can store in their soil.”

The farmers were selected by competitive tendering, giving them opportunity to store soil carbon under crops and pastures at bid prices.

They could tender under one of three systems: ‘actions-based’ contracts involving payments for specific practices to increase soil carbon stores; ‘outcome-based’ contracts that pay on carbon accumulated in the soil; and ‘hybrid’ contracts – a combination of the two other options.

Hodgkinson says 26 bids involving 11,455 tonnes of CO2 equivalents, were received.

The 11 successful bids account for 7819t of CO2 equivalent.

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Rural News // april 3, 2012

world 23

US should consider subsidy shift A L AN H ARMAN

THE ERA of direct payments is over for US farmers and farm policy should focus on risk management that helps producers who suffer losses on crops actually grown.

That’s the word from Senate agriculture, nutrition and forestry committee chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, who says strengthening and expanding crop insurance programmes will be one of her priorities in the next farm bill.

“It is absolutely imperative that we get these pol-

icies right,” the Michigan Democrat says.

“Every planting season, America’s farmers take a huge gamble that their investment will pay off – that the sun, the rain, and the markets will come together in just the right combination so they can make a living and support their families.”

Stabenow’s comments were made during the final Farm Bill hearing on commodity programmes and risk management.

“We cannot forget that high commodity prices are of absolutely no use to a farmer whose crop was

First signs of beef herd rebuild A L AN H ARMAN

BEEF SUPPLIES remain very short in the US as producers start rebuilding drought ravaged herds.

Purdue University Extension agricultural economist Chris Hurt says beef cow numbers have dropped 9%, or three million head, since 2007, and 3% in 2011 alone.

Consequently slaughter numbers will be down until 2014 at least.

Farmers have reduced herds because of escalating feed costs and more recently, drought in the southern plains.

Now, stronger finished cattle prices and moderating feed costs are tempting some to start the expansion.

Hurt says January’s US Department of Agriculture cattle report – the most recent available – shows beef heifer retention up 1%.

If US crop yields return closer to normal during the 2012 crop year, feed prices could come down even more, which would encourage further herd expansion, he adds.

“This is the first increase in heifer retention since feed prices began increasing.”

With reduced cow numbers, the 2012 calf crop could be down more than 2% which, with heifer retention, could prevent beef supplies recovering until 2015.

“The modest heifer retention now is actually a priceenhancing factor in the short run.”

Hurt says producers need to keep an eye on weather and 2012 crop yields before they make further expansion plans.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is forecasting that a region of the western Corn Belt will continue to be very dry into the spring, he notes.

“That raises concerns for corn and soybean meal prices… Higher feed prices would depress cattle prices.”

lost in a drought or flood.

One storm can wipe out an entire crop and jeopardise a farm in a matter of minutes – whether that crop is cherries in Michigan or wheat in Kansas.

“I have heard again and again from farmers and ranchers across the country that crop insurance is the most important risk

management tool.”

Stabenow says 16 million people in the US have a job because of agriculture.

“The Farm Bill is a jobs bill, and no farmer in America should lose their job, lose their farm, because of bad weather or market conditions beyond their control.”

Stabenow notes locally grown foods are helping to create new market opportunities for farmers and agriculture producers across the country, while also helping to provide families greater access to healthy and nutritious foods.

Regional food hubs and local food systems are

helping to create jobs and re-introduce agriculture to a younger generation of up-and-coming farmers and ranchers.

“In Michigan we know that if every household spent just $10 on locallygrown food, we could put $40 million back into the economy…

“When we buy local, we

support local jobs.”

Growing demand for local food has also created great opportunities for young and beginning farmers, she adds.

“Through farmers markets and food hubs, new farmers are getting help marketing, aggregating and processing their products.”

Rural News // April 3, 2012

24 agribusiness

NZ tops for renewable capital WE OFTEN think New Zealand is doing it tough down here in our far-flung corner of the world.

We should be more grateful for our geography and geology.

When the World Bank

recently estimated the wealth of nations New Zealand came in 20th of 152 for total wealth per capita, and 8th for natural capital. The seven countries ahead of us were all oil producers, so their

If they know what you think, why don’t they want to ask you?

Everyone is wondering what you, the average kiwi dairy farmer, thinks of TAF. But you are far too busy milking your cows to write articles and have your photo taken. You know that 100% ownership & control means just that, and you expect the people tasked to do the job to get on with it.

But then, things seem to have changed since you voted nearly two years ago, and the NZX seems awfully excited. Not to mention the shiny bottoms on Wall Street. Maybe it would be worth making sure that TAF is what you thought it was going to be when you voted two years ago.... not what they wanted four years ago.

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long-term position is precarious.

Arguably, a more important measure in a world of diminishing resources is a country’s renewable capital. New Zealand doesn’t just top the list for renewable natural capital per capita; we’re a whopping 50% wealthier than the next country on the list – Tonga – and nearly nine times wealthier than the global average. New Zealand’s endowment is heavily agriculture focused. Crop and pasture land make up half of our assessed natural capital. On a per capita basis this is double the next two countries on the list – Belize and Australia – and eight times greater than the global average.

What’s more fish stocks are not included. When you add the potential for aquaculture in our exclusive economic zone (sea area 15 times greater than our land mass) there is a lot of potential wealth there also.

The world’s food challenge is unknown. You can only get so much out of a hectare of pasture or cropland. There are natural biological constraints. The supply curve looks even steeper when you allow for things such as urban creep, biofuel production, water scarcity, a more volatile climate and government intervention.

Productivity gains abound, e.g. biotech crops, new fertilisers and production systems. But by most measures the growth in yields in established food-producing regions and industries is diminish-

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Source: The World Bank "The C hanging Wealth of Nations" 2010

ing. Inadequate reinvestment in farming during the last 20 years is retarding food supply. Overlay forecast population growth to 2050, plus the strong lift in real incomes in emerging countries, urbanisation, modernisation of emerging countries’ food industries and the shift to higher protein and fat diets... you get the picture.

The ASEAN trading bloc and other big players such as China and India are short of renewable capital, hence they are looking at agri investments all over the globe.

New Zealand’s opportunity is not just in the sale and trade of premium agri-products, it is also in our expertise and services throughout the food supply chain. There will be more cross–border trading of food, especially in the Asia–Pacific region.

We have been exporting for a long time and we need to back ourselves in this; we are world class at many points on the agribusiness supply chain, and

in the delivery of perishable products to faraway markets. Other countries need such expertise and services.

But there are tensions.

Unlocking our renewable endowment is not easy. You wouldn’t want one area of strategic excellence, such as aquaculture, to undermine another, such as tourism. Sensible regulatory heads are required. Moreover, having a large natural endowment does not guarantee success for a nation. Indeed, it has historically tended to invite corruption and foreign exploitation. You need the legal and economic frame-

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work, attitudes and institutions to unlock them sensibly. Witness Congo and Switzerland. The latter has a lower natural resource endowment, but is far richer.

The rebalancing of the New Zealand economy away from a spendcentric model to a more balanced growth model means we will need to sensibly use our renewable endowments. It is critical we embrace the opportunities offered, because the more you pull an incomegenerating lever, the less the incentive for austerity to repay the cost of years spent living beyond our means.

in brief Westland wins R&D award SOUTH ISLAND dairy co-op Westland Milk Products is the 2012 winner of the ‘Best use of Research and Development in International Business’ category in the International Business Awards. It was also a finalist in the ‘Best business operating internationally over $50m’ and “Best Commercialisation of Intellectual Property in International Business’ categories.

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Rural News // april 3, 2012

agribusiness 25

Spierings sees room to improve pa m t i pa

FONTERRA NEEDS to sit closer to its customers and listen to their needs, because products are being invented that don’t necessarily align with what customers want.

This startling admission by Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings to the recent Dairy Womens Network conference came with further details.

“We need to sit close to our customers, sit close to the market,” he said.

“You need not only to please your customers, but know what they want. We have good people in the market but they are kindof ‘hosts’ or ‘hostesses’ for the customers.

“They don’t translate [customers’] needs properly back to our innovation centre in Palmerston North and our factories.”

Spierings says at present all the knowledge and innovation is deployed to invent something and push it out to the market.

“We say ‘you can buy it, but if you don’t want to buy it, then don’t buy it’.

We need to sit closer to our customers and bring their needs back.”

Spierings was outlining aspects of his planned market strategy at the

conference on March 21, ahead of consideration by the board and a public release last week of the new strategy and the half year results.

He said Fonterra had the best customer base in the world, but “could not be everywhere”. It needed to work out where it wanted to be in the world and to “increase its philosophy.”

“We need to think how we can make dairy a driver of health in the world.” How to deliver best nutrition for mothers and children, and for ageing people, how to meet demand for healthier choices and to deliver better, healthier convenience foods: these were key targets.

He says we “invent great things, and craft them well” but do not ask ourselves “can we win?” against the competition.

We would be better supplying ingredients to big players in China such as Nestle rather than compete with them on product, Speirings says.

Instead of plant for products, New Zealand must think of the next generation of processing plant, such as spray dryers and packaging equipment.

Spierings warns we need to help China with

Van der Heyden Rabo director FONTERRA CHAIRMAN Sir Henry van der Heyden has been appointed to Rabobank New Zealand’s board.

The bank also last week announced existing board member John Palmer would take over the chairmanship from Australia-based Bill Gurry.

“New Zealand is a significant growth market for Rabobank’s international operations and these changes to our local board – with the high-calibre appointments of John Palmer as chairman and Henry van der Heyden as a director – reflect how committed the bank is to this part of the world,” said chairman of Rabobank Netherland Piet Moerland.

“It is fitting that two of New Zealand’s leading business people will be involved in steering Rabobank’s direction in this country and that the business has a locally domiciled chairman.”

Moerland was in New Zealand last week and said Rabobank considers the country one of its key growth markets for rural and agribusiness lending.

“We are committed to working with New Zealand farmers and agribusinesses as they grow and we have an optimistic outlook for our agri lending and funding businesses in this country.”

Palmer is also chairman of Air New Zealand and Solid Energy Ltd and has wide experience in agribusiness. He is a former chair of Wrightsons and once led the New Zealand Kiwifruit Marketing Board.

its own milk production or risk losing business.

“We must link with the Chinese and build something with them together on the ground, based on their local milk – safe and good local milk.

“We must help them otherwise they will shut the door on imports of ingredients.”

Ingredients demand from China will last 20 years at least, while the West – which drove global growth from 1980-2000 – is “now in trouble.”

Trends that began in 2000 in the West, and are on track for 2030, include lower growth, higher unemployment, children who could be poorer than

parents, and plateauing life expectancy.

Globally there will be increased connectivity, volatility, high capital and resources costs and increased problems for governments.

But Asia has an emerging middle class of 300 million people who want to buy our products.

Theo Spierings

Rural News // April 3, 2012

Market Snapshot North Island c/kgCWT

Lamb Market Trends

Meat South Island

Lamb Prices

Beef Prices Last Year

Change c/kg

Last Week

-10

5.76

5.86

6.56

-10

5.78

n/c

5.68

PM - 16.0kg

-10

5.78

5.88

6.58

PX - 19.0kg

-10

5.80

5.90

6.60

PH - 22.0kg

-10

5.81

5.91

6.61

-3

4.07

n/c

3.90

Bull - M2 300kg

-3

4.12

n/c

3.80

n/c

7.15

n/c

7.20

Venison - AP 60kg

c/kgCWT NI Lamb

YM - 13.5kg

Mutton

Mutton

$7.5 $6.5

5yr Ave Last Year This Year

$4.5

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

$6.5

5yr Ave Last Year This Year

$4.5 $3.5 Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

4.35

6.45

P2 Cow - 230kg

n/c

3.20

3.20

3.50

5.68

5.68

6.46

M Cow - 200kg

n/c

3.10

3.10

3.40

3.08

3.08

4.20

Local Trade - 230kg

n/c

4.00

4.00

4.30

5.68

PH - 22.0kg

n/c n/c

Local Trade - 230kg SI

NZ Slaughter

Estimated Weekly Kill 2Wks Ago

3 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

1000s

Estimated Weekly Kill

Change

Mar

Apr

Feb

Mar

250

Cattle NI

+15%

35.1

30.5

47.3

404

471

Cattle SI

+9%

13.2

12.1

14.1

15.0

Lamb NZ

+1%

499

494

635

721

Cattle NZ

+13%

48.3

42.6

61.4

58.6

Mutton NZ

-27%

71

97

94

118

Bull NI

+26%

9.1

7.2

9.8

9.0

Bull SI

-21%

2.2

2.8

2.6

3.3

Str & Hfr NI

+11%

12.7

11.4

18.0

15.1

600

Str & Hfr SI

+11%

5.9

5.3

6.5

7.0

450

Cows NI

+12%

13.3

11.9

19.5

19.4

Cows SI

+28%

5.1

4.0

5.0

4.7

NZ Weekly Lamb Kill

Last Year

150

This Year

NZ Weekly Beef Kill 80

0 Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

60 40

Last Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

£/lb

n/c

1.78

1.78

2.50

1.63

NZ$/kg

+14

7.66

7.52

11.86

8.62

Last Year

20

This Year

0 Dec

Jan

Feb

May

NZ$/kg

May

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

-1

2.22

2.23

2.08

1.56

+4

6.04

6.00

6.12

4.90

Last Year

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

$2.20

$2.00

2Wks Ago

3 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

% Returned NI

-3%

78.3%

81.8%

56.1%

36.6%

% Returned SI

-2%

74.4%

76.5%

54.8%

51.8%

Last Year This Year

$1.80 Dec

Jan

Change

Last Year This Year

70%

Apr

May

2Wks Ago

3 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

% Returned NI

-1%

68.7%

69.5%

75.93%

73.0%

-0%

62.9%

63.3%

71.0%

67.7%

Procurement Indicator - North I.

90%

50% Mar

Mar

% Returned SI

60% Jan

Feb

Procurement Indicator

Procurement Indicator - North I.

100%

Demand Indicator - US 95CL Beef

This Year

80%

$8.0

Apr

Last Week

Change

90%

North Island 60kg Stag Price

Mar

Export Market Demand

Demand Indicator - UK Leg Price

£1.70 Dec

Apr

43.5

231

Change

$3.0

5yr Ave

297

May

5yr Ave Last Year This Year

Last Year

198

Procurement Indicator

$3.5

3 Wks Ago

274

95CL US$/lb

Feb

2Wks Ago

224

£2.20

$4.0

Jan

3.75

5.68

n/c

Change

South Island 300kg Steer Price

Dec

3.17

4.40

$3.0

$4.5

3.12

-8%

£2.70

Jan

-5

+14%

$4.5

Dec

3.80

M Cow - 200kg

Lamb SI

UK Leg

$3.5

3.27

3.80

PX - 19.0kg

North Island 300kg Bull Price

5yr Ave Last Year This Year

3.22

3.80

May

$4.0

-5

n/c

Export Market Demand $5.0

4.65

P2 Cow - 230kg

M2 Bull - 300kg

300

$5.5

4.70

4.15

Lamb NI

750

$7.5

4.10

4.12

6.43

5.68

South Island 16.0kg M Lamb Price

$8.5

4.07

-3

4.60

5.68

Change

-3

3.90

n/c

1000s

$5.5

P2 Steer - 300kg M2 Bull - 300kg

4.10

PM - 16.0kg

NZ Slaughter

NI

3.90

6.41

21kg

Last Year

4.07

4.35

5.68

MX1 -

2 Wks Ago

-3

3.25

5.68

$8.5

Last Week

n/c

3.20

YM - 13.5kg

Change

c/kgCWT

P2 Steer - 300kg

-5 n/c

MX1 - 21kg

SI Lamb

North Island 16.0kg M Lamb Price

Jan

2 Wks Ago

Last Week

Steer - P2 300kg

$3.5 Dec

Change

Last Week

Change c/kg

Lamb - PM 16.0kg

Beef Market Trends

May 80%

$7.0 5yr Ave Last Year This Year $6.0 Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

South Island 60kg Stag Price

Procurement Indicator - South I.

95%

70%

Last Year

85%

This Year

75%

60%

Last Year This Year Jan

Mar

May

65% 55%

$8.5

Procurement Indicator - South I.

85%

45% Jan

Mar

May 75%

$7.5 5yr Ave Last Year This Year

$6.5 Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Venison Prices Change

65%

Last Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

NI Stag - 60kg

n/c

7.15

7.15

7.40

6.60

SI Stag - 60kg

n/c

7.20

7.20

7.50

6.96

Last Year This Year

55% Jan

Mar

May

TRACTA38925-RN

Beef & venison prices are reported as gross (before normal levies & charges are deducted). Lamb & mutton prices are reported nett (after levies & charges are deducted). Note: Freight is paid in the North Island but not by all companies in the South Island.

‘THE FEED IS BETTER AND SO IS THE BOTTOM LINE.’ Geoff, Roger & Phil Alexander Puketapu, Hawke’s Bay

Rural News // april 3, 2012

Beef Wool Price Watch Some pressure still on North Island prices Cattle slaughter rates are picking up in the North Island, but overall numbers remain light compared to normal.

Current slaughter statistics show the weekly cattle kill is down over 20% on last year and the five year average.

Last week, 300kg cwt bulls were averaging $4.12/kg while 300kg cwt steers were on $4.07/kg. Meat companies are managing to keep some downward pressure on prices despite limited numbers and above average margins on beef. Capacity is being carefully managed and some companies are not chasing as hard as they might given the industrial action. The export cattle market in the South Island for prime steer and bull has continued in similar fashion to recent weeks. 300kg cwt steer and bull prices have remained relatively steady on $3.80/kg and $3.90/kg respectively, largely due to limited numbers. It appears dairy cows are just about to start flowing with a few coming out already. Some local trade plants are again on the hunt for cattle. Prices there have held at or lifted back to $4.00/kg.

US imported beef market edges lower The US imported beef market has slipped again. Last week prices for 95CL bull were 1c/lb softer. However it is not out of character for imported prices to ease through this period as manufacturing beef supplies out of New Zealand and Australia seasonally spike through autumn and demand tends to be reigned in. Overall the outlook for the US imported beef market remains solid. Despite this immediate softening it is expected prices will start to recover by early winter.

Lamb

Indicators in NZ$

Dairy Price Watch 22-Mar

Change

15-Mar

Last Year

Indicators in NZ$/T

Coarse Xbred Indic.

+3

5.20

5.17

6.18

Butter

Fine Xbred Indicator

+1

5.86

5.85

6.65

Skim Milk Powder

Lamb Indicator

+1

5.68

5.67

6.71

Whole Milk Powder

-

-

-

-

Mid Micron Indic.

Cheddar

Wool Indicator Trends

750

Last 2 Wks

Change

Prev. 2 Wks

Last Year

-26

4454

4480

6722

-8

3905

3913

5350

+75

4286

4211

6379

+101

4820

4719

6036

Dairy Prices Trends SMP But.

6,500

700 650

WMP Ched.

5,500

600 550

4,500

500

CXI

450 Mar

May

FXI Jul

LI

Sep

Nov

3,500 Apr

Jan

Jun

Coarse Xbred Indicator

700

Aug

Oct

Dec

Feb

Whole Milk Powder Price (NZ$) Last Year

6,000

This Year

600 5,000

500

Last Year This Year

400

4,000 Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jan

Overseas Price Indicators Indicators in US$/kg

Change

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Overseas Price Indicators 22-Mar

15-Mar

Last Year

Indicators in US$/T

Change

Last 2 Wks

Prev. 2 Wks

Last Year

Coarse Xbred Indicator

+4

4.23

4.18

4.58

Butter

-100

3650

3750

4900

Fine Xbred Indicator

+3

4.76

4.73

4.92

Skim Milk Powder

-75

3200

3275

3900

Lamb Indicator

+3

4.62

4.59

4.97

Whole Milk Powder

-13

3513

3525

4650

-

-

-

-

Cheddar

n/c

3950

3950

4400

Mid Micron Indicator

Lamb prices mixed The lambs are starting to flow in the North Island with Wool Indicator in US$ 600 current slaughter statistics showing a 15% week on week 550 lift. Kill rates are now running just 3% down on last year 500 and 10% on the five year average. There is a fair range in 450 pricing, even within the same region. On average, 16kg cwt lambs have eased back to an average of $5.78/kg 400 CXI FXI LI (nett). Export lamb prices in the South Island remained 350 Mar May Jul Sep Nov relatively steady last week. 16kg cwt lambs were making $5.68/kg (nett) on average. There has been little change Coarse Xbred Indictor in US$ to overseas market demand for lamb and unfortunately 550 there appears to be little change on the horizon. Given 500 that the margin between UK leg prices and farmgate 450 prices is very tight at present and more lambs are 400 becoming available for slaughter, further downside in 350 farmgate prices is likely. The two short kill weeks either 300 side of Easter will also help keep the pressure on prices.

Jan Feb Mar Apr May Riding on a wave of strong demand New Zealand is not the only country targeting the Chinese and South East Asian lamb markets. Hot on the heels of a strong performance through Currency Watch Last January, New Zealand lamb exports to China in February were double the vs. NZ Dollar Week 5 year average at over 5000 tonnes. Australia is also sending record US dollar 0.810 volumes of lamb to China on the back of strong demand. Australian Euro 0.614 exports to China leapt by 50% year on year to just under 2400 tonnes.

UK pound 0.513 While the Chinese market has performed exceptionally well in the last Aus dollar 0.780 couple of seasons, there are some concerns that if other markets Japan yen 66.95 (UK/EU) continue to falter, exporters may flood the market and dampen prices and demand.

Euro

Wool

Wool market ticking along The wool market has held up well in recent weeks, despite larger offerings at auctions and a slight increase in some currencies. The bulk of the wool selling is coarse crossbred fleece and shears with prices slightly stronger in the South Island. First lambs wool prices have been mixed with buyers stepping up to the plate in the North Island while South Island prices have eased in recent weeks.

Dairy Prices in US$/Tonne

5,000

SMP But.

WMP Ched.

4,000

3,000 Apr

Jan

Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

Feb

Whole Milk Powder Price in US$/T

5,000 4,500 4,000 Last Year

Last Year

3,500

This Year

This Year

3,000 Jan

Jun

2 Wks Ago

4 Wks Ago

Last Year

0.820

0.838

0.749

0.622

0.627

0.529

0.522

0.532

0.465

0.779

0.780

0.734

68.49

67.08

60.65

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

US Dollar 0.80 Last Year This Year

0.70 Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

UK Pound Last Year

0.61

0.52

This Year 0.47

0.56 0.51 Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Last Year This Year

0.42 Dec

Jan

Feb

Mar

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Rural News // April 3, 2012

28 opinion editorial Taurus too easy?

edna

AROUND MID-MORNING on Monday February 19, 2001, Donald Vidgeon, a drover of long experience, alerted Craig Kirby, the resident vet at Cheale’s Abattoir in Brentwood, Essex (UK) to a problem with a batch of sows held over from Friday’s shift. Mr Kirby examined the animals and saw how serious the problem was... First he stopped the production line.

Then he telephoned the local office of the State Veterinary Service. About an hour later, after inspection by two government vets, one of whom had experience of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Greece, there was no doubt. This was either swine vesicular disease or FMD. Only laboratory work could tell which. This encounter, within sight of London’s eastern skyline, signalled the start of the FMD epidemic that spread across Britain. By the end of September over 2000 premises had been declared infected, millions of animals destroyed and many rural lives and livelihoods affected in a manner unknown for a generation.

That introduction to the report resulting from the UK Foot and Mouth Disease 2001: Lessons Learned Inquiry, should send shivers down the spine of all New Zealanders.

A Royal Society report into the same outbreak is similarly chilling reading. The 2030 cases saw 4.9 million sheep, 700,000 cattle and 400,000 pigs culled, a £3.1 billion loss to agriculture.

Some £2.5 billion was paid by Government in compensation. Impact on tourism and other rural industries took the estimated cost to the UK economy to £8 billion.

The ‘Lessons Learned’ report says “unusual circumstances” contributed to the scale of the UK outbreak, but reading it with the New Zealand livestock industry in mind, many of the circumstances deemed unusual seem all too possible: delayed detection of the initial outbreak; a cascade effect of stock movements in the interim; difficulty detecting the disease in sheep and their consequent vector role; windborne spread; logistical issues culling so many stock and effective carcase disposal; communication difficulties; conflicting interests of tourism, agriculture and other sectors; lack of personnel with experience of FMD; Government spokespeople playing down the problem and delayed decision making.

All this should be familiar stuff to those involved in MAF’s recent FMD outbreak simulation, Exercise Taurus, and it’s good MAF is running such simulations, albeit infrequently. But simulations will never come close to the sustained, week after week, pressure, stress and trauma a real-life, widespread outbreak would cause. We have to pray we never go there. And with renewed concerns about relaxed biosecurity standards being raised – not to mention a rampant FMD outbreak in Egypt – pray is an appropriate word.

“It must have been something she ate!”

the hound Significantly over-used word ANYONE ELSE noticed how insignificant the word ‘significant’ has become?

Every announcement or policy these days gets the ‘significant’ pre-fix, so much so the adjective’s redundant. The only place it retains meaning is in science, where it’s statistically quantified. If you’ve not noticed this significant trend before, you probably will now, and like your old mate will find it significantly irritating.

Save

Bank has two bites NATIONAL BANK last week was bragging about being the first bank named as the best agribusiness bank in New Zealand by financial services and research group CANSTAR. When your old mate did a bit of digging it turned out they’re the best of five, and one of the other banks was parent company ANZ. So how does that work? Seems a bit like taking two bites at the cherry.

Looking before he’s leapt SO FONTERRA chairman Henry van der Heyden’s now on the board of Rabobank New Zealand. Kind of makes sense, given Rabo’s another cooperative, albeit one owned by Dutch farmers. But isn’t it a little premature to be taking such appointments when he still has seven or eight months to run with Fonterra? Maybe he’s thinking he needs a back-up in case this TAF revolt escalates.

Finland faux pas fun Gerry Brownlee’s slight against Finland gave the political satirists plenty to chew on last week.

Twitter user @Big Gerry Brownlee, a parody of the real man, got stuck in: “What global tech leaders ever came out of Finland?

Nothing huge like Feltex Carpets or Lombard Finance, right?”

And after weathering some online abuse, perhaps from people who did not realise it wasn’t the real Gerry, @Big Gerry wrote: “I feel so misunderstood...why do they all hate me so? I just want to be held, and maybe spanked a little...”

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Rural News // april 3, 2012

opinion 29

Info flows in many ways INFORMATION TRANSFER ‘flows’ many ways. There’s the ripple effect of information from field days and seminars spreading ‘over the fence’; but there’s also the ‘coalface’ concept vital for the incremental innovation that underpins most advances in efficiency and productivity.

A KPMG-Australia report, ‘Understanding Innovation’, published earlier this year has shown that incremental innovation is usually driven from inside an organisation, from the bottom up, and is successful when management enables the ‘coalface’ workers to achieve.

These workers are milkers, shearers, drenchers and drafters; they are also scientists doing experiments and trials.

They are the people who know the problems and think, every day, how they can do the job better.

Recognising ongoing problems in information transfer, AgResearch has established a farm immersion programme for key scientists.

For some scientists,

however, working with top farmers is innate. Top farmers strive for top performance (which means different things to different farmers) and test ideas all the time. They know what pieces of information are likely to fit costeffectively, within their operations. They are at the coalface, have practical experience, and are working to do their job better.

They know what their fundamental problems are, and their practical experience gives them a good handle on unintended consequences and implications from some of the recommendations being made by scientists.

New recommendations from the Lincoln University Dairy Farm (LUDF) are a case in point. The previous system forcing cows to graze low gave good pasture con-

trol and harvest (at least in theory) but wasn’t so good for the cows. Production per cow was not spectacular, and the empty rate was high.

Although the LUDF system is purported to have been picked up widely by South Island farmers, top farmers in the North Island did not embrace it wholeheartedly. They know that forcing cows to eat what they don’t choose is a form of restricted grazing and has potential to reduce milk production.

Science supports the concept of big, high BW (breeding worth) cows being fed well. The proportion of feed used in metabolism for a few big cows is less than for lots of small cows. This means proportionately more feed for milk production. Professor Grant Edwards, Lincoln University, also points out that when cows find easy pickings, they spend less time foraging; foraging is another cost to the animal in maintenance rather than milk.

Research on zero-grazing feed-lot systems in the US has already shown

this: the data support efficiencies in milk solids per unit of energy used, greenhouse gases produced and environmental impact.

Collaboration between more groups of scientists and top farmers might have prevented a 10-year LUDF ‘model’ that has now reached a conclusion many top farmers have known all along.

The AgResearch farmimmersion programme is an attempt at a change for the better, and Dr Brennon Wood at Massey University is leading research on farmer networks and knowledge transfer. But the greatest potential impact programme has yet to be established.

All new graduates moving into the industry should identify the top farmers in their regions and work with them to see what and why they do things the way they do – and where they see the opportunities. The top farmers should also be solicited by scientists for their instincts about what they need to be able to do a better job in future.

The scientists need to be enabled to do a good job

in evaluating possibilities, and then the farmers need to be involved again to consider the practicalities and unintended consequences of the possibilities.

Information transfer is vital for agricultural growth and development, but needs the eye of the expert practitioner at many stages: the farmer at the coal face can assist with identifying the mother lode.

• Jacqueline Rowarth is Professor of Agribusiness, The University of Waikato

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Rural News // April 3, 2012

30 opinion Dividend stability strategy unacceptable

Sorry kids, I voted away the co-op

The following question was asked of Fonterra chairman Henry van der Heyden on a recent Sky broadcast.

“To stabilise the dividend would destabilise the milk price. Because of TAF, does the board of directors seek to maintain dividends at a stable level even as earnings fluctuate?”

The chairman’s response was “No. From company earnings the milk price is set first then the distriHenry van der Heyden bution.”

However, there is strong evidence to suggest a strategy is already in effect.

The share valuation letter, section 6, says “Fonterra would generally seek to maintain dividends at a stable level even as earnings fluctuate” The milk price for the last two financial years has varied by $1.50 but the dividend has varied by just 3c.

The current season’s forecast milk price has been up and currently going down, but there’s been no change to forecast distributable profit.

This appears contrary to van der Hayden’s answer, and we don’t even

It gives me no pleasure to admit that, of the 80% of Fonterra shareholders that participated, I was one of the 89% that voted yes to Trading amongst Farmers.

My grandfather always warned that the “devil is in the detail” and sadly I voted without knowing the details.

I console myself with the fact that I possibly would not have voted if I had not been constantly reminded by my area manager to vote. That thought opens another whole can of worms. How did he know that I had not yet cast my vote?

I thought I was voting for a scheme that traded shares amongst farmers.

I thought Fonterra was going to run a market, I guess a little like Trade Me. If I had shares to sell I would put them onto the market. This market was to be accessible to other Fonterra suppliers and if my price was right, and

have outside investors pressuring the board yet.

If the board has invoked a strategy to stabilise the dividend at the expense of the milk price or retentions for the purpose of TAF, then that is unacceptable. Such a strategy gives unfair financial preference to dry share and unit investors. The obvious motive is to make investment in Fonterra as attractive as possible, at the expense of our milk price.

The irony of this outcome with TAF is that we haven’t even floated our co-op but are forced to live with a milk price that comes second to investor interests.

This isn’t a significant issue to most farmers at this stage (milk price vs dividend) but if TAF is implemented, that will seriously change.

TAF also presents the threat of large redemptions of both dry shares and units, which can come about from many possible scenario’s with little warning to our co-op.

My fear is share capital will no longer have a fixed term of one year. Capital notes and redeemable preference shares have been tossed out of the new (B) constitution, which were a tool for directors in the past to mitigate a large run on share capital.

Bruce Hayes, Hikurangi

ag twits

they needed shares, they’d buy. If there was a disaster, god forbid, and the market was flooded with shares?

Well, we have always known as owners of the co-operative that we were the lenders of last resort, so not much had changed.

Nowhere in any of the build-up to the vote for Trading Amongst Farmers was the NZX, Wall Street, Trading platforms, Kiwibank, Harvard Fund or even mum and dad investors mentioned. Until the vote went through Mark Weldon was quiet. Very soon after, in his retirement speech he listed “bringing Fonterra to the NZX” as his most memorable achievement. A very corporate National Party is delighted to see Fonterra up for sale, and an article in the Wall Street Journal talks of cheap shares becoming available in one of the world’s largest food producing companies, and how its farmer shareholders have not yet realised the value of the company, so those who get in quick will get a bargain.

How did it get to an open slather sale to the world?

Linda Presow-Virbickas Whakatane

Rural News’ irreverent and hypothetical look at what’s happening in the farming world Top Bleats view all mpetersenblnz@kcoopersilverfernfarms: Hey Keith, we are all really missing your sunny disposition and general joie de vivre around the board table at Beef and Lamb NZ these days – not! #betteroffwithoutyou nicksmithexminister: To whom it may concern: Nick Smith is a longstanding friend of mine who I’ve known all my life.

While it would be inappropriate for me to comment on his current employment issues as an ex-minister, I can confirm that during my many contacts with Nick he was a capable, hard-working member of the executive who will be sorely missed. #mustchoosemyfriendsbetter sbrowninggreenmp: I don’t want to be labelled an alarmist, but I must warn of the imminent danger of destruction of farmer markets, small growers and other trendy hippy outlets due to the new Food Bill. #greenmeansstop helenkellyctu: AFFCO capitalist owners the Talleys are making outrageous demands on their workforce. They insist their business must have a sustainable, profitable long-term future or it will go broke and there will no jobs for anyone. We must resist this dangerous, neo-liberal, rightwing thinking or people may realise just how useless unions really are! #redordead dshearerlabour: My research unit informs me there’s a ceiling to how much butter and beef and meat and milk you can make off New Zealand grass. Therefore Labour’s new policy will be to lift tax on New Zealand farmers until they bugger off to Finland. #brighterfuture bwillsfedfarmers@dshearerlabour: You sound like another Labour leader, called David, who 25 years ago labelled farming in New Zealand a sunset industry. The truth is, if the whole economy had performed as well as farming has over the last 25 years, New Zealand would have living standards on a par with Australia. #suckonthat

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Rural News // april 3, 2012

opinion 31

Comparative advantage eroding WHEN I left Massey and began, as a naïve city girl, listening to farmers in Taranaki in 1990, the incredible comparative advantage of the NZ dairy industry struck me as an epiphany.

Determined to compete against subsidised milk in our markets, farmers had developed clever, efficient ways to convert pasture to dollars at very low cost.

They had also, through much angst but eventual cooperation, organised themselves into cooperatives that used collective strength to extract the maximum value for our products in international markets.

These two strengths, plus our temperate climate, generated huge comparative advantage over all other milk producing countries. The climate was luck, but the rest was smart use of resource.

cupied with the sector’s image.

Consultants know everything about effluent, but struggle to read accounts.

Meanwhile we’re looking to invite non-farmer investment in our main co-op. According to Mark Townshend (Dairy News try funded and focussed; Ireland’s was confused, Government funded, and fixated on per cow yield.

That was then.

Today, after a commodity price boom and EU reforms, the roles are starting to reverse.

Here, depreciable gear’s accumulating, mowers are doing the work of cows, and cows are moving into expensive houses.

We’re milking out of season. It’s starting to look like the Ireland I arrived at in the mid 1990s: busy but high cost

New Zealand dairy will not get stronger by mimicking the high cost, capital intensive, supplementary feed dependant management systems of less profitable competitors.

Convinced of the principles, I was employed in Ireland 1995 to 2000.

What New Zealand had through luck – the temperate climate – so had Ireland. What Ireland lacked then, were the other two prongs of our comparative advantage: low cost milk production off grass and strong farmer-owned processing and marketing cooperatives.

The reason for the difference stuck out like dogs’ testicles. Ireland was subsidised by the EU. Capitalisation had replaced knowledge and smart thinking.

They were building sheds, laying concrete, buying machines and making expensive milk when we were using stocking rate, genetics, seasonal calving and pasture management skill to make milk cheap.

Our research and extension service was indus-

and vulnerable to volatile milk prices. Farmers’ capacity for growth (debt servicing) is being limited by on-farm cost structures.

Visiting Ireland last June, we saw young Irish farmers focussed on pasture utilisation, low cost production and looking for ways to amalgamate dairy companies to minimise the effect of nonfarm investment in their co-ops.

Driven by dwindling subsidies and quota abolition in 2015, they want to increase manufacturing capacity at home to compete offshore. (See the Glanbia example on www. ourco-op.co.nz).

Ireland now has some of the best grass and cow scientists in the world, while we’re employing nutritionists who work for feed companies, vets that focus on individual animals, and our industry funded body is preoc-

March 13) it promises “a big prize period and we must get on with it”. A big prize for farmers? More likely a short-term jump in share price as traders and fund managers ‘build the book’.

It might be a big prize for those about to exit, but was that what we all put

our capital in for – to fund retirement of this generation at the expense of future ones?

It is often said family wealth is built in one generation, maintained in the next, and blown in the third.

New Zealand dairy will not get stronger by

mimicking the high cost, capital intensive, supplementary feed-dependant management systems of less profitable competitors.

Nor can we keep profits flowing to farmers by mimicking the hybrid or publicly listed company ownership structures of

Ireland, where they’ve created so much angst farmers are desperately trying to claim their co-ops back.

The opportunity is right under our feet. Let’s leave our co-op structure alone, and not be the third generation that ‘blows’ it.

Rural News // April 3, 2012

32 management

Can lambs beat cash crops?

Rob Buddo is a lamb finisher just south of Hastings. But he’s not just any finisher – he’s a unique mixture of a perfectionist, innovator, early adopter and entrepreneur, tempered with reality and common sense.

Peter Burke reports KINBURN FARM, Poukawa, is next door to Poukawa Research Station,

so perhaps it’s no coincidence its owner Rob Buddo is working closely

Hawkes Bay farmer Rob Buddo speaking at Beef+Lamb’s pre-AGM field day.

with PRS scientist Dr Paul Muir on a lucerne cultivar demonstration.

It’s part of the Future Forage Systems project funded by the Ministry for Primary Industry’s Sustainable Farming Fund, Beef+Lamb New Zealand and Hawkes Bay Regional Council. The aim is to find which cultivars are most productive and persistent under grazing.

Buddo’s broader objective is to grow lambs faster and see if lamb finishing on lucerne can compete with cash cropping, as he explained to BLNZ’s recent pre-AGM field day at Poukawa.

Kinburn is a 232ha property and part of a larger 495ha operation based on four properties

Paul Muir

Rob and wife Coral own in the Poukawa Basin. On Kinburn he winters 3200 lambs, 200 one-year-old bulls and 60 two-year-old bulls. He also buys in up to 100 empty dairy cows

which he gets in calf, and sells back to the dairy sector a year later.

It’s a large and complex operation, but well planned and managed.

It’s typical dryland farming country.

With the exception of this year, the hills are brown in summer. For some time Buddo had been seeking to improve the growth rates of the lambs that he puts through the property. After BLNZ’s farm science conference last year, where Lincoln scientist Derek Moot extolled the virtues of

lucerne, he decided to give it a go. Six 2.5ha blocks were sown giving him a 42-day round at 33 lambs/ ha. His target is 350g/day weight gain, a ‘big ask’ but necessary for recouping the establishment costs of $1270/ha, including 6t/ha of lime.

“During establishment of the lucerne we had all sorts of hairy moments.

We grew a bloody good crops of weeds and the first time we put lambs on here we couldn’t see them for the weeds. But we knew with lucerne we needed plant population, so we had to be careful to protect the second germination of lucerne plants still getting under away.

“Today we are happy with the plant population we have, so going forward this gives us every chance to have a good operation.”

When the first lambs

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Rural News // april 3, 2012

management 33 went on, Buddo says, the results were astounding.

“We thought we’d cracked the code because some of these lambs were doing 500 grams a day. We thought this was easy. But when we got to the second round we just crashed and the lambs lost weight.”

With hindsight, in the first round they were probably eating more weeds than lucerne and still needed time to adjust to the crop.

There was probably a gut-fill effect too, and the wet season meant the lucerne was only 14% dry matter, so they may have struggled to eat enough dry matter.

Ordinary pasture is needed as well as the crop while the rumen adjusts, something that’s now part of Buddo’s management practice.

This autumn some lambs are grazing a trial of ten varieties to find which best suits the area.

They’re subject to normal grazing so neither farmer nor On-Farm Research scientist Muir can say which gives the best weight gain. The trial is essentially to find which survives and produces best under grazing.

Pasja brassica is also used for lamb finishing, and about 2000 lambs will be finished on lucerne and pasja this year, the remainder on ryegrass pasture.

Buddo aims to be at the top end of the bell curve distribution of producers,

Sheep on Rob Buddo’s property grazing on lucerne.

sumer who buys your prod- it really does give you that and that requires accurate data about lambs, not uct out of the meat cabinet market connect. guesswork, he says. Lambs are electronically tagged to monitor weight gain, allowing him to tell which lambs perform best. He works closely with breeder James Falloon from whom he buys direct.

“Before they leave his place they are dipped and quarantine drenched and they are all set to go by the time they get here. There’s quite a difference between his lambs and the ones you might pull out of the saleyards which might be more prone to ailments such as viral pneumonia.

We can track the animal health status.”

Knowing the lambs’ origin also means they know they meet Lean Meats’ animal welfare requirements, he adds. His involvement with Lean Meats has focused his mind on meeting consumer needs.

“I’ve been to the United States and to some of the discerning markets we supply. When you go there and talk to the con-

Future Forage Systems project THE FUTURE Forage Systems project aims to find feed options that will enable farmers in the traditionally summer-dry East Coast to build productivity in the face of an increasingly variable climate.

“We are evaluating lucerne cultivars [and] looking at annual legumes as a crop on cultivatable land and as a means of powering up hill country,” says Dr Paul Muir of On Farm Research which is doing the work.

“We need to get more nitrogen into the system and we are focusing on legumes.”

The project is also looking at the role of herbs, notably plantain and annual, winter active legumes such as Persian, Balansa and Arrowleaf clovers.

Talking about alternative pastures is all very well, but there’s a need to know how they’ll grow in the region and how they’ll fit into farm systems, Muir stresses. “We need to know what their seasonal production is and how they compare with what normally happens on that farm.” The trial is in its early stages so no results are available yet.

“The project will evolve; some trials looking at persistence may be ongoing and some will just be one-offs.”

Most of the work will be on commercial farms with Poukawa Research Station used only where that’s not possible. “Farmers would rather go and look at Rob Buddo’s lucerne cultivars than see a small lucerne trial plot run on a research farm.”

“Interestingly the consumers are looking for that too. They want to know that the meat they are buying has been reared in a certain way. That includes being looked after properly. They also want to know that the food is safe and of extremely good quality.”

Farmers have to realise that the advantages of the relationship with a meat company and the consumer is not all about price, he says.

About on-farm research On-Farm Research is a joint venture between Muir and local large-scale family farming company Brownrigg Agriculture.

Muir, originally from Lincoln, has been at Poukawa since MAF established it as a research facility in 1989. In 1991, with the advent of the CRI’s, AgResearch took over the site but in 2003 deemed it surplus, at which point On-Farm Research took over the lease of the 240ha property.

A variety of contract research projects are done.

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Rural News // April 3, 2012

34 management

Better bull buying boosts With the bull sale season just around the corner, Beef + Lamb New Zealand has organised a series of workshops called Better Bull Buying Decisions. Andrew Swallow reports USING BREEDING values as part of your bull buying strategy could add thousands of dollars to the bottom line of your business – but only if you, or your agent, understand

the principals and, crucially, financial implications.

That was graphically illustrated in the closing session of one of the first of a series of workshops

More workshops THE ORARI Gorge workshop was one of six run in the South Island in the past fortnight. Eight North Island events are scheduled for later this month, starting April 16 at Matapouri Herefords & Charolais, Hikurangi.

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Following a mock helmsman auction featuring a selection of real life Orari Gorge Hereford Stud bulls, teams’ returns on their genetic investment differed by over $100/calf.

While presenter Andrew Byrne of Southern Beef Technology Services, Australia, stressed that his quick financial analysis of the auction result was crude, owing to the time

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constraints, it made the point.

“We need to balance the genetic value with the price paid. The key thing, as a commercial producer, is getting best value for money.”

In the mock auction some teams put their entire $12,000 budget on what they believed to be the best bull for the scenario given: a selfreplacing breeding herd producing 330kg carcaseweight finished steers for export at about 20 months old with 10mm of fat.

Others split their money $9000 and $3000, buying a back-up bull at the sale minimum, while some chose not to chase the absolute best bulls on figures and appearance because they’d been outbid, but instead bought close seconds for $3000 instead.

A team deploying that latter strategy achieved the best return from their purchase, assuming it sired 60 calves/season for four years.

“These bulls at $3000 were really good value for money,” pointed out Byrne, as he presented his quick analysis showing the winning team’s bull would, over those four years, add a net $17,940/year, or $299/

Big decision: workshop participants make their pick.

calf. Meanwhile the lowest of the eight teams on the day would have cleared $189/calf, having blown their entire budget on one bull.

Before Byrne revealed his analysis the teams relayed their reasoning for buying the bulls they did, talking about scores for various traits and appearance of the animals. Not one mentioned mone-

tary value of the genetics, despite the scenario presented closely matching that which the export/ maternal index for Herefords – presented as a dollar figure – is designed for.

Byrne, who’s run similar programmes across Australia, says that’s typical.

“They definitely should be valuing their genetics,”

he told Rural News after the day.

“They need to pay attention to what cost those genetics come at.”

Such calculations can and should be done in the calm of the farm office or home prior to going to a bull sale, as should a study of the EBVs, he stresses.

Having found a breeder whose principles and objectives align with

Big shifts over time EARLIER IN the day Byrne showed how relatively small changes with each sire selection add up to big shifts in structure and/or performance over time.

Herefords went from belt-buckle height in the 1950s to shoulder high by the 1980s. Meanwhile a classic Angus trial at Trangie, NSW, from 1975 to 1992,

selecting on 400day weight, massively increased growth rate of one line, while another, selected for low growth, gave rise to today’s Lowline breed.

“The key is that we’re not trying to drive just one trait forward. It’s about finding a bull that’s good for a lot of things, rather than just one.”

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management 35

returns Four steps to selection

• Identify selection index most relevant to your production system.

• Rank animals using selection indices (NB same breed only).

• Check EBVs of particular importance to your situation.

• Consider other information available: structure; soundness; temperament, etc. yours, go through the sale catalogue using the index most closely matched to your production system to rank sires, then check the EBVs to eliminate any which don’t meet your minimum requirements for certain traits, such as birthweight, calving ease or mature cow weight.

“Making a visual assessment first then going to the EBVs would be fine if you had unlimited time [at a sale] but you don’t.”

Aaron Meikle

Online tools can help rank sires from one or more studs, allowing users to search and sort data by entering acceptable ranges for any number of traits, he points out. “All the breed societies offer an online version of the [Breedplan] database.”

Online data is also the latest available, as

opposed to what was available when the sale catalogue went to print, and is complete. “When you look at a paper catalogue, a lot of people don’t give the full data set, just for space requirements.”

Having crunched the numbers, Byrne says check fertility, genetic condition, temperament and pedigree information, and only then make a visual appraisal.

Checking pedigree is wise even for commercial producers to avoid inadvertent inbreeding by buying bulls from the same bloodline year in, year out, he points out.

BLNZ Central South Island extension manager Aaron Meikle says the workshops are targeted at agents as much as farmers, given the key role agents play in many farms’ buying decisions.

“A lot still buy bulls for clients, much more than is the case with rams these days.”

But whoever does the buying, the overall objective is the same, he stresses. “More efficient use of the money they spend, or invest, in bulls...

We want to prove this stuff works and make sure

Mock auction: Christian Duff of SBTS takes the bids.

farmers get a return on the money they’re spending on genetics.

“Farmers don’t necessarily need to understand exactly how the EBVs work as long as they are confident they do and put pressure on their breeders to be using it.”

Meikle re-iterated that in his summing up of the day, saying there are “two key things” Beef + Lamb wants people to take from the workshops: “That these systems work, but also that it’s not the b-all and end-all. You still need that visual assessment.”

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36 management Harvesting self-set Totara is an “obvious opportunity”, says Paul Quinlan (inset/left).

Totara ‘weed’ possible money maker pam tipa

inset Photo credit: John Maillard

ALL THE ingredients exist to turn a Northland ‘weed’ into a farm earner and environmental winner, says Paul Quinlan from the Northland Totara Working Group.

Easily workable and durable totara regenerates so prolifically in Northland that some farmers regard the trees as ‘weeds’. But the working group’s research since 2005 shows the regenerating trees on farmers’ land offer a viable

opportunity for commercial timber production.

“There’s a need to engineer this obvious opportunity so it can be realised for the landowner and the environmental gains,” says Quinlan told the Rural News.

“It… looks so promising – all the ingredients are there – it is a matter of cobbling them together to make a functioning chain.”

About 344,000ha of private land in Northland contains totara, working group research shows. Some is poor quality but the bulk has diameters less than 30cm, so is young enough to improve through silviculture.

Quinlan says the working group is “at the edge” of taking steps to find avenues for commercial production.

Sawmillers have confirmed it is easily milled and nine out of 10 architects surveyed indicated they would be interested in specifying farm totara if there was good continuity of supply.

Tree’s attributes Offers native biodiversity.

Erosion control.

Enhanced soil and water quality.

Shelter and shade.

Grows in less productive land.

Riparian management.

Abundant regeneration.

Stock-resistant.

Birds distribute seed.

Grazing seems to help establish seedlings.

Responds well to silviculture.

Significantly scaled for commercial mass.

Grows throughout the country.

The younger, sapwood variety growing naturally on Northland farms is particularly suited to interior finishings, kitchens, cabinets and furniture. Any farmers interested in managing or harvesting totara can get on the working group’s mailing list, but should make MAF their first port of call. For a commercial future for their trees they should get advice on thinning and pruning.

Extensive trials for the working group by Scion Research scientist Dr David Bergin on 38 sample lots showed there was clear early growth response to silviculture. Two years after thinning and pruning, diameter growth rates of residual trees were on average 2.5 times greater than in controls.

“There may be other areas of the farm with opportunities to work with that natural regeneration process and allow the trees to colonise,” says Quinlan. “They can be left to grow and be managed for a future resource in an easy, painless way. It’s not about fencing off and losing productive land, or having planting costs or releasing costs.

“It can be brought on quite slowly by managing transition or establishment and development.”

Totara regenerates best in rougher pastures, marginal land and hill country. It has more trouble competing with grass or surviving trampling in heavily grazed areas. But the Northland evidence shows it still succeeds in grazed environments. Under the Forests Act, totara requires a sustainable harvest permit. That means single stem selection rather than clear felling which is more time consuming and expensive.

Quinlan says although he fully supports sustainability, the Forest Act never really envisaged second growth resources or regenerating trees on farms. This is a legal issue the working group “works with awkwardly” but he says “there’s no real political appetite to change the act”.

Quinlan admits there’s regulation, access and market awareness to overcome, but believes there are economic and environmental gains to be made by farmers from regenerating totara in Northland and many other regions.

“Nature is doing the planting at a huge scale you couldn’t hope to match. There are no costs to the planting, fencing off, loss of production in early years, no releasing – the opportunity of working with that has huge scale.”

Rural News // april 3, 2012

management 37

Northland Dairy Industry Award Farm Manager winners, Steve and Donna Griggs.

Records make for better returns New Zealand Dairy Industry Award announcements come thick and fast at this time of year, so do winners’ field days. Gareth Gillatt reports from the Northland Farm Manager winners’ event.

FARMERS SHOULD document all processes on-farm to make sure everything runs smoothly, say Steve and Donna Griggs, winners of the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards Trust Northland Farm Manager Of The Year award. They spoke last month to 50 farmers at an awards event.

The Griggs, first-year entrants, manage a 129ha, 480-cow farm for Waipu farmers Carl and Stef Gordon.

They won the award for a strong overall performance with special emphasis on staff management and financial planning. They have been four years on the farm.

They won the DairyNZ Human Resource Management Award and the Westpac Financial Planning & Management Award as well as the overall farm manager award.

The judges were especially impressed with their management of staff and information sharing which Steve Griggs attributes to Donna’s background as a RuralTec and Ag ITO tutor.

“For us, entering the competition didn’t mean we had to get these things in place,” Donna says. “It was more like, we’re doing this and we’re doing that – let’s pull it all together.”

The Griggs make a practice of keeping lots of documents and communications on the farm, and, besides fortnightly

recorded meetings with farm owner Carl Gordan, they keep many records of farm performance and how the farm is worked.

These include health and safety policy, listing all the farm hazards, a board recording temporary hazards, a farm management plan, a policies and procedures manual and a farm ‘bible’ recording all the data from the property.

Donna says these many documents ensure new staff can quickly get up to speed. “If anything happens to anybody and someone needs to jump in for a couple of days – in the event of some kind of disaster – everything

farm breakdown:

Effective area: 129ha home block with support from 384ha beef unit/runoff.

Soil types: 25% sandy clays, 70% clay loam, 5% peat.

Cows: 480.

Calving: split calving.

Location: Waipu, Northland. would be there.”

But it’s the farm ‘bible’ that has made easy the task of managing the farm.

This contains every piece of information about every day, including the paddock(s) they were in,

Crops secure summer feed TURNIP YIELDS of up to 20tDM/ha help the Griggs’ keep the milk pouring in through summer and early autumn when other feeds can be scarce.

But the right sowing interval and rate, and fertiliser and irrigation levels are critical, say the Northland Farm Manager Of The Year winners.

Yields consistently hit 14-15tDM/ha, with one bumper crop doing 20tDM/ha and a couple of others doing 18t and 17tDM/ha.

Seed rate at just 1.5-2kg/ha gives plants space to grow to their potential.

Shed effluent goes on the crop for three weeks after germination with the irrigator shifted every 12 hours, applying an average of 25mm each shift.

Griggs says this gives the turnips the nutrients they need to grow and while some say utilisation of turnips is only 50%, he’s achieving 80%.

Farm owner Carl Gordon puts that down to cultivars used: SF Envy, a tankard-type; and SF G2, a winter globe-type.

“They’ve got a really thin and short root so cows have no problem pulling them out of the ground.”

how much milk they produced, how much effluent was spread, whether any cows were sick, etc. Unlike farm diaries the ‘bible’ presents the data monthby-month like a spreadsheet, every month getting two pages.

This tells them the exact historical circumstances of every aspect and section of the farm, Steve says, and it allows anybody working there to make informed management decisions on-thespot.

“We can see which paddocks are slow, for example. We can go to this book and say, ‘right we’ll put X amount of urea on there’.”

This was backed up by farm owner Carl Gordan who says it has been a boon for day-to-day decision making.

“If you were to [learn] one thing [from the field day] it’d be the farm bible,” says Carl Gordon.

“We haven’t had that before; it’s one of the most valuable things on the farm.”

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Rural News // April 3, 2012

38 animal health

More Taurus-type exercises mooted PETER BURKE

MORE ACTIVE and constant testing of New Zealand’s ability to deal with an outbreak of foot and mouth disease (FMD) is needed, says MAF’s head of compliance and response in the wake of a ministry’s first FMD simulation for years.

Andrew Coleman headed the exercise ‘Taurus 2012’ on March 19-22 to test MAF’s ability to deal with FMD. He told Rural News some aspects of their response need testing every year and an exercise on the scale of ‘Taurus 2012’ every couple of years would be useful.

The scenario for Taurus 2012 involved an FMD incursion from a fictitious country called Greyland.

Infection showed up on five properties in Taranaki, effecting 400 sheep, 1000 cattle and two deer.

Links with other sites in Taranaki and from Auckland to Hawkes Bay had to be traced and checked due to stock movement.

Coleman says the main aim was to test the whole government biosecurity

MAF’s FMD response team mid-simulation.

response guide and by and large the exercise went well. But they learned a lot from the exercise especially about communications and dealing with news media, he says.

“The demands of the media were insatiable.

The media never let up and while we were working from 7am until about 8pm, in a real situation the expectation of the media

would be 24/7.”

MAF’s communications team performed well, helped by communications staff from other government agencies experienced in dealing with crisis.

“Social media were tested throughout the exercise. We had hundreds of social media injects… and that added another media dimension to what

we were trying to manage.

Normally our focus would be on print, radio and television, but keeping a track of what the social stuff brings lets you know what the heartbeat of communities is like.”

Industry groups such as DairyNZ, Beef + Lamb New Zealand, the Meat Industry Association and the Deer Industry New Zealand were also

involved. Coleman says their role is critical in any outbreak of FMD. “The reality is that a lot of the control you need to put in place to manage FMD – such as setting voluntary compliance, needs support from farmers and industry and getting the particular requirements to farmers – was quite challenging.”

• Egypt FMD outbreak, p41

Response speed key simulation shows BENED ICT CO L L IN S

THE EXTENT and severity of any foot and mouth disease (FMD) outbreak would depend on the reaction speed of authorities, says a Massey University scientist central in MAF’s Exercise Taurus simulation held in March in Wellington. The ‘outbreak’ was in Straftford, Taranaki.

Massey veterinary epidemiologist Mark Stevenson, who designed the exercise, says if we are prepared, with good information at hand, our chances of eradicating the disease promptly are excellent.

Taurus modelled the spread of FMD to five farms in Hawera, resulting in a nationwide shut-down of farming and the wiping of billions of dollars from the economy.

The exercise had epidemiologists feeding information on three fronts into a computer model akin to a flight simulator to predict where the disease would travel. The first front was ‘local spread’, with the disease radiating from the first site to neighbouring farms.

Stevenson says modellers used data gathered during the UK’s massive 2001 outbreak, and from other offshore outbreaks.

The second front was a ‘long distance spread’ where potentially infected animals had been transported or had contacted other moved stock. During a real outbreak this is the stage when modellers need people on the ground gathering firsthand information, says Stevenson.

“So when the response is activated, officials in the field do a lot of work interviewing the managers of those infected farms to work out where they’ve taken animals and where they’ve received stock from.”

The third lot of modelling was on ‘airborne spread’, requiring the latest weather, notably wind, data from NIWA. Stevenson says the models give vital direction to people on the FMD front lines, so resources can be focused. Then testing and, if necessary, culling, can begin.

New Zealand is in a relatively good position to begin with should FMD break out, he says. “[We’re] lucky in having all our farm locations mapped so we know the distribution of the livestock farms and the number of animals on those farms.”

MAF officials said the new Farms Online database and the pending National Animal Identification and Tracing scheme will help in any biosecurity response.

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40 animal health

Parvo outbreak prompts vaccination reminder CHECK WHEN your dogs were last vaccinated for parvo-virus and if it wasn’t within the last couple of years, consult your vet.

That’s the advice of Wanganui vet Pieter Verhoek following a series of

outbreaks of the disease in Taranaki, Wanganui, Canterbury and Northland.

Following a 5-10 day incubation period, infected dogs go downhill rapidly with vomiting, diarrhoea, not eating and

weight loss, all within 24 hours of apparently being fit and healthy.

“Dogs can and do die within this timeframe from this easily prevented and infectious disease,” warns Verhoek. “Even

with treatment, between a quarter and a half of infected dogs will die.”

Mixing of animals at events such as musters and dog trials increases the risk of spread, however farmers, shepherds and

Healthy now, but are his jabs up to date?

trialists are generally good at keeping vaccinations up to date, he adds.

GET THE RIGHT GROWTH AT THE RIGHT TIME WITH THE RIGHT DRENCH.

“A very effective vaccination for parvo-virus is available from veterinary practices throughout the country and it is not expensive, given the severity of the disease.”

Pups should be vaccinated at six, 10 and 14 weeks, followed by a booster at one. Policy after that “depends on the area and the vaccination protocol” of the local veterinary practices, he says, but

a three-yearly booster is typical.

“Failing to protect animals against such a life-threatening disease is as much an animal welfare issue as cruelty.”

Owners should balance the cost of the vaccine against the cost of treatment, and possible loss of a dog or dogs, as treatment is often unsuccessful, he adds.

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MINIMUM STANDARDS and recommended best practices for keeping goats are outlined in a new code of welfare issued last week by Minister for Primary Industries David Carter.

The Animal Welfare (Goats) Code of Welfare 2011 was developed by the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee (NAWAC).

MAF says it establishes how goat welfare is properly and best attended to, and encourages all those responsible to adopt best practices of husbandry, care and handling.

NAWAC chairman John Hellstrom notes goats are kept in a variety of situations in New Zealand, including farming for milk, meat and fibre, weed control, display in safari parks and as pets.

“There is an onus on all owners and people in charge to look after them appropriately, regardless of how or why they are kept,” says Hellstrom.

“The code offers practical information and 19 minimum standards relating to all aspects of goat ownership and care, including water, food and shelter, breeding and handling.”

Strict requirements on tethering practice and equipment, and provision of food, water and shelter are detailed.

“In addition, tethered goats must be trained to the conditions and kept under close supervision.”

The code was originally developed by an industryconvened writing group, with input from the milk, fibre and goat sectors, veterinarians and animal welfare representatives.

It does not apply to goats that are “wild animals” under the Wild Animal Control Act, but it does apply to captured feral goats.

Copies and an explanatory report are online at http://www.biosecurity.govt.nz/regs/animal-welfare or by request from animalwelfare@maf.govt.nz

Rural News // april 3, 2012

animal health 41

There’s money in mastitis control SUD ES H KISSUN

MASTITIS IS a management disease rather than a contagious one, says animal health consultant Adrian Joe. Speaking last week at the New Zealand Large Herds Dairy Business Conference in Palmerston North, he said reduction in somatic cell count of 100,000cells/ml was achievable in herds irrespective of size.

Joe, a PureMilk mastitis consultant, says awareness, attitude and attention to detail will help farmers reduce SCC in their herds.

“There’s money in reducing your herd cell count. The larger your herd, the more money you lose through mastitis. In a 1000-cow herd with average SCC of 300,000cells/ ml, a 30% reduction saves $139,000. That’s the equivalent of one new Mercedes for you.”

When treating mastitis, little things count.

Choose antibiotics that give results, says Joe. Staff must also be properly trained in teat spraying and handling cows with mastitis.

Traditionally mastitis has been blamed on bacteria and cows. But Joe points out the disease was inevitable as bacteria are universal and “whenever you milk cows, mastitis is a consequence”.

“The reality is mastitis is a controllable disease.

The two key risk areas are staff and poor implementation of the well researched and proven control measures.”

According to Joe, SCC in New Zealand herds has shown “disappointing improvement” for 20 years.

It has dropped from 300,000cells/ml to 220,000cells/ml then plateaued for the last 10 years. LIC data show no correlation between the disease and herd size. The LIC NZ Dairy Statistics 2010-11 show a SCC of

232,000cells/ ml average across all herd sizes.

Dairy regions have a range of 216,000 in Waikato to 298,000 in Hawke’s Bay. Joe says each farm will have key issues in mastitis management. “The key is to go for the huge payoff areas. The emphasis is on attention to detail

with less emphasis on speed at which cows are milked.”

A NEW molecule discovered by chemists at the University of Illinois is a potential breakthrough antibiotic treatment for bovine mastitis.

Lead researcher Wilfred van der Donk, a chemistry professor at the university, found genes that make a molecule with a similar structure and function to the antibiotic nisin.

Nisin occurs naturally in milk and is a product of bacteria in the cow’s udder. It helps keep milk from spoiling and kills a broad spectrum of bacteria that cause food-borne illness, most notably listeria and clostridium.

Approved as a food additive in the US in 1969, it is now used widely by food makers in 50 countries.

Van der Donk says nisin also shows promise as a treatment for bovine mas-

titis. As it is already present in low levels in milk, farmers using it to treat mastitis may not need to discard milk or meat from recently treated animals.

But it has drawbacks.

Nisin is produced in an acidic environment, but becomes unstable at the neutral pH levels needed for many foods or pharmaceuticals. It also becomes unstable at higher temperatures, limiting its uses.

Van der Donk and his team isolated the newly discovered genes and inserted them into E.coli to produce the new antibiotic – now named geobacillin – in large enough quantities to study its structure and function.

“As it turns out, geobacillin is more stable, both in pH and temperature,” van der Donk says.

“We think this is good news for potential use of geobacillin in food.”

He says the new antibiotic, an analog of nisin,

& Dip

Joe's five-point mastitis plan

• Treat clinical cases.

• Treat subclinical mastitis and prevent new infections with dry cow therapy.

• Cull non-responders.

• Regular milking machine testing and maintenance.

• Teat spray.

Gene discovery suggests new strategy against dairying’s #1 enemy A L AN H ARMAN

Pour On

also has potential for treating bovine mastitis.

Nisin, and presumably geobacillin, work by binding to a molecule the pathogen needs to build its cell wall and then poking holes in the bacterial cell’s membrane, a one-two punch that quickly kills the invader.However, the two antibiotics have slight structural differences.

Nisin’s structure has five looped regions, formed by cross-links in the protein chain. Geobacillin has seven loops thanks to two extra cross-links, which give the protein added stability.

The researchers tested geobacillin against several food-borne and diseasecausing bacteria and found it similarly effective or more effective than nisin, depending on the bacteria.

Most significantly, it was three times more active against the main contagious bacteria responsible for bovine

mastitis. Also, since mastitis could be caused by a number of different infections, geobacillin’s broadspectrum activity makes it an attractive treatment option. The researchers now plan to test geobacillin against a wider spectrum of disease-causing bacteria. Many tests of safety, efficacy and economic production lie ahead, but geobacillin has shown great promise.

The researchers hope its greater stability will allow medicinal applications for geobacillin that nisin could not realise, for bovine mastitis and possibly for human disease.

“Nisin was promising in early preclinical trials in that it was effective in killing multi-drug-resistant bacteria in mouse models, but because of its instability, it has a short half-life in blood. So we’re looking to see whether geobacillin has greater serum stability.”

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Rural News // April 3, 2012

42 animal health

No chains for whelping bitches JOE BLOGGS’ Huntaway bitch was due to whelp, and he decided the spot was to be a big kennel away from the other dogs where she had successfully reared her previous litter, however I noticed she was chained to it. I have seen quite a few people do this; I would never do it.

When a bitch prepares to whelp she will dig, or pretend to if she is on a wooden floor, and turn around and around as well as get up and down frequently; she is restless and uncomfortable and the chain could become tangled, at the least annoying for her.

But worse than that, because she is giving birth to several pups and is busy

training days Taupo – April 22 Tuakau – April 24 Northland – April 29 Otorohanga – May 1 Telephone Anna – 06 388 1318

cleaning each pup as it is born, the chain can wrap around one of the others, injuring delicate, soft limbs or possibly killing one.

I advised my friend to remove the chain and use the trailer crate to give the bitch space to stretch and go to the toilet. I also suggested putting a gate over the top to prevent her jumping out.

He assumed she wouldn’t jump and didn’t cover the top. The inevitable happened and she greeted him on the driveway one morning, so he returned her to the kennel and chained her until he had time to cover the run.

A couple of days later, when visiting again, it became obvious to me what had happened.

I’m blessed with a sixth sense when it comes to dogs and I noticed a very subtle change in her belly and udder shape.

She had remained quite agile as she wasn’t heavily in pup (prob-

Happy chappies, but not all pups are so lucky.

ably only 1-3) and, as the crate was uncovered, she had jumped out to find a better nest. She gave birth. Her mothering instincts were not strong and she left her pups to greet Joe that morning.

As her shape hadn’t unduly changed he thought nothing of it, returned her to the kennel and chained her up just for safe measure; he then went off to work

for the day. This is when it gets sad.

The poor bitch would have tried to get back to her pups, but couldn’t and Joe would have been oblivious to her stress – not hearing her whining or seeing her attempts to escape. The pups would have died of cold before starvation, as warmth is critical.

I have bred a lot of litters over the

years and I have had bitches whelp as early as 57 days and as late as 64 days so it is very important to have the bitch in the whelping area well in advance.

This area needs to be warm, safe, private and give her enough room to relieve herself away from the whelping spot. Do not chain her up but have her in an enclosure from which she cannot escape.

I always let my bitches out twice a day for a walk round; most hold on, preferring to toilet out on the grass as usual. I watch them like a hawk and take them back after 5-10 minutes, or they will slink off somewhere they think better suited to whelping – usually under a shed.

I am very aware of my dogs. Their bodily appearance, mannerisms and personalities tell a lot about what is happening with their health and often you can pick up subtle warning signs that not all is well. But you have to know your dogs; you can never be too astute.

• Anna Holland is teaching people dog training. For more information www. annaholland.co.nz or tel. (06) 388 1318 or annaholland@xtra.co.nz

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Rural News // april 3, 2012

animal health 43

Egypt FMD toll rising AN D REW SWA L LOW

THE UNITED Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation is calling for urgent action to control a major outbreak of foot and mouth disease in Egypt.

Egypt’s Central Quarantine Service said last week it believed 94,000 cattle were affected, of which 9000 had died, but reports elsewhere suggest the state is downplaying the problem.

When the UN put out its alert a week earlier, it said 40,222 cases were suspected, according to official estimates.

“We are working closely to support the government to bring the outbreak under control,” the FAO’s chief veteri-

nary officer Juan Lubroth said. “The area around the Lower Nile Delta appears to be severely affected, while other areas in Upper Egypt and the west appear less so.”

FAO’s livestock census data puts Egypt’s buffalo and cattle herd at 6.3 million, plus 7.5 million sheep and goats. No mention is made of pigs, the other major domestic-animal FMD vector.

The FAO says although FMD has circulated in Egypt for years, this is a new introduction of a virus strain known as SAT2, and livestock have no immunity.

Vaccines for the strain are in limited supply, and Egypt’s vaccine reserves do not protect against

it. Even if effective vaccines were made available quickly, they sometimes take up to two weeks to confer immunity, so FAO is urging coordination at all levels of government to implement biosecurity measures to limit the spread of the disease.

All cloven-hoofed animals

are susceptible to FMD, including deer and camelids (llamas, alpacas). In farmed species, serious production losses occur and it can be lethal, particularly to younger animals.

Meat and milk from sick animals is unsafe for consumption, not because FMD affects humans, but

because foodstuffs entering the food chain should only come from animals known to be healthy, says the FAO. The virus spreads in airborne droplets and by contact, either direct animal to animal, or indirect such as on trucks, shoes or clothing.

FMD infected cattle get small blisters on the tongue, and the lining can slough off.

THE E FACTOR

Loss of skin and sores between the hoof claws in cattle, caused by FMD.

MAF on Egypt outbreak IN RESPECT of the FMD outbreak in Egypt, MAF’s director of animal and animal products standards, Mat Stone, told Rural News MAF knows diseases such as FMD are present in a number of countries at any given time.

“MAF is aware of the FMD outbreak in Egypt, and is monitoring developments.” The ministry exchanges information on such events with an international network of science and regulatory organisations.

“Egypt had prior outbreaks in 2009-10. Egypt is not recognised by the OIE (the World Organisation for Animal Health) as officially free of FMD because of this,” he points out.

This latest outbreak was reported to the OIE on March 13 and is of particular interest primarily due to the serotype of the virus, reportedly new for Egypt, but present in more southern countries of Africa, says Stone.

“Other countries in the same region as Egypt, for example Israel, are also experiencing outbreaks of FMD [but] the primary FMD risk for New Zealand is much closer to home – South East Asia.”

Stone says “several” of New Zealand’s border and trade measures are specifically designed to minimise risk of FMD arriving here, where it could do “considerable harm.”

“MAF reviews the biosecurity measures regularly to ensure they are appropriate for the risk at that time.”

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14/03/12 1:30 PM

Rural News // April 3, 2012

44 animal health PRODUCT

COMPANY

METHOD OF APPLICATION

Cattle External Parasite Treatments

ACTIVE INGREDIENT

CONCENTRATION INGREDIENT DOSE RATE

FORMULATED DOSE RATE LIVEWEIGHT

WITHDRAWAL PERIOD MEAT (DAYS)

SAFETY MARGIN (X DOSE RATE)

MILK (DAYS)

CLAIMS

COMMENTS

BITING LICE

SUCKING LICE

TICKS

BITING FLY

ECTOPARASITICIDES Bayticol

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Flumethrin

1.0% w/v

1mg/kg

10mL/100kg

Nil

Nil

>20

No

No

Yes

No

Rainfast

Destruct

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Propetamphos

10% w/v

10mg/kg

10mL/100kg

3

5

N/S

Yes

Yes

No

No

Short meat withholding, single dose.

BLAZE

COOPERS

Pour-on

Deltamethrin

1.5% w/v (15g/L)

0.75mg/kg

1mL/20kg lice and nuisance fly.

28

Nil

>10

Yes

Yes

No Note 4

Yes

Nil bobby calf withholding for cows treated in late pregnancy.

Pouracide NF

Jurox NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Alphamethrin 7g/L Piperonyl Butoxide 75g/L Tetrachlorvinphos 20g/L

10mL/100kg

7

Nil

-

No

Yes

No

Yes

Rainfast fly and lice control

Tempor

Merial Ancare

Pour-on

Temephos

20% w/v

12mg/kg

6mL/100kg

10

14

>8

Yes

Yes

No

No

Not affected by rain.

Vengeance

Pfizer Animal Health Pour-on

Temephos

20% w/v

12mg/kg

6mL/100kg

10

14

>8x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Lypor

Pfizer Animal Health Pour-on

Temephos

20% w/v

12mg/kg

6mL/100kg

10

14

>8x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Niltime

Virbac NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Bendiocarb

40g/L

4mg/kg

1mL/10kg

3

Nil

4x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Can be used on calves 50kg and over.

TopLine

Virbac NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Abamectin

1mL/20kg

1% w/v 10mg/mL

0.5mg/kg

35

Nil

3x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Persistent activity against biting and suckling lice for 56 days. Rain resistant.

Baymec Pour-on

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Abamectin

1.0% w/v (10g/l)

0.5mg/kg

1mL/20kg

35 (Bobby calf 16 days)

Nil

3x

Yes

Yes

-

-

Rainfast, controls both internal and external parasites.Registered for cattle & deer.

Baymec Injection

Bayer NZ Ltd

Subcutaneous injection

Abamectin

1.0% w/v (10g/l)

0.2mg/kg

1mlL50kg

49

49

3x

-

Yes

-

-

Non-sting. Also controls internal parasites.

Eon

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Eprinomectin

0.5% w/v (5g/l)

0.5mg/kg

1mL/10kg

Nil

Nil

10x

iPlus Injection

Bayer NZ Ltd

Subcutaneous injection

Ivermectin/ Clorsulon

1% w/v 10% w/v

0.2mg/kg 2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

28

14

5x

Outlaw

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Abamectin/ Levamisole

10mg/ml 200mg/ml

0.5mg/kg 10mg/kg

1ml/20kg

42

42

3x

Yes

For the treatment and control of internal parasites including endectocide resistant strains and lungworm in cattle.

Saturn Pour-on

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Abamectin/ Levamisole

10mg/ml 200mg/ml

0.5mg/kg 10mg/kg

1ml/20kg

42

42

3x

Yes

For the treatment and control of internal parasites including endectocide resistant strains and lungworm in cattle.

Bomectin Gold Pour-on

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Ivermectin

10mg/ml (1% w/v)

0.5mg/kg

1ml/20kg

35 - Bobby calf 16 days

Nil

3x

Yes

Yes

No Note 4

No

Rain resistant. Controls chorioptes and sarcoptes mites. Also controls internal parasites.

Bomectin Injection

Bayer NZ Ltd

Subcutaneous injection

Ivermectin

10mg/ml (1% w/v)

0.2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

21

21

3x

Aids in control

Yes

No

No

Non sting. Also controls internal parasites.

Also controls mange mites.

Paramectin Pour-on

Jurox NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Abamectin

1.0% w/v

0.5mg/kg

1ml/20kg

35

Nil

3x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Also controls internal parasites

Paramectin Injection

Jurox NZ Ltd

Injection

Abamectin

1.0 w/v

0.2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

49

49

3x

Eprinex For Cattle & Deer

Merial Ancare

Pour-on

Eprinomectin

0.5% w/v

0.5mg/kg

1ml/10kg

Cattle 0, Deer 7, Bobby Calves 0

Nil

10

Yes

Yes

No

No

Controls mites, sarcoptes scabiei, chorioptes bovis. Also controls internal parasites..

Weatherproof.

Eclipse Pour-on

Merial Ancare

Pour-on

Abamectin/ Levamisole

10mg/ml 200mg/ml

0.5mg/kg 10mg/kg

1ml/20kg bodyweight

35

35

3x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Also controls internal parasites.

Exodus Pour-on

Merial Ancare

Pour-on

Moxidectin

0.5% w/v

0.5mg/kg

1mL/10kg bodyweight

Nil Deer Nil Bobby

Nil

>10x

Yes

Yes

Note 4

No

Also controls internal parasites. Rainfast. registered for Cattle and Deer. Controls manage mites. Chorioptes bovis.

Genesis Injection

Merial Ancare

Subcutaneous injection

Abamectin

1.0 w/v

0.2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

49

49

3x

N/D

Yes

No

No

No sting. Also controls internal parasites. Also with Vitamin B12.

Genesis Pour-on

Merial Ancare

Pour-on

Abamectin

1.0% w/v

0.5mg/kg

1ml/20kg

35

Nil

3x

Yes

Yes

–

–

Also controls internal parasites. Rainfast.

Genesis Ultra Pour-on

Merial Ancare

Pour-on

Abamectin/ Triclabendazole

0.5mg/kg 300mg/ml

0.5mg/kg 30mg/ml

1ml/10kg bodyweight

91

91

3x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Also controls internal parasites, liver fluke.

Ivomec Injection

Merial Ancare

Subcutaneous injection

Ivermectin

1.0% w/v

0.2mg/kg

1ml /50kg

49

Note 1

20-30

Aids in control

Yes

Note 4

No

Also controls internal parasites

Ivomec Plus

Merial Ancare

Subcutaneous injection

Ivermectin/ Clorsulon

1.0% w/v Iver.

10% w/v Clor.

0.2mg/kg Iver.

2.0mg/kg Clor.

1ml /50kg

49

28 Note 1

20-30

Aids in control

Yes

Note 4

No

Also controls internal parasites

Noromectin Injection for cattle

Norbrook NZ Ltd

Subcutaneous injection

Ivermectin

10mg/ml

200ug/kg

1ml /50kg

49

28

>10x

Aids in control

Yes

Note 4

No

Low sting formula, free of Antihicrobal preservatives. Also controls internal parasites.

Fasimec Pour on for Cattle

Novartis

Pour-on

Abamectin/ Triclabendazole

0.5mg/kg 300mg/ml

0.5mg/kg 30mg/ml

1ml /10kg bodyweight

91

91

3x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Controls roundworm lice and all stages of liver fluke.

Cydectin Injection

Pfizer Animal Health Subcutaneous Injection

Moxidectin

1% w/v

0.2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

35 days

35

>5x

Aids in control

Yes

Note 4

No

Also controls internal parasites. Non sting injection. Registered for cattle and sheep.

Cydectin Pour-on

Pfizer Animal Health Pour-on

Moxidectin

0.5% w/v

0.5mg/kg

1ml/10kg

Nil Deer Nil Bobby Nil Cattle

Nil

>10x

Yes

Yes

Note 4

No

Also controls internal parasites. Rainfast.

Registered for cattle and deer. Controls mange mites Chorioptes bovis

Dectomax Injection

Pfizer Animal Health

Subcutaneous injection

Doramectin

1.0% w/v

0.2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

35

35

25x

Aids in control

Yes

No

No

Non-sting, also controls internal parasites.

Registered for cattle, sheep and pigs.

Dectomax Pour-on

Pfizer Animal Health

Pour-on

Doramectin

0.5% w/v

0.5mg/kg

1ml/10kg

35

Nil

25

Yes

Yes

Note 4

No

Rainfast. Also controls internal parasites.

Controls mange mites Chorioptes bovis

ENDECTOCIDES

in calves under 100kg weight, particularly if animals are in light body condition, because they may be susceptible to overdosing. Note 3 - Not to be used in lactating cattle where the milk is used for human

consumption or within 14 days of calving. Note 4 - No claim for New Zealand cattle tick. Note 5 - Not for use in lactating in dairy cows.

Effective against external parasites for 135 days for cattle weighing

Yes

Yes

For the treatment and control of all gastrointestinal roundworms and lungworms in cattle.

No

No

Yes

between 100kg & 400kg liveweight on day of administration. Note 6 - Do not use on lactating cattle. Note 7 – Do not use in cattle producing milk for human consumption or within 21 days of calving. N/S - Not supplied.

Also controls internal parasites and controls Chorioptes bovis and Psoroptes

Also controls internal parasites

The Rural News External Parasite Treatments guide for cattle is completed from information supplied by animal health companies. Although the information has been checked by our independent animal health advisor, Rural News accepts no responsibility or liability for inaccuracies.

NOTE

KEY

Note 1 - Do not use in lactating dairy cattle producing milk for human consumption or industrial purposes or within 28 days of the start of lactation. Note 2 - Extra care must be taken to use the correct dose

Yes

TEMPOR Proudly available from your local veterinary clinic.

TEMPOR.

Merial is a Sanofi company Merial NZ, Level 3, Merial Building, Osterly Way, Manukau City, New Zealand. ™TEMPOR is Regsitered Trademark of Merial Limited.

Registered pursuant to the aCvM act 1997 No a7517. Copyright 2012 Merial Limited. NZ-11-TEM-044

Tempor Generic 10x7 advert.indd 1

28/03/12 10:08 AM

Rural News // april 3, 2012

‘Red lowest on running costs’ CASE IH combine harvesters scored highest for cost-efficiency among machines studied at Göttingen University, Germany, says the machinery maker.

Researchers were asked to analyse the running costs of combine threshing systems including the Case IH Axial-Flow AFX 8010 and AFX 2388, and machines supplied

by Claas, John Deere and New Holland.

Says the company, “Independent researchers using in-field trials to assess the cost efficiency of different combine types have found Case IH AxialFlow machines have the lowest overall operating costs and the lowest spare parts costs of all models tested.”

The company says harvesting costs make up at

machinery & products 45

Eye-in-sky help with pasture least 25% of overall grain crop production spending. This prompted three years of field studies at the Georg-August University.

Average running costs – including depreciation, interest and operating costs – worked out at

€10.96/tonne for the Case IH Axial-Flow machines.

The other machines in the three-year field test are said to have cost at least €13.29/tonne to run.

The comparison showed, in all three years of the trial, the Case IH

combines having the lowest spare parts costs of all tested. Average cost of parts was €0.55/tonne of harvested crop, while the comparative figures for competitors’ machines were between €0.89 and

RESEARCHERS AT Massey University’s Centre for Precision Agriculture have taken to the sky to find data to help farmers map pasture and increase efficiency.

They have tested a remote-controlled ‘hexacopter’ that flys above farmland to map it for growth and other variables.

The device – made by Australian company Aerobot – carries a camera

that takes time-lapse photographs during flights, plus video footage and infrared images.

Centre director Professor Ian Yule says the hexacopter has been tested on a number of projects.

“We used it to gather infrared photos for a restricted grazing trial at our No.4 dairy farm. The aim was to visualise the to page 47

to page 47

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Simple calibration and accurate seeding from central seeding unit.

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in

Stronger tine and the parallel linkage to give more floatation.

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ip

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PNEUMATICSTAR-PRO

Rural News // April 3, 2012

46 machinery & products

Auto fencer good for break to n y h o p k i nso n

JUST IN time for break feeding during late autumn and winter is this new release from Taragate, called the Auto Fencer, seen at Central Districts Field Days.

Bolted to the front frame on a quad, it can carry electric fence reels and many standards, and also spades, shovels and tools.

The Auto Fencer can lay out one reel of tape as the quad moves forward and with a further attachment can lay out two or three reels. Meanwhile the standards can be treaded in or collected from the quad seat.

It is fully galvanised and the spring loaded clamp makes the load secure.

Also new was Taragate’s end insulators made from polycarbonate.

“Previous insulators made from glass filled material grew lichen and moss, which led to power leakage,” says part-owner Kerry Powell.

Also, the glass-based insulators

would deteriorate over time, becoming brittle, and the wire guides would break off.

The new equipment is available New Zealand-wide from Taragate dealers.

Tel. 07 843 3859

Frame aids feeding out be r n a r d l i l bu r n

A SUBSTANTIAL side frame on McIntosh Bro’s new 3 point linkagemounted bale feeder reliably contains the round and big square bales this machine is designed to handle.

Its tines regulate the flow of hay off the bale, so it doesn’t come off in huge chunks.

Another feature is adjustable

‘aggression pins’ – offset and located in the bottom of the feeder. These have the job of ripping or releasing hay off hard or tightly packed bales.

The chains and drive are the same as on the maker’s ordinary model bale feeders. These are substantial in construction and easy to maintain and lubricate.

The feeder weighs about 600kg and will handle baleage and hay. www.mcintoshmachinery.co.nz

Rural News // april 3, 2012

machinery & products 47

Fold-down gate falls to quad

Red lowest from page 45

€1.44/tonne. One major reason for this, Case IH quotes the testers as saying, was the simplicity and reliability of the threshing system in the AxialFlow single-rotor combines.

The average annual harvesting costs for the Axial-Flow models was €81/ha, said to be at least 20% lower than the costliest model tested.

b e r n a rd l ilbu r n

SMALLER PADDOCKS for better grazing management mean farmers must open and shut more gates, especially on dairy farms.

Here’s a solution to that problem, with the potential to save lots of time, and wear-andtear on humans and quads.

The ROG (ride over) gate is exactly that. It comes in four sizes from 2m to 2.3m, the whole assembly galvanised for longevity.

The gate mounts on a frame between two strainers.

You simply drive the quad up to the gate and push it, the gate will fold down in front of the quad, then once you’re over it springs back to its upright position.

Tel. 0800 CASE IH www.caseih.co.nz

PRODUCTION ORIENTATED FARMERS...

Are you suffering from:

The bottom bar of the frame has two ramps for the quad to ride over so the whole operation is smooth.

Accessible from both sides, it adds versatility to any farming operation.

Eye-in-sky help

If you want to remove or open the gate to shift stock, you simply flick a lever and lift the gate out of its slots.

The argument that stock will ‘learn’ to open a gate is open for dis-

cussion. ROG company owner Phillip McDonald says “when a gate is down it resembles a cattlestop – a visual and physical barrier to animals.”

Another use for the ROG setup is where trav-

elling irrigators pass through a fence. A ROG can be installed to save wear and tear on fences.

The units come in kitset form, and are easy to install. www.thewrangler.co.nz

• Surface ponding of pastures?

• Hay & silage being tramped into pasture and wasted?

Pugged paddocks can reduce pasture growth up to 60% DON’T PUT GOOD FERTILISER ON COMPACTED SOIL WHICH CAN’T ABSORB IT If your soil can’t support 15cm root growth and good worm population check for compaction.

You could need aeration.

In dollar terms, what would 20% production increase mean to your yearly turnover?

TRAILERS

AERATORS

from page 45

location of cow pats and their proximity and distribution to the drainage collector. The infrared camera is excellent for that.”

To gain this data an expert pilot is required, and Matthew Irwin, a researcher at the Institute of Natural Resources, has been perfecting the craft.

The carbon-fibre hexacopter, which can fold down into a suitcase, can lift 1.5kg for nine minutes before its batteries need to be changed. It has GPS that can hold it at a location or allow for a programmed flight path.

• Low profile 13 inch or standard 14 inch wheel give a deck height of 60 or 72cm • Comes complete with spare wheel and jockey wheel • Hydraulic disc or electric braked front axle • LED lights • Now hot dip galvanised

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Rural News // April 3, 2012

48 machinery & products

Power steering helps win the day BERNARD L IL BURN

YAMAHA HAS always fronted the pack on technology, chiefly with its class leading 2-wheelers, in off- or on-road form, and the company has enjoyed many victories over the years.

The Yamaha Grizzly range of farm quads were first with automatic transmission, and the range now has the 4 Ultramatic, as the company calls its constantly variable transmission. There are models from 400cc to 700cc.

New for 2012 in the Yamaha 450 Grizzly is electronic power steering as standard. The

speed-sensitive system reduces the physical effort demanded of riders, lowering fatigue levels on long working days. As well as easing the steering effort, EPS dampens any steering kickback.

Higher power and greater physical size – not only on Yamaha machines – make power steering desirable for control and safety. Many of the bigger machines have it, easing the load especially on female and young riders.

Yamaha fits doublewishbone independent suspension to all models, including the manual-only Big Bear, giving a more comfortable ride, maxi-

mising wheel contact with the ground and getting the best out of the push-button On Command 4WD system.

Yamaha already has power steering on its 550 and 700 models in the Grizzly range. The 450 is the company’s biggest seller.

It has a dual-range gearbox the 400 doesn’t have, making hill climbing and towing a breeze on this bigger machine.

This reviewer’s pick of the Yamaha range is the 550 Grizzly built on the

700 frame, so wider and slightly longer, making for better stability and comfort.

Also on display at the Central Districts Field Days was Yamaha’s new WR 450F

in road-registerable form with an alloy frame and smart graphics.

And it has, for 2012, ‘remote’ adjustable suspension. A handheld remote unit about the size of a cellphone simply

connects to the quad, enabling you to dial up a firm suspension for a morning thrash or an easier ride for an afternoon cruise. Nifty. www.yamaha-motor. co.nz

Stand by for blackouts

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www.hustlerequipment.co.nz

STANDBY GENERATORS made in Spain and US, powered by Yanmar, Perkins and Deutz engines, suit farmers and industry, says local distributor Youngman Richardson.

Pramac is one of the world’s largest generator makers, the distributor says.

It offers models from 6kVA to 2000kVA, factory fitted with automatic mains failure (AMF) control panels and offered with optional full load-transfer switchboxes (LTS) off the shelf.

The Pramac Generator P series is available in single- and 3- phase models. Both have canopies silenced to 70dba at 7m.

Pramac P series models measure 1.45m long x 0.650m wide x 0.975m high and weigh 325kg. Maximum output is 10.6kVA, continuous output 10kVA – 230V, 50Hz for the single-phase model and 400/23V, 50Hz for the three-phase.

Youngman Richardson also sells a smaller LPG/ natural gas model with sound dampening and a weatherproof enclosure, high temperature protection and battery condition monitoring.

Larger models are available to 200kVA ex stock.

Tel. 09 443 2436

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Rural News // april 3, 2012

machinery & products 49

Driving school for trucks, tracks and more TRUCKS, TRACKS and dangerous goods are among the many modes of transport for which AB Equipment’s new ‘driving school’ can up-skill and license New Zealanders.

ment, AB Equipment says.

“Many road users now driving around the country are using the wrong class of license, simply because they are unaware of the weight load they carry and

“The whole process of obtaining endorsements required for truck classes 2,3,4 and 5 is simple and cost effective. “ The company has for at least 20 years trained forklift drivers, annually certifying about 6000. Now it will capitalise on these strengths with training for drivers of other types of vehicles. It has 16 branches and “some of the best training facilities nationwide.”

do not understand the implications that can lead to an accident.

“The whole process of obtaining endorsements required for truck classes 2,3,4 and 5 is simple and cost effective. The training course covers such as practical testing, logbook knowledge, theory and

It offers training for road user licensing including Class 2,3,4 and 5 trucks, wheels, tracks and rollers, site traffic management control and dangerous goods.

Truck, WTR, P and V Endorsements are looked on by officialdom as any other driver licence – driving without a licence can bring fines and imprison-

medical examinations, tow truck operating, recovery and passenger service vehicles – including the latest legislation.”

Wheels, and tracks and roller endorsements are needed when operating such as excavators and loaders.

“When does carrying chemicals become a dangerous goods load?” the

Diesel saver CASE IH says its Diesel Saver automatic productivity management (APM) system won the 2011 Rain Bird Engineering Concept of the Year award.

Presented annually by the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE), this award recognised senior project engineer Yangming Hou and the Diesel Saver system for its fuel savings.

“Our Diesel Saver system automatically adjusts the gear setting and engine speed to the most fuel-efficient mode for a given load,” says Tom Dean, manager, Case IH high horsepower tractor marketing.

“That can provide up to a 25% improvement in fuel economy and power performance, even in changing field conditions.”

company asks. “Knowing the answer to this could

save you a situation.”

Tel. 0800 30 30 90

Rural News // April 3, 2012

50 machinery & products

45 years clever with water A LONG history and a bright future coincided on March 22 at Matamata when Jobe Valves opened a new office and factory: 1350m2 on two levels including manufacturing, storage and administration.

The building has areas for trialling prototypes, staff and retailer training, and meeting suppliers retailers and customers.

At the opening were 15 members of the extended Jobe family including founder Jim Jobe, plus local dignitaries, suppliers, retailers, bankers and the mayor of Matamata-Piako, Hugh Vercoe. Founder Jim Jobe and Jobe Valves co-

need for a trough valve that would give greater water flow and fasterer refills. Delivery line sizes were also increasing from the traditional 19mm to 25mm and needed valves to cope with greater Robin Jobe David Jobe flow.

Jobe’s first model to business in Matamata in 1967 as an agent for MacE- sell in notable quantity was the J19, important in wans milking machines two ways: the water level and water pumps. To satcould drop 50mm before isfy his inventive streak the fill began, and it shut he began modifying water off reliably when the heaters used in farm dairchosen level was reached. ies.

With dairy herds grow- This was a great power saving, averting frequent ing larger, Jobe saw the directors David and Robin Jobe fronted the formalities.

Jim Jobe opened for

pump on/off switching as happened during slow filling.

“That was the biggestselling trough valve of the 1980s,” says Robin Jobe.

David and Robin had joined the firm in the mideighties, later becoming co-directors of Jobe Valves.

In the early 1990s they concentrated on developing the valve market in New Zealand and expanding export markets, building relationships with farm suppliers, pump and milking machine suppliers, and water trough makers.

Exporting demanded their presence at trade shows in Europe and US, including the annual World Dairy Expo in Wisconsin.

“Dad during this time

was also developing the next generation of trough valves,” says Robin.

At the 1997 National Fieldays they released the Jobe Megaflow, their first valve built for larger delivery lines and trough inlets of 25mm, again catering for larger herds. It could cope with higher flows and pressures, was self regulating and had a bigger differential between on and off for power saving.

Says Robin, “Sales of this valve boomed as it catered for a new section of the market – farmers with large herds.”

In 2000 they won a National Fieldays Equipment Award with their new Rojo valve made for lifestyle farmers. In 2002 they produced the Topaz valve mainly for the Northern Hemisphere.

“Most farmers in that part of the world get their

water from municipal supplies so they needed a valve top-mounted to stop any chance of water from the trough siphoning back into the municipal supply lines.”

Their biggest seller is the Megaflow and it now has the Detach feature which enables the valve to be taken off the inlet fitting to be cleaned without having to switch off the water supply.

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“Shall I cut it?” asks Jobe Valves founder Jim Jobe at the opening of new premises, watched by sons Robin (left) and David.

Farming techniques are constantly changing, so you need gear that can adapt to all conditions.

Fence-Pro design their post drivers so you can easily add options such as side mount units, augers or rock spikes later on. Then you can be assured that as your needs change, your post driver is still the best one for the job.

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Rural News // april 3, 2012

machinery & products 51

Exporter’s friends Exporting demanded Jobe Valves’ presence at trade shows in Europe and US

ATTENDING THE opening of Jobe Valves’ new premises are Cameron and Sarah Bell, of Goulburn, NSW. Their company Davydick distributes Jobe products in Australia, mainly rural stores selling to farmers. Another of their companies sells water pumps, polyethylene fittings and brass valves.

Bell says his region has not been directly affected by flooding, but many customers have.

Jobe Valves has exported to Australia since the mid 1970s. Says Bell, “We have dealt with them for three years and we place a regular monthly order. It was one of the best things for us and farmers when we accepted the agency.”

Cameron and Sarah Bell, Australia.

A whole new approach to mid-size tractors — Offering high-end features in a standard-equipped package.

Patty and Tim Duff, US.

VISITING FROM the US for the Jobe Valves premises opening were Tim and Patty Duff, from Homer, New York state.

Tim Duff manages TDL Agritech, which distributes throughout the US, Canada, Mexico and Caribbean countries.

“We have designed distinctive packaging especially for the US market, to add to our presence in store promotions.

This entails some repackaging,” Tim said. “The valves are just flying out the door and our users love them.”

The biggest market for the valves in the US is the poultry industry, then the car wash industry, where large holding tanks are used and water recycling is practised.

Tel. 07 843 4497 www.nzagribusinesscentre.co.nz

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Now NZ Agribusiness Centre (NZABC) hopes to build on that “to bridge the gap for exporters even further.”

NZABC runs the international exhibition area and business visitors’ lounge at National Fieldays, saying it is “perfectly aligned to be able to work year-round with New Zealand exporters and overseas customers.”

It offers to arrange attendance and visibility at international agricultural events; to facilitate visits to New Zealand by visitors with farming interests; and to introduce and connect offshore farming customers to NZABC members.

The centre will also organise networking and intra-industry events and discussions.

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Rural News // April 3, 2012

52 machinery & products/motoring Tracks to the ground STABLE ON hills and with “incredible” pulling ability, this Kubota M126X halftrack suits all sorts of farmers, says product manager Shaun ‘Monty’ Monteith.

Rural News photographed the tractor recently at Northland Field Days, Dargaville. “We initially set these units up for hort/growers but this is also very much a farmers’ tractor, with a 420/70R24 front tyre option,” Monteith says. And the

tracks give a soft footprint. Notable here is Kubota’s patented Krawler design, with the pivot point below the drive sprocket.

This forces the front of the tracks down when weight is applied from behind, whereas traditional track set-ups tend to lift off the ground when the tractor is pulling a heavy load.

Tel. 027 350 3502 www.kubota.co.nz

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Old Jaguar racetrack excitement JAGUAR’S RETURN to the racetrack, with its Jaguar Heritage Racing, is a first since 1956.

Works-supported Cand D-types will race at Goodwood and the Nurburgring.

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Heritage Racing will contest is the 2012 Mille Miglia retrospective in May, important to the company as it marks 60 years since Sir Stirling Moss and Norman Dewis (then Jaguar’s chief development driver) took the start in the first disc-brake equipped C-type car.

Later that year Moss gained the first win for a disc-braked car, a C-type at Reims.

In August the team will compete at the AVD Nurburgring Old-timer Grand Prix – the ‘green hell’ – one of the toughest tracks in the world, Jaguar says.

Then it will race at the Goodwood Revival in September.

Historic motorsport ‘revivalist’ JD Classics will prepare the C and D-type Jaguars.

Along with that is Jaguar Heritage, a charitable trust and custodian of Jaguars including the unique XJ13 prototype.

Such cars are not raced but are exhibited and demonstrated.

Jaguar has won the Le Mans 24 hour race seven times.

Rural News // april 3, 2012

motoring 53

V6 clinches thumper’s title WHEN IT first arrived in 2005, the Nissan Navara ST-X set a new benchmark for utes.

It was bigger inside, gruntier and provided a more car-like driving experience than other utes.

In 2010 it maintained its lead with a useful performance and specification upgrade, lifting the torque of the excellent 2.5L diesel from 403Nm to 450Nm.

braked) – and the V6 adds to the appeal.

Our review vehicle had fewer than 1000km on the clock and the engine was still tight, but the grunt was there in spades and will only improve as more miles break the engine in. On paper, the V6 is a couple of seconds quicker from 0-100km/h than the 450 and would wipe the floor with any other Japanese ute in a drag race. In everyday driving, the 4-cyl 450 never feels underpow-

‘If you have to have the biggest and baddest, this is it.’

The new offering from Ford/Mazda has eclipsed the Navara in some regards, particularly in ride comfort and steering response, and its 5-cylinder diesel is slightly more powerful than the 4-cylinder of the ST-X 450.

However, with the muchanticipated New Zealand launch of the big thumper, the V6 turbo-diesel STX550, Nissan comfortably retains its title as most powerful.

As the name suggests, the 550 produces 550Nm of torque (@1750rpm) and with 170kW of power (@3750rpm) is the undisputed heavyweight champion. All the good things about the Navara are still there – excellent ride, handling, space, specification, towing capacity (3000kg

ered, but then again, it doesn’t sound anywhere near as good as the V6 of the 550.

Economy remains good: Nissan claims 9.3L/100km and with a steady boot that was nearly achievable. No point having all that grunt if you’re not going to use it though, and we burned through 11.0L/100km – it was worth it.

The 7-speed automatic is also worth a mention.

Gear changes are silky smooth and the extra two ratios mean the V6 stays in the sweet spot more often than not. Power and economy are both the better for it. Downshifts are executed just when you need them; smart gearboxes like this are making manuals seem redundant.

The Navara is still one of the best looking utes around, regardless of what’s under the bonnet.

At $67,990 the 550 is not the cheapest on the market, but if you have to have the biggest and baddest, this is it. For your money you get features such as privacy glass, fog lamps, chrome power folding mirrors, dual zone climate control, drive computer, ABS, ESP, side and curtain airbags, big alloys, and more.

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Rural News // April 3, 2012

54 vintage / rural trader

Restorer getting choosy to n y h o p k i n so n

MORRIS McFALL now finds time to do what he loves – restoring vintage farm machines.

But though he has just bought a Lanz Bulldog in the South Island, he is reluctant to acquire more items unless they are rare.

His background is farming and civil contracting, and for years he ran the Te Awamutu business he founded: McFall Group (petroleum products).

But lately, though remaining chairman, he has passed the business day-today running to his youngest son Allan while he busies himself in the workshop. There he proudly displays 13 tractors, stationary engines and classic cars he has restored from “shocking disrepair and neglect.” Now they all run.

“They’re not all one breed as I prefer a variety and I like each model’s uniqueness,” McFall says.

Restoration often means stripping them to the bare bones, rebuilding – including locating new parts – repainting and sometimes machining parts such as steel wheels.

“I like reincarnating something and making it look like new, quietly working on my own. I have three tractors here, each 20 years apart in age. It’s interesting to compare and contrast them and the design progression over 40 years.”

He has some unusual models including a 1951 Fordson Major tractor with a 48-inch rotary hoe, powered by a P6 Perkins diesel engine, factory fitted before Ford began making diesels. Photos show his progress on the tractor – decrepit when it arrived.

A John Deere model R (1952) 2-cylinder was their first diesel tractor.

Perhaps McFall’s oldest is a Hart Parr (1926) with a flat 2-cylinder northsouth-mounted engine.

“The Hart Parr company claimed to have invented the word tractor for its

ALL IS ready for the April 14-15 New Zealand Ploughing Associations Championships at Cambridge.

Waikato Ploughing Association is the organiser.

The two days of ploughing contests will be complemented by vintage machinery and classic car displays, trade sites, craft stalls and food outlets.

Says organising chairman John Guy, “We had a problem when we had to change John Guy the venue, so the Waikato Association is grateful to the Smith Family of St Kilda Developments for the use of their property at short notice.”

The venue is on the Cambridge town boundary about five minutes from the town centre.

The change of venue has forced cancellation of the stubble ploughing competition; entrants will instead be required to plough grass both days.

There are 26 entries in the conventional ploughing section (five North Island), six reversible (two North Island), seven vintage (two North Island) and six in the horse section (two North Island).

The horse ploughing is sponsored by Rural News Group.

Public are welcome; admission $10 adults, children under 12 free.

– Tony Hopkinson

Morris McFall

new machine and later for its traction engines.”

McFall’s Massey Harris 101 Senior twin-power (1945) was claimed the first tractor with a 2-speed PTO, “built in Toronto, powered by a 6-cylinder Chrysler engine.” Harry Fergusson, an Irishman, took a hydraulic system to the US and got Henry Ford to make his tractors there, resulting in the Ford 9N (1939); the exact same model McFall had noticed in a US museum.

The 9N was powered by Ford engine and had a 3-speed gearbox. WWII restricted availability of tyres and bat-

Ready to plough

teries, hence the model 2N, with steel wheels and a crank start. After the war the 9N was replaced by the 8N with a 4-speed gearbox.

“Fergusson and Ford had a major falling out and there followed years of litigation which Fergusson eventually won, but the only real [acknowledgement] was a small, silver emblem under the Ford logo on the front of the tractor.”

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Rural News // april 3, 2012

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BRIDGE IT NZ LTD

• Unbeatable pricing

Morrinsville Ph: 0800 287 325 Ashburton Ph: 0800 007 766

NZ’s finest BioGro certified Mg fertiliser For a delivered price call...

0800 436 566

❤ COUNTRY & CITY

• Performance Guaranteed

contacts

FREE DELIVERY NZ-WIDE

SW_RuralNews_30x34_0212.indd 1 2/02/12 5:23 PM

P 06 835 6863 - www.craigcojetters.com

Rubber Safety Matting

FENCE PAINT AND SHED PAINT 10 LITRE

• ATV Carrier Mats • Exit/Entry Areas • Calf Trailers • Horse Floats & Trucks • Weigh Platforms • Bale Mats • Comfort Mats for Wet & Dry Areas • Utility Deck Matting

✓ Black and White $60.00 ✓ Green, Brown, Grey and Redwood $35.00 ✓ Excellent cover, generally only one coat required.

Phone: 0800 80 8570 www.burgessmatting.co.nz

FLY AND LICE PROBLEM?

MADE IN NZ 10 YEAR GUARANTEED

info@enviropaints.co.nz www.enviropaints.co.nz 0800 50 ENVIRO (0800 50 368476) 14 Riverbank Rd, Otaki

(N.Z. LIMITED)

Join our successful & confidential service

For all single, separated, divorced and widowed people.

Over half our members find ‘someone special’ or their lifelong partner.

For Information Pack, contact...

Country & City Contacts 0800 287 437 or Ph: 03-387 0794 or see our website www.countrycontacts.co.nz

Advantage Plastics Rangiora call: 0800 668 534 or (03) 313 5750

TUNNELHOUSES

• Ideal addition to your lifestyle block • Grow vegetables all year round and reduce your grocery bill • Very affordable and easy to install • Totally NZ made by family business making tunnelhouses for 30 years • Range of models from 2m to 8m long

T/F 03 214 4262 E morrifield@clear.net.nz • www.morrifield.com

FARM BOOTS KIWI MADE

• The magic eye sheepjetter since 1989 NEW • Quality construction and options M ODEL • Get the contractors choice • Direct from the manufacturer • Efficient application and unequalled cost savings

FOR 3 GENERATIONS

Phone 07 573 8512 • www.electrodip.com

Yardmate Soft Toe. This is designed for heavy duty uses and is perfect for fencers, high country farmers and hunters walking through tough, rugged, country. With an upper constructed from thick full grain leather, a leather insole and mid-sole, which is stitched and screwed to a cleated rubber repairable sole. A tough heel counter for better ankle support and a full bellows tongue for greater water tightness, this boot will handle the tough environment. Yardmate also available in Steel toe.

Sizes 4-15 including half sizes.

LATEST STORIES EVERY DAY Get upto date news at www.ruralnews.co.nz

Weatherstations, unusual gifts and science support for over 40 years...

Tussock Soft Toe Triple/Single Hob Nail, Reverse Kip. This boot is designed for heavy duty use on high country farms and over alpine terrain. This boot will handle tough environments. With an upper constructed from reverse kip leather, a tough heel counter for better ankle support and a full bellows tongue for greater water tightness. A leather insole and triple bend leather runners, with a stitched and screwed construction and heel and toe plates. Triple or single Hob nails. Tricounis available with tungsten tipped teeth. Tussock made to order only.

Sizes 4-15 including half sizes.

WE’RE ONLINE

The Met Shop

Phone: 04 384 7683 • Fax: 04 384 7689 Email: info@metshop.co.nz 5 Swan Lane (off Cuba Street) PO Box 9254, Wellington 6141 www.metshop.co.nz

48 John St, Whangarei 0800 4 BOOTS (26687) or 09 438 8907

FOOTWEAR

Visit www.lastrite.co.nz or www.bootznz.com for more quality products

Culvert Pipes New Zealand’s CHEAPEST Culvert Pipes!

FREE joiners supplied on request.

ONE STOP WATER SHOP 300mm x 6 metre ................................ $410 400mm x 6 metre ................................ $515 500mm x 6 metre ................................ $690 600mm x 6 metre ................................ $925 800mm x 6 metre .............................. $1399 1000mm x 6 metre ............................ $2175 1200mm x 6 metre ............................ $3475 ALL PRICES INCLUDE G.S.T.

Visit us at Mystery Creek Fieldays 13-16th June.

SITE 017

• Lightweight, easy to install • Made from polyethylene

McKee Plastics, Mahinui Street, Feilding Phone 06 323 4181 Fax 06 323 4183 McKee Plastics, 231 Kahikatea Drive, Hamilton. Ph 07 847 7788 sales@mckeeplastics.co.nz www.mckeeplastics.co.nz

MANUFACTURERS

Phone

0800 625 826

for your nearest stockist

Joiners supplied FREE with culvert pipes

F

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NON-STING FORMULA

Pfizer Animal Health, a division of Pfizer New Zealand Limited. Level 3, Pfizer House, 14 Normanby Road, Mt Eden, Auckland 1024, New Zealand. Tel: 0800 650 277, Fax: 0800 628 629. DECTOMAX is a registered trade mark of Pfizer Inc. or its subsidiaries. ACVM Registration No. A6199 & A7101. *The WIN your own DECTOMAX Man Cave competition runs from 14 February to 29 June 2012. Prize draw takes place on 18 July 2012. For full terms and conditions, please see the printed entry form at your local Vet Clinic, or visit www.dectomax.co.nz. **While stocks last on purchases from 14 February 2012.

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