Rural News 2 July 2013

china trade Need for protocols to cope with booming sales. page 12

management Chicory pastures generate liveweight gains. page 24

agribusiness

Rural NEWS

Waste animal products turned into a winner.

page 23

to all farmers, for all farmers

july 2, 2013: Issue 541

www.ruralnews.co.nz

Landcorp eyes China JV p e te r bu r k e peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

LANDCORP IS eyeing another joint venture with Chinese company Shanghai Pengxin, to help develop a large sheep operation in China.

Landcorp acts as sharemilker and advisor on the ex-Crafar farms owned

by Shanghai Pengxin.

Landcorp chief executive Chris Kelly

is in China on a 13-member agricultural technology trade mission headed by Primary Industies Minister Nathan Guy. Kelly told Rural News he is looking at opportunities for Shanghai Pengxin and universities in China to enter the sheep industry.

They own about 10,000 sheep but are looking at establishing a major sheep enterprise there.

“They don’t have a high level of

drive from Shanghai, but the area where they are looking to develop this large flock is about 700 miles due west of Shanghai.

“This is part of the ongoing relationship with Shanghai Pengxin we have to keep developing and we will meet the chairman of Shanghai Pengxin on the trip.”

The visitors are hosted by the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture. They will visit Beijing, Inner Mongolia and Anhui province.

The trip allows matching New Zealand agritech companies with business development interests, Guy says. Of particular interest are the construction of dairy farms, pasture and animal husbandry Chris Kelly expertise and services.

“Participants [will get] a greater experts and industry,” Guy says. understanding of the on-ground realiCoincidently and quite separately ties of doing business in China, as well scientists from Massey University will as gain greater market insights, and also be in China to help improve Chidevelop market connections through na’s sheep industry. farm visits and engagement with local Professor Hugh Blair told Rural News they will visit research partners in Xinjiang, Western China, at Fhihezi University with which they signed an agreement in 2005, doing research since.

Bull sales have, bar a few weather affected events, been buoyant. “Angus results from Gisborne have been “We are now initiating new projects outstanding and overall, sales have been up on last year’s involving animal and pasture producaverages, which were extremely good too,” Angus New tion because they are in the desert out Zealand general manager Rob Wiley told Rural News.

Here, one of Bruce Alexander’s Goldwyn Angus offerthere, so pasture production is a bit of ings goes under the hammer for $6000, a shade over the a challenge,” Blair says.

South Canterbury stud’s average of $5434.

China has more sheep than any other “We were very pleased,” Alexander says. “It’s the best sale we’ve had.” Last week a bull from John Bayly’s Cricklecountry – about 140 million, mostly in wood stud at Nuhaka hit the highest price for Angus this small herds. season, at $65,000, and a Hereford from the Douglas fam-

expertise in terms of knowledge of large numbers of sheep so we are looking to see what we can do with them in… feeding, genetics and managing large numbers of sheep because the sheep farms in China are tiny. It’s early days but who knows it might be a good opportunity.”

Kelly says the Chinese tend to house their sheep inside because the weather “can be pretty damned inclement”.

Their sheep flock is about an hour’s

bullish sales season

ily’s Monymusk stud, Te Anau, made $71,000 in late May.

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

news 3 issue 541

www.ruralnews.co.nz

News ������������������������������ 1-14 World ������������������������������ 15 Markets ��������������������� 16-17 Hound, Edna ������������������� 18 Contacts ������������������������� 18 Opinion ������������������������18-20 Agribusiness ������������21-23 Management ����������� 24-26 Animal Health ���������27-29 Machinery and Products ������������������ 30-33 Rural Trader ���������� 34-35

New season lamb price could reach $100 – SFF PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

MEAT PROCESSOR Silver Fern Farms (SFF) is speculating the average price for a lamb in the new season could reach $100/head, says chief executive Keith Cooper.

Farmers can expect about $15 more than the season ended last month.

Cooper told Rural News in cents/kg the price will be five dollars something – “not a four”, he emphasised.

Speculation has grown about the new-season price, MPI suggesting about $85 for an average lamb – a figure disputed by some farmers.

Cooper is basing his prediction on his sense of a combination of factors including exchange rate predictions

and market conditions.

“Companies don’t know what the supply base is from one year to the next because we don’t have any capability and farmers don’t register what their capital stock numbers are so it’s all a bit problematical…. this needs to be rectified if we truly want to be market focused and have an industry integrated to market requirements. We need to know what’s been produced and until we do we are down to anecdotal intuitive gut feel stuff.”

Cooper says some obvious factors are in the mix – mostly related to the drought.

“We know we killed a higher number of ewes this year. We are assuming we killed more ewe lambs and we know that next year there will be a high

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SILVER FERN Farms chief executive Keith Cooper believes much of the volatility in some of New Zealand’s lamb markets originates here, not in the marketplace.

Problems during the 2011-12 season, when lamb prices rose steeply and consumers stopped buying, was a case in point, he says.

“Partly the reason for the price going high was a shortage of supply because farmers were holding stock on farm to eat grass and generate more meat which is entirely logical.

But that shorted the supply to the market going into the Christmas period. Then suddenly all the lambs arrived in February on a flat market

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: subsrndn@ruralnews.co.nz ABC audited circulation 80,767 as at 31.12.2012

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which got further depressed because of an oversupply. So we went from an undersupply to an oversupply in a couple of months.

“So whilst we have that behaviour and Keith Cooper lack of integration between consumers, customers and suppliers – being farmers, we will inevitably create volatility. I stress the point that volatility in this instance was ‘home grown’. The markets aren’t volatile; we caused the volatility by the way we mucked around with the supply profile to the market.”

Cooper says everyone including

ewe lamb retention as people rebuild their capital base.

“We also know that in many parts of the country ewes went to the ram in sub-optimal condition which will impact the lambing percentage this year.

All those factors are going to have negative impact this year.”

But Cooper senses the lamb kill will be down about 5%, meaning about 19 million lambs available for slaughter. This will not negatively affect capacity in freezing works, he says, because for five years

farmers must take responsibility for this. Farmers must stop thinking their job is done when they sell their lambs to a company.

“That’s entirely wrong and they need to see beyond the farm gate and understand what markets are doing, the market signals and be aligned to the market and specific customers.

They need to grow to the market, not grow for the farmgate purchase price of their stock.”

Cooper says lamb is still hugely popular around the world and it will only fall off consumers’ radar if the price gets too high or it becomes uncompetitive with other protein choices.

Farmers could be getting more for their lambs this season, according to Keith Cooper

the industry has handled about that many lambs – plus or minus 5%. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

Numbers drop LANDCORP CHIEF executive Chris Kelly says they are just starting scanning their ewes and hope to get a better idea of what lamb numbers might be for the coming season in a couple of weeks time. But his gut feeling is that the drop will be in the order of between 6-7%.

“Quite a lot less hoggets were mated this year because we haven’t been able to get our hoggets up to the weights that we normally would. The second thing is that ewe numbers will be back because a number of farmers have killed capital stock. Farmers will also keep more ewe lambs born as replacements and thirdly scanning will be down by about five percent as a result of not getting the ewes up to an acceptable tupping weight.”

Rural News // july 2, 2013

4 news

PKE importers back MPI crackdown on dodgy factories su d es h k issu n sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

MAJOR PKE importers are backing MPI’s plan to reduce risks the stockfeed may pose for dairy farmers.

Swap Stockfeeds and RD1, which import nearly

a million tonnes of PKE annually between them, say their products are safe.

But they are backing initiatives to assure farmers the feed is safe.

Questions on PKE’s biosecurity risks began swirling after the discovery of an animal leg in

feed delivered to a Bay of Plenty dairy farm. But tests by an independent genetic laboratory showed the leg was off a New Zealand sheep, says MPI deputy director-general compliance and response Andrew Coleman.

MPI is confident in the

MPI did well – Feds FEDERATED FARMERS biosecurity spokesman Dr William Rolleston says confirmation by DNA testing that the animal leg is local and off a sheep is a huge relief for all farmers.

He described MPI’s response as appropriate, based on the advice they were given.

“Secure storage in the country of origin and traceability from approved plants is still an issue being addressed

by MPI following their audit in Indonesia and Malaysia.

“We need to have confidence that the level of certification and traceability meets commodity export standards.

This should not be an issue for responsible importers who already demand this level of information from their suppliers.

“More clarity post-border would also help any future investigation.”

PKE is the mashed solid part of palm seed kernels left after oil extraction.

tests, he says. “The farm where the limb was found has sheep, home kill is undertaken, the maggots found on the limb were a species of blowfly found in New Zealand, and most of the PKE supplied goes through a 4mm filter.”

But concern remains in the dairy industry about how the situation was handled. News reports that the leg came off an exotic animal, and possibly imported with the PKE, could have harmed New Zealand dairy’s reputation in the global market.

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official is now working on these changes with authorities in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Swap Stockfeeds director Stephen Swap welcomes the changes. “We have no issue with the new measures proposed

by MPI,” he told Rural News. “Our products are already safe. I’ve been up to [Malaysia and Indonesia] many times to see for myself. We would not be importing PKE if there were even the slightest of concerns about quality and biosecurity risks.”

Swap says the new measures by MPI mean the industry will be better informed on PKE imports.

RD1 Nutrition operations manager Mike Borrie

Bay of Plenty farmer for bringing this find to its attention. “It is a good example of the important role farmers play in our biosecurity system. Farmers know what’s happening on their farms. If they spot anything of biosecurity concern they should ring our 0800 number; that’s what happened here,” Coleman says.

MPI has been working on changes to the Import Health Standard for PKE to confirm that unapproved facilities cannot export to New Zealand. In addition, a small number of plants will need to improve their systems to keep birds and rodents out of their stores.

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INL takes other measures to ensure the biosecurity of its PKE, says Borrie. “INL PKE is sourced from ISO 9002-approved production plants in Malaysia and Indonesia, where the product is hammer-milled, screened and magnetised to a high quality.”

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Zelam was founded by Dr George Mason and Dr Peter Hayward, both ex Dow scientists, and for 20 years has developed pesticides and herbicides.

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news 5

Tough winter looms ahead SNOW RAKING is done on most South Island stations but the toll from the worst southerly storm in decades remains to be seen.

Reports of stock losses due to the 1m-plus dump on South Otago-Marlborough were, as of late last week, few, but a long winter and tight feed situation loom.

“We’re probably going to end up losing sheep throughout the winter, there’s just so much snow in the affected areas,” says Andrew Paterson, chair of Federated Farmers High Country in Otago.

While the low country on his farm, Matakanui Station, about 30km northeast of Alexandra, missed the worst of the weather, a little further east farmers were battling drifts metres deep.

“It’s going to eat into feed supplies because people wouldn’t have been budgeting on starting 100% feeding so early.”

In Otago the snow fell days after severe flooding and the sodden ground is compounding the difficulty of travelling in waist-deep snow, says the Rural Support Trust coordinator for the area, David Mellish. “The main problem is that with a metre of snow you need really, really big machinery to shift it.”

Calls for snow-raking volunteers produced a good response and the 60-or-so farms that contacted the trust for assistance were very appreciative, says Mellish.

“We’ll be holding functions in the key areas to thank the volunteers and get the farmers together.”

Advice on stock and feed management in such extreme conditions will be available at the events. Contact B+LNZ or Federated Farmers for details, says Mellish.

South Canterbury Rural Support Trust is putting similar information from a local consultant on a Facebook page, says regional coordinator, David Hewson. “Most people are telling me they’ve got plenty of feed but where stock would normally be on tussock at this time of year they’re going through it faster than they should be.”

Like Mellish, Hewson and Mid Canterbury counterpart Sue Baird say the snow-raking they’d been asked to provide help with should have all been done by early this week.

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MPI has approved co-funding of $1.75 million for the three-year Whai Hua PGP programme, worth $3.5 million in total.

It will develop natural probiotic dairy milk products targeting consumers in Asian and New Zealand.

The Whai Hua partners are Wairarapa Moana Inc, running 10,000ha of dairying and forestry in central North Island, and Miraka Ltd, the Maoriowned dairy processor in Taupo. It will work with in-market partners to ensure connection with consumers. The research partner is AgResearch.

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A long winter and tight feed situation loom in Southland and Canterbury.

forming Hill Country Farming’ PGP programme to develop precision fertiliser application for hill country. This amount will be matched by the fertiliser cooperative Ravensdown, making the overall base funding for the project $10.26 million.

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6 news

MPI using NZ Pork ‘as a guinea pig’ PA M T I PA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

FRUSTRATED WITH the level of communication it’s getting with the Government and MPI over the fresh pork import issue, NZPork says it’s being used as a “guinea pig”.

NZPork went to the Supreme Court last week with its appeal regarding MPI’s Import Health Standard (IHS) allowing fresh imported pork to be sold in New Zealand without processing. It expects that decision within about two months.

But NZPork chairman Ian Carter says the issue should be sorted out by discussion. “It has always been our argument that the legal process wasn’t going to resolve this issue. It is a matter of the two bodies – the regulators and the affected industry – being able to work together to recognise the risks and either fill the gap in the science where the risk lies or understand how to manage it.”

Carter says the science bodies on

either side of the argument are “poles apart” on the risk of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) virus from imports of fresh meat.

“We are frustrated that there doesn’t seem to be much desire to quantify what the level of risk is.... Even the Crown recognises there’s no accurate science and they have made a call on what they perceive as a low risk and effectively put us into a guinea pig situation on a virus (PRRS) that’s not going to be eradicated if it arrives.”

He says it’s not satisfactory to leave a primary industry with unknown risk, given the capital invested in the industry. The science bodies should be able to hold discussion to see where the risk models differ and where they agree.

“We have spent huge amounts of money on putting legal counsel in the same room and yet the science bodies have never sat in the room.”

He says the Government says biosecurity is a priority, but instead of erring on the side of caution, it has taken the higher risk model and accepted that as

NZ Pork went to the Supreme Court last week to appeal MPI’s import health standards.

good enough.

“Pork is a domestic industry and the primary driver of this country is free trade exports and we don’t fit that category.” But the future of the pork, its ability to be competitive and its potential as an exporter itself is being compromised.

“Twenty years ago dairy wasn’t on the radar as being our primary export industry. Where is the benefit to New Zealand by taking this risk?”

Lower dollar here to stay PA M T I PA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

THE LOWER dollar is here to stay and should boost farmgate returns next season, experts say.

Beef+Lamb NZ’s early forecast is an average 4% decline (3-4 cents) in the New Zealand dollar against the US dollar next season. This equates to $5-$6 a head for lamb next season, says B+LNZ chief economist Andrew Burtt.

“At this point [most] of the processing for the season has been completed and that production has been sold at a higher dollar,” Burtt told Rural News.

“The next question is whether the US dollar stays up or whether the New Zealand dollar stays down, going into next season; we don’t really know how that’s going to pan out.” However the average 4% decline on this season’s average is the current forecast for next year.

The last season’s forecasts were based on NZ83c to US$1. If the New Zealand dollar ends up sitting at an average of 78c next season, that would add up to $6-7 per head of

lamb, so $85 becomes $92.

“But as we’ve gone through [most] of the kill at 83c it will take a wee while before we start to see that. It’s a bit hard to know where we will be in the midst of the kill next year because a lot of these foreign exchange markets seem to be very volatile.”

Irrespective of the exchange rate, Burtt says B+LNZ thinks the markets are also improving but it’s too early to predict by how much.

“So there’s a little improvement from the exchange rate and a little improvement from the market and that should combine to give us some improvement in lamb prices for next season.”

ANZ rural economist Con Williams says the New Zealand dollar has peaked and will slowly depreciate towards fair value, or the 75c mark over 2014. The bank forecasts an 80c average for the rest of 2013 and a slow depreciation back towards 75c.

It has been lower than the 80c average recently but Williams says there’s been a bit of volatility over the last six or seven weeks. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

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news 7

Get digging for fast internet PA M T I PA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

THE QUICKEST way for farmers to get fast broadband internet is to get out their diggers, says Telecommunications Users Association (TUANZ) chief executive Paul Brislen.

And he’s not joking. “It is expensive to roll out fibre cables and dig trenches– if you are a telco,” Brislen told Rural News. “If you are a farmer with a digger and the farm next door is happy for you to dig a trench across their farm as well, then that’s the best thing that should happen.”

Farmers in Yorkshire, UK, did this after tiring of waiting for telco action.

Their project, called Broadband for Rural North (Barn), is for getting fibre to their farms, says Brislen. They are pulling fibre across each farm from neighbour to neighbour and connecting it to a network at the end.

“Generally speaking, they’re doing rather well. It’s quite cheap deployment and it’s happening quickly. British Telecom has the contract to roll out fibre to everybody. It is going to miss all its targets and nobody wants to buy it anyway

once they get it deployed.

“So they are having interesting discussion about who you should give the money to build these networks. It turns out the Telcos aren’t very good at building networks.”

Brislen says there’s also a precedent here called the Nelson Loop. Telecom quoted $1 million to run fibre around a part of Nelson, an area of mostly vineyards, so the locals said, “we’ll do it ourselves” far cheaper than that. They have

had fibre for about 10 years.

Wireless does not do as well as fibre, Brislen says. “Dollar for dollar you want to be putting fibre down because it can handle a lot more customers and a lot more bandwidth so you can get faster connections and can do a lot more with it. Wireless is good to a point, whereas fibre is getting better and better.” @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

Want fast internet? TUANZ’s Paul Brislen says Kiwi do-it-yourself is the best option.

Getting stuck in second class GOVERNMENT DECISIONS on the spectrum becoming available when everyone shifts away from analogue TV could leave rural people stuck with a second class internet service, says Paul Brislen.

“The Government is spending $1.5 billion building fibre optic networks in the cities that will give most New Zealanders 100megabits per second; rural folk can get 5 megabits per second.

“So it is improving because at the

moment you don’t even get that. But it runs the risk of entrenching the whole digital divide where rural folk are told to make do with last decade’s technology.”

Vodafone has launched its 4G network in the cities, Telecom will do likewise by the end of the year and 2degrees is likely to announce it will do something next year “That all uses a frequency range that isn’t very good for rural areas.

Because of the distance you have

to cover you want a low frequency spectrum range. In the cities they are using 1800 megahertz and in rural New Zealand you really want the 700 megahertz stuff which comes free later this year when they finally switch off the analogue TV signal.

“But the government has decided it will have an auction and sell the spectrum direct to the telcos. That concerns us because it sounds likely they will try to get as much money as possible out of the telcos. They could

spend all their money on the spectrums and have nothing left to actually roll out the network with. We are arguing about that with the government at the moment.”

That happened in Australia and the price was so high Vodafone Australia pulled out. Telstra ended up with most of the network – which means no competition, not price reduction.

“You get screwed by the big guys,” says Brislen.

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IN A move apparently designed to appease farmers affected by its One Plan, Horizons Regional Council now proposes all farmers who need a consent under the One Plan will get one – to continue farming.

But the type and duration of the consent will depend on the efforts farmers have made, or are planning to make, to

reduce the leaching of nitrogen from their farms.

This affects dairy farms, cropping, intensive sheep and beef and commercial vegetable growers.

“We are committed to economic growth in our region while also being aware of the increasing interest and expectations of the public on environmental issues,” says HRC chairman Bruce Gordon.

“The decision… means all farmers have the security to keep farming as

they will be given a consent while they make the changes on-farm to reduce nitrogen entering waterways.”

All intensive farming operations in affected catchments will be given a consent, the duration of which will vary depending on the ability of the consent holder to reduce nitrogen losses. This latest move comes on the eve of hearing of appeals to the High Court over the One Plan by Horticulture New

The One Plan is being appealed in the High Court by farmers.

Zealand and Federated Farmers.

It follows a recent stormy public meeting in the Tararua district at which Horizons was criticised for the One Plan and its negative economic impacts on the region.

DairyNZ has discussed with HRC the development of practical mitigation strategies to reduce N leaching. DairyNZ criticises some Horizons mitigation strategies.

The council in the past few days has agreed to a proposal giving farmers controlled activity consent up to 25 years if they are meeting required N leaching targets for their farms.

Farmers who have a plan in place to reduce N leaching will get a restricted discretionary consent for up to 20 years. But those who refuse to reduce their N leaching will get only five years restricted discretionary consent and will

be referred to ‘industry’ to get further help.

A big change in the process is a council plan for a ‘memorandum of understanding’ with industry to develop mitigation strategies, rather than these being imposed by HRC. The aim seems to be to work with stakeholders. But though the dairy industry has been involved in these new protocols, Horticulture New Zealand – a major stakeholder – has not yet been approached about them.

Questions remain about whether this strategy will work; HRC says it will consider a “plan change” if this implementation strategy is not “economically and environmentally sustainable”.

Also possible is that Hort NZ and Federated Farmers may win their case, resulting in further change. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

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New capital to feed baby formula trade pam ti pa pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

GROWING ITS infant formula business is the main reason for Synlait Milk Ltd’s planned capital raising, says chief executive John Penno.

Synlait hopes to raise $75 million from new shares in its initial public offering and another $45 million from the selldown of existing shares by Synlait Ltd investors.

“We think it will be a mix of investors who are interested,” Penno told Rural News. “Clearly there will be some institutional investors from New Zealand and overseas who will be interested.

“But it is it important to us that it creates the opportunity for New Zealand retail investors to get involved so there is, as talked about in the prospectus, the broker firm allocation. It means New Zealand sharebroking firms will be able to bid into the book and secure for themselves an allocation of shares which they then will be able to make available to their retail investors.”

Penno says in the final structure Bright Dairy will remain a cornerstone shareholder though they will fall from 51% to 40%.

Synlait Ltd shares, cur-

rently 49%, will revert back to individual shares.

“So those shareholders in Synlait Ltd will end up holding shares directly rather than through the Synlait Ltd vehicle,” says Penno.

The $75 million is being raised to repay debt and finance growth initiatives. These include a new Lactoferrin extraction and purification plant, an onsite blending and consumer packaging plant, a 10,000m2 dry store, a quality testing laboratory, a butter plant and a new spray dryer.

“The company is five years old, we have got ourselves established and we are pleased with how the business is developing,” says Penno. “So those listed projects are the things we think we need to do to support our infant formula business that’s growing strongly at the moment.

“We’ve got some exciting customers we want to support.

“The investments are about growing our infant formula business and at the same time maintaining our ingredients business which is where the company is making its money today.

“We seem to be growing at about 30% per year in revenue and volume;

that will obviously slow down as we get bigger, but we see a lot of demand there from our customers and a lot of demand in products we want to

move into. So we will keep investing and keep growing the business.

“Infant formula is a smaller part of our business, but it’s growing and

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

10 news

Environment, market The annual South Island Dairy Event was held at Lincoln last week and while many sessions were sector specific, there were plenty of take-home messages for the wider farming industry. Andrew Swallow reports.

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICIES, and indeed market forces, are set to change the way we farm whether we like it or not so wake

Mike Barton (left) makes a point to SIDE delegate David Easton.

up and get engaged in the process, delegates were told at last week’s South Island Dairy Event.

Several keynote speak-

ers gave stark warnings about how policies aimed at protecting water quality are rolling out around the regions and will impact output.

They included Taupo beef farmer Mike Barton who relayed how, after 12 years of collective negotiation and court proceedings, he and 104 other farmers in the lake’s catch-

to live there lost from the local economy and community.

But not even 20% of the Taupo catchment was farmed, so in the rest of the country, where more like 90% of the landscape is farmed, the social and economic impacts of such policies will be “an order of magnitude greater,” he warned.

“Eating, in my view, is the final step in the agricultural process.

As farmers we are the first step. The consumer cannot be divorced from that process.”

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Along his road alone the cap has seen four farms planted in pines, and the families that used

With the benefit of hindsight, he says farmers shouldn’t even talk about [environmental] solutions until they “deeply understand” the science behind the policies, and there is concensus on that science. Nor should they enter into talks about solutions without having

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INTRODUCING BARTON’S keynote address, Ants Roberts, Ravensdown, reiterated his warning about regional policies taking effect.

“If any of you think this will never happen to you, think again. I’ve been to hearings in Southland, Otago, Canterbury, and I assure you, it is coming to a farm you own.”

In the opening keynote of the conference, Rick Pridmore, DairyNZ, warned the industry could “rot from the bottom” as environmental policies hit home. “Most places I go to I see farmers doing a good job and we’ve still got a problem…. It’s called bad planning. You [current dairy farmers] are having to wear the [environmental] cost of every new conversion.”

In many areas of New Zealand the number of dairy farms exceeds what is environmentally sustainable under historic practice. Now the brakes are going on, but too hard or inappropriately in some cases. “We’re over-correcting for something that should have been stopped.”

Pridmore urged farmers to get involved “boots and all” and warned good practice alone will not fix water quality issues. “What we have to do is control the conversion of low-loss land [eg forest] to highloss land. If we don’t do that our industry will rot from the bottom.”

He also warned against investing in costly mitigation measures until regional or catchment policies are fixed. “All you will end up doing is adding a lot of cost to your business and you don’t fix anything.”

What farmers must build is public acceptance and tolerance by showing the industry is responsible and trustworthy. “If somebody does something wrong, we’ve got to say it’s wrong…. Emotion is our biggest enemy.”

Rural News // july 2, 2013

news 11

policies to change the way we farm the economic impacts of what’s being proposed “nailed down.”

All farmers need to engage in the process, act collectively, and understand the drivers.

Leaders will be needed.

Those leaders mustn’t be the traditional tablethumping, property rights-

rant type, he says.

“You need someone who is going to tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear.

And once they are elected, you need to support them because they will go through a hell of a lot.”

Unity within farming as a whole, not just as sec-

tors, is the key, he believes.

“We wanted this to be a dairy problem, but we all need to work together because we’re all part of it. Sheep and beef farmers are grazing dairy heifers; you buy seed from arable farmers.”

Consumers also need to be made aware they are

part of the environmental problem, and indeed the solution. “Eating, in my view, is the final step in the agricultural process. As farmers we are the first step. The consumer cannot be divorced from that process.”

Barton’s solution to reduced output caused by

Overseer faces scrutiny USE OF Overseer as a regulatory tool has been blasted as immoral and “a sham”.

Speaking from the floor during a workshop session on the nutrient budgeting tool at last week’s South Island Dairy Event, Lincoln researcher Jim Gibbs questioned workshop presenter Ants Roberts about the data used to build the model.

The knowledge of nitrogen cycling through the metabolic pathways in the model involves errors (as in statistical variation) at every stage, so by the time a number drops out the bottom of the model it may be miles out. “From start to finish the errors associated are huge,” said Gibbs.

Also, there was no data on urine nitrogen content from cows in New Zealand pastoral systems when the model was built, so he suspects it was constructed using urine results from US total mixed ration research. “We really don’t have that data [for New Zealand pasture-based systems].”

Given those errors, Gibbs told Rural News he believes the owners of Overseer should have publicly and forcefully told regional councils that the model must not be used as a regulatory tool.

“If it was my model I’d have stood up in front of the cameras and said ‘stop using this model…. There are farms in Southland being told they can’t convert because they are a 28 (for nitrogen loss) not a 25 on Overseer.… It’s just immoral, a sham.”

Gibbs didn’t even touch on the problem of inconsistent data entry into the model, which was touched on by Roberts and fellow speaker, Dairy NZ’s Sam Howard.

That’s causing personnel from different organisations to come up with different results for the same farm. It’s also leaving the tool open to manipulation.

In an attempt to stop that, the dairy industry has produced a protocol on how to use of Overseer, which will be rolled out in the coming months.

“The largest variation in results from Overseer is due to the data entry and we need to have a protocol to enable us to standardise and track progress, rather than the variability between users,” DairyNZ catchment engagement leader in Canterbury, Tony Fransen, later told Rural News.

Roberts echoed the importance of consistent data input into Overseer, and warned users to be wary of discussing Overseer results publically “because of the regulatory body interest in establishing nitrogen caps for your farm.”

On irrigated properties the programme typically underestimates the amount of nitrogen lost because it assumes best practice irrigation and uses long-term average rain data. In practice, rain is far more random, with some months way over, and others well under, the long-term averages.

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

12 news

Cohesive structure needed for China pam ti pa pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

NEW ZEALAND NEEDS a more cohesive structure for dealing with exporting to China, says a dairy industry player.

The Government should get involved and perhaps lead it, says Chris Claridge, owner/director of Carrickmore Nutrition, also a member of the New Zealand Infant Formula Exporters Association. The idea is not ruled out by Food Safety Minister Nikki Kaye, one of four top Government ministers now working together on China issues.

And a more cohesive strategy with great scale for exporters is also backed by the executive director of the New Zealand China Trade Association, Graham Kearns. But he believes it should be industry lead and government supported.

Claridge says various primary export sector groups have talked about getting together to discuss this

with government. The discussion may involve not only dairy but other primary producers such meat, honey, wine and the seafood industry.

Signing an FTA with China five years ago was a “significant step”.

But we now need structures to cope with that trade “sooner rather than later”.

“Arguably there is structural failure at this time,” he says. But our problems are not huge, nor insurmountable.

Meanwhile Kaye says the four ministers have commissioned a study on what government can do to give emerging markets greater confidence in our food assurance systems. This focuses on infant formula to China but Kaye told Rural News that is “the first step”. Consultation with industry will follow which could lead to discussion on a wider strategy.

The four ministers – Kaye, Trade Minister Tim Groser, Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy and Economic Development Minister Steven

Joyce – have stepped in after China asked for more branding information for infant formula and more traceability of products.

Claridge says it is good the ministers are looking at these regulatory issues, but a wider view is needed.

Groser has said export companies need to come up to speed.

Claridge acknowledges that but hopes government can provide the lead on a “cohesive” strategy.

“The issue with China is they expect coherent, single points of contact. That’s how they operate.”

While it is good New Zealand has individual organisations doing their own thing, that needs to be articulated within an overall structure, he says. New Zealand has a strategy – of engaging with China which is a huge opportunity – but we don’t have a coherent structure. “We need to discuss how to manage China – with 1.3 billion people,” he says. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

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The free trade agreement has opened opportunities for NZ products in China.

Join forces to get scale SCALE IS needed to be successful in China and the only way to get that is with collaboration, says Kearns.

“The Government is responsive to that… definitely companies have to collaborate in the same fields of endeavour so they can get some sort of scale.

“They can maintain their own branding, but when you go to the market you go as New Zealand Inc.” While government needs to get involved, Kearns says “you still need to have that individualism”.

“I have reservations if it was going to be a government controlled or managed situation; and a lot of it’s to do with funding and the way bureau-

crats work. They have their focus and business has maybe a slightly different focus.”

Kearns says we have to protect the image of New Zealand in any way we can. “It would only take one bad apple to really stuff it up for everybody else.

You must have closer control of the use of New Zealand’s name on branding etc.”

If New Zealand businesses want to get impact they have to be careful when they deal with China. “We just don’t have the scale, we need to get some scale. Like the Fonterras … they are not the largest producer of dairy products in the world, but they are certainly one of the largest exporters in the world.”

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

news 13

Lamb exporter eyes top Indian hotel chains sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

MPI HAS given the green light for lamb exports to India and one processor will have products in fivestar Indian hotels by the end of this year.

Neat Meat managing director Simon Eriksen, who recently attended an exporters’ trip to India organised by the ANZ Bank, isn’t concerned about the high tariffs and is eyeing the topend food service market in India. He is organising samples to be delivered to a top hotel chain via the NZ Trade Commissioner in Mumbai and is hoping to be supplying the hotels within three to four months.

India charges 36% tariffs on lamb imports. A free trade agreement between India and New Zealand will bring tariffs down but Eriksen isn’t waiting. He says everyone exporting lamb to India has to pay the tariffs and he’s targeting those who can afford it.

Eriksen spoke to chefs and procurement officers at five-star hotels and the response was encouraging. “I showed them four different lamb brands and they went for the most expensive option,” he told Rural News.

Eriksen says Neat Meat is targeting the niche market of luxury hotels.

India has 37,000 hotels.

Eriksen says he’s only targeting the top end of these hotel chains.

“The truth is New Zealand does not produce enough lamb for even a suburb in India so we should respect our produce and how we market it, globally we are not a big producer. The Indians themselves will blow us out of the water with their

but higher frequency and higher margins.

In Singapore, the company supplies products to a wholesaler who owns butcheries and restau-

rants. In Fiji, it supplies top hotels. Neat Meats is looking at online selling in the Philippines, catering to the wealthy and expat population.

Neat Meat works with chefs to create brands.

“Never expect supermarkets to create brands for you, you have to create your own brand. The sharp

end of this is chefs telling our / New Zealand story.”

Eriksen says the New Zealand brand is powerful and recognised throughout the world. “New Zea-

land beef and lamb are brands. You have to attach yourself to a unique brand story and then protect it and grow it around the world.”

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own lamb production.”

Eriksen says a clear strategy is needed in India. “you’ve got to be clear about your strategy, know what products or brands you wish to market and to whom,” he says.

Neat Meat sells organic and conventional beef and lamb. Its organic products come from 16 beef and 10 sheep farms. Angus beef and conventional lamb products are bought from processors. It exports to Singapore Fiji, Hong Kong and Australia. Philippines is also being eyed as a potential market.

Eriksen doesn’t see his company as a traditional meat exporter. His philosophy is doing things differently – lower volumes

NZ meat industry needs outside help SIMON ERIKSEN believes like many, that the meat industry is in need of change, and it will take more than one company or one individual to change it.

Overcapacity and lack of marketing expertise are two areas of concern, he says.

“There are not enough animals and too many processors. We are a country heavily influenced by season and scale and will always be up against it.

Another thing lacking is the industry’s reluctance to employ outside marketing expertise. “We are starting to see bit of that in Anzco and Silver Fern Farms. They are starting to get people from outside the industry for brand development.”

Both Anzco and Silver Fern Farms are marketing their products on supermarket shelves through new packaging. Eriksen says brands become visual and change the way people appreciate products.

“But is it too late or to slow it may be a combination of both those things.”

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

14 news

Common vision for Maori land PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

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THE CHIEF executive of Te Tumu Paeroa (the Maori Trustee) Jamie Tuuta says Maori must collaborate as never before if they are to realise the potential of their farm land.

Speaking at a Fieldays seminar on Maori agribusiness, organised by the Ministry for Primary Industry, Tuuta stressed that Maori have to identify and celebrate their successes and share them

fidence and belief in themselves.

Tuuta says his organisation administers 100,000ha of Maori land owned by 95,000 people and says one of the big challenges is trying to understand the aspirations of the owners and mobilise them to realise the potential of their land.

“There is a broad understanding by Maori and by all New Zealand that there’s huge potential in the Maori land base and this will not only benefit Maori but also

with others.

The aim of the seminar was to seek the views of Maori leaders in the primary sector on what needs to be done by Maori to lift the performance of their farmland and agribusiness enterprises and to contribute fully to the government goal of doubling primary exports by 2025.

The seminar attracted nearly 100 people and drew a range of responses.

The main focus was the need to attract the best people to their enterprises and to give Maori self con-

Hinerangi Raumati

the wider economy.

We’ve invested heavily in mapping technology and are going to groups of owners and multiple entities and saying ‘this is the opportunity, this is the prize, this is the potential economic benefit and the

spillover benefits that can be accrued. Is this what you want?’ ” Tuuta says good leadership is one of keys to success.

The importance of Maori having the right people in the right positions was a point made by Hinerangi Raumati who chairs Parininihi ki Waitotara (PKW) – Fonterra’s largest milk supplier in Taranaki. This year the trust’s farms will produce close to three million kgMS. She says PKW didn’t

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who’s not Taranaki Maori.

Out of that we have really good production and good performance out of both our Maori and our nonMaori farmers,” she says.

Raumati says PKW is looking at options for expansion and says while they looked at a range of options, they haven’t made any decisions yet.

She says from a global perspective the Maori story is attractive and marketable from an environmental perspective.

“I think we’ve got a good story to tell.”

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really start shifting the business upwards until they got a good board and appointed a really good chief executive. Raumati says making those two structural changes enabled the trust to move forward and they are now making good profits.

“You have to have the right person for the job. So we actively recruit our farm managers and in some cases we have been lucky to have Taranaki Maori appointed but in other cases we’ve appointed the best person

THE EFFECTS of pesticides on children’s nervous systems will be studied in one of two Massey University pesticide projects involving rural areas.

The other will look at the possible connection between pesticide exposure and increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in agricultural workers.

The children’s study involves a questionnaire survey of 300 farmers’ children and another 300 ruralbased children of non-farmers as well as 300 children living in cities. These groups will then be divided into two to conduct detailed exposure measurements and objective neuropsychological testing. The children’s study has been awarded $1.2 million by the Health Research Council.

Links have been made between pesticide exposure and neurodevelopmental problems in children in a number of low income countries as well as the United States, but it is the first such study in New Zealand.

Co-researcher on both studies, Dr

Dave McLean, told Rural News conditions are different in low income countries where families tend to live close to where pesticides have been used and exposure is high.

The study will look at issues such as delays in cognitive development, attention deficit, behavioural problems, poor memory and motor skills, long reaction time and reduced IQ. ADHD has been associated with pesticide use in studies in the US. Participants will be randomly selected in the various categories in the lower North Island for logistical reasons and the study will take at least three years.

In the other study, awarded $1.19 million in the same funding round, leader researcher Dr Andrea ‘t Mannetje says pesticide exposure is known to increase the risk of nonHodgkin lymphoma (NHL) but the specific causal agents have yet to be identified.

Blood will be collected from agricultural workers who apply different pesticides as well as a group not exposed to pesticides.

“Non-Hodgkin lymphona is not the most common cancer but the inci-

dence has trebled in the last 60 years, so that’s a hint there may be some environmental insult that’s causing the development of that cancer,” says McLean.

In Massey studies over the last 20-30 years they have repeatedly found associations between pesticide use and increased risk of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This has not necessarily been among farmers as such, but in the types of jobs in agriculture and horticulture that involve spraying pesticides.

“But in those past studies we’ve come up with a very general thing about pesticide exposure being associated – it has been hard to dig any deeper into what sort of pesticides might be associated with these diseases. So this study is an opportunity to dig deeper to look for which particular pesticides.”

Because the disease takes time to develop, McLean says previous studies may have been looking at the results of past exposure, with chemicals that are no longer used. For example most of the organic chlorines have been phased out.

Rural News // july 2, 2013

world 15

UK farmers back GM push

Eat beef, stay warm

BRITISH FARMERS are backing their Government in its quest to gain approval for the growing of genetically modified crops.

The NFU says the Government is right to lead the discussion on GM technology and highlight why it can be used to help farmers produce more food for a growing population.

Unsurprisingly, the Green Party of UK opposes the move, unconvinced about the safety of GM, not just for humans but also considering the impact they have on eco-systems where they are released and on biodiversity.

UK Environment Secretary Owen Owen Paterson Paterson last month stepped up his campaign to have GM crops grown in wants to make Britain a centre for GM to develop the latest technologies so Britain. He said genetically modified research and development, poten- they can reap economic and environcrops are “categorically” safer than tially a multi-billion pound industry. mental benefits.

“I welcome his commitment to He has support from UK farmers. conventional crops because they are subjected to much greater scrutiny The NFU now wants to ensure a clear getting the EU approvals system framework for R&D, regulation and working. The Environment Secrethan traditional varieties.

Paterson used a speech in Hert- commercialisation – sooner rather tary also asked all interested parties to help him and said he would back fordshire to promote genetic engi- than later. them in return. I, and neering of plants and the NFU, will take up called on the govern- “These products go through this challenge.” ment, industry and sci- the most rigorous system. It’s Green Party entists to join forces to extraordinarily closely regulated, at Euro Candidate for convert the public in the London, Caroline face of widespread fear a national level and at a European Allen is surprised and scepticism. level…We have not come up with that no one actually He says GM crops monitors any adverse were safer than conven- any evidence of human health being effects of GM. She tional ones because they threatened by these products.” also wants checks if use “more precise techNFU President Peter Kend- the claims made by GM companies nology and [come under] greater regulatory scrutiny”. “These prod- all applauded Paterson for showing about benefits are real.

“Paterson mentions there is no sciucts go through the most rigorous leadership on this issue. “The NFU system. It’s extraordinarily closely agrees that the UK, which is the natu- entific evidence shown directly linkregulated, at a national level and at ral home for science research, should ing GMOs to higher risk environment a European level…We have not come be at the forefront of providing agri- or safety, but lacks to go into detail. up with any evidence of human health cultural solutions not watching from It is clear that genuine, independent epidemiological studies are required being threatened by these products.” the sidelines.

“Rightly so, farmers fear being into the impacts of GM food, but are Paterson, who ultimately wants the European Union to relax tight left behind. As Mr Paterson said, I currently lacking.” restrictions on growing GM plants, also want British farmers to be able @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

POSTDRIVERS

AUSTRALIANS ARE being urged to eat hearty home-cooked beef meals to keep warm this winter.

A campaign launched last month by Meat and Livestock Australia uses the slogan ‘Beef. It’s how we keep warm’. It aims to boost beef sales.

The campaign follows the summer “Nothing beats beef” campaign which ran from November 2012 until February 2013.

Overall total fresh beef sales for summer (November-February) increased by 0.5% compared to November-February last year, with steak sales up 2.9%.

MLA consumer marketing manager, Andrew Cox, says consumers would connect with the campaign because they rec-

ognise the benefits of hearty beef meals in the cooler months.

“Winter sees a natural spike in beef sales because people love eating hearty meals like beef curry and casserole,” said says Cox. MLA’s consumer research has shown how consumer behaviour changes in winter. When cold weather arrives consumers crave warming meals, and beef is the perfect winter food because it satisfies those cravings, Cox says.

“We’re leveraging that association and reminding people of beef’s versatility, with recipes for a wide variety of meals from quick-cook curries to casseroles and roasts.”

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

beef market trends

Market snapshot Meat c/kgCWT

North Island

South Island

Change c/kg

Change c/kg

Last Week

Last Week

Lamb - PM 16.0kg

+2

5.05

+10

4.98

Steer - P2 300kg

+3

4.35

+3

4.00

Bull - M2 300kg

n/c

4.30

+3

3.90

Venison - AP 60kg

+5

6.35

+5

6.57

BEEF PRICES

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

South Island 16.0kg M Lamb Price $6.5

$5.5 5yr Ave Last Year This Year

$4.5

$3.5 Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

2 Wks Ago

Last Year 4.15

5.03

5.01

5.61

4.30

4.25

PM - 16.0kg

+2

5.05

5.03

5.63

P2 Cow - 230kg

n/c

3.55

3.55

3.40

PX - 19.0kg

+2

5.07

5.05

5.65

M Cow - 200kg

n/c

3.45

3.45

3.30

PH - 22.0kg

+2

5.08

5.06

5.66

Local Trade - 230kg

+3

4.30

4.27

4.05

Mutton

MX1 - 21kg

n/c

2.90

2.90

3.35

P2 Steer - 300kg

+3

4.00

3.97

4.00

SI Lamb

YM - 13.5kg

+10

4.98

4.88

5.61

M2 Bull - 300kg

+3

3.90

3.87

3.95

PM - 16.0kg

+10

4.98

4.88

5.63

P2 Cow - 230kg

n/c

3.10

3.10

3.00

PX - 19.0kg

+10

4.98

4.88

5.65

M Cow - 200kg

n/c

2.80

2.80

2.90

PH - 22.0kg

+10

4.98

4.88

5.66

Local Trade - 230kg

+5

4.05

4.00

4.00

+10

2.78

2.68

3.20

Mutton

MX1 - 21kg

NZ Slaughter

Estimated Weekly Kill Change

3 Wks Ago

Cattle NI

-14%

33.4

38.8

34.0

36.7

-18%

Lamb NI

-8%

141

152

158

145

Cattle SI

19.4

23.7

16.9

15.1

-9%

129

141

132

135

Cattle NZ

-16%

Lamb SI

52.8

62.5

50.9

51.8

+3%

Lamb NZ

-8%

270

294

290

280

Bull NI

6.9

6.7

7.2

7.3

-28%

19

26

24

36

Bull SI

-55%

Mutton NZ

1.0

2.2

3.1

2.0

Str & Hfr NI

-7%

15.5

16.7

16.6

16.1

Str & Hfr SI

+19%

6.9

5.8

6.3

5.8

Cows NI

-29%

11.0

15.4

10.2

13.4

Cows SI

-27%

11.5

15.7

7.5

7.3

Last Year 5yr Ave

NZ Weekly Beef Kill

80

Last Year

60

1000s

$3.5 Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

$4.5

3 Wks Ago

Last Year 5yr Ave

Last Year This Year

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

This Year

Export Market Demand Change Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

95CL US$/lb NZ$/kg

Last Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year 5yr Ave

UK Leg £/lb

n/c

1.85

1.85

1.45

1.76

NZ$/kg

+23

8.15

7.92

6.33

8.60

Demand Indicator - UK Leg Price

Last Week

2 Wks Ago

-2

1.90

1.92

2.03

1.73

+16

5.39

5.23

5.68

5.14

Change

Last Year 5yr Ave

Demand Indicator - US 95CL Beef

South Island 300kg Steer Price

2Wks Ago

Change

NZ Weekly Lamb Kill

900 750 600 450 300 150 0 Mar

Export Market Demand 5yr Ave Last Year This Year

Estimated Weekly Kill

2Wks Ago

0 Mar

$4.0

Last Year

4.32

20

North Island 300kg Bull Price

+2

YM - 13.5kg

2 Wks Ago

4.30

SI

NI Lamb

Last Week

4.35

40 $4.5

Change

c/kgCWT

n/c

1000s 5yr Ave Last Year This Year

$4.5

Mar

+3

Last Week

M2 Bull - 300kg

NZ Slaughter

$5.5

$3.5 Mar

Change

P2 Steer - 300kg

North Island 16.0kg M Lamb Price $6.5

LAMB PRICES

c/kgCWT NI

lamb market trends

£2.50

Last Year This Year

£2.00 £1.50 £1.00 Mar

$2.20

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

$4.0

$2.00 $3.5

Last Year

5yr Ave Last Year This Year

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

$1.80 Mar

Apr

May

Procurement Indicator Change

North Island 60kg Stag Price

$8.0 $7.5 $7.0

Jun

Jul

Aug

5yr Ave Last Year This Year

$6.0 Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

South Island 60kg Stag Price

$8.0 $7.5

3 Wks Ago

Last Year 5yr Ave

% Returned NI

-2%

79.8%

81.6%

74.85%

76.6%

-1%

71.8%

72.7%

69.6%

70.7%

Procurement Indicator - North I.

70% 60% Apr

Last Year This Year

Jun

Aug

Procurement Indicator - South I. Last Year This Year

$7.0 $6.5

Last Year

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

% Returned NI

-2%

63.2%

65.0%

90.0%

66.8%

% Returned SI

-2%

60.1%

61.9%

90.0%

65.8%

Last Year 5yr Ave

110% 100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% Apr

Last Year This Year

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Procurement Indicator - South I. 105% 95% 85% 75% 65% 55% 45% Apr

Last Year This Year

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Last Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year 5yr Ave

70%

Venison Prices

This Year

$6.0

3 Wks Ago

80%

80%

5yr Ave

2Wks Ago

Procurement Indicator - North I. 2Wks Ago

% Returned SI 90%

$6.5

Change

This Year

$3.0 Mar

Procurement Indicator

60% Apr

Jun

Change

Aug

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.

NI Stag - 60kg

+5

6.35

6.30

7.27

7.50

SI Stag - 60kg

+5

6.57

6.52

7.27

7.77

Rural News // july 2, 2013

news

price watch WOOL PRICE WATCH

BEEF

DAIRY PRICE WATCH

Change

13-Jun

06-Jun

Last Year

Coarse Xbred Indic.

+17

4.43

4.26

4.16

Fine Xbred Indicator

+10

5.07

4.97

4.99

Lamb Indicator

+5

5.04

4.99

5.12

-

-

8.57

8.82

Cattle prices edge higher as kill falls

Indicators in NZ$

Farmgate prices for cattle continued to edge higher in both Islands over last two weeks as kill rates fell. 300kg steer prices cracked the $4/kg mark in the South Island last week as local trade prices also lift. Cattle prices are 30-35c/kg higher in the North Island with farmers there benefiting from higher competition between companies with kill levels below normal for this time of the year. But meat company margins in the North Island have been under par despite the big drop in the NZ dollar. With US imported beef prices falling by US30c/lb in the last 2 months, margins last week were 23% lower than this time last year and 10% below 5yr average. This will limit the upside for North Island prices in the short term.

US imported beef market tone improves

300

Mid Micron Indic.

Wool Indicator Trends

600

CXI

550

FXI

Prev. 2 Wks

Last Year

+148

5277

5129

3806

+158

5631

5473

3711

-79

6113

6192

3616

-60

5663

5723

4567

Cheddar

Dairy Prices Trends SMP But.

WMP Ched.

4,000

350 Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

Feb

3,000

Apr

Jun

Coarse Xbred Indicator

600

Aug

500

Oct

Dec

Feb

Apr

Whole Milk Powder Price (NZ$)

7,000 Last Year This Year

Last Year

6,000

This Year

5,000 400

4,000

300 Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Overseas Price Indicators Indicators in US$/kg Fine Xbred Indicator

13-Jun

06-Jun

Last Year

+15

3.53

3.38

3.26

+9

4.04

3.94

3.91

+5

4.01

3.96

4.01

-

-

6.80

6.92

Lamb Indicator Mid Micron Indicator

CXI

500

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Last 2 Wks

Prev. 2 Wks

Last Year

n/c

4100

4100

3000

n/c

4375

4375

2925

-200

4750

4950

2850

-175

4400

4575

3600

Change

Butter Skim Milk Powder Whole Milk Powder Cheddar

Dairy Prices in US$/Tonne

FXI

LI

SMP .But

5,500

450

WMP .Ched

4,500

400

UK retail lamb performance is still encouraging with fresh and frozen purchases up 2.7% year-on-year in the four weeks to May 12.

Positive pricing levels and strong promotional activity on leg roasting joints have seen sales jump 12.5% year-on-year in the four week to May 12 with good weather improving demand for BBQ type cuts. Chops for grilling or frying were up 25.3% during the same period which has offset part of the notable fall-off in purchases for shoulder roasting joints.

Apr

Indicators in US$/T

Wool Indicator in US$

550

UK retail lamb performance encouraging

3,000 Mar

Overseas Price Indicators

Change

Coarse Xbred Indicator

South Island lamb prices were poised to crack the $5/kg (gross incl. presentation and premiums). As expected South Island prices are closing in on their northern counterparts as the kill in the south declines and procurement pressure ramps up. North Island lamb prices have slowed their steady climb higher in recent weeks with companies matching capacity to levels of supply well. North Island prices were 15- 20c/kg ahead last week at $5.10-5.20/kg.

350

3,500

300 2,500

250 Jun

Aug

Oct

Dec

Feb

Jun

Apr

Coarse Xbred Indictor in US$ 500 Last Year This Year

450 400 350

Aussie lamb slaughter to fall next season

300 250 Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

6,000 5,500 5,000 4,500 4,000 3,500 3,000 2,500 Mar

CURRENCY WATCH

DAIRY Dairy prices show more stability Prices for dairy products in US$/tonne have shown more stability in the last two weeks. Oceanic prices have been steady to slightly weaker in recent weeks with butter and skim powder prices steady and whole milk powder and cheddar prices back. However the latest gDT event showed some upside for most products except buttermilk powder and cheddar. The drop in the NZ dollar has been positive for returns in NZ dollar terms. Production in both NZ and Australia is at or close to season lows. Soil moisture levels in both countries have improved which is positive for pasture conditions in the coming spring.

Bill Hodgson Dunedin

Last 2 Wks

Change

5,000

400

South Island lamb prices close the gap

Andrew Wood Palmerston North

Whole Milk Powder

6,000

450

LAMB

The ABARE has forecast Australian lamb slaughter to fall by 8% in the 2013/14 season on the back of lower opening lamb numbers.

This year’s ongoing dry conditions and low prices have discouraged re-stocker activity and a further contraction in the Australian sheep flock is expected next season as a result. Lamb production will fall by 7% in 2013/14 with falling supplies reflected in a 12% decline in exports. NZ lamb supplies are also predicted to be lower next season so the per unit value for lamb in many of NZ’s overseas markets should be underpinned by the reduced availability of product.

Butter Skim Milk Powder

7,000

LI

500

US imported prices have been under pressure for some time but the tide may be about to turn. Supplies are finally beginning to tighten.

Domestically there has been a dramatic improvement in pasture conditions and US cow slaughter has reduced as a result. The flow of imported product has also slowed as NZ supplies become limited seasonally and other markets take priority for Australian product.

US demand could pick up soon as chicken is now significantly less competitive than grinding beef. But buyers remain cagey so a positive shift in US imported prices may not be imminent.

Indicators in NZ$/T

Jeremy MacAvoy Ashburton

vs. NZ Dollar

Last Week 2 Wks Ago 4 Wks Ago Last Year

0.90

0.777

0.809

0.811

0.788

Euro

0.587

0.606

0.627

0.628

UK pound

0.501

0.515

0.537

0.505

0.75

Aus dollar

0.844

0.841

0.835

0.784

Japan yen

75.42

77.28

82.79

63.29

0.70 Mar

Euro

0.64 Last Year

0.60

This Year

0.56

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Peter Young Hawke’s Bay

Jul

Aug

Oct

Dec

Feb

Apr

Whole Milk Powder Price in US$/T Last Year This Year

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

US Dollar

Aug

Last Year

0.85

US dollar

0.68

Aug

This Year

0.80

UK 0.58 0.56 0.54 0.52 0.50 0.48 0.46 Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Pound Last Year This Year

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Rural News // july 2, 2013

18 opinion editorial

edna

Time for Feds to delegate responsibilities AS FEDERATED Farmers warms up for its national conference and annual meeting in Ashburton this week, it’s timely to take a look at how the lobby group operates.

Each of the seven national board members has a long list of policy responsibilities to his/her name: in one case one board member has nine topics. Such is the complexity of every one of these topics that for an individual to keep abreast of so many areas, as well as running their own business, is a tall order. Myriad meetings must be attended and the ability to effectively represent members becomes stretched, to say the least, through no fault of the board member.

The fault lies with the structure. Why do board members have to cover so many areas?

Surely there is a case for greater delegation to members with expertise in particular areas? The board member may remain the spokesperson on a particular issue, but there needs to be a greater willingness to defer to specialist colleagues or sub-committees.

Feds’ policy analysts can support decision making, crunching the numbers and picking over the pertinent regulations. But unless they have been in the role for decades, few will have the indepth specialised knowledge many of Feds’ members will have amassed in one area or another.

The board member cannot be expected to have that expertise in more than one or maybe two areas either – which leaves at least three topics, and in most cases more, where knowledge is lacking.

Unless other members are seconded to pick up those areas, there’s a risk policy staff don’t just inform policy, they drive it – drive it from Wellington from an office several times removed from grassroots members. Little wonder some farmers are questioning the lobby group’s representation of members’ interests.

The fact is the federation does achieve much behind the scenes, which many grassroots members may never be aware of: they farm on, unaware of the potential regulatory roadblocks the federation has removed, or prevented being set up in the first place.

But Feds could do better if it better used the specialist knowledge that exists among its members. The current structure is a barrier to some getting involved. To put your hand up on one issue risks getting lumbered with half a dozen more. That risk needs to be removed.

RURAL NEWS HEAD OFFICE POSTAL ADDRESS: PO Box 3855, Shortland Street, Auckland 1140 PUBLISHER: Brian Hight .............................................. Ph 09 307 0399 GENERAL MANAGER: Adam Fricker ........................................... Ph 09 913 9632 CONSULTING EDITOR: David Anderson .......................................Ph 09 307 0399 davida@ruralnews.co.nz

the hound

Want to share your opinion or gossip with the Hound?

Send your emails to: hound@ruralnews.co.nz

Really?

Funny that

Appropriate

THE HOUND reckons serial whiner and Green Party co-leader Dr Russel Norman loves the sound of his own, high-pitched, Aussie twang in the media.

Red ‘Rusty’, along with his potential coalition co-prime ministers David Shearer and Winston Peters, recently published a tax-payer-funded report saying there’s a manufacturing crisis in NZ – despite official figures showing manufacturing at its highest level for nearly a decade. Your old mate hates to make a liar of a politician but suggests Norman take a quick tour of NZ’s dairy factories or meat processing plants.

A MATE of the Hound’s spent much of mid-June running around the National Fieldays at Mystery Creek.

Your canine crusader’s informant has been to almost every Fieldays during the last 45 years and reckons this year’s event was a pretty good one.

But, your old mate’s spy was bemused by the reaction from at least a couple of visitors. Apparently, the disgruntled pair were overheard on leaving it: “It was a very dull site because there was only boring-old farming stuff on show”.

Hmmmm… one wonders if these displeased visitors were aware they were at the ‘National Agricultural Fieldays’?

SPEAKING OF Fieldays, another mate of the Hound’s had bit of a giggle when he heard about the fate of Labour leader David Shearer, who was due to join his primary industries spokesman Damien O’Connor for a meet and greet on the first day of the event. Apparently, Shearer – who’s struggling to make any impact in the political polls – was delayed by fog. As your canine crusader’s mate cruelly opined, “It seems totally appropriate that Shearer – who is known as the invisible man of NZ politics – was delayed by fog.”

The Hound’s mate may say this, but this old mutt could not comment.

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Consistency please

Call the PC police

THIS OLD mutt notes that the Greens have been accusing the current Government of playing crony politics and/or looking after ‘their mates’.

Fair enough, it’s politics.

However, what is that about living in glasshouses and throwing stones? Why does no one ever question its agriculture spokesman Stefan Browning’s clear conflict of interest? Browning’s public utterances almost always either contain an anti-GE and/or pro organics stance.

Hardly surprising, considering Browning’s ‘job’ prior to becoming a taxpayerfunded beneficiary was as the paid mouthpiece for Organics NZ.

THE HOUND questions whether the recent use of DNA sequence technology by farmer cooperative Livestock Improvement (LIC) – it led to the discovery of a recessive small calf gene and now opens the door to managing ‘small calf syndrome’ out of the dairy industry – could be viewed as prejudicial. He notes that we’ve recently seen dwarf or ‘little people’ boxing on the undercard of a recent a major professional boxing match, so what will the PC police think of the dairy industry trying to deliberately to eliminate dwarf cows from the dairy herd?

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

opinion 19

Biosecurity funding intact – Guy and Water, High Value Nutrition, Resilience to Nature’s Challenges, and Science for Technological Innovation.

At least $70 million is being invested into tackling these issues over the next four years.

Our reform of the RMA will continue to streamline the process and continue

Zealand’s roading network in history, with $11 billion over 10 years going towards seven major highway projects. This will get product from the farmgate to the processor and onto markets even quicker.

At the same time, we have carefully managed Government spending so that we expect to be back

transport rules for agricultural vehicles have also been well received by farmers and contractors.

The Rural Broadband Initiative will deliver high speed internet to 252,000 rural households, connecting us locally and internationally.

We also have the biggest investment in New

Nathan Guy

to manage environmental obligations. Change to

in surplus next year. This is a huge achievement and most other countries around the world will be envious. Importantly, this good financial management means interest rates are at a 50 year low – more good news for the primary sector.

• Nathan Guy is the Minister of Primary Industries

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IAN PROUDFOOT’S article on the Budget in June 2 Rural News deserves a response, particularly as his claims on biosecurity funding cuts are completely wrong.

To make it crystal clear: funding has not been cut for biosecurity.

Appropriations for ‘border biosecurity monitoring and clearance’ were temporarily higher in last year’s Budget because $5 million in funding was brought forward from 2011-12 to pay for the joint border management system (JBMS), and $1 million for the merger to create the Ministry for Primary Industries was also brought forward.

It is normal practice for costs for major projects to be variable across different financial years, and shows why it is misleading to look only at the headline figures. If Mr Proudfoot had checked with me I could have explained this to him.

Biosecurity is my number-one priority as minister, and overall funding has doubled since 2000. We now have a major programme of work underway to improve what is already a world-class system.

Over the last six months we have recruited 56 new frontline biosecurity, 12 of whom graduated in Christchurch last month. A further 30 are being recruited shortly.

We’re also working with Australia on our preparedness for foot and

mouth disease. A recent auditor-general report noted that MPI has been successful in responding to incursions, and plans are being updated to deal with pests, improve our surveillance and targeting, and hold ongoing regular exercises and simulations.

I also take issue with the claim that the Budget contains little for the primary sector.

As well as the $80 million for irrigation, funding is also continuing for the Primary Growth Partnership (PGP). This is a government-industry initiative that invests in major programmes of research and innovation.

In just three years, the Government and industry have invested $650 million in these projects. This covers everything from aquaculture, biosecurity, forestry, red meat projects and many more. In total these have the potential to add at least $7 billion to the wider economy.

We also have the Sustainable Farming Fund which is investing $8.8 million into 42 projects. Some of these projects include improving nutrient management, promoting pasture persistence, biological controls for pests and developing aquaculture.

Other Government programmes will also have an impact on the primary industries.

The National Science Challenge has identified 10 top priorities, and four of them have strong relevance to the primary sector: Our Land

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

20 opinion No mention of spending

No time to waste on meat changes

I TAKE issue with the headline ‘Tax and spend are Labour’s answers’ on an article (June 18) by Andrew Swallow reporting my speech at the recent high country conference in Ashburton.

While the article, in general, accurately reflects that I mentioned a capital gains tax as Labour policy, at no other point in the speech did I refer to other tax demands as Labour policy, contrary to the impression given in the article.

Your headline is also misleading and, given the $359 million dollars spent by the current Government for meat industry initiatives alone, I’m astounded that you can construct such a headline.

At no time in my speech or in the article was there any mention of spend. Indeed, it is my view that much of the $657 million Primary Growth Partnership spending by the current Government is not an effective use of taxpayer and farmer money.

I welcome good honest debate, and I would expect the same kind of good honest reporting.

Damien O’Connor Labour Spokesman for Primary Industries

A SERIES of meetings confirm farmers’ willingness to support change.

MIE Group’s progress towards a positive and economically viable solution requires urgent direction from the ‘drivers’; otherwise the onset of winter will bring the inevitable demise of the process.

Focusing upon what we need versus what others may want is the way forward. Amongst other things, we need to: Support profitable performers, especially those independent companies that are ‘ahead’ of the market

Promote ‘proactive competition’ along the ‘meat chain’ Increase our turnover and margins (this is not a matter of ‘lifting’ price) Reduce costs where applicable, with special focus on administration, management, wages, freight, commissions and third party margins Reward supply at all times of the year Understand what is required by the market.

We will again continue to short change ourselves if we: Expect that the ‘Big Two’ are in fact supportive of this process; for

ag twits Rural News’ irreverent and hypothetical look at what’s happening in the farming world Top Bleats view all

example why now are they about to present a plan?

Allow the ‘marketers’ to limit our returns at certain times of the year and/or from season to season Increase costs and/ or allow for additional controls, such as ‘tradeable slaughter rights’.

These will do nothing other than promote mediocrity and stifle new entrants to the market place and/or additional ‘value added’ investment Focus on the perceived negatives Don’t acknowledge what we require, which is certainty of value for our product, supplied over a period of time.

There is a need for the ‘Big Two’ – and the various independents – on known and equitable terms, so that we all generate a worthwhile return on investment. The answers are and the solution is there for the taking – in the Short Term Beef + Lamb NZ have our levied funds, these should be utilised to assist in taking MIE forwards.

Richard Kuegler Matira Limited

henryexfonterra: Whoops! That off-the-cuff comment about not trusting the Chinese was somewhat unfortunate. I love the little, yellow buggers – really. #morecarefulnexttime winstonfirstandlast: Never fear @henryexfonterra as I say you can’t trust anyone who can be blindfolded with a shoelace. Now that you are free from Fonterra, want to be number 2 on the NZ First party list? #loveyourstyle thatguynathan: Psa? PKE? FMD, BSE? What the hell are all these acronyms? Next thing someone will get an STD and blame MPI and I won’t be LOL about it. #WTF damienoconnormp: Typical @thatguynathan spouting off a whole lot of meaningless jargon.

What about TAF? It is to blame for everything.

When I’m minister, I’ll act on this PDQ to get action on this ASAP. #amanofaction thatguynathan: Hey @damienoconnormp I think you’ll find the dynamic and charismatic @steffanbrowning will be minister in any Green-Labour government and you will have to carry his hemp bags! #LMAO mshadboltwoolsnz: Welcome on board @ rosstownshend. It’s great to appoint such a successful agribusiness man to head up Wools of NZ. #woollythinking rosstownhend: Cheers @markshadboltwoolsnz. But I strongly suggest you focus on my time at NZ Dairy Group and not talk too much about my ‘interesting’ tenure at Affco! #dontmentionthewar richardyoungmie: I’m happy to report that our Meat Industry Excellence Group has made stunning progress on sector reform. We’ve now dropped our demand to have 80% of market share down to 60%! #loweringthebar mpetersenbeef+lambnz: Bloody hell MPI! The figures you’ve used for sheep industry in the latest SOPI report are aggregates and not statistically robust! #semantics wmcneempi: Sorry @ mpetersenbeef+lambnz, but we pretty much figured that sheep farming in NZ was no longer robust – either statistically or figuratively – so it doesn’t really matter. #deadmenfarming jwilsonfonterra: I have to say this lark as Fonterra chairman is not too bad. The $7 forecast has made me a very popular man. How high does it have to go before I get my gong like Henry? #iwant2beawhiteknight2

Rural News // july 2, 2013

agribusiness 21

Report cards for fert spread and rew swallow andrews@ruralnews.co.nz

THE TWO main fertiliser manufacturers have agreed to develop a spreadability rating system for their products.

The move, long called for by spreader operators and some farmers – notably those in the cropping sector (Rural News, April 9) – was finalised at the latest meeting of the Fertiliser Quality Council.

Ravensdown general manager of strategic development Richard Christie says it follows “a number of discussions over a number of months on the Fertmark standard,

not just about chemical quality, which it does now, but for it to include physical quality too.

“What the [New Zealand] manufacturers have agreed is to investigate the physical quality of their products and work towards putting parameters on the physical quality of certain products.”

Problems reported over the years fall into two broad categories, says Christie. Groundspreaders’ concerns have mainly been with variable spreadability of superphosphates, while cropping farmers, seeking to use ever wider tramline spacings, have found some

high analysis products won’t spread evenly to 24m or more.

The move has been welcomed by New Zealand Groundspread Fertilisers’ Association president Stuart Barwood.

“We’ve been highlighting this for years, ever since they introduced Fertmark, taking them lumps of product and asking them ‘what do you expect us to do with this?’,” he told Rural News.

Poor spreadability of superphosphate last year saw one of his spreaders, previously Fertmark accredited to spread 29m, downgraded to an 18m maximum spread width.

Richard Christie

“There’s been no change to the spreader.”

Rural News understands Barwood’s machine is not the only one to

suffer a similar spreadwidth reduction.

In theory that reduction should be costing farmer clients because it takes his spreader longer to cover the same area, says Barwood, but because they charge by the hectare, not the hour, to date they haven’t changed their rates, “silly buggers that we are,” he notes.

Barwood says imported DAP and urea are reasonably consisistent but it’s locally manufactured product that’s the

problem. “It all depends what rock they use [for superphosphate].”

Christie acknowledges superphosphates are typically softer than imported high analysis products.

“That affects how they behave in the spinner.”

The nature of the spinner also affects performance. Christie says the aim is to come up with hardness and size parameters for core products, most likely those already carrying Fertmark ticks on price lists, which will define a certain level of

Do you have a common rail engine?

Tru Test of export excellence AGRICULTURAL BUSINESS has shown it can still dominate in the urban arena, with a manufacturer of rural products, Tru-Test Corporation, taking the top prize in the Auckland Export Awards.

The Auckland company makes products such as livestock weighing equipment, electronic identification, dairy automation components and milk meters.

Tru-Test won both the Air New Zealand Cargo Supreme Award and the Westpac Exporter of the Year award.

Judges for the Supreme Award said TruTest Corporation is demonstrating strong growth, with at least 70% of sales going to

export markets. It has a clear vision tightly focused on the agri-tech sector globally with its major markets in Europe, USA, and Latin America. The company’s “voice of the customer” research identifies customer needs.

“The company has taken up Lean principles with a passion which deliver operational excellence and quality throughout the business, and enables their high tech products to be made in New Zealand,” the judges said.

Lean principles are based on maximising customer value by minimising waste of resources. – Pam Tipa

performance in a certain type of spinner. “We need to temper expectations as to what each product can be expected to do. Certain high analysis products will spread to 24m but there might need to be a cut-off if growers expect them to get to 30m.”

Cropping farmer Jeremy Talbot, who’s long campaigned for Europeantype spread standards to be introduced, says the move is long overdue. “But good on Ravensdown for finally taking the lead on this.”

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

22 agribusiness

francis wolfgram Finance Matters

NZ Dairy Market Product

GDT Auction 1 Mth 3 Mths Change in 18/06/2013 Change Change 2013 NZD/Tonne

Whole Milk Powder(WMP)

$5,838

-4.9%

-7.4%

47.4%

Skim Milk Powder(SMP)

$5,357

0.0%

12.3%

30.5%

Butter Milk Powder(BMP)

$5,396

1.1%

-5.2%

20.1%

CHEESE

$5,724

-6.5%

6.9%

29.6%

Trade Weighted Index (GDT- TWI)

4,598

-4.3%

1.2%

34.9%

US Agricultural Commodity Prices Price This Price Last Change Issue Issue

Commodity

Units

Live Cattle

USD/Kg

$2.681

$2.629

1.988%

Feeder Cattle

USD/Kg

$3.239

$3.166

2.298%

Lean Hogs

USD/Kg

$2.148

$2.121

1.299%

Greasy Wool

USD/Kg

$10.47

$10.750

-2.605%

Corn

USD/ Bushel

$5.478

$5.540

-1.128%

Wheat

USD/ Bushel

$7.010

$6.928

1.191%

Dairy prices as a whole stabilised at the GDT auction on June 18 2013 but there was a sharp decline in cheese down 6.5%, whole and skim milk powders showed slight rises of 2.2% and 3.2% respectively. We’ve see a mixed bag in the one and three month price changes with skim milk powder the highest riser over three months at 12.3% and whole milk powder the best decliner down 7.4% also over three months. This reflects the volatility of prices over recent auctions but we still see our product group strongly up over the course of 2013 with rises between 20.1 and 47.4%. The price pull backs over the last three months will be offset by the drop in the Kiwi dollar which has come back over 8% at the end of June 2013 from the highs of mid-April. World and domestic milk supply remain an important factor for price support going forward. European production for April has been reported down 3% from a year ago and New Zealand milk production is around 35% lower than a year ago and the lowest level since 2010.

There have been some big price movements in US commodities over the fortnight we cover. Corn has come back on speculation that hot weather is improving conditions of newly planted crops will increase corn supply, there is a fine balance here however and if temperatures push to high it will bring the back horrors of last year’s drought which will create price volatility for both wheat and corn. US livestock prices have pushed higher over the fortnight on signs demand is set to increase for US animals. In a recent report the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have raised the forecast for beef production as poor forage conditions have resulted in relatively large placements of cattle in feedlots in the first part of 2013. Forecasts for 2013 US beef exports have been lowered from the previous report as trade to a number of key markets has been relatively weak. The report also states that pork production in second quarter 2013 is lowered based on the pace of hog slaughter and slightly lower expected carcass weights.

0%

rural news agri shares index Code

Company

Prices as 24/06/2013

Prices as at 11/06/2013

Change

Change in 2013

ALF

Allied Farmers

$0.018

$0.022

-18.18%

-40.00%

ATM

A2 Corporation

$0.620

$0.660

-6.06%

14.81%

DGL

Delegat’s Group

$4.090

$4.000

2.25%

39.12%

HNZ

Heartland Bank

$0.82

$0.83

-1.20%

20.59%

FSF

Fonterra Shareholders Fund

$7.100

$7.270

-2.34%

0.24%

FFW

Foley Family Wines

$1.350

$1.300

3.85%

12.50%

LIC

Livestock Improvement Corp.

$5.80

$5.90

-1.69%

7.41%

PGW

PGG Wrightson

$0.290

$0.290

0.00%

-36.96%

SAN

Sanford Limited

$4.600

$4.570

0.66%

8.24%

SEK

Seeka Kiwifruit Industries

$1.800

$1.850

-2.70%

100.00%

TEN

Tenon Limited

$1.010

$1.100

-8.18%

21.69%

WEL

Wool Equities

$1.600

$1.600

0.00%

-3.03%

TUR

Turners & Growers

$0.120

$0.120

0.00%

9.09%

RNAI

Index Total

29.218

29.512

-1.00%

12.06%

It has been a soft fortnight for the New Zealand sharemarket and that has been reflected in our Agrishares with some steep declines, although our index as a whole is only down 1%. Allied Farmers is the biggest decliner down -18.18% giving up the gains of 22% a fortnight ago. Tenon the next big decliner down 8.18% also giving up strong gains from the previous fortnight. On a positive note our two wine growers continue to keep rising with Delegates & Foley Family Wines up 2.25% and 3.85% respectively representing the markets view that 2013 has been a bumper session with the hot dry summer we’ve had.

This table and information is in no way a recommendation to buy or sell any share but a list of New Zealand agrishares that have the highest dividends. Please consult your financial advisor before entering into any sharemarket investment.

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

agribusiness 23

Waste animal products turned into a winner PA M T I PA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

PLACENTAS WERE never part of Angela Payne’s plans when she started in business in 2002 supplying ‘waste’ animal products to a few niche clients.

“I didn’t think I would end up collecting placentas, let alone they would become the main product,” says Payne, founder and sole owner of Agri-lab Co Products, Waipukurau. The business has won the 2013 Fly Buys ‘Making it Rural’ Award, recognising manufacturing and creative businesses run by members of Rural Women NZ.

plying farms. They must supply chemical free, drug free placentas fit for human consumption, so they don’t collect from sick animals or ones that have been treated with antibiotics. It’s exactly the same requirements as freezing works: if that animal could be sent off to be killed, then they can use the placenta from the animal.”

Placentas mainly come from live horse, pig and sheep but they also obtain some from slaughtered deer. Agri-lab also picks up placentas from some of the big, nearby dairy farms in Hawke’s Bay. Payne says the return to

Payne is the solo mother of three boys.

“Angela’s business proves you can enjoy a country lifestyle and run a successful operation on a global scale; her customers are only an email away.”

Payne told Rural News

“I didn’t think I would end up collecting placentas, let alone they would become the main product.” – Angela Payne farmers is about 10 times more than dags, and is better with economies of scale.

A veterinary nurse, qualifying in the UK as top of her year out of 8000 students, Payne first started doing consultancy work in use of animal waste products in 1999. When she started she worked out of rented space at the freezing works, but then built the factory and formed the company in 2002.

The market for animal products used in health supplements and skincare continues to grow, buoyed by celebrity use. Victoria Beckham, for example, has been reported to use sheep placenta products on her face. Agri-lab started with two clients and is now the leading supplier of animal placenta products in the world. In 2012 its turnover was $1.32m and it is now on track for an estimated turnover of $2m for 2013.

Fly Buys is the award sponsor and its business programme manager Trevor Jellie says Payne’s business was especially impressive as she has managed to become a global exporter from a rural location, and creatively turn waste into a highly desirable product.

She had also ‘nailed’ the difficult task of balancing business management with running a household:

Agri-lab owner Angela Payne oversees brain dissections, with freeze dryers for placentas and other ‘waste’ animal products in the background.

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The business sources waste animal products including placentas, glands and membranes from farmers and freezing works, and, in some cases, freeze-drying them for health supplements and skincare products. Most are exported as frozen raw ingredients for further processing overseas.

But it’s the placenta side started in 2004 that has taken off, the business doubling each year for the last five years, Payne told Rural News.

Most of the growth has come from the US and Japan, and Canada and Malaysia also growing fast.

“Indonesia is an emerging market; we haven’t exported there yet but we are getting a lot of inquiry from clients to supply there in the future. We have exported samples to Indonesia, just no commercial orders yet.” The placentas are exported to pharmaceutical companies and are mainly used in dietary supplements.

Placenta is the only product where demand exceeds supply and it is the only Agri-lab product which mainly comes from live animals. Our licence allows us to collect other products from live animals such as blood, serum, velvet etc “We take all the placentas we can get from sup-

that, as demand exceeds supply in placentas, she is keen for more farmer suppliers, provided they meet the criteria and it is economically feasible for Agrilab to pick up the frozen placentas from their property.

That’s what works out here.

Rural News // july 2, 2013

24 management

Chicory boosts liveweight gains GA RETH G I LLATT

CHICORY PASTURES generate good liveweight gains on beef stock in both wet and dry summers, Northland drystock farmer John Blackwell has found.

Blackwell runs breeding ewes and Friesian bulls on a 345ha property in Okahu, southeast of Dargaville.

While maintaining liveweight gain gets difficult in the region’s long dry

summers he thinks a perma- “Chicory’s taproots go nent chicory pasture might be down close to two metres, the answer.

Blackwell told farmers at a making it more able to Northland Beef and Lamb ‘Fin- weather the drought.” ished By 20 Months’ field day tivated and planted chicory on 8ha of that he has added 25-45kg to liveweight gains in normal summers and by an intensive beef grazing block, setting 76kg in a drought by putting bulls onto aside another 15ha of the block to be grazed by control groups. chicory.

He then split 120 autumn-born 100kg In the chicory trial Blackwell cul-

Mulch and oversow rewards Mulching pays for drystock farm Extensive mulching and oversowing is boosting pasture quality for Northland drystock farmers Erica and Lindsay Whyte, delegates at the Finished by 20 months seminar, heard.

The Whytes run a 240ha effective breeding beef cow farm at Taupo Bay in the far north, one of the focus farms in the ‘Finished by 20 months’ project.

Better pasture has seen them send steers to slaughter at 548kg

and bulls at 652kg in just 19 months, a consistent liveweight gain of 0.9-1.11kg/day, says research coordinator Chris Boom.

The pasture is a kikuyu, clover and ryegrass mix, last sown in the 1950s, which has lived through droughts, floods, clover root weevil, grass grub and all manner of things, says Whyte.

“It is still going strong so I don’t want to replace it, just add to it!”

The mulching and oversowing technique has kept the pasture at 9-12MJME/kgDM, even during last

summer’s drought.

Where it’s too steep for a tractor, breeding cows Lindsay Whyte are used to manage growth.

“I don’t like using breeding cows to manage good flat bits of rye. They tend to eat the good stuff first and leave the rank stuff. At least with the mulcher, it leaves some good grass behind,” he says.

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Chicory: in a mix here but pure stands are proving their worth in Northland.

Friesian bulls into six mobs, running two on pasture, two on chicory and two on a herbage mix.

Researchers simplified the trial in its second year, 2012-13, dropping the herbage mix and running fewer but springborn bulls instead.

The chicory was profitable in both years of the trial but Blackwell says it was

in the dry of last summer that it really provided results, growing 80kgDM/ha/ day in December, when pasture was producing little over 20kgDM/ha/day.

This gap continued through summer and in May the chicory grew 63kgDM/ha/ day compared to a little under 30kgDM/ ha from pasture. to page 25

Rural News // july 2, 2013

management 25

Body condition is other feed source andrews@ruralnews.co.nz

DON’T FORGET body condition when doing your budgets through winter, says Massey University’s Professor Paul Kenyon.

“We often forget body condition is the other ‘feed’ source you’ve got,” he told one of a recent series of winter ewe management seminars organised by PGG Wrightson.

With a tight feed situation in many areas following the drought, assessing and managing ewes by body condition will be particularly important this year, he says.

Allocating as much feed to singles as multiples, or to fats as thins, is a waste of resource and while it might not be critical in times of plenty, the return on the extra management effort is likely to be considerable when things are tight.

To split flocks on condition, handson assessment of body condition is essential – doing the job by eye will be woefully inaccurate unless ewes have

only just been shorn, he warns.

However, when condition scoring, don’t get too hung-up about what’s a 2.0, a 2.5 or a 3.0, he adds. “That’s

Snow update PROF KENYON’S presentation was given before the recent storm blanketed many sheep farms in snow.

Last week he told Rural News the principles hold true, and for those feeding out to ewes where winter feed is buried, it is the thin and multiple bearing ewes that will be under the most pressure.

Where ewes have already been scanned farmers will be able to focus on these ewe groups first.

“While feed quality is always an important issue, any feed is generally better than none, as the digestion process itself produces body heat,” he adds.

not important. What is important is knowing which are the thin ones. It’s about finding the bottom 10 or 20% of your ewes and doing something about them.”

The window to do that is now until 30-40 days before lambing. After that, no matter how much feed you put in front of a multiple-bearing ewe, she won’t gain condition. “A twin or triplet bearing ewe physically can’t eat enough for those last few weeks of pregnancy,” he stresses.

Scanning is an ideal opportunity to condition score. “I’ll bet they don’t walk in for scanning on their own. Most of you have someone there pushing them in.”

Multiple-bearing ewes that are thin can be split off and preferentially fed from then on. Similarly, well-covered singles can be put on clean-up duties if need be.

If harnesses haven’t been used to mark early and late lambers, paying the scanner an extra 4-5c/sheep to identify them is also worthwhile if feed is short, says Kenyon.

from page 24

AgFirst consultant and project leader Chris Boom notes the kgDM content of the chicory remained three times higher than that of pasture.

Bulls on the chicory gained 0.8kg/day December-May in 2012-13, ending up 76kg heavier than those on pasture, which gained 0.34kg/day, says Blackwell.

“The chicory grew a little less [than the previous season] but the pasture grew a lot less.”

In fact, there was so little pasture available that he had to feed silage to the control group to prevent animal health problems. “I was starting to see the odd case of grass staggers and I thought I might start loosing them to misadventure.”

Chicory’s edge is because ryegrass roots only go down a few inches, whereas chicory’s taproots go down close to two metres, making it more able to weather the drought, says Blackwell.

But by April even the chicory was not growing as fast so he slowed down the grazing round to half a paddock every day.

Then when rain came, the

chicory shot away. “I had to speed up the round again.”

Boom calculates the cost of the extra liveweight gain on chicory was $1.75/extra kg lwt in 2011-12, when an extra 395kg lwt/ha was produced, and $1.45/kg in 201213 when advantage over grass was 530kg lwt/ha.

He says this would be marginal if farmers were planning on selling stock at the end of autumn when schedules are at their lowest.

Blackwell says this happened in the first year of the trial when some animals involved in the herbage trial failed to make weight in time and needed to be carried until May to reach targets.

“The stock on the pasture caught up and the gap was reduced to 25kg instead of 45kg…. It would have been better if I could have got everything off the farm by February.”

While Blackwell sprayed out the 2011-12 chicory crop he has left the 2012-13 one in and project leaders plan to look at how it performs for a second year.

Boom says the crop has already paid for itself so it will be interesting to see how it goes from here on in.

to page 26

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Chicory boosts liveweight

6/26/13 5:02 PM

Rural News // july 2, 2013

26 management

Planned meetings offer better outcomes an drew swallow andrews@ruralnews.co.nz

Glen Smith

WE’VE ALL been to them: the meeting you wish you’d never gone to. But are you guilty of running

them in your own business?

From the formal meeting with the bank manager, to the informal chat with staff, all should be planned if you want to achieve the

outcomes you want, said Glen Smith, manager of a large-scale dairy farm business, speaking at last week’s South Island Dairy Event.

“The first question I’d

like you to ask, if you’re going to run a meeting, is do you actually need to have a meeting?”

Defining the objective of the meeting will help clarify the need, and if you

can’t define the objective, then you shouldn’t be having the meeting.

Having defined the objective, think about the who, what, where and when, he says.

The golden rule about who should be there is: only those who can add value. The exception would be someone who is going to get disgruntled if not invited and there’s a need to keep them onside.

What the meeting is about should be shared in good time so all participants have time to prepare. Smith recommends “over preparing.” “There’s nothing wrong with being over prepared: do your homework, do the detail… and be a bit cynical. If things aren’t going your way, have a ‘Plan B’… It can be a great asset to be able to walk away without the right answer, but also without giving the wrong answer.

‘Where’ should fit the objective: it might be over the bonnet of the ute, or in the boardroom. “It all depends on who you are

dealing with and what you are trying to achieve.”

Location can be used to put participants at ease, or on edge, he adds. The “shiny suit” bank manager will be at home in the boardroom, but less so in the paddock, and vice versa for farm staff.

The when needs planning too: Smith’s preference is 10am for business meetings, though community meetings – he’s chair of a regional JAB and vicepresident of a rugby club – often have to be held in evenings to maximise opportunity for people to attend, he notes.

“There are always a few things that can come up which you have to do at the start of a day, and 10am gives you time for that, and any last minute preparation – not that you should need to be doing any.”

It’s also late enough that people travelling any distance don’t have to start too early, so they should be sharp when they arrive, and not so late that minds start to wander to lunch.

Splitting mobs on condition and lamb content pays, especially when feed’s tight, says massey’s Paul Kenyon (inset).

Body condition forgotten feed from page 25

Later lambing ewes can be kept on winter feed for longer, and when it comes to set stocking, because grass should be growing faster, a higher stocking rate can be used.

The other key factor determined by feeding in the first 100 days (ie first two-thirds) of pregnancy is the size of placenta. “It’s your pump. If you’ve not got a big enough pump you’re not going to get enough feed to those [in utero] lambs.”

Kenyon encourages sheep farmers to think of themselves as dairy farmers – feeding ewes to maximise milk production. That means feeding well through pregnancy, ideally having body condition score 3.0 at lambing, and managing pasture so covers never go below 1200kgDM/ ha during set stocking, nor above 1800kgDM/ha.

“You rely on the ewe to produce milk for lambs to be as heavy as possible at weaning,” he stressed.

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

animal health 27

Disease top concern for rearers A N DREW SWA LLOW andrews@ruralnews.co.nz

DISEASE PREVENTION is the number one priority for calf rearers, judging by a show of hands of delegates during a workshop session at last week’s South Island Dairy Event.

It topped a long list of issues put forward for calf rearing guru Bas Schouten

to tackle, most of which he answered in a whirlwind session during the three day event.

Schouten stressed “it all starts with colostrum.”

Calves need 10% of their bodyweight in colostrum, so a 40kg calf needs 4kg.

Studies have shown 80% of calves learn to suckle in their first six hours and if they haven’t done it by then, they won’t, so why

leave them in the paddock any longer, he asked delegates.

Most farms check calving paddocks many times every day anyway so take the trailer when you do and pick up calves that are over six hours old while you’re there, he advised.

When they get back to the shed, give them a feed of gold (ie first milking) colostrum, proba-

bly by tube, as a matter of routine to ensure all have an adequate intake. “I do recommend tube feeding, particularly with large herds and where there are lots of staff.”

Challenged on whether tube feeding would interfere with the suckling reflex, Schouten countered that a cold wet calf won’t suckle anyway.

“Get one or two litres of Once in the shed, feeding should be twice daily to at least ten days.

Medic alert system RATHER THAN using spray markers or noting hard-to-spot numbers of calves requiring extra attention, Bas Schouten recommends a “medic alert” system of coloured tags on neck bands.

Yellow could be for calves with scours, red for navel infections, white for a slow drinker. Provided all staff are briefed on the system, and the colour coding key is displayed in the shed, it will make monitoring problem calves much easier.

Also, because the ‘alert’ is removed when the calf overcomes its problem, you’re not left wondering what the marker means weeks down the track, as you might be with a spray marker, he points out.

Colour-coded tags on neckbands are an easy way to pick out calves to watch, vet Bas Schouten suggested to SIDE delegates.

hot colostrum into them and they’ll be bouncing by night-time and they’ll suckle then.”

The best colostrum is produced by second or third calvers, but contrary to some commentary, there’s nothing wrong with heifer colostrum. The worst will be from cows, typically older ones, that leak milk.

Colostrum with blood in is also no problem, and will actually have the highest immunoglobulin content, and clotty mastitis colostrum is okay too.

However, colostrum with brown mastitis in it should be discarded.

Once in the rearing shed, feeding should be twice daily until at least ten days, but once-a-day

is fine after that, “particularly if you don’t bring the volume up above four or five litres.”

Restricting milk intake to such volumes provides enough nutrition to get the calf started and stimulates meal intake, promoting faster rumen development leading to earlier weaning. to page 28

Rural News // july 2, 2013

28 animal health

Wild pig release condemned ILLEGAL RELEASE of wild pigs in a TB free area is putting cattle and livelihoods at risk, says a Waikato sheep and beef farmer.

“People need to consider the possible consequences of transporting and releasing wild pigs that could well be carrying the disease,” says Phillip Swann, Raglan.

“It’s about educating people who release these pigs that enough is enough.

We’re talking about farmers’ livelihoods

here which could be threatened if TB was introduced.”

TBfree New Zealand Northern North Island programme manager Brent Webster warns releasing pigs could undo the effort put into ensuring the area remains TB free.

“We are working hard to eradicate bovine TB from New Zealand and releasing wild pigs into the forest is a major threat to this goal,” says Webster.

TB infected wild pig.

Hunters should also be aware of they could get TB from handling infected animals or their carcasses.

“You should always practise good hygiene when hunting wild pigs, including disinfecting all knives and other gear after use, cover any cuts on your hands and arms and wash after cutting up animals,” he adds.

The Department of Conservation is also concerned about the damage wild pigs cause to native species.

“The department has spent a great deal of time and effort over many years

clearing wild goats, feral cattle and other pests from Mount Karioi – part of the Pirongia Forest Park – due to the extensive damage they inflict on our native species,” says DOC’s Waikato area manager Matt Cook.

“The deliberate release of pigs into such areas is extremely disappointing, given that they, in their own way, are just as destructive as wild goats and feral cattle,” Cook says.

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In energy content, four litres of milk is equivalent to about 1kg of meal, both containing about 12MJ of ME, but the milk cost is about $2.40/day at 60c/litre, compared to about 90 cents/kg of meal. “And once you’ve got a calf onto meal, you can’t kill it anymore!”

Whether to wean on age or weight was another delegate’s question. Schouten dismissed DairyNZ’s 100kg bodyweight guideline for Friesians, saying the key is a combination of bodyweight according to breed, bodyweight compared to birthweight (ie weight gain) and intake of meal.

For example, for dairy beef calves’ bodyweight should be at least 65kg, and at least 25kg above birthweight, with the calf eating over 1kg of meal/day.

“All three things must apply before weaning,” he stressed. “If you want the calf to eat more meal, then take a litre of milk away.”

Meal should be offered at 1-2kg/head/day for at least a month after weaning, regardless of pasture intake.

When to turn calves out onto pasture was another question. “Turn them out at three weeks if possible, but not onto sheep shit…. No calf should be on less than a 1600kgDM/ha cover.”

On pasture, shifts should be at least every three days, or ideally daily, he says. “They are very, very selective grazers… if you can see the drymatter cover has gone down, then you’ve left it too long to shift them.”

Continuing to offer hay at pasture will help maintain required fibre level in the diet on lush spring grass, he adds.

On bedding, Schouten said animal welfare concerns about riverstone have, in his experience, proved unfounded. “I was very concerned about them five years ago but all I can say is now that they work a treat and they make it miles, miles easier to keep things sterile.”

However, that cleanliness depends on getting the set up, and management right. Stones need to be big enough to roll over and allow faeces and urine drain through them; a minimum 30cm depth is required with a drain down the middle; never wash down during the rearing season; don’t let hay or straw clog the stones. “That is the hard part!”

Water troughs should be at the front of pens where they’re easier to check and keep clean, and putting a sick calf in a fenced of corner of the main pen is better practice than moving it, and its bugs, to another area.

in brief Cancer eye conviction A Waikato farmer has been fined $2,800 and ordered to pay Court costs of $132.89 in Morrinsville District Court for a breach to the Animal Welfare Act 1999.

Anthony John Hall pleaded guilty to a charge of ill-treatment of a dairy cow due to failing to get an advanced case of cancer eye (bovine ocular squamous cell carcinoma) treated. The cow came to the attention of MPI on May 22 last year after Hall organised for its transport to a meat processing plant.

Rural News // july 2, 2013

animal health 29

A N DREW SWA LLOW andrews@ruralnews.co.nz

TWO ALTERNATIVES to chemical control of varroa show promise but may not be complementary, judging by papers presented at the National Beekeepers Association’s annual conference last month.

Breeding for strains with the VSH (varroa specific hygiene) trait has resulted in some of Rainbow Honey’s hives in the Nelson area completely overcoming mite infestation.

Meanwhile Ron van Toor, of Plant and Food, says certain types of chelifer (aka pseuodo-scorpions) show potential for their ability to attack varroa in beehives, or any other new mite incursion which could become a problem.

“They’re fairly widespread in New Zealand and are found in many habitats – from tussock grasslands, to forest, to urban. And they have been observed in beehives in New Zealand.”

Van Toor looked at two species of chelifer and found both to feed on varroa, the best killing about two mites/day on average. “We calculate at that consumption

rate it would be necessary to have about 25 active in a hive to give long-term

Phillip Crop, Rainbow Honey.

control.”

The catch is that so far he and his colleagues haven’t managed to breed and rear in captivity that type of chelifer. The other type has been propagated in captivity, but when introduced to a hive bees kill it.

Van Toor’s also concerned that breeding for VSH could be selecting bees with a stronger eviction response to beneficial bugs such as the chelifer in the hive.

The way forward with chelifers as a control, he suggests, is to design a “hive mat” refuge which could be used to introduce them to a hive, and provide a safe haven from

while 58% of hives were the bees when they’re in above the 35% VSH averthere. age of the previous seaHowever, current son’s population. “So chemical varroa we felt we’d moved the controls will kill genetics up.” the chelifers, so The average VSH score couldn’t be used of the hives, at 44%, comwith them. “At pared to the 35% starting the moment, this point, also supports that. would have to be Year on year selection an all-or-nothing approach… This is could further improve that, he suggests. all new research David McMillan, of and hardly Betta Bees, Mosgiel, also anyone internatalked about selection for tionally has been VSH, but suggests seleclooking at chelifers as a [varroa] tion of bees by analysis of the whole genome, which control.”

Rainbow Hon- Betta Bees is working on in partnership with Uniey’s Phillip Crop versity of Otago, offers suggests high VSH hives wouldn’t need chemical varroa controls so early, if at all. “You’d need to test hives until they are all up to a safe level [of VSH],” he suggested.

In an NBA and Sustainable Farming Fund project Rainbow Honey selected 85 queens for raised Ron van Toor, Plant VSH last spring and Food Research. then monitored varroa build-up in each queen’s hive over the much wider benefits. “If it comes off it will be the summer.

The brood cells of four biggest technology leap for beekeeping since the hives were varroa free, moveable frame hive.” ie displayed 100% VSH,

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30 machinery & products

Fly this knapsack sprayer from kitchen table PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

THE DAYS of lugging a knacksack sprayer over hill and gully for a few thistles may be over – if you can spare $30,000.

Robotics company Droidworx, Waikato, at Fieldays showed its aerial drone with spray tank and booms. Fly it while sitting in the kitchen, if you want to.

Machines like this are used by the film and television industry to carry cameras. But Droidworx director Linda Bulk says farmers who saw the drone at Fieldays enthused about its potential.

Farmers have seen these before; e.g. Massey University demonstrated one a year ago at its annual science day and there was much talk about its potential. And with greater size comes greater payloads, and more options for their

use, says Bulk.

“These craft can be fitted with devices such as cameras, sensors or infa red devices allowing for a multiplicity of applications. This includes the monitoring of stock, crops and farm infrastructure such as the state of stock water troughs. You can stop and hover over them and zoom in on areas of interest. That would be difficult and costly using a normal aircraft.”

Spray-equipped, the machine suits spotspraying weeds such as thistle on hilly terrain or embankments where access is difficult. It can hover and spray individual weeds, saving chemicals and avoiding contamination of sensitive areas.

“Our largest unit can lift 10-15kg but we are about to embark on some trials of larger loads. We’re aiming for a ‘vehicle’ to lift

Bigger and better

Linda Bulk with the aerial drone at the Fieldays.

a 20L tank and stay in the air 20 minutes.”

Bulk says people assume flying robotic craft is difficult; not so. You simply steer a flightpath or pre-programme a flight and watch images from the craft’s camera, relayed to your ground station.

Hilly terrain can pose

problems, and ideally the machine should be in line of sight with the operator. “If you’ve got it preprogrammed it doesn’t matter. If you are flying it manually and it’s losing radio contact it will fly back to the home position…. But if you’ve got a lot of obstacles and you

want to keep control, then you might want to have a repeater station.”

The battery-powered machine’s flying time depends on its payload: the heavier the load, the shorter the distance. At best it’s about an hour, but ten minutes if the load is heavy.

CROPLANDS AT Fieldays exhibited two broadacre sprayers ideal for large scale farmers and contractors for spraying vegetables and crops.

They were Bargam sprayers with seven models of booms covering from 18m to 30m all hydraulically operated. The 24m boom can work at reduced widths of 18, 12 and 7m with a electronic controls to isolate sections of the booms. They fold sequentially.

The booms have variable geometry worked through a bank of nine electric hydraulic controls to lift or raise different sections for changing ground contour.

The two models were 1600L or 1300L capacity with the option to add an optional tank on the front linkage carrying 1100L of water to extend the working range of the each sprayer.

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

machinery & products 31

Major addition to K-line irrigation TON Y H O PK I NSO N

RX PLASTICS revealed a major addition to its irrigation technology range at National Fieldays.

Its new K-Line G-Set Solid Set irrigation system needs only seven sprinkler pods per hectare to give full coverage. Pods are located about 35-40m apart.

Central to the system is that each pod operates independently and, because they work sequentially, the system does not need large delivery lines.

The total area is covered in 24 hours.

The pods are fixed in the ground and can be mowed around as can fixed water troughs.

Each sprinkler is fed by a 63mm medium density water line that can be mole ploughed in below harvesting depths. The pods are dug in and attached to the line by patented nutslide fittings. Each delivery pipe to the sprinkler has an irrigation solenoid

operating valve and control system for programming water delivery. The sprinklers have a patented protection system.

The pods are highly visible, are made of UV stabilised polyethylene and are 500mm above ground, which RX Plastics says is high enough so that livestock will not walk into them and low enough that they will not rub against them.

“For farmers concerned at the high labour input on farm, the K Line G-Set Solid Set irrigation system will be ideal,” says marketing manager Phil Gatehouse (pictured).

He adds that the system can operate on rolling land where sprinklers cannot be used and where shifting pods is a health and safety issue.

“We believe this new system is more friendly and aesthetic in the environment because no trees, hedges or shelter belts have to be removed – unlike other large scale

irrigation systems.”

The amount of water applied is usually set at 5mm daily, or more if necessary. The controls are at the pump house and can be set for once per week or daily application, as the season dictates. Optional extras are a wired or electronic system to the solenoid operating valve.

Gatehouse also sees these being used on pivot corners and in smaller

areas that do not warrant a large financial outlay.

“It is dearer to install, but when you take into consideration the reduction of damage to the environment, being able to install it on formerly less productive land and the on-going reduction in labour inputs the K Line G-Set Solid Set Irrigation system is a winner.”

Tel. 03 307 9081 www.rxplastics.co.nz

Paid forecasts to help farms weather adverse events GARETH G I L L ATT

A POWERFUL localised weather data, forecasting and alert system is offered to farmers via a new NIWA 12 month-subscription service launched at National Fieldays.

Subscribers to the online service will access to a forecasts appropriate to their place of business, coupled with information from one of 230 weather stations nationwide, says says Niwa chief scientist, atmosphere, Dr Murray Poulter.

Forecasts have high accuracy up to two days ahead, medium accuracy out to six days and ‘probable’ forecasts out to 15 days.

Poulter says the longer-term 15-day forecasts provide both the forecast and an indication of the forecast reliability. “The forecasts will provide information to assist decision making, along with other operational considerations.”

The forecasting offers more than weather predictions: subscribers may set up email or text message warnings for specific weather events.

With so many different types of land use and so many different factors influencing risk or opportunities, Poulter says the system designers decided to let subscribers set their own conditions for triggering an alert “The thresholds can be set by the user.

It could be the wind is howling in at more than, say, 50km/h from the southwest and the temperature is below five degrees. It can be tell me when either of those things or both of those things happen. It’s up to the farmer to make that decision.”

Fencing down to a T

Dr Murray Poulter.

Poulter says farmers can set up an unlimited number of alerts which can then be sent to a number of different recipients.

After logging on, subscribers will also be able to access a three-month outlook of expected rainfall, temperature, soil moisture and river flows as well as climate records of data from the same station stretching back 30 years.

Poulter says it will be good to increase the amount of localised information available in New Zealand. “The weather is lumpy. The weather where I am is different from where you are, so we need weather models operating at lots of points across New Zealand, and a supercomputer to do the calculations.

“What we’re producing is numbers on a screen so the farmer doesn’t just see that it will rain; he will see, for example, that the forecast predicts 10mm of rain.”

The modeling is new and powerful.

“We’ve been running and testing these models for the past five years across all of New Zealand but it’s only been the last few months that we have been focusing on the rural sector.”

Tel. 07 856 1765 www.niwa.co.nz/our-services/forecasting-for-farmers

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TARAGATE TOTAL Fencing’s new product at National Fieldays is this plastic T Post, a line post for single or multi strand internal sub-division fencing.

Taragate’s Kerry Powell, pictured with the new T Post at the Fieldays last month, says it requires no insulators and comes pre-drilled for installation. It is flexible, i.e. has a ‘memory’ and will spring back after being hit or pushed.

Driven with a manual post driver, it has a 20-year limited warranty.

The T post is available in 1.2m and 1.5m lengths and priced at $7.00 and $7.60 (GST inclusive) respectively.

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

32 machinery & products

Bike stand for trailers TO NY HO PK INSO N

A MOTORCYCLE transport frame proved popular on Brent Smith Trailers’ site at National Fieldays.

The frame fits all the company’s 2400 x 1400mm trailers with stock crates.

“A lot of farmers prop their bikes on hay bales or lay them down, which is not good for the bike,” owner Brent Smith said.

dirt, racing and scramble.

Access is either a rear barred gate that hinges down so the bikes can be ridden up, Models are available that or a single portacan carry two or three bikes ble ramp that clips to the rear of the bikes and are all hot-dip galvanised. trailer.

The model pictured costs $430 Plenty of lugs and hooks are fitted, for attaching tie downs to incl. GST. secure the bikes.

Tel. 0800 509 777 The frames suit all bikes – farm, www.brentsmithtrailers.co.nz The device fits into the lugs that carry the stock crates. Models are available that can carry two or three

AFFORDABLE QUALITY

New off-road king from US manufacturer

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THREE PASSENGERS and 454kg of on-board gear or a towed load of 900kg – that’s the payload of Polaris Industries’ recently launched Ranger 900 XP off-road utility.

Says Brad Wolstenholme, the company’s Australia and New Zealand country manager, “Powered by a 4-stroke, twin-cylinder, liquidcooled 900cc ProStar engine pushing out 60hp, the Ranger 900 XP boasts torque and smooth power through the RPM range thanks to its dual overhead cam design and counterbalancing.”

“Not to mention electronic fuel injection, 26.9cm front and 25.4cm rear suspension travel, on-demand true allwheel-drive and 4-wheel hydraulic disc brakes with dual-bore front callipers.”

The Ranger 900 XP has a rear box capacity of 454kg and a towing capacity of 907kg. It has premium rims and tyres, a sliding seat and tilt steering, deluxe seats and a custom paint package, 30.5cm ground clearance, seating for three and a stronger, higher torsional stiffness, chassis.

“This model also comes fully equipped with electronic power steering,” Wolstenholme adds.

The Ranger 900 XP has a new, durable drivetrain built to handle this model’s higher power. Polaris says new model offers the most storage in its class.

A new under-seat storage offers flip-up access giving the operator increased and easier-accessible storage inside the cab. And it has a new cargo box with more tie-down points, easily-

2013 Polaris Ranger.

inserted box dividers and a smoother gate release.

Lock&Ride Pro-Fit cab accessories include windshields, roofs, doors and rear panels that follow the shape of the vehicle, lock-

ing directly into the cab frame’s contours. “The restyled cockpit and chassis are the new class of smoothest riding,” Wolstenholme says. “The completely redesigned

cockpit fits three people more comfortably and offers class-leading ergonomics. “ The Ranger 900 XP is available in sunset red. www.polaris.co.nz

LEADERS IN FARM MACHINERY DESIGN

CAMBRIDGE FARM ROLLERS

NEW 10ft Roller with Extension Drawbar & Screw Jack $6700 Vee Ring Roller Seeder Drill with Vee bottom seed box, hydraulic clutch, ext. drawbar, ...................... $18,500 Special rollers made to order, • All prices ex-Factory, Excl GST • Spare parts, Rings and Bearings. Competitive freight rates to the North Island 26"dia rings ................... $85.00 24"dia rings ................... $80.00 Ph: 0800-838 963 AUSTINS FOUNDRY LTD 131 King Street, Timaru www.austinsfoundry.co.nz

MS1424

www.caseih.co.nz C B Norwood Distributors Ltd

Rural News // july 2, 2013

machinery & products 33

Giant red fleet does the hauling on potato farm THE TRACTION to harvest 400ha of potatoes and 150ha of grain, and to fatten 1000 cattle, comes from a ‘swag’ of Massey Ferguson tractors and other machines, reports the AGCO company.

DC and LJ Redmond Ltd is a “sophisticated” Canterbury farming operation run by David and Lynley Redmond at Pendarves, northeast of Ashburton, on 400ha of irrigated land, some of it leased.

David Redmond grew up near Kirwee and worked as a farm hand at Hororata until he was 30.

He then grew potatoes on contract for Talleys, which has led to him producing 18,000 tonnes of process

potatoes a year and supplying fresh potatoes to supermarkets through a local distributor.

Potatoes are Redmonds’ focus – planted in spring and beginning harvest at Christmas. The process potato harvest is over

by April or May but harvesting fresh potatoes goes through winter into spring, he says. “We grow wheat and barley in rotation with the potatoes. After potatoes, the paddock will go into grain and then into grass for fattening. Then it is back to potatoes.”

The operation is large enough to have five full-time staff – including Redmond. It has four potato diggers and a swag of Massey Ferguson

machines. They include an MF 36 combine harvester and tractors from a 33hp MF 65 – the first tractor Redmond drove – to a huge 320hp MF 8670 for the heavy jobs, fitted with a Topcon GPS unit. And there are a 95hp MF 6150, an MF 6180, a 100hp 6260, two 155hp MF 7485s, two 200hp MF 8240s, and an 180hp MF 8220.

The two MF 7485s, with Dyna VT variable transmissions, work 1500 hours a year. “These two tractors are ideal for harvesting potatoes and for de-stoning the ground before we form beds and plant. We have three tractors with the variable transmission.

It’s brilliant. It lets you work at the ideal speed,

David Redmond turns to his MF 8670 with Topcon GPS to do the big jobs.

which makes your work very accurate.”

The two MF 8240s are used for planting potatoes.

They pull a six-row planter that carries five tonnes of seed and three tonnes of fertiliser.

“The 8670 does the heavy work,” Redmond

says. “That includes pulling a 4.0m subsoiler, and a 4.0m set of discs in combination with a roller. That is what we use when we take the compacted ground that the cattle have been on back into potato beds.

“After we spray out the pasture, we try to do

and misses, which is really useful when you are consuming 60 litres of diesel an hour. The Topcon unit has paid its way through diesel savings alone. The guidance system is selfsteer and it is also ideal for forming beds.”

the whole thing in four passes – from cultivating the ground, to forming the beds and de-stoning, to planting. We use the Topcon GPS unit so that we can do it as accurately as possible.

“Without overlaps we can eliminate overlaps

www.agco.com.au

PHONE 0800 625 826 For your nearest stockists

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2200 Litre ........ $ 930.00 1400 Litre......... $ 699.00 1000 Litre ........ $ 540.00

20L Meal Trough

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1500 Litre .......... $900.00 1000 Litre ......... $ 715.00 550 Litre ............ $ 540.00

20 Litre Meal ........ $ 71.00 16 Litre Meal ......... $ 71.00 12 Litre Meal ......... $57.25

550L Colostrum

WATER TROUGHS 20 Litre Water ... $ 99.95 16 Litre Water .... $ 99.95 12 Litre Water .... $ 86.50

12L Water Trough

Other Options Available Open 1 Teat ...........$ 37.00 3 Teat ..........$ 52.95 5 Teat ..........$ 79.95 7 Teat ..........$ 115.50 8 Teat..........$ 148.50 11 Teat .........$ 167.50 16 Teat .......$ 255.00

McKee Plastics, Mahinui Street, Feilding | Phone 06 323 4181 | Fax 06 323 4183 McKee Plastics, 231 Kahikatea Drive, Hamilton | Phone 07 847 7788 sales@mckeeplastics.co.nz | www.mckeeplastics.co.nz

Compartment 3 Teat .........$ 89.00 6 Teat .........$ 135.50 12 Teat.........$ 255.00 16 Teat ........$ 290.50

Rural News // july 2, 2013

34 rural trader CRAIGCO SENSOR JET

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Phone 0800 625 826 www.mckeeplastics.co.nz

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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

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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

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Rural News // july 2, 2013

rural trader 35 Chicken Litter

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

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HAD0021 1304

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