Rural News 23 May 2023

TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS

Infant formula ‘doomed’!

THE ONCE-LUCRATIVE Chinese infant formula market is shrinking.

Three factors – China’s negative population growth, economic downturn, and a more stringent regulatory environment – are driving down sales of infant formula.

New Zealand infant formula exports to China topped nearly $1 billion in 2021, according to the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI). How-

Cream of the crop

Equity partners in a Taranaki dairy farm, Hayden and Bridget Goble scooped the 2023 New Zealand Share Farmer of the Year in Auckland this month. Judges described them as a power couple who are driven, genuine and focused dairy farmers. Hayden graduated from Telford in 2005 with a Diploma in Agriculture and enjoys the combination of running a business while securing his family’s future. Bridget is a doctor, with a specialty in emergency medicine. The couple are 20% VO equity partners on a 200ha, 565-cow New Plymouth property. Full story on the awards, page 5.

ever, sales dropped last year to around $806m. Sales could be even lower in 2023 as NZ companies await China’s State Administration of Market Regulation (SAMR) registration which allows them to export branded infant formula to China.

Consultant Jane Li of Li, Page & Company believes the heydays of infant formula sales in China are over.

“It’s very doomed, the infant formula pie is shrinking,” she told Rural News. “There are less babies being born in China.”

At the same time, the Chinese economy hasn’t recovered to the pre-Covid days, she adds.

“Remember China had some of the harshest lockdowns in the world over the past three years.”

Li believes the new regulations around infant formula is the Chinese Government’s attempt to appease consumers after the melamine scandal in 2008 and gain political trust.

She says the new regulations are aimed at reducing the number of baby formula products.

She believes the new regulations will only make it viable for major domestic players and multi nationals to play in China.

But Li believes Fonterra has nothing to worry about, as the co-operative’s food service and ingredients businesses in China are booming.

“Chinese consumers are spending less on luxurious clothes and cosmetics and more on leisure food and Fonterra products are popular in the food service sector,” she says.

Fonterra sells Anmum branded

Infant Formula and Materna nutrition in China, as well as ingredients to other brand owners who sell in the China market.

The co-operative says it is progressing through the China re-registration process, along with others in the industry.

“Infant Formula makes up a relatively small part of Fonterra’s broader China business.

“Our China Food Service and Ingredient businesses are performing well,” it told Rural News

MPI’s Deputy Director-General, New Zealand Food Safety, Vincent Arbuckle says MPI is working closely with New Zealand companies on the China infant formula product registration process and is committed to helping ensure it continues to run as efficiently as possible.

So far this year, three New Zealand infant formula companies have had their products registered by SAMR.

China announced strict controls on infant formula composition as part of its new GB (food safety) legislation standards two years ago.

The new rules kicked in from February this year.

Re-registration of the product is required. The on-site verification audit is the last step in the re-registration process before requesting final approval by SAMR.

MPI’s Vince Arbuckle told Rural News it has been working closely with New Zealand infant formula manufacturers over the last two years to ensure they are aware of China’s product registration requirements and standards, and the timelines involved.

SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

ISSUE 776

Final GDT a fizzer

SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

WITH JUST a week left in the 202223 season, economists agree that a final milk price around $8.30/kgMS is all but locked in.

The last Global Dairy Trade (GDT) auction of the season failed to deliver any big increases. Despite market expectations, overall prices fell 0.9% last week while whole milk powder prices, which dictate the farmgate milk price paid by Fonterra, rose 0.3%

Westpac senior agri economist Nathan Penny says the result was in line with expectations.

“We had pencilled in flat WMP prices. However, the result was below market expectations, with futures pricing pointing to a circa 2% rise prior to the auction,” her told Rural News

“Coming late in the season, the result also doesn’t change the outlook for this season’s milk price. Thus, we reaffirm our milk price forecast of $8.30/kgMS.”

ASB economist Nat Keall agrees the dairy prices have underperformed at the latest auction. He says broader demand and supply dynamics in global dairy markets appear relatively little changed.

ASB is also sticking to an $8.30/

kgMS forecast for the current season. Fonterra has a range of $8.20 to $8.80. While the economists agree on the current season, their opening forecast for the new season is poles apart: Westpac is forecasting $10/kgMS and ASB $7/kgMS.

Penny expects the Chinese economy will gain momentum over the course of the year and improved Chinese demand will lift global dairy

prices. Very subdued global milk supply will provide additional support for prices.

He predicts NZ milk production to remain weak.

“First up, we expect cow numbers to continue to decline.

“In addition, we expect the squeeze on farm profits will crimp production as farmers look for savings where possible, including on things such as fer-

DON’T FORGET ABOUT HORTICULTURE!

PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

That’s the call from the Horticulture NZ chair Barry O’Neil who says this is needed if growers and orchardists in Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti are to fully recover to pre-cyclone levels of growth within the next decade.

His remarks follow the news that the Government is investing nearly $1

billion to aid recovery from cyclone and storm damage nationwide.

O’Neill says if the recovery doesn’t speed up, more businesses will be lost from the horticulture industry. He says these businesses pump upwards of a billion dollars a year into the Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti economies.

“While we are encouraged by statements that the Government wants to work with communities and industries like ours, this needs to

happen as soon as possible – by June as the Government has promised –and not be a bureaucratic nightmare,” he says.

O’Neil says it is not as if the Government is alone in spending heavily on the recovery. He says growers have invested millions in the recovery too, so they do not lose uninsurable biological assets like trees and vines, as well as talented and committed staff.

“What growers need now is more direction, for example, on land use,

tiliser, farm maintenance and animal health.”

Keall, however, expects global milk supply to improve over the next 12 months.

“European milk production continues to make year-on-year gains as we enter the Southern Hemisphere lowpoint.

“NZ milk production will lift off its lows over the season as some input costs ease, though we don’t expect NZ milk production to return to the peaks it reached in 2020/21.”

On the demand side, Keall anticipates a relatively subdued outlook over the course of the season.

“We remain cautious about the outlook for Chinese demand. With local WMP production strong and inventories coming off recent highs, China has only partially returned to the auction party, taking only about half the WMP on offer.”

Keall adds that with this season very nearly over, the focus remains on what kind of milk price farmers can expect in 2023/24.

“There’s a wide range of forecasts among prognosticators, reflecting how far away we are from the end of the season.”

The sector will eagerly await Fonterra’s guidance this week.

and alternative funding options if the horticulture industry is to get back to pre-cyclone and Covid growth levels, and not lose what it has built up over decades. Our industry’s focus is on the long-term.”

O’Neil says HortNZ doesn’t want to see the Hawke’s Bay and Tairawhiti horticulture sectors needlessly lose their competitive advantage, as that will cost the regions and the country billions in lost jobs and export revenue.

“WE URGENTLY want more government support and certainty.”

Westpac senior agri economist Nathan Penny says the result reaffirms the bank’s final milk price forecast of $8.30/kgMS for this season.

Computer says no as farm software company cuts jobs and revamps

farmer sentiment.

FARM MANAGEMENT software provider FarmIQ is shedding 25% of its workforce and adopting a new operating model to boost revenue.

The revamp will also see chief executive Will Noble leave the company in August.

Owned by Pamu, Silver Fern Farms, Farmlands Co-operative, MSD, Vet-Ent and AgResearch, FarmIQ is map-based farm management software used by over 3,500 farms.

Noble says that while the company has achieved subscriber growth, it has been slower than anticipated. He puts this down to

“Farmers have had a terrifically difficult 12-18 months and in times of uncertainty many delay purchasing decisions,” he told Rural News.

Prior to the decision to reorganise FarmIQ employed 69 people.

“Through a combination of disestablishments and not filling positions that were, or became, vacant the headcount has reduced by about 25%,” explains Noble.

He says a price review isn’t on the cards.

“However, our product and marketing team is reviewing the structure of our packs with a view to encourage increased subscription uptake,” he says.

At the same time,

major shareholder PAMU has agreed to provide support in ancillary areas such as corporate ser-

vices, human resources, and finance.

The state farmer’s newly appointed chief

technology & digital officer, Tammy Lemire is joining the FarmIQ board.

Noble will be replaced by chief operating officer, Gavin McEwen, who assumed the role of executive general manager leading the business under the new model and reporting to the board.

Noble says FarmIQ plays a critical role in many farming businesses.

“Over the past three years, we’ve implemented a tremendous amount of change to modernise the ten-year-old FarmIQ infrastructure.

“In addition, we’ve released our new field app built on entirely new technology with enhanced online and offline functionality and acquired farm modelling programme Farmax in a partnership with AgResearch.”

FROM OBSCURITY AND INTO THE MINISTRY

LABOUR’S NEWLY appointed associate Minister for Agriculture says one of her main goals is to look at ways of attracting more young people to make a career in the primary sector.

Jo Luxton was recently promoted to a minister outside cabinet – as well as taking on the role of Minister of Customs and Associate Education.

Luxton says when she was on Parliament’s Primary Production Select committee, an inquiry was started into the reasons so few young people

seek out a career in sector. She’d like to get into the minds of young people and see what is putting them off agriculture.

“The challenge is, how do we break through that barrier and counter the negative messages such as dirty dairying and the like,” Luxton told Rural News

“Everyone in the primary sector has a responsibility to do that and get the positive messages across, including to people who influence young

Rangitata MP Jo Luxton has recently been promoted to associate agriculture minister.

people – such as parents and teachers.”

She says she’s never met a farmer who wants to damage their land or leave it in a worse state than it is today.

Luxton concedes being a Labour MP in a rural area – she is MP for Rangitata – has its own set of challenges and accepts that some people will not agree with her party’s policies. But she says despite criticism, her focus has been on building rela-

Noble adds that during the same period, the FarmIQ team has built modern API infrastructure powering integrations with companies such as NZ Merino, ANZCO, TracMap, OSPRI/NAIT.

He points out that like other agri-supply businesses, FarmIQ has faced revenue headwinds for more than a year.

As a result, they are joining several other firms in their industry currently reducing staff numbers as farmers close their wallets to cope with massive regulatory change, uncertainty, increased input costs, geopolitical uncertainty, volatile farm gate prices, and repeat extreme weather events.

tionships within the community and with people from other political parties.

Before entering Parliament as the MP for Rangitata in 2017, Jo Luxton was working in early childhood. But before her first marriage ended, she and her ex husband were dairy farmers and she says knows a fair bit about agriculture, especially dairying, and has a real passion for the sector.

@rural_news facebook com/ruralnews

SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

FarmIQ chief executive Will Noble will leave the company in August as part of the company’s revamp.

Cut the excessive red tape!

SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

POLITICIANS AT this

year’s New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards heard a clear message from organisers – do not bog the industry down in excessive red tape.

Speaking at the awards night in Auckland this month, NZDIA Trustees chair and Horowhenua dairy farmer Richard McIntyre had “a simple message” for politicians in attendance.

“Kiwi dairy farmers are the best in the world. But we can’t stay ahead of the rest if we are bogged down by excessive red tape,” says McIntyre.

“All that does is stifle innovation. Yes, we need some regulation, but it needs to be practical, pragmatic, and fair. It should only be used to set the minimum standard – not the ambition.

“Leave that to individual farmers and the companies they supply to be led by the market and the expectations of their communities.

“If you let us do what we do best – innovative farming – we won’t just meet expectations, we will undoubtedly exceed them.”

Present at the awards

OUTGOING CEO ACKNOWLEDGED

OUTGOING DAIRYNZ chief executive Tim Mackle was awarded the Services to the Dairy Industry Award. This was in recognition of his contribution to and advocacy for the New Zealand dairy industry over many years.

Richard McIntyre says the service to industry award is presented on rare occasions.

“It is an award that we reserve for those who have provided considerable service to the dairy industry,” he says.

He says Mackle has always been hugely passionate about helping dairy farmers navigate the challenges they have faced and continue to face.

“In his 15 years as chief executive of DairyNZ, Tim has played a key role in developing DairyNZ’s research & development programme and also the development of their science-based policy and advocacy function.”

were Associate Agriculture Minister Jo Luxton, Rural Communities and Local Government Minister Kieran McAnulty, Opposition Leader Chris Luxon, National trade and agriculture spokesman Todd McClay and ACT leader David Seymour.

The awards got off to a rough start as attendees were heckled by about 100 protestors gathered outside the central city hotel.

However, a large police presence both outside and inside the hotel

kept the protestors at bay. The protestors, made up of animal rights and climate change groups were calling for an end to ‘big dairying’.

Inside, about 500 farmers, agribusiness leaders, politicians and rural professionals gathered to honour the farmers.

Taranaki ‘power couple’ Hayden and Bridget Goble were named the 2023 New Zealand Share Farmer of the Year.

Hayden graduated from Telford in 2005 with

JCB SERIES III

a Diploma in Agriculture and runs the family business, while Bridget is a doctor, with a specialty in Emergency Medicine.

The judges were impressed with Bridget’s on-farm technical knowledge and application.

“She’s a busy full-time doctor, but she is bootsin and we enjoyed seeing how she makes a positive contribution to their business,” said judge Michele Cranefield, ANZ senior manager.

“There is a power in their connection and balance of their partner-

ship and they both have a genuine passion for the industry.”

Canterbury/North Otago’s Jack Symes became the 2023 New Zealand Dairy Manager of the Year and Bill Hamilton from Northland was announced the 2023 New Zealand Dairy Trainee of the Year. The three winners shared prizes from a pool worth over $220,000.

McIntyre says the awards night celebrates not just the success of the finalists, but the collective success of the

sector.

There is so much to celebrate, he says.

“Together we feed almost 100 million people each day with nutritious, healthy dairy products.

“We generate over $20 billion dollars of exports for this country. And we employ more than 50,000 people –mostly in regional New Zealand.”

Mackle, who grew up on the family dairy farm in Kaikoura, says dairy is his blood. He thanked the industry for the award. @rural_news facebook com/ruralnews

McIntyre, who is also chair of Federated Farmers dairy section, says the sector is also making huge environmental progress.

“We’ve fenced off 98% of our waterways. We have over 7000 Farm Environment Plans in place.

“And let’s not forget that our dairy products have the lowest carbon footprint in the world.

“We did that – all of that – together. We were able to do it because we weren’t afraid to change, to innovate and evolve; to rise to the challenge and meet the changing expectations of our communities and our customers.”

Some farmers think a telehandler is for the big farms or best suited to European or North American operations. But you’ll be surprised to know that telehandlers are the fastest growing on-farm utility category in the New Zealand market. You’ll also be surprised by what you can do with a LOADALL and how much it improves productivity on all types of farms. You won’t however be surprised to know that the JCB SERIES III is the world’s No.1 LOADALL.

NZDIA Trustees chair Richard McIntyre and outgoing DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle.

Former Feds leaders trade in their gumboots for power suits

A SLEW of farming sector leaders linked to Federated Farmers are contesting the upcoming general election. All candidates served Feds at provincial or national level and most are standing on a

National Party ticket. However, ACT has claimed the biggest scalp with former Feds president Andrew Hoggard standing for the party at this year’s election. National has selected former Feds meat and wool section chair Miles Anderson as its candidate for Waitaki, former

ENSURE THEY REACH THEIR PEAK POTENTIAL

The Southland farmer served one term in Parliament and returned to farming after NZ First was voted out in 2020.

Hoggard is one of New Zealand’s best known farming leaders. His decision to stand for ACT has raised a few eyebrows because the farming community is seen as the National Party’s powerbase.

When asked why not the National Party, Hoggard says he would ask, “why not the ACT Party?”

“I feel they espouse principles that I stand for: it’s a natural home for me.”

Hoggard resigned as Feds president this month, two months before his three-year term was due to expire.

Media speculation about Hoggard standing on an ACT ticket started two weeks ago. Hoggard believes rumours had been circulating for weeks before that.

“Once it came out in the media, it was untenable for me to continue as president,” he says.

Hoggard has been replaced by vice-president Wayne Langford. A new president, almost certain to be Langford, will be elected at Fed’s annual conference in July.

McCullum, a Maungaturoto beef and dairy farm since 1995, says he’s standing for National because the party backs

farmers.

“As a farmer myself, I understand the significant contribution farmers make to the economy and to Kiwis, both here in Northland and across the country.

“With National, I look forward to advocating for farmers and farming communities to reduce their regulatory burden and costs and let them get on with doing what they do best – leading the world in innovative farming practices that help to drive New Zealand forward.”

Anderson, who farms in South Canterbury claims National can strengthen the economy and help reduce the cost of living and lift incomes.

“As Chris Luxon said recently, we need to back our farmers like we back the All Blacks. National understands the contribution farmers make to New Zealand and will work with them, not against them. As a farmer, I will always be a strong advocate for our primary sector.”

Butterick says as a Wairarapa farmer he knows how important the primary sector is to the economy.

“I’ll advocate for farmers and farming communities to be able to get on with what they do best, without being burdened with more unworkable regulations.”

Feds Wairarapa meat and wool chair Mike Butterick for Wairarapa and

former Northland president Grant McCullum for the Northland seat.

Former NZ First MP Mark Patterson is expected to stand again.

SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

Hoggard is one of New Zealand’s best known farming leaders. His decision to stand for ACT has raised a few eyebrows because the farming community is seen as the National Party’s powerbase.

Andrew Hoggard joins a host of former Fed Farmers leaders eyeing a ticket to Parliament at this year’s election.

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Kiwifruit takes big hit

AS EXPECTED, the volume of kiwifruit for the 2023 growing season is down – mainly due to the weather.

The biggest hit has been taken by Green kiwifruit where the volume is the lowest in 20 years with only 42 million trays available for export – as opposed to the 61 million trays in 2022.

Overall, Zespri estimates that it will only be able to export around 136 million trays of Green, SunGold and RubyRed kiwifruit to more than 50 countries this season.

This is down from the 171 million trays supplied in 2022. This season’s crop may potentially reduce even further as orchard assessments are completed following April’s hail event in Te Puke.

Zespri chief executive Dan Mathieson says it’s been an extremely challenging growing season in New Zealand, with growers affected by multiple severe weather events.

“Like many others in the primary industries around the world, kiwifruit growers have faced a particularly tough time this growing season, including many weatherrelated challenges,” he says.

“As a result, we have a limited supply of kiwifruit for our customers this season. But despite the challenges, our Zespri teams around the world are working hard with our global customers to get the best possible outcome this season.”

Mathieson adds that while it is disappointing lower volumes will make it more challenging for customers to access Zespri Kiwifruit, it provides an opportunity for the industry to focus on lifting fruit quality this season and prepare for increased volumes in 2024. He says there’s been a huge effort across the industry and supply chain to do everything possible to lift quality this season.

“While it’s still early in the season, it’s been promising to hear the consistent feedback across our key markets that our initial shipments are showing much better quality out-turns this season,” Mathieson says.

“We’ve already seen that in our Asian markets and in Europe where there is strong demand from local consumers.”

He adds that with more than half this season’s fruit harvested, planning for next season is already underway to manage a much larger forecast crop in 2024. From a supply perspective, Zespri is expecting significantly more volume in 2024 as growers rebound from this season’s weather-related reduced yields and more licenced SunGold Kiwifruit hectares come into maturity.

Zespri’s NZ supply is forecast to reach almost 230 million trays in 2027/28. Meanwhile, Mathieson says its Northern Hemisphere supply locations are also forecast to more than double from this year’s 25 million trays by 2027/28.

Company flies to the rescue

FLYING JERRY CANS

AEROSPREAD/SUPER

AIR pilots are usually busy at this time of the year flying superphosphate onto farms along the east coast of the North Island.

But Cyclone Gabrielle changed all that.

Aerospread, based out of the Napier airport serving customers from Tairawhiti down to the Wairarapa and into the Manawatu, is now part of the Super Air team. The companies had just joined forces right before Cyclone Gabrielle unleashed its savage heavy rain and wind on the east coast and the spreading of fertiliser abruptly stopped.

Bruce Peterson says the last CAA statistics in 2022 showed that fertil-

FOR THE pilots, the so called ‘jerry can flights’ were a challenge.

Peterson says normally aircraft take off from an airstrip with a full load of fertiliser and land when the aircraft is empty. But he says having to land a heavily laden aircraft on a farm airstrip called for good and careful planning and flying skills. The entire operation went off without a hitch.

Peterson says one clear message to come out of this

iser spread from aircraft dropped back 66% on the previous year and it is still dropping.

“We had a farmer who normally puts on about 600 tonnes of fertiliser, but he dropped this back to 300 due to the economic climate and when Gabrielle came along he decided to abandon the deal,” he told Rural News

According to Peter-

son, farmers only have so much cash and as a result of Gabrielle they are re-prioritising what they do with that. He says clearly re-instating fences, tracks, culverts, bridges, sheds and other farm infrastructure has to be their priority.

Peterson says getting back to anything that resembles normal has been hard for people

living in isolated communities where power, roads and communications have been down. This is where Aerospread/Super Air and other air operators have swung into action and provided a

lifeline to these people.

“We worked together providing relief to farmers in need with the newly formed team coming together as one –something we are proud of,” he told Rural News

“We took out the hopper of our aircraft creating a floor that enabled us to carry all sorts of things ranging from blankets, essential medication, electric fence standards, generators and fuel which

was in 20 litre jerry cans.”

Peterson says fuel was vital to farmers, to run generators for their freezers and fuel their side by sides and utes so they could at least get around their properties and assess the damage.

He adds that the company’s pilots were also flying in much needed supplies and other staff and their families pitched in to package goods so they could fit in the aircraft easily.

“It was a great team effort.”

Peterson says the cost of flying in the muchneeded supplies was picked up by the company owners Super Air and at no cost to farmers.

“We value our rural communities and clients, this was our chance to help them in a time of need,” he says.

Turning silt into soil

ryegrass and cover crops to start the process of rehabilitating the land.

A CONSORTIUM of NZ’s top soil scientists are investigating ways of how some silt damaged pasture and horticultural land in Hawke’s Bay can be brought back in production.

Massey University’s Farmed Landscape Research Centre director, Professor Chris Anderson – himself a soil scientist – says Massey, along with AgResearch, Landcare and a private research group in Hawke’s Bay, Landwise, are all involved in the project. The person doing much of the work is soil scientist Alan Palmer.

Anderson says the focus of the project is to look at land which is not covered in deep silt and the possibility of mixing the silt that is there in with the soil below. He explains that in some places the layer of silt is reasonably thin and it can be moved around to establish pasture.

“We’ve had people out there in the field doing comprehensive soil testing so that we can make good science decisions based on hard data,” Anderson told Rural News

He says there is obviously a lack of organic matter in the silt and the task is to find a way of building this back and understanding how best to do this. One way would be to try and establish

“One of the things we’ve discovered is that some of the silt from hill country catchments contains nutrients,”

Anderson explains. “We thought this silt may not contain any nutrients, but much to our amazement we have found traces of phosphorous – a nutrient we thought it might be lacking – and we are pleasantly surprised at the level there.”

Anderson says one of the first things they did after Cyclone Gabrielle struck was to carefully study all the scientific papers that were produced after the disastrous 2004 Manawatu floods.

He says that gave them a good insight into the problems they were facing and helped shape a plan for how to deal with the problems in Hawke’s Bay. That is now being implemented.

Anderson concedes the process will take time and says soil damaged by silt cannot be fixed overnight; it will take time to get in cover and rotation crops and build up the organic matter.

But he adds that soil systems are amazingly resilient if they are properly managed.

“I have got absolute confidence that we can bring some of this pasture back using good scientific evidence and not just speculative thinking.”

With Moving Day on the way, we are encouraging Farmers to do their bit to maintain the integrity of our biosecurity system.

1 Create a new NAIT location number.

2 Create a movement within 48 hours of moving.

3 Deactivate the old NAIT location number. Register any new grazing blocks you are in charge of and record movements in NAIT for any animals sold or sent away to grazing.

If you have followed all of the instructions to update your NAIT details and are still struggling, our Support Centre is geared up to assist you. Call 0800 482 463

Complete and sign a PICA change form at your current NAIT location and make sure you become the registered PICA if you are moving to another farm.

For more Moving Day information see OSPRI.co.nz

PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

Chris Anderson is confident that pasture can be brought back using good scientific evidence.

New breeding index aims

A new beef breeding index is expected to be the talk of the bull sales over the next month or so. Six bull studs from around the country have got together and come up with new indexes for the sector, which they claim reflects what the market wants. David Anderson reports…

A GROUP of Angus bull breeders have developed a new initiative to utilise a world-leading analysis, to not only breed better beef but also do so in a way that focuses directly on efficiency.

Working with NZ agritech business AbacusBio Ltd, they have designed a platform that utilises already measured and recorded economically relevant traits. It then

combines these into a set of indexes that not only analyses the attributes of every animal - but presents an index that evaluates efficiency, both financially and environmentally.

The new platform is called ‘E-Star’ and its’ promoters believe it will change the pace and focus of NZ beef industry genetics. The participating Angus Studs who

have invested in resourcing the E Star platform are Hallmark Angus -

The suite of four E

Star indexes are said to relate directly to the production systems and mar-

There are approximately 150,000 hectares of native forest eligible to be registered in the ETS right now that are not currently registered. That is $90 million per year in carbon credits landowners are missing out on.

Al technology is better at identifying areas of native forest eligible for the New Zealand Emissions Trading Scheme than other methods which gives customers a better shot at a $90 million annual opportunity.

CarbonCrop CEO Jo Blundell says the company·s technology is better at finding which natives are eligible than other methods. The additional carbon revenue achieved with the help of Al could be hugely significant to farmers, forest and land owners.

"Our technology means we can successfully take on the trickiest of native forests, which means natives that were not previously accepted into the ETS can now get another look in, and landowners with some native forest registered could actually have more than they think," she says.

"Native forests currently only make up 17% of the total forested area registered under the ETS. CarbonCrop believes the effectiveness of its Al for measuring and registering native forests can help address the deficit.

CarbonCrop's machine learning, aerial imagery and remote sensing technology can distinguish between trees and pasture, and recognise the heights, ages and species of tree eligible for the ETS.

"Native forests can be a real asset in catchment protection terms which has been obvious of late. Our Al tech allows farmers and other landholders to unlock more revenue from carbon credits. This ultimately incentivises the restoration and protection of native forests - which, in turn, incentivises more carbon getting sucked out of the atmosphere. This is a tailwind for our catchment health and zero emissions targets."

"Some landowners, who registered forests early in the life cycle of the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS), may still not be aware that technology has moved on and that highly accurate and verified forest assessments can now be conducted virtually - using Al to detect even subtle variations in the growth patterns," Ms Blundell says.

CarbonCrop can conduct the whole registration process remotely without needing a site visit with its time, cost and health & safety considerations.

"There is no upfront fee for landholders to benefit from the Al technology. Our business model is based on a modest success fee - we don't get paid unless our customers do. With the upfront risk of registering a native first removed, and technology on their side, our customers have a much higher likelihood and proportion of forest accepted under the ETS. They have a bigger slice of the $90 million per year pie," says Jo Blundell.

Free land assessment requests are available at Carboncrop's website www.carboncrop.nz

East Coast; Martin Farming – Nelson; Leefield Station – Marlborough;

Sudeley Angus - Banks Peninsula; Fossil Creek Angus - North Otago and

Earnscleugh Angus - Central Otago.

The new platform is called ‘E-Star’ and its’ promoters believe it will change the pace and focus of NZ beef industry genetics.

to beef up NZ genetics

into a unique combination. When this is paired with accurate economic data and inputs, it ranks animals on profitability in a manner where timelines in the breeding and production chain are minimised. By reducing these times, the productive life of each animal can be optimised, while also reducing its environmental footprint.

The new Index system also allows commercial beef operators to hone in on the traits that give a better return on investment (ROI) when buying bulls. This is said to help to filter out the rhetoric around non-productive traits and sideshows associated at genetic selection time.

THE FOUR E STAR INDEXES

1 MATERNAL INDEX. This is a grouping of traits specifically related to the beef cow/calf operation. Desired outcomes include improving fertility and moderating cow size.

2 TERMINAL INDEX: An index that highlights those animals which are going to grow fast to suitable carcase weights with high yields and good eating through Intramuscular Fats.

3 EFFICIENCY INDEX: This index can be used on its own to identify animals which are superior for efficiency. Selecting the most efficient animals can reduce environmental footprint, acting as the best productive proxy for reduced emissions.

4 HEIFER DIRECT: Designed to be a standalone selection tool for ranking bulls as suitable for mating yearling heifers.

kets relevant to the NZ commercial beef industry. This means heifers are retained as replacements and steers and surplus heifers are finished efficiently. This helps to finetune the finished product as well as meeting the specifications of targeted premium branded Angus Beef programmes.

The indexes for Angus attributes such as calving ease, maternal and fertility traits and Terminal or finishing traits are served separately. Added to this is a fourth standalone index that is claimed to be a big step forward for the NZ commercial beef industry.

The Efficiency Index is exactly what it represents. It is a smart set of software that groups together specific beef breeding traits, both maternal and terminal

industry’s environmental footprint. By selecting against or culling the ani-

mals at the bottom of the Efficiency Index, breeders can raise the profitabil-

ity and reduce the environmental footprint from their whole herd.

The index promoters say it is more about whole herd dynamics rather than individual animals. They believe the economic benefits from stronger maternal values and better finishing times with higher quality meat outcomes will be an massive bene-

fit for the industry. Early finishing animals will be identified and rewarded by this system. They add that any peer-reviewed new research on other economic traits –such as beef cow fertility and longevity – can also easily be integrated using this technology.

A major advantage of the ‘E-Star’ platform is its simple presentation. Instead of displaying confusing numbers to sift through, a simple star system is presented.

This ranks each index within the population based on a 1 to 5 stars –with 5 stars being in the top 10%. The platform has been called E-STAR because it incorporates a star ranking system that is easy to view and interpret.

The new system has been used successfully by one of the studs in the South Island, which worked with five other studs to enhance and update the platform. They have harnessed recent technology advances, results of progeny tests in both NZ and Australia to help meet the new demands around the beef

The Efficiency Index is exactly what it represents. It is smart set of software that groups together specific beef breeding traits, both maternal and terminal into a unique combination.

Highlighting rural contracting’s impact

LINCOLN UNIVERSITY

agribusiness lecturer Dan Smith is surprised that no academic has ever focused on NZ’s rural contracting sector.

This is despite the fact

as 16% of the country’s entire agriculture industry.

Not that Smith’s worried; he’s now threequarters of his way through a PhD on rural

and plans to make it the focus for the rest of his career.

Smith will attend Rural Contractors NZ’s annual conference at Invercargill in June so

with more contractors and develop further understanding of the industry.

“Hopefully it’s an ongoing relationship. I want to be known as the

and our university.”

Smith grew up immersed in rural contracting in Methven. His father Ron ran R + R Haulage, now R+R Spreading operated by his brother Ben. An uncle owned a tree topper, another a ditch digging company and family friends were shearers.

He worked for the family trucking company after leaving school, then spent three years field testing crops in the UK before doing his Dip Ag/ Dip Farm Management and a B Comm majoring in agriculture at Lincoln. This was followed by a Masters in Applied Science.

Four years at Ravensdown and four years as a commercial banker followed before Smith returned to Lincoln to teach at age 40. In 2019, he started his PhD, looking at the key factors for survival and resilience in small rural contracting businesses.

One challenge was coming up with a definition for a rural contractor.

In the United States a rural contractor is someone growing crops on contract; in the UK it’s someone who offers his labour to different farms. Smith’s definition refers to rural contractors as small, rural, farm-support agribusinesses.

From the international and NZ literature, he was able to develop a model of what New Zealand rural contracting looked like. This was followed by interviews with a dozen Canterbury contracting businesses specialising across a range of contracting – baleage, fertiliser spreading, spraying, fencing and crutching.

Smith’s learning, to date, is that successful contractors do a number of things but the one

stand-out is the focus on operational excellence.

“They strive to be the best they can be.”

He adds that the market does dictate what sort of contracting business can succeed.

“You can’t start a grape harvesting business in Invercargill.”

Smith says there are a host of other factors at play for a rural contractor’s business to work.

“They identify successful people and talk to them,” he explains. “They develop relationships with customers, suppliers and their staff; they have good equipment; they are accurate about their pricing and costs – and many more things.”

Smith will now survey hundreds more contractors so he can rank the factors that makes a rural contracting business successful.

He looked at IRD statistics from 2018, which show more than 143,000 people working in agriculture and 22,700 (16%) working for rural contracting companies.

Another measure he found is a 2019 NZIER study done for RCNZ, which said there were nearly 7000 rural contracting companies –each with an average 3.3 staff – contributing to a $1.5b+ industry, equating to just over 12% of agriculture’s contribution to GDP.

“That’s almost as big as the forestry sector.”

Smith now wants to make his career out of addressing that lack of interest in the rural contracting sector by becoming the linchpin between academics and those who make up a little acknowledged but critical part of NZ’s productive base.

Dan Smith is eager on becoming the linchpin between academics and the rural contracting sector.

Igniting results aim of initiative

THE SUCCESS of Ravensdown’s new commercialisation subsidiary, Agnition, will be measured in results.

Chief executive Jasper van Halder told Rural News this will not just be profits but how well New Zealand farmers meet the challenge of the coming years.

Ravensdown recently announced the establishment of Agnition – the name a nod to its mission to “ignite the industry with the innovations that farmers and growers need”.

Its brief is to build, grow and invest in worldleading Ag-IP and innovations, like EcoPond and ClearTech, and turn them into valued products and solutions that can be practically used on farm to combat climate change and enhance productivity.

Named as its inaugural chief executive, van Halder told Rural News he has taken on the role because of the challenge farming faces over the coming few years. He says the company will be the “buffer” between all the innovations coming down the track and what actually works on farm.

ANZCO return good result

MEAT PROCESSOR ANZCO Foods has reported an annual turnover for 2022 of $1.90b – compared with $1.64b for 2021 – and net profit before tax of $147.7m (2021 $75m) for the 2022 financial year.

ition technologies and services that enhance our shareholders’ abilities to interconnect precisionbased performance with long-term sustainability,” he told Rural News. “The focus is now on taking innovations to market faster, getting them onfarm and providing a return on investment for our shareholders.”

Diack says supplying nutrients to New Zealand farmers remains core to the Ravensdown business.

“While Agnition will have the agility and expertise of a venture capital type company, it will have an important advantage of farmer insight when it comes to developing and launching on-farm innovation.”

“This result reflects a continued focus on core business activities, growing returns from strategic investments and the hard work and dedication of our people who have continued to deliver through challenging times,” says chief executive Peter Conley.

“ANZCO Foods has a core focus on ensuring livestock is procured to meet customer expectations, and this has enabled the company to capitalise on the strong demand globally for premium beef and lamb,” he adds.

Conley says the company’s attention to supporting key customer relationships and delivering improved revenue streams from its value-add business investments are also big contributors to the strong performance.

Other challenges continued during the year, including ongoing impacts from Covid-19, labour shortages, inflationary pressure, and continued supply chain disruption.

“Our healthcare business has been strengthened with the acquisition of Moregate Biotech which has complemented our existing work at Bovogen, and accelerated our capacity, expertise and customer set in the healthcare and bioscience sector,” Conley adds.

He adds that the company actively supports people and communities across New Zealand, particularly in rural communities through donations, sponsorships and scholarships.

“We were pleased to be able to assist people in regions affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, and while the effects of this storm will be long lasting, our people have been active on the ground providing food, and farm supplies to help farmers through this challenging event,” Conley explains.

“2023 is already providing challenges with adverse weather events, global volatility, and an uncertain economic outlook. ANZCO Foods remains committed to doing all we can to continue to deliver strong returns, ensure the industry remains stable, and contributes to a strong and vibrant agribusiness sector.”

Van Halder explains that Agnition has three strands – skills, start (the incubation of existing ideas), and thirdly a venture capital function identifying promising new technologies.

However, the company is not starting completely from scratch, as it has taken over Ravensdown’s existing ClearTech and EcoPond technologies as well as Ravensdown’s interests in its existing fully- or partially-owned subsidiaries – C-Dax Agri-

cultural Solutions, Cropmark Seeds, Southstar Technologies and Analytical Research Laboratory (ARL).

It already has 55 people on staff.

Ravensdown chief executive Garry Diack says Agnition is a structural response to Ravensdown’s strategy – Smarter farming for a better New Zealand.

“Ravensdown has an impressive track-record of recognising, researching, and bringing to fru-

Originally from a farming family in the Netherlands, van Halder brings a wealth of commercial experience to the role. As a strategy consultant for McKinsey & Company, he has international business experience across multiple industries, including agriculture, advanced technology and retail.

In New Zealand, he supported companies such as Fonterra, Synlait, and Ravensdown with innovation and growth.

NIGEL

Agnition’s Jasper van Halder says the company’s mission brief is to build, grow and invest in world-leading Ag-IP and innovations.

Strong demand drives positivity

Dairy GLOBAL COMMODITY

markets broadly softened throughout March before showing some signsbof optimism by the end of April. In US dollar terms, commodities were higher at the end of April versus the previous month (except whole milk powder).

Year on year, commodity prices are now down between 28% and 36% since April 2022. The underlying forecasts

for the 2023/24 season are around the corner.

With farmers well into establishing their new season budgets, processor opening forecasts for the season beginning 1 June 2023 are eagerly anticipated.

Global supply and demand fundamentals are weaker than this time last year. With elevated macro risk at this time of the pricing cycle, it’s likely that there will be a wide opening range.

Beef IMPORT DEMAND from both China and the US pushed higher in March. New Zealand’s total beef export volumes in March were only 2,400 tonnes shy of the record volumes of March 2021.

Total export volumes were 19% higher compared to February 2023 volumes, and 9% higher on a year on year basis.

China was the main destination, taking 52%

of our exports, while the US took 42%. Export volumes to China lifted 24% YOY.

China has continued to import high volumes of beef through Q1, despite very high domestic inventory levels.

Given the current inventory levels, recovering foodservice

sector, and weaker local beef prices, RaboResearch anticipates China’s total beef imports could soften over the next few months.

However, the underlying trend of consumers decreasing pork consumption and increasing beef consumption is expected

to support New Zealand beef exports in the medium term.

Sheepmeat

THE STORE lamb market has been buoyed by plenty of grass across both islands this autumn.

Although schedule prices are softer compared to the highs of

2022, pricing is still well above five-year averages – the sting in the tail is production costs. March export data brought welcome news, with sheepmeat exports surpassing March 2022 volumes. Export volumes increased 30% compared to February 2023, and

100% MADE IN NEW ZEALAND

12% YOY.

The average export value climbed NZc28 from February values, to NZ$ 9.05/kg FOB.

While the lift in export earnings is trending in the right direction, the average export value for March was still NZ$ 1.94 behind YOY.

The lift in export earnings was predominantly underpinned by growing demand from China, with exports lifting 31% MOM and 51% YOY.

The ongoing recovery of the Chinese economy will be pivotal to bolstering farmgate prices in New Zealand. RaboResearch anticipates that lamb and mutton schedules will continue to track upward through autumn, as the foodservice sector recovers in China.

Fertiliser

OIL PRODUCTION cuts, a possible increase in China’s fertiliser export quota, and a rebound in

US demand are sending nitrogen in its own direction.

Phosphate and

potash markets have been sustaining similar fundamentals in recent weeks: Despite a

reduction in mining and processing, the global available supply exceeds demand.

The story is very different for urea. The US market flipped as ‘weak market activity’ turned into ‘corn planting ahead of schedule,’ with greater buying and inputs shipments anticipated.

This pushed the market up 40% MOM for New Orleans barges, for example.

Another factor that could occur in the coming weeks and months is the non-official increase in China’s fertiliser export quota

scheme after spring applications.

This would mean Chinese providers could increase their exports, which, combined with a temporary price increase, would put Chinese urea at competitive levels, thus increasing global supply.

There are many moving pieces and factors that still need to play out before a new price level for farm inputs is set. The landing track is rough and full of potholes.

Exchange rate

FIRST QUARTER CPI

inflation surprised to the downside in April. That was very welcome news for New Zealand households and the RBNZ, as the pressure to keep raising interest rates seems to be lifting somewhat.

The battle hasn’t been won yet though. Despite the weaker than expected CPI read, food prices for the month of March increased by almost

double the expected level.

This will be partially due to the effects of Cyclone Gabrielle, but food price inflation is likely to be a persistent feature for a while yet.

Of particular interest in the CPI figures was news that inflation is now being generated overwhelmingly by domestic influences.

Unfortunately, this means that further falls in inflation will need to be driven on the domestic side, because

helpful influences from improvements in the external environment may be close to exhausted.

The New Zealand dollar was under pressure in April as the strength generated by the RBNZ’s surprise 50bp rate hike proved to be short lived. The softer inflation figures, home sales volumes, and the poor trade data were all negative influences for the Kiwi dollar over the course of the month.

Another factor that could occur in the coming weeks and months is the non-official increase in China’s fertiliser export quota scheme after spring applications. This would mean Chinese providers could increase their exports, which, combined with a temporary price increase, would put Chinese urea at competitive levels, thus increasing global supply.

Wellington bound!

IT LOOKS like, following this year’s general election, a number of farmers will be trading in their gumboots for the hallowed halls of Parliament.

News that former Feds president Andrew Hoggard is standing for the ACT Party means he joins a number of other farmers throwing their hats into the ring for higher political office. This includes former Feds meat and wool section chair Miles Anderson as National’s candidate for Waitaki, former Feds Wairarapa meat and wool chair Mike Butterick standing for National in Wairarapa and former Northland president Grant McCullum for National in the Northland seat.

It is also expected that former NZ First MP Mark Patterson will stand again. The Otago farmer served one term in Parliament but was voted out in 2020 when NZ First failed to get re-elected.

Current MPs with farming backgrounds who are also expected to recontest this year’s election include Labour’s current Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor and ACT’s Mark Cameron.

Unsurprisingly, both the Green Party and the Māori Party have no farmer candidates yet and are highly unlikely to do so.

Much has been made of Hoggard’s choice to go with ACT, rather than National – often considered the home of the rural vote. His move will be an interesting aside to see if it impacts on how farmers vote.

However, no matter what political stripes these farmer candidates are standing for, it is good news that the farming sector will be better represented in the next Parliament. If the last six years have taught us anything, it is that lack of knowledge and understanding of the farming sector has seen a number of policies imposed on the sector that have been detrimental to it and the country as a whole. More farmers in Parliament, debating and scrutinising policies that impact the agriculture sector, has to be a good thing.

Parliament is meant to be a house of representatives and the farming sector has been poorly represented in the past few years. Anything that helps redress this is not only good for democracy but good for the country’s all important primary sector.

RURALNEWS

TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS

HEAD OFFICE POSTAL ADDRESS: PO Box 331100, Takapuna, Auckland 0740 Phone 09-307 0399

PUBLISHER: Brian Hight Ph 09 307 0399

GENERAL MANAGER: Adam Fricker Ph 021-842 226

CONSULTING EDITOR: David Anderson Ph 09 307 0399 davida@ruralnews.co.nz

“He says the secret to bagging your limit is to imagine each one is a politician.”

THE HOUND

Acting up!

The Hound reckons former Fed farmers president Andrew Hoggard’s move to stand for the Act Party at this year’s election had to have been the worst kept secret in NZ agri-circles. Hoggard follows in the footsteps of two other former Feds presidents, Owen Jennings and Don Nicolson, both of whom hitched their political colours to Act. Hoggard will be hoping he emulates Jennings who managed to get a high enough list ranking to get into parliament, rather than Nicholson who missed out each time he stood. Meanwhile, your old mate had to laugh at much of the commentary – mainly from beltway politicos – who claim securing Hoggard means all farmers will now vote Act instead of National. If you take a look at the confirmed National candidates standing this election at least a dozen are farmers, compared to Act’s two. It will be an interesting to see how it all plays out.

Shallow puddle!

A mate of yours truly reckons the promotion of former kindergarten teacher Jo Luxton as new associate agriculture minister, following the defection of Meka Whaitiri from Labour to the Maori Party, shows just how shallow the talent pool is in the current government. He reports that Luxton, currently the MP for Rangitata, is described by locals in the South Canterbury region as inoffensive, but also ineffective and invisible and highly likely to be booted out of the seat at this year’s election. Your old mate reckons Luxton’s promotion does reveal the problem of just how short on rural/agriculture talent the current Labour government is and why they struggle to understand just how bad their policies such as limits on farm worker immigration, promoting carbon farming, a methane tax, Significant Natural Areas rules, the ute tax and slope rules, to name just a few.

PRODUCTION: Dave Ferguson Ph 027 272 5372 davef@ruralnews.co.nz

Becky Williams Ph 021 100 4381 beckyw@ruralnews.co.nz

REPORTERS: Sudesh Kissun Ph 021 963 177 sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

Peter Burke Ph 021 224 2184 peterb@ruralnews.co.nz

MACHINERY EDITOR: Mark Daniel Ph 021 906 723 markd@ruralnews.co.nz

Get off the grass!

This old mutt was amused to read about a snowflake vegan in Perth, Australia who wrote neighbours a letter requesting that they close their window when cooking their “sickening” meat. According to PerthNow, the upset neighbour wrote “PLEASE TAKE SERIOUSLY” on the front of the letter, which was written on behalf of their vegan family members. The letter read: “Hello neighbour, could you please shut your side window when cooking? My family are vegan — we eat only plant-based foods — and the smell of the meat you cook makes us feel sick and upset. We would appreciate your understanding — thanks. Sarah, Wayne and kids.” However, the letter left various users dumbfounded by the request. “I bet her mouth starts watering when old mate mows his lawn and she gets a whiff of that deliciously fresh cut grass but!” a Facebook user wrote.

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

WAIKATO SALES REPRESENTATIVE: Lisa Wise Ph 027 369 9218 lisaw@ruralnews.co.nz

PRINTED BY INKWISE DISTRIBUTED BY REACHMEDIA

Really?

It seems wokeness is now well and truly infecting the brains trust at The New Zealand Merino Company, which now wants farmers to give lambs pain relief during tail docking. According to the NZ Merino Company’s Dave Maslen, by June 2025 farmers will have to “administer pain relief for castration, tailing, and any severe shearing injuries on farms”. “This is a step we need to take as pain mitigation is quickly becoming a non-negotiable for some markets and it is already a requirement of other international ethical wool standards,” Maslen claims. However, Federated Farmers Toby Williams says while it did not have a problem with farmers meeting animal welfare requirements for pain relief during tail docking and pain relief was not a requirement under animal welfare standards. MPI says no pain relief was needed on lambs younger than six months.

WELLINGTON SALES REPRESENTATIVE: Ron Mackay Ph 021 453 914 ronm@ruralnews.co.nz

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

DIGITAL STRATEGIST: Jessica Marshall Ph 021 0232 6446

Nasty run for flying visit!

WE HAVE been with the same travel agent for more than three decades.

You get to know people well, and get well known yourself too, with a long-term relationship like that. They have flown us to some rather “off the beaten track” places over the years.

I was talking to the owner recently and he informed me they still have not been able to beat the travel story I told them when I got back from the Solomon Islands years ago.

We were on a flight from the capital Honiara to Kirakira in the Makira province. The flight is usually around one hour. I was accompanied that day by my good friend and national pastor, Fredson Fenua.

The plane was what was known as a Twin Otter; a twin-prop aircraft that loads passengers in from the back door. For me personally, I have never thought ‘Twin Otter’ to be a particularly clever choice of name for a plane!

Some 15 to 20 minutes into the flight the young lady co-pilot turned us ninety degrees to the left, which caught my attention.

Moments later after another ninety-degree turn, I figured we were heading back to Honiara. Watching her hand on the ‘hammer’ I realised she had accelerated some, so

I knew we are now in a serious hurry.

My friend, who was seated in 1A just behind the captain, had nodded off to sleep. I woke him to tell him we had turned around and were headed back. One of the locals on board came and tapped me on the shoulder, asking me “What’s happening?” I replied, “We are going back to Honiara”. To which I was asked, “Why? What’s wrong?”

Of course, I could only guess, so probably best if I don’t do that right at this moment! With no PA system to inform us what’s going down here, all was left to our imagination.

My friend Fredson was doing his best to try and hear what they were saying to each other up front in the cockpit.

Finally, he turned to me and said, “I think it’s the engine - we might be going into the sea.” I still clearly remember my immediate reply to him was, “Well … this will be interesting!”

I had not heard either of the engines sputtering and both props were still turning; all still seemed to be ‘normal’ to me.

With the runway in sight, I quickly realised we were going to land at the end closest to our approach, which also happened to be with the

wind. We had taken off from the other end.

The captain was happily letting the co-pilot do all the flying, so the landing was a little rough! We sped up the runway and round to the domestic terminal. Before we had actually stopped, the captain ripped off his

head gear, unbuckled his seat belt and reached for his gullwing door. As the aircraft came to a halt, he leapt out and sprinted for the cover of the terminal. Yep, he was gone! We passengers did get to wondering, should we do the same, break out the back door and run for

it too? Well, the co-pilot calmly stayed in her seat, flicked all the switches and shut the plane down. Then, standing in the cockpit doorway, with a big smile said: “Ladies and gentlemen we apologise for emergency landing. Captain, him got diarrhea!”

Did fear come sweeping over me at any stage you may wonder? I can honestly report no, not at all. I just knew deep inside me all would be OK. Keep well and God bless.

Email: farmerschaplain@ruralnews.co.nz

FARMER’S CHAPLAIN Colin Miller

Boss backs new on-farm team

THE MINISTRY for Primary Industries’ frontline staff are vital to our work supporting the food and fibre sector and I’m proud of our team’s efforts.

Those frontline roles are vast and include in biosecurity at airports, ports and international mail centres to protect the sector from pests and diseases; in food safety we have people at meat works and visiting food producers to ensure our vital export sector is meeting safety and market access requirements.

In forests MPI teams provide advice for appropriate planting; while in fisheries through observers, who spend many weeks at sea on boats, and through fisheries officers who make sure fishing is sustainable and will be enjoyed for generations to come.

When I started at MPI, I spent a lot of time listening to feedback from the sector about what it expected of us. There was some frank feedback about a need for MPI to have a much closer understanding of the sector’s needs and challenges.

One of the things brought up time and again was the need for a return to a greater frontline presence on farm and in orchards to help people navigate and adjust to a changing world. People had a good point, there was a clear gap in the onthe-ground help we provided to agriculture especially.

We have worked hard to address that and developed our On Farm Support team. We currently have about 40 people in regions across the country helping farmers and growers. They are people with strong sector knowledge and an understanding of their communities. We purposely did not poach people from existing private advisory services. Through events like Cyclone Gabrielle our people were out helping, mucking in and providing advice.

The ability of MPI to quickly develop, establish, and pay out money for Cyclone Gabrielle recovery grants in February is testament to the close connections we’ve built with the sector and the first-hand

B+LNZ farmer feedback sessions

Beef + Lamb New Zealand is holding a series of informal sessions around NZ to listen to what farmers have to say and to better understand their thoughts on key issues and opportunities. The sessions are part of B+LNZ’s response to farmer concerns raised during the recent annual meeting remits process.

Come along to talk about what’s important to you.

More info and to register at beeflambnz.com/feedback-sessions

information our people in the regions were providing. We know and understand the private sector has a significant and important advisory role. Taking that into account, we established the Career Pathways Scheme last year to support independent advisory companies and whenua Māori entities to train new staff. Employers taking part in the scheme are eligible to receive $22,500 a year for up to three years to help cover salary and training costs of new advisers. To date, about 40 people are part of the scheme.

We know how important it is to work closely with the sector and we’ve taken big steps to do so in recent years – whether it be through biosecurity responses, ensuring the sector could operate throughout the pandemic, investigating new ways of doing things through joint investments, or providing more on-the-ground help. I’m proud of that work.

• Ray Smith is director-general of MPI

North Island

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

LITTLE FAITH

I AGREE with Doug Edmeades’ Dear John letter (Rural News May 9, 2023). In 2021, MPI managed to spend $960,000 on a revamped logo. I wonder if it will be as good as their M. bovis response, which – according to the University of Otago report in 2021 – was “a badly planned and poorly executed process, leaving farming families feeling isolated, bewildered and powerless”.

What did that all cost?

In April 2013, it was reported that “observers say it is unlikely MPI would ever admit that the shipment was the source of Psa, because MAF’s fingerprints are all over that shipment - it allowed it in without any restrictions or quarantine requirements - and if that was the ‘pathway’ it could open the department up to a huge compensation bill.”

A six-year battle against bullying behaviour was reported in 2015, when a jury threw out charges of obstructing TB testing against the Galways in Karamea. More instances of picking off easy targets is seen with the prosecutions of eight raw milk farmer herdshare/limited partnerships following drug bust-like raids – including confiscation of all records, computers and cell phones in December 2019.

MPI took no notice of raw drinking milk farmers in 2015 who tried to show how unworkable, inequitable, expensive and discriminatory their proposed regulations were. MPI spent hundreds of thousands on these prosecutions from Northland to Southland and in 2022, these farmers received fines of up to $30,000 for selling outside the regulations.

I’ d love to hear from any farmers on the receiving end of this to prove wrong my little faith in MPI’s competence to do anything with a 90 on-farm support team – except tinker round the fluffy edges, refer elsewhere and collect good incomes at our expense.

Phillippa Martin (abridged), Manakau, Horowhenua

South Island

Northern South Island

1 June Nelson

6 June Kumara

6 June Fox Glacier

7 June Culverden

7 June Amberley

8 June Staveley

8 June Darfield

1 June Middlemarch

1 June Ranfurly

2 June Alexandra

2 June Wanaka

7 June Orari

8 June Omarama

8 June Fairlie

Note: Locations subject to change and additions – check website for latest details

1 June Lumsden

2 June Awamangu/Hillend

RAY SMITH

MPI director general Ray Smith

Tool enables good data collection

PROMINENT RURAL

consultant Alison Dewes has been using Overseer for more than a decade.

The Bay of Plenty rural leader used the tool for her master’s degree, in her private consultancy and as former head of environment for Pāmu (Landcorp). She also uses it on her own farm in the Rotorua Lakes Catchment and in providing farm system services for Wai Kōkopu, a community-led programme to revitalise the severely degraded Waihi Estuary at Maketū on the Bay of Plenty coast.

“OverseerFM gives us a guide of the relative risk of the various activities on the land that impacts on the catchment. It also gives us the ability to look at scenarios for reducing risk in the receiving environment.”

Dewes says the Government has asked catchment groups to link farm plans to their catchment.

“OverseerFM provides a way to quantify relative risk in numeric terms and we have been able to develop a score card for each of the relative risks to the catchment.

“The goal was to assess how far farmers in the catchment could move from the current baseline of the second most degraded estuary in New Zealand, to what it would take to get it to a moderately healthy state.

“We found 15 ‘lighthouse farmers’ and have been working with them to make their farm system changes to reduce

N, P and also greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We have done three years of modelling using OverseerFM to help them to understand where they were at, how they were operating and what their footprint was.”

Background

ALISON DEWES is a fourth generation dairy farmer and a second generation veterinarian.

She is the owner director of the Tipu Whenua consultancy, which focuses on the wellbeing of people, animals and ecosystems - supporting low footprint farming systems to operate profitably.

Dewes says the goal was to assess how far farmers could move from the current baseline to what it would take to get the estuary to a moderately healthy state.

“These farmers have made significant inroads into using fertiliser better in more optimal ways and also reducing their N losses, so are benefiting financially and environmentally,” she explains. “They have explored options around more appropriate land use,

including retiring steep slopes and wetland and reducing GHG emissions. There has been a significant shift.”

Dewes believes because the catchment had not previously been regulated for nutrient loads so farmers were not familiar with Overseer or nutrient reductions.

“In somewhere like the Rotorua Lakes catchment, farmers are familiar with OverseerFM, but in an area like the coastal Bay of Plenty, where there has not been the strict regulation, it is harder to get good qual-

LONG-TIME USER

DEWES FIRST began using Overseer in 2010.

She also used it extensively in her master’s degree, with her thesis topic Economic Resilience and Environmental Performance of Dairy Farms in the Upper Waikato Region. That included assessing 25 dairy farms over four years100 Overseer files - to find the most economically resilient with the lowest footprint in the upper Waikato - for N loss mainly but also assessing GHG and P loss, risk and farm systems style.

Her Tipu Whenua team - all women farm consultants and

mothers who are able to work from home - used Overseer and undertook full economic analysis on all of the farms to find the most economically viable with the lowest emissions systems.

“As head of environment for Pāmu/Landcorp for three years until 2020, we used OverseerFM across 125 farms,” Dewes adds.

“I have also trained a lot of other people to use it, including consultants, to help them understand the ecological footprint for the high intensity farms they consult on.”

She says there have been significant improvements in Over-

seerFM during the years she has been using it.

“It has got a lot better and it keeps improving. The changes could be unsettling, the new versions were hard when I was trading N in the Rotorua catchment, but it has gotten a lot more user-friendly. The good thing about it is it allows us to get a benchmark for a farm system risk to the receiving environment.”

Dewes says it’s important to acknowledge that OverseerFM will not be 100% but it gives a guide to GHG, N and P loss. She believes it is the best we currently have in

terms of a calculator for that.

“It’s a one stop shop. There are many calculators out there that are not as accurate,” she explains.

“We have to keep farmers on the journey, especially if they have multiple enterprises. OverseerFM has enabled us to analyse and get emissions profiles for those farms.”

Dewes’ advice to other catchments in terms of the value of using OverseerFM is that there is nothing more valuable than getting good data. “If you don’t know what your baseline or trajectory is, then you are flying blind. OverseerFM enables us to collect good data.”

ity data, so it has taken three years to do that,” she says.

“It’s been a tough three years for farmers, with Covid-19 and new regulations and many feel overwhelmed. Now they tell us, ‘I know my numbers and I know my numbers in detail’. They are very clear on what their hot spots are.”

Dewes says farmers now understand the core area they need for effluent spreading and optimising N use.

“They understand their N footprint and the different management blocks within their farms and they understand the relative risks of practices like maize growing, cropping and effluent spreading,” she adds.

“In many cases, there has been a lot of conversation about He Waka Eke Noa and GHG and the profile OverseerFM gives is very helpful as it helps to explain the relative source of gases from activities and what levers farmers have to pull to get nitrous oxide and methane down.”

Alison Dewes reckons the value of using OverseerFM is that there is nothing more valuable than getting

good data.

“OverseerFM gives us a guide of the relative risk of the various activities on the land that impacts on the catchment.”

NAIT campaign for Mid Canterbury

OSPRI NEW Zealand says – following the resurgence of M. bovis in Mid Canterbury in late 2022, and concerns raised over poor NAIT record keeping and non-compliance – it is increasing its level of education and support to farmers in the region.

OSPRI’s head of traceability, Kevin Forward says the organisation is committed to supporting farmers to understand their NAIT obligations and the importance of adopting good on-farm traceability practices as part of their overall biosecurity preparedness.

“The ability to manage a disease outbreak, contain it, and work towards

its eradication relies on accurate traceability records,” he explains. “Simply put, we all have a role to play when talking traceability and biosecurity, everyone must do their part for the system to work and for the industry to be protected.”

He points out that poor NAIT record keeping can lead to delays in the response, increased spread of the disease and increased cost to farmers and the country.

Forward says OSPRI had launched a targeted support campaign to farmers in the Wakanui area.

It aims to help farmers get their NAIT accounts sorted and OSPRI is

launching a NAIT education campaign in the greater Ashburton district.

OSPRI’s local regional partner, Fiona Caldwell will be running a series of NAIT workshops, drop-

in centres, and webinars for farmers to help them understand their NAIT obligations and why

A CANTERBURY farmer has been found responsible for the death of 610 calves she was raising, following a successful prosecution by the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI).

Rakaia-based calf-rearer LisaJane Claire Miller was sentenced in the Ashburton District Court on five charges under the Animal Welfare Act.

Along with seven months of home detention, she was disqualified from owning or overseeing calves or cattle for five years. The court also ordered Miller to reimburse veterinary costs of $3,975.48 to MPI.

Between August 2020 and October 2020, Miller bought 687 calves to rear at her farm. Welfare problems began early with an outbreak

traceability is important.

In addition to this, OSPRI and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) will be piloting an early intervention programme for those farmers in the region who are identified as not meeting their NAIT obligations.

The purpose of the early intervention programme is to reach out to farmers to offer support and education, so they understand what their NAIT obligations are, as a person in charge of animals, and know where to get help.

“We’re trying to support farmers so they can avoid getting to the point where they’re receiving infringements or being

of scours and while Miller did initially seek help gaining antibiotics from a veterinarian, the problems multiplied.

A later MPI investigation found the animals started to die within three weeks of arriving at her farm and by the middle of September, between 15 and 30 calves were dying daily.

MPI told Rural News that Miller had told the veterinarian that the outbreak was only minor and declined an offer from the vet to visit the farm.

In December, MPI received a complaint from a member of the public and sent inspectors and a vet to visit the farm.

“They found more than one hundred dead calves scattered around the farm that had died from starvation, another hundred calves in extremely poor condi-

prosecuted for non-compliance with NAIT,” Forward says.

“Now is not the time to be getting complacent, we need to be thinking not only about the diseases that we are trying to eradicate currently, but also about what could potentially hit us next. We’ve spent over five years working to eradicate M. bovis from New Zealand, that’s a lot of hard work that the industry and individual farmers have all put in. The same applies for bovine TB, except over a longer period.”

For more information:

https://www.ospri.co.nz/ news/lets-protect-our-industry-mid-canterbury/

tion because of a lack of food, along with a lack of good grazing and water for the animals,” says Mark Sanders, MPI’s team leader of south investigations. Four animals had to be euthanised to end their suffering. To ensure the remaining animals were looked after, the inspector issued a Notice of Direction requiring all remaining calves to be examined by a vet.

An animal health management plan was also produced for Miller and a search warrant for the property was obtained and carried out. The surviving 77 calves have since been sold on.

Sanders said that Miller had not taken the necessary actions to prevent or address the animal’s welfare issues.

Kevin Forward says poor NAIT record keeping can lead to delays in the response and increased spread of the disease.

Second generation Amarok ups the stakes in ute battle

THE FIRST-GENERATION VW Amarok –

launched back in 2010 – has built a reputation based on comfort, handling and ability that has led to more 7700 of the vehicles being driven on New Zealand’s roads.

The recent arrival of the second generation – obviously the German manufacturer doesn’t rush things – is the result of a joint venture with Ford. This included many hours of R&D in Victoria, Australia, before the vehicle was signed off for production in South Africa.

Kevin Richards, GMVW commercial vehicles

NZ, says during development the company decided that some items were non-negotiable.

“Such as a 3.5-tonne towing ability across the range, the ability to fit a Euro pallet between the

wheel arches in the load area, rear disc brakes, the handling of an SUV and the ‘feel’ of a Volkswagen.”

The result is an undeniably handsome vehicle that compared to

the old model, is 10cm longer, has a 17cm wider wheelbase and 300mm

better wading depth at 800mm. The only visible items carried over from the Ford ute are the door mirrors, door handles and – strangely – the key fob.

Available in Life, Style, Pan Americana and Aventura versions, the entry level machine features a 4-cylinder 2.0l turbo diesel. This pushes out 125kW/405Nm, mated to a six-speed auto transmission. Moving up a notch sees the arrival of a twinturbo, 4-cylinder, delivering 154kW/500Nm, now mated to a 10-speed transmission. The two

high-spec variants receive a 3.0 litre turbo, 6-cylinder lump, again mated to the 10-speed transmission, but putting out 184kW/600Nm.

Throughout the range, VW’s 4-Motion, parttime 4WD system is used, with the operator offered the choice of 2WD High, 4WD-Low and 4WD High in the life and Style versions. Meanwhile, the two higher-spec machines have the addition of 4WD-Auto that – depending on conditions – can automatically shift the front/rear drive ratios

from 0:100 to 50:50. Across the range, a mechanical rear mechanical diff lock can be used to increase traction in poor conditions.

Driving modes include Normal, Eco, Slippery and Load/Trailer options. The latter induces higher engine revs between transmission shifts to stop “hunting” between ratios, alongside engaging engine braking effect on downhill sections. Look out for a more in-depth review in an upcoming issue of Rural News

MARK DANIEL markd@ruralnews.co.nz

The new Amarok is not only a comfortable drive on road but also when taken off-road.

Walkie-talkie comes of age

TWO-WAY RADIOS, more commonly known as Walkie Talkies, are still a reliable means of communications.

This is particularly true where there is limited cell phone connectivity, or there is a need to

get in touch with the team over a large area. Complemented by a repeater station at an enterprises high point, they are much more reliable than a cellular system.

As the capabilities of the radios increased so did the development work carried out by Data Over Radio to ensure that the features of the radio became available to the users.

Over the last two decades they have used clever software to send and receive e-mails, alongside delivering word and picture files, over the radio networks.

Their cost-effective software package, called FarmSafely, is now an important part of many

farms’ Health and Safety portfolio. This includes the ability to see the location of all members of a team on a central computer screen.

Known as “polling”, the system might be deemed intrusive. However, when a vehicle rolled into a gulley, the operator was able to

seek help via his radio, which was programmed to give a position update when the voice was used – meaning the rolled vehicle and the injured person was located quickly.

Further development has helped farm owners or supervisors ensure that team members

are safe at the end of the working day. Using geo-fencing, where the radio is recharged at a worker’s home and sends a small data message to the central computer, showing the worker is “At Home.”

There are also major safety benefits for workers operating

alone. The system can be pre-programmed in such a way that if the radio doesn’t move for 60 seconds, it is sent a “Lone Worker” alarm. If the worker does not acknowledge this alarm within 30 seconds, a loud audible siren alerts the controller and any other members on the same network of a possible accident.

This allows rescuers to move to the radio’s location, helped further by loud tones being emitted from the device. The configuration of the alert timings can be customised for individual units. Devices can also be used to pass messages regarding things like the late arrival of stock trucks, where the device will continue emitting a beep until the message is read and if required confirmed.

Dependent of the size of the system being installed, a one-off payment of $5,000 offers the ability to run up to 20 hand-held units, with an annual subscription cost of $600 per annum for upgrades to the latest specification. www.dataoverradio.com

The FarmSafely software package includes the ability to see the location of all members of a team on a central computer screen.

Since

Nelson Bays & Marlborough

Oct 22, 2023 6 Days

Stay in sunny Nelson & Blenheim. Enjoy a Queen Charlotte Sound cruise, lunch & wine taste at Seifried winery, a Greenshell Mussel Cruise. Visit Motueka, Kaiteriteri, Abel Tasman National Park and Pupu Springs. Train to Omaka Aviation Centre.

Forgotten Highway & Taranaki

Nov 7, 2023 + Feb 13, 2024 6 Days

Visit Hobbiton, travel 40km by Rail Cart into the Forgotten World - 10 hand dug tunnels and over 25 bridges. New Plymouth sightseeing tour, cruise aboard Paddle Steamer Waimarie, then Northern Explorer train back to Auckland.