Rural News 8 April 2014

FINANCE

MACHINERY

The commercial sector is keen to start cozying up to Maori. PAGE 8

Good gear makes dairy conversion a success for Burnham farmers. PAGE 50

RURALNEWS

WORKSAFE Safety seminar sees agreement on restrictions of children on quad bikes.

PAGE 9

TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS

APRIL 8, 2014: ISSUE 558

www.ruralnews.co.nz

Dairy boom far from over!

SUD ES H K I SSU N sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

DAIRY PRICES are continuing to drop but the dairy boom is far from over.

Instead, it’s the commodity cycle at play, says BNZ economist Doug Steel.

At US$4033/t, the whole milk powder price is more than double the US$1800 paid to US farmers after the global financial crisis hit in 2008-09.

Prices are expected to ease further as more milk floods the market but Steel predicts a payout near $7/kgMS next season – relatively high compared

to those of previous years. Long term, dairy prices will remain strong on the back of good demand for milk products, he says.

At last week’s auction, the GlobalDairyTrade price index dropped 8.9% to US$4124/t from US$4563 a tonne two weeks ago, the fourth straight decline and the lowest level since August 2012.

But Steel observes the 2013-14 season has been “one out of the box” and no one should expect prices to remain around US$5000/t.

“We might just get prices sustained at US$5000/t one day but over the next

“Twelve months ago milk 12 months prices will ease,” he supply was squeezed and that told Rural News. kicked prices higher…. For 12 He puts this down to months very high prices were increased milk supply from the maintained. Now milk proEU, New Zealand, US and even duction is ramped up and Australia. The milk supply situprices are easing… this is the ation has changed much in the Doug Steel commodity cycle at play.” last 12 months.

However, demand for dairy remains Last year New Zealand was reeling from a severe drought and an extreme strong in China and the Middle East and winter in Europe had affected produc- this should keep prices strong longertion. This year EU’s production is up 5% term.

On the 2013-14 payout, Steel says and US up 1%. Steel predicts New Zealand to produce 11% more milk than last there is only a small downward risk because much of the season’s milk is season. now processed.

“Whether its $8.65 or $8.55, it’s still a good payout and there’s a lot of cash around for farmers. Cashflow on farms remains strong.”

Fonterra in February raised its forecast farmgate milk price for 2013-14 by 35c to a record of $8.65/kgMS.

Minister for Primary Industries Nathan Guy and Beef+Lamb New Zealand chair James Parsons, pictured together, at a field day held in Northland last week. Topics of discussion included the on-going dry spell in parts of Northland and the Waikato; as well as the next moves in the red meat sector following on from last month’s farmer vote at Beef+Lamb NZ’s annual meeting.

More on both topics, and much more, in this week’s issue. PHOTO GARETH GILLATT

Kiwifruit’s comeback PA M T I PA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

THE KIWIFRUIT industry’s recovery from vine-killing disease Psa may become one of New Zealand’s great comeback stories.

Zespri’s chief executive Lain Jager agrees with Rural News that,

viewed through the eyes of history, the recovery could well be held up as a tale of triumph in the face of possible annihilation.

The full story of the turnaround will become clearer as exports of the new Gold kiwifruit export variety escalate over the next year or two. But as little as 18 months ago the situation still looked dire as Gold growers were regrafting dying vines to a new variety during a wet soggy spring which played perfect host to the Psa bacteria.

Jager says it’s a story of determination and perseverance by growers, backed by a cohesive industry, good research and Government support. He even praises the banks, describing their response as “wonderful”.

• More on kiwifruit pages 10 & 11.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

NEWS 3 ISSUE 558

www.ruralnews.co.nz

More left-field research required gate is critical.” built a faster horse’.”

One of the many Rolleston highlighted andrews@ruralnews.co.nz ‘arts’ of being a top New Zealand farmers’ productivity improvements WE ARE only scratching the surface farmer is managing since 1990: 7% more lamb onfarm with adoption and use of tech- multiple inputs for from 55% fewer sheep; nology to aid decisionmaking, says Fed- crops and stock heeding 23% more beef from 11% erated Farmers vice president William while unpredictability fewer cattle.

Rolleston.

“We’ve also managed Speaking to the World Farmers of weather and to reduce carbon per unit Organisation in Buenos Aires last commodity markets.

“The role of science of product by about 1.3% a month he said, “we need science to help year. us do a whole lot more from a whole is to convert farming’s art “Beyond these lot less, all the while ensuring the soil into rational decisions, impressive gains minerals, insects, bacteria and nutrients allowing us to intelligently use farmers in New Zealand are kept in optimal balance”. require developments Any nation’s science system should resources and in crops and pastures work to a country’s strengths and minimise our William Rolleston which require less for New Zealand that is agriculture, impact.”

To increase water and fewer he added. New Zealand’s farmers’ priorities for research and innovation product value farmers need to nutrients. These are characteristics are increased product value, increased understand end markets because that required throughout the world and determines “not just how we farm, but would revolutionise the economics of productivity and reduced risk. farming and provide greater security in “When we as farmers stand inside what we farm”.

Scientists have a role to play too, the face of climate variation.” the farmgate, we have two main Expanding on the water issue, he concerns: can we run a profitable coming up with product innovations said it’s a “huge opportunity for New business and do we have the freedom farmers may not realise are possible.

“We need scientists to be thinking Zealand farmers”, and critical to the to operate?

“Farmers are essentially price takers outside the square as well. Research national goal of doubling agricultural so costs anywhere in the value chain can take some direction from its users… export value by 2020.

“Water storage and water harvesting tend to be reflected in farm profitability. but as Henry Ford famously said, ‘If I Productivity inside and beyond the farm listened to my customers I would have creates a win for our economy and a win for the environment – providing environmental flows to maintain in-stream water quality and water for agriculture to increase productivity while mitigating against the challenges of low flows FEDERATED FARMERS vice president William Rolleston says he will be and drought. standing for the role of president at the federation’s annual meeting in July.

“However, with increased water use “I don’t know if anyone else is putting their name forward,” Rolleston told comes the threat of reduced water qualRural News last week. ity – a value highly prized by New ZeaThe federation is “in a pretty good space” at present, he believes, but with landers. a new chief executive coming on board and a new president, whoever that “Water storage in New Zealand illusmay be, it’s always a good time to review structures and policies. trates how, when we increase a conThe process to recruit a new chief executive is underway, incumbent Conor straining input, we create externalities English having announced he will leave in July. which need to be addressed.”

A N DREW SWA LLOW

NEWS ������������������������������ 1-19 WORLD ������������������������ 20-21 MARKETS �������������������� 22-23 AGRIBUSINESS ����������� 24-25 HOUND, EDNA ������������������� 26 CONTACTS ������������������������� 26 OPINION ����������������������� 26-31 MANAGEMENT ����������� 32-37 ANIMAL HEALTH �������� 40-45 MACHINERY AND PRODUCTS ������������������ 46-53 RURAL TRADER ���������� 54-55 HEAD OFFICE Top Floor, 29 Northcroft Street, Takapuna, Auckland 0622 Phone: 09-307 0399 Fax: 09-307 0122 POSTAL ADDRESS PO Box 3855, Shortland Street, Auckland 1140 Published by: Rural News Group Printed by: PMP Print CONTACTS Editorial: editor@ruralnews.co.nz Advertising material: davef@ruralnews.co.nz Rural News online: www.ruralnews.co.nz Subscriptions: subsrndn@ruralnews.co.nz ABC audited circulation 81,232 as at 31.12.2013

VP puts hand up for top job

Too restrictive GA R ET H G I L L AT T

A LOCAL drought could have been declared sooner in western Northland had it been called by central authorities, says Northland Rural Support Trust coordinator Julie Jonkers.

MPI is said to be taking notice of this view.

Little rain has fallen in western Northland, southern Auckland and Waikato since October. Much of the Kaipara district has endured south-west winds blowing away all available moisture.

Kaipara farmers have used up winter supplement reserves, dried off early or de-stocked as a result and Jonker says many are now hoping it will rain soon.

But the drought is ‘localised’.

In contrast, eastern Northland and Bay of Plenty are experiencing a kind summer, some farmers still cutting silage as late as February.

The Minister for Primary Industries is the only person who may declare a drought or classify it as medium-scale or large-scale. But ‘locals’ are empowered to call localised ‘small scale’ drought – rural supports trusts, and regional and district councils and affected sector groups.

Jonkers says she began collating the necessary information to classify a drought in February but it wasn’t completed until the end of March due to the diverse nature of the parties involved. This prevented some farmers from getting the help available when drought is called, even though some had reached the end of their resources.

“If it was handled by just one organisation it would be much simpler,” Jonkers says.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

4 NEWS

Drought-hit farmers prepare for more dry GA RE T H G I LLAT T

DRY SUMMERS could be the reality for drought stricken pockets of the North Island if El Nino takes effect, says climate scientist Jim Salinger.

Some farmers in Northland have already taken

drastic measures to prepare for the changing climate.

Niwa is forecasting a 50% likelihood of an El Nino weather pattern bringing warmer, wetter weather to the west of New Zealand while leaving the east dry.

Salinger says that, based on past weather patterns, if El Nino takes hold, the north and east of the South Island and north and west of the North Island can expect droughts similar to those seen during the past five of six years in Northland, and

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twice in the past two years in Waikato.

Waikato Regional Council says rainfall figures at Ruakura show the region recently had its second-lowest rainfall on record resulting in big soil moisture deficits.

And such deficits are so great in the west of Northland that some farmers are saying if decent rain doesn’t fall in the next two weeks they won’t know what to do next.

DairyNZ farm systems specialist Chris Glassey says farmers must adapt more readily to changed conditions and adapt to, for example, earlier calving dates, less focus on autumn calving and growing summer crops such as chicory and fodder beet. “Crops like chic-

DairyNZ’s Chris Glassey says farmers must adapt more readily to changed conditions.

ory or plantain can be useful when dry summers become routine.”

Drought-affected farmers are adapting, says Northland Rural Support Trust coordinator Julie Jonkers: more are using maize and some are making drastic moves.

Ruawai dairy farmer Paul Baker (56) has sold his 300-cow farm, saying he felt he needed to get out of farming in the area before it became non-viable.

The final straw was having to borrow money from the bank to continue milking this season, despite the high milksolids payout.

“Each year I sat the bank manager down at the kitchen table and asked him if it was worth continuing. He always told me ‘there’re plenty of people out there in a worse condition than you’.

“This year I asked my accountant and he said it was probably a good year

for me to get out, so that’s what I’m doing.”

Baker accepted an offer less than the supposed market value of his farm and is now considering his options.

Drystock farmers on the Kaipara coast have changed their practices: some who previously held breeding cows are switching to a trading stock system because they are not confident of being able to feed capital stock through the summer.

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THE AGENDA for an industrywide red meat summit could be set as soon as next week, says Meat Industry Excellence chairman John McCarthy.

Calls for a summit on the structure of the industry – pitched by MIE – have recently grown louder: farmers and Primary Industry Minister Nathan Guy are offering qual-

ified support.

Guy said if any such event was organised and the agenda showed it would not be a ‘talkfest’ he would commit to taking part and would help find a suitable venue.

McCarthy says MIE members have begun laying plans for an event that could be held in early July. The group will meet April 7-9 to discuss

agenda items. “We don’t want to spin our wheels with a talkfest so we will be careful about the items to be discussed.”

While BLNZ chairman James Parsons is looking forward to the summit, he is sceptical about the value of BLNZ spending too much on improvements “beyond the farm gate”. – Gareth Gillatt

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

NEWS 5

Wool growers better than they think PA M TI PA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

WOOL GROWERS should take off their “black hat” about wool quality and have confidence they can meet the standards for premium contracts, says Wools of NZ chief executive Ross Townshend.

A premium price of $6 plus per kilo has been on offer from Wools of NZ to supply its contract with UK textile manufacturer Camira, which wants zero vegetable matter (VM) in the wool.

Growers are being too tough on themselves in saying they can’t meet the VM specs for the contract, says Townshend. “But I think we rejected only about four lots out of 150-200 on VM. “Everybody has a bit of a black hat about how good they are at producing wool. Farmers are better at growing wool than they give themselves credit for.”

Wools of NZ wants to boost its

contracts with Camira from about Wools of NZ’s “Achilles heel”. It’s one million kg per season to as getting about a 40% response to email, its primary communication much as 4 million kg.

But as Wools of NZ takes its method, but that’s not enough, says roadshow around New Zealand, Townshend.

“We don’t want Townshend says to build a convengrowers are also tional field force. I asking for more don’t think dupligeneral, non-specating the other cific contracts and field forces out Wools of NZ will there is smart,” he work on that also. says. But they’ve A year on from created a grower when Wools of NZ advisory panel of kicked off, it has 720 15-20 noted growfarmer shareholders and they are ers and a further appointing a share300 ‘supporters’. Ross Townshend “If that became 350, that would be holder relations manager and three first class. We are not actively can- supplier liaison staff.

Townshend says Wools of NZ’s vassing but anybody who wants to come in and support is more than aim to lift wool returns to 30% of sheep farmers’ revenues in five welcome.”

Meanwhile it wants more years is realistic. Sixty years ago engagement with shareholders and 85% of farmers’ revenue came supporters. Chairman Mark Shad- from wool and 15% from meat; now bolt described communication as that’s reversed.

“But it needs to be slow and steady, not spiky. Wool volumes are tracking down and no one is quite sure how many sheep are out there, let alone how much wool is out there.

“Wool volume is down… but we need a full season to validate how far down it is.

“We don’t want sudden spikes one way or the other. That’s bad news for everybody but if we can start getting into more value contracts we’ll progressively lift it from where it is now.

“The general feedback from the shareholders is they are impressed by what we have achieved so far and they want more wool into contract and less wool into commodity. We will be heading there as fast as we can.”

Townshend says good industry collaboration is starting between main players in the wool industry such as Wool Services International, Elders and Cavalier scours.

Blow for wheat WHEAT GROWERS have lost one of the main tools in their armoury against the yield sapping foliar disease Septoria Tritici.

The Foundation for Arable Research last week announced strains of the disease resistant to the strobilurin group of fungicides have been confirmed in New Zealand.

“It will limit the number of fungicide options for control of this disease,” FAR’s Nick Poole told Rural News. “In effect, it strips us back to the triazoles which are already under pressure due to a shift in sensitivity.”

While there may still be pockets of the country where septoria responds to strobilurin fungicides, with resistance confirmed in samples from Canterbury and Manawatu and poor control recorded from trial sites elsewhere, it’s likely the resistance is already widespread.

Growers should make more use of cultural disease controls such as resistant cultivars and later sowing in light of the news, and mix triazoles with the newer SDHI group of fungicides for the best chemical control. Mixing the fungicides should also slow the buildup of resistance to triazoles, which so far has been a gradual process rather than the single gene, on-off mutation which allows septoria to survive strobilurin applications.

Septoria caused serious yield losses in New Zealand in 2001, then more or less disappeared until 2010, but has been on the increase ever since.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

6 NEWS - 'LOCK THE GATE'

Call for farmer action gains The call by Rural News (March 18) for farmers around the country to take a stand against the constant carping by Fish and Game NZ on the dairy farming sector and ‘Lock the gate’ to fishers and hunters has garnered plenty of attention and feedback.

HERE IS a taste of the feedback received on the topic – positive and negative: Thanks, you hit the nail on the head!

Sam and Bel Gapes Great call on blocking access to Fish and Game in this week’s issue. Support 100%!!

Cam Lewis, Horowhenua Thank you for suggesting that we stand up to Fish and Game because they have falsely put farmers down for too long. Good on you. I for one will be locking gates.

Bruce Hodges Your call ‘Lock the gate’ as a reaction to Fish and Game NZ’s attacks on dairying is an understandable reaction, but on the other hand a sad commentary on the appalling situation we have

while 61% of public rivers are reportedly classified as unfit for swimming.

Fish and Game NZ’s opinion survey was narrow in its focus and in public relations terms, clumsy. Urban areas still discharge sewage into rivers. The situation varies from river to river. Some, where trout numbers have declined, have little or no dairying. Whatever are the contributing causes, besides dairying, they need to be under scrutiny too.

What Fish and Game NZ should have strived for was to bring everyone together to fight for cleaner rivers and, particularly in an election year as this, put pressure on political parties and the Government to take the problem seriously. A concerted, combined effort by farmers, foresters, outdoor interests and urban people is needed urgently.

The crisis may be quiet but it is urgent.

Squabbling amongst sectors will not bring a solution. ‘Divide and conquer’

brings defeat.

Tony Orman, Marlborough My son and I are keen fisherman and probably the most regular fishers of the lower Hurunui. Fish and Game [locally] recently claimed low trout numbers and fish in poor health. They implied farming was the culprit but this was garbage: talking to some other local fisherman we agreed we have all noticed this season lots of trout in fat, healthy condition. So all power to the campaign. I will tell my local Fish and Game rep that I will not be buying a licence next year.

My wife and I own and operate a restoration environment consultancy business covering the North Canterbury and Kaikoura area. We work with a lot of farmers including many dairy farmers and have undertaken hundreds of stream, wetland and native bush plantings. Some of these streams we have

seen transformed from sludgy brown to crystal clear with trout, eels, etc.

This has created new fishing opportunities for us.

Jamie and Linda, Hurunui I endorse and support the tactic of locking the gate. We farm beef animals and there is no understanding of these large animals’ behaviour by the general public. So it is desirable that no trespassers enter private property.

Fish and Game ought to note that fewer people have any historical connection with farming: the gap is much wider every year. This and the roaming of people of minority cultures across farms has brought about a situation farmers [have forseen]. Farmers always have to pick up the tab for wrongdoing. In this climate of profit becoming harder to establish, let’s have farms the sanctuaries they were before.

Dianne Cheshire Congratulations on your stand against Fish and Game’s incredibly biased survey. Great tactic you have adopted.

Chris and Jude Engel

My husband and I drove to Otorohanga (from Auckland) to fish a stream he and his brothers have fished many times. Upon asking for access, we were denied and were told your newspaper has encouraged all farmers to ban recreational hunters and fishermen; as a community the farmers in that catchment were doing so.

I was aware of the background to this story. However, the farmers who were denying access would neither say why they were doing so, nor explain what action they wanted taken to further their cause.

The message we received was essentially, “Your club needs to stop being mean to dairy farmers. You need to write to your club and tell them that.”

Other fishermen we met at the local public access spot had also been turned away, but no information was given about why this was happening, nor what the farmers in the area wanted from this action. When I filled in the backstory for one, he was full of praise for the improvements he’s seen in water quality in this area – a stream he’s fished for 15 years.

I believe these farmers, and possibly

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

NEWS - 'LOCK THE GATE' 7

traction others around the country, need to be better armed with information to effect real change. A clear directive on what farmers want done by Fish and Game before access is reconsidered would help get fishermen and hunters onboard and further the cause of farmers.

Vicki Rural News’ call for farmers to ban anglers and hunters from access to New Zealand’s rivers and lands in response to the Fish and Game survey is emotive, extremist, irresponsible and singularly unhelpful to the serious water and land issues facing this country.

You rightly point out that the dairy industry is New Zealand’s biggest earner with annual exports of $13.7 billion but that does not mean other smaller but major export earning industries should be discounted, which you effectively do by encouraging farmers to adopt an ‘either or’ stance.

Like it or not, New Zealand’s chief attraction to overseas tourists, as highlighted in numerous Tourism NZ and Air NZ campaigns, is its ‘clean, green, 100% pure’ image.

Does it make sense for this impor-

tant tourism drawcard to be destroyed in order to permit unchecked dairy farming throughout New Zealand, even if this is seriously diminishing the water quality and flows of rivers and streams?

Why does it have to be ‘either or’?

You should be encouraging all farmers to make every effort to prevent pollution of waterways from their properties, and farmers in general to respect the rights of other sectors to our water resources, particularly in relation to pumping water from rivers and streams onto land traditionally suited to drystock and cropping.

Instead of viewing trout and salmon as ‘the enemy’, Rural News would do well to encourage farmers to view them as equivalent to ‘the canaries in the mine’. If trout or salmon cannot survive in any waters due to pollution, oxygen depletion and dry riverbeds, then it is time for every New Zealander to become alarmed.

Colin Taylor, Auckland Brilliant. We are one of two new conversions in Wanaka and have put up with negative news in our local paper as well. We fully support your request and

Next move...

RURAL NEWS appreciates it has made a serious and controversial call to ask farmers to block access to fishers and hunters. However, as an advocate for the New Zealand farming sector and farmers we believe it was time Fish and Game NZ’s incessant and anti-farming attitude was soundly challenged. For that we do not apologise.

But this does not mean we are an apologist for, or in any way excuse, those farmers who deliberately pollute waterways. These farmers need to be punished – and punished heavily – as they are not only destroying the environment, but also letting down the entire farming sector and opening the way for the ‘antifarming’ voices at organisations like Fish and Game NZ to flourish.

We believe most fishers and hunters understand the importance of dairying to our economy and acknowledge the work and resources put in by stakeholders – farmers, workers and processors – to promote sustainability and improve water quality. But it is clear the executive of Fish and Game NZ does not and the anti-dairying drum it has been beating for a decade has become tired, clichéd and unhelpful.

Nobody wants a permanent rift here: fishers and hunters need farmers and vice versa.

Therefore the onus is now on members of Fish and Game NZ around the country to recognise that the organisation needs to move with the times and start working constructively with farmers by voting for change at the top level of the lobby and clean out the tired, old dead wood on its executive.

Only then can a new and constructive relationship between Fish and Game and the New Zealand farming sector really begin.

thank you for standing up and printing what we feel like saying every day Lisinda Rickman Lagoon Valley Dairies Ltd I have had a farm in the southern King Country for over 36 years. It has one point of access through the property for wonderful wilderness trout fishing; alternative access is very difficult.

Whilst, for various reasons, we have never allowed hunting access, being a keen trout fisherman I have always allowed fishing access to anyone who asked, provided they respected one or two housekeeping rules.

About six years ago, I became so tired of farmers being bad mouthed as dirty polluters, that I decided to make a stand by closing access to fishermen. I explain to those who turn up asking to go fishing – they are generally pleasant people -- that we have nothing against them personally, but are sick and tired of being branded generically as farmers in such a negative way by the body that represents them – Fish and Game. I think the situation has got worse since then.

David Griffiths

I hope Rural News is big enough to now move forward and engage us, your readers, in the bigger questions about the carrying capacity of our environment and communities of intensive mega-corporate dairying (an increasing amount of which is now owned by offshore companies) and the associated

appropriation of our fresh water by taxpayer subsidised private irrigation companies.

Is this the future rural New Zealand we want?

David Haynes President New Zealand Federation of Freshwater Anglers

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

8 NEWS

PKE supplies dry up GA RE T H G I LLAT T

HIGH PAYOUT forecasts and a dry summer for some top dairy regions are starting to put pressure on grain providers, say farmers and companies.

Fonterra’s forecast $8.75/kgMS payout has encouraged dairy farmers to buy more palm kernel (PKE) and supplements this season to help them produce maximum

milk without hitting cow or pasture condition.

But dry weather has thrown many a ‘curve ball’. Kaipara is officially in drought and farmers in Waikato and South Auckland have called for a similar declaration.

Other regions are also dry, say farmers and consultants: Taranaki, Wairarapa and parts of Manawatu are reporting fast shrivelling pastures.

Palm kernel has disappeared from the spot market as suppliers try to meet demands from contracted buyers. But many grain importers say even farmers with contracts are finding it difficult to get timely deliveries.

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Steele says people who have contracts with BLM need to allow it four-five days to supply product J Swap director Stephen Swap says while its been working round the clock since January it still needs a lead time of 7-14 days to supply PKE to contracted customers. None is available for the spot market.

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Lenders cozying up to Maori P ET ER BUR K E peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

THE COMMERCIAL sector is keen to engage with Maori, says a Deloitte consultant, Mana Newton.

He told Rural News they love Maori and want to be involved 100%. Newton says it sometimes takes lenders a while to realise the opportunities, but once the first venture is approved it is easy to roll out the remaining ventures.

Newton says the dynamics of Maori agribusiness have changed: once Maori owned and leased out land; now they are developing their own businesses on the land they own.

The days of Maori wanting lawyers is largely over and instead they need business people to grow the opportunities under the right kaupapa (Maori policy).

“The investors have to understand the culture, they have to understand who we are as individuals and again our different process. I have done a lot of due diligence studies and what I have seen is you can do the due diligence on the numbers that shows a certain result.

“But at the end of the day if there is a strong desire to own the whenua (land) the questions are when do you buy it and how much do you pay for it? If you believe that today it’s at the lowest price it’s going to be – even if it’s a high market price – you buy it at that time.”

Newton says a key point investors need to understand is that Maori will never put land up as security for a loan.

Lending institutions are starting to understand this and realise they are investing is ‘us’ as people first and foremost. “ If they can come to terms with that and support it we can work together.”

Hubs are the future for the development of Maori agribusiness, says Newton.

“Maori are collectivising ideas and land, which allows us to have economies of scale, and when we get those economies… we can pull together those leases and [they] have a value for the bank.” “[In] the first venture we get into we are looking at equity ownership of about 30% and getting debt financing up to 70%. I know it is quite risky but a lot of the time that’s what we need to do to get into our first investment.”

Newton says it’s no secret Maori are looking at the value chain and thinking about what point they may wish to invest. They won’t own the whole value chain, but will make strategic choices, be they in the growing, processing or distribution chain.

One of the big challenges for Maori is Maori, he says.

“There is often politics around the table, but if we can put those things aside and focus on the commercial opportunities our land presents, then we are able to work together and get good results.”

Newton says one way Maori can make gains is by leasing rather than buying land. He’s involved in Ngakauroa Farm, one of the contenders for this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy for the top Maori dairy farm.

• See more on Ngakauroa Farm on pp 24-25

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

NEWS 9

A loud ‘no’ to kids on quads P E TE R BU R K E peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

STANDARDS FOR the use of quads on farms were agreed recently at a seminar involving 45 representatives of farmer groups, primary sector industry and interest groups, government agencies and quad distributors.

Notably the seminar attendees agreed on banning children from driving or riding on quads on farms.

Concern about quad safety has been rising for five years, culminating in a recent review by coroner Brandt Shortland. He noted a year ago, “the quad has a low tolerance to a change of stability and anything that alters that stability can compromise safety”.

Shortland’s work and the high incidence of quad acci- Francois Barton dents prompted WorkSafe, the new government agency responsible for workplace safety, to convene the two-day seminar on quad safety.

Francois Barton of WorkSafe told Rural News there was agreement on children not operating quads or riding them as passengers.

“Children do not have a place on these things. They are not designed for children and the margin between safe and unsafe is so small and consequences are so significant that it’s unacceptable to have kids on quads.”

Barton also reports agreement to ban

passengers from quads because they are not designed for them. Carrying a passenger increases a quad’s instability, he says.

While these changes may seem severe to many people, he says, the seminar participants insisted on them.

Also discussed were ‘after-market’ attachments such as trailers and sprayers, proper maintenance and educating farmers on whether a quad is the correct option for their farm and intended use.

“Imagine the quad bike is the new horse,” Barton explains.

“You didn’t tow huge heavy implements behind a horse or carry six people on it or use it for weed spraying. Horses were a way of getting people from point A to B. “A quad is right in a huge range of situations.

For personal transport on a farm a quad is a legitimate option. [Amongst]… a range of vehicles… which is the most appropriate?”

Barton says the workshop agreed that quality and consistency of training needed looking at, probably by the Primary ITO. “One of the best outcomes of the two days is that we have the commitment of 45 new champions… DairyNZ, vehicle distributors, Federated Farmers and others… communicating and educating the wider sector.”

A small leadership group will build on the achievements of the workshop.

Partnership will unlock potential THE HEAD of Te Tumu Paeroa, the Maori trustee, Jamie Tuuta, says Maori alone can never unlock the potential of the vast Maori land base.

Tuuta is calling on Maori and pakeha to work together, perhaps outside their comfort zones. He says it’s human nature to be afraid of things you don’t know about and the key for Maori is to break down those barriers to see how they can forge new relationships.

Exploiting the potential of Maori land will require Maori to work in partnership with capital providers and experts, many of whom will not be Maori, Tuuta says.

“Maori should not be afraid of that. We have to build relationships and look at ourselves and ask to what extent we have gone beyond our comfort zone to engage in more relationship. I think it’s a two way street.”

Tuuta says Maori established

New Zealand as a produce exporting nation in the early 1820s. Maori participated in the value chain by owning land, growing crops, harvesting, processing and exporting to Australia, the Americas and parts of Asia.

“Fast forward to where we are today and there has been a shift in focus and emphasis within Maoridom. You can look at it in various ways: moving from grievance to a new space, from the adversarial approach to now, when there is greater collaboration between Maori businesses and organisations.

“There is a strong desire by Maori asset holders to move from passively leasing land to actively managing land. With the treaty settlements you are getting a large number of Landcorp farms being transferred to iwi ownership, so you are starting to see scale at an operational level.”

And the benefits of Maori’s

approach to dairy farming and agribusiness are starting to show through, Tuuta says. This relates to their inter-generational view on not farming for capital gain and their emphasis on environmental matters.

“What you are seeing is a sustainable business model in an environmental sense and an economic sense…. This model can be shared with New Zealand dairy farmers, remembering that we are the current kaitiaki (guardians) and we shouldn’t in any way deplete or damage the land for future generations.”

Tuuta says the new collaborative models being developed by Maori to create greater scale and economic benefits are working well.

He says many trusts, like those represented by the finalists in this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy Awards, are showing what is possible.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

10 NEWS

Strong growers did not die on vine executive Lain Jager. “It’s the growers that make this industry strong.

“Over the next year or two people will look at the New Zealand kiwifruit industry, look at the rate of decline in volume and

PA M TI PA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

‘THIS IS not an industry that panicked: it put its head down and said, ‘Right, what do we need to do’,” says Zespri chief

the rate of the recovery of volume and they will say ‘wow look at that’.”

Jager says only in 20132014 did the industry move from “desperation and determination to ‘yes we think this is going to

work’, then to an emerging optimism.”

Optimism had been creeping back in but surged in the last 6-18 months. Land values are back to pre Psa levels.

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or older, now have the choice to leave or stay in the industry, whereas at the peak of the crisis they could not sell.

“The sense of relief we all have is palpable.

“However, although land values have recovered, the costs of growing

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Earlier peaks in site THIS YEAR the industry will harvest up to 16 million trays of gold kiwifruit – including about 9 million trays of the new variety Zespri SunGold/ Gold3 – and a total crop volume of all Zespri varieties of about 85 million trays of kiwifruit. The estimated Gold volume is up from about 11 million trays harvested last season. Lain Jager says Zespri is well on track to having 50 million trays of SunGold by 2018 – remarkable given that 30 million trays is the highest previous peak for the industry.

Kiwifruit comeback FROM PAGE 11

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so there were organisations such as New Zealand Kiwifruit Growers Association Inc that took enormous responsibility for putting a grower welfare programme in place.

“Many growers were under enormous financial pressure and their orchards were dying before their eyes.”

A whole new industry body, Kiwifruit Vine Health, was created. “This is an organisation now focused on not only Psa, but broader biosecurity and we have relieved Zespri of that responsibility because we believe we need that specialist focus as an industry.”

Monitoring programmes were initiated so growers knew what was happening across the industry. “What’s rumour and what’s real information becomes all mixed up in the anxiety.

“The industry became more networked as a consequence of Psa. This was a regulated primary industry so with Psa we could well have faced deregulation because of grower discontent. In fact that didn’t happen.

“Growers put their heads down – enduring, focused on the technical learning required and receiving good support from their industry institutions.” This was only Zespri but KGI and KVH and the post-harvest operators even helped to put manpower on the ground to help regraft orchards.

“Inevitably when you are a grower and your orchard is dying and you are under financial pressure, the buck stops with you. It is your business… it is hugely lonely, isolating and depressing.

“We couldn’t stop that experience for growers but what the industry institutions could do was make support available as best we were able.

“This was a startling story of endurance and perseverance at an individual grower level and a functional and effective industry at the institution level.”

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

NEWS 11

Kiwifruit comeback a victory under fire PA M TI PA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

THE STARTING point of the tale was in November 2010, when Psa was first discovered in New Zealand vines. “Things were very very uncertain,” says Zespri chief executive Lain Jager. “It wasn’t clear what damage it was going to do to the Green or the Gold variety.”

Damage was severe in the main Gold crop, Hort16a, and it wasn’t clear how Green would be impacted. “For growers, confidence evaporated out of the industry. For a green orchard, land values reduced from on average over $200,000/ha to bare land value of between $80,000/ha and $140,000/ha.

“Those are numbers; but of course orchards weren’t selling – there were no buyers.

“For Gold it was even more disastrous because orchard values decreased from $400,000/ha down to bare land value of $100,000 and there were absolutely no buyers….

“The risk profile of growing kiwifruit changed dramatically overnight and equity values, land values were wiped out.”

The worst-hit were the Gold Hort16a growers: their land values were slashed, if they had any debt they were “under water” and they didn’t know what they could graft to. They were geared to growing for higher Gold returns, so Green was not an option. “Now in 2014 we can say the new Gold 3 is looking good, but back then we didn’t know if it would work.”

Jager says four or five main factors contributed to the turnaround. “Fantastic support” from the New Zealand Government was the first. “We went down to the Government and said ‘If you put up $25 million, the growers will put up $25 million’. That was funded out of Zespri’s balance sheet but ultimately growers paid for it.”

That $50m package did not help growers at orchard level but it funded innovation and the management of the

biosecurity as the industry contended with how to react to this disease. “That quick response from the Government was a key part of this.”

Another key to the recovery was the breeding programme already in place, says Jager. With The Government, Zespri invests $5 m to $6 m a year on kiwifruit plant breeding.

“Because we had that programme we had two varieties, Gold 3 and Gold 9, ready to go. We had already commercialised a couple of hundred hectares of them, they looked more tolerant than Hort16a and a lot of the market and yield trialling work had been done. We knew about these varieties: we would not have commercialised G3 at the same rate if it hadn’t been for Psa, but the point is we had one.

“So the industry structure enabled us to invest in innovation and in particular in plant breeding so it meant that when there was an incursion, we had varieties to go to.”

Another key was the banks, says

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Jager. Many of the 3000 growers were suddenly financially “under water” because their land values no longer supported debt, there was no cashflow for a couple of years and higher risk profile.

“The banks were wonderful. They worked with the industry, put time into understanding what was occurring….

‘What’s this new Gold that Zespri is talking about? Do you have models and market confidence?’

“Because there was a marketing company that believed it could make it work in the market, and that had a track record of success in commercialising new varieties, that made the risk bankable. It meant banks could focus

on the horticultural risk knowing that as long as growers could grow it, there was a profitable route to market.”

Jager says another key was the governance infrastructure already in place.

“There was enormous confusion….

‘How are we going to manage this, do we still have an industry?’ ” There were questions on government support, innovation to grow in the Psa environment, funding, movement of plant material and how they would work with the Ministry for Primary Industries.

“That whole governance infrastructure existed in the industry because it had a cooperative structure TO PAGE 10

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

12 NEWS

New genetics company formed FORMER LANDCORP boss and Massey University chancellor Chris Kelly will chair the board of the new entity Beef + Lamb New Zealand Genetics.

Graham Alder, the former genetics business manager of Zoetis, has been appointed general manager of Beef + Lamb New Zealand Genetics.

The appointments follow the vote at the BLNZ annual meeting

to combine the organisation’s current genetics investments. This means Sheep Improvement Ltd (the national sheep genetic dataset), the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Central Progeny Test and Ovita, with added investment in beef genetics, come together with government funds to create the new entity Beef + Lamb New Zealand Genetics.

BLNZ says it will continue

paying $2.9 m a year for the next five years and the Government will pay $3 m a year during that time.

Chief executive Dr Scott Champion says it is an exciting time as the work planned would be speeding up genetic gains to match market requirements and lead to more profitable sheep and cattle.

A range of research will be

funded, especially discovering traits that enable animals to thrive on hill country, where typically New Zealand sheep and beef production is based as flatter land changes to dairying.

Champion says estimated genetic gains of $742 million over the next 20 years should boost the confidence of sheep and beef farmers. @rural_news

facebook.com/ruralnews

Milk recall in Hong Kong A MAJOR Australian dairy exporter has recalled three UHT milk products after tests by Hong Kong authorities showed a bacteria count 4000 times over the normal limit.

Lion Dairy, which owns the former National Foods and Dairy Farmers businesses, last month withdrew Pura brand fresh, skim and Hi-­Lo milk from the Hong Kong market.

Tests by Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety showed the total bacteria count of the sample was 130 million per millilitre. According to Hong Kong’s Milk Regulation (Cap 132 AQ), milk after heat treatment by means of pasteurisation should not contain more than 30,000 bacteria per millilitre.

The CFS has suspended imports of Pura milk until further notice. This is the second bacterial contamination case involving the product in Hong Kong. The recall comes five months after the food authority allowed the resumption of imports of all Pura milk products after a batch of skim milk was detected to have an excessive bacterial count in May last year.

A CFS spokesman says it has informed the sole importer Vitasoy International Holdings Ltd that the batch of product has contravened the milk regulation. He confirmed the affected products were being sold by retailers including supermarkets and were being recalled.

The CFS says a batch of Pura skim milk imported from Australia was detected to have a total bacterial count exceeding the legal limit in May last year.

“The CFS thus suspended import of all products of the same brand manufactured by the same processing plant for investigation by the Australian authorities and the manufacturer.

“After investigation, the Australian authorities said the irregularity might be caused by a problem of temperature control and asked the trade to make rectifications accordingly. The importer of the product was also changed subsequently. The product was allowed to be imported again in October last year.

“The total bacterial count exceeding the legal limit indicates unsatisfactory hygienic conditions. It will be prudent for consumers who have bought the affected product to stop consuming it. The trade should also stop selling the affected product,” the spokesman says.

Lion, owned by Japanese conglomerate Kirin Holdings, says information received so far from Hong Kong’s Centre for Food Safety “suggests this is an issue of product quality, not consumer safety”.

Lion is urgently testing to verify the facts and investigate the matter thoroughly, the company says.

It says all Pura products undergo extensive testing at its Australian milk plant prior to export, to ensure the highest product safety and quality standards are upheld.

Goodbye Lincoln, hello Kirwee THE USUALLY bi-annual South Island Agricultural Field Days (SIAFD) at Lincoln has moved about 20km inland to a new site at Kirwee.

The 2015 event will be March 25-27 on a 40ha rectangle bought by SIAFDs at the township just east of Darfield and about 20 minutes drive west of Christchurch on SH 73. The event is said to have outgrown the Lincoln site.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

NEWS 13

Grass across the ditch not so green PA M TI PA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

DO YOUR HOMEWORK before you are enticed across the Tasman to farm, say Jodie and Craig Locke of Whangarei.

The Lockes are one of many Kiwi farming families burned by the experience of buying a farm in Australia.

Weather, government indifference to farming, water issues and discrimination against New Zealanders left a bitter taste after their three-year Australian farm ownership experience.

On top of that they say Australians are more laid back than New Zealanders and didn’t like the hard physical work on farm. They had to employ Kiwi lads already living in Australia, friends or family members to get the job done as the

Australian farm staff were not reliable and didn’t have the same standard of work ethic as Kiwis.

Jodie and Craig were prompted to share their story with Rural News after an article in sister paper Dairy News about Australian Rabobank representatives visiting New Zealand to get more Kiwi dairy workers across the Tasman to help boost the dairy industry, particularly in Tasmania and Victoria. Dangling a carrot of a cheaper path to farm ownership, the bank representatives said New Zealanders had helped kick off the dairy industry in the 1990s and they hoped to attract a second wave of fresh talent.

But the Lockes say many Kiwi farmers wished they had had more information before they went. Jodie attended one meeting at an Australian

hotel luncheon where there were about 70 New Zealand farmers frustrated with dealing with various agencies.

After Craig and their two sons attended a Whangarei seminar by local and Australian real

neighbouring farmer.

Socially the family enjoyed the local farming community, fun activities close by and made good friends. They did not however find farming to be what it had been talked up to be.

“If you are looking to get Australian residency you will not get it as a farmer.” Farming is not a recognised skills shortage in Australia.” estate agents, the Lockes sold their Northland dairy farm in 2007 and moved to a farm they bought in Cobram, northern Victoria. They farmed for three hard years and returned in 2010. They were only able to sell the farm on a lease-tobuy for three years to a

Land prices are cheaper in Australia and you can buy water in a drought. But they say that’s only unless the government changes its rules for the season and diverts water to the cities and then there is no water allocation at all for the season.

And that’s just the start. “If you are looking to get Australian residency you will not get it as a farmer.” Farming is not a recognised skills shortage in Australia.

Your children will have to pay for all their university studies no matter how long you have been living there after 2001.

Stock feed is readily available, but prices get out of hand when times are tough. There are no grants in difficult times to farmers who are Kiwi.

Overall the Government did not support the farming sector in general as it does in New Zealand, the Lockes say. Many processes through agencies or government seem to take much longer.

The Lockes say we should keep our good Kiwi farmers here to help our own country before

Jodie and Craig Locke say NZ farmers need to do their homework before crossing the Tasman to farm.

letting them go to help other countries. Banks coming here to lure farmers over the Tasman have their own agendas, the Lockes believe. They did not find the banks helpful when times were tough.

They advise anyone tempted across the

Tasman to do their homework. They are happy to be back home farming in Northland among “trusting” Kiwis in a beautiful, green country they took for granted before their Australian farming adventure. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

Nick Lawn, ANZ Taranaki Agri Manager.

He’s a product of this environment.

Nick was born and raised in Taranaki. He went to school here, he’s involved in the local rugby team and helps out on the family farm where he grew up.

Being part of the local community has given him a great understanding of the particular needs of the region and the dairy industry. Nick’s a dairy and equity

partnerships specialist, and part of ANZ’s dedicated Agri Business Team of 15 industry specialists providing expert local service to Taranaki. To find your local ANZ Agri Manager visit anz.co.nz/rural or call Nick himself on 027 230 1699.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

14 NEWS

Fonterra aims to lift peak processing flexibility

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FONTERRA WANTS TO increase processing flexibility by 10% at its plants at peak season.

Most of the $400-500 million of investment it has brought forward will go to achieving this flexibility in processing its New Zealand milk pool. About $50 million will be spent in the next year.

It wants to cope better with a spring ‘super-

flush’ and gain more flexibility to redirect milk to products with more profitability in any season.

Chief executive Theo Spierings says the product mix cost the cooperative about $800 million this year because it could not take full advantage of unprecedented whole milk powder prices.

About 25% of the milk had to be processed into cheese, casein and other products which

“We want to fast-track because that is important for our farms to grow but also important for our milk price.” products.

Spierings says next season is the first priority for the $400-500 million fast-tracked spending.

“We had a super-flush, we had difficulties coping with the milk volume this year,” he said.

“We are, first and foremost, fast-tracking

do not come within the milk price manual calculations, leading to negative returns. A record cash payout of $8.75/kgMS is forecast but it is 70c/kgMS less than the milk price manual because of the divergence between milk price and non-milk price

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de-bottlenecking of factories…. We want to fast-track investments [servicing] milk price products and milk price commodities such as whole milk powder, anhydrous milk fat and skim milk powder.

We want to fast-track because that is important for our farms to grow but also important for our milk price.”

Chief financial officer Lukas Paravicini says a growing milk supply will always need more investment. “The other issue is how can we move slightly ahead of our curve, and create the flexibility? That flexibility is about 7-10% in the peak season. So we are not talking about massive changes. But that 7-10% increase at peak has a massive impact on volatility management.”

Spierings says the recent Global Dairy Trade auctions show whole milk powder prices are moving down and he thinks price gap between products will close. But volatility will always be an issue. “But we want to significantly reduce the impact. We think that will happen with 10% flexibility on peak.”

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

NEWS 15

Warnings over buttermilk lake THE WAIKATO Regional Council has issued formal warnings over the ‘buttermilk lake’ created at Atiamuri, Waikato, last October, by the dumping of excess product.

Three parties, including a dairy supply company, got the warnings. The council declines to name them, but Fonterra was named in news reports at the time.

The warnings were over beaches of the Resource Management Act. Council investigations manager Patrick Lynch says it is satisfied “that changes to procedures at the dairy supply company concerned make a recurrence of this event extremely unlikely”.

Initially it appeared a serious environmental incident but after investigation they are confident it looked far worse than it was, he says.

“We have established that approximately 5 million litres of buttermilk was discharged onto land at the Atiamuri property over a two week period,” he says. “Due to the topography where the buttermilk had been discharged, the soil type there, and some earlier earthworks that had been completed on site, we are satisfied there was no immediate loss of any contaminant to ground water or surface water.”

A high standard of remediation has subsequently been done on site.

“The discharge was a very large volume and its discharge into the storage pond was unlawful; however, taking into account the lack of adverse environmental effect and the positive response by the parties involved we have decided to issue [only] formal warnings

to the land owner, an individual involved in the management of the property, and the dairy supply company involved.”

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FONTERRA’S OVERALL RESULTS will not be any stronger in the second half of the year and may be a bit weaker, Fonterra’s chief executive Theo Spierings warned at the release of the half year result.

Interim first half results showed revenue up 21% to $11.3 billion. But earnings at $403m are down 41% and net profit after tax is down 53% to $217m. The forecast cash payout of $8.75/kgMS is up 42% on last year including an estimated full year dividend of 10c per share.

Spierings says the first half has been exceptional for the cooperative, as a result of high volatility driven by record demand for milk powders, resulting in a 21% increase in revenue.

“The season saw record milk volumes collected during the October-November peak period, and milk volumes collected for the season to date increased by 4% on the prior year to 1120 million kgMS.” But higher dairy commodity prices have put increasing pressure on margins in the consumer and foodservice businesses. “We had to strike a balance between passing on rising costs immediately or continuing to build our market presence to secure long term growth.

“Taking the longer term view has constrained profitability during this run of strong commodity pricing, but we are positioning ourselves for the future with consumer and foodservice volumes in key strategic markets like Asia (up 10%, excluding Sri Lanka which was affected by the temporary suspension of operations in August 2013).

“Being disciplined with operating expenses, which were flat for the period, contributed to our ability to offset some of the rising input costs.”

The buttermilk lake at Atiamuri, part way through remediation.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

16 NEWS

Synlait hit by infant formula woes SUD ES H K I SSU N sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

INDEPENDENT MILK processor Synlait has downgraded its full year profit forecast by $5 million on the back of lower than expected sales of infant formula in China.

The Canterbury processor blames regulation changes in China and the fallout from the WPC80 scare for the lower sales of infant formula. The company also expects its annual average foreign exchange rate will be higher than it applied in

determining the farmgate milk price.

Synlait is revising its 2014 full year net profit from a range of $30-35m to $25-30m. However, it is still ahead of the prospectus forecast of $19.8m.

China is determined to restore its reputation for food safety, damaged in 2008 when its dairy industry was almost paralysed by the melamine scandal. Last June China’s State Council issued a formal notice, making it clear all formula manufacturers in the country have to use a

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quality control system as strict as the one used in drug manufacturing. It also banned repackaging.

More importantly, it requires formula manufacturers to set up their own farms to secure milk sources to help consolidate China’s dairy industry, which has at least 120 dairy companies nationwide.

Despite the profit downgrade, Synlait Milk managing director Dr John Penno is pleased with the development of the business. The company’s halfyear results announced

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last month showed a net profit of $12.1m for six months ending January 31, 2014. This was an increase of $5.3m on the $6.8m for the same period in 2013.

Revenue increased to $284.9m compared to $176.4m for the same period in 2013, due largely to sustained high international commodity prices.

Penno says higher than forecast earnings and strategic positioning continues to reinforce “the confidence we have in our future”.

“With a favourable product mix and an increasing amount of product sold into valueadded applications we expect our milk powder and cream products business to outperform our initial public offer projections in FY2014,” he says.

“Despite it being clear that we will not meet our infant formula and nutritional volume targets for this financial year, we remain confident of meeting our long term objectives.”

He says during the first half of this financial year Synlait made good progress with its target first-tier multinational customers.

“As a result we expect to be supplying infant formula ingredients and finished products to four of our six target customers in FY2015. This volume we expect will account for as much as 30% of our total production next season with the additional milk supply required to meet these requirements having already been secured,” he says.

“To meet this customer demand, and with strong interest in milk supply from farmers, we have decided to expand the scope of some of our growth initiatives and bring forward some investment.”

Synlait’s second large scale infant formula and nutritional spray drier will now have 25% greater capacity than originally planned.

The Synlait board has also committed $6m of extra spending to prepare the site for an eventual fourth large scale spray drier. Combined with the extra capacity this will increase the estimated cost of the project from $103.5m to $135 m.

“Continuing to concentrate on operational targets and the execution of our growth initiative projects to support the development of the business is critical.

“We continue to invest in people, systems and plant and equipment to build technical capability ahead of our market development.”

The three growth initiatives under development during the six month period, including the lactoferrin plant, drystore extension and blending and canning plant, are on track for commissioning on, or close to, their planned dates. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

Westland plans $100m plant expansion INDEPENDENT DAIRY processor Westland Milk Products is building a $102 million nutritionals dryer at its Hokitika site.

A resource consent application to build the purpose-built spray drier, referred to as D7, is lodged with Westland District Council. Also planned are batching equipment, high specification mixing equipment, additional warehousing, another laboratory and a 25kg packing line.

Chief executive Rod Quin says the company is confident the

consent will be products, such as granted with condiinfant formula. Nutritions to meet any tionals consistently local concerns deliver higher margins about noise, traffic than milk powders and and air discharge. will lead to relatively “Westland has higher pay-outs for our a strong history shareholders as well of producing as placing Westland Westland chief executive high quality milk on pathway to a more Rod Quin. powders and secure and sustainable butter,” Quin says. future.” Quin says the D7 project “But we have [decided] to will create up to 36 jobs in Hokitika, shift the balance of our producand local contractors will be used tion toward high-end nutritional as much as possible.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

NEWS 17

Turning the public on to food P E TE R BU R K E peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

MASSEY UNIVERSITY vice-chancellor Steve Maharey sees a huge challenge for New Zealand in getting its people excited about the country being a food producing nation.

He told the annual conference of the Science Communicators Association of New Zealand (SCANZ) that New Zealand was now one of the most urbanised countries in the world.

Few Kiwis have any contact with actual food production on a farm, Maharey says. “It’s imper-

ative to turn people on to the notion that food is our natural advantage; not our only advantage, but if we want to be a country with a higher income, a lot of it’s going to come from the food we export.”

Maharey says for 10 years Massey University has changed to pick up the theme of food.

Agriculture is always associated in people’s minds with the production of a commodity and that’s been the history of New Zealand.

“Massey has helped produce those commodities, but now we know that in this century we need to

shift the emphasis to food and move up the value chain, to sell at a much higher price around the world and make a lot more money.

“That’s how Mr Joyce’s goal of $60 billion from

agricultural exports is going to be achieved, with the shift from agriculture to food. So Massey is moving to ensure it is involved right from the agricultural area through to the food end point.”

Massey University’s Steve Maharey says it’s a challenge getting NZers excited about the country being a food producing nation.

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New graduates tech savvy MASSEY GRADUATES who go into farming are very technology savvy, says Steve Maharey.

They don’t think about farming in the way he did when he was working on the family farm.

“These are people who are well aware food is the product, so they are working back from the market to their farm and as a result are bringing on-farm a whole range of technologies.

“These include precision ag, the way they might handle a cow and the way they do all sorts of things on their farm. They are tooled-up young people.”

Maharey says there remains a shortage of graduates in the wider food and agricultural sector, and a shortage of farmers, whose average age is now late 50s.

Food technologists are now in short supply and many are being recruited from overseas.

“One of the big challenges, not just for Massey but for the country, is to turn people on to how exciting the food area is and shift the image away from [the notion] that to be involved in food you have to become a farmer. Not everybody wants to and certainly not everybody should be a farmer.”

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18 NEWS

More Ag Science graduates needed P E TE R BU R K E peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

THE GOVERNMENT may tweak the funding regime for universities to make it more attractive for them to enroll more students in agricultural sciencerelated degrees, says the Minister of Science and Innovation.

Speaking at a recent conference of the Science Communicators Association of New Zealand (SCANZ), Steven Joyce acknowledged a shortfall in the number of agricultural science graduates from New Zealand universities. About 1200 graduates are needed annually, but only about 250 are

now graduating.

It costs less for universities to train arts and commerce students, and a lack of interest in farming careers among young people is worrying academics and primary industry leaders.

Joyce says changes have been made to the funding system to attract more

students into engineering, and the rules could be changed to attract more students to agricultural science.

Schemes are underway to encourage more people to experience science while at school, eg the ‘Science In Society’ project.

Having young people visit science institutions and

universities is part of this, Joyce says.

But school careers advisors have told Rural News that the biggest impediment to getting young people into ag science is parents who don’t see agriculture as a ‘desirable career path’ and encourage their children to look elsewhere.

Steven Joyce

Meanwhile, New Zealanders are taking a greater interest in food science, Joyce says.

“This will increase in the next several years with people getting more scientific or quasi-scientific about what they eat. The science of food is important to this country. The value-added foods, or food for health, are important, so is validating food and health claims – a currency for the food sector for the

next 30 years.”

Joyce says New Zealand produces only about 0.05% of the world’s research and that it’s important for scientists to collaborate here and overseas. “The challenge for New Zealand, a major food exporter, is to be at the forefront of some of the science in those areas. But more importantly [scientists must be able] to communicate some of that science.”

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‘GRASS ROOTS and Green Shoots’ is the theme for this year’s Deer Industry Conference, to be held at Methven on May 20-22.

Deer Industry New Zealand (DINZ) producer manager Tony Pearse says the theme reflects the industry’s origins in Canterbury and the drive of the Deer Farmers Association to engage future members.

“We want to show them that the conference is not all about politics and constitutional matters,” Pearse told Rural News. “It’s about sharing ideas and having a chance to communicate with the industry’s leadership and get your point of view across.”

The conference begins with the formalities of the DFA annual meeting on the morning of May 20, followed by an agribusiness session in the afternoon with DINZ delivering its ‘state of the nation’ address, guest speaker agricultural trade envoy Mike Petersen and a Q&A session with the board.

Venison and velvet sessions will be held May 21, and a field day on May 22 at Mt Hutt Station, “one of the first major deer farming operations in Canterbury,” says Pearse.

“Mt Hutt is iconic in what it’s done with deer and what it’s doing now as a large-scale venison and quality velvet producer.”

Meanwhile a group of farmers has begun the first of a new deer training course managed by Primary ITO and presented by Agribusiness Training with DINZ staff, deer farmers and veterinarians, Pearse says.

“For several years training opportunities have been limited, so a 12-month level-3 training course has been developed to fill the gap.”

The inaugural course is at Netherdale Deer Stud, Balfour, starting with three days on deer behaviour, nutrition, breeding and genetics, deer health and management, farm visits and hands-on experience. A second training session is scheduled for six months later. Throughout the year participants will be assessed on-farm by visiting Primary ITO tutors; on-farm assessment will make up 80% of the course requirement.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

NEWS 19

Farmers and school join on sustainability SUD ES H K I SSU N sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

A SMALL rural school’s partnership with the farming community on sustainability is yielding great results.

Netherton School, Hauraki Plains, has won the Green Gold Award from the Enviroschools Foundation, a national notfor-profit trust promoting sustainability among schools.

Involved with Enviroschools since 2008, Netherton students started with worm farming, recycling and gardening. This developed learning by the children, involving planting native trees in the community, says principal Tracey Adams.

DOC staff taught the children about preserving and nurturing kahikatea and other native vegetation that once covered the Hauraki Plains. The children have learned about pollination and have grown butterflies and started

keeping bees, Adams says.

“We still have ‘butterfly gardens’ and a shade house in which we grow swan plants and care for monarch butterfly chrysalis until they are hatched and released. Last year we had a school-wide focus on waterways and the ocean, and looked at their conservation.

“We also worked with Waikato Regional Council to adopt ‘The Cut’, a local waterway in our area, we have done planting and looked at carp and investigated ways to reduce their numbers at ‘The Cut’.”

Netherton School has five classrooms and 120 pupils. Board of trustees chairman Conall Buchanan, a Hauraki Plains dairy farmer, says the dairy industry’s contribution to sustainability shouldn’t be confined within the farmgate.

In addition to promoting environmentally sound farms, the farmers’ involvement in local

schools and community projects allows interaction and helps improve public perception of dairy farming and farmers.

Adams says it is great that the school is part of a farming community. Many parents get involved with the school and support the children in a variety of ways: providing tractors and labour for schoolgrounds projects, donating mulch and compost from calf sheds, transporting children to projects beyond the school and helping with supervision.

“Also, we had an evening with an expert from DOC on planting. Local farmers and parents came along and as a result are fencing and planting

around stands of kahikatea on their land.

“Also, the farming community helps with pest control. We have had children come to school with traps they have made to catch rats and stoats... useful learning for the children. Our community is supportive and makes time to help.”

Taking part in Enviroschools has also helped with the culture of care and respect for the

school environment.

Netherton’s motto is ‘Take Pride’, and Adams says when visitors come into the school their first impression is of a school that people care about and take pride in. Its landscaping and gardens are attractive and colourful, and there is a lot of ‘garden art’ and sculpture made from scrap metal resulting from Enviroschool.

“This culture of care, respect and pride flows through to the children and community. Being an Enviroschool has contributed hugely to this culture.”

The Green Gold award is given for understanding of sustainability and commitment to sustain-

able living. It is awarded for whole-school and community involvement, classroom learning links to the

principles of an Enviroschool, and guiding principles being embedded in the school culture.

Going beyond green and gold WINNING THE Green Gold Award is not the end of Netherton School’s journey in sustainability.

Principal Tracey Adams says the school is busy creating a ‘sustainability plan’ to maintain its projects.

“We have chickens at school and are planning a little ‘co-op’ stall from which children can sell eggs, honey, garden produce and worm juice, and also invite the community to sell preserves.

“We have other ideas in the pipeline, and the envisioning process will continue with a yearly reflection and vision and action plans for the board of trustees.

“We also plan to help other schools in our area by having them visit and supporting them through the Enviroschool process. Being an Enviroschool brings much to our children’s learning and to our community.”

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

20 WORLD

Fighting sceptics inside the farm gate SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

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public for them to see how cows are looked after and milked. A birthing barn auditorium also allows visitors to see calves being born. Milk, cheese, ice cream and yoghurt are processed and sold at the farm.

Fair Oaks hosts 575,000 visitors annually and is the number one destination for visitors to the town. Fair Oaks’ success has attracted interest from other sectors. Last year Fair Oaks Farms opened a pig adventure operation with 3000 sows.

Last month Corbett told Fair Oaks’ success story to 350 farmers at the Australian Dairy Conference in Geelong, Victoria.

He urged Australian farmers to take their story to the consumers to counter negative publicity from animal rights groups.

According to Corbett, the activists are well funded and passionate in their campaigns.

“Consumers were also becoming well informed; they wanted to know about traceability, the food supply chain and animal welfare.”

Corbett says the dairy industry has always believed someone else will take care of the negative publicity generated by activists. Therefore, dairy has never been ahead of the game.

He says people visiting Fair Oaks are very interested to interact with farmers. “In our experience 99% of the visitors have no agenda and come to understand agriculture better. Consumers haven’t let us down.”

After touring the farm, visitors buy locally produced cheese and ice cream from the Fair Oaks store. Corbett believes an emotional attachment arises from visitors seeing how the farm houses cows, feeds and milks them

and takes care of them.

Cheese produced at Fair Oaks is sold across the US however ice cream and yoghurt are available only at the store.

Corbett has no regrets about opening the farm to the public.

“The question is not whether we can afford to tell the story but can we afford not to… we can’t.”

Fair Oaks practices sustainability on all fronts and Corbett says this will ensure the business will prosper for many years.

Fair Oaks has 37,000 cows; the average herd size in the US is under 200.

The property has 11 milking platforms with a permit to build another one.

The free-stall barn operation milks 800 cows every 6.5 minutes for 24 hours a day serving the fluid milk market; it produces almost a million litres of milk daily.

The 1.6 million gallons of liquid manure produced at the dairy operation is fed through a digester with the end product used in many ways. For example liquid manure is turned into fertiliser and gas to power the businesses’ 45 trucks.

The water is used to grow a source of protein which is added to the herd’s total mixed ration.

About 120 calves are born every day on the farm.

Fair Oaks Farms also produces at least 60% of its own feed.

Corbett says he doesn’t want to lose any sleep over what to feed the cows the next day.

“We have two years of feed on hand. We try to have big healthy cows, ensuring we have feed in front of them 24 hours a day.”

The farm employs 450 people. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

Check out our websites www.ruralnews.co.nz www.dairynews.co.nz

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

WORLD 21

Abbott chases prized FTA deal with Chinese SUD ES H K I SSU N sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

AUSTRALIAN PRIME Minister Tony Abbott is visiting Asia in the hope of advancing a free trade deal with China.

Abbott will be signing an FTA with South Korea in Seoul and talking to leaders in Tokyo and Beijing on possible trade deals.

A free-trade deal between Australia and China has been considered for eight years but agreement is elusive. Japan is also hesitant to open its beef, rice and dairy sectors to imports.

A trade deal with Korea could add $A650 million to the Australian economy each year. With that deal largely done, Abbott is hoping to get the Japan FTA over the line. But a deal with China appears more distant. Abbott says he hoped to announce “substantial progress towards freer trade” rather than suggesting

a conclusion was close.

Abbott’s coalition partner National is wary that an FTA deal with China would risk more agricultural land and businesses being owned by Chinese.

With Abbott on the Asian trip are about 400 business leaders, taking part in ‘Australia Week in China’ (April 8-11) in Shanghai, Beijing, Chengdu and Guangzhou, promoting trade, investment, tourism and education partnerships.

Australian farmers are welcoming the prospect of trade deals with China and Japan but insist there must be good outcomes for the agriculture sector.

National Farmers Federation president Brent Finlay says a trade agreement with China is a priority for the Australian farm sector. It would likely further

deal signed at any cost. A second-rate agreement in any area is not good enough.”

On the Japanese FTA, Finlay expects a deal to be concluded soon, but he insists it must be good for all Australian farmers and agribusinesses.

NFF last month met Japan’s political trade Tony Abbott representative Koya Nishikawa who led a improve trade, already impressive. From 2003 to 2013 agricul- trade delegation to Canberra. tural exports to China increased Finlay told them Australian from 8% of total exports to 20% agriculture would only accept a -- $A7 billion in 2012-13. Chiefly trade agreement beneficial to the these were wool (A$2.2 b), grain entire sector.

“Our members are conand oilseeds (A$1.3 b) and meat cerned there will be carve-outs and livestock (at A$600 m).

Finlay says farmers strongly for certain commodities. If it’s support an FTA with China, but not likely to be a good deal for it must encompass a holistic all it will not be supported by view of Australian agriculture the industry.

“The tariff regime remains a and consider trade access to all markets. “We will not support a significant point of conjecture

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“If the Government is serious about agriculture being a pillar of the Australian economy, there needs to be a genuine commitment to commercial results for our sector with trade deals.”

Abbott says he remains committed to finalising FTAs with Japan and China.

“I said on election night that Australia is ‘open for business’ and I committed to driving the finalisation of three key FTAs with Japan, Korea and China.

“These countries represent 40% of Australia’s total twoway trade in goods and services, valued at $A250 billion. The prosperity of our country and other countries in our region depends on increased trade and investment.”

Nats dubious on foreign ownership AUSTRALIAN NATIONALS leader Warren Truss says his party would be open to an FTA with China if it contained the same protections for agriculture as Australia’s recent deal with South Korea.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott has pledged to secure an agreement with China by the end of the year but has faced opposition from the Nationals over foreign investors buying agricultural land and businesses.

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 

 

 

BEEF PRICES

 









































NI

LAMB PRICES Change

c/kgCWT

P2 Steer - 300kg

n/c

M2 Bull - 300kg

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

4.30

4.30

3.84

4.35

n/c

4.35

3.82

 











 

n/c

Last Year

5.46

5.46

4.23

PM - 16.0kg

n/c

5.48

5.48

4.25 4.27

3.40

3.40

2.85

PX - 19.0kg

n/c

5.50

5.50

3.30

3.30

2.70

PH - 22.0kg

n/c

5.51

5.51

4.28

Local Trade - 230kg

+5

4.30

4.25

3.82

Mutton

MX1 - 21kg

n/c

3.45

3.45

2.48

SI Lamb

YM - 13.5kg

-5

4.05

4.10

3.65

n/c

5.48

5.48

4.21

M2 Bull - 300kg

-5

3.90

3.95

3.65

PM - 16.0kg

n/c

5.48

5.48

4.23

P2 Cow - 230kg

-5

2.85

2.90

2.70

PX - 19.0kg

n/c

5.48

5.48

4.25

M Cow - 200kg

-5

2.75

2.80

2.58

PH - 22.0kg

n/c

5.48

5.48

4.26

Local Trade - 230kg

n/c

4.10

4.10

3.80

n/c

3.18

3.18

2.30

Mutton

MX1 - 21kg

Slaughter 



  

 









  









YM - 13.5kg

2 Wks Ago

n/c

       

  



NI Lamb

Last Week

n/c

Slaughter



Change

c/kgCWT

M Cow - 200kg P2 Steer - 300kg



Last Week

P2 Cow - 230kg

SI



LAMB MARKET TRENDS

 























  

 





 









































2.05

2.14

1.50

1.83

8.64

9.13

5.98

8.39

  

2.25

2.19

1.90

NZ$/kg

-10

5.71

5.81

5.77

5.65





 















Procurement Indicator 2Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

% Returned NI

+1%

75.3%

74.0%

66.56%

69.2%

% Returned SI

+0%

69.2%

68.8%

63.3%

64.3%

Change   

 







Change

2Wks Ago

3 Wks Ago

% Returned NI

+3%

71.8%

69.1%

65.2%

65.9%

% Returned SI

+2%

70.5%

68.5%

64.9%

66.9%

Last Year 5yr Ave

   









 3 Wks Ago







Procurement Indicator



 

















Last Year 5yr Ave

-9

5yr Ave

2.25



2 Wks Ago

-49

Last Year

n/c



Last Week



NZ$/kg







UK Leg £/lb

2 Wks Ago







Export Market Demand

Last Week

95CL US$/lb







Export Market Demand





Change

Change





   















 













 



 













 















 







 



 









   















Venison Prices

 

















Change



 Beef  & venison prices are reported as gross (before normal levies & charges are deducted). Lamb & mutton prices are reported nett (after levies & charges are deducted).

Last Week

2 Wks Ago

Last Year 5yr Ave

NI Stag - 60kg

n/c

6.15

6.15

6.30

7.04

SI Stag - 60kg

n/c

6.20

6.20

6.42

7.37



Give them lifetime traceability

– register your cattle with NAIT

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014 

WOOL PRICE WATCH

BEEF Cows influence schedules in both islands

Indicators in NZ$

A slow down in the numbers of cull cows presented in the NI has stopped the trend of falling export prices in the past two weeks. The upper range of prices have crept up a bit as competition heated up.

Export bull in the NI was earning $4.30/kg last week and export steer was at $4.35/kg. A shortage of local trade supply also kept pressure on prices as the local trade price ranged between $4.25-$4.45/kg last week. In the SI cull cows have just started to be presented, with killing space tightening up. Prices in the SI subsequently eased last week with export steer earning around the $4.10/kg mark and export bull back to $3.95/kg. SI local trade is at $4.10/kg.

Coarse Xbred Indic.

Fine Xbred Indicator Lamb Indicator

Imported US beef prices stall Stalling imported US grinding beef prices have illustrated in the last several weeks that even though supplies of grinding beef are scarce in the US, there is a limit to the amount of imported product the market wants. Volumes of Australian product are pouring into the market and NZ’s offerings of cow have also increased, both in 90 and 95CL form. This has resulted in imported prices stalling even though the domestic price has reached a record high of $2.65/lb. The end uses of the two products have become quite separated, with domestic demanded solely by retailers, and as the essential ingredient in patty formulation. Imported 90 and 95CL are less desirable at present for patties as they need prior blending. 50CL is a nightmare to source, not to mention expensive, and end users would prefer to use Australian 85CL that does not require as much blending.

Mid Micron Indic.

A drop off in lamb slaughter numbers in the NI has seen the upper range of export prices paid increase as procurement competition creeps in. Export prices in the NI averaged $5.60/kg gross last week, with a range of $5.45-$5.75/kg. In the SI the avg was $5.50/kg gross, but $5.65/kg was achieved by some. The local trade in both islands is placing pressure on export prices as lambs become harder to find. Local trade buyers were paying $5.60/kg gross in both islands last week. A higher NZD against major trading partners is reducing processor margins on lamb at present.

DAIRY Dairy prices under pressure Whole milk powder (WMP) prices remain under pressure on the back of increased global production and weaker demand from China. The increase in global supplies has had some buyers holding off purchasing WMP, anticipating prices will move lower. SMP prices are following the same trend as WMP, again driven by increased supplies.

Production out of NZ is at higher than expected volumes, with manufacturers filling orders and having additional product to sell on the spot market. In the most recent auction the GlobalDairy Trade price index fell 5.2% from the previous auction, the lowest tradeweighted price in 9 months. WMP prices dropped 5.8%. .

n/c

4.76

4.76

3.96

+8

4.96

4.88

4.87

+1

5.01

5.00

5.28

-

-

-

9.17





Indicators in NZ$/T Butter Skim Milk Powder Whole Milk Powder Cheddar

Prev. 2 Wks

Last Year

-142

5451

5593

5108

-304

5523

5827

4884

-332

5437

5768

5915

-105

5868

5973

5198







Last 2 Wks

Change

   

  













 









  

 







 

 









Indicators in US$/kg

27-Mar

20-Mar

Last Year

+3

4.09

4.06

+10

4.26

4.17

4.03

+4

4.31

4.27

4.37

-

-

-

7.58

Mid Micron Indicator

3.27

Indicators in US$/T







Last 2 Wks

Prev. 2 Wks

-175

4800

4975

4088

-200

4725

4925

4950

n/c

5100

5100

4350

Change

Butter

-38

Skim Milk Powder Whole Milk Powder Cheddar









Overseas Price Indicators

Change

Lamb Indicator





Overseas Price Indicators

4738

Last Year

4775

4275

 

 

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

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



 



Store lamb activity picks up across the country The continuing dry on the North Island’s west coast has seen a greater number of store lambs available in the past two weeks. Prices in the paddock have been steady for two weeks with 32kg male lines earning around the $2.45/kg mark and longer term options 5-10cpk dearer. Ewe lambs are around the $2.50/kg mark. There is a degree of uncertainty about the quantity of store lambs left to come out his season. Widespread rain across the island could see these prices increase. The South Island store lamb market lifted around 10cpk last week on the back of several winter contracts being issued. Firm winter pricing has given farmers the confidence to take a punt on store lambs and demand is firm. The entrance of cropping farmers into the market has also stimulated demand. Between $2.40$2.50/kg is the range on farm for 32kg male lines with lighter options around 5-10cpk dearer. Ewe lambs are around the $2.45-$2.50/kg range.

20-Mar



       

Fine Xbred Indicator

Slaughter numbers fall off

27-Mar

Change

Coarse Xbred Indicator

LAMB

DAIRY PRICE WATCH Last Year

 

 

    

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





Last Week 2 Wks Ago 4 Wks Ago Last Year 0.839

0.837

Euro

0.632

0.619

0.612

0.655

UK pound

0.523

0.517

0.503

0.553



Aus dollar

0.936

0.943

0.936

0.801



Japan yen

88.76

87.37

85.54

79.02









Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun



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









0.854





US Dollar



0.869

Euro



 



US dollar





 



       

CURRENCY WATCH vs. NZ Dollar

 

  













UK Pound

      

 















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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

24 AGRIBUSINESS

Ngati Awa vies for big award Ngakauroa Farm, owned by Ngati Awa Farms Ltd, is one of three dairy farms contesting the Ahuwhenua Trophy for the top Maori dairy farm in 2014. The farm, near Te Teko, Bay of Plenty, held a field day as part of the judging process. Peter Burke attended.

THE 186ha farm is located on the fertile Rangitaiki Plains and is just across the river from another of this year’s finalists, Himiona Farm owned by the Putauaki Trust.

The backdrop to the farm is the imposing Mt Putauaki. But the connections don’t stop there.

Putuauki Trust is one of six other trusts, which are shareholders or joint venture partners in Ngati Awa Farms Ltd, and all have leased land to the parent company to make up an

economic farming unit.

Ngakauroa Farm’s milking platform is 186ha effective with a further 46ha run-off block.

This season 620 cows are milked on the property and they expect to produce 240,000kgMS. The farm is run by variable sharemilkers Mike Learmond and Donna Constantine who also employ two full time staff.

Like all three finalists, Ngakauroa Farm is the result of smaller Maori

trusts collaborating to gain production and economic scale. This is seen as model other Maori trusts are likely to follow as the race starts to unlock small Maori land holdings.

The history of Ngakauaroa records the land was confiscated by early settlers in the region then reverted to Maori ownership until it was sold to a Scotsman, Doug Allen, in 1911. One of his ancestors Alistair was present at the field day. More recently the farm was owned by a

Venezuelan businessman before being acquired

by Ngati Awa in 2008.

The challenge, says the chairman of Ngati Awa Farms Ltd, Graham Pryor, is for all the tribes to cooperate in aggregating the land blocks and growing a dairying operation.

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scale is a part of it, and we are going to repeat this model in a couple of other places including another farm we have acquired. Ngakauroa bought a good farm in the first place, with good land and infrastructure, and we have added to that as we have grown the farm.

This includes upgrading the irrigation system and extending the milking shed.”

Good governance is helping Maori trusts and incorChairman of Ngati Awa Farms Graham Pryor. porations to rapidly develop successful farming enterlowing their own aspiraprises and Ngati Awa tions.

Farms Ltd is no exception.

“For this operation come along with them and others haven’t, Pryor says.

Those who haven’t are fol-

Pryor says it requires the trusts to come together while retaining their own mana, but committing to structures that will deliver a better outcome for their people.

“We are developing scale and we want to develop our own capability around this region in agricultural activity. It’s not just dairying. We are interested in food processing and getting into products that will grow on the land and get further up the value chain.

“Our tupuna (ancestors) tell us we were big farmers and that we contributed a lot to the food production of this country and to its exports. We want to get back to that place and to do that we have to build capability internally and externally.

That’s what we are slowly doing.”

Keen cadet aiming high MATANGIREIA NGAROPO is Ngati Awa’s farm cadet who spends some of his time on Ngakauroa Farm.

He’s a local lad with Ngati Awa affiliation.

His father named him Matangireia – one of the 12 heavens in the sky.

However, it seems his second heaven is dairy farming. He’s been dairy farming for two years and has spent four months at Ngakauroa.

“I love everything about it. I love being outside doing hands-on jobs and working with Matangireia Ngaropo the animals. My goal is to be able to run and manage a Ngati Awa farm and I am getting more experience and keep working hard and doing work with the Primary ITO,” he says.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

AGRIBUSINESS 25 She is the boss around here

Happy sharemilkers: Mike Learmond and Donna Constantine.

Happy couple content with patch MIKE LEARMOND and Donna Constantine are the variable order sharemilkers on the property and they love the farm and the area.

They employ two full time staff – Richard and Jess – and there is a farm cadet employed by Ngati Awa directly who helps out.

Mike is a local who has been dairy farming since he left school at 16. Donna came up from Paekakariki, near Wellington, for her brother’s 21st birthday and stayed in “this little slice of paradise”.

This is where she met Mike, but the dairy farm probably also helped her to stay.

The couple came to Ngakauroa four years ago looking for change and found it. The fact that Ngakauroa is increasing its cow numbers works well for the couple. As variable order (21%) sharemilkers they say they are better off in this situation than if they were 50/50 sharemilkers with lower cow numbers, a point echoed recently by many other sharemilkers.

“When we first started in 2010 the line of command was through a consultant and then to a board and back to a consultant and then back to us, which slowed the process a bit,” Mike explains. “But now Enid is on board it’s fast-tracked and we report directly to her and she will give a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’ there and then.”

He also attends the bi-monthly board meetings and is directly involved in running the farm.

Ngakouroa farm is mainly a pasture based-operation, but 400-500 tonnes of supplement is used to extend lactation and cover any feed deficits that may incur over the season.

“We use a range of maize grass silage, a bit of hay and we contracted100 tonnes of PKE this year. We grow about 10ha of maize a year and get a 25 tonne yield from that per ha,” he explains. “We usually grow this on our lease blocks, which tend to be lower quality pasture so it links in with pasture renovation because once the maize is harvested we turn it straight into quality pasture.”

A big issue for Mike and Donna is having good and happy staff. As Donna points out happy staff translate to happy cows and an overall happy farm environment.

“We have the two staff who live on farm and join us for breakfast and lunch every day. There are definitely times to be serious, but there is also time to have a good laugh and keep the lines of communication open between everybody and make sure they are happy in their work and in what they are doing. We make a point of praising them for good work and the reward is to see the smile on their faces.”

Donna says it’s hard to get young people to get out of bed early in the morning every day to work on a dairy farm and supporting and encouraging them is important.

As for their future, they like the lifestyle of the district with good beaches, fishing and hunting opportunities. They seldom venture out of the district, preferring to make the most of local recreational opportunities. As to their farming aspirations, they are keen to stay with Ngati Awa as it grows its dairying operations. That also allows them to grow their business.

ENID RATAHI-PRYOR is the chief executive of Ngati Awa Group Holdings Ltd (NAGHL) which runs the farms they own, including Ngakauroa.

Her job is to help develop and implement the strategy, especially liaising with all the trusts to ensure they participate and support the new directions of the farming operations of NAGHL. “With Ngakauroa we think we

have great foundations to springboard from,” she told Rural News.

“That was one of the reasons for entering Ahuwhenua – to understand where we are compared with others and to utilise the benchmarking available through Dairybase.”

Out of this has come the purchase of a new dairy farm, Tumurua, which is not entered in the Ahuwhenua Trophy, but high-

lights the move on the part of Ngati Awa to rapidly increase the size of its dairying operation. Ratahi-Pryor says the lessons from Ngakauroa have been applied to the newly purchased farm. “Tumurua is a big farm and it’s three quarters irrigated, so we are currently running 850 cows and there is the capacity for more cows. It’s also next to other large Maori land blocks, which is a fab-

ulous opportunity for NAGHL to investigate the next level of working with our trust to partner and lease more Maori land for our platform.”

Ratahi-Pryor says the goal is all about Ngati Awa succeeding in agribusiness and being able to lead the way for the trusts that are smaller so they can get their foot into dairying and other businesses.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

26 OPINION EDITORIAL

EDNA

Apathy rules THE BEEF + Lamb New Zealand board will meet during the next week or so to consider the results of farmer remits to its annual meeting, held in Fielding last month.

All those resolutions and remits were passed by the meeting. However, because so few sheep and beef farmers actually bothered to vote, as one commentator rightly pointed out, “apathy was the only winner.”

Official figures provided by Electionz.com show only a 14.30% voting turnout – 2451 of the 17,142 farmers on the BLNZ voting register. Meanwhile, the weighted voting percentage represented only 24% of the potential total weighted vote based on sheep (30.9 million), beef (3.69 million) and dairy (6.44 million) livestock numbers at June 30, 2013.

So that means fewer than 15% of sheep and beef farmers – only a quarter of the total based on stock owned – bothered to vote. Pathetic!

How can anyone take seriously the constant complaints and claims of red meat producers that their industry is in crisis when so few of them are concerned enough to participate in a vote? This is an indictment of sheep and beef farmers and a very poor reflection on their interest in their industry.

Despite this appalling voter turnout, no one can deny that the Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) group sought and won a mandate for funding to promote red meat sector reform.

If the huge majority of sheep and beef farmers were either too lazy or indifferent to cast a vote, that is not MIE’s fault; it did everything it could to raise awareness of its proposal. More problematic for MIE and others in the red meat sector is overcoming such ingrained apathy among farmers.

Calls for a meat industry summit to resolve the red meat sector’s woes are a waste of time when so few sheep and beef farmers are interested. Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy is correct in saying change must come from the sector, not the Government.

He rightly wants a significant portion of the sector to come together with proposals for a better industry.

“Any substantial change needs to come with a clear and broad level of support,” Guy says. “I am not prepared to interfere in the structure of a sector without the support of that sector.

The Government doesn’t own the industry – you do.”

Judging by the lack of interest among sheep and beef farmers, Minister, I would not be holding my breath.

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

“He’s coming closer Blue! – I can smell him!”

THE HOUND

Want to share your opinion or gossip with the Hound?

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

Change?

Good job

Thanks dairy

Well done

MIA

THE HOUND wonders if Fonterra is betting on a change of Government after the general election on September 20. It seems the dairy co-op’s latest addition to its ever-growing team of spin doctors is former Labour media manipulator and chief of staff Gordon Jon Thompson, now external communications manager with the dairy giant. Mind you, your old mate hears Thompson raised eyebrows among his former political friends when he went off to head casino operator Sky City’s spin operation. So perhaps he is more interested in the 20 pieces of silver than any strict political code.

THE MINISTRY for Primary Industries cops its fair share of flack whenever another moth, fly or other biosecurity threat breeches our border. So the Hound would like to pay tribute to his cousins in the MPI dog team at the International Mail Centre, near Auckland airport, who recently detected an unusual biosecurity threat. Your old mate’s canine colleagues sniffed out a box of South African animal skulls crawling with maggots.

The box contained several wild animal skulls, thought to include zebra and wildebeest. MPI is understood to be holding the skulls.

YOUR OLD mate reckons despite the attempts by the cow haters at Bitch and Complain (Fish and Game) to destroy the nation’s dairy industry, figures recently released

by Statistics NZ show how important the humble moo cow is to NZ’s economy. The numbers show that the increase in the value of dairy product exports saw New Zealand record its smallest seasonally adjusted current account deficit since the March 2010 quarter. The Hound suggests the whingers at Bitch and Complain HQ should note this before throwing any more crap.

YOUR CANINE crusader congratulates John McCarthy and his Meat Industry Excellence (MIE) group for getting funding from red meat producers.

While the Hound questions what MIE will actually ever accomplish, and whether another lobby group is really needed in the red meat sector, he concedes MIE asked for a mandate from farmers and now have one: Meanwhile, McCarthy is still planning on a national red meat sector summit and is hoping for Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy’s support.

Just what the struggling industry needs: another talkfest – not!

THE LATEST report on the impact of climate change, released last week was full of the usual cheery stuff.

The lead authors of the Australasian chapter were NIWA climate scientist Dr Andrew Tait, AgResearch scientist Dr Paul Newton and New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre scientist Dr Andy Reisinger. Alas, when the Hound’s journalist colleagues from this fine organ wanted more info about their findings not one of these knowledgeable chaps was available to comment further. One was in Rarotonga “at a fiveday workshop”, another was away on ‘leave’ and the other was just MIA.

TECHNICAL EDITOR: Andrew Swallow ................... Ph 03 688 2080 PRODUCTION: Dave Ferguson ........................Ph 09 913 9633 Becky Williams ........................Ph 09 913 9634 REPORTERS: Sudesh Kissun ....................... Ph 09 913 9627 Pamela Tipa ............................ Ph 09 913 9630 Peter Burke .............................Ph 06 362 6319 SUB-EDITOR: Neil Keating ............................Ph 09 913 9628 WEBSITE PRODUCER: James Anderson .................... Ph 09 913 9621

NATIONAL SALES MANAGER: Ted Darley .......... Ph 07 854 6292/021 832 505 ted@ruralnews.co.nz

WELLINGTON SALES REPRESENTATIVE: Mark Macfarlane .Ph 04 234 6239/021 453 914 markm@ruralnews.co.nz

AUCKLAND SALES REPRESENTATIVE: Stephen Pollard ....Ph 09 913 9637/021 963 166 stephenp@ruralnews.co.nz

SOUTH ISLAND SALES REPRESENTATIVE: Kaye Sutherland Ph 03 337 3828/021 221 1994 kayes@ruralnews.co.nz

ABC audited circulation 81,232 as at 31.12.2013 Rural News is published by Rural News Group Ltd. All editorial copy and photographs are subject to copyright and may not be reproduced without prior written permission of the publisher. Opinions or comments expressed within this publication are not necessarily those of staff, management or directors of Rural News Group Ltd.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

OPINION 27

Aussie farmers dig in on coal seam gas issue AUSTRALIA IS known as China’s quarry for good reason. China is Australia’s largest market for iron ore and our second largest market – and before long it will be the largest – for coal.

About 97% of Australia’s iron ore production comes from Western Australia (which in its arrogance tells the rest of the country to pull its weight and makes noises of seceding). The bill to China last year alone was $38 billion.

Now, there’s a new hunger for multinational energy companies to start digging holes in our wide, brown land. They’re after coal seam gas, and having drilled for it throughout Queensland, they have recently headed south to NSW and Victoria.

The established mining practices in WA rarely trouble farmers. The expansion of the coal industry in Queensland over the past decade has seen mining companies and farmers at loggerheads. Unlike the US, where farmers can receive millions of dollars in royalties if a mining company strikes it lucky on their farm, Australian farmers only own the top metre or so of soil.

Anything underneath it is owned by the federal and state governments, in whose financial interest it is in the form of royalties for miners to extract whatever mineral lurks beneath the surface.

Farmers have little choice if miners want to do testing. Mining companies must pay a negotiated fee – certainly never in the vicinity of those received by US farmers. Farmers must hope mining employees don’t drag weeds onto their property or leave massive holes. You can guess who usually comes off second best.

However, mining companies hoping to extract coal seam gas (CSG) from farmland in NSW and to expand their interests in Queensland have recently found, to their surprise, that they don’t have a free rein.

Farmers have received support to ‘lock the gate’ from their respective state governments.

There are currently 3508 active coal seam gas wells, 3249 in Queensland and 259 in NSW. Miners wanting to test drill last year on some of NSW’s prime (and most expensive) grazing land proved the rallying point

for farmers who cried out that Australia was more than a giant quarry. It was a classic case of the current mining boom versus the potential ‘dining’ boom.

Both the federal and state governments pay lip service to agriculture, saying we are in a prime position to meet Asia’s expanding food needs.

So the thirst for mining expansion has become a litmus test.

Do governments give free rein to an industry that can provide them with billions of dollars in royalties, or invest in the long-term future (and export earnings) of agriculture?

There are positive signs for the farming sector emanating from state governments. It was announced late last month (March) that all coal seam gas exploration applications will be frozen for six months

in NSW while the state government reviews the controversial process. All existing licences will also be audited.

The six-month freeze will allow the government to introduce a “new, thorough regime” for allocating future licences, it said.

The government is concerned about the application process, which has seen small companies, sometimes run by one person, being allowed to explore large areas despite not having the experience or financial backing for the projects.

At about the same time in Queensland, the state government tabled a bill that will guarantee protection of prime farm land and communities from encroaching resource development, especially CSG and coal.

The Queensland Government says it will be impossible in future to mine in the prime grazing and farming area in Queensland’s south-east, where it currently runs rampant.

Now call me an old cynic, and it won’t be the first time, but the Government’s preference for polling anything and

everything these days may have played a part. There is community outrage there and it would have influenced their decision to do something.

However, it’s a necessary step and we can only hope six-month moratoriums lead to a long-term strategy.

Destruction of prime

farming land can’t be undone and the future costs will be enormous. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

30 OPINION ARE FARMERS AT FAULT? DO YOU not find it ironic that this noisy/nosy body (Fish and Game NZ) is using the introduced trout as the ‘canary in the mine’ to attack other introduced animals – being humans, cattle, sheep and deer? At least these introduced animals are working in the mine and are doing their best to keep themselves and their mine workplace safe anyway?

While, at the same time, trout are decimating our natural freshwater native species

However, the real culprit has to be the agricultural industry which has allowed the public to be brainwashed so they responded to the slanted survey questions in the way they did.

We have failed for years to match the lobbying and self-promotion essential in this world and have only ourselves to blame. Perhaps we can learn that lesson now.

Garrick Batten Brightwater

DIRTY CAMPERS

CLEAN UP YOUR OWN ACT!

TRAVELLING FROM Opotiki to Gore, with a truckload of horses, we stopped many times to give them a break and a drink in a river.

At every stop there was human waste, toilet paper, bottles, food and over-full rubbish bins; all this must end up in the rivers.

I myself would rather drink from the river where six cows have been than one human. We rode over 500k mostly on high county stations staying in baches, most of them private.

The huts can only be reached by 4x4 or chopper. They cart in all their bottles but seem unable to cart them out, leaving them for the farmer to get rid of.

Most of the rivers had didymo and I didn’t see a dirty dairy cow anywhere, but saw a fisherman or two.

Ian McLellan RD1 Opotiki

SOME YEARS ago I was involved with a group of New Zealand sport promoters. We attempted to bring to New Zealand a major international aquatic event, which was to be called the Commonwealth Aquatic Championships.

Some 30 different sports said ‘yes’ to our proposal. One of my duties was to inspect some of the lakes around Waikato to see if we could hold aquatic sports events there. One such lake inspected was Hamilton Lake, found unfit for a major event. Is it fair to blame dairy farmers for the state of all our waterways?

Consider also: there are no dairy farms beside that lake; and, like many Waikato children I swam in that lake in the 1960s.

Today this lake is dead.

What has made it unfit to swim in? Ducks and Canada geese.

Another lake we considered was at Huntly West – the newly developed lake, a disused open-cast coal mine now filled with rainwater. It now has a weed problem caused by ducks and Canada geese. (There are no dairy farms around it.)

Bryce Johnson of Fish and Game blames farming for all the problems found in our lakes. I ask him who introduced these geese to the North Island? From 1880 to 1980 how much lead shot was fired into our Waikato lakes? When can we expect to see Mr Johnson start to remove the lead shot from our lakes and clean up the geese crap?

M Hill RD Taupiri

OPEN THE GATES THANK YOU for the invite to express views on the furore created by the Fish and Game survey.

I am a cropping farmer and profit directly and indirectly from the dairy industry. I am also a conservationist, commercial realist and like nothing better than a free afternoon to fish in a beautiful pristine river. I also have a passion for the perception of the agricultural industry from the city’s viewpoint.

Slamming the gate shut is wrong. We need to do the opposite.

I suggest we take Fish and Game’s survey and expand it. Edit it for loaded questions so that it becomes indisputably neutral and put it out to a much wider audience.

Then take heed of what is being said. Open the gate and show the members of Fish and Game and all who express an interest what we are doing to alleviate the problem, both perceived and real.

David Carter, when Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, said, “You must take the city with you.” Wise words indeed and when I look about these intensive Canterbury Plains where I farm, I believe many farmers are taking heed of what non-farming people may think. The custodians of land are beginning to care, they want to take the city with them and I take pride in observing the appearance of little pockets of native bush appearing in nonproductive, riparian and roadside areas.

The deterioration of the New Zealand farming image in the worldwide market and the local cities is a threat.

The dairy industry does have a problem. And the answer lies in opening the gate to all with pride, not slamming it shut and carrying on regardless.

Andrew Luddington RD2 Christchurch (Abridged)

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

OPINION 31 IS IT REALLY POSSUMS?

DON’T BLAME WILDLIFE FOR TB PROBLEMS THAT WAS interesting news – ‘New case clouds TB clearances’ (Rural News, March 4) in which it was stated “no TB was found in wild animal populations tested”.

Yet on the other hand OSPRI’s (ex-Animal Health Board) John Deal went into a public spin, pointing the finger at wildlife.

Certainly Tb rates have fallen significantly over the last decade.

As your article stated the Taranaki containment was due to “quick and accurate information on livestock movements minimised impact,” and tracing stock movement.

But there is still an uncertain element in the equation and that is the use of the archaic skin test, with its 20% error. Do OSPRI and TB FREE NZ want to eliminate TB? To do so, they must use accurate blood tests and get rid of ‘hidden’ sleeper animals from herds.

And stop blaming wild animals and throwing toxic 1080 around from the air.

It kills native bird life and insects, and game animals, and disrupts the

ecosystem, as scientists told DOC in the mid-1990s. DOC snubbed the research and continued. Also important is that 1080 (and toxins like brodifacoum) destroy New Zealand’s claim to being clean, green and 100% pure, vital to getting a market edge on world markets for primary produce.

Yet we have naive ministers like Conservation Minister Nick Smith and DOC advocating more 1080 for a wild assumption that rats are going to explode in massive numbers due to cyclic beech seeding. What hysterical nonsense! Beech seeding has been occurring for millions of years. Rats have been here for 800 years (kiore) and 200 years (brown rat). Why is 2014 going to be ultra-extraordinary?

Andi Cockroft co-chairman Council of Outdoor Recreation Assn of NZ (Editor’s note: To be declared clear of the disease, an infected herd must achieve two whole-herd clear skin tests, no less than six months apart, and a clear blood test – as was stated in the article.)

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But more recently the Animal Health Board has been catching and testing these supposedly infected possums.

For the last seven years, after AHB’s continual surveys of wild life in the North Island, the only wild animal to show up with BTB has been the pig. In 2013, AHB caught and tested 2500 possums and mustelids with not a single

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evidence has yet emerged to support the theory is making more people think.

John Deal of TBfree NZ tells us that the result of their recent survey shows

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

32 MANAGEMENT Making his point: farmer and consultant Hamish Buchanan compares Weetbix and Easter eggs to show the range of pasture quality possible.

Better feeding a Do sheep and beef farmers have more to learn from their dairy farming colleagues or is it the other way around? Peter Burke reports from a recent Beef + Lamb New Zealand field day.

MANY FARMS, sheep, beef and dairy, have room to improve with their feed budgeting, believes a leading finisher from the Lower North Island.

Speaking to a field day north of Feilding recently, Roger Dalrymple, Bulls, said it was staggering the number of skinny cows around earlier this season given the high pay-out forecast from Fonterra.

“It just amazed me that in the spring dairy farmers weren’t buying maize silage as a backup to protect against anything such as a drought.”

If he was dairy farming, he wouldn’t have a skinny cow on his property, he maintains.

“Farmers who are just grass feeding their animals have to plan well and be prepared to deal with a ‘tight situation’. They also need to realise the importance of fully feeding their cows.”

Skinny cows are a sign that either feed budgets aren’t being done, or they aren’t being done correctly, he says.

But the problem isn’t exclusive to dairy: there’s a widespread tendency

to not feed stock well enough, he adds.

“We used to be like that on our farm until we put irrigation in and became a finisher. You soon work out the profitability…. A lot of the issues in this country are due to underfeeding.”

Field day facilitator Tom Fraser echoed that, but says sheep and beef farmers can learn a lot from dairy farmers about feeding stock.

“Sheep farmers need to look at what dairy farmers are doing and how are they achieving maxi-

mum potential production, which is by giving the animals as much food as they require to produce at the time of the year – especially during that spring lactation period.”

The twice daily productivity check of milk in the vat means a dairy farmer should quickly spot if something’s wrong, he adds.

“Dairy farmers supply high quality feed in a manner the cow can harvest quite quickly…Sheep farmers need to learn from that. I am not saying they should have pasture

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Dairy grazing is having a detrimental effect on sheep performance on some South Island farms with graziers taking condition off ewes in late winter, sacrificing lactation, in order to feed someone else’s dairy stock, warns Fraser.

“They are getting cash flow in the short-term but poor performance from their own stock [longer-term].”

Fraser says he can understand why it happens, particularly where there’s pressure from the bank.

“I am not saying they shouldn’t be growing feed for the dairy cow but they need to first of all feed their own multiple bearing ewes,” he stresses.

“At the moment there is no question that you can make more money out of feeding that twin bearing ewe in the last four weeks of pregnancy and that first four weeks of lactation. If you can feed them properly during that time, it’s certainly going to be better than giving that pasture to a dairy cow.”

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

MANAGEMENT 33

message for many mass of 2200kgDM/ha, but they should have pasture mass above 1200kgDM/ha during that early lactation period and ideally something like 1700.”

Farmers’ ideas of an animal’s feed requirements, and an animal’s voluntary intake, can be two quite different things, warns Fraser. For example, a farmer might calculate there’s enough feed in a paddock for ten days but stock won’t necessarily eat evenly during that period.

They might get through all right but if feed gets tight in the last few days they won’t perform to potential.

Fellow field day speaker, farmer and consultant Hamish Buchanan, says offer slightly larger feed breaks so stock can select forage of their choice. The result will be a higher energy intake.

But as he points out, it’s a balancing act.

“You still need to graze the paddock or break to a level that will guarantee high pasture quality for the rotation. It’s all very well growing an animal for one or two days, the reality of farming is you want to grow animals well for 20 to 100 days. It’s a balance between making sure that there is quality for the next rotation whilst maximising animal performance in the paddock they are already in.”

Dalrymple stresses the importance of keeping the rumen going with enough feed, even if quality has to be compromised.

“It doesn’t have to be high quality feed when there is a drought on.

There are plenty of ‘fillers’ that will allow that rumen to keep going. It’s crucial

to look after the factory of the animal.”

Rearing young stock with rumen development in mind is also crucial.

“If you have an animal that’s fed and reared properly the extra production that you get from a cow is huge.”

Fraser says the stock and pasture genetics available in New Zealand’s sheep, beef and dairy sectors are good but farmers tend to take a greater interest in the former of the two.

“It’s a human nature thing: a cow or a sheep moves around, they might even kick us around, they react to us, whereas the pasture is almost something they just walk across the top of and it doesn’t respond to us, so as human beings we are always going to take more interest in the animal side

of the operation.

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They say ‘hell no!”

More attention to quality of conserved feed in terms of metabolisable energy is also important, says Fraser.

“You are buying energy. If you want that supplement for maintenance for some beef cows it doesn’t have to be high quality, but that means you shouldn’t be paying very much for it.

But if you want to feed it to a milking cow or some supplement for ewes just prior to lambing it needs or be high quality because you don ‘t want to be filling the animals up with low quality forages.”

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WHILE FARMING is a ‘lifestyle’ it should first and foremost be treated as a business, says Dalrymple, and that requires understanding the fundamentals of animal nutrition.

“If people do not understand the feeding of animals, the feed demand for an animal and the detail about what feed is and starch, protein, ME and NDF, then those farmers don’t know their busiRoger Dalrymple nesses. As far as I am concerned I class them as a ‘hobby farmer’ because they are not in it for the real business of farming,” he says.

Fraser acknowledges some older farmers he comes across are really just lifestyle farmers, doing 130% lambing with lambs going to the works “whenever.”

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

34 MANAGEMENT

Plan to make pasture persist GA RE T H G I L LAT T

CORRECT PLANTING and careful early management are the keys to making pasture last longer and be more productive, a crowd of about 80 at a Northland Agricultural Research Farm Field Day heard last month.

AgResearch scientist Tom Fraser says insufficient planning and substandard sowing are some of the biggest factors behind pastures with a lifespan less than three years.

All too often seed is sown too deep. Burying seeds at 30mm to protect from the sun before autumn rains simply slows down ryegrass emergence and absolutely eliminates any chance of the sown clover establishing.

“You might as well pick up your seed and throw the clover seed into a river on the way home: it’s got a better chance of surviving!”

He says sow ryegrass no more than 15mm deep and clover less than 10mm.

But the pasture renewal process needs to start long before sowing

Take a year preparing a paddock for renewal, AgResearch’s Tom Fraser told a recent Northland field days.

with planning at least a year ahead.

Farmers need to examine paddocks to understand why pastures are failing and work out how to fix problems, be it drainage, fertility or the type of pasture relative to the environment it’s growing in.

Planning a year ahead provides time to find the right seed while issues such as drainage or fertility are dealt with.

For maximum performance select tetraploid ryegrasses but for those having pasture persistence problems a diploid’s likely to last longer.

Ensuring the right endophyte is chosen for the area and pest pressure is as important as getting the right grass cultivar, he adds In warmer areas with black beetle and army worm, use either

AR37 or NEA2, he advises.

Examining the seed lot analysis certificate to ensure possible seeds are up to snuff is also worthwhile, he suggests, as it provides a lot of other information including the percentage likely to germinate, amount of endophyte on seed, and how many weed seeds are in each batch.

Fraser says anything less than 99% pure and 95% germination should be looked at twice.

Modern endophytes have relatively short lifespans between cold storage and going into the ground resulting in less long-term protection for the new seed, he explains.

While Fraser says money can be saved using 20kg/ha seed rates, early results of a DairyNZ survey on pasture persistence suggest 30kg/ha is better, whether you’re in Northland or Canterbury. Farm systems specialist, Chris Glassey, who presented the survey results, suggests slightly heavier seed volumes may make up for unfavorable environmental conditions and operator error.

$5m to plug knowledge gap AS PART of the Primary Growth Partnership programme, Transforming the Dairy Value Chain, $5m has been allocated to get to the bottom of the widely reported pasture persistence problems, says Dairy NZ. Project leader David Chapman says while sometimes causes of pasture failure are obvious, like major pest strike or serious drought, often yield loss is gradual, possibly because poorer yielding species are replacing sown species or sown species’ yields are declining.

Chapman says there is not enough evidence to show which of these it is, highlighting a big knowledge gap, hence the research effort.

Over 15,000 individual plant samples taken from 72 paddocks nationwide since August 2011 are being grown on at AgResearch’s Ruakura Research Centre and compared to ones sown more recently from the same seed lines.

Chapman notes it’s farmers in northern regions - Waikato, Bay of Plenty, South Auckland and Northland, most often reporting disappointing results, possibly because perennial ryegrass evolved in cool, moist climates and doesn’t like the warm nights of the north, or stress of frequent summer dries, or pests like black beetle, or competiton from weed grasses such as paspalum.

The research will produce a breeding-worth type of scale for cultivar persistence which will be used as one of three rankings in the DairyNZ Forage Value Index, alongside yield and digestibility.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

MANAGEMENT 35

Clover can halve feed costs pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

RYEGRASS WITH strong clover growth provides cheaper and better feed than ryegrass alone.

It’s also a fraction of the cost of crops such as brassica or bought in supplements, yet despite these substantial advantages, many farmers and advisers have forgotten how to grow it, soil scientist Doug Edmeades told a recent Beef + Lamb New Zealand field day in Northland.

“Not only does clover add free nitrogen, it is a better stock food. For milksolids or lambing growth rates, clover is the preferable food. This is the cheapest feed we can produce for ruminants,” he stressed to the Helensville audience.

Typically clover with ryegrass costs 4-5c/kgDM to grow, straight ryegrass 10-12c/kgDM, and brassica 15c/kgDM, while palm kernel is about 40c/kgDM to buy in.

The trick to growing clover is to recognise it has a weak root structure and a high requirement for the 16 nutrients required for any plant growth, says Edmeades. Many of the nutrients are already available in adequate quantities in New Zealand soils while the others are typically added as fertiliser.

The big ones for clover are phosphorus, potassium, sulphur, manganese (notably on pumice or peat soils) and molybdenum.

Nitrogen isn’t needed because, as a legume, clover fixes its own.

“The plant can only grow as fast as the most limiting nutrient, so that’s the one you attack first. If you have a soil that is say potassium deficient and you keep throwing super on it, which is P and S, you’ll get no return. You get your biggest return for your dollar by attacking the nutrients that are most limiting.”

Phosphorous (P) is the most expensive nutrient, costing about $3.20/ kg, Potassium (K) is about $1.70/kg, and sulphur “dirt cheap” at about 40c/kg.

“So the approach I take is to bring all the nutrient levels up so they are not limiting then do an economic optimisation

in terms of phosphorus.

If soil is lacking in P, put some on and you get a big increase in economic production. The dollars from this extra feed [are] much greater than the dollars to put fertiliser on,” he stresses.

But if P is already high in the soil the increase in production is very small, so it is not always economic to apply it as fertiliser, he warned.

“What we are looking for is the place in the middle where those things are equal and that is the economic optimum. You are maximising long-term profitability at that point.

What determines that point is how many dollars you make for every kilogram of dry matter. That depends on how intensive your operation is. Every farmer should know for his own operation where the economic optimum is.”

Edmeades says he reviewed all the potassium research in NZ a couple of years back and came up with new ideas on applying potassium (K).

“You probably have been told these soils have got reserve K in them, that’s why you don’t need to apply potassium. That might have been the case years ago but we’ve been farming these soils for 100 years, stripped out all the potassium so the idea of ‘reserve K’ is no longer relevant to modern day farming.”

One trial Edmeades cited showed a 30-40% production increase by correcting K levels.

“The old recipes that dad and granddad used – which were very successful – like super or lime or both may not be successful now because you have exhausted the soil of potassium or one of the other 16 nutrients. The old recipes don’t apply: you have to work it out for your own farm.”

Clover plants with K deficiency show discolouring round the edge or a speckled look on the leaves. Edmeades says a sure sign it is deficient in pasture is prominent urine patches with clover in the urine patch but not elsewhere. The plant is the canary in the coalmine for potassium, showing deficiency more clearly than

other pasture species.

Sulphur deficient pastures will have prominent dung patches with clover growing well in them but not so much further away. Yellow clover is a clear sign of sulphur deficiency.

Adding large amounts of nitrogen is detrimen-

tal to clover growth as the ‘bugs’ which fix nitrogen stop acting and the added nitrogen promotes grass growth, shading the clover.

“If you apply 300 to 400kg (of N) a year, then forget about clover: it won’t survive. [And] your costs have just gone up.”

Consequently, many

dairy farmers are missing out on the cheapest feed available, he says.

Edmeades says he is “sick and tired” of the excuses from farmers about why they can’t grow clover.

“If we get the fertility right, it would be like a weed.”

No more excuses: Doug Edmeades speaking at the Northland field day.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

36 MANAGEMENT

Fay farm role reignites

Shane Mildenhall wants every lamb leaving Pongaroa to be 19kg carcase weight.

Eighteen months ago one of the country’s wealthiest men bought an isolated station in Northern Hawke’s Bay. Today it’s a central cog in an extensive farm business.

Sarah Charteris reports PONGAROA STATION on Hawke’s Bay’s Mahia Peninsula was bought by Sir Michael Fay’s company Baytown Investments in September 2012.

The aim was to support other farms in the company portfolio, notably central North Island dairy farms, and to finish stock from other sheep and beef properties.

It was inevitable it would be a reasonably complex operation, and there was considerable development to do, so when the position of manager was advertised young farming couple Shane and

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Jenna Mildenhall did not think they stood a chance.

However, with two young children they were looking to make a move and put down some roots, so they threw their hats in the ring all the same.

Both in their late 20s, they were surprised to secure an interview among the dozens of applicants.

By the end of the process they knew they’d be “gutted” not to get the job.

“We were so nervous about meeting Sir Michael Fay himself but he put us at ease instantly,” recalls Jenna, who grew up on a farm at Ohuka, inland from Wairoa.

A day later Sir Michael called to offer them the position. Shane says he can’t describe how he felt.

“I just said ‘yes’ straight away, even though he suggested I take time to think about it.”

While they admit they’ve been “under the pump” since making the move, they say it’s like they’ve won the lottery, being treated like family and encouraged to think of the station as “their baby.”

“My opinion is really valued which makes the job so much more exciting and rewarding and the development over the past 12 months to get the farm to where we want it has been huge.”

A reticulated water system with nearly 120 troughs has gone in, farm buildings have been upgraded, new yards and load-out facilities

installed, and 25km of fencing erected.

About 150ha of gorse has been sprayed and an existing farm track improved to public road specifications to improve truck and trailer access.

“There was a point there where we had up to 30 contractors on the farm – it was like Grand Central Station,” says Jenna.

While the infrastructure development is easing off, the couple’s work load hasn’t. This summer there were 5500 lambs on the station, 487 R2 heifers and 350 heifer calves. Two hundred carry over cows, due to calve in autumn, were trucked in from one of Baytown’s dairy farms in Taupo.

Shane’s set a number of

goals including minimum carcase weights of 19kg for lambs and 300kg for steers. Beef heifers have to be 260kg cwt. The beef stock are bought as weaners in March and should be away by Christmas or just after. There are targets for the dairy cattle too.

“Even though Pongaroa grazes dairy stock for the other farms within the company, there are key performance indicators (KPIs) just like any grazing contract.”

Cropping has been a new challenge for the Mildenhalls and with nearly 400ha of suitable land at Pongoroa it is central to Fay’s strategy of making his farms business self sufficient.

“We are not doing any-

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

MANAGEMENT 37

manager’s passion maximise profit.

“It all comes back into the operation and within five years I want to be killing 20,000 lambs per year and seeing 500 to 800 dairy heifers grown out. No two days are the same here - my last position almost killed my passion for farming but being manager at Pongaroa Sta-

FARM FACTS PONGAROA STATION ❱❱ Location: Mahia Peninsula, north Hawkes Bay. ❱❱ Area: 980ha, 750ha effective ❱❱ Contour: 400ha flat, 200ha rolling, rest steep. ❱❱ Stock: 850 ewe hoggets (mated), 8000 lambs fattened, 500 R2 dairy heifers, 500 R1 dairy heifers, 5-700 dairy cows wintered, 250 autumn-calving dairy cows, 130 steers/cull heifers fattened.

Crops provide feed for Pongarao and other Fay farms further afield.

D N A S E N I H C A M T S R FEEDOU E D A E R P S D E L I TRA PERIOR M

Putting down roots: Shane with wife Jenna, Lucas (5) and Emmy (2).

tion has reignited it.”

They’ve both thrown themselves into life off the farm too and with fiveyear-old Lucas and twoyear-old Emmy, they’re already entrenched in the local community.

“This is our home now and we hope it will be for a very long time,” says Jenna.

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thing fancy or particularly different here but it is this concept of self sufficiency that makes what is happening at Pongaroa different,” says Shane.

Last year 320ha of maize produced 4400t of silage and 1600t of grain.

This year there’s 162ha.

Most of last year’s crop was trucked 300km to Taupo for the dairy farm with the remainder used onsite, wintering 1050 dairy cows.

“All the [Baytown] farm managers work together to not only get the best results for their farm, but the company as a whole.”

He’s quick to correct negative comments about limitless resources.

“I get the comments about Michael’s wealth and how it must be nice to work on a farm without a budget but that couldn’t be further from the truth…. We have a budget and our own financial targets to meet and while it might be more than what other farms have to work with, I’ve still got to work

hard to make Pongaroa succeed.”

He also recognises there will be those that are critical of wealthy outsiders investing in iconic properties such as Pongaroa, but he believes Fay has secured its future.

“At the end of the day this is a man who, yes, is a businessman, but who is also extremely passionate about prime land like this not being sold to offshore investors….

“He loves farming and when he comes here there is no ‘us and them’. He sits on the deck and has a cup of tea and comes out on the farm. He took a calculated risk with Pongaroa, and with Jen and I, and we are eternally grateful.”

Mildenhall has set personal goals for the station five years out and says it’s easy to keep motivated there.

“This place just out performs anywhere we have worked before - the diversification of our operation leaves the door open for chasing the market to

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

40 ANIMAL HEALTH

Intra-mammary applicator released

Ray Castle demonstrates the teat-seal applicator.

A NOVEL device to make teatsealing herds easier on the hands has the potential to revolutionise how intra-mammary treatments are made, says its inventor.

New Zealand-based Bayer vet Dr Ray Castle came up with the concept for what’s become the Intercept SQ-EZI, a syringe applicator gun, in November 2013 when working with a

vaccination gun.

“Traditionally teat sealants are injected into the opening of a cow’s teat using a syringe, thus creating a barrier to infection entering the cow’s udder.

However, because the sealant is quite viscous, it means sore thumbs and blisters for farmers who may have to do hundreds of cows at a time,” says Castle.

“There was also the added

hassle of having to warm the syringes beforehand to make it easier to push the syringe plunger.”

The applicator uses leverage and tension to make injecting sealant much easier.

“It doesn’t have to be heated either, meaning less hassle for farmers,” adds Castle.

It works with existing Intercept syringes, the syringe

simply slotting into the applicator. Bayer says it’s not only a first for New Zealand dairying, but an innovation that’s progressed rapidly from idea to implementation, taking just four months from concept to clinic shelf.

Bayer worked with ISL Animal Health on the applicator. Both companies own intellectual property rights to the

device.

“The SQ-EZI has been well received by dairy farmers and we believe it has the potential to revolutionise the way intramammary treatments are administered,” says Castle.

The applicator is only available with Intercept teat sealant from rural vet clinics. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

Survey to quantify calf deaths A N D R EW SWA L LOW andrews@ruralnews.co.nz

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CALF REARERS and dairy farmers: next time you visit your rural store, spare a minute to fill in a brief survey on calf mortality.

The survey is the brainchild of lower North Island nutrition specialist Dr Lucy Waldron.

“I want to see how we compare to the rest of the world and what intervention strategies farmers are using,” Waldron told Rural News.

Such data isn’t Lucy Waldron readily available, Waldron says, hence the survey. DairyNZ confirmed to Rural News it hasn’t done such a survey.

Waldron’s questionnaire is anonymous to encourage participation. Questions are about herd size, number and sex of calves reared and mortality of those, farm biosecurity measures, labour factors and approaches to treating sick calves.

“We know Fonterra does wheel washes when it drops off milk but the truck could have been to five or six farms in between. What biosecurity measures are there?”

The survey asks where calf-rearing sheds are in relation to vehicle access to the farm, and what measures are taken to reduce disease transmission by people visiting the calf sheds.

The survey also asks for an estimate of the economic impact of sick calves and calf mortality.

Waldron says data from the US shows losses of up to 25% occur there, but that there is a broad range. UK calf mortality tends to be lower, but again there are spikes.

She suspects there will be a broad range in mortality rates here too, given that every year there are horror stories about high losses on occasional farms for one reason or another. But hopefully those will prove to be the exception, not the norm.

“What’s important is not just the average mortality, it’s the range. We all know some farms are cleaner or dirtier than others.”

While she admits the recent debate about euthanasia was a prompt to do the survey, there’s no specific question included on that.

How long the survey runs will depend on the response rate; she’s hopeful of having data available before the main spring calving season.

E-mail info@animalnutrition.co.nz for a copy of the questionnaire.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

ANIMAL HEALTH 41 Grass is sparse on Northland’s west coast.

Pour On & Dip

Condition score 5 tall order in north GA RE T H G I L LAT T

DROUGHT-HIT farms in the northern North Island will have to work hard to get herds to Body Condition Score (BCS) 5 by calving this year, say DairyNZ and Rural Support Trust representatives.

Cyclone Lusi did little for the North Island’s moisture-starved West Coast with just 5-15mm falling on Kaipara and Rodney, 10-35mm across South Auckland and 0-20 mm in Waikato.

Ground water monitoring done by the Northland Agricultural Research Farm, 5km northwest of Dargaville, shows ground moisture levels last month were as bad as in last year’s drought and dangerously close to permanent wilting point.

Kaipara Dairy NZ field officer Kylie Harnett says herd average body condition scores are typically 3.5 to 4.0, leaving a long way to go to reach the calving target of 5 for cows and 5.5 for first-calving heifers and three-yearolds. With calving in the region starting in June on some farms the window

to put condition on is also closing fast.

Harnett says priority feeding of at risk cows by creating a separate mob will be one of the best options to achieve targets. But the dry summer and autumn has eroded farm-grown supplement stocks with most having fed much of their stored silage already to keep cows milking and retain at least some condition on cows.

Consequently, demand is likely to be high for off-farm supplement even as herds are dried off.

How prepared farmers in the region are for that is questionable.

When an audience of 80 at a Dairy NZ ‘Beat the Drought’ event in Dargaville was asked to raise their hands if they’d done a winter feed budget, only one arm went up. That was despite most having spring calving herds and having either already dried off or planning to dry off by the end of March.

Northland Rural Support trust coordinator Julie Jonker was not surprised by the result.

“Most Northland farmers will have worked out feed requirements in their head but won’t have put any-

thing down on paper,” she says.

Some may not be fully aware of the severity of feed shortages looming during and post dry-off, she warns.

“People need to be proactive: get feed budgets and cashflows done and to their accountants so they are able to approach their banks if they require additional funds to get through.”

Jonker says bank managers are still asking farmers if they want help and there is still a limited level of supplement on the market, but that situation could well change in less than a month.

Harnett notes considerable pressure on the feed market last month had already pushed baleage to $80/ bale in Northland and $100 in Waikato. PKE was costing $473/t and a PKE/canola mix $628/t.

Grain is also reported to be becoming harder to source, with some suppliers having sold out for spot deliveries. Harnett suggests forward contracting at least some tonnage to ensure supply and reduce risk. @rural_news

facebook.com/ruralnews

Autumn calvers Northland veterinary consultant Graeme Eveson says availability of hay, silage and baleage will be a particular concern for autumn and split-calving herds in the region as good dietary balance is key for springing cows.

Only a limited amount of PKE should be fed to such stock as the high oil content can bind calcium and magnesium salts in the rumen, making them unavailable for absorption and increasing milk fever risk.

“This can create life threatening metabolic disease as cows calve, due to the 3-4 fold increase in calcium requirements at this time with severe milk fevers common. PKE feed levels for springers therefore needs to be conservative.”

Eveson suggests a maximum of 25% of the daily energy intake should be PKE, but where possible good quality hay, baleage or maize should be allocated to the springers and the PKE reserved for the milkers where the extra protein in the PKE could be beneficial.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

42 ANIMAL HEALTH

Faith in export systems a priority A N D REW SWA LLOW andrews@ruralnews.co.nz

BUILDING CONFIDENCE in New Zealand’s export systems for bovine embryos, semen and live animals is a priority, says the new chair of the trade body representing cattle export organisations.

But in doing that com-

pliance costs must be kept reasonable so smaller operators can continue to trade.

CRV Ambreed’s operations manager Andrew Medley was appointed chair of the Livestock and Animal Germplasm Trade Association at its annual meeting March 11.

“We don’t want to see

increasing compliance costs making it unnecessarily restrictive for smaller operators to continue because that would threaten the value of the New Zealand export industry,” he said in a carefully worded media statement following his appointment.

“But at the same time,

“We don’t want to see increasing compliance costs making it unnecessarily restrictive for smaller operators to continue because that would threaten the value of the New Zealand export industry.” we need to provide MPI with the assurance that they can put a New Zealand stamp on our bovine

exports with complete faith in our system.”

Medley says New Zealand’s bovine genetics

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have significant influence in overseas markets, particularly Australia and South America, with about 1.5m doses of semen and more than 35,000 live cattle exported every year.

But it could be considerably more is seems, particularly from the sheep and beef sector, if the compliance process, which MPI directs, recognised such exports of genetics are quite different to food.

“The Government tends to place us in the same basket as other foodrelated exporters, with many of the same rules for compliance and regulations, when in fact we are in a very different trade category with our own unique requirements,” Medley says.

“This was one of the primary reasons for establishing the Association, so that it could get around the table together with all the key agencies within the forum of the Animal Trade Advisory Council which include members of the animal exports teams of MPI, New Zealand Food Safety Authority and AsureQuality.”

Medley failed to return Rural News’ calls last week but others in the sector expressed frustration with what are seen as unnecessarily bureaucratic and costly compliance requirements imposed by MPI. In most cases the requirements go beyond what potential recipient countries require, putting a selfimposed brake on exports.

For some, notably in the sheep and beef sector, the costs have become uneconomic and they’ve given up exporting, leaving overseas customers disappointed.

Individual operators are wary of speaking out publically on the issue for fear of aggravating their

Andrew Medley

relationship with MPI, one of the reasons LAGTA was formed in 2009.

Medley says the Association’s achievements since then include developing guidelines for live cattle exports and contributing to the standards for such trade, which were a “big win” for live exporters.

“We’re currently working with MPI to develop codes of practice for semen and embryo collection centres which is giving us greater input into how we operate to ensure we meet the regulatory requirements on a basis that is logical for our industry. If we don’t feel it is sustainable for the industry and doing the right thing for consumers, we have the ability to push back.”

LAGTA is part of the Animal Trade Advisory Council which includes MPI, the New Zealand Food Safety Authority, and AsureQuality.

The council meets four times a year to set and discuss work programmes, and provides a much greater level of industry and regulator collaboration. The aim is to prevent regulations being imposed without recognising the uniqueness of the livestock and genetics export industry.

LAGTA has a “working committee” of four agency representatives: Robyn How from Tararua Breeding Services; Steve Carson from PGG Wrightson; Bruce Nowell from Austrex; and Dave Hayman from Hayman GD Consulting, plus Medley as the committee chair. Hayman is vice chair. The Association has 20 member organisations. Membership is $300/year and is voluntary. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

ANIMAL HEALTH 43

Blocks and nuts boost survival A N D REW SWA LLOW andrews@ruralnews.co.nz

BIG GAINS in survival of triplet lambs have shown up with the use of a high energy feed block or nuts at lambing.

And though only a 1% difference showed between the survivability achieved with the two supplements, the convenience of the blocks over daily feeding of nuts means the blocks will be the choice for the trial’s host farmers next lambing.

Julie Crawford, who farms with Barry Crawford near Gore, Southland, told Rural News they’ll “definitely” be using the blocks again for mobs of tripletbearing ewes at lambing, and possibly twin-bearing mobs as well.

“We’d used them before when the ewes were on crop but never at

lambing,” she says.

The trial was part of the Farm IQ programme with Dr Mark Oliver, a researcher contracted to Auckland UniServices by the University of Auckland, overseeing the work.

Of triplet lambs born to ewes offered Crystalyx blocks for three weeks before lambing through to tailing, 79% survived, compared to 78% for the mob fed a lucerne and grainbased nut and 68% on pasture only.

Crawford says the 68% result was worse than they normally achieve but most of the multiples were born in the first ten days of lambing “through some quite nasty weather.”

A lot of effort was made to ensure the mobs of 55-60 ewes on each treatment were comparable and went onto similarly sheltered paddocks.

Pasture cover and quality were tested to rule out any difference due to that.

“It was as fair as we could make it.”

Four blocks per mob were offered so there was no problem with all ewes accessing the molassesbased blocks that are laced with micro and macronutrients.

“I noticed after they’d lambed and the blocks had been out that bit longer, the lambs were coming to them as well. At tailing some of the lambs had it on the bottom of their chins so you could tell they were getting into it.”

Lamb weights at tailing are still to be statistically analysed but Crawford says she thinks there was a slight advantage. “We have the figures through to weaning but they’ve not done the stats’ yet.”

In a commercial situ-

ation the blocks would require little or no disturbance in the paddock, unlike daily nut feeding. But, in practice, the nature of the trial – ewes were closely monitored and all dead lambs post-mortemed by a vet – meant they were in all the paddocks regularly.

Jackie Aveling, animal nutrition product manager for Ballance Agri-Nutrients which sells the Crystalyx blocks through its SeaslesWinslow subsidiary, says the trial results suggest good prospects for sheep farmers seeking to boost ewe productivity.

While nuts delivered a similar improvement in lamb survivability, if fed every day as they were in the trial they would be uneconomic when labour costs were allowed for.

The Crystalyx blocks, in contrast, gave a benefit

Hard work is good work

Farm IQ farmers Julie and Barry Crawford (inset) hosted a trial looking at triplet survival in response to supplementary feeding.

per ewe of $31.51, though Aveling says a further trial using a creep feeder to offer the nuts should be done.

The free access little-

and-often intake from blocks provides an even nutrient intake profile during the animal’s grazing day, lifting rumen function and with it

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Crawford says besides lambing, they’re using blocks now, as they have before, to boost ewe nutrition during tupping.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

44 ANIMAL HEALTH

Refined TB test in trials A NEW skin test which, for the first time, can differentiate between strains of TB, promises to reduce incidence of false positives, say its creators.

The Assign-bTB DIVA skin test was developed in by Palmerston North-based Polybatics with Dr Bryce Buddle of the Hopkirk Research Institute and AgResearch.

It uses bionanoparticle tech-

nology to Differentiate between Infected and Vaccinated Animals, hence the DIVA acronym, and is the first such test able to differentiate Mycobacterium bovis-infected animals from those vaccinated against bovine TB or exposed to other strains of Mycobacterium.

A field trial lead by TBFree New Zealand and the Hopkirk Research Institute is underway.

“We are pleased to be sup-

porting this study using a cutting edge technology and in the process, reaffirming New Zealand’s place at the forefront of managing and eliminating tuberculosis in wild animals and in our farmed livestock,” says TBfree’s manager of TB eradication, Dr Paul Livingstone.

If the trials are successful, Livingston says he expects AssignbTB testing will reduce the

number of false-positives from skin tests.

“This will reduce the need for re-testing which will, in turn, provide potential cost savings to the TB control programme.”

A new skin test could cut false positives for TB, says TBfree New Zealand.

NAIT promises improved comms THE NATIONAL cattle and deer traceability scheme, NAIT, says it is making “significant improvements” to its movement notification e-mails which will reduce the amount of time online for farmers.

“We’ve listened to farmers’ feedback and have been actively working to make our systems and processes more user friendly,” says Stu Hutchings, of NAIT parent body, OSPRI. “This improvement to the notification service is one of several enhancements we will be rolling out this year to make it easier for farmers and companies to meet their NAIT requirements.”

The new style email notifications will contain more detail about what has occurred and clear instructions on what, if any, action needs to be taken. A link in the email will take the user to the NAIT system if they have a movement to confirm.

Users can also control the e-mails they get from NAIT by adjusting the preference settings on the NAIT system.

“Everyone has a role to play in safeguarding New Zealand’s livestock industry and it’s important that farmers keep their NAIT records up to date,” says Hutchings.

“In the event of a disease outbreak, NAIT data will enable a faster and more efficient response, so farmers can get back to business sooner.”

Having a system like NAIT enhances New Zealand’s reputation for producing safe, high quality products and helps maintain access to global markets, he says.

ELE-00939A-RN

KEY FACT OVERLOOKED?

THERE’S NO BETTER WAY TO SECURE YOUR RETURNS High demand for lambs is expected to continue – and when it comes to improving lamb numbers, one of the best ways is through vaccination. Diseases like Toxoplasma, Campylobacter and Salmonella can cause major losses.

AVAILABLE ONLY UNDER VETERINARY AUTHORISATION. ® Registered trademark. MSD Animal Health. Phone 0800 800 543. SPV-343-2013

Vaccination helps you protect your ewes and increase the number of lambs born, but you’ll need to plan ahead.

With our range of sheep performance vaccines it’s easy to get the level of performance you want from your flock and secure your returns for next season.

Visit www.sheepvax.co.nz and talk to your vet about a vaccination plan today.

Rural News, March 18, published Dr Roche’s response to my observations and facts on milk urea which ran in the February 18 edition. His response makes the assumption that all Rural News readers will interpret my information the same way that he has.

Dr Roche listed “the facts as stated by Mr Clark” then responded to them. The following fact was in my article but omitted, by Dr Roche, from his list.

Fact: Excessive cow PUN influences uterus pH, as shown by Cornell University’s W Ronald Butler in his 2005 paper, Relationships of Dietary Protein and Fertility. Uterine pH normally increases from about 6.8 at oestrus up to 7.1 on day seven of the oestrous cycle (luteal phase), but this increase failed to occur in both heifers and lactating cows fed excess RDP or RUP (high PUN).

This is a key fact because this study and others have included measurement of trends of uterus pH against conception rates and established the connection between blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and milk urea nitrogen (MUN) levels, uterus pH and conception trends. Dr Roche should be able to confirm if uterus pH studies have been done on NZ dairy cows and, if they have been done, whether they show that elevated BUN / MUN levels cause no fluctuation of uterus pH in NZ dairy cows and have no influence on conception failure.

Steve Clark, Wainui

PRODUCT

COMPANY

METHOD OF APPLICATION

ACTIVE INGREDIENT

Cattle External Parasite Treatments CONCENTRATION

INGREDIENT DOSE RATE

FORMULATED DOSE RATE LIVEWEIGHT

SAFETY MARGIN (X DOSE RATE)

WITHDRAWAL PERIOD MEAT (DAYS)

MILK (DAYS)

COMMENTS

CLAIMS BITING LICE

SUCKING LICE

TICKS

BITING FLY

ECTOPARASITICIDES Bayticol

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Flumethrin

1.0% w/v

1mg/kg

10mL/100kg

Nil

Nil

>20

No

No

Yes

No

Rainfast

Destruct

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Propetamphos

10% w/v

10mg/kg

10mL/100kg

3

5

N/S

Yes

Yes

No

No

Short meat withholding, single dose.

Blaze

Coopers

Pour-on

Deltamethrin

1.5% w/v (15g/L)

0.75mg/kg

1mL/20kg lice and nuisance fly.

28

Nil

>3

Yes

Yes

No Note 4

Yes

Nil bobby calf withholding for cows treated in late pregnancy.

Pouracide NF

Jurox NZ Ltd

Pour-on

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

0.7 mg/kg 7.5 mg/kg 2.0 mg/kg

10mL/100kg

7

Nil

-

No

Yes

No

Yes

Fly and lice control

Tempor

Merial Ancare

Pour-on

Temephos

12mg/kg

Synergy Cattle

Ravensdown

Pour-on

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

Vetmed Flumethrin Pour On

Ravensdown

Pour-on

Flumethrin

10g/L

Niltime

Virbac NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Bendiocarb

Vengeance

Zoetis

Pour-on

Temephos

Baymec Pour-on

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Baymec Injection

Bayer NZ Ltd

Eon

20% w/v

6mL/100kg

10

14

>8

Yes

Yes

No

No

Not affected by rain.

1mL/10kg

7

Nil

-

No

Yes

No

Yes

Lice and biting fly control

1mg/kg

1mL/10kg

Nil

Nil

>20

No

No

Yes

No

Rainfast tick control.

40g/L

4mg/kg

1mL/10kg

3

Nil

3x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Can be used on calves 50kg and over.

20% w/v

12mg/kg

6mL/100kg

10

14

>8x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Abamectin

1.0% w/v (10g/l)

0.5mg/kg

1mL/20kg

35 (Bobby calf 16 days)

Nil

3x

Yes

Yes

-

-

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

Subcutaneous injection

Abamectin

1.0% w/v (10g/l)

0.2mg/kg

1mlL50kg

49

49

3x

-

Yes

-

-

Non-sting. Also controls internal parasites.

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Eprinomectin

0.5% w/v (5g/l)

0.5mg/kg

1mL/10kg

Nil

Nil

10x

iPlus Injection

Bayer NZ Ltd

Subcutaneous injection

Ivermectin/ Clorsulon

1% w/v 10% w/v

0.2mg/kg 2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

28

14

5x

Outlaw

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Abamectin/ Levamisole

10mg/ml 200mg/ml

0.5mg/kg 10mg/kg

1ml/20kg

42

42

3x

Yes

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

Saturn Pour-on

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Abamectin/ Levamisole

10mg/ml 200mg/ml

0.5mg/kg 10mg/kg

1ml/20kg

42

42

3x

Yes

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

Bomectin Gold Pour-on

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Ivermectin

10mg/ml (1% w/v)

0.5mg/kg

1ml/20kg

35 - Bobby calf 16 days

Nil

3x

Yes

Yes

No Note 4

No

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

Bomectin Injection

Bayer NZ Ltd

Subcutaneous injection

Ivermectin

10mg/ml (1% w/v)

0.2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

21

21

3x

Aids in control

Yes

No

No

Non sting. Also controls internal parasites.

Also controls mange mites.

Paramectin Pour-on

Jurox NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Abamectin

10mg/ml

0.5mg/kg

1ml/20kg

35

Nil

3x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Also controls internal parasites

Paramectin Injection

Jurox NZ Ltd

Injection

Abamectin

10mg/ml

0.2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

49

49

3x

No

Yes

No

No

Also controls internal parasites. Registered for cattle and sheep.

Eprinex For Cattle & Deer

Merial Ancare

Pour-on

Eprinomectin

0.5% w/v

0.5mg/kg

1ml/10kg

Cattle 0, Deer 7, Bobby Calves 0

Nil

10

Yes

Yes

No

No

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

Weatherproof.

Eclipse Pour-on

Merial Ancare

Pour-on

Abamectin/ Levamisole

10mg/ml 200mg/ml

0.5mg/kg 10mg/kg

1ml/20kg bodyweight

35

35

3x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Also controls internal parasites.

Exodus Pour-on

Merial Ancare

Pour-on

Moxidectin

0.5% w/v

0.5mg/kg

1mL/10kg bodyweight

Nil Deer Nil Bobby

Nil

>10x

Yes

Yes

Note 4

No

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

Genesis Injection

Merial Ancare

Subcutaneous injection

Abamectin

1.0 w/v

0.2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

49

49

3x

N/D

Yes

No

No

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

Genesis Pour-on

Merial Ancare

Pour-on

Abamectin

1.0% w/v

0.5mg/kg

1ml/20kg

35

Nil

3x

Yes

Yes

–

–

Also controls internal parasites. Rainfast.

Genesis Ultra Pour-on

Merial Ancare

Pour-on

Abamectin/ Triclabendazole

0.5mg/kg 300mg/ml

0.5mg/kg 30mg/ml

1ml/10kg bodyweight

91

91

3x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Also controls internal parasites, liver fluke.

Ivomec Injection

Merial Ancare

Subcutaneous injection

Ivermectin

1.0% w/v

0.2mg/kg

1ml /50kg

35

35

20-30

Aids in control

Yes

Note 4

No

Also controls internal parasites

Ivomec Plus

Merial Ancare

Subcutaneous injection

Ivermectin/ Clorsulon

1.0% w/v Iver.

10% w/v Clor.

0.2mg/kg Iver.

2.0mg/kg Clor.

1ml /50kg

28

14

20-30

Aids in control

Yes

Note 4

No

Also controls internal parasites

Fasimec Pour on for Cattle

Novartis

Pour-on

Abamectin/ Triclabendazole

0.5mg/kg 300mg/ml

0.5mg/kg 30mg/ml

1ml /10kg bodyweight

91

91

3x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Controls roundworm lice and all stages of liver fluke.

Abamectin Injection

Ravensdown

Subcutaneous injection

Abamectin

10g/L

0.2mg/kg

1mL/50kg

49

49

3x

No

Yes

No

No

Controls both internal and external parasites

Abamectin Pour on

Ravensdown

Pour-on

Abamectin

10g/L

0.5mg/kg

1mL/20kg

35

Nil

3x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Controls both internal and external parasites

TopLine

Virbac NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Abamectin

1% w/v 10mg/mL

0.5mg/kg

1mL/20kg

35

Nil

3x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Persistent activity against biting and suckling lice for 56 days. Rain resistant. Also controls internal parasites.

Cydectin Injection

Zoetis

Subcutaneous Injection

Moxidectin

1% w/v

0.2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

35 days

35

>5x

Aids in control

Yes

Note 4

No

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

Cydectin Pour-on

Zoetis

Pour-on

Moxidectin

0.5% w/v

0.5mg/kg

1ml/10kg

Nil Deer Nil Bobby Nil Cattle

Nil

>10x

Yes

Yes

Note 4

No

Also controls internal parasites. Rainfast.

Registered for cattle and deer. Controls mange mites Chorioptes bovis

Dectomax Injection

Zoetis

Subcutaneous injection

Doramectin

1.0% w/v

0.2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

35

35

25x

Aids in control

Yes

No

No

Non-sting, also controls internal parasites.

Registered for cattle, sheep and pigs.

Dectomax Pour-on

Zoetis

Pour-on

Doramectin

0.5% w/v

0.5mg/kg

1ml/10kg

35

Nil

25

Yes

Yes

Note 4

No

Rainfast. Also controls internal parasites.

Controls mange mites Chorioptes bovis

Cydectin Plus Fluke Pour-on

Zoetis

Pour-on

Moxidectin Triclabendazole

5g/L moxidectin 200g/L triclabendazole

0.5mg/kg moxidectin 20mg/kg triclabendazole

1ml/10kg

84

84

10x

Yes

Yes

No

No

Also controls internal parasites, including liver fluke

Note 1 - Do not use in lactating dairy cattle producing milk for human consumption or industrial purposes or within 28 days of the start of lactation.

Note 2 - Extra care must be taken to use the correct dose in calves under 100kg weight, particularly if

animals are in light body condition, because they may be susceptible to overdosing.

Note 3 - Not to be used in lactating cattle where the milk is used for human consumption or within 14 days of calving.

Note 4 - No claim for New Zealand cattle tick.

Note 5 - Not for use in lactating in dairy cows.

Effective against external parasites for 135 days for cattle weighing between 100kg & 400kg liveweight on day of administration.

Yes Yes

Yes

Note 6 - Do not use on lactating cattle Note 7 – Do not use in cattle producing milk for human consumption or within 21 days of calving N/S - Not supplied.

Tempor

TM

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

No

No

Also controls internal parasites and controls Chorioptes bovis and Psoroptes

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

NOTE

KEY

ENDECTOCIDES

FREEDOM FROM BITING AND SUCKING LICE

LOW COST, EFFECTIVE CATTLE LICE CONTROL P For a season’s freedom from the worry of cattle lice on dairy and beef cattle use Tempor.

P It’s kind smelling solvents makes it more pleasant and easier to use than other pour-ons.

P It’s kind on guns.

P It’s more concentrated, so each litre goes further costing you less to treat each animal.

PROUDLY AVAILABLE FROM YOUR LOCAL VETERINARY CLINIC. Merial is a Sanofi company.

MERIAL NZ LTD. LEVEL 3, MERIAL BUILDING, OSTERLEY WAY, MANUKAU, AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND | WWW.MERIAL.CO.NZ | TEMPOR™ IS A TRADEMARK OF MERIAL. REGISTERED PURSUANT TO THE ACVM ACT 1997 | NO. A7517. ©COPYRIGHT 2014 MERIAL NZ LTD. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. NZ-14-TEM-070.

MAL_Tempor_10x7_advert.indd 1

31/03/14 9:55 AM

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

46 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Pioneer makes for a far smoother comfortable ride A DA M FR I C K E R

ONE LESSON Honda learned after the launch of its first side-by-side a few years ago is getting the price right.

The old Big Red

launched in the high$20k bracket, which hurt sales and forced Honda to lower the ticket price. Its replacement, the Pioneer 700, rectifies that, costing $18,995 for the two-seater and $20,795 for the four-

MS1443

C B Norwood Distributors Ltd

seater (ex GST).

So the price is sharp.

What about the machine?

The short answer is it’s a big improvement over Big Red, in the way it looks and performs.

There are a number

of reasons for the better performance: it is 20kg lighter, suspension travel is 50mm longer front and rear and it has dual stage EFI engine mapping.

The 675cc engine and three-stage gearbox are

straight out of Big Red – although the engine now sits on rubber mounts for reduced vibration – but the dual-shift mapping reads the pattern of throttle input from the driver and selects between

two transmission shifting modes – cruise or sport.

It works a treat and the Pioneer rewards a more aggressive driving style by holding gears longer, and a more relaxed style with better fuel economy.

The better suspension travel and weight reduction dramatically improves the ride and handling; the Pioneer is stable and comfortable, but now also ‘chuckable’. Not that we would have discovered that had we obeyed the over-cautious safety team on launch day, who wanted moderate driving and 4WD to be used almost constantly. We ignored this, of course, and found the Pioneer knocked off most of the obstacles in 2WD, still leaving 4WD and diff lock in reserve.

With 4WD and diff lock on, it will go anywhere a farmer will want to take it, including across some relatively steep inclines without tipping over.

It has very effective engine braking, which is welcome in the steeper country, even while towing a trailer downhill with a moderately heavy load.

The auto transmission has a heavy-duty torque convertor which enables smooth shifts and should be durable.

Suspension is doublewishbone front and rear, with longer travel than Big Red (now 200mm front

and 230mm rear), so it absorbs the rough stuff better. We put the Pioneer into some heavy ruts at speed and it didn’t bottom out.

The Pioneer comes in two versions, the 700-2 and the 700-4, the latter offering two rear seats that can be folded away when not needed, leaving a smooth flat bed. It’s a clever system with the rear seats folding individually.

With the seats stowed, the deck still tips as it does on the 700-2.

The disadvantage of the four-seat arrangement is that they take up all the useable storage space in the back. However, it gives you the option of taking extra bodies on board, without losing manoeuvrability because it shares the same compact 1950mm platform as the 700-4.

You can pick the 700-4 easily by its full roll-cage.

The Pioneer was rolled out at the recent regional field days and according to Blue Wing Honda it has attracted a lot of attention. The more aggressive styling will be part of the reason, pricing will be the other.

All in all a much better effort from Honda in a category boosted by ATV safety concerns. Priced right and with the reputation of the red brand behind it, the Pioneer will, we expect, sell well.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 47 More accurate fert application TO NY H O PKINSO N

Farmer invents simple bale feeder GA RE T H G I LLAT T

PULLING THE crowds at Central District Field Days was a King Country farmer’s trailed bale feeder.

Ohura drystock farmer Wessel Eksteen farms 200 cattle and 2000 ewes on 600ha at Ohura, west of Taumaranui.

He developed his Rollit A-Frame roundbale unit as an inexpensive, easy-to-use means of feeding out haylage, towed by a quad.

He saw the need for it when he bought round haylage bales but had no tractor to feed them out. His children’s old swing set gave him the idea for an A-frame device.

It worked well and his wife and sons pushed him to commercialise it, an idea he took seriously in 2013 when he had an

engineer build a second unit.

“The original model fell apart after several years. I got a local engineer to make a properly engineered one for me.”

Few moving parts and ease of use differentiate it from other quad-towed feeders, he says. A sharpened point on the bale spindle bar ensures it will easily pierce a bale – so easily that “even my nine-yearold niece could do it,” Wessel says.

He uses his quad to tip bales on their sides for loading. At the feeding site he strips the plastic and gets busy.

Maintenance is minimal: long-life graphite bushes hold the bar and the trolley wheels have bearings. “I’ve put in a circlip so people can grease or replace the bushes and bearings themselves.”

Tel. 07 893 8565 rollit@farmside.co.nz

Made In New Zealand

DIRECT S EED DRILL rd 150mm Row Spacing

Unique 100mm or Standa 4 INCH SPACING Includes Front Disc

FROM

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protection

• Durable spring tine with tungsten point +GST

39,990

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• 500 litre seed & fertiliser hopper standard • Stainless agitator shaft for optimum corrosion

1.95%

*

* Normal lending criteria and conditions apply.

provides excellent penetration characteristics

• Heavy duty galvanised frame • Calibration is made simple with the variable speed gearbox & seed collection tray

• Full lighting kit with protective surrounds, hazard panels & safety chain

Contact your local Power Farming Dealer for more information www.powerfarming.co.nz

FERT SPREADING accuracy was to the fore in the Central Districts Field Days display of Kuhn’s Axis spreaders, all with H-EMC (hydraulic drive, electronic mass flow control).

“Accuracy helps crop yield as the plant gets the correct nutrients to maximise yield and by that means farmers can monitor expenses,” said national sales manager, Kuhn New Zealand, Brian Robertson.

The models give spreading widths from 12m to 50m with capacities from 1000L to 4000L. These can be combined with manual/electronic application rate adjustment proportional to ground speed.

The working width is changed by altering the drop point of the fertiliser/seeds onto the disc – manually on some models and electronically from the cab on others.

With the larger capacity models electronically controlled metering outlets can be integrated with GPS to prevent the wastage otherwise caused by overlapping at headlands.

Kuhn’s Opti-Point automatically determines the ideal point to open

and close the metering outlets with GPS support.

Models with weighcells working with Quantron E-2 or HEMC Isobus allow the farmer to alter the application rate during spreading.

These systems check, several times per second, whether the flow corresponds to the programmed

rate and adjusts it to the correct amount.

The EMC measures and continuously adjusts application on each disc on all hydraulically driven models. This gives high flexibility and accuracy.

Tel. 0800 585 007 www.kuhn.co.nz

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

48 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Remote control mower makes slopes a snitch GA RE T H G I L LAT T

A REMOTE control mower can tackle 55o slopes at no risk to its operator and with little effort, the distributor told visitors to Central Districts Field Days.

Steelfort spokesman Russell Refoy showed the European-made Dvorak Spider to a fascinated crowd.

The operator may stand as far away as 200m, though Refoy recommends a working distance of 10-15m. “Then the operator can see any obstacles or dangers.”

Steelfort says Dvorak has shown the 800mm model can cut as much grass as five people with line trimmers, and the 1200mm model can do the work of 15 people or a tractor-mounted boom mower, at lower cost.

The smaller Spider Mini, for small properties including lawns, can cut up to 1500m2 an hour.

Refoy says the mower draws a crowd everywhere it’s shown. “It didn’t matter what time of the day we turn it on, people are drawn to the site.”

Models ILD01 and ILD02 are for commercial use, powered by 18hp and 24hp

The ‘Spider’ mower wowed the crowds at the Central Districts Field Days.

engines, respectively, and having 800mm and 1230mm cutting decks. The Spider Mini has a 6.5hp Briggs & Stratton engine and costs about the same as other “quality mowing devices”.

Operators tend to need one week of constant mowing to get used to the controller and the motion of the mower. With

all-wheel drive and all-wheel steer, the wheels move and turn, not the unit itself, which has a zero turning circle. And when the wheels are turned 180o all the directional controls are reversed – disorientating for an inexperienced operator.

Tel. 06 350 1350 www.steelfort.co.nz

Mix and apply

Urea

Boron

Calcium Magnesium

Duncan Ag expands DUNCAN AG has bought Agmech, Christchurch, a manufacturer and distributor of farm trailers, bale feeders and other heavy agricultural gear.

Agmech products will be sold through Duncan Ag’s local dealer network and through its distributors in Australia, South America and southern Africa.

Duncan Ag chairman Don McFarlane said, “Over many years Duncan Ag and Duncan Ag’s Craig McIssac Cloughs have manufactured reliable and practical farm machinery. This purchase was in line with the company’s strategy of strengthening its market position and Duncan brand in its home markets.

“The Agmech product stable complements Duncan Ag’s own range and its addition to the Duncan stable gives us the largest integrated range of drills, bale feeders and trailers in the New Zealand and Australian markets.

Says Duncan Ag chief executive Craig McIsaac, “This offering of well-engineered products enables us to better support our dealers and customers.” Duncan Ag has been in the business 75 years, and “understands that no two farm businesses are the same. [For farmers] to get the best result often requires a specialised solution.”

Tel. 03 688 2029 www.duncanag.com

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 49

Ploughing towards national finals TO N Y H O P K I NSO N

THOUGH SOME rain would be ideal, New Zealand ploughmen are ready to roll with the 2014 New Zealand Ploughing Championships at Blenheim on May 10-11.

Organising committee chairman Graham Gifford says all their preparation and arrangements are falling into place.

“At the end of March the ground is dry and we could do with some rain; other than that we are ready to go.”

The contest has four divisions with all competitors having qualified after competing in events nationwide in the previous year.

Conventional ploughs

compete in the CASE IHsponsored Silver Plough Championship. Reversible ploughs compete in their own division sponsored by Farmlands Fuel, the vintage ploughing is sponsored by Mainland Minerals and the horse ploughing is sponsored by Rural News Group.

Competitors plough stubble plots on the first day and grass on the second day. The crop will be green barley stubble now grazed by sheep and sprayed closer to competition time.

Gifford has had long association with ploughing. He first competed in the mid-1960s, qualifying to represent New Zealand at world championships in Canada in 1986 at the

same venue as the 2013 championships, “and the conditions were not any better.”

He represented New Zealand in 1988 in US, 1990 in the Netherlands

and 1991 in Northern Ireland. His best placing was sixth in US. He has also coached and managed New Zealand teams and judged world championships.

Gifford has been an executive member of the New Zealand Ploughing Association since 1998 and says this year’s championship will be his “last hurrah” before retiring.

A n e w a p p r oac h to productivit y

A boost to farming with N restrictions A PATENTED nitrogen booster, Donaghys N-Boost, is said to use world-first technology for pasture and selected crops. The product is a re-issue, under a new name, of Donaghys LessN. Designed to double nitrogen response of pasture, increase crop yields, reduce nitrate leaching and save money, N-Boost is a science-supported option for farming with nitrogen restrictions and maximising farm production.

Donaghys says it has re-named the product due to international success of its N-Boost brand. “Instead of focusing on ‘Halving urea use’, Donaghys is now focusing on ‘Boosting your nitrogen response’ which is what this product has always achieved.”

The N-Boost system (designed for application on pasture) is 40kg/ha of urea dissolved in water with 3L/ ha of N-Boost, typically sprayed at 200L/ha with a conventional boom sprayer or boom jet. Urea can easily be dissolved in water in a free mixing station or by agitating in a spray tank.

In cropping situations, foliar applications of 3-6L/ ha of N-Boost are applied at specific growth stages to complement standard fertiliser. Modelling of a typical 160ha Canterbury dairy farm using Overseer nutrient budget software indicated up to a 15% reduction in nitrogen leaching from using N-Boost at 40kg/ha of urea compared to 80kg/ha of urea only, without compromising pasture production, Donaghys says.

Trials showed N-Boost doubling the nitrogen response of pasture. Results showed an average nitrogen response of 24.25kgDM/kg of nitrogen applied when using N-Boost compared to 10kgDM/kg of nitrogen applied when using 40kg/ha of urea. In trials using 80kg/ha of spread urea, the average nitrogen response was 12kgDM/kg of nitrogen applied.

Based on mean trial results and a urea price of $800/ tonne delivered on farm, dry matter can be grown for 12.5 cents/kg using N-Boost compared to 15.6 cents/kg using solid urea.

The new 5 series tractors from Deutz-Fahr deliver unparalleled on-farm productivity with industry leading features like cab suspension, Stop & Go, 4-wheel braking, an ultra-clean tier 4 engine and a super quiet, ergonomically designed cabin.

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Graham Gifford

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

50 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Good gear makes conversion a success BURNHAM DAIRY farmers Mark and Kelsey Williams have turned a 100ha sheep block into a high performing 600-cow dairy farm in a little over two years, says machinery supplier Landpower.

They expect to produce

300,000kgMS this season.

After running a small business, Williams bought the property in 2011, redeveloping it over 12 months with an 80ha centre pivot, 20ha of fixed irrigation and a 40-bail herringbone dairy and adjoining con-

crete feed pad. The dairy has automatic livestock identification and drafting, cup removers, teat sprays and back-up gate.

The farm employs three staff.

“Having good infrastructure and machin-

ery and keeping them that way makes work easy and keeps everyone happy,” Williams says.

Charlotte Westwood, a veterinary nutritionist with PGG Wrightson, supervises a feeding program that provides about

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Mark Williams says good machinery makes work easy.

one third of the herd’s feed intake. Cows get about 8kg of maize and lucerne silage, plus vegetable waste or barley, each day.

“Our goal is to maintain production and body condition throughout the lactation,” Williams says.

“After calving, we want to get the weight back in our cows so we give them a high-carb diet that contains more energy than protein.

“By mating time, we cut the maize back and increase the lucerne content to increase the protein levels.

“We also [feed] trace minerals, vitamins, salt, lime, cider vinegar and canola oil.”

loading and drive to the feed pad it’s ready to feed out.”

The telehandler has an assortment of attachments, including forks, a bale grab, a bucket and a scraper.

“The JCB is… so versatile. We use it for everything from loading the wagon to scraping the feed pad, picking up silage and bales, carting gravel and installing gateways.

“There’s no way we would ever go back to using a front loader. It’s easily 50% faster than a front loader and it’s [highly] manoeuvrable.

Being able to stretch the boom [enables it to] get in or over areas we can’t reach with a tractor.”

“Having good infrastructure and machinery and keeping them that way make work easy.”

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About 1500 tonnes of silage is grown on a neighbouring block, which supports 60ha of permanent lucerne stands, annual maize and kale.

A Dutch-made Trioliet Solomix 2000ZX-T mixer wagon and a JCB 536-60 Loadall telehandler are used to feed out twice a day after milking.

The wagon contains two PTO driven augers that mix the feed which is discharged out a side-mounted hydraulic conveyor. The mixer has electronic weighing system, allowing accurate formulation and batching.

Williams says both machines have more than paid for themselves in just one season.

“Those two machines are loading and mixing out 1400 tonnes of ration a year in remarkably little time. I like the wagon; it’s simple and solid.

“We feed out one load per milking and it easily mixes about six tonnes per load. By the time we finish

Other equipment includes a Claas Arion 630C tractor and a Claas Disco 3100RC mower conditioner bought from Claas Harvest Centre, at Templeton.

With a stocking rate 50% higher than the Canterbury average and almost double the national average, Mark accepts his operation is not without detractors.

“Our overriding objective is to run a profitable but sustainable dairying operation. We have freedraining soils, so [can] run high stocking rates… without impact on herd health or the environment. We only have one or two cows with mastitis at any one time.

“In our opinion, putting on high volumes of acid fertilisers or nitrogen is not sustainable. We are recycling all our liquid and solid waste, supplemented with guano (rock phosphate), kieserite (magnesium sulphate) and lime.”

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 51

Less wrangle, no tangle GA RE T H G I LLAT T

Gallagher’s Martin Kinney and the new standard.

prevents wire wearing the head. In fact, after 200m of nylon was run through a conventional standard and a Ring Top Post, the metal of the traditional standard was found to be

The foot withstands 200kg of foot pressure, being made from a better grade plastic. Hardened plastic is also used to make the head.

Heavy glass-fibre nylon

exposed, while the ring in the Ring Top Post was not scratched. A longer sleeve gives an insulated handle for farmers to grab.

Tel. 0800 731 500 www.gallagher.co.nz

PGG WRIGHTSON and software company Xero will jointly sponsor the premier feature at National Fieldays 2014.

The feature, ‘Managing Resources for a Competitive Advantage’, will show where and how farming can best develop systems and processes to manage resources and remain competitive.

Feature exhibitors in the main pavilion are “highly visible”, Fieldays says.

“Hot topics” there include feed sources, nutrient management, animal health, workforce, security, control, traceability, water management and power innovations.

Fieldays chief executive Jon Calder says New Zealand’s competitive advantage is its efficiency in converting resources into protein.

“As a nation, maximising productivity in [using] resources we have done incredibly well… and will continue to do if we [collaborate] across industry and sectors. With PGG Wrightson and Xero we look forward to exploring this theme further at Fieldays 2014.”

Xero last month launched its ‘Farming in the Cloud’ software solution during its annual conference, says

spokesman Ben Richmond, rural strategy head.

“Managing resources for farms [requires best] milk production and stock levels, [and] extends to the heart of farm management – running a farm as an efficient business.”

“The ability to pinpoint a farm operations financial position at any time coupled and the ability to share information with key advisors in a seamless and collaborative way is central to… a sustainable business…. Farmers together with Xero can use the power of the cloud to increase efficiency and productivity.”

PGG Wrightson general manager marketing Shannon Galloway says the company is proud to be a feature sponsor. “We know farming is a challenging and complex business and our fortunes are tied to those of our customers.

“This year’s theme is a cornerstone foundation for PGG Wrightson. Everyday our staff work with farmers on their immediate on-farm needs while helping our customers plan.

“We aim to stay abreast of developments in the industry and… provide new products and services.”

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The Ring Top Post is a big leap from conventional standards, Kinney says. No protruding ‘pig tail’, a centred round head, and a sleek new foot profile make the standards less likely to tangle.

Also, the standards can be pulled out of bundles 35% faster than traditional standards: “They’re much easier to handle.”

A blade at the bottom of the foot is used to hold the standard in place. This prevents the unit from tangling and gives the standard foot more integrity over time. “The foot is durable and won’t bend as do traditional standards.”

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

52 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Growers are happy to see orange KUMARA GROWERS Doug and Ann Nilsson, Dargaville, are constantly seeing orange.

But it’s not a warning light; they have colour co-ordinated crops and tractors. Of their 15 tractors, 13 are Kubota orange, like much of their crop.

Nilsson’s father bought their first Kubota in 1980, going from “old tractors with no power steering and leaking oil to the Kubota with power steering, easy to change gears and no oil leaks.

We’ve had a good run ever since.”

The Nilssons have bought four new Kubota tractors over the last year: two M126GXs, an M135GX and an L5740.

Their oldest Kubota is a 1989 63hp 6030.

It’s still hard at it – planting, carrying water, or doing general duties.

Their 160ha property Dunsmore Gardens grows kumara intensively and the tractors work hard.

“Some growers with less crops have 25 tractors. We make all our tractors work, so for us it’s better to keep a tractor for back-up rather than trade it in.”

The Kaipara clay soil needs a lot of work before kumara cuttings can be hand planted. “If everyone has broken fingernails and bleeding hands we know

Dargaville kumara growers (from left) Ann Nilsson, Tanya Nilsson, Mark Hansen, Doug Nilsson, Ben Nilsson and John Moolenschot, Redline Farm Machinery.

we haven’t done a good job,” Doug says.

“But it’s also the clay and our climate that give Kaipara kumara their unique flavour.”

Planting is mid-October to midDecember. Eight people ride on a threepoint linkage sled to plant the cuttings.

During the planting season two tractors could be planting, while six more prepare the ground, and several others tow

water carts to give the newly planted cuttings the regular waterings they need.

Harvest is February to April. One of the Kubotas tows the harvester, which digs the kumara and transfers them to a platform where eight people sort, clean and grade them.

Nilsson likes the Kubota colour.

“They are nice and bright and stand out

in the paddock. They don’t get lost in the growth.”

The operation employs up to 40 people at a time, and there are a lot of casual drivers and that’s another good reason for Kubota.

“I like the simplicity of Kubota; people aren’t scared of them. The cabs aren’t cluttered up with unnecessary stuff so the drivers don’t get confused.

Some tractors can look like the cockpit of a 747.” The transmission is part of that. Most of the Nilssons’ Kubotas have three ranges with push-button gear changes.

The new Kubota L5740 has been converted to a forklift for loading trucks. It has a hydrostatic transmission – push the toe of the foot pedal for forward, push on the heel for reverse.

The Kubotas’ gear ratios also suit the operation. They are slow enough to crawl while towing people on the planting sled and fast enough for a 40km/h road speed.

“They go slower than a lot of tractors will but now they also have the higher road gear. The ratios are good, they don’t have big jumps.”

Nilsson also likes the tractors for their low weight. “We don’t get the

same compaction. The brakes are good and so is the turning radius. They can turn around in a tight area, which is good for headlands.

“They’re reliable. They always go and they don’t leak oil. We don’t want oil on our crops or in the environment. If we stuff up our soil we’re buggered.”

Nilssons appreciate the service they get from Redline Farm Machinery in Dargaville. “We get on well with the local mechanics. You can usually contact someone, whatever the time. A lot of people say they are a 24-hour service but they don’t answer the phone. Redline does. If anything breaks down they get it done straight away.”

The service from Kubota has also been good. “We’ve had a few visits from Japanese chaps from the factory. They listen to what you have to say and what you think needs improving.

“In the past the cabs were too small and noisy; but they’ve listened and corrected. Now the cabs are amongst the biggest for that size tractor and they’re quiet.”

Kubota is imported in New Zealand

by C B Norwood Distributors Ltd. Tel. 0800 KUBOTA www.kubota.co.nz

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 53

Quality fleet keeps contractor on game HEAVY EMPHASIS on quality gear is keep a Wairarapa rural contractor on top of its game, reports supplier Norwood Farm Machinery Centre, Masterton.

B&B Contracting, run by Richard Blundell and Sandy Bidwill, works in southern Wairarapa, doing ploughing, cultivation, mowing, baleage, drilling and harvesting.

Operations manager Tim Linton says the Bidwills have invested heavily in top-quality gear in recent years.

The business has been running a 5.0 m Vaderstad Carrier seed drill for seven years, doing about 6000ha with it. The business also runs a Vaderstad BioDrill bought at the same time.

“The Vaderstad Carrier is still going strong. We like the build quality of the levelling boards and the small discs,” says Linton. The accuracy is second to none and it’s a good machine. We use it for drilling mainly grass and brassica crops.”

B&B Contracting bought a new seven-furrow Lemken Vari Diamant 10 plough last year, the first semi-mounted plough they have owned.

“We used to have a fully mounted plough, but we chose this because we could operate a larger plough more efficiently without having to run a bigger tractor,”

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B&B Contracting’s Matt Purdy (left); Aaron George, Norwood Farm Machinery Centre, Masterton; and Tim Linton and Richard Blundell, B & B Contracting.

LATEST STORIES EVERY DAY Get upto date news at www.ruralnews.co.nz

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FIELDAYS SURVIVAL KIT GIVEAWAY Get ready for National Fieldays by entering the draw to win a great Fieldays survival kit.

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Linton says.

“We wanted to go to a Lemken plough. We like them because of their strength and the job they do.

Fitted with the new Lemken W52 bodies, this Vari Diamant leaves a much wider furrow bottom which means we can run much wider tyres. Tractor tyres have been getting bigger, and that’s been quite a problem.”

A New Holland T7070 tractor pulls the Lemken Vari Diamant and Linton says it is a good match.

“The T7070 copes with the plough well and does a good job.

It has a much longer mouldboard, so it gives good inversion with a level consolidated finish. It’s also good on hills.”

B&B Contracting also bought a 6.0m Lemken Rubin 9 intensive disc cultivator just over az year ago. It was chosen for the size of its large scalloped discs and the angle they work. “That was a big factor for our autumn work. The rubber roller on the back is [unusual] and the strength of the discs makes it go well in hard stony ground.”

The business also runs a Vaderstad RX620 roller with a

StocksAG seeding unit – a “good, strong, reliable” implement with an accurate seeding unit.

“It’s simple to use, which is a key point for… the variety of operators who use this gear. It’s all user-friendly and easy to learn.”

B&B Contracting also operates a Horsch Pronto DC6 drill – their second Pronto.

Horsch, Lemken, StocksAG and Vaderstad are imported in New Zealand by C B Norwood Distributors Ltd.

www.ruralnews.co.nz/survival-kit

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 8, 2014

RURAL TRADER 55 Rubber Safety Matting

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LASTRITE IS CLOSING DOWN ITS FACTORY IN WHANGAREI

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Nev is relocating to his home in Pataua North.

Just making 3 products: Yardmate (also known as the Farmer), Hunter and the Hob Nail. Check out our web site.

We will do steel toes if you provide the steel toe (external) only.

We also make a high end fashion boot for men, which is not on the web site as of yet.

For those of you who have ordered from us before, we will still have your records. Those of you who have bought off the shelf or field day’s, take note of your size for future purchases.

So business as usual – just a better view.

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sulphur remains in the soil over winter, slowly releasing to provide adequate levels in spring when pasture starts growing again.

PhaSedN is a granulated combination of SustaiN, elemental sulphur and lime. While the nitrogen offers an immediate boost to pasture, the elemental sulphur delivers a long-term supply of sulphur. This form of

To get more from your pasture on the shoulders of the season, talk to your local Ballance Field Consultant or call 0800 222 090.