Rural News 7 April 2015 by Rural News Group

MANAGEMENT

ANIMAL HEALTH

Planning for winter feed crops for 2016 starts now. PAGE 32

Sharemilkers two-pronged attack on facial eczema. PAGE 37

FRUIT FLY The horticultural industry could be liable for costs for future outbreaks.

RURALNEWS

PAGE 24

TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS

APRIL 7, 2015: ISSUE 581

www.ruralnews.co.nz

Fonterra rebrand stalled SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

A FULL makeover of Fonterra’s RD1 retail stores is on hold until the co-op’s finances improve. It will not refurbish existing stores and milk tankers in the new Farm Source livery launched in Methven last year. Farm Source includes turning 67 RD1 stores into hubs where farmers could drop in for coffee, use free wifi, hold seminars and meet with Fonterra representatives. Farm Source is also offering shareholders a loyalty programme, exclusive deals with other service providers and help in managing shares and capital. Fonterra chairman John Wilson says Farm Source is moving ahead with these plans and is already saving money for farmers.

But the full brand changeover has been pushed back, he says. “There’s no point in spending money on paint and timber just for a rebranding exercise,” Wilson told Rural News. “The look of Farm Source is being slowly done but the actions are going well.” Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard is backing Fonterra’s decision. “From a perspective basis, it’s a right move; things are tight and by painting buildings Fonterra will not be sending

the right message,” Hoggard says. He says Farm Source is a good concept and farmers are saving money through special deals and loyalty programmes offered by the co-op. “It’s a good start and its make sense for Fonterra to have Farm Source.” Four new stores were in the pipeline before Farm Source’s launch; these stores will carry the new livery. The Methven store was launched in September last year; a new store in Culverden opened last month in the new livery.

Wilson says the new stores will be Farm Source hubs rather than RD1 stores. “But the rebranding of all our stores as Fonterra Farm Source will wait until we have some discretionary income to spend. “It’s the actions that are important – not the ribbon that’s tied across the bow but what’s inside the parcel. Inside the parcel it’s good, it’s happening and the team is driving it hard. But we are not putting the wrapping paper around it and tying the bow neatly just yet.”

RUNNING OF THE BULLS Josh Williamson is the farm manager at Paua Station, one of three finalists in the 2015 Ahuwhenua Trophy competition for the top Maori sheep and beef farm. The station, located around Paerangaranga Harbour 40km from Cape Reinga, runs 832 breeding cows and finishes 600-950 bulls every year. More on Paua Station and the Ahuwhenua finalists in this issue.

WAR OF WORDS A WAR of words has broken out between the Meat Industry Excellence group (MIE) and Alliance Group over the former’s consultation with the meat co-op during its work on proposals for meat industry reform. MIE chair John McCarthy has taken issue with claims made by his Alliance Group counterpart Murray Taggart in a radio interview earlier this month about dialogue – or more correctly the lack of it – between MIE and Alliance Group. In an interview on Richard Loe’s On the Field radio show Taggart said there had been little or no contact between the meat processor and MIE. “To the best of my knowledge [Alliance Group] involvement was pretty much nil,” he told Loe. When asked if this was a serious fault in the MIE process, Taggart said it was. “I can’t comment on the process or consultants [MIE] used, but obviously they didn’t feel a great need to talk to us.” But McCarthy disputes this claim. “Murray must have had a tap on the head or something; that is so far removed from the facts of the matter it is unbelievable,” he told Loe in a later interview. McCarthy says that as part of its business plan with Beef + Lamb NZ (it provided MIE with $220,000 to produce its report) certain parameters were set by the industry body so it was comfortable with the funding

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NEWS 3 ISSUE 581 Kiwifruit bounces back!

www.ruralnews.co.nz

PAM TIPA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

NEWS �� 1-19 WORLD �� 21 MARKETS �� 22-23 AGRIBUSINESS �� 24-25 HOUND, EDNA �� 26 CONTACTS �� 26 OPINION �� 26-29 MANAGEMENT �� 30-34 ANIMAL HEALTH �� 35-39 MACHINERY AND PRODUCTS �� 40-45 RURAL TRADER �� 46-47

HEAD OFFICE Top Floor, 29 Northcroft Street, Takapuna, Auckland 0622 Phone: 09-307 0399 Fax: 09-307 0122 POSTAL ADDRESS PO Box 331100, Takapuna, Auckland 0740 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 81,188 as at 30.06.2014

ZESPRI FORECASTS a record season for Gold kiwifruit even though the new replacement Gold3 orchards are not yet in full production. The industry forecasts a harvest of about 30 million trays of Gold kiwifruit, surpassing the previous high of 29 million trays sold in the 2011 season. Of this year’s Gold crop, 25 million is Gold3 (marketed as Zespri SunGold), the new Psa-resistant crop brought in to replace the Hort16 variety devastated by the vine-killing disease. Zespri’s general manager supply chain, Blair Hamill, says Gold production is up from 18 million trays last year but a number of orchards are not in full production yet. Early adopters started grafting G3 in 2011-12 so some of those orchards are coming into full production. “But a lot of grafting happened in 2013 so of the 4500ha of G3 in the ground, not all of it is in production yet. We are on track to do around 50

million trays by about 2018. So it’s really exciting.” Overall the season is looking positive, he says, with an overall total of 108 million trays to be shipped, including about 72 million of Green. It is not a record season overall, but it is a return to pre-Psa volumes. The first shipment left Tauranga for Japan on Saturday March 28, and three more vessels went last week to Taiwan, China, Japan, Korea and Europe; some are two country loads. “We are on track – we are a little bit hand to mouth – a few cooler nights and the fruit will start to quickly mature and we will be away for the season.” Zespri is building markets for the increased production forecast for coming years. “We’re building in developing markets, we’ve got huge growth still in China, we’re confident we are developing and building markets over the next few years to cope with the rise in volumes of Gold,” Hamill says. The first kiwifruit charter ship for 2015 is set to sail from the Port of Tauranga tomorrow (Sunday March 28),

marking the start of a season promising strong growth with volumes back to pre-Psa levels this season, Zespri’s chief executive Lain Jager says. The 2015 harvest began in orchards in Gisborne, Katikati and Te Puke last week and this year Zespri has chartered 55 refrigerated ships, including five ships direct to Shanghai, and 8000 refrigerated containers to carry the 2015 Zespri harvest to 54 countries. “The New Zealand industry continues along the Psa recovery pathway, transitioning from the previous gold variety Hort16A to Gold3 with 4593 licensed hectares in NZ. With total volumes of premium Gold kiwifruit expected to reach pre-Psa levels this season and orchard values back to prePsa prices, our industry is good heart,” says Jager. “While the impact of Psa is still being felt across the kiwifruit industry, this remarkable turnaround is testament to the cooperative and pragmatic nature of the industry and the strong support we have received from Government.”

Great calves, good prices Calves from Glen Lyon and Huxley Gorge stations in the west Mackenzie Country sold well at the first of the regular autumn calf sales at Temuka, late last month. “I think this is the best line-up I’ve seen for this sale,” said local PGW livestock manager, Joe Higgins. “They’ve had a very good season up there and I reckon they’re a good 10kg heavier than normal. They’ve certainly got a bit of sap about them and their coats are great too.” A line of Angus x Hereford steers topped the sale at $720 and the average was “$40-50 up” on last year’s $445/head, reflecting the quality and firm schedules.

WEBSITE MAKEOVER RURAL NEWS Group, publishers of Rural News, Dairy News and New Zealand Winegrower, has a new-look website featuring more regular news updates and encouraging greater online interaction with our readers. Developed over several months with the help of external developer Jeremy Warne, the redesign has a more modern look which will be familiar to many readers of online news, says Rural News online editor Emily Gordon. Changes to the site include a single home page that combines stories from the company’s three major publications Rural News, Dairy News and New Zealand Winegrower, Gordon says. “In its previous version, the publications each operated as individual sub-sites, with little crossover between them. However, while the new site has maintained this division to some extent, visitors can now also choose to access the latest content in one central place, making browsing easier. “Other improvements include the addition of sections not previously available online such as sidebars dedicated to the Rural News ‘Hound’, and the Dairy News ‘Milking It’ columns.” The new site also has an events calendar for the rural community. The calendar is located on each page of the site down the right side, informing about upcoming conferences, field days and other events nationwide. People wishing to list their rural events on the website can email details to webproducer@ruralnews. co.nz. For advertisers, there are some improvements too, with several more ad spaces now available and a single location in which to download media-kits. To check out the new site go to www.ruralnewsgroup.co.nz.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

4 NEWS

An end to the no-soco-operative wars? PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

THE MEAT Industry Excellence group (MIE) says historic cultural antagonism between the two cooperatives is one of the main reasons the meat industry is going down the gurgler. Speaking to Rural News after the launch of a major report on the industry late last month, MIE chair John McCarthy said a key matter arising from the report is a commercial imperative for the two co-ops to work together and merge to provide “scale, scope and leadership”. Alliance Group and Silver Fern Farms need to provide a NZ Inctype approach, and nothing will happen

unless the co-ops lead that change. McCarthy was pleased at the response to the MIE-initiated report. He says it’s the first time a comprehensive report like this has been made public. “The report has shown up some real challenges. We know there have been reports in the past, but they have remained in-house or in-company and have not been available to the whole industry. “Now that we are aware of the actual state of the industry it is almost irresponsible, I believe, for people not to get behind the bow wave that is required to turn this thing around.” McCarthy agrees with most of the

MIE’s John McCarthy says it is imperative the two major meat co-ops work together.

report, but adds it’s not his, as such, and that it reflects a wide range of support for change from across the farming sector. He says the industry can no longer live in the past and repeat the same old mistakes. “[The issue is] New Zealand ownership of the value chain versus foreign ownership of the value chain; cooperative power or corporate power and that can only be [settled] by the merger of the two cooperatives.” McCarthy disputes claims that sheep and beef farmers can do better – the constant harping that more farmers can match the so-called 25% who are doing especially well. This is untrue, he says. Farmers have lifted their game

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country while much of the flat land goes to dairying. Some farmers are doing well because they are dairy grazing. • Numbers clash - page 5

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DISAGREEMENT OVER MEAT MEETINGS FROM PAGE 1

it had given MIE. “One of these requirements was that we consulted with the major players and as much of the meat industry as possible,” he explained. “Our report states that we have consulted with 80% of the ovine and bovine processors – impossible had we not talked with Alliance.” McCarthy says he and MIE’s lead consultant Ross Hyland had consulted with Alliance Group several times. “We even made a special trip to the South Island and met in the Alliance offices with former chief executive Grant Cuff and chief financial officer Danny Hales for at least 90 minutes. We have the briefing notes from that meeting.” McCarthy says he is bemused by Taggart’s claims about the lack of dialogue and believes the Alliance board would be “disturbed by the tenor of his remarks”. “It is incredible that Murray could go on air and deny any meetings; it has brought us into disrepute and I want to clarify the situation.”

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

NEWS 5

New organic co-op rattles Fonterra SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

THE BATTLE for organic milk is heating up with a new farmer co-op launching in Taupo later this month. The Organic Dairy Hub (ODH) Cooperative will compete with Fonterra for New Zealand’s fledgling organic milk supply; next season OHD will have about 1 million kgMS from about a dozen farms, some not currently supplying Fonterra organic. ODH will be an organic milk wholesaler only, supplying milk to local processors and will have toll manufacturing arrangements with global marketers. South Auckland organic milk processor Green Valley Milk is backing the hub and will be a major buyer of its milk.

OHD project manager Bill Quinn told Rural News farmers will “stick to their knitting, which is milk production on-farm”. The old milking stool has three legs: suppliers, processors and marketers; each is a skill and discipline in its own right. “The hub will coordinate between them; we have marketers who want products like organic butter and we will link them with processors who can do that; we’ve got the milk.” Quinn believes Fonterra has not been sincere with its organic suppliers in recent years, cancelling contracts to satisfy its organic growth strategy. Fonterra’s organic milk suppliers has dropped to 73 from 127 three years ago. This has left milk suppliers and processors frustrated, he says. Fonterra recently announced a 45c/ kgMS hike in its organic milk premium;

Bill Quinn

its organic suppliers will now receive $1.50/kgMS above the conventional milk price. The co-op is also seeking an extra 600,000kgMS next season. Quinn says Fonterra only lifts its

game when another player enters the organic market. He says farmers needed an alternative market to Fonterra and this led to OHD’s formation over the last three seasons. OHD has also received expressions of interest from farmers in the process of converting to organics. It is also talking to processors looking at boosting organic milk processing. “A number of processors are frustrated about organic milk supply; they have got through to Fonterra but as its volumes dropped, Fonterra has a responsibility to process its own organic milk because that’s where the money is. “We have a number of processors wanting to enter organics, to change from conventional milk lines to organic milk lines. They either want to introduce an organic line to their current

portfolio or have established a market presence with conventional New Zealand milk – they wish to either change or add an organic line.” Green Valley Dairy chief executive Corrie Den Haring says ODH is a positive development for the organic sector. Den Haring says Green Valley has been working with ODH for two years. “The aim of the exercise is to get enough milk and have enough available so we can grow the market; it’s about providing robustness and stability to the organic dairy market.” Green Valley has its own organic farms but Haring says it has been short of organic milk for 18 months. “This has hampered local growth and our ability to maximise local opportunities.” @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

ALLIANCE QUESTIONS MIE’S PLANS THERE is a dispute between the Alliance Group and MIE about possible industry rationalisation and numbers used to make recommendations. “MIE’s numbers are significantly different from the numbers we have come up with internally,” Murray Taggart claims. The Alliance chair has all but dismissed the MIE report’s recommendation for industry rationalisation saying it was a commercial decision best left for companies to make and not third parties. “Alliance Group has already… rationalised plants to better match processing capacity with livestock supply. “The company continually eval-

Alliance chair Murray Taggart

uates the performance of its plants to deliver operational efficiencies and ensure it meets the needs of

shareholders and suppliers.” Taggart believes Government intervention would be needed to implement some MIE measures for meat sector reform. “Certainly there appears a need to have some kind of legislation to support some of MIE’s options,” and the clear message we have had from the Government is this would not be available. Taggart says it would be “commercially challenging” to achieve the outcomes the MIE report recommends. “We have always been of the view that a commercial solution is the best answer. There is no evidence that once Government starts wading into an industry it improves it performance.”

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6 NEWS

‘Sit tight, plan ahead and budget well’ – dairy farmers told SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

FEDERATED FARMERS Dairy president Andrew Hoggard is urging farmers to maintain a frugal mindset in the face of disappointing half-year results by processors. Commenting on the half-year performances of Fonterra and Canterbury independent processor Synlait, Hoggard called on farmers to “sit tight, plan ahead and budget well”. “The worst is not over yet, with farmers going into winter with the lower payouts starting to take effect and the drought affected regions, meaning farmers will be needing to buy in more supplementary feed than usual,” he says. Fonterra dropped its dividend payout by 5c/kgMS while maintaining its milk price at $4.70/kgMS. For the six months ending January 2015, Fonterra recorded a 14% drop in revenue to $9.7 billion; net profit after tax stood at $183 million, down 16% over last year.

Andrew Hoggard

Hoggard says the drop in Fonterra’s dividend is disappointing. “The dividend’s role is to reflect the value in Fonterra’s value add products. The belief among farmers has been that a low farmgate milk price would then reduce the cost of producing value add products which would be reflected in a

higher dividend returned to farmers. Obviously this isn’t the case so Fonterra will need to explain that well, and clearly, to their shareholder farmers.” Synlait Milk has increased its 2015 forecast from $4.40/kgMS to a range of $4.50 - $4.70/kgMS despite posting a $6.4 million net loss for first six months. Hoggard says there is some good news for Synlait suppliers. “The bronze lining is that at least Synlait farmers’ forecast payout is now not looking so grim and they are now experiencing a similar level of pain to Fonterra suppliers,” he says. Synlait Milk chairman Graeme Milne says it is expecting a much stronger performance in the second half of the financial year, on the back of selling higher-margin infant and nutraceutical products. Milne is confident that despite market volatility it has sufficient committed contracts in place to achieve a forecast net profit after tax result of $10 million - $15 million for the full year.

Ian Brown

Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings says the first half has been subdued for the co-op, due to high volatility and challenging global market conditions. “In the first quarter, opportunities to improve ingredients, consumer and foodservice gross margins were restricted until carryover inventory

from the previous financial year was cleared.” Spierings says Fonterra has a single-minded focus on delivering results – increasing sales volumes, reducing complexity and taking costs out to maximise returns. “To accelerate delivery of strategy, my team and I are leading a comprehensive business transformation programme. It will firmly embed the best features of entrepreneurial thinking, such as effectiveness, efficiency and agility.” Fonterra Shareholders Council chairman Ian Brown says farmers expected their co-op to deliver a higher dividend than the 10c/kgMS interim dividend announced last week. “Shareholders rightfully want to see the strategy provide a return on their investment, especially given the low milk price environment farmers are currently experiencing.” Last week Fonterra’s board and management held 40 farmer meetings to explain the results.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

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Forestry levy cuts it – NZFFA ANDREW SWALLOW

A LITTLE over a year since its implementation, the Harvested Wood Material levy, better known as the ‘forestry levy’, is “going really well,” says the outgoing president of the New Zealand Farm Forestry Association. Ian Jackson farms 295ha at Hunter in South Canterbury and has headed the NZFFA since 2012. The 1100 ewes and 400 bulls he runs enjoy shelter from decades of planting, starting with Douglas fir 50 years ago, through to more recent belts of poplar and eucalypt. Jackson says “only a handful” of producers have refused to pay the 27c/t harvest levy, which is compulsory, since its introduction January last year. Thanks to a 20%

increase in production $8m was raised, comfortably ahead of the $6.7m budgeted. “The cut has gone from 20mt to close to 30mt in the last four to five years as 1990 plantings come on stream and increased volumes go to China,” he points out. Research funding takes half the budget and safety, at $0.5m, is another major focus. Implementing recommendations from an independent review of health and safety in forestry released in October is now underway. Forest biosecurity is another big ticket item budgeted to take $868,000 of levy funds. Both the Forest Owners Association and the NZFFA also benefit from levy funding, the latter’s share increasing from $75,000 to $105,000 this year.

Jackson says the levy money is “invaluable” in running NZFFA as it allows central manager Glen Tims to be employed, funds a better website, and helps extension activities through the association’s quarterly Tree Grower magazine, newsletters and field days. Depending on which of the association’s 27 branch areas you’re in, there may be up to ten of those a year, he points out. Membership of the association is stable at about 1900, each paying $110/year for the magazine, newsletters and notification of field days. There is a members’ only area on the website but much of the information is free access as it was at least part public funded through the likes of MPI’s Sustainable Farming Fund. For example, 68 Trees on Farms case study

videos and four special topic videos were posted online in January. Despite such funding, Jackson believes forestry is under-represented in Government’s budgets and doesn’t feature highly enough in policy priorities, probably because forestry issues are spread across several ministries rather than one body. “We don’t have a minister or ministry for forestry yet [at $5.5 billion] it’s our third biggest export earner,” he points out. Former Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries Jim Anderton did champion the sector and had succeeded in getting it into Government thinking but since his departure forestry seems to have “disappeared again,” adds Jackson. He’s adamant there’s huge potential for plant-

ing eroding pastoral hill country with trees, mostly in the North Island, and make gains economically and environmentally. “You can make $28,000/ha in twenty years on country you cannot do much else on. The other area is riparian planting and mitigation of nutrient losses. That’s going to be huge over the next few years.” Provision of shade and shelter, as designated in the dairy welfare code but often ignored, is also an area where trees, and the association’s resources, have a big role, he believes. “When there’s a dairy conversion round here, you know what’s the first thing that happens,” he says, alluding to the usual felling of shelter to allow pivot irrigation. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

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Good Evans – 40 years and still drawing reaction PAM TIPA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

IT’S ALMOST 40 years since the longsuffering, ever capable Edna, with her spotted dress and rather dour husband, first appeared in cartoons to give a lighted-hearted look at New Zealand country life. Created by Malcolm Evans, a former NZ Herald cartoonist, Edna first appeared in Farm Equipment News in 1978, before neatly hopping to Rural News when the new publication first went to print in 1989. Evans began his career as a political cartoonist in the 1960s and since then has drawn cartoons for a variety of publications. The first ‘Edna’ followed a Rangiteiki Plains flood when he drew a farmer in a dinghy rowing his prize bull to safety. Floundering in the water alongside was Edna, trying to get into the overloaded boat, while her farmer husband told her, “Be reasonable Edna, he’s irreplaceable!” “That was the first Edna cartoon and it seemed to strike a chord with rural women so I kept on doing them,” Evans says. As with Evans’ political cartoons, Edna in her quiet way also often

swipes at the establishment. But in 40 years the much loved character has never actually said a word: all the dialogue is left to her husband. But still she gets her message across as the perfect foil to the rural man. “Edna represents the unsung rural women who play an important role in New Zealand country life but often get little credit for it. He’s a woman who can do almost anything but is often taken for granted, and her hubby is perhaps more than a little thick.” The character was based on a real person – a woman on a King Country farm Evans visited as a child. Her name is May Mossman who, now in her 90s, lives in Otorohanga and is quietly chuffed that she was the inspiration for Edna. “Edna was embraced by rural women from the start and, back in the day, they would have Edna days where they would wear spotted frocks or spotted scarves to their meetings. She was a sort of a mascot for rural women. “Interestingly, for a cartoon character, Edna never looks the same, except for the spotted frock. Whether drawn short, fat, skinny, young

or old, the spotted frock is the only constant factor, so all rural woman can identify with her. “It’s been great fun to see the character develop over the years and since Murray Ball’s great ‘Footrot Flats’ strip left the stage Edna is now probably New Zealand’s longest running rural cartoon, albeit she only appears fortnightly rather than daily.” Evans was a kid who loved to draw and often “got my bum kicked” for scribbling on his school books. The advertising business was one of few career choices in the 1960s for those interested in art. “And that got me into newspapers where I was able to slide cartoons under the editor’s nose.” Evans began cartooning in 1963 with the Bay of Plenty Times before travelling in 1967 and working for a paper in the English Midlands. After returning to New Zealand he started with the Herald in 1970 and went on to succeed the legendary cartoonist Sir Gordon Minhinnick. The first Edna cartoon appeared in 1976 and when Evans left the Herald in 1978 to start an advertising business, Tom Clark, then editor of Farm Equipment News, asked Evans to bring Edna to

Malcolm Evans with many of his characters in background.

the nationally distributed farming paper. “Cartooning is a ‘funny’ way to make a living,” says Evans. “But, while you have to have a certain bent for it, in other ways it’s no different from any other job. We all have to get up in the morning to earn a living, but to do it while practising your hobby is pretty special.” Evans has always stood by his principles and after a second stint at the Herald, in 2003, when he was Qantas New Zealand cartoonist of the year, he was fired for refusing to stop drawing cartoons critical of Israel. More recently, Evans has syndicated his daily cartoons to the Manawatu Standard, Timaru Herald, The Press (Christchurch) and the bi-weekly Northland Age. And since Rural News Group launched Dairy News and Dairy News Australia he has also supplied them with dairyspecific cartoons.

“Daily newspapers are facing tough times and I’ve been passionate about helping them remain relevant to their subscribers. As a written record of the events that affect us, newspapers are an important check on governments. I’ve tried always to do work that says something and to avoid the shallow nonsense of some cartoons these days.” But one thing remains a mystery to Evans. He was born in Feilding, the Manawatu town where cartoonists Murray Ball, Tom Scott, Garrick Tremain and the late David Henshaw were also raised. That’s five out of maybe only 10 media cartoonists in New Zealand today. “I reckon that’s really weird. People laugh and say it must have been the milkman and in my case it was: in the late 1940s my father was the milkman in Feilding.” – Caricatures to order page 9

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

NEWS 9

Three of the best up for award PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

TWO FINALISTS in this year’s Ahuwhenua Trophy competition for the top Maori sheep and beef farm, Mangaroa and Maranga, are in typical East Coast hill country – while Paua Station is on flat to easy-rolling coastal sand country in the Far North.

“Parengarenga is very excited about being chosen as a finalist and it will boost the morale of staff and shareholders.” Marty Charteris, of Maranga Station, says it came as a shock to be asked to put their hat in the ring, but deep down he wanted to be benchmarked against his peers. “Since becoming a trustee of two of our Ngati

Bay. She was inspired by the kaupapa of the competition and after much discussion decided they had something unique to share and decided to enter.

Hadfield says another motivation is to promote the contribution made by individual Maori owned farms to agriculture. – More on Ahuwhenua Trophy pages 30-31

John Ellis

“Parengarenga is very excited about being chosen as a finalist and it will boost the morale of staff and shareholders.” All three finalists are delighted at the prospect of winning the coveted Ahuwhenua Trophy. John Ellis, general manager of Paerangaranga Incorporation, says they considered entering in 2013 but decided to wait. They started gathering information for their entry application long before entries officially opened.

Tahu Ngati Whaoa Land Blocks, I felt a good way to prove our ability was to enter the competition.” Charteris says he and his wife Janice were elated to hear they had made the finals and humbled by the support of their team. Nuku Hadfield says in 2013 they were lucky enough to be invited to attend the Ahuwhenua presentations in Hawkes

MAKE A LASTING IMPRESSION MALCOLM EVANS produces personal caricatures of farming people as a sideline to his other cartooning work. Whether to mark a birthday or anniversary, or perhaps a retirement from the farm, the images also illustrate the many other interests rural people often have, says Evans. “Many involve selfless service to their remote communities. “Caricatures are enjoyable to do because you are dealing with someone with a fondness for another person who wants to record it in a special way. From pictures they supply I interpret that fondness into a special image for them to give.” Dealing with the client, Evans develops the cartoon, sometimes asking for more pictures or information as required. “Then I give them a rough to ok and together we tweak it a bit. And then when we’ve nailed it someone gets a special gift that I’ve had a part in making for them.” Caricatures are something Evans has always done in addition to a variety of other interests. “I paint a bit and I sculpt in bronze and I do a bit of commercial art. I did the big bronze of Dave Gallaher that stands outside Eden Park, in time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.” He also does cartoons for companies, some combining 100 or more caricatures in one huge image, many drawn to mark the completion of significant commercial deals or contracts. Contact: malcolm@evanscartoons.com

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

10 NEWS

Fonterra’s Australian business struggling SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

FALLOUT FROM the 2013 false botulism scare and poor yoghurt sales continue to haunt Fonterra’s Australian business. In its half year results, released last month, the co-op announced that the Australian business’ earn-

ings – before income tax (EBIT) – dropped $84 million compared to the previous year. The Darnum plant in Victoria was caught up in the false botulism scare as some of the contaminated whey protein concentrate (WPC80) ended up at the plant for processing. Darnum was forced

to stop making infant formula and switch to skim milk powder; lower returns for skim milk powder caused revenue to plummet. The co-op also lost 17% market share in the yoghurt sector. Fonterra chairman John Wilson told Rural News the Australian business has been frustrating

for the co-op and farmers. However, he says Australia remains a fundamental market and work is continuing to turn the business around; business performance is good but product prices have let it down. “The Darnum plant has been processing a significant amount of skim milk

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powder; this year is frustrating for us and farmers – skim milk powder prices are down. That has meant our returns relative to… our product mix and relative to the milk price set up in Australia has not been efficient. It’s not through a lack of business performance but just through the price of products.”

Theo Spierings and John Wilson presenting Fonterra’s poor interim result.

Wilson hopes the joint venture with Chinese infant formula maker Beingmate will turn around Darnum’s fortunes. Fonterra is taking up a 20% stake in Beingmate; the joint venture will buy the Darnum plant to make infant formula for the Chinese market. Wilson says Fonterra is refilling the Darnum plant to resume making nutritionals. “Because of the specialist nature of nutritionals, you don’t just fill it up straightaway again,” he says. “That’s why the Beingmate partnership is so important.” On the yoghurt front, Fonterra bought Tamar Valley Yoghurt in November 2013. Wilson says the business is doing well but the “low innovated yoghurt” sector needs fixing. Despite a drop in earnings, the Australian business had some successes during the six months. Fonterra is now the number one supplier of products to supermarket giant Coles, up from being ranked number 33 last year. It also signed a new private label contract with Woolworths, the other big supermarket operator in Australia. The chilled spread

and cheese businesses lifted market share by 22% respectively. Operating costs have dropped 22% over the last two years, saving $35 million. Wilson says Australia remains a fundamental part of Fonterra’s strategy. “There are huge opportunities for us in Australia. We are tidying up our business; there are some highlights and some lowlights, unfortunately the lowlights outweigh the highlights.” Unlike in New Zealand, Fonterra is not the price setter in Australia; farmer co-op Murray Goulburn is the biggest player. Wilson says MG’s product mix is nicely aligned with the market while Fonterra’s is not. However, the Australia market remains a difficult place to trade for all processors. There’s excess processing capacity, as milk supply has dwindled from 12 billion L to 9bL in recent years. The manufacturing/processing sector is deeply fragmented; Fonterra is one major foreignowned processor alongside Saputo, Kirin Holdings and Parmalat. Australia also has a tight and competitive retail sector.

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12 NEWS

Kiwifruit reforms get growers’ approval PAM TIPA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

RETIRED KIWIFRUIT growers with ‘dry’ shares in Zespri will have seven years to sell these under new proposals in the Kiwifruit Industry Strategy Project. A cap on share ownership is also proposed among measures to ensure actual growers are controlling the industry, says NZ Kiwifruit Growers Inc (NZKGI) president Neil Trebilco. The independent Kiwifruit Industry Strategy Project process took 18 months and involved no fewer than 650 submis-

sions and 100 grower and industry meetings. “It is extremely positive that we’ve had a good turnout and more than 90% of growers have voted yes to the proposals so it enables the industry to get on with putting the changes in place.” Explaining the planned changes to ownership structure, Trebilco says Zespri principally exists to get a good return for growers for their fruit and therefore Zespri needs to be owned by current growers. A number of retired growers have kept their shares. “If we allowed it to continue, as growers

WATCHDOG ON ALERT NEW ZEALAND Kiwifruit Growers Inc (NZKGI) plans to take a greater watchdog role with Zespri. A recommendation supported by growers is that Zespri be required to supply more information to NZKGI so it can better monitor Zespri’s performance, says Trebilco. The organisation also plans to reduce its grower representation from around the country by 10 to 37 representatives. This will bring greater efficiency and cost savings which can be directed to measuring and reporting on the performance of Zespri.

retire we would end up with a larger and larger portion of the ownership of Zespri being in ‘dry’ shareholders – shareholders who aren’t producing crop. If the prime reason

for Zespri is to make good returns back to growers, it is not only counter-intuitive, it would also mean potentially that larger group would have more influence and perhaps be

wanting increasing dividends. I am not saying they would but there is potential for that.” The project team’s proposal is that nongrowing shareholders will have up to seven years to sell the shares. Only about two million shares are traded each year through Zespri but the change will require at least 20 million to potentially change hands. It was unrealistic to expect those to be traded over five years as it would drive the share price down. “It would be unreasonable to expect people to sell at a depressed price,” he says. A cap on the shareholding is also planned, says Trebilco. “Potentially now you can have one hectare or less of kiwifruit but you can have as many shares as you like. That is not healthy for the industry. The intention was for growers to have one share per tray but we are settling on a cap of four shares to one tray simply because it has to go to a shareholder vote, and those with dry shares and overshared growers would not support a two-to-one cap, so we had to compromise.” Trebilco says one of his personal concerns under the current struc-

Neil Trebilco

ture was that someone from outside the industry could buy a small acreage of kiwifruit orchard and there was no limit on the number of Zespri shares they could buy. “You could assert an enormous amount of control when you’ve only got a very small prudence in the industry.” Some strategy proposals will require regulatory changes by the Government. The current regulations prevent Zespri from making the ownership changes proposed. “If we want to put a cap on shareholding and if we want to be able, over

a period of time, to deal with dry shareholders, the current regulations don’t allow us to do that.” Trebilco says the referendum results which saw 90% support for key proposals are fantastic for the growers. “The KIS project was to secure the ownership and control of Zespri and the industry and that’s what the proposals are designed to do.” Trebilco says it is great to have a mandate for the Single Point of Entry. “The recovery from Psa has been incredibly dramatic and spectacular and that’s due to our industry structure.”

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

14 NEWS

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Dairy Woman of the Year 2015 Katie Milne hopes to use her new profile for the wider good of New Zealand farming. She spoke to Pam Tipa after winning her title at the Dairy Women’s Network conference in Invercargill. KATIE MILNE hopes winning the Dairy Woman of the Year title will be a good platform to push messages about farming as “the rest of New Zealand do not understand us well”. “They need to understand us better so we can be allowed to grow our industry, and to do that New Zealand has got to back us,” Milne told Rural News. “Telling our stories and using opportunities to speak to wider New Zealand will help,” says Milne, who is already carrying the flag as a Federated Farmers board member and West Coast

provincial president. “It is critical; we’ve got to take dairying forward.” Winning the title is a chance to tell New Zealand that farmers are already sustainable, mindful of the environment and good employers, and a lot more work is being done in those areas. “It is another platform hopefully to show that investing in the dairy industry, through actual money or licence to farm, is a good investment for New Zealand.” Milne has enjoyed her two years on the Federated Farmers national board. “I am trying to put my best foot forward for

all farming families in this case, not just dairy women. “Especially in the area of regulation and legislation we’ve got a magnificent team that helps with that. But being able to be a farmer who gets in front of a minister and puts the case as to why a piece of legislation won’t work is absolutely powerful. They really listen and we’ve had some good results. “We can put things in a way that is not bureaucratic – it’s just the cold, hard facts that will apply. They all genuinely listen. You can’t necessarily get them to change every time but we get good results

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that don’t get out to the wider public and our farming public as they should.” Milne says she has been “blown away” by some of the progress. One example was convincing the Government to continue to allow fortnightly rostering, and allowing accommodation rental to continue to be deducted from wages. Another of Milne’s Federated Farmers portfolios has been adverse events and in her time on the board there have been earthquakes (Seddon); volcanoes with minor eruptions from Ruapehu which involved advisories

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

NEWS 15

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Katie Milne

on dealing with stock and ash; flooding, snowstorms and drought, including the West Coast’s first official drought.

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prepared.” There has also been fruit fly and Psa incusions which come within her biosecurity portfolio. “I

am not wanting pestilence and plague, but that’s about all we haven’t had since I have been adverse events spokesperson.”

“THERE DON’T seem to be any barriers stopping anyone going forward,” Katie Milne says. “If you’ve got a passion, or you think something is not quite right or there is something you want to say, just do it either through Dairy Women’s Network or discussions groups, or by going to a Feds meeting and taking it further. Our voices need to be heard; we are 50% of the industry and we have a different way of looking at things. “I can’t stress how important it is to have a crack. As soon as you start putting your hand up, as long as it is sensible and makes sense, it may take time but people will start to take notice. Don’t give up; tap into those networks.” In farming if you ask someone a bit ahead of you in the chain, they will help you. Locally there are many areas to get involved from TBfree to catchment groups. Milne’s heritage is sheep and beef in South Westland, which are still in the family. Her mother was the farmer and ran the farm; her father, a weekend farmer, was an accountant who ran the local power company. There were no dairy cows except a couple that were hand-milked and she had to learn from scratch when

she entered dairying. She now farms a small high BW Jersey herd of 200 cows with her partner at Rotomanu, Lake Brunner. They also rear replacement heifer calves and run a contracting operation. Milne says she was always querying why things were done a certain way. But she learnt plenty in discussion groups from the consulting officers and other farmers. “One thing great about the dairy industry is that other farmers will tell you what will make you a better farmer. If we all do better we all win because it helps make the industry more efficient and that’s reflected in payout.” Milne looks forward to the year-long Global Women ‘Women in Leadership’ course worth $25,000, her main prize for the Dairy Woman of the Year title. “That’s a pretty amazing package. I have an open mind as to how it will work and what it will mean because I’m ‘a possum in the headlights’ on that one.” Although she is already involved in leadership with Federated Farmers as a national board member and West Coast President, she says some of the “awesome stuff” some of the other ladies are doing out there is groundbreaking for the industry.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

16 NEWS

All quiet on fruit fly front PAM TIPA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

THE HORTICULTURE industry will not have to pay towards the Queensland fruit fly response in Auckland this time – but it will be liable in the future under the Government Industry

Agreements. Horticulture NZ’s chief executive Peter Silcock says the previous detections in Auckland and Whangarei cost $1 million-$1.5 million but the Auckland eradication will cost much more because the operation may run into months. It is the larg-

est fruit fly incursion since the Medfly was found in Mt Roskill in 1996. Four Queensland fruit fly finds over three years is a big concern because under the Government Industry Agreements the costs will be shared in the future, he says. In Australia, the cur-

rent annual cost of managing Queensland fruit fly in areas where it is endemic are estimated to be at least $28m, with 60% of the costs borne by commercial growers, a report to the Kiwifruit Vine Health shows. But Silcock told Rural News they are focussed

on near and present risk. “So the more flies we have in our traps indicates the border measures are not working or the pre border measures are not working and that creates a huge risk for the industry. “The potential financial impact on the horticulture industry depends

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on where you find the flies. Clearly having a find of this fly in central urban Auckland is much less damaging. If this find was in one of the major horticultural production areas it would have a massive impact.” Immediately a ban would be put on exports of product grown in the immediate vicinity. “That could disrupt a lot of trade. It would be hundreds of millions of dollars and a serious impact on jobs.” A 2007 report to the kiwifruit industry said a major incursion in Te Puke could cost the horticulture industry up to $480 million but the follow-on effects could exceed $800m and put 3500 jobs at risk. A report this month to Kiwifruit Vine Health proposes these figures need to be remodelled upwards because of changes since 2007 in production volumes, markets and possible market reactions. China could exclude fruit from the whole North Island rather than just the areas surrounding the incursion. On a positive note, Silcock says it has been a few weeks since MPI has found any Queensland fruit fly in the Auckland controlled zone. The last time they found fruit with larvae in it was on March 19. That fruit was collected on March 13 and put it into incubation because the eggs are so small they were very

hard to detect. “We are certainly hoping that is the end of it. It is obviously as important as ever that people still comply with those rules on movement of fruit out of the area. “For our trading partners we need to continue to do monitoring over a period of time. That varies between trading partners but at least a couple of life cycles of fruit fly so that is a number of weeks and months yet. We have to monitor the area to prove there isn’t a population there.” MPI is still working on how the fruit fly came in; it suspects it was via a passenger, for instance, with a piece of fruit in someone’s bag. “There is no proof yet and often it is hard to determine where these things come from. “Clearly over the last three years we have had four finds – two in Avondale, one in Whangarei and this one, and that is too many finds in our traps. “The trapping system is good but we just don’t want to be using it that often. So it is all about how can we improve what is happening at the border, how can we ensure these flies are not getting through to our traps in the first place? We have an increasing risk in Australia and we need to be responding to that.”

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EVERY DAY that passes without catching another fly brings the end of the operation closer, an MPI spokesman told Rural News. “It is simple when a single male fly is found. The operation to ascertain if there are more flies take two to three weeks. When more flies are found it becomes more complex. In this instance 14 flies have been found, so there are many more variables. “During the Mediterranean fruit fly incursion in Mt Roskill in 1996, more than 40 flies were found and the operation to eradicate it took nine months. That is New Zealand’s longest fruit fly eradication operation.” All costs are being logged against the operation, but an accurate figure so far is not available yet, the spokesman says.

Image courtesy of Te Aroha Museum

Prosperity comes from productivity. Productivity comes from improvement. Now let’s talk about where improvement comes from.

In 1814 there were two cows and one bull, brought into New Zealand by Samuel Marsden. Today the dairy industry has 4.9 million cows and processes 1.83 billion kilograms of milk solids per year.

ELE-01656-DN

In early days, if you were milking more than three or four cows, you were a full-time farmer. Today, two people can milk 800 to 1,000 cows in a couple of hours.

Between 1979 and 2014, milk solid production increased by 1.3 billion kilograms. 60% of those gains came from genetic improvement. Once, farmers knew their individual cow’s quirks, characteristics and names. Today, farmers have the smallest details of every one of their hundreds if not thousands of cows at their ﬁngertips.

The story of the New Zealand dairy industry has been one of constant improvement. And at LIC, we’ve been part of that story for over 100 years, helping improve the productivity and prosperity of our farmers. Helping make New Zealand dairying the world leader that it is. Improvement. It’s in our nature. It’s in our name.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

18 NEWS

Heat to go on farm safety PAM TIPA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

AGRICULTURE WILL remain under increasing scrutiny from regulators and consumers and it is up to the industry to educate them, says Landcorp’s general manager of people and capabilities, Anna Cassel-Brown.

“We are the subject of semi-informed commentary by a semi-informed public and semi-informed media. The only people who can make them better informed is us,” Cassel-Brown told the Dairy Women’s Network conference in Invercargill last month. But she also says agri-

culture can be “bloody defensive” and the time for that is over. Cassel-Brown, an expert in leadership culture development who has also worked for Fonterra and Air New Zealand, made it clear her views in the DWN panel discussion were her own and not the official posi-

tion of Landcorp. “We will be under increasing scrutiny, whether large or small, from regulators and consumers who want assurance about animal welfare, environmental standards, whether we have produced things ethically and that the food is safe,” she says.

Many of Worksafe NZ’s 175 inspectors are not familiar with agriculture and Landcorp is trying to work with them to help them understand the industry. Currently an item of equipment found on most farms has been put under prohibition on those farms where an accident has involved

Anna Cassel-Brown at the recent DWN conference.

that item. “We have a view that it is an everyday piece of equipment [but] a WorkSafe NZ inspector comes in and sees it and to them it is intrinsically dangerous. And we are right and they are right and that tension is just going to grow.” Landcorp is working with them so that each gains better understanding of the other’s position. Farms will also be under increasing scrutiny from the media. Everyone has an opinion on the farming business, but many are not well informed. “Our ability to shape the expectations of those who are demanding things of us is going to be critical.” One response from Landcorp is to strive for excellence. “We are not going to sit and wait for the regulator to tell us how high a bar we have to jump over in our environmental performance or how well we look after our people or what protections we have to put in place. We figure it out

for ourselves and we are doing it.” Landcorp is also opening up to scrutiny. “We are opening our farms and saying ‘we are not perfect; come and have a look and if you’ve got a better idea about how we can improve things, we want to hear from you so you can help us’.” Cassel-Brown, who now owns a small Northland farm, says agriculture is not in her professional background. “My observer’s view of agriculture before joining it is ‘it’s bloody defensive’. Someone says ‘you’re doing this’ and you say ‘no we’re not’. “I think the time for that is over. We need to say, ‘interesting you see it that way; help me understand what you see and help me do it better’. “So Landcorp is opening itself up to scrutiny; one of our values is complete openness.” The company is also actively engaging with communities and requires its farm managers to participate.

YOU’LL NEED MORE SKILLS THE SKILLS of farm owners and managers will be an aspect that defines agriculture in the future, says Cassel-Brown. For its 140 farm managers it was no longer good enough to be good at growing grass and animals and getting milk out of cows. “You have to be a people leader. You’ve got to have the skills of an HR manager. You’ve got to be able to interpret legislation so you’ve got to have the skills of a solicitor, you’ve got to develop strategic and business plans so you have to have the skills of a commercial manager. You’ve got to be a safety advisor, you’ve got to be an environmental technician – the skills requirement is going to be far greater and the pressure is only going to grow.” Women are the changing face of Landcorp itself and of agriculture in New Zealand. She says they often have a good capacity to think about the whole system and they can multi-task.

LATEST STORIES EVERY DAY Get upto date news at www.ruralnews.co.nz

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

NEWS 19

Cyclone Pam delivers rain, but more needed SARAH CHARTERIS

EX-CYCLONE PAM brought at least 200ml of rain to parts of the North Island’s East Coast but farmers say the rain gauges still need a top-up. The storm hit Gisborne and northern Hawke’s Bay on March 14-15, the rain came next day. Some areas recorded figures in the low 60s while others got a dousing of 200ml and more. Wind was an issue, particularly for farmers north of Gisborne, some properties suffering big damage and power outages. Despite the 100ml that fell at Sefton Alexander’s coastal Nuhaka property, the sheep and beef farmer said the benefits would only be felt with follow-up rain. “The water soaked in but it is still surprisingly dry,” said Sefton, the local Federated Farmers representative. “The five or so days after were cool which wasn’t great, but it has

Tony Woodcock

been warm since. We need that follow-up rain now, while it’s still warm, to help grow winter feed.” At a recent farm discussion group Sefton said the feeling was mutual among other local farmers. “A lot said they were pretty short of feed; we need another 100ml or so, the sooner the better, or famers will need to start looking at feed and stock levels and start to make a plan. “We have had a traditional Hawke’s Bay summer but it has started to drag on – starting to pinch…. We had a lucky escape as Pam was a major storm, but we still need more rain.” Nick Carr manages Mangatoto Station between Wairoa and Gisborne, up to 2800ft altitude. The property got just over 200ml during the storm, but he says they need more to ensure sustainable winter feed. “It’s not uncommon for us to get more than the flats; we can get 500ml

in 4 to 5 days. “It has undoubtedly made a difference as things weren’t looking good beforehand. It was pretty much the perfect storm for us as it didn’t bring too much at the one time and we missed the wind. But we could still do with another 40-50ml, though I’m not sure we are going to get it.” One farmer hammered by the winds was Pakihiroa Station manager Luke Scragg. The sheep and beef operation leads up to Mount Hikurangi, 80km north of Gisborne. Luke said they got just under 90ml of rain, but high winds left them without power for a week and a phone line for three days. “We did get quite a bit of wind damage with one real bad day; it was definitely a bit more than the usual autumn storm for many up here. There were trees and branches down but we didn’t get the rain like some parts. We can always do with more.” Cropping also felt the effects of

ex-Cyclone Pam. Cedenco managing director Tim Chrisp says harvesting and processing ceased during the height of the storm for health and safety reasons. The high winds in some areas caused a lot of lodging in many remaining sweetcorn crops, making harvesting more difficult. The variable rainfall, however, was mostly beneficial to crops. “Fine stable weather since Pam have helped us get the harvest back on track and we should complete the summer harvest on schedule,” he said. Leaderbrand Produce Ltd general manager Richard Burke said their crops were also hit by wind and rain, but with no lasting impact. “The cyclone brought some rain and as cropping farmers in the middle of harvest I’d say it was not welcome. @rural_news

LITTLE RELIEF PAM may have saved the season on many North Island farms, but the cyclone’s soak failed to reach the south where some areas are still desperately dry – despite dribs and drabs of rain in recent weeks. Those meagre falls have kept most pastures green even where irrigation has run out, and winter feed crops are hanging on for when the drought breaker comes, but it can’t arrive soon enough. “Best case is we might get an extra 3-4t/ ha of kale from now,” says Federated Farmers South Canterbury dairy chairman Ryan O’Sullivan. “It just depends on what’s there now and the health of the crop. There’s quite a range around the district with some quite bad insect damage. A really sick crop’s not going to do that 3-4t/ha but a healthy crop will.” In his own case, he’s now budgeting on kale off heavy land doing just 7-9t/ha and light land 5-6t/ha. Fodder beet’s fared better and while bulbs are still small, in most cases it will do 15t/ha or more, he reckons. “If we can get 15-20t/ha in a year like this we’ve got to be pretty happy.” Federated Farmers North Canterbury dairy chairman Vaughan Beazer says “put your hand up and ask for help” if unsure what action to take. “Don’t make emotional decisions.” – Andrew Swallow

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

WORLD 21

Aussie beef farmers leave smaller green footprint AUSTRALIAN BEEF farmers have markedly reduced their greenhouse gas emissions and water use in the last 30 years, according to a new study. The Life Cycle Assessment study, funded by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), looks at the environmental impacts of Australian beef production in 1981-2010, finding that farmers have reduced GHG emissions by 14% and are using 65% less water for beef production. Results show that improved genetic selection of animals, heavier finishing weights, increased survival rates, capping of artesian bores and a decline in irrigation, as well as an increase in lot feeding since the early 1990s, have notably reduced environmental impact and improved productivity. MLA on-farm innovation and adoption general manager Dr Matthew McDonagh says this research “have given valuable long term data on the Australian beef system and a benchmark to equip industry with quantitative data and facts to reinforce Australia’s credentials as being a producer of high quality beef, here and with our customers overseas. “This is also a critical body of research in helping industry respond to any misconceptions over environmental impacts of beef production, given that the Australian beef industry covers almost half of Australia’s land mass and is one of the country’s largest agricultural industries, worth $17 billion to the economy and employing at least 200,000 people.” Lead author of the paper Steve Wiedemann, FSA Consulting, says the study provided a more accurate picture of the Australian beef industry’s environmental footprint.

“Past work has looked at trends in emissions, water and land use; this is the most comprehensive study to date using a life cycle assessment approach – widely accepted internationally for measuring the environmental performance of products such as beef. “This shows that changes to farming practices… such as a focus on productivity and herd management have resulted in dual benefits by reducing environmental impacts per kilogram of product, at the same time as improving productivity.” Lachlan Hughes, a fifth generation Queensland beef producer from Dulacca, and member of representative grass-fed lobby group Cattle Council of Australia, says the study provided tangible data showing big productivity and environmental gains. “The Australian beef industry is committed to enabling transparency across the supply chain and this study demonstrates that all the hard work is paying off. “We have quantified performance in water, GHG emissions, energy and land use and now we want to look at how we quantify other environmental impacts, like soil health and biodiversity.” Grain feeding in feedlots showed specific improvement. Australian Lot Feeders’ Association (ALFA) president Don Mackay says this could be attributed to cattle now being finished more quickly, resulting in a reduction in resource use over the life cycle. “Feedlot cattle spend 85-90% of their lives on pasture, but feedlots allow us to finish beef more quickly which means a reduction in overall emissions, water use, land use

LATEST STORIES EVERY DAY Get upto date news at www.ruralnews.co.nz

and waste. This is still the case even when additional feedlot management impacts such as transport

and feed production are taken into account as they were in this study,” says Mackay.

Australian beef farmers are reducing their environmental footprint.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

22 MARKETS & TRENDS MARKET SNAPSHOT 

BEEF MARKET TRENDS

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LAMB PRICES

BEEF PRICES

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LAMB MARKET TRENDS

Change

c/kgCWT

P2 Steer - 300kg

P2 Cow - 230kg

Local Trade - 230kg

5.35

5.30

4.30

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5.20

4.30

3.30

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4.05

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Local Trade - 230kg

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M Cow - 200kg

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P2 Cow - 230kg

4.35

4.40

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M2 Bull - 300kg

5.30

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P2 Steer - 300kg

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M Cow - 200kg

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2 Wks Ago

M2 Bull - 300kg

Last Week

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Mutton

SI Lamb

4.10

MX1 - 21kg

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Last Week 2.57

NZ$/kg

2 Wks Ago

Last Year

5yr Ave

7.39

2.25 5.71

2.09

2.49

7.47

5.78

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% Returned SI

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71.0% 62.2%

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5yr Ave

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1.92

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Last Year 5yr Ave

62.0%

70.4%

67.2%

69.1%

63.9%

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8.20

Last Year 5yr Ave

1.77

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% Returned SI

3 Wks Ago

2 Wks Ago



Change



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

-10

% Returned NI

2Wks Ago

-0%

% Returned NI









Last Week 1.77

Procurement Indicator 



n/c

NZ$/kg

 













Export Market Demand UK Leg £/lb

95CL US$/lb

 



Change

Procurement Indicator

















 



















3.20









5.41

2.68







2.68







5.40

5.03







       





5.03





Change 

5.38

5.03



 

5.36

5.03

n/c

3.45

5.03

n/c

5.51

3.15

5.03

n/c

5.50

5.06

3.15

n/c

5.46

5.05

5.06

n/c

MX1 - 21kg





Export Market Demand



5.48

5.05

n/c

YM - 13.5kg





5.03

5.01

Slaughter





5.03

5.01







Last Year

n/c

PX - 19.0kg

Mutton

2 Wks Ago

n/c

PH - 22.0kg

Last Week

n/c

PX - 19.0kg

2.75

4.85

n/c

PM - 16.0kg

2.85



      

YM - 13.5kg

PM - 16.0kg

Slaughter



NI Lamb

3.90

3.45

4.90

Change

c/kgCWT













 











 

  











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

Venison Prices Change NI Stag - 60kg SI Stag - 60kg

n/c

Last Week

2 Wks Ago

6.23

6.35

Last Year 5yr Ave

6.35

6.15

6.20

6.67

6.87



ESCAPE WINTER!

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

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Vietnam & Cambodia – May 2015: North to South. Be Quick!

Queensland – June 2015:

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Canada & Alaskan Cruise - June/July 2015: West to East. Limited space! UK & Ireland Thoroughbred tour – June 2015: A wonderful tour for

thoroughbred breeders and racing enthusiasts.

UK & Ireland Rugby - September/ October 2015: Farm tour options for those

heading over to support NZ!

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

MARKETS & TRENDS 23 NEWS

PRICE WATCH

BEEF: A splash of rain around most of the North Island in recent weeks has seen cattle slaughter numbers grind to a halt. There is the odd trickle of cows and prime, but no numbers of substance. Procurement competition between processors has heated up with all cattle operating prices lifting for the last three weeks. Even with two short weeks at easter, plants are not expected to be full, so prices are likely to increase further. Another run of dairy cows is expected through April/May, so processors will be waiting to secure their share of these numbers. In the South Island processors are anticipating the end of the cull cow run given the accelerated kill to date. Procurement competition here is also stepping up. Prime cattle are also hard to source, although reports suggest the kill to date is ahead of this time last year. LAMB: Lamb slaughter numbers are thin on the ground in both islands, as the impact of the heavy kill through January and February is felt. Dry conditions in both islands have also impacted on the weights and quality of lambs being killed. Despite the lack of numbers processors in both islands are proving very reluctant to increase schedule prices, with the last 4-6

weeks seeing prices unchanged. With market conditions weak, processors are choosing to manage the lack of numbers by reducing capacity as opposed to eroding their margins through procurement competition. Large Chinese inventories and low consumption has seen demand from this market drastically reduce. Prices have been significantly discounted, and reports suggest there is unlikely to be any turnaround until the 4th quarter of 2015, when inventory levels begin to lower. The high NZD/EUR crossrate is making sales into the EU market unprofitable, and demand in the UK for traditional items such as legs is very weak. While tighter lamb supplies through late autumn/winter are likely to see some procurement competition force schedules up, it could be a slow rise from current levels. DAIRY: With supply pressure still evident in the dairy market, the overall sentiment remains volatile. The lower EUR combined with the continued bans on EU dairy products to Russia is resulting in increasing EU product exported, even while production growth is slowing. The Middle East and South-East Asia, which are two key NZ markets, are under pressure from additional

Overseas Wool Price Indicators

WOOL PRICE WATCH Indicators in NZ$

Change

26-Mar

Last Year

19-Mar

Coarse Xbred

-4

4.89

4.93

4.84

Fine Xbred

-13

5.58

5.71

4.97

Lamb

-13

6.44

6.57

5.11

Mid Micron









Indicators in US$/kg Coarse Xbred Fine Xbred Lamb Mid Micron



26-Mar

Last Year

19-Mar

3.72

3.69

4.12

-3

4.24

4.28

4.23

-2

4.90

4.92

4.35







Change

 













 









 

























 





 

  

 

 











volumes. There is also a lot of uncertainty in the market surrounding milk supply from Europe after quotas are removed on 1 April. There is still some expectation that supply might grow rapidly, adding further to supply pressure. Demand from China is not showing any signs













of improvement, and reports suggest most buyers have requirements meet through to mid 2015, implying that there is very little demand to absorb the product available.



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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

24 AGRIBUSINESS All ‘smiles’ over Miraka’s success PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

KINGI SMILER, chairman of the Maori dairy company Miraka, which won the inaugural Maori Excellence in Export award He kai kei aku ringa, is proud of what his company has achieved in such a short time. The award was presented to Miraka by the Minister for Maori Development, Te Ururoa Flavell, at the New Zealand Business Awards

in Auckland recently. Smiler says to receive such an award so early in the history of a company is very pleasing. The company was formally opened in late 2011 and sells product into 23 countries including China and Vietnam, and markets in South America and the Middle East. It has about 100 local suppliers and produces milk powder and UHT milk. Smiler says Miraka has great people who work well together,

applying good skill sets across the business. The team has been very focused on achieving its results. “We are pleased at our progress. Certainly we are ahead of plan and that is very positive,” he told Rural News. “Naturally, we are going through a tough cycle at the moment, but we are in good shape. “It’s been a great opportunity to lead the way in a challenging industry dominated in New Zealand by Fonterra. To be able to be benchmarked and perform

at a high level and achieve the success we have had to date is very pleasing.” Presenting the award, Te Ururoa Flavell praised the efforts of Miraka, saying it is the first company in the world to use renewable electricity and steam to process milk powder. Flavell says the price premium Miraka pays its milk suppliers has seen an extra $5 million injected into the local rural economy over three years.

New buzz in beekeeping sector TWO KEY suppliers to the beekeeping industry have merged. From April 1, Ecroyd Beekeeping Supplies Ltd (EBS) and Beetek Ltd are merged as Ecrotek Ltd, retaining the strengths of both businesses and creating a nationwide supplier. Ecrotek will have warehousing and distribution in the North and South Island. Hobbyists and beekeepers will be able to buy products from Ecrotek retail stores in Christchurch and Auckland and via its website from July. The Ecroyd family has supplied beekeeping equipment and honey products since 1913 when it started making comb foundation. EBS operates in Christchurch. Beetek, a specialist maker of plastic hive wear, was founded in the early 2000’s in South Auckland. “The intent of the combined business is to bring a higher level of service and product supply to the industry. We’ll achieve this with a new, well stocked North Island warehouse and distribution centre and a retail store,” says co-owner Stuart Ecroyd. “We will also offer a new e-commerce website which will offer all beekeepers the chance to purchase a wide range of beekeeping supplies online,” says co-owner Dave Wrathall. www.ecrotek.co.nz

LEARNING TO CO-OPERATE Pictured at a Cooperative Business NZ event in Mosgiel in late February are new Silver Fern Farms director Fiona Hancox and Mitre 10 chairman Martin Dippie. The ‘Leading Co-operative Essentials’ course attracted co-op directors and executives from north and south, rural and national retail. Cooperative Business NZ and the Institute of Directors created the two-day professional development programme to meet the particular needs of co-operative boardrooms. Visit www.nz.coop for more details.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

AGRIBUSINESS 25

Data everywhere – but how to use it? PAM TIPA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

FARMERS ARE doing well at collecting data, but must now look at how to manage that data and use it to make better onfarm decisions, says dairy farmer and agricultural data expert Hayden Lawrence. “How do we deal with the data produced from technology at farm level as farmers?” was the question he posed at the Dairy Network Conference in Invercargill late in March month. “There’s data collection, data management and data interpretation. Data collection we’ve done well in terms of the technology sector for the last 10 years – we’ve developed tools that produce a number; but for our own farms we need to consider the scale of that appropriate to our business. “We also have to consider whether we have the management capability to use that information on-farm. For example, take land: do I measure something at farm level, at paddock level or in the paddock? “When we look at animals – do we look at the whole herd as an average, in terms of groups, individual cows or now – within those cows – individual quarter measurements. “The technology is possible to do any of these, so it’s not so much the technology, it is how we deal with the data produced from that technology on farm.” The farmer’s ‘digital house’ should be organised, Lawrence says. If you are doing weekly pasture measurements around your farm, is the form always the same, is it the same the location and who has access to the information? “Get your digital house in order. Think about how you report the different

things on farm and how you disseminate that to your staff. “Data interpretation is probably the key to the whole system and it is probably the thing we do least well. You can measure and manage data to your heart’s content but unless we actually use that data on farm to make informed management decisions it is all a waste of time and money.” We are getting better at handling data from single point sources: if we measure something we can make decisions from that, Lawrence says. “But the real opportunity for New Zealand agriculture is taking data from multiple data sources on-farm and making whole farm reporting systems. “That has its issues and most of them start at industry level. “The big problem we have now is that the data standards between competitors are not always the same. That is something we have to work on and make sure at industry level we are all producing at least the same type of data.” In research organisations we need to spend more time on how systems could work and the opportunities for working differently rather than trying to prove new technology is wrong, Lawrence says. “We spend a bit too much time on bagging new systems and how they don’t work rather than how they could work into the future.” He also says the industry needs to ensure that data collected on-farm is in the ownership of farmers and it must decide who has control over it and who accesses it. He says his challenge to farmers is to get their digital house in order and use data interpretation to make better on-farm decisions rather than having a data set sitting on computer. The industry must

LATEST STORIES EVERY DAY Get upto date news at www.ruralnews.co.nz

consider what form of data it wants, reporting at what level, who distributes it and who owns it. Lawrence holds a PhD in precision agriculture systems from Massey University, is the devel-

oper and patent holder of a rapid pasture meter system, co-owner of precision agriculture start-up company Spatial Solutions and is dairy farming in Taranaki in an equity partnership.

Single feed, lethal dose Distributed by Bell-Booth Limited, 15 Tiki Place, Palmerston North Phone 0800 80 90 91 www.bell-booth.co.nz Registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997, No. V05099. Approved as a Maintenance Compound Type C and for dairy premises.

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RURAL NEWS // FEBRUARY 17, 2015

26 OPINION EDITORIAL

EDNA

Very, very vexing FONTERRA’S HALF-YEAR results make unhappy reading to its 10,500 farmers, many struggling with drought and a precariously low payout. The co-op’s much heralded ‘V3’ strategy – volume, value and velocity – is leaving farmers vexed. Last week’s round of farmer meetings were heated, with some threatening to pull milk supply, others questioning the co-op’s ethos. Fonterra’s management and board have a lot to answer for; how could things turn from a record payout of $8.50/kgMS payout in 2014 to pear-shaped within 18 months? We accept that dairy prices have plummeted around the world and Fonterra as a global player isn’t immune to geo-political factors in some regions. The false botulism scare and nutters threatening to contaminate infant formula didn’t help. But as a co-op, Fonterra’s first and foremost duty is to its farmer shareholders. The co-op’s decision to invest billions in factory upgrades and farms in China are being looked at by farmer shareholders with scepticism. The co-op’s strategy on volume is to grow its milk pools around the world; on value, to obtain more value from every drop of milk; and on velocity, to execute strategy at speed. The problem is this strategy is not translating into a better payout; even in a year of low milk price Fonterra has been forced to drop its dividend forecast by 5c/kgMS. It blames higher milk prices in some overseas milk pools for squeezed margins. In Australia, Chile and Brazil milk prices are influenced by market dynamics rather than global prices. This prompts the question whether Fonterra is doing right in rushing into setting up milk pools around the world. Fonterra farmers are watching as the V3 strategy snatches billions of dollars snatched from their businesses while their borrowing costs climb and their bottom lines take a hammering. The board must sit up and listen to farmers’ concerns, chiefly by immediately reviewing the V3 strategy to start delivering to farmer shareholders. It’s all good to have a global strategy to increase Fonterra’s footprint, but all will come to nought if farmer shareholders abandon the co-op, thereby leaving the New Zealand milk pool in jeopardy. Becoming a global giant at the expense of its hard working farmer shareholders isn’t an option for Fonterra.

RURAL NEWS HEAD OFFICE POSTAL ADDRESS: PO Box 331100, Takapuna, Auckland 0740 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

“OK mate! ‑ I’m counting to ten – where’d you hide our easter eggs?”

THE HOUND

Want to share your opinion or gossip with the Hound? Send your emails to: hound@ruralnews.co.nz

Silly pricks

So gay

Useful

Who are they?

YOUR OLD mate shook his head in disbelief on hearing an Ashburton farmer was fined $10,000 for removing matagouri bushes without council permission. Now call Hound a non tree-hugger but, let’s face it, matagouri is hardly a threatened species and it’s not like it’s a ‘500-year-old’ kauri. In fact, matagouri is a real prick of a problem for many farmers, so what is up with the mandarins at Ashburton council? Some critics claim the council has generated revenue from this minor slip-up by applying the Resource Management Act in this way. As a mate of yours truly commented, “No wonder council bureaucrats rarely voice support for RMA reform when they are on to a cash cow like that.”

LOONY LEN and his cronies at the ‘super city’ Auckland Council have come up with a doozy of a way to blow more ratepayer’s money: the Hound has learnt that an Auckland Council committee is considering establishing a ‘rainbow community advisory panel’ as a voice for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex people, at an annual cost of $116,880. According to ‘community development and safety committee’ chairwoman (sounds like a vitally, important group – not) Cathy Casey the panel “will provide an important voice for the [glbt] community in the same way other communities are represented”. Your old mate reckons it’s no wonder the Blues keep on losing.

MANY READERS of this fine organ have written to us over the years to say what a useless waste of space the Hound is. So your old mate was pleased to read that his canine cousins harrier hounds (a super-size beagle) may soon be working at New Zealand’s borders to guard against importing pests and diseases. MPI is currently trialling two harriers (Morley and Muse) to see whether the breed could upsize its detector dogs. “Harriers could be a great asset for our border protection work,” says MPI’s Brett Hickman. Harriers closely resemble beagles but they’re taller. And, says Hickman, “they have great drive and excellent noses for food and plant materials and they are good with people.” It’s good to see there are at least a couple of useful hounds around the traps.

YOUR OLD mate has been around a few years and has seen and heard a few recommendations for reforms of the meat sector. He suggests every red meat producer nationwide should read MIE’s report – especially since they forked out $220K from farmer levy funds to pay for it. However, your canine crusader is sceptical about how practical and possible it is to implement many of the document’s recommendations. Meanwhile, your old mate was intrigued by the report’s furtive comment thanking those who helped MIE’s consultants put it all together: “Certain processor CEO’s, managing directors, chairmen and directors who have supported these... initiatives (they know who they are)”. Well, ‘they’ might know who ‘they’ are, but the rest of us don’t and we’d like to.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

OPINION 27 Does someone have to die before Govt acts? IT WAS interesting to read how the Government has made changes to immigration rules to help Queenstown employers recruit much-needed temporary staff. Immigration Minister Michael Woodhouse recently okayed a new streamlined visa process – from January until June 2015 – to allow employers in Queenstown to be temporarily exempt providing evidence of an attempt to recruit within New Zealand, except for roles Work and Income has identified it may be able to fill. No doubt this will help tourism operators in the resort town find the necessary temporary staff they need to get them through their busy season.

skilled people from overseas prepared to work 6-8 months each year need to be simplified, as do the regulations restricting people who have previously worked here in past seasons coming back to New Zealand to work. Contracting is a seasonal business and one that uses sophisticated machinery that requires technical skills to operate productively. A major part of our workforce shortfall is met by bringing in skilled operators from overseas. Frustratingly, despite many attempts made by Rural Contractors NZ to advocate similar ideas for the rural contracting sector, such as the recent tourism initiative, the Government and its

regulations coming into force, just how irresponsible would it be for a rural contactor to hire an untrained local person and then for them to have an accident or, even worse, get killed at work? You can bet your boots the Government – in the guise of WorkSafe NZ – would then come down on the offending

contractor like a tonne of bricks. I hope it does not

take an incident like this to occur, before the powers that be realise the desperate need for skilled, temporary staff in the rural contracting sector. Meanwhile, RCNZ is also doing its bit to encourage locals to look at our sector by providing a career path for young people entering the sector. Our

organisation has been encouraging schools to get better at promoting agricultural careers. We work closely with training organisations to promote industry qualifications up to diploma level – with remuneration above the average in many cases. In the meantime, RCNZ will continue to work on the Government

and its officials to lobby for changes to the rules on engaging overseas seasonal workers – such as those now enjoyed by the tourism industry – for the benefit of the rural contracting sector. • Wellsford agricultural contractor Steve Levet is the president of Rural Contractors New Zealand (RCNZ).

A N E W A P P R OAC H T O E N G I N ES

A dire shortage of suitable agricultural machinery operators means rural contractors rely on employing skilled people from overseas on a temporary basis each season and have done so for many years. bureaucrats still fail to acknowledge or understand this issue. A dire shortage of suitable agricultural machinery operators means rural contractors rely on employing skilled people from overseas on a temporary basis each season and have done so for many years. Unfortunately, many of the applicants Work and Income NZ (WINZ) tries to fill these vacancies with either do not have the right skills and/or attitude to be successful. We are talking about operating highly technical and very expensive items of machinery. It is unrealistic, unsafe and impractical to expect unemployed people to walk off the street and successfully take up these positions. The seasonal nature of rural contracting means workers with the right skills are only needed for a few months each year and we need a similar exemption and streamlined immigration process. And with new workplace safety

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While that’s great for Queenstown’s tourism sector, many rural contractors around the country will be asking why Minister Woodhouse and the Government continue to ignore similar requests from our sector? Rural Contractors New Zealand has, for years, been telling government, opposition parties and bureaucrats that a similar scheme is also badly needed in the rural contracting sector, but this has so far fallen on deaf ears. No doubt the tourism sector is an important and valuable part of New Zealand’s economy and the Government is right to make provisions for that industry. However, similar exemptions are needed for the rural contracting sector as there is a major gap between rural contractors’ needs for trained and experienced agricultural machinery operators and the unemployed New Zealanders who can do this work. The rules on employing temporary,

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

28 OPINION HOME-GROWN ADVICE NOT ALWAYS THE BEST RE THE disappointing article by Jacqueline Rowarth in Rural News, March 17, p31: ‘Beware when importing overseas experts and their advice’. The article comes across as xenophobic. Jacqueline is entitled to her opinion, but I would like to think that she, as a leader in agricultural education, would promote to her students the philosophy

of extracting knowledge from all corners of the globe and adapting it for the betterment of New Zealand agriculture. She cites the removal of inductions. Most progressive farmers I have dealt with welcome the banning of inductions as they do not use them and ethically they could damage the brand image. Those producers who are higher input

frequently improve their fertility statistics, so it is erroneous to state that higher input leads to lower fertility. I did a study in the UK looking at 14,000 cows, discovering a drop in fertility with higher output; but we are talking cows producing at least 8500L in 305 days, far exceeding typical yields here. She also talks about reduced longevity. The US

cows may not have the longevity, but their lifetime yields far exceed NZ lifetime yields. Coming from the UK, I have lived here for the last six years, and have worked with farmers who enjoy the challenge of different thinking; we have used combined knowledge to come up with workable solutions, not imposing a particular system. Following a

particular system is not farming. Farming is about having a big toolbox of ideas and solutions and pulling out the tools needed at the time; some of those ideas might have come from abroad. To reach the Government’s targets for increased output from agriculture we need to look at every possible angle to drive productivity. If New

Zealand agricultural expertise is to remain in ‘splendid isolation’ we should not be surprised when the world has

moved on and we are left behind. James Hague Senior consultant Dairy Club

JACQUELINE ROWARTH REPLIES: THE POINT of the article was to explain the importance of evaluation of policies within context, including different aspects such as welfare, economics and environment. My concern is that many people are providing advice without having full knowledge of the system in which farmers are operating. My constant reminder to the students with whom I work is to look for facts, evidence and data, to consider the assumptions and constraints, to think of any unintended consequences and to challenge received wisdom. The general problem for New Zealand is that there are very few independent sources of advice and a dearth of people in industry with a PhD (the basic research qualification), plus experience relevant to the topic under consideration. My salary comes solely from the University of Waikato and the advice I give to farmers is exactly the same as to students: look for the facts, evidence and data; check the expertise and experience of the source; consider the unintended consequences of implementation. I also advise them to look for vested interest.

ag twits Rural News’ irreverent and hypothetical look at what’s happening in the farming world Top Bleats view all jwilsonfonterra: Good news for shareholders and unitholders in our co-operative: they are both getting screwed this year. Who said TAF was not fair and equal? #everybodyloses #coopmodelatitsbest ibrownshc@jwilsonfontera: As chairman of the Shareholders Council I must send a very strong message to your board about the interim result on behalf of farmers: I’m kind of… a little bit… ever-so-slightly… disappointed. #that’stellinghim #poodlegumsowner

“ If we lose the

overseas markets,

that’s the end of it.

That’s why I’m behind NAIT.”

mtaggartalliance: MIE reminds me of ISIS: unless you agree with their point of view you will either be beheaded or burnt alive. However, that is being grossly unfair to ISIS: they are nowhere as radical as MIE. #jihadjohnmacarthy #buggermie @winstonfirstandlast: There may be no ‘I’ in team or Northland, but there sure is in Winston and I’m the best thing to hit Northland since kauri gum was being mined up here in the 1880s – when I was just a lad of about 50 years old. #itisallaboutme #70isthenew80

Keith, Beef farmer, Wairarapa

It’s no accident that our meat is world-class. It’s the result of hard work and no small amount of pride. Tracing stock history with NAIT is more important than ever. It helps prove our food is safe and keeps the markets wanting more. Next time your animals are in the yard, tag and register them to help New Zealand stay competitive. To learn more, visit nait.co.nz

johnmcarthymie: MIE’s report is out and about and the answer to future meat sector profitability is indisputable, incontrovertible and irrefutable. We need to cull Murray Taggart as Alliance Group chair and director. #taggartmustgo #taggartcull #nomoretaggart

An OSPRI programme

@littleandrewlabour: I knew Winston’s bus would send a strong message to the people of the north and that message was that Labour was happy to throw both its candidate and vote under it. #dontvotelabour johnkeypm: Last weekend my team took an absolute pasting from a self-serving, egotistical, narcissistic bunch of loudmouths. But I still think the Blackcaps are great. #whatbyelection #whereisnorthland

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

OPINION 29

Questions over livestock impact on global emissions NEIL HENDERSON

I AGREE with Dr Reisinger (Rural News, March 7, p19) that we need to improve agricultural productivity and reduce food wastage if we are to successfully feed a growing global population. However, his claims about the effects on global warming of livestock emissions are far from settled science. Reisinger mentions that almost half New Zealand’s emissions come from livestock. Twothirds of these are deemed to be methane. This is only true if the assumptions underlying the calculations are true. Different greenhouse gases cause differing amounts of warming. To compare one gas with another, all are converted to ‘carbon dioxide equivalents’. But there is no one particular way to do this. The chosen method is one known as ‘global warming potential’. An alternative method is ‘global temperature change potential’. This method would reduce our methane emissions to a third of their current level. Furthermore, the calculations count all the emissions from our livestock each year. Methane does not last long in the atmosphere. This means that a constant number of livestock will have methane breaking down as fast as they produce it and the atmospheric concentration does not change. Global warming cannot occur unless there is an increase in greenhouse gas concentration. The IPCC in its most recent report, the AR5, considers that the methane produced at any given point in time is effectively gone after 50 years. That suggests that our methane emissions from 50 years ago should be deducted from the current figure to give the net amount. Reisinger claims reducing livestock emissions from livestock can help stop the world warming more than 2oC. But I have just pointed out that the major livestock emis-

sion, methane, is gone in 50 years so the temperature in 50 years will be no different whether we produce the methane or whether we don’t.

for the above reduces the figure to 0.05oC, which is entirely consistent with Dr Flood’s. My challenge to the PGGRC about their choice of figures received

no response. The PGGRC has previously stated it hopes to reduce livestock methane by 10%. That would reduce global warming by

0.005oC. Who is prepared to pay a ‘carbon price’ of some form on their livestock to meet their share of this un-measurable amount?

NB. Dr Flood has read this and says he is in agreement with my arguments. • East Coast farmer Neil Henderson has been actively

involved in the issue of global warming since 2008, spending 2000-3000 hours doing research. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

Place your indent order now to get the best deal! Neil Henderson says claims about impact of livestook on global emission is debatable.

But the real heart of the matter is just how much warming our livestock emissions produce in the first place. In spite of tomes of literature – such as the UNFAO’s ‘Livestock’s Long Shadow’ – it appears no one has quantified this. I have yet to find a scientist who can give a figure off the cuff, in spite of a paper by Scottish chemist Dr Wilson Flood, which shows that a doubling of methane from all sources would raise temperature by a mere 0.07oC, without allowing for feedbacks, which is yet another contentious issue that is beyond the scope of this item. With feedbacks it would be 0.21oC. Even Dr Reisinger’s own pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGGRC) had to reach for the calculator to answer my request for a figure. Of the various figures I have from different sources, the PGGRC’s is the highest at 0.2oC for livestock only, which is similar to the figure Dr Flood has from all sources. Someone has to be wrong. The PGGRC uses figures for methane forcings in their calculation that are more than double those listed in the IPCC’s AR5. No allowance is made for the carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere to make the methane. Adjusting their figures

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30 MANAGEMENT

Top Maori sheep and beef farms disclosed The three finalists for the Ahuwhenua Trophy for the top Maori sheep and beef for 2015 have been named. Two farms are on the North Island East Coast, the other is in the Far North. Peter Burke reports. FINALISTS FOR the Ahuwhenua Trophy were announced at a function at Parliament recently, hosted by the Minister for Primary Industries, Nathan Guy. About 70 agribusiness leaders attended, seeing farmers from Mangaroa Station and Maranga Station, both in the East Coast region, and Paua Station, Far North, presented with medals for making the final. Unusual this year is that two of the farms – Mangaroa and Maranga – are privately owned, while Paua Station is owned by the Parengarenga Incorporation. The last time the competition for sheep and beef was run, in 2013, all the finalists’ farms were owned by Maori trusts or incorporations. Guy said Maori agribusiness, including forestry, contributes $3.5 billion to the New Zealand economy. Maori agribusiness is doing extremely well, and the Miraka Dairy Company winning Maori Exporter of the Year recently is an example of this, he said.

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SHOW AND TELL In the coming weeks, each finalist will stage a field day on their properties for two purposes. First, it’s part of the judging process where new judges – not involved in selecting the finalists – evaluate each property and decide on the ultimate winner of the trophy. Second, the field days allow other farmers and people with an interest in Maori agribusiness – and anyone else – to visit the properties to see what the finalists have achieved. Field days will take place at each farm: ● Wed April 22, Mangaroa Station, about 60 minutes inland from Wairoa/ Gisborne ● Thurs April 30, Paua Station, 80km north of Kaitaia ● Thurs May 7, Maranga Station, 30 min inland from Gisborne.

Minister for Primary Industries, Nathan Guy with Te Ururoa Flavell.

“If we don’t celebrate success in the primary sector, no one else is going to do it for us. That’s why having this event in Parliament is hugely important for Maori and for the primary sector as whole.” Guy lauded the big turnout of dignitaries and foreshadowed a large attendance at the winner event in Whanganui

late May. Agriculture must sell itself better to the community and attract the best and brightest young people, he says. The Ahuwhenua Trophy plays a big role in selling that story. Kingi Smiler, the chairman of the Ahuwhenua Trophy management committee which runs the competition says all three farms are worthy

finalists, demonstrating commitment and determination to create successful farming operations to benefit them and their whanau. It is great to see whanau farms rewarded for their hard work, he says. “Like others, I’m looking forward to attending the field days at these properties. The field days are great events and I urge everyone in the agribusiness sector to take a few days out of the office and go into the real country and see what people achieve in challenging conditions. They do a great job.”

Smiler says the Ahuwhenua Trophy has contributed much to raising the profile of Maori agribusiness. “The trophy has helped lift the bar behind the farm gate and we are seeing amazing innovation. The technology on many Maori farms is leading-edge and they benchmark favourably with all other farming operations in Aotearoa New Zealand. Improved governance and leadership of our whanau businesses has led to top people being employed as advisors, managers and general staff.”

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

MANAGEMENT 31

Far North and East Coast make Ahuwhenua finals Mangaroa Station Located in Ruakaituri Valley, 60 minutes drive northwest of Wairoa, the farm is 1506ha (1250 eff). Owners Bart and Nuku Hadfield run 6200 Romney Perendale ewes, 2000 replacement ewe lambs and 70 rams, and 500 Angus breeding cows and 400 heifers. The property is virtually all hill country with a small amount of rolling hill country. The Hadfields bought Mangaroa in 2001 in partnership with family members; the aim was to build it up so that individual families could eventually afford to buy their own economic units. They first agreed to work together for five years, but this extended to seven, then

Marty and Janice Charteris

Bart and Nuku took over the station in 2008, focussing on reducing debt, increasing production and improving the property. Development has included building a large covered yard, cropping and re-grassing 80ha of rolling country, clearing 80ha of scrub and erecting 10km of conventional fencing. Shearing has played a huge part, all family mem-

bers doing this for many years. The money earned from shearing has helped them build their equity in Mangaroa. Paua Station The farm, located 80km north of Kaitaia and 40km south of the tip of Cape Reinga, is owned by the Parengarenga Incorporation in the small community of Te Kao. Paua Station consists of 2430ha of easy rolling

coastal sand country carrying 2800 mainly Angus cattle and 7000 sheep, of which 6100 are breeding ewes. Paua Station’s story is one of development and it is ongoing, says general manager John Ellis. It’s now mainly a finishing property and the farming policy dovetails with Te Rangi Station also owned by the Parengarenga Incorporation and Cape View Station which is leased. “[We’ve increased] stock numbers and have a stock policy which better suits the often dry summer conditions of the Far North,” Ellis explains. “For example, Paua Station lambs in June/July and has most of these off the farm by Christmas.

This allows us to get premium prices and to take the feed pressure off capital stock in summer. “We are moving from a Perendale-cross flock to a Romney one to gain better returns in lambing, while retaining the quality meat and wool.” Ellis says the station now breeds and finishes its own Angus bulls and again sells them in winter/ spring to gain the best price. Maranga Station This is a typical East Coast hill country sheep and beef property which lies about 30km south west of Gisborne and is owned by Marty and Janice Charteris. The 850ha property is a mix of country, ranging from 50ha of flats to

Bart and Nuku Hadfield

500ha of moderate, rolling country, with the balance steep hill country. It runs 6000 Romdale sheep and 1200 Angus cattle plus 600 goats, mustered annually. In 1989, Janice and Marty Charteris bought their first farm in the area – the 285ha Wakelins Highcrest where they ran 2500 stock units. In 1995 they bought Gillingham’s Rimuhau and added 424ha and 3400 stock units. They also leased a

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further 56ha before finally buying Maranga, at which point they consolidated all the land into Maranga Station. The Charteris’s have a split lambing policy, the older ewes lambing in July and younger stock in September. The early lambing means they cash in on the Christmas market, and it allows them to buy in lambs to utilise pasture between December and July, plus it helps avoid the dry months.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

32 MANAGEMENT

Planning for fodder beet Planning for winter feed crops in 2016 starts now, as should yield assessments and transition plans for this winter’s grazing, a recent Beef + Lamb New Zealand fodder beet field day heard. Andrew Swallow reports. ASSESSING FODDER beet yield is essential to minimise risk in transitioning stock onto the crop but be realistic about the level of accuracy that can be achieved.

That was one of several key messages to come out of a recent ‘Fodder Beet – Your Questions Answered’ field day in South Canterbury. “Within a five tonne

bracket is about as accurate as you can be if you’re talking about a large hectarage,” Lincoln University’s Jim Gibbs told the Beef + Lamb New Zealand event.

But that doesn’t mean to say yield shouldn’t be assessed, he stressed. Having a good estimate of yield is important for feed budgets and for preventing problems transition-

ing stock onto the crop. To avoid biased selection of rows when checking yields, Gibbs’ fellow speaker, Seed Force agronomist David Walsh, flings a 4m rope with a

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weight attached into the crop, stretching the rope along the row nearest to wherever the weight lands. “Otherwise people innately walk across the paddock to the heavier bits,” warned Gibbs. “Gravity draws them to them.” Another way to do it is to use a spreadsheet’s random number generator to provide coordinates for sample points in a paddock. Whatever the location method, having weighed roots and tops from 4m row samples, some plants, preferably whole, should be sent for dry matter assessment rather than relying on typical cultivar dry matter figures. Gibbs pointed out he’s seen Brigadier samples from 6% dry matter to 19%, and warned against DIY assessments. “If it’s important to you, get someone to do it professionally.” If beets have to be subsampled, quarter them crown to tip rather than slice across, but whole bulb assessments are much better. Having estimated yield, transition cattle onto the crop feeding 1-2kgDM/ head/day initially and increasing that 1kg every second day. Lifting beet by bucket to feed on grass could be useful initially, as could “transition headlands” of grass. Allocation during transitioning should be on area and hence quantity, using the upper limit of yield estimates. Gibbs warns against allocating

by grazing time because some animals will wolf down a lot more than others. “It’s extremely dangerous to do it on time, especially with dairy cows.” Once one mob is transitioned it could be used to open up other paddocks to facilitate transitioning other mobs. Gibbs warned cattle will start eating all the beet they can, typically 8-9kgDM/head/day for R2 beef steers, after a week on the crop but the rumen takes a fortnight to adapt, so if problems do occur it’s usually in this later stage of transitioning. But Gibbs stresses there is “nothing dangerous about feeding fodder beet if you follow the rules” and in some ways it’s simpler than other winter feeds. “You’ve not got to worry about nitrate or bloat too like you do with brassica.” Once transitioned, unrestricted feeding is safest so cattle are always eating all they can. If restricting intake due to feed shortage, or rationing to dairy cows, hotwires have to be secure. “A lot of people don’t have the electricity they should have. It should be glowing in the dark.” For beef cattle over 350kg on unrestricted beet the only supplement needed is 1kg/head/day of a fibre source. “Pick that on price.” Below that weight, beet will likely not provide enough protein so a green supplement such as grass TO PAGE 36

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Introduce at 1kgDM/head every two days. Dry matter highly variable – test professionally. Ensure adequate alternative feed during transition. Allocate by area and yield, not by grazing time. Supplement protein with young stock. 1kg fibre/head only supplement for older stock. Hot-wires “glowing” when restricting intakes.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

MANAGEMENT 33

Is NZ lagging behind in precision ag? Jim Wilson, a Scottish farmer who runs a large consultancy business based on precision agriculture, was in New Zealand recently speaking to scientists and farmers. Peter Burke reports on what he’s doing and what New Zealand farmers could also do. AN EXPERT on precision agriculture says he’s surprised at the lack of uptake of the technology in New Zealand. Jim Wilson comes from a farm in an area of Scotland known as Angus, near Dundee, close to the famous Carnoustie golf course. On his 120ha property Wilson grows mainly spring barley, winter wheat, canola, oats for milling and porridge and seed potatoes. His father bought the farm in the 1930’s and Jim has carried on and expanded the operation. Then he got into precision agriculture and set up a consultancy. “I was frustrated that the crop yields could change so dramatically within such a short distance in a paddock, so I started exploring why that happened,” he told Rural News. “People around me got interested in what I was doing so I ended up developing a partnership with some local farmers and launched a company called Soil Essentials in 2000. Now we

have 20 full time staff working for us.” Wilson has, by his own admission, a very Scottish attitude towards precision agriculture. It’s a way of making more money and the drivers that underpin his consultancy business are based on either increasing production or cutting costs. Soils Essentials offers a range of services. It operates in agronomy where it offers various forms of soil testing including geo-referenced soil samples and soil DNA probes. The company analyses farmers’ yield maps, and does soil EMI scanning and a lot of area measuring for different crops. It also sells auto-steering equipment and offers software for precision agriculture. Wilson has no special technology qualifications and is quick to point out that farmers can learn anything if they are motivated. He certainly is! His big thing is ‘yield limiting factors’— anything that might hinder the growth of a plant. Referring to

Jim Wilson is surprised by the lack of uptake of technology of precision agriculture in NZ.

claims that about 40 different factors determine whether a plant will grow to its potential, he says various precision agriculture tools allow a farmer to tackle these factors. “Let’s say there are 40 limiting factors and that 39 may be perfectly

abundant, but the plant won’t grow because one is missing and that can be something like water, pH or anything,” Wilson explains. “If you remove that one limiting factor the plant will grow better until the next one comes into play and so on.

“Many yield limiting factors change in time as well, because plants need different elements as they grow during different growth phases. Therefore the yield limiting factors change in time during the life of the crop.” One challenge with many of these factors is that they often don’t become obvious until it’s too late to take corrective action. “You can’t see things like pH levels or moisture levels in the soil, hence the need for testing which is what this business is about.” Wilson says while limiting factors can be corrected, others such as soil type or slope of the land cannot. There farmers need to accept the situation – where yields in a particular area will be down – and reduce the input costs to make them profitable. While much of the public face of precision agriculture is on the machinery side, Wilson believes the agronomy side is far more important and drives the whole process. TO PAGE 34

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

34 MANAGEMENT

NZ slow on the uptake IMAGINE BEING able to walk into a field with your tablet or iPhone and be guided to a particular area or a plant not growing well. It’s not a dream and is in fact now possible, says Jim Wilson. Technology is playing a greater role in precision agriculture especially overseas, but also in New Zealand. This includes the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) and satellites. Already satellite technology is used for precision ag tools such as auto steer. But

Wilson says satellite technology imagery will soon get better. “We are involved in a project with a European space agency which is launching a new series of satellites called Sentinel Two Series, which should be available later this year or early next,” he told Rural News. “The satellite is designed specifically to monitor vegetation as in crops; it will be hugely powerful in giving us better imagery to monitor things at a very low cost.”

UAVs (drones) are playing a bigger part in farming technology.

UAV use is likely for gathering images for transfer to a tablet or iPhone. But while the equipment is there to do the job, dealing with the huge amount of data generated is the big problem, Wilson says. “We are looking at developing a method of processing those images and feeding them back to tablets, computers and/or phones in a way that you can actually utilise them in the field and look at the individual plant and be guided to the plant by the GPS on your tablet.”

AN EYE IN THE SKY PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

The proven answer to Iodine deﬁciency

WILSON SAYS when he first came to New Zealand in 2000, little or no precision agriculture was then used here. While he acknowledges the country has come a long way in the ensuing 15 years, he’s surprised farmers here are not taking greater advantage of simple tools such as EMI scanning of fields to measure soil texture. Wilson says more Kiwi farmers could also use soil sampling to determine fertiliser rates and irrigation use. New Zealand farmers are now behind Europe in the use of precision agriculture, he says. “Looking around the world it seems farmers adopt things when they are forced to by economic or legislative pressure. In Europe we have had various periods of hard economic times and greater legislative pressure from the European Union, which has fast tracked change.” Wilson has a simple message for New Zealand farmers: get out and try it. They should look at the big costs on their farms, such as machinery and fertiliser, to see if they can reduce costs via precision agriculture.

Is NZ behind in precision ag? FROM PAGE 33

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“I like technology better than many; technology enables you to do things. The agronomy drives what you need to do. So in the whole of precision agriculture I don’t think enough emphasis is placed on the agronomy of what you want to do and when you want to do it. “All the limelight shines on the big sexy tractors steering up and down the field. These machines are only as successful as the understanding the farmer, agronomist or advisor has of the problems in those areas.” Wilson says crop species also play a role and different varieties have strengths and weaknesses, which limit their performance. As

far as he is concerned, precision agriculture does pay and the investment is translated back into the balance sheet. “Precision agriculture is a big range of tools and techniques; part of the skill is choosing which tool or technique is useful to that particular farm or even to that particular field. Some tools and techniques are no use at all and therefore have no economic return. Other tools and techniques are useful on particular farms.” Wilson says knowing the level of pH and other elements in soil can reduce fertiliser use and cut the cost of running expensive equipment. He knows of a case in Scotland where a farmer reduced his lime application bill by 50% by soil sampling.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

ANIMAL HEALTH 35

Take care shifting cows from pasture to brassicas FARMERS ARE being urged to exercise caution when transitioning cows from pasture to brassicas and fodder beet. DairyNZ’s Southland regional leader Richard Kyte says the key message for farmers is “be cautious when transitioning cows on to brassicas and fodder beet”. “When allocating swede crops, we’re advising farmers to be cautious if they see the plant showing signs of developing flowerhead, which increases GSL content, or if leaf regrowth is occurring.” His comments come as DairyNZ moves a step closer to solving the toxic swedes issue that rocked Southland dairy farmers last year. About 200 cows died and others became became ill after eating Swedes, a common winter feed crop in Southland. As part of its study into the mysterious deaths, DairyNZ interviewed 134 affected and unaffected farmers and 34 graziers. This followed a short survey of all dairy farmers that generated about 400 replies. Analysis of all the survey data is nearly complete, says DairyNZ. Results will be available next month. Kyte says it interviewed farmers across the region to learn whether farm management practices may have contributed to the problem. “We had delays in getting the data from the field as farmers got busy just as we started approaching them for information. “Until all this analysis is complete, we won’t know if we need to gather more background information. We are expecting to have the results of

all this work released to farmers from mid to late May.” DairyNZ has already released the results of its analysis of the blood and autopsy samples it collected from dairy cows. Those findings indicated that the cows experienced liver damage consistent with known liver damage associated with grazing brassica forage crops – except the visible signs of illness seemed more severe. Meanwhile, the analysis of plant material samples taken from Southland swede crops last year as part of the DairyNZ study is taking longer than expected because of delays in getting the necessary testing equipment from overseas. “The testing of the plant samples has proved a challenge for us. “This has never been done before in New Zealand so we’ve had to organise an accredited commercial testing facility for glucosinolates (GSLs) – the compounds we are testing for in the swedes,” says Kyte. “We needed the most up-to-date technology to… identify the issues with these swedes. The testing has to stand up to our high standards for scientific rigour. ‘We have identified 27 GSLs that could have contributed to the issues with the swedes and we had to develop benchmarks to enable us to measure them correctly. We also needed the right equipment in place. “These have had to be sourced internationally from three countries and that took… much longer than we’d expected. “Now that the equip-

WARNING SIGNS IN COWS ■■

Weight loss and ill-thrift.

■■

Down-cows who are unresponsive to normal metabolic intervention.

■■

Photosensitivity. Signs of this include cows seeking shade, reddening of the udder and skin damage to white skin areas and restlessness shown by skin twitching, flicking of ears and tail, irritability and stomping.

ment has arrived we can start testing and we expect that process to take around six weeks. So the analysis of the plant samples should be complete by the end of May and the interpretation of

that data by mid-July.” Kyte says the crosssector industry advisory group that he chairs has released advice to help farmers make key decisions this winter on transitioning and managing

crops to feed their cows. “There’s already a lot of information on the DairyNZ website to help farmers – www.dairynz. co.nz/swedes.” @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

Richard Kyte

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

36 ANIMAL HEALTH Dairy goat research facility A NEW dairy goat research facility in Waikato is expected to help lift the country’s milk supply. Run by AgResearch, the new facility at Ruakura, Hamilton, can run 48 goats and will be used for trials including bedding preferences for kids, forage preferences and environment enrichment. AgResearch partnership and portfolios director Dr Greg Murison says the dairy goat industry is a great example of science making

a difference throughout the value chain from on-farm to off-farm, supporting Dairy Goat Cooperative (DGC) in establishing and growing its business. “DGC has an excellent track record of developing and marketing high quality exports based on strong R&D,” he says. AgResearch has three programmes of dairy goat research underway, two funded by the Ministry for Business, Innovation and

Employment and the third by the Ministry for Primary Industries through the Sustainable Farming Fund, with cash and in-kind cofunding from DGC. The latest project is to grow the supply of dairy goat milk via improved forage supply and superior animal welfare practices. The first trial in the new facility looks at bedding preferences, to determine what surfaces goats favour.

DGC chairman Campbell Storey says the AgResearch work is crucial to the industry’s growth. “There has been an industry shift to farming goats mainly indoors. There is a greater focus on animal welfare, milk quality and on producing milk... with the correct profile to produce what we believe is the best dairy goat infant formula in the world.” @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

THE NEW INNOVATION IN DRY COW THERAPY.

EASI-DOSE BENEFITS: • All four treatments in one simple strip • Less plastic wastage than syringes • Increased teat canal visualisation due to more convenient hand position • Caps are loosened by applicator for easier lid removal and improved hygiene

AS SEEN ON

ANDREW SWALLOW

WHAT WILL you be feeding your sheep or cattle come winter 2016? While it might seem premature to be asking that question even before we’re into winter 2015, if you’re planning to grow feed crops next season the preparation starts now, a recent Beef + Lamb field day in South Canterbury heard. “At this time of year you need to sit down and decide ‘what’s my plan; what’s my crop, what’s my paddock history, what’s the chemical history’,” Seed Force agronomist David Walsh told the ‘Fodder Beet – Your Questions Answered’ event at Pleasant Point. While brassica such as kale or forage rape could provide an ideal entry for fodder beet, herbicide residues from the likes of T-Max (aminopyralid) used in or prior to the brassica could kill emerging beet, he warned. That was echoed by local agronomist Steve Bethell who added that residues of Harmony, Granstar and Pysus can also cause problems, as can atrazine used on maize “particularly following a dry year like this one”. “You’ve got to be looking 12 to 24 months out,” he stressed. Walsh noted how people are commenting on how well fodder beet has coped with the dry, but warned it should not be considered “drought tolerant” and that “it would be a big mistake to think you can grow fodder beet anywhere”. Paddock preparation is key and a fallow – chemical or cultivated – to build soil moisture prior to drilling and ease pressure on subsequent herbicides has paid dividends this year. “It allows you to spray out weeds cheaply with Roundup before you sow.” While herbicide bills for the crop can top $1000/ ha, in a few cases clean crops had been achieved with as little as one pass with 0.5L/ha of Versatil (clopyralid), he noted. Knowing the paddock’s history is also important in determining nitrogen fertiliser need of beet, said Walsh. Crops established where long-term pasture has been sprayed out well before planting were unlikely to need a great deal but where paddocks had been repeatedly cropped, soil reserves would likely be low so good yield responses could be achieved. As for responses to potash, trial results have been variable – some high and some low. More research is being done by the fertiliser cooperatives and Plant and Food Research so hopefully more definite guidelines would be possible soon.

FODDER BEET PLANNING FROM PAGE 32

• Pistol grip is more comfortable to hold and easier to expel product compared to conventional syringes

DRY COW THERAPY BENEFITS: • Aids in increasing milk production the subsequent season • Aids in reducing new clinical cases of Mastitis over the dry, calving and early lactation periods

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NEXT YEAR’S WINTER FEED STARTS NOW

3/03/15 2:04 PM

or lucerne silage should be used, particularly for 180250kg cattle. Grazing on/off grass or possibly a greenfeed such as ryecorn – taking care that it remains green and hasn’t been browned off by frost – is an alternative. “If you’ve got really good quality grass hay… you can get away with it too,” he added, in response to a question. Supplementing with PKE would replace beet, likely increasing the cost of the diet, but a positive is PKE’s fat content could drive intake and high phosphate content could help compensate where beet’s content is too low for sensitive cattle such as late pregnancy dairy cows.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

ANIMAL HEALTH 37

Mark Benns (left) talks to Richie Martinovich.

Two-pronged hit on facial eczema AGRITRADE’S TIME Capsule bolus is credited with dealing soundly to facial eczema (FE) on the Martinovich family farm at Mangatangi, south of Auckland, the product supplier reports. Richie Martinovich, a lower order sharemilker on the 700 cow 258ha farm, says he has a twopronged approach to protecting his herd and young stock from FE. “It’s relatively easy to dose your cows with zinc on the milking platform via a Dosatron inline dispenser and we vary the dose according to the spore count. We also administer zinc in the troughs, with an additive to make it palatable. This system works provided the cows drink enough water to get the required

dose. “It’s not so easy on the run-off however.” All young stock are grazed on a 178ha runoff block 10km from the farm. “We monitor their progress regularly, but because that care is remote, ie they’re not in yards every day, we needed a way to administer zinc to protect them from FE and give us peace of mind. “Trough treatments weren’t an option as young stock don’t drink as much water as milking cows which inhibits the amount of zinc they receive so you can never be sure they’re protected…. You can’t afford one clinical case of FE because statistics suggest where there’s one, there are 40 or 50 sub-clinical.”

Martinovich says in 2007 the farm lost eight calves to FE and he couldn’t afford that continuing, “so in 2008 [he] began using Time Capsule, a zinc bolus administered at five weekly intervals, slowly releasing a steady supply of zinc.” The Martinovich crossbred-herd has split calving, milking year round, so young stock on the runoff range from calves to rising two-yearolds. “We begin measuring spore counts in December, taking grass samples to our vet. We start administering Time Capsule to the young stock in February with a second in midMarch. And if the vets recommend it we give a third dose. “Administering the

bolus isn’t an extra job; we simply add Time Capsule to the five week drench for B12, copper, worms, pour-on, etc. Generally two doses a season are enough… at around $6 per dose that’s $12 to protect an asset worth $2000plus.” He says that since 2008 he has had a couple of cows with clinical FE but they may not have been drinking a lot of water, which would inhibit the amount of zinc. “However, in the same time period, we haven’t had one case of FE in our young stock.” The Time Capsule was developed at AgResearch in the 1980s. Agritrade owns the intellectual property and the product is made at its Hamilton plant. www.nzagritrade.co.nz

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015 PRODUCT

COMPANY

METHOD OF APPLICATION

Cattle External Parasite Treatments

ACTIVE INGREDIENT

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

10g/L

1mg/kg

10mL/100kg

Nil

>20

Yes

Rainfast

Destruct

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Propetamphos

100g/L

10mg/kg

10mL/100kg

N/S

Yes

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.

Nil

Yes

No Note 4

Yes

Nil bobby calf withholding for cows treated in late pregnancy.

Pouracide NF

Jurox NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Alphamethrin Piperonyl Butoxide Tetrachlorvinphos

7g/L 75g/L 20g/L

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

10mL/100kg

Nil

Yes

Fly and lice control

Tempor

Merial Ancare

Pour-on

Temephos

20% w/v

12mg/kg

6mL/100kg

Yes

Not affected by rain.

Niltime

Virbac NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Bendiocarb

40g/L

4mg/kg

1mL/10kg

Nil

Yes

Can be used on calves 50kg and over.

Vengeance

Zoetis

Pour-on

Temephos

20% w/v

12mg/kg

6mL/100kg

>8x

Yes

Baymec Injection

Bayer NZ Ltd

Subcutaneous injection

Abamectin

10g/L

0.2mg/kg

1mL/50kg

Yes

Eon

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Eprinomectin

5g/L

0.5mg/kg

1mL/10kg

Nil

10x

iPlus Injection

Bayer NZ Ltd

Subcutaneous injection

Ivermectin/ Clorsulon

10g/L 100g/L

0.2mg/kg 2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

Outlaw

Bayer NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Abamectin/ Levamisole

10g/L 200g/L

0.5mg/kg 10mg/kg

1ml/20kg

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

10g/L 200g/L

0.5mg/kg 10mg/kg

1ml/20kg

Yes

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

Edge Injection

Bayer NZ Ltd

Subcutaneous Injection

Doramectin, Levamisole

4mg/ml 200mg/ml

0.2mg/kg 10mg/kg

1mL/20kg

Yes

Edge is effective against all internal production limiting worms.

Paramectin Pour-on

Jurox NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Abamectin

10mg/ml

0.5mg/kg

1ml/20kg

Nil

Yes

Also controls internal parasites

Paramectin Injection

Jurox NZ Ltd

Injection

Abamectin

10mg/ml

0.2mg/kg

1ml/50kg

Yes

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

Yes

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

Yes

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

Note 4

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

N/D

Yes

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

Nil

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

Yes

Also controls internal parasites, liver fluke.

Ivomec Injection

Merial Ancare

Subcutaneous injection

Ivermectin

1.0% w/v

0.2mg/kg

1ml /50kg

20-30

Aids in control

Yes

Note 4

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

20-30

Aids in control

Yes

Note 4

Also controls internal parasites

Fasimec Pour on for Cattle

Elanco

Pour-on

Abamectin/ Triclabendazole

0.5mg/kg 300mg/ml

0.5mg/kg 30mg/ml

1ml /10kg bodyweight

Yes

Controls roundworm lice and all stages of liver fluke.

Abamectin Injection

Ravensdown

Subcutaneous injection

Abamectin

10g/L

0.2mg/kg

1mL/50kg

Yes

Controls both internal and external parasites

Abamectin Pour On

Ravensdown

Pour-on

Abamectin

10g/L

0.5mg/kg

1mL/20kg

Nil

Yes

Controls both internal and external parasites

TopLine

Virbac NZ Ltd

Pour-on

Abamectin

1% w/v 10mg/mL

0.5mg/kg

1mL/20kg

Nil

Yes

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

>5x

Aids in control

Yes

Note 4

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

Note 4

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

25x

Aids in control

Yes

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

Nil

Yes

Note 4

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

10x

Yes

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

Non-sting. Also controls internal parasites. For the treatment and control of all gastrointestinal roundworms and lungworms in cattle.

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.

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31/03/14 9:55 AM

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

ANIMAL HEALTH 39

Dogs, like people, need consistency A COMMON mistake people make is ‘waffling’ to their pups and dogs in sentences or by repeating a command over and over again. In a dog’s mind the command is lost in the burble. If you keep commands simple, brief and to the point the dog is less likely to get confused e.g. ‘Mate, sit - Mate, no’. When he obeys, don’t say it again. ‘Mate, behind’; he stops, turns and comes towards you; he is doing what you asked. You have no need to say it again, but a lot of people do. They repeat the command several times whilst he is coming back. Why? And if he regularly doesn’t obey he either doesn’t know what the command means (train him), chooses to disobey (he is disrespectful), or there are times when he just doesn’t hear you. You need to gain your dog’s respect, and that isn’t done by beating or electrocuting it to within an inch of its life. Think about the people you have come into contact with over the years and who you naturally respected. You either respect someone or you don’t, and the people who

gained your respect probably had a certain manner, an aura, a way of conducting themselves. They didn’t gain your respect with lavish gifts (titbits) or bullying (cruelty); the same can be said for gaining a dog’s respect. The most important advice I can give you regarding dogs (and people) is be consistent. Set fair rules and stick to them, every time from day one. I see too many people letting something slide time and time again and then out of the blue they jump on the poor unsuspecting victim. Inconsistency does not aid learning or respect. Often I need to insist with a dog, and if insisting doesn’t work consequences follow. For example, my ‘stay’ is lie down, and I teach it in a kind, patient manner until the dog understands what the word means. Afterwards, ‘Eve, stay’ is said in a normal voice. Saying her name gets her attention, she waits for the actual command ‘stay’. She should lie down. If she doesn’t, my voice and eyes change – they become angry but I don’t get louder if I know she can hear me; I harshly repeat ‘Eve, stay’ and that is usu-

ally enough for her to lie down. If she doesn’t, I do my version of raised hackles. I walk towards her, magically growing six inches taller, shoulders squared, with a look of ‘do or you die’ on my face and that is enough for her to glide nervously down to the ground. I turn away and go back to where I was. If she hadn’t, I would have walked over to her, grabbed the back of her neck and shoved her down to a lying position, saying “STAY!” Remember, she understands the command, had been told twice and had disobeyed. The consequences were being shoved down on the ground as she heard ‘stay’ for the third and final time. I can hear a lot of you saying “if I was walking towards my dog like that, it would take off” and that is understandable if it is terrified of you. None of my dogs are terrified of

me. Had I cruelly beaten or kicked any of them previously I would not be able to walk over and do that; they’d be gone too.

are angry, they can’t get near their dogs. • Anna Holland is teaching people dog training. For more information www.

There are a lot of idiots out there who sit their dogs down or call them over, then beat them unmercifully. When they

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

40 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Correct pressure and ballast help maketh the tyre Correct ballast and tyre pressure set-up will reap benefits and with the cultivation season moving into full swing it could be timely to check your set-up. Mark Daniel reports. THEY ARE the big black knobbly things that stop the bottom of the tractor hitting the ground. They’re expensive and a right pain in the proverbial when they get a puncture. The relationship most people have with their tyres, on a tractor or a car, is at best indifferent. But it’s time to love your tyres. The importance of correct tyre and sufficient ballasting cannot be underestimated. If you take the time to accurately set the two there is potential to save thousands of

dollars in operating costs such as reduced fuel consumption, less tyre wear and ultimately less time in completing jobs. Firstly there’s the question of ballast. This has been argued over at many demo days and rural watering holes for many years. Do you go for water? Or add some cast iron? Water may be cheap and convenient, but liquids prevent tyres from flexing, so they can’t do the job they were designed to do. It also makes it difficult to accu-

rately set tyre pressures as the volume of air in the tyre is greatly reduced. Cast iron makes tractors difficult to handle and once added is left on for good, although front linkages with large front weights are more

easily removed when not needed. The most important aspect of ballasting to understand is how much the tractive weight of the tractor/implement combination needs to be to do the job. For many years the standard figure for cultivation work has been about 45-55kg/hp. So a 200hp tractor should be set up to have an operating weight of about 10 tonnes. Less weight might be needed for higher speeds. And, indeed, an increase for slower speeds causes high draught load-

ings. Some tweaking may be needed for variable conditions such as implement weight, soil conditions or topography. With the optimal operating weight determined, we then need to accurately weigh each axle. This will allow us to understand where, and how much, ballast we might need to apply. In general, most manufacturers will work on a split of 60% rear and 40% front static loadings, which will shift nearer to a 50/50 ratio as the draught loadings are applied. Once the operating weight is determined the hard work is over. We know what the load will be on each axle and how many tyres are being used on each axle – either singles or duals. So now the manufacturers’ data will tell us what tyre pressure is required to carry the operating load. Tyre makers’ websites are a great resource for determining load capacities and recommended pressures for their products. We will need to adjust tyre pressures for different jobs – maybe decrease them for cultivation, or increase them for road work. The most important

tool will be an accurate tyre gauge. In the end, it all adds up to money. A recent test in Europe showed some interesting results. Two identical 190hp tractors were fitted with 7-leg subsoilers with a 3m operating width. Time and fuel consumption were measured over a 200m straight line course. Tractor 1 ran with the recommended tyre pressure of 0.9 bar (13 psi); tractor 2 ran with a tyre pressure of 1.4 bar (20.5 psi). Tractor 1 completed the course in 2mins 28 seconds and used 1.2L fuel; tractor 2 completed the course in 2mins 36 seconds and used 1.4L

fuel. The 200m run represented an area of about .058ha, so taken over this area, tractor 2 would use about 3.4L/ha more fuel – at today’s price ($1.22/L) costing $4.15/ha. The other key point noted was that tractor 1 showed about 10% wheelslip, whereas tractor 2 showed nearer 20%. The modern tractor tyre is high-tech, developed over many years by manufacturers who have spent millions on R&D. The correct set-up and utilisation will directly affect your bottom line, so it might be time to fall in love with your tyre rep. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

INFLATION, DEFLATION TAKE A TOLL As a general rule, over/under inflation can result in a number of problems Over-inflation ■■ excessive wheel-slip ■■ greater compaction ■■ reduced performance ■■ accelerated tyre wear Under-inflation ■■ reduced performance ■■ increased temperatures at higher speeds ■■ irreparable damage to the tyre carcase ■■ increased fuel costs

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 41

CD field days pulls the crowds

Tyres’ technology saves money SHALLOWER RUTS and less soil compaction came to light in a field test of Michelin XeoBib tractor tyres featuring the maker’s Ultraflex technology, reports the New Zealand distributor, TRS Tyre & Wheel. The XeoBib tyres were fitted to a Massey Ferguson 6616 tractor/ Kuhn power harrow drill combination in a 100ha field. With conventional tyre pressures (20 psi front and 30 psi rear) it cost the NZ equivalent of $1932 in fuel to drill the field, and resulted in an average rut depth of 133mm. But when the pressures were dropped to 7 psi front and 13 psi rear the cost was just $1142, saving $790. The average rut depth was 88mm, and soil compaction was markedly lower.

Michelin’s agriculture technical manager, Gordon Brookes, commented, “The benefits of Michelin’s Ultraflex technology lie in its ability to be run at incredibly low pressures. This not only has multiple paybacks for the soil, notably reducing compaction and therefore enhancing yields, but the enhanced traction also means the wheels don’t slip as much, so don’t use as much fuel to complete the job.” As well as Xeobib and Axiobib tractor tyres, Michelin has Ultraflex tyres for other applications – CargoXBib high flotation tyres for trailers, CereXBibs for combines and forage harvesters and SprayBibs for high-clearance sprayers.

AT LEAST 30,000 visitors poured into last month’s Central Districts Field Days, now in its 22nd year. The Manfeild, Feilding, event drew visitors and exhibitors from all over the country to compete, buy and enjoy three days of agricultural events, products and displays. This year a new scheme promoted and fostered careers in agriculture. Branded as Get Ahead, this initiative allowed students to talk to champions about the jobs they do. Exhibitors at the site were up on last year to almost 560, and 111 were newcomers. Stock handling systems, in particular, proved popular, with sales con-

tinuing until the final day. And exhibitors with bigticket items like machinery and tractors also saw good sales. Among the more popular attractions, the FoodHQ site gave farmers and visitors an insight into

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crop, a protein source, a nitrogen-fixer in soils and a healthy snack food. FoodHQ was also the venue for events and networking functions, including presentations by the regional development task force.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

42 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Bigger, brighter, b South Island Agricultural Field Days (SIAFD) moved this year to a new home and a bigger, brighter future. Machinery editor Mark Daniel reports. SIAFD, FROM March 25-27, has taken up residence at its new, permanent home at Kirwee, 20 minutes west of Christchurch.

After 30-odd years at Lincoln, the success of the biennial event – and the fragmented visitor parking – meant the search was on for a new location.

The 40ha block is laid out with wide roadways and features a large irrigated area at the eastern

end for manufacturers to demonstrate their products. The three days held an almost constant dis-

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CONTINUING DEPENDENCE on forage maize and burgeoning interest in fodder beet is pushing the demand for precision planters. Maschio Gaspardo importer Power Farming used the recent Central District Field Days at Fielding to show off its new Maga precision drill. The Maga 8 row drill has a substantial main frame coupled to the toolbar which carries the planter units. These units have fully hydraulic adjustment with spacing 45-80cm. The MTR planting units use a vacuum system to allow precision planting at greater speeds, thereby allowing higher daily outputs. Standard features are a seed placing sensor to detect any misses, 36L seed hoppers and hydraulic folding down to 3m for safe, easy road transport. The soil engaging part of the planter has 420mm double-disc openers and Arm-Strong parallelogram linkages that together give greater stability for the higher speeds and constant depth required by today’s machines. Any closing and/or seed consolidation is taken care of by a system of rubber press wheels Fertiliser goes in a retro-look, 900L stainless steel hopper, close-coupled to the headstock for good weight transfer. Tel. 07 902 2200 www.powerfarming.co.nz

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 43

, better – SI FDs do it well play of working machines – mowing, baling, slurry injection and even fodder beet harvesting with

mighty six-row machines from Europe. Exhibitors say enquiries were better than usual

despite the dry season. Sources involved in the key industry indicator of new tractor sales were

predicting that while the 2015 market might drop, by as much as 25% from the industry’s 2014 high of 4000 units, this was just a blip and the future looked

positive. From a marketing perspective, exhibitors praised the organising committee’s work in ensuring a working area

and the realistic costs of being there. And they said the Innovation Awards resulted in a little competition and a huge bucket of kudos for the winners.

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RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

44 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Young ploughman’s first national contest ANDREW SWALLOW

AT TWENTY years old Adam Mehrtens will be the youngest competitor at this year’s National Ploughing Championship, and a debutant, but the

plough he’ll be using has seen action at the highest level. “It’s won the nationals and I think Bob said he’s even taken it to a world championship,” he told Rural News.

The reference to “Bob” is to his uncle, Bob Mehrtens, several times New Zealand champion with a conventional plough who has also won the nationals and competed on the world stage with a revers-

ible. Adam says “hanging around” with his uncle at ploughing matches when he was a kid was what got him into ploughing. “I started when I was about 12.”

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Last year he set his sights on qualifying for the nationals and this year made it “after quite a few matches” with a win at Waimate. He says he “hopes to do pretty well” at the nationals at Palmerston but is well aware of the level of competition he’ll face. Pulling the trusty Kverneland will be a twowheel drive Fiat 540 with ballasted back wheels and a new coat of paint “especially for the occasion.” When Rural News caught up with him a couple of weeks ago it just needed the seat re-fitting before hooking up to the plough and getting in some practice. As for the plough, for all its history he says it is a “pretty standard” Kverneland match plough with steel mouldboards. “I’ll probably go to plastic mouldboards eventually; they reckon the dirt doesn’t stick to them like it can to steel.” Fellow finalist Eric Gin from Oamaru also has plastic mouldboards on his wish list but even after “six or seven” previous appearances at

the nationals, he says he’s still trying to master the art with steel. “Once I get up to the next level I’ll probably progress onto plastic.” Gin qualified at Lincoln and is hoping he can go better than his previous bests at the nationals which was second on grass, also at Lincoln, in 2013, and fifth overall. “You try to do a better job each time but there are a lot of variables that come in. You always think you’ll get it right next time but then there’s something else: the soil conditions, or you forget to do something. Once you’ve made a mistake there’s no going back. If it’s crooked [the judges] see that.” It’s the challenge of perfect ploughing despite the variables that makes the sport so appealing, he says. “And I like meeting the other ploughmen and the camaraderie of the people involved.” Mehrtens echoes Gin’s comments. “You can always do better. There’s always something to learn. It’s never ending really.” @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

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GIN IS one of about a dozen New Zealand ploughmen who have honed their skills during a long-running exchange trip to Australia courtesy of the NZ Ploughing Association. “Every second year we send someone over to Australia and they plough at four or five matches,” explains NZ Ploughing Association executive officer Noel Sheat. The association pays the airfare then the ploughmen are billeted with fellow enthusiasts across the ditch for ten days to a fortnight, using a tractor and plough supplied locally to compete. “They’re always harder to beat after they’ve been,” notes Sheat. “They’re just that bit more knowledgeable. It’s the same with the World Championships. Every time you go you come back that little bit more knowledgeable.” Ploughmen for the exchange are selected from the National Championship line-up. To be eligible they must not have been on the exchange before or finish above fifth.

RURAL NEWS // APRIL 7, 2015

MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 45

Tractor company joins rural crime effort MARK DANIEL

WAIKATO POLICE are hoping the sight of a ‘POLICE’ branded tractor at regional field days will encourage farmers to get involved in rural crime prevention. Inspector Paul Carpenter says the police are “always keen to introduce new and novel initiatives to highlight rural crime. Waikato has fronted these endeavours with mounted patrols at key public events and red-andorange hi-visibility patrol cars on state highways.” The latest is talks with CB Nor-

wood Distributors leading to the company lending a New Holland tractor for the season, in police livery and with flashing lights and sirens. Carpenter says “initial response [by locals] has been a quick doubletake, then they reach for the camera… just what the concept is all about – promoting discussion of rural road deaths, drugs activity on farms, personal safety, stock thefts and illegal hunting.” The tractor has appeared at Central Districts Field Days and

the South Island Agricultural Field Days and will be at National Fieldays. “Rural areas present unique challenges for police,” Carpenter says. “There are longer distances, lack of cellphone and radio networks, and smaller numbers of staff [needing] to do more indepth engagement with smaller communities. “And tactics that may work in large urban centres may not work too well in a rural setting. “The key thing is, police need to know about incidents and rural residents need to feel comfortable reporting issues to us. We need to move away from the mindset of, ‘oh the police are too busy, I won’t trouble them’.”

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Win

W D UTE 4 R E G N A R D R O F A 0,000! 6 $ R E V O T A D E U L VA THE GIZER AND GUESS

S ENER /CRACKTHEPLATE 0RS OR 36000R EEDRITE 6300TA W.SPEEDRITE.COM W W T SI VI S IL PURCHASE A SP WIN. FOR FULL DE NUMBER PL ATE TO

Free LE INCLUDED WITH SE

Speedrite™ Mains Energizer 36000RS Remote System (includes remote)

Speedrite™ Mains Energizer 63000RS Remote System (includes remote)

Powers up to 360 km / 200 ha fence

Powers up to 630 km / 350 ha fence

1,299

2,299

SPEEDRITE™ STORAGE BOX

CTED 200 PACKS,

Speedrite™ Insulator Wood Post Claw 200 Pack

REWARDS POINTS†

LIMITED STOCK

Speedrite™ Insulator Wood Post Pinlock 200 Pack

Speedrite™ Insulator Y Post Pinlock 200 Pack

129

PEL WOOD POST CLAW AND WOOD POST PINLOCK INSULATORS AVAILABLE IN SELECTED STORES

Cyclone® Barbed Staples Galvanised 50 mm x 4 mm 5 kg 25 kg

25 109

SLICE CUT STAPLES ALSO AVAILABLE IN SELECTED STORES

Quality GreenWood sheds, yards and bridges! SHEDS & BARNS I CATTLE YARDS

I FARM BRIDGES

PGG Wrightson is the exclusive rural agent for GreenWood.

Terms and Conditions: All offers and prices are valid 1 April 2015 to 30 June 2015 unless stated otherwise, or while stocks last. Prices include GST and are subject to change. Some products may not be available in all stores but may be ordered on request. Prices do not include delivery, delivery costs are additional. Images are for illustrative purposes only. Energizer area recommendations are a guide only and in multiple wire terms. Performance will be affected by the condition of your fence. †Visit www.pggwrightson.co.nz/rewards for terms and conditions.

Freephone 0800 10 22 76

www.pggwrightson.co.nz

Helping grow the country