meaty genetics
seeds to soil
Farm IQ partners talk progress to date. page 16
New strip-till drill does the business. page 42
Rural NEWS to all farmers, for all farmers
april 17, 2012: Issue 513
water use What LAWF chair Alistair Bisley and others said at Irrigation NZ’s conference.
pages 12-13
www.ruralnews.co.nz
ETS delay provisions p eter bu r ke
THE GOVERNMENT plans to change the law on the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to make it easier to defer bringing agriculture into the scheme in 2015. This provision is one of many contained in a consultation document released last week. The other major aspect for agriculture is a provision to allow ‘offsetting’ of forest land, a move that would greatly benefit Landcorp and others developing dairy farms in the central North Island. Under the current law agriculture is scheduled to be included in ETS in
2015, subject to a review in 2014. The review will assess availability of technology for farmers to reduce emissions and whether major trading partners are taking steps to reducing their emissions. The Minister for Primary Production, David Carter, told Rural News that if the 2014 review said the entry of agriculture into ETS should be delayed, the Government would have to rush through special legislation. “What we are proposing in the ETS Amendment Bill is to put in a provision that if the review says ‘don’t put in agriculture in 2015’, we make that change by regulation rather than by legislation.” But Carter believes agriculture will
eventually be a part of an ETS – it’s a matter of timing. “At this stage, despite a lot of research into ways of reducing methane emissions, there are no known economic solutions available to farmers. But I am confident that over time science will give us some solutions to methane emissions. That’s why we are putting so much money into science and research to find solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions – particularly methane. Once those solutions are available then we would quickly encourage farmers to use them.” Offsetting emissions with forestry would mean an owner of pre-1990
forest would be able to convert the land to another use, such as dairying, provided they plant a similar area of land in trees. Under current legislation the cost of converting pre-1990 forested land is very high due to its carbon liabilities. Carter agrees this will benefit Landcorp but there will be trade-offs. “The government previously gave
Bold flour mill move a n d rew swa l low
SOUTH ISLAND wheat growers will have a new market from next harvest. Farmer-owned grain storage company Grainstor, Timaru, has announced it’s to build a flour mill alongside its 25,000t premises at Washdyke, and has reserved the company name Farmers Mill for the initiative. “It will be of a comparable size to the present [Christchurch] mills,” Grainstor chairman and large-scale cropping farmer Murray Turley told Rural News. “We hope it means there will be a bigger use of New Zealand grain and less
imported grain. As arable farmers we’re always looking for new crops to export but with wheat [New Zealand] imports a lot. We believe we can grow wheat at least as good as the imported, and produce top quality flour.” The aim is to cash in on the growing demand for food produced using locally grown and traceable ingredients, and in doing so add value to their crops. The move’s met an enthusiastic welcome from local growers. “It’s the best news we’ve had for a long time,” Federated Farmers Grain’s local chairman, Colin Hurst, told Rural News.
“Since I’ve been farming the Timaru mill’s closed, the Ashburton mill’s closed, and the Defiance mill in Christchurch’s been taken over, so we’re left with only two flour millers, and they’re both in Christchurch.” That’s caused many local growers to switch to feed cultivars, or in some cases abandon cropping altogether in favour of dairying or dairy support. “This is going to give the arable sector a boost and we won’t all have to become dairy farmers,” adds Hurst. The new market for milling grain could constrain supply of feed, helping to page 3
Grainstor manager David Howell and farmer chairman Murray Turley on the new mill site.
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That’s what works out here. FMG 0034
allocations of carbon credits to the owners of pre-1990 forests because of the potential loss of value because of the difficulty of converting it... With offsetting available, the government may claw back some of the previously promised allocation of carbon credits.” The document is out for consultation until May 11.