“It’s raining cats and dogs” is a saying many people can relate to, and it sure is appropriate for New Zealand at the moment.
2022 was the eighth most unusually wet year on record – meaning lots of rain fell in unusual places. It was also the warmest on record, knocking 2021 o the top spot.
According to NIWA, the nationwide average temperature was 13.76°C, +1.15°C above the 1981-2010 annual average and surpassing 2021 by +0.20°C.
Of the six main centres in 2022, Tauranga was the wettest, Dunedin was the driest and coolest, Auckland was the warmest, Hamilton was the sunniest, and Wellington was the least sunny. Weather is a topical issue throughout this edition of Coast & Country News.
It has a ected every industry from avocados and kiwifruit to forestry and farming, everyone in between, the wet weather has played a part in how our daily lives have run. is edition also looks towards the future, with
stories about young farmers, the Dairy Industry Awards and upcoming rural events people can look forward to.
Something else in the pipeline that horticulturalists are looking forward to is the 2023 World Avocado Congress.
In less than three months, 1000-plus members of the global avocado community will descend upon Auckland, New Zealand, for the 10th World Avocado Congress, taking place from April 2-5. Twenty-seven countries are represented amongst the almost 1000 avocado stakeholders attending, with more than half coming from outside of New Zealand and Australia. e World Avocado Congress will be one of the rst and largest global trade events to be held in New Zealand following the opening of borders after the pandemic.
A core focus for the next World Avocado Congress is to address how sustainable the global avocado industry is across people, environment and economics.
we experienced in 2021, and more signi cant than anticipated in the prior forecast.”
Higher fruit loss in New Zealand means Japan is undersupplied by more than a million trays, with poorer fruit quality than anticipated in Japan also impacting Zespri’s market mix, says Dan.
Fruit loss in Europe was estimated at about 20 per cent.
Quality issues are continuing to haunt kiwifruit growers, with marketer Zespri informing orchardists the problem is now worse than rst anticipated.
In a letter sent to growers in January, Zespri chief executive Dan Mathieson says quality
issues kept building as the 2022 kiwifruit season drew to a close.
“Demand for our fruit has remained as expected and we completed the 2022 season in line with previous years.
“However, we have seen further deterioration in the fruit quality of our nal vessels, particularly in the nal shipments of our Green varieties
Due to these problems, Zespri plans to downgrade its payments to green kiwifruit growers, likely by more than 60 cents per tray for Green and 50 cents for Green Organic growers, although that was still subject to nalisation.
is will have a signi cant impact on returns for green kiwifruit growers, he says.
“We understand how tough this will be for growers at the end of what has been a very hard year.
“ is is not the sort of news that any of us wanted to start the year and it is a further reminder of the importance of addressing our fruit quality given the amount of value we have lost through quality costs.”
Dan says it’s positive that despite the quality issues, it has continued to see demand for Zespri fruit.
into Europe and Asia.”
Dan says at the time of its previous forecast, fruit loss in Europe was estimated at about seven per cent for the last quarter of 2022, but that estimate has now been revised to about 20 per cent.
“Quality claims from customers are also estimated to be nearly three times the level
Zespri’s announcement of fruit quality deteriorating further for the nal shipments of NZ Green varieties into Europe and Asia is very surprising, says NZKGI CEO Colin Bonda.
Fruit loss for this period is now at 20 per cent, up from the 7 per cent previously forecast, an increase of 186 per cent, Colin says in a special announcement released following Zespri’s news. “Repacking is also up 300 per cent, as are quality claims, on 2021.
“Furthermore, our important Japan market has been undersupplied by more than a million trays and has experienced poorer fruit quality than forecast. e situation is unacceptable.”
Colin says Green and Green Organic growers are su ering heavily on the back of this situation. He says Zespri have announced there will be no February progress payments for Green and Green Organic growers, with a reassessment on payments after the February forecast.
“ is latest blow to growers is untenable and the industry must act and hold the processes and systems not working correctly to account. We need
the con dence in our fruit quality restored.
“NZKGI will be writing formally to Zespri with the request to deliver us an explanation about how things in the industry could go so wrong.
“NZKGI needs to understand the detail behind Zespri’s announcement to ascertain why we aren’t getting our fruit to market in the great condition that we are used to.
“We will also be reaching out to supply entities to about the changes that their post-harvest operations are implementing in 2023 to reduce quality issues. ese changes will give growers more con dence that lessons have been learnt.”
Colin says while this announcement is a surprise, they have been very concerned about fruit quality for some time now.
“No one is taking this situation lightly. It is a very tough time for everyone. Make sure that you check in on those around you, be it family, friends, employees and neighbors. e Rural Support Trust is available on: 0800 787 254 if you need someone to talk to, be it nancial advice or otherwise. For resources on resilience and stress management, I recommend Farmstrong.”
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Hampton Downs Simmental is a 360 hectare property on the eastern bank of the Waikato River, midway between Hamilton and Auckland.
e farm is committed to a breeding programme of quality Simmental cattle, started in 1989 by Ngaire Entwisle and her late husband Malcolm.
Family a air
e day-to-day operations are now managed by son-in-law Patrick English.
Originating from Switzerland, the Simmental is one of the oldest and most widely distributed cattle breeds in the world and the hero cow for the Milka
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chocolate brand. Hampton Downs cows even starred in a commercial for the brand! Simmental are recognised particularly for their rapid growth development and outstanding milk production. More recently, they have been promoted as sires into the dairy industry to increase the value of non-replacement calves.
Ngaire and Malcolm had seen Simmental cattle while living in Europe, and Patrick admits that their initial purchase may have been “a bit of a romantic notion after seeing them in the Swiss Alps with their cowbells”. irty years of tactical breeding later, they have something to be proud of. After calving issues arising from the
in-calf foundation herd, the focus was to lower birthweight while increasing calving ease. Semen was sourced predominantly from North America where EBVs were routinely used, and this also bene cially introduced polled genetics into the herd.
In the early 1990’s, embryos were brought down from the States to expand the herd, resulting in some fabulous cows. “ e introduction of Breedplan by the NZ Simmental Cattle Breeders Society was the turning point for Malcolm and Ngaire as it identi ed added opportunities for improvement,” says Patrick. ...continued
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e 30-plus years of breeding has involved meticulous recording of each animal’s EBV and a willingness to seek out and introduce new genetics from all over the world to keep improving their herd.
Handover
“Sarah and I came from Australia to live on the farm with our three children in 2010. Ngaire and Malcolm wanted to slow down and we have been through a progressive handover.”
Sarah works full time in sustainability at Fonterra and sees her role as a farmer, albeit a weekend one, as one of responsibility for their land.
“We are committed to playing our part in being the answer to the carbon issue. We retire areas and have established mixed species of plantation forestry over many years.
“We’re aware of seasonal, climatic and physical limitations when planting, and vary the species accordingly to maintain optimum pasture growth
year-round. We are mostly planting natives now.”
Patrick moved from the construction industry to being a full time farmer and his own boss. He loves the lifestyle where you work hard and you see the results.
“We are always on the lookout for new genetics and mainly import semen from Canada or the States. A quiet temperament is now a trait that we focus on in our genetic mix,” says Patrick.
e breeding season starts with AI of imported semen to two-thirds of the herd and tailed o with Hampton Downs own bulls. e remaining cows run directly to the bull.
“ e Simmental genetics work well for dairy beef, producing animals that nish early and have a higher monetary value as beef. Many of our bulls go into the dairy industry and we nish everything else we breed on the farm.”
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Testing for animal disease is faster and improved with the arrival of a new antibody testing robot now in action at the Biosecurity New Zealand Animal Health Laboratory.
e $580,000 new high throughput diagnostic robot is the rst of its kind in New Zealand and will increase testing accuracy and consistency during future biosecurity responses.
“ e Mycoplasma bovis outbreak gave us useful insights into how our laboratory could increase its capacity during a response. In particular, it highlighted the need for automation,” says Animal Health Laboratory manager Joseph O’Keefe.
“If an exotic disease such as foot-and-mouth disease arrived here, our people could need to test some 3000 up to 7000 samples a day.
“Automating this process will speed our delivery of
Although they favour the classic red colouring with “goggle” marking around the eyes, the stud has a full range of Simmental cattle colourings in their herd, including black. As well as the 150 purebred registered Simmental, the farm also runs a small herd of an uncommon European breed called Aubrac, which the Entwisles introduced to New Zealand as embryos.
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results, making the whole process faster for farmers, better for the wellbeing of our people and for the animals involved too.”
After a 21-year stint as Huntsman at Taupō Hunt, Harvey Wilson stepped down from his role at the end of the 2022 hunt season.
Harvey was born in Waipukurau while his father was working at Smedley Station in Hawke’s Bay.
e family moved to a sheep and beef farm in Wairoa, when his father started a farm manager job. Harvey was introduced to horses from an early age.
“As a kid we had horses on the farm as my mum used to hunt and do dressage, so I learned to ride young. My rst hunt was when I was 11, and I’ve never stopped!” says Harvey.
Harvey completed his agricultural training at Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre, but he took over the Mahia Hunt Huntsman’s job when he was only 18 and was with them for nine seasons.
In the hunt o season he managed his grandad’s farm in the Hawke’s Bay.
“ ey were a good group at Mahia, and I learned from Peter Bennett and John von Pein (both past presidents of the Mahia Hunt).
“Bruce Goldstone had been in charge of the hound breeding at Mahia for some years, and I worked under his guidance.”
As the hounds travelled around at Mahia, in those days there were no permanent kennels and the hounds lived in woolsheds wherever they were hunting.
e Taupō Huntsman job came up in 2001 and Harvey applied and got the job. With the job came a house, stables and kennels on 12 hectares in the Kinloch area that the Hunt has owned for 40 years.
Harvey married his wife Lisa in 2002 and the couple went on to have three daughters. Lisa and the girls all ride and hunt.
e 17-couple hound pack at Taupō featured mainly black and rich, red tan colour hounds, in uenced by the Manawatu pack, where previous Taupō Huntsman Tim Wellwood had come from.
“Some of the members who were interested in the pack struggled to tell them apart, so I kept a few that were throwing a bit more white in their coats,” says Harvey.
“I breed hounds for temperament, good con rmation, hunt drive, and longevity.”
Harvey has bred a North Island Champion bitch and “hits an annual hound show every now and then and gets a place”.
During his time at Taupō, the house at the kennels has been upgraded with double glazing and an extra bedroom. ...continued
continued...
e kennels were renovated around 10 years ago and have pumice and concrete areas and big huts o the ground for the hounds.
While the hounds are kept in kennel groups, Harvey says it is important that each day they are let out together to socialise, so they don’t become individual packs with leaders.
In February each year, Harvey would start taking the pack out on local farms for training and to harden their feet and get them t. Puppy hunts start mid-March and hunting runs from early April to late July.
Reminiscing
Harvey has fond memories if his 21 years with Taupō Hunt. He treasures the hunts where his whole family are out there with him and describes that as “pretty special”.
“Every year you’d get a hunt that was out of the box, and everything just went perfectly. We’ve had some huge runs on the Turapaki property that were very memorable.”
He has enjoyed the social side with Lisa and the girls, especially the dress up parties which were “a lot of fun”.
He has had a few horses over the years that were special to him.
“I had two homebred mares, Sally who was bred by my mum, and Minnie who I bred, and they were really good horses.
“I acquired an injured eventer, Henton Executive or Eric as I call him, who turned out to be a good hunter. He’s a chestnut and he’s a real machine.
“I’ve still got him.”
Harvey is thankful for the Whips he has had over the years, and the good relationships he has had with the two Masters he has worked with, Andrew
Bremner and then Robin Broderson.
e new Huntsman, Josh Fox, has moved to the hunt kennels Kinloch property with his partner Savanah Larsen-Church and their three little boys and all their horses.
Josh is originally from Taupō where he completed his farrier apprenticeship with Paul Nelson. Savanah introduced Josh to hunting and they have both hunted with the Waikato and Taupō Hunts and are
keen polo players.
“Hounds intrigue me, and I’m fascinated by their loyalty to the Huntsman. I’ve acted as Whip for Lauryn Robertson with the Waikato Hunt. Both Lauryn and Harvey have helped me with hound management, and I’ve learned so much already,” says Josh.
“Harvey will still be hunting with us, so I will still have him around to ask advice and tap into his extensive knowledge of the hounds.”
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e opening of the newly-expanded kōhanga.
e Aongatete Forest Project and its volunteers are starting 2023 on a high, with the recent opening of their newly expanded kōhanga.
Trustee David Peters says that AFP had become a “victim of its own success” – with volunteers numbers growing and the project being so successful during the last 15 years leading to the dire need for a bigger, better building.
“ e old building was never intended to support such numbers,” says David. “It was obvious we had completely outgrown the existing facility.
“So, with generous support from TECT and Western Bay of Plenty District Council, we embarked on the expansion.”
Aongatete Forest Project, a registered charity under the name Aongatete Forest Restoration Trust, is a group that manages 500 hectares of
forest in the Kaimai Mamaku Conservation Park between Tauranga and Katikati.
Some 200 volunteers work to ensure the long-term protective management of the native vegetation and fauna.
Volunteers have been undertaking pest control –targeting rats, possums and stoats – for more than 15 years. To date, 65km of traplines have been cut into the bush. And a number of rare plant species have been reintroduced to the forest through the restoration e orts.
Engaging people with New Zealand’s native biodiversity and why it’s worth protecting is important to AFP, which is why the organisation works closely with the Aongatete Outdoor Education Centre and Bay Conservation Alliance to deliver school and public education programmes.
ese programmes have proved very successful, says David.
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Bay of Plenty dairy farm manager Dayna Rowe and her team are building a great workplace together – one so energising, no-one wants to leave.
Here’s how they’re shaping up.
Dayna Rowe’s into only her second season of managing a farm team, but she’s quickly found her preferred approach.
“It’s the way you develop your team, it’s the way you treat your team and really encourage them, that makes all the di erence. at’s been a huge part of my own style as I’ve come into managing sta ,” she says.
Despite being brought up on the family farm, Dayna didn’t really fall in love with dairying until she got a summer job milking cows and spraying weeds at home during a university break. Four years, two farms and a lot of hard work later, Dayna was o ered the 2021/22 season farm manager role on her parents’ farm at Pongakawa near Te Puke. e job o er topped o a great couple of years for Dayna; she’d won Bay of Plenty Dairy Trainee of the Year in the 2021 NZ Dairy Industry Awards, and been runner-up in the same category in 2020. Now still only 24, Dayna’s goal over the next three to ve years is to continue building up the family farm, increasing her equity and purchasing some of the herd.
Dayna and her partner Sam are keen surfers, heading down some lunchtimes to Pukehina Beach. Dayna also loves and teaches dancing. Her o -farm talents echo two key elements in her management style: balance and keeping everyone happily on their toes.
Importantly, Dayna lets her team have a major say in roster-setting, divvies up jobs based on their personal skillsets and preferences, holds o -farm team-building activities at least twice a season, and has a weekly team meeting on Tuesday mornings.
“ ose meetings are run by the whole team.
“ ey’re an open place for everyone to share, not just me speaking to them,” emphasises Dayna. She takes a similar approach when she sits down with each team member for a three-monthly one-on-one.
“I really let them lead that conversation, so I’m not putting any ideas in their head.”
Dayna makes sure her team have an opportunity to upskill, too.
“ ey’re welcome to do any sort of education, whether it be people management courses or Primary ITO courses. If they pass their course, we’ll pay their fees – it’s a little bit of an incentive for them to actually go and do well.”
Dayna says she and her team’s open discussions around roster-setting aim for maximum exibility for all.
“I make an initial roster; then it gets redone about three times to accommodate everyone’s needs as best as I can.
“A big part of it is exibility,” says Dayna. “If people want to work through the day so they can get to their kids’ sport games by 3pm, or get to the doctor or other appointments, they’re more than welcome to do that – so long as they communicate that with me.”
Funnily enough, showing care for her team has circled back to Dayna.
“People on my team now often ask what I would like time for. ey’ve o ered to do things like night checks for me on the evenings where I like to do my sports after work or something. at shows they’ve noticed and appreciated me doing it for them.”
Shaping up their workplace together has given everyone staying power too. Her whole team has stuck with Dayna from the end of last season into this season.
“ at was an awesome feeling: that what we’re
doing together is working, people want to be here, and they want to stay a part of this team. If you get a name for yourself as a workplace environment that’s desirable to work in, you will attract people who want to work for you.”
Dayna is acutely aware that changing the way people work on-farm will be a critical part of ensuring the dairy sector can o er great jobs and great workplaces. at’s why she’s such a supporter of the sector’s Great Futures in Dairying workforce plan led by DairyNZ
Dayna Rowe
Role: Farm manager
Location: Pongakawa, Bay of Plenty
Farm size: 289ha (e ective)
Herd size: 970
Production: 358,460kg MS
Recently, a major end-user in the UK specified that they would now prefer to buy products from New Zealand that were grown or raised on reduced nitrogen and phosphate land. We believe this is a start of a new trend that will be here to stay.
Rolling to steep sheep and beef unit at Ballance. We first applied at Functional Fertiliser mix in 2010 and have applied to 85ha every year since.
We have enjoyed outstanding animal health with both sheep and beef animals regularly achieving top prices at the local sales yards. Independent analysis showed our soil quality to be second to none.
– GRAEME AND JUDY
OLSENFunctional Fertiliser applications over four years have transformed our rotationally grazed pastures into a highly productive summer dominant clover sward.
The “fertiliser’ soft carbon combination brought our soil and pasture to life with amazing alacrity.
Our spring pasture growth supported a stocking capacity of 40 su/ha with the pastures still requiring topping. The Functional Fertiliser wrap around support service has been exceptionally helpful.
– LINDSAY
This stuff is amazing. I have clover coming up where there was none before, thanks!
– LANCE UNSWORTH
We have a small organically registered farm near Otaki specialising in cattle finishing. In the 8 years since applying Functional Fertiliser no nitrogen has been applied and the changes have been exceptional with very strong clover growth providing all the nitrogen required.
It took a little time to kick in however our animal health has been exceptional with no lice or worms and very few vet bills resulting in a low cost easy to manage and profitable operation. The property is at least carbon neutral, and the pastures largely look after themselves.
The stock agent says we fatten cattle quicker than others with two year old carcass weights of 280 – 300kg with the meat having exceptional flavour.
Our costs are 30% less, with 30% less labour required. We run fewer animals with a 30% increase in overall profitability. It’s an easy-to-follow system that is equally successful on both large and small operations.
Functional Fertiliser really works. It sweetens the soil creating the ideal environment for mycorrhizal fungi and beneficial microbes resulting in strong growth throughout the year.
– STUART PRITCHARD
Federated Farmers is calling on the government to establish an inquiry into the factors that contributed to ooding and smashed infrastructure from ex-tropical Cyclone Hale.
It says residual material and slash from forestry harvesting has signi cantly contributed to damage to farmland.
National board member Toby Williams says with every rain event, more slash is washing down. He says forestry operators have to lift their game.
“ ey’re very aware of the
problem. ey’ve improved and to be fair to them, like everyone else, they’re keen to see some blue skies.”
But farmers were frustrated at having to continually pick debris o their land.
“We’ve got farmers now who are seriously considering whether they just shut the gate and walk o the land.”
Following Cyclone Bola in 1988, tens of thousands of hectares of trees were planted on highly erodible land in the province with the intention of stabilising slopes.
“Now those trees are being harvested, re-exposing those slopes.
“ e storms haven’t changed - in fact they’re more frequent. And they are exposing current harvesting practices and the detrimental e ects they are having on downstream catchments and communities.”
Toby says mass planting of exotics is encouraged in the region by government settings.
“If, as we are being led to believe, they are all going to be harvested, then there needs to be an urgent rethink on how and where we harvest to ensure we will not repeat the issues when the next cycle of logging looms.”
He says the area needs government support to have some frank discussions on what the future will look like and how forestry, farming and residents can continue to live as a cohesive group.
“What we need to be able to do is have a hui as a community and get together and nd out... in 100 years what we want our community to look like.”
Total Tree Removal are ready to attend to your tree removal needs. Te Puke based tree removal and land clearance experts, Total Tree Removal, are urging orchardists to plan ahead and book-in any orchard clearance work ahead of winter.
“Traditionally there is a short window between the end of the picking season and winter but the turbulent weather patterns we have been experiencing means nothing can be taken for granted,” says Andrew Sutherland.
“For this reason, I am talking with all my clients – and advising new clients – to contact us early so we can be sure the Total Tree Removal team is on your site, when it’s needed, to do whatever’s required to protect and prepare your business for next season.”
Andrew says recent storms have wrecked “quite a bit of tree damage on farms, orchards, lifestyle and residential properties in the Katikati,
Whakatane, Opotiki and eastern Waikato region”.
“We work with clients to understand the scale of the problem so we can resolve it at a time, and in a timeframe, which causes minimal inconvenience to their businesses and lives.
“Our specialties include removal of shelter belts, logging of woodlots, removal of hazardous trees, tree topping, land clearing and scrub mulching, stump grinding, wood chipping and sales of wood chip.
“No job is too big or too small.”
His advice to existing and new clients is “whatever you need in relation to trees we have the expertise, knowledge, experience and machinery to take care of it in a cost e ective and timely fashion.”
For more information about Total Tree Removal, see the company’s advert on this page.
“We wanted to do the comparison before summer droughts a ected production and any heifers were dried-o .
“Based on expected herd production of 440kg MS/cow the heifers would be doing 397kg MS and the increased production at a $9 payout is worth $320/heifer.”
Previously, Roslyn had reared their calves using two litres twice a day of colostrum or milk for three to four weeks then four litres once a day.
With the use of Calf Xtreme Chris Collier, founder of Probiotic Revolution has encouraged the Weirs to increase the rate of milk and go once a day earlier.
Now they are feeding seven-eight litres once a day after day 10.
John and Roslyn Weir, who own a 200-hectare dairy farm near Toko in Taranaki, are obtaining stunning results.
“Our heifers are now doing 87 per cent of the milk production of the mixed aged cows. at’s an increase of 12.1 per cent because of changes we have made to our calf rearing.”
John made this assessment by comparing herd test records in late January last year to a similar time in 2019.
Overall, they use more milk but are weaning two weeks earlier and are using less meal.
Chris has long advocated that using Calf Xtreme to avoid scours at high rates of milk were helping better tissue development in the udder in the rst ve weeks of a calf’s life and was conservatively saying this could result in up to $100 extra heifer milk production, but as Chris says the extra $320 advantage was stunning and so good to see in the New Zealand context when most of the research relating to this was based on overseas data.
New Zealand Young Farmers has launched the NZYF Alumni Network. e NZYF Alumni Network provides former Young Farmers members with the opportunity to stay connected with the organisation.
e Network will also o er past members a channel for o ering up their expertise and support, contributing to NZYFs goal of becoming a sustainable organisation.
NZYF chief executive Lynda Coppersmith is excited to have the Network formalised.
“New Zealand Young Farmers has
been a part of the food and bre sector since 1927 so we know there are hundreds of ex-members out there doing amazing things.
“We’re excited to now have the opportunity to stay connected and give our Alumni a network to share their knowledge and o er support for the organisation, on a local, regional and national level.”
A group of former members, who are proudly dedicated to the organisation and its community, have been supporting NZYF in developing the Network.
Advisory group member, NZYF alumna and author of ‘50 Years Young: A History of the Young Farmer of the Year’, Kate Taylor, is excited for ex-NZYF members to be able to stay connected to the organisation, to one another, and have the opportunity to pass down their knowledge and support to the next generation.
“Our Alumni are on farms, in businesses and at boardroom tables around the country, from the big corporates and councils down to rural school boards of trustees,” she explains.
“It’s a vast and valuable resource for
today’s Young Farmers to tap into.” Currently, a member ages out of the organisation at 31 years old, however, the newly established NZYF Alumni Network recognises their involvement can continue beyond this point.
Alumni are invited to stay connected with their former clubs by acting as mentors for current members and getting involved with local NZYF events and initiatives.
Former NZYF Members can nd out more about joining the NZYF Alumni Network at: www. youngfarmers.co.nz/nzyf-alumni
A new DairyNZ study is looking to examine farm practices and technology, to create more modern, productive and safe dairy farm workplaces now and in the future.
DairyNZ senior scientist Callum Eastwood says with one in three farms continuing to be shortsta ed, many farm teams are looking for di erent strategies and tools to increase e ciency.
“ is Workforce Productivity study will provide a national dataset to allow New Zealand dairy farmers to benchmark their
farm and look at how productive it is, including identifying ways to improve e ciency and save time.”
DairyNZ, with delivery partner QCONZ, will conduct the on-farm Workforce Productivity survey this summer. e survey will be underway in early 2023 with around 150 dairy farms owners and managers nationwide.
“ e study will look at the time requirements of dairy farm activities and priorities to better understand how systems, technology and management in uence how productive our farm teams are.
With interest rates on the rise over the next few years, it might be time to consider subdividing the beach section or investment property.
Many landowners are now looking at how they can survive the next round of mortgage rate rises.
Subdividing to sell o part of your property – farm or town –and slice a decent chunk o the bank mortgage is an option to consider.
Many people aren’t aware that they can subdivide their section. Councils are being forced into modifying their District Plan Subdivision Rules to enable the intensi cation of urban areas, so this may help you. ese changes are being led by the central government in response to the housing shortage and cost of housing land. So, unless you have a need for that extra space around your house or bach, why not consider selling
it and lowering your borrowing costs.
You’ll spend less time maintaining the section on your future visits.
Subdivision gives you choices. Once an additional section is created through subdivision, you have the choice to either hold or sell. So it is an insurance policy as well as an immediate way to reduce debt.
Even the act of starting the process and obtaining Resource Consent will lift the value of your property, giving you increased leverage or other choices. In addition, you are well on your way to creating that independent title that you can sell should the economic conditions dictate.
e subdivision process takes time to complete. As a starting point, we can assess your section and tell you if local council rules allow you to subdivide.
From that point, an application can be lodged with your local council within a few months. Once approved you will have the con dence and certainty to proceed with the construction required to obtain a separate saleable section. Should you wish to sit on the subdivision approval, with increased valuation, you have up to eight years to complete the subdivision without needing new consent, even if council rules change in the meantime! Since subdivision is a complex task, requiring some time and process with Council, you should talk to a subdivision specialist as early as you can to map out a process and time frame that accommodates your requirements. Please feel free to give us a call to discuss your situation and the full potential of your property.
continued...
“ ese farm activities include analysing time spent milking and herding cows, along with pasture assessment, calving and general day-to-day planning, during di erent periods of the year.”
Farmers are continually looking for ways to provide modern, productive and safe workplaces.
“We want to support farmers as they embrace new technology and strategies to improve work-life balance for themselves and their teams.
“ e Workforce Productivity study’s data will help farmers benchmark against similar farms to
see the potential impact of di erent practices and technologies.
“We will work with farmers to understand where productivity could be improved, to help deliver t-for-purpose solutions. Farmer insights and ideas will help develop the right farm solutions and allow us to further improve farm systems, productivity and sta wellbeing.”
Farmers are still able to get involved, with spaces available for the survey. Register interest by emailing: callum.eastwood@dairynz.co.nz
Fertiliser expenditure is usually the largest outgoing cost, after mortgage payments, which are currently lifting to levels not seen for close on 30 years.
Fertiliser costs have already risen dramatically, particularly that of manufactured imported high analysis products.
With a drop in the cost of international shipping a signi cant reduction could be expected however historically prices have declined far more slowly than they have risen.
is means that without cutting fertiliser inputs there will be, for some, serious pressure on farm pro tability, the di erence between costs and income, this season.
e question for many will be how little fertiliser can be applied this autumn without risking lower levels of pasture and crop production.
It’s a question there’s no easy answer to because of the number of factors involved. Historic inputs which are re ected in soil test gures are important. In situations where higher than maintenance inputs over many years have been the norm, not
applying fertiliser this autumn is unlikely to signi cantly reduce pasture growth over winter and early next spring, unless there is a reliance on synthetic nitrogen.
e other factor often disregarded is the physical structure of the soil.
With more than 5000kgN/ha held in the top 25cm of most pastoral soils, there’s no shortage of nitrogen.
Its availability for plant uptake that’s the issue, and the amount and depth of crumb will largely dictate the amount plants can utilise.
As a rule of thumb, the areas of the farm that are softest produce the most feed. Compacted soils with poor root penetration grow the least and are slowest to recover in autumn.
ere’s a low-cost long-term solution that all farmers, particularly where magnesium is an ongoing requirement, should consider.
Golden Bay dolomite has several unique qualities that make it worthy of
serious consideration.
It’s a powerful soil conditioner improving pore space in heavy clay-based soils while adding a little stickiness to light sandy soils.
Containing both magnesium and calcium carbonate an autumn application of typically 250kg/ha reduces the amount of lime that is required to maintain soil pH.
Magnesium helps with uptake of phosphorus by plants reducing the likelihood of growth being limited by a lack of phosphorus between now and next summer.
Autumn an ideal season
Bene cial soil biology, earthworms along with microbes, respond positively to extra calcium and regular small inputs help with the digestion of dung, old root, and litter on and near the soil surface.
Dolomite has been regarded as an expensive form of magnesium, primarily because of the cost of cartage from Golden Bay, however much of the magnesium oxide used as an alternative comes from China, considerably further than from Golden Bay.
Dolomite need only be applied once a year, with autumn being ideal, to provide 12 month protection of animals from a
magnesium de ciency.
e message from long term dairy clients is that cows down behind hedges at ve in the morning have quickly become a thing of the past.
e requirement for dusting breaks on a daily basis is largely eliminated, as is the necessity to add large amounts of magnesium chloride or sulphate to drinking water.
Heavily dosed drinking water is unpalatable increasing the likelihood of animals drinking from puddles, and production being limited by a lack of clean fresh drinking water.
Dolomite is a natural product originally laid down on the oor of the ocean over millions of years.
With land movement it has become compacted and able to be mined in the same way as ag.lime.
Because it is nely ground the improvement in overall animal health is rapid with rst time applicants noticing an improvement in pasture palatability within a month of application.
For a cost delivered to property call: 0800 436 566 (0800 4DOLOMITE).
You can say for sure, when it comes to quality and performance, Boehringer Ingelheim cattle products will keep your stock at their very best. Equally, this cookware by Zwilling is known to outperform expectations and designed to handle any recipe for success.
e end goal remains the same – to nd the regions’ best to represent them as Grand Finalists, says NZYF chief executive Lynda Coppersmith. “We know that FMG Young Farmer of the Year is a long season normally and it puts a lot of pressure on our member volunteers to deliver a lot of events.
“We’re trialling this to look at ways that we can still nd New Zealand’s best Young Farmer, but in a way that is potentially more streamlined.”
For a full list of Regional Finalists and to view event information, please visit: www.youngfarmers.co.nz/contest/regional- nals
e nalists for the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Regional Finals 2023 have been decided.
New Zealand Young Farmers members battled it out over 11 District Contests between October and December to be named as the top contenders who will move through to the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Regional Finals for season 55.
ere are seven regional nals running across New Zealand between February and April 2023. No competition will be the same, and contestants start the day not knowing which of their skills will be put to the test.
Now in its 55th year, New Zealand Young Farmers board chair Jessie Waite says the competition continues to attract new entrants – this year
Young, bright, passionate all-round high achievers are a few chosen words to describe the horticulture and agriculture scholarship winners, writes Animal and Plant Health NZ chief executive Mark Ross.
“ e calibre of young people we’ve met through our long-running programme has been phenomenal - their enthusiasm for our industry is inspiring, and most have gone straight to paid employment in their chosen elds.
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around 45 per cent of competitors gave it a go for the rst time.
Save time and cut waste
“It’s amazing to see the new generation coming through. ere’s so much happening in the primary sector right now with science, innovation and new technologies.
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“ e skills being demonstrated by these contestants are proof that there is much more to farming than herding sheep.”
Each Regional Final will decide who will be competing at the FMG Young Farmer of the Year Grand Final, to be held in July 2023.
Two regions, Northern and the Waikato/Bay of Plenty, will be trialling a new contest format.
ese will be two-day events, with day one resembling the traditional District Contest and day two aligning more closely with a regional nal.
“Our 2014 scholarship winner Yvette Jones wanted to work on solutions for horticulture, with her friends forced to move away from her hometown in the Bay of Plenty after the PSA virus decimated their kiwifruit crops. Intent on becoming a leader in consumer-centric and sustainable food production, our 2020 winner Alexandra Tomkins was keen to share New Zealand’s story and put high quality and nutritious products on the world stage.
Lusher, better, stronger.
@BarenbrugNZ facebook.com/BarenbrugNZ barenbrug.co.nz
With a theme combining royalty and the dairy industry, the 2023 Bay of Plenty Dairy Industry Awards dinner promises to be an evening not to be missed. One of the highlights of the dairy industry calendar, the winners will be announced at an Awards Dinner at Awakeri Events Centre on Saturday, March 4, with categories for Share Farmer of the Year, Dairy Manager of
the Year, and Dairy Trainee of the Year. e three winners of each category will then go on to the New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards national nal, with national winners announced in Auckland on Saturday, May 13.
e New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards attracts farmers from across the country, working in all levels of the dairy industry.
e three categories give entrants the chance to challenge themselves, earn a regional or national title and to share in substantial regional and national prize pools.
Bay of Plenty Regional manager Maria Barkla says the regional awards dinners are always a night of celebration, and not just for the winners.
“ e regional dinners not only focus on the regional winners and those in other categories, but provide another opportunity to meet, network and socialise with like-minded people who live and breathe the dairy industry.
“It’s also an opportunity for the volunteers and sponsors to be acknowledged. ey provide invaluable support in so many ways to the entrants and the Awards in general. Plus, it’s a chance for everyone to relax and have some fun!”
New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards general manager Robin Congdon says entering one of the categories remains one of the best ways people can raise their pro le and reputation, as well as learn more about the industry to progress their career.
“ e overwhelmingly positive feedback we receive from entrants is how much they learnt during the process and how glad they are they entered,” he says.
“Entrants tell us that they really had to sit down and look at their business and how they were doing things on the farm and why.
“Entering the Awards really is a learning journey – about the industry, about your business and about you as a farmer.”
e awards are supported by national sponsors DeLaval, Ecolab, Federated Farmers, Fonterra, Honda, LIC, Meridian, Ravensdown and Trelleborg, along with industry partners DairyNZ, MediaWorks and Rural Training Solutions NZ. For more information, visit the website: www.dairyindustryawards.co.nz
Waikato dairy farmer Jimmy Cleaver is a 23-year-old farm manager who is passionate about his work in the dairy sector and looking after his team.
“I went dairy farming because of the possibilities it o ers me. Not many jobs allow you to climb the ladder as quickly, becoming a farm manager by 19 and then be able to go o sharemilking by 26,” he says.
“I get to work with a fantastic team, be outdoors with animals, while still enjoying a good lifestyle, including being able to get o farm and pursue my hobbies by going hunting or diving.
“I always encourage people to give it a go and see if you like it. I believe that you never know how you will nd it until you just get stuck in.”
Jimmy was named Auckland/Hauraki dairy manager of the year at the 2022 New Zealand Dairy Industry Awards and received the national DairyNZ people and leadership award.
“ e rst year I entered the dairy industry awards in 2021, I went in with an open mindset.
“I was young and just wanted to see what a young person could achieve, and see what I could learn and improve on.
“When I entered this year, our farm had just had a very good year. I had taken on the feedback from
Jimmy Cleaver.
the year before, and ahead of the awards night I knew that I had done everything I could do to win.
“Looking at my future goals, I want to go sharemilking in a few years’ time, and I already own some of my own cows to help achieve this.
“My other goal is to be able to o er others the same opportunities I have received, as I am grateful and want to pass that on to others.”
DairyNZ strategy and investment leader Nick Robinson says the sector continues to encourage Kiwis to join the sector, as one-third of dairy farms seek to ll on-farm vacancies.
“ e dairy sector provides 37,000 on-farm jobs for Kiwis. We want to continue to recruit good people, and there are plenty of opportunities out there, while starting on great salaries and having clear progression pathways.”
ere are plenty of opportunities for to start on a good salary and be promoted into management roles.
Farm managers can earn over $100,000.
Becoming self-employed as a farm owner or sharemilker is another option on the career ladder.
Many farms o er reasonably priced on-farm accommodation, which means no commute to work or daily travel costs, helping them save for future goals.
Reporoa dairy farmers Todd and Renee Halliday were the Share Farmers of the Year for the Central Plateau at the 2022 Dairy Industry Awards.
ey also took home eight merit awards at regional level and two at national level. ey were runners-up in their category nationally.
Renee was brought up on a dairy farm, but if anyone had told her
that she and her city-born husband, Todd, would end up dairying farming together, she wouldn’t have believed them.
“We were overseas for ve years in the UK and Europe, running up market estates and chalets and we were really passionate about it,” says Renee.
When they returned to New Zealand, they worked in a couple of Rotorua lodges, but couldn’t see a pathway to lodge ownership, or a
future in that here.
“So we switched people for cows. It’s much less demanding!” says Todd.
Switching to farming
Todd trained for two years on Renee’s parents’ dairy farm, and they spent another seven years working for a corporate in Mid-Canterbury,
ve of which they were in an equity partnership with them.
Todd studied for his Primary ITO Level 2, continuing right through to an Agribusiness Diploma. In 2020, the couple entered into an equity partnership with Renee’s parents, Phil and Diane Herdman, and moved with their four children to a farm outside Reporoa.
MIKE ROGERS: 021 998 819 (ROTORUA/REPOROA & SURROUNDS)
TONY JOHNSTON: 021 349 816 (WHAKATANE/TE PUKE & SURROUNDS)
JAMIE GAINSFORD: 021 905 458 (TAUPO & SURROUNDS)
e newly formed HH Dairies (Herdman and Halliday) farms 153 e ective hectares, 550 metres above sea level with free draining Kaingaroa pumice soils and bordered by the Kaingaroa Forest. ey milk 500 mainly Jersey cows and are breeding out the remaining 10 to 15 per cent cross breeds.
“We’re striving to improve our genetics with pure Jersey lines. While they are a little more delicate, and the calves need more care, they are such e cient grass converters and eat less. Although they produce less milk, the higher milk solid content attracts a higher pay out,” says Todd.
Todd runs the farm with two other sta , and Renee helping with relief milking and calving. e couple were commended for their attitude towards sta ng. ey are conscious of creating an appealing work environment to attract and retain people.
“We aim for a maximum 45 hour week and invest in the training of our sta , as well as ensuring they, and us, all get quality family time and time o the farm. I try and empower my sta by delegating tasks if they can do that task 80 percent as well as I can,” says Todd. ...continued
HH Dairies invested in labour and time saving technology such as All ex collars and auto gate timers, right from the start.
“It’s not just for the sta . Good record keeping and data over time provides good information for making future decisions about the welfare of our animals, and that is really important to us,” says Renee.
According to the judges, Todd and Renee “showed the importance of pasture principles done well”. Cows are pasture fed under a System 2 operation, with 600 kilogrammes per cow of a PK, DDG and biscuit meal fed in-shed.
“We winter on the farm and grow silage in the summer and grow six hectares of kale and six hectares of swede in the as winter crops,” says Renee.
e farm’s plant has a 40ASHB milking system with auto cup removers. Judges noted that they took pride in their farm dairy and surrounds and were addressing some weaknesses they had identi ed in their plant.
Renee and Todd were found to have a great understanding of the environmental challenges for the dairy industry as a whole, as well as their own farm.
“With the 2900 square metre Kaingaroa Forest running along our boundary, that does assist with reducing burn o by keeping temperatures lower. We are at with less run o , and although the pumice soils are free draining and potentially hard to keep nutrients in, our topsoil is really deep which lessens nitrogen leaching,” says Todd.
e farm bore is 180 metres down, so that’s a long way for anything to reach the water table.
e couple are looking to increase their equity in HH Dairies to 50 percent in two to four years, and 100 percent in 10 years.
ey would like to sharemilk on the Herdman’s farm or another pro table farm in
one to two years, with a view to be running multiple successful farm businesses in the future.
With four children, the Hallidays are involved in their local community through schools, sports and charities. ey seek to help bridge the rural/urban divide
by sharing their experiences and opening up their farm.
eir vision is “To build a better lifestyle for our families by being proactive and e cient operators, achieving maximum production from minimal cost, while keeping with the best on farm practices”.
Ri es were in short supply so, until the Government was able to supply them, parades were carried out using imitation ri es like this one in the display.
An impressive display of WWII memorabilia is on o er at the Te Aroha Museum.
A dedicated team of volunteers manage the museum and they regularly change their displays to new stories in an aim to maintain the interest of the visiting public.
One of the Museum’s current displays is about the ‘Home Guard’ and the ‘Emergency Precautions Service’ (E.P.S.) from WWII.
With German Raiders having sunk ships near the New Zealand coast, including the Niagara and Rangitane, (both large cargo liners of the time), it was felt that New Zealand should be more prepared for an invasion, writes Geo Clark on behalf of the Te Aroha Museum.
“With many of the younger men ghting with the Allies in North Africa, it was left to those remaining to prepare for any eventuality.”
Two organisations were activated.
e Home Guard were to be the ghting men to repel any invaders.
e rst meeting of the Te Aroha Home Guard was held on October 24, 1940, and chaired by Mayor Robert Coulter, says Geo .
Returned soldiers from the First World War were placed in charge of each district with Captain George Walter Horn being the overall commander. Parades, drills and ri e shooting practise were held and by March 1941, Battalion No 2 had 648 members from Te Aroha and outlying districts.
“With the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941, and their swift advance into the South Paci c, there was a real threat of invasion,” writes Geo .
Emergency Precautions
e Emergency Precautions Service was set up by the Government in 1935 as a consequence to the Napier earthquake. It was designed to coordinate a response to natural disasters.
Service badge.
is involved the forming of committees to handle any contingencies that might occur. ese were manned by the ‘civilian’ arm of the population.
e Te Aroha Borough Council set up a local E.P.S. in August 1940.
“ e Home Guard ramped up their activities and the Te Aroha Battalion No 2 set up a Munitions factory in H.H. Wood’s shed near the Coulter Bridge to make improvised hand grenades. A team of 30 men in a production line could make 200 grenades in six hours.
‘A mixture of concrete with iron shrapnel was put into an old jam tin before being passed along to the next person who inserted a tube into the centre and the mixture was then allowed to set. is tube was to eventually hold one third of a stick of gelignite explosive.
“ e other components were made by a chain of men. e piece of wood on the top had a hole drilled where a cap and fuse went into the explosive.”...continued
stored in many of the other Home Guard districts in readiness for the day they would be used.”
Geo says the Battle of the Coral Sea saw the Americans turn the Japanese around and push them back North so the invasion threat dissipated.
continued...
Other men made the components of the ‘mouse trap’ device which was to spring a metal clapper over to strike the cap and fuse.
Hand grenades
Geo says a pin held the spring down in the ready position to be pulled out just prior to throwing it at the enemy. e lit fuse took a few seconds to reach the explosive.
“No explosives were inserted at the factory. is was to be done immediately prior to use by the Home Guarders.
“Hundreds of ‘bombs’ were made and
“Where all these unused ‘bombs’ went is not known but there is one in our display showing each of the components.
“Other objects in this display include log books, communications box, instruction manuals and arm bands.”
Te Aroha Museum’s E.P.S. display includes the story of the ‘mock attack’ on the town by enemy aircraft!
e museum has many other interesting exhibits and stories so is worth a visit if you are interested in history. Improvised hand grenades.
Climate change has become a critical focus for Māori
It has set a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 10 per cent before 2028.
e collective of more than 9000 Māori shareholders produces lamb, beef, milk, wool and honey across 42,000 hectares of ancestral land at the foot of Ruapehu and along the Whanganui River’s middle reaches.
Committee of Management chair Dr Tiwha
Puketapu told the Annual General Meeting in Whanganui the Board’s focus is to look after the land so the land can look after the people.
He says the farming business is “de nitely and seriously” a ected by climate change.
“So much so that we have and will continue to give our attention to reducing the impact of our farming activities on the whenua.
“We will look at the activities that we engage in and why. We will be concerned to ensure that we are reducing greenhouse gases and our carbon footprint.
“It’s easy to say those words, it’s a lot more di cult to make that happen.
“ at is the task that your incorporation is faced with.”
Ātihau is also focused on best land use, says Tiwha.
Of its 42,000ha (101,000 acres), only half is suitable for farming.
Tiwha says sustainable kaitiakitanga of the rest of the land was another key focus and the Board was looking at alternative land use options to enhance income streams. e incorporation was bracing for the continued impact of rising costs on pro t margins and how Ātihau applies that pro t for the bene t of shareholders and whānau. But Tiwha assures shareholders that the incorporation is set up to look after owners and bene ciaries.
e Morrinsville A&P Show is true to roots planted in 1917.
e show has brought rural life to town each year, with the exception being during Covid. is year the show will feature the second of two practical days for Waikato Bay of Plenty entrants in the FMG NZ Young Farmer of the Year. Show committee chairman Bruce McRobbie says the Morrinsville A&P Show has a number of attractions which are unique.
“ e equestrian events are a case in point with Clydesdale events and carriage horses. We also have a large dairy section, along with beef, dairy goats, alpaca and calf club pets.
“Highland dancing, children’s playground, a teddy bears’ picnic and petting zoo are just some
of the family attractions along with a strong man or woman competition, shearing demonstration, sheep dog trials and a display of vintage equipment.
“ e show also features one of the largest trade displays, outside the National Fieldays, with tractors, farm machinery and vehicles to name a few.” ere will also be a full complement of entertainment (bands throughout the day), along with food stalls.
e Morrinsville A&P Show will be held at the Morrinsville Recreation Grounds at Avenue Road, Morrinsville on Saturday, March 4.
Gates open at 8am.
Parking is free and entry to the show is $10 for adults, $5 for 12 to 16 year olds and under 12 are free. A family pass is $25.
Tree Transplant Services is based out of Tauranga, but operates all around the Bay of Plenty, and occasionally further a eld.
It has been operating for more than 27 years and was sold to new owners in 2022. Barry, Christiane and son Luca, now run the business.
eir motto is “Saving Our Trees” - and that is just what they do.
With their tree-spade machine they can relocate trees including their roots - causing the least harm to the tree.
ey also move larger trees using their excavator to dig around the tree, framing the
root-ball with a steel frame, wooden boards, chains and straps and lifting with a HIAB or crane.
ey recently transplanted 12 fruit trees, seven cabbage
trees, a silk tree and three 12-year-old Pohutukawa trees at Papamoa College. All of these trees may have been lost as part of a construction project if not for the hard work of this family team. In Rotorua, they moved a 10m high conifer to replace one which had been damaged by a drunk driver. It now looks like the conifer has always been there standing tall next to the others along the driveway. In Rotoma, they relocated ve olive trees, two oak trees and a
ose that experience muscle cramps know how this happens. Mostly at night, muscles can suddenly cramp with intense pain.
Cramps can often be related to physical exercise, dehydration, low salt intake and other factors such as some diseases and medications.
Muscle contraction starts with a nerve impulse that arrives at muscle bres (cells). is commences a process that results in muscles contracting and allowing movement in our body.
It’s worth noting that there are three types of muscles: skeletal muscles are attached to bones to allow us to move; cardiac muscle is the special type of muscle that makes up most of our hearts while smooth muscle lines our blood vessels and organs.
Calcium is needed for muscles to contract by controlling the nervemuscle junction. Magnesium is needed for the relaxation of muscles by its role in maintaining muscle electrical activity.
Magnesium competes with calcium in this process as it binds to the same sites.
A calcium/magnesium imbalance can cause cramps and in cardiac muscle heart rhythm issues. is is often because of low magnesium intake especially in relation to calcium intake. Fortunately, increasing magnesium to help with cramp is relatively simple using quality magnesium supplements.
e challenge is nding a supplement that works for you. While some supplements use a single form of magnesium, my preference is to combine three di erent forms as these are absorbed di erently. Some are more rapidly absorbed, while others take longer but have longer-lasting e ects. I suggest you avoid supplements with magnesium oxide as it can upset digestion.
ere are also wide variations in the magnesium doses people need. is is why my magnesium supplement has a dosage range of between 1 and 4 capsules daily. is allows for experimentation to get the ideal dose.
John Arts (B.Soc.Sci, Dip Tch, Adv.Dip.Nut.Med) is a nutritional medicine practitioner and founder of Abundant Health Ltd. For questions or advice contact John on 0800 423 559 or email john@abundant.co.nz
Join his newsletter at www.abundant.co.nz
NZ native to provide screening in front of the neighbour’s new houseto the delight of the owners.
Flourishing
Back in Tauranga, they relocated four fruit trees on a property on Cambridge Road which are now ourishing - looking as if they were always in their new position.
Moving avocado trees is one of their specialities.
Last spring, they relocated some avocado trees on an orchard to replace some which were not doing so well.
Relocating orchard trees that were planted too close together is another example of the important work which Tree Transplant Services provides.
Other services
Tree Transplant Services also have a tree nursery where they store trees ready for new owners. ey can provide instant beauty, shade or screening to your property. So if you have trees you want relocated, taken away, or you need a new tree, contact Tree Transplant Services.
e “whatever catches my eye” approach has served retired Turua dairy farmers Frank and Colleen Schnuriger well.
On March 18, they will celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary – a memorable celebration made more so by the coinciding auction of 18
vintage tractors which caught Frank’s eye and which he restored over the last 13 years.
e PGG Wrightson Anniversary
Vintage Tractor Auction will take place at 711 Hauraki Road, Turua on Saturday, March 18, “clearing the shed out for more vintage tractor projects,” says Frank.
e Schnurigers milked cows for 50 years, Frank admitting restoring vintage (more than 30 years old) tractors was always part of his retirement plan.
“I haven’t stuck to any particular make or model, just what catches my eye.
urday 18 th March 2023 – 11:00am
“ eir appeal lies in the fact that they are great examples of purpose-built machines which have stood the test of time,” Frank says, adding that he is a “self-taught” mechanic able to do most of the renovation work, but that he calls on a “real mechanic” when challenges require more than his skill-set.
more than his skill-set.
“ is is my rst sale; the shed is full, I didn’t want to extend it, so we decided to auction them and start again.”
e tractors, ranging
NZ Adventures o ers multi day back country tours throughout the South Island under the ownership of Robbie and Connie Crickett, who guide all of the tours.
from 18hp to 60hp, are all in working order the oldest dating back to 1944 and the newest 1972.
working order the oldest dating back
PGG Wrightson’s Neil Lyons says the auction is expected to attract a wide range of buyers “from lifestylers to collectors and boat owners”.
Ridge Top in Canterbury.
e tours for 2024 have just been set and these are the line-up.
e High Country Heritage Tour is a six day or seven day. is tour starts in Blenheim and travels down the spine of the island ending in Cardrona.
e West Coast Explorer is a ve day tour and starts in Hanmer Springs and nishes in Greymouth. A real contrast from the brown tussocks in Canterbury to the beech Forest on the Western side of the island.
46 South is a ve day tour which remains extremely popular and in 2024 will start in Gore and nish in Cromwell. is tour takes in a visit to the Bill Richardson Transport World in Invercargill on the afternoon of day two.
e Big Sky is a 6 day tour and starts in Fairlie nishing in Alexandra.
“ is is our more challenging tour and a little di erent in that we stay in Omarama, Cromwell and Cardrona for a night and then three nights in Alexandra,” say Robbie and Connie.
/C Frank & Colleen Schnuriger
Saturday 18 th March 2023 – 11:0 A/C Frank & Colleen Schnuri
A/C Frank & Colleen Sch
771 Hauraki Road Turua, THAMES
771 Hauraki Road Turua, THAMES
771 Hauraki Road Turua, THAMES
Contact PGG Wrightson Neil Lyons 027 223 5784 or Allan Jones 027 224 0768
“Trax of Gold is a six day tour, new for us this year, and will be a celebration of the pastoral and mining heritage of the South Canterbury and Otago regions.
“So NZ Adventures continues to o er a wide range of tours and look forward to sharing these routes with you.”
Contact PGG Wrightson
Wrightson Neil Lyons 027 223 5784 or Allan Jones 027 224 0768
For more information please contact them on: info@nzadventures.co.nz, or mobiles: 027 435 4267 (Robbie) and: 027 550 6727 (Connie). e 2024 tours will not be available on the website for a while yet.
If you would like a new information pack, please email your postal address.
Footprint Homes have been in the NZ Tiny Home market for more than three years.
“We pride ourselves in o ering one of the smartest looking and best featured tiny momes in today’s market,” says a spokesperson for the company. Featuring low maintenance building materials which include - AXXIS steel framing, Kiwicolour pre-painted roof and wall cladding, LUX pre-painted feature wall cladding, high pressure laminated pre nished wall and ceiling linings,
pre nished Kitchens, kitchen appliances, SPC planking and carpet ooring, knockout or venetian blinds.
“Our plan range consists of 11 tiny homes ranging from a 21m2 studio unit thru to 88m2 three bedroom.
“We o er fully constructed tiny homes delivered to your site ex our nearest construction yard, or you can purchase a atpack to erect yourself, and supervised by your own LBP builder.
“All our plans are Code Compliant and will be Multiproofed, meaning that no council inspections are required
during the construction process.
“ is saves you on Building Consent fees and speeds up the time allowed for a building consent application to 10 days.
“We also have supply options for o -grid packages.”
Footprint Homes are based in the Bay of Plenty, with a display home at Omokoroa which is available for inspection by appointment.
Call Joanie to make a viewing appointment on: 0800 000 222. For more information, see Footprint Homes’ advert on this page.
e team at KDH design contemporary, lifestyle and transportable homes.
At team at Kiwi Design Homes are dedicated to providing customers with high quality a ordable homes.
Whether you’re needing a large high spec home, bach, second dwelling, farm cottage, on-site build or a transportable home, they can cater to your lifestyle needs.
Located in the Waikato but with the capability to cater to areas all over the North Island, KDH o ers fully completed transportable homes, delivered straight to your site.
“As registered Master Builders we pride ourselves in our workmanship using quality materials and focusing on building strong homes to withstand transport and harsh NZ weather conditions,” says a KDH spokesperson.
“So, you can be sure that your home will last a lifetime.
“We aim to make building your new home a stress-free experience, taking care of every part of the process while bringing your vision to a reality and working to your speci c lifestyle requirements.”
Clients Mike & Chris from Mangakino say they have shown their beautiful house to many people who are totally impressed.
“We have passed KDH’s number on to several people who are looking to do something similar.
“We have recommended you so many and will continue to do so. Should we require a transportable home again, we would not hesitate in giving them a call.”
For details on how to get in touch with KDH, see their advertisement on this page.
Good employee accommodation is warm, dry and safe, with functioning appliances, and contributes to positive employer-employee relationships.
It’s essential that accommodation expectations and legal requirements are understood by both parties, reports DairyNZ.
Farm accommodation can vary immensely; you may be o ered a house on your own, a house to share with other sta , or the option to live o farm in a house of your choice.
Always walk through the accommodation on o er by a potential employer before agreeing to live there and ask these key questions:
- How will rent be paid and how much?
- How much bond do I need to pay?
- Who mows the lawns?
- Who do I report damage or maintenance issues to?
- What happens with rubbish collection?
- Does the property come with any furniture or whiteware, landline or WiFi access, is electricity or gas included?
- Is the property insured?
e questions above should be answered in the Terms and Conditions of a Service Tenancy Agreement, which must be signed by you and your employer, says DairyNZ.
Employer
You are considered a landlord if your employees pay you rent as part of their employment agreement. As a landlord, you have legal obligations and requirements as part of healthy home standardsincluding insulation requirements and working smoke alarms ere must be a signed Service Tenancy Agreement (the correct agreement for providing on-farm accommodation) between you and your employee. You are entitled to ask for a bond and this must be lodged with Tenancy Services within 23 days. As a landlord, you are legally required to tell tenants if the property is insured or not and the amount of excess that the tenant may be liable for if they cause damage to the property they live in.
Advantage Designer Homes specialise in high quality, fast turn-around transportable houses.
ey are based in central Waikato with a purposedesigned house building yard enabling many houses to be built quickly and cost e ectively. Most homes can be built in 12 weeks and delivered anywhere in the North Island.
Discovering the benefits
these aging buildings with a brand new transportable home.
“Fully insulated, double glazed and with all the modern features.
“ e house transport team can arrange to remove your old house and deliver the new one within a close timeframe to avoid disruptions on-site.”
Transportable homes often suggest the idea of a tiny, uninspiring, square cabin, says ADH.
Advantage Designer Homes o er a range of plans
Looking for a new home, sta accommodation or extra rental income?
Transbuild o ers an easy, stress-free, and ready to use solution.
“We understand that every second of time is valuable and it takes dedication, discipline, and hard work to ensure a farm and business is successful,” says a spokesperson for the company.
“At Transbuild we operate on the same values, we place a great deal of importance on professionalism, duty of care and responsibility towards our people, our customers, and the environment.
“We are fully engaged in sustainable construction methods for our energy e cient homes saving you money; we support local business by buying local.
“We embrace a moral obligation to produce homes and spaces for New Zealanders that are t for purpose.
“We can assist anyone looking for a secondary dwelling, holiday bach, o ce space, work accommodation, rental or lifestyle bed and
breakfast income stream.”
Transbuild is proudly a New Zealand owned and operated business since 2012 that specialises in the construction of architecturally designed, a ordable, transportable buildings for residential and commercial applications.
“We have an existing range of pre-consented plans that can expedite the process and our in-house architectural team will manage site related council consenting throughout the North Island.
“Our buildings leave our facility fully completed with Code of Compliance, we oversee the transportation and on-site installation onto the foundations.
“Using quality NZ materials, built locally to NZ building code standards with the option of a Master Builder Guarantee for new builds.
“Our transportable buildings are a smart and a ordable alternative to on-site house builds, with the added bonus of moving in within months not years.”
Transbuild construct a wide range of fully finished code compliant homes and commercial spaces within their purpose-built factory, delivering to sites all over the North Island, within months, saving both time and money!
Zespri International Limited is the world’s largest marketer of kiwifruit, selling kiwifruit in more than 50 countries.
ey are one of over 200 businesses and organisations who have joined a national proactive approach to biosecurity in the New Zealand business community - e Biosecurity Business Pledge.
e aim of the Pledge is to strengthen the working relationship between government and business, and between businesses themselves, with an open exchange of biosecurity knowledge and tools to strengthen the system as a whole.
Head of Core and Resilience Innovation at Zespri, Dr Juliet Ansell, sees this as an important approach for the future of biosecurity in their business.
Juliet studied human parasites in the UK, and spent several years as a research scientist in the UK, Africa and Australia before coming to New Zealand to work with Plant & Food Research.
She moved to Zespri in 2014, then moved away from her technical speciality into a broader technical management role.
She is responsible for the company’s Core Innovation platforms of Orchard Productivity, Supply chain and Health, and Resilience Innovation platforms - Climate change and Biosecurity.
“After the Psa outbreak in 2010, we all became very aware of the impact of something like this to our industry. Pests and pathogens do not know orchard or country borders,” says Juliet. “We have all seen an increase in health and safety awareness and procedures in recent years, and we should put the same e ort into our biosecurity procedures.”
Investment
Juliet acknowledges that biosecurity is a di cult thing to quantify the value from, but our growers, shareholders, and board do understand. e measurable proof of any investment into biosecurity is pest and pathogen free crops.
“Raising awareness and sharing information collectively with other industry members is how we all learn.”
Zespri already work closely with
Kiwifruit Vine Health. Together they have produced a visual guide to use to show all the stakeholders such as growers, packhouses, Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) and ports and how they all work together. “Although complex, it’s a useful tool to use for further discussion when identifying biosecurity measures and agreeing principles.”
Bugs e highest risk of pest and pathogen entry into New Zealand is through cargo and the ports. However, New Zealand has one of the best border biosecurity systems in the world, which is enhanced by their island status combined with the strict checks made by MPI at both the export and import ends.
“Although there are occasional nds of live Brown Marmorated Stink Bug (BMSB) at the border, this only shows that the biosecurity system is working.”
Zespri help fund BMSB biocontrol research trials in other countries where it is prevalent, such as Italy and China, and bring that knowledge back to NZ for future incursion readiness. ey are also heavily involved in surveillance of potential biosecurity threats internationally.
continued...
“We don’t have BMSB yet, but it is very di cult to get rid of once it establishes and in Italy it has been seen to cause up to 40 percent losses in crops.”
In August 2018, NZ’s Environmental Protection Authority approved conditional
release of samurai wasp during a BMSB response.
Italy has been trialling the release of samurai wasps which can parasitise the BMSB eggs with promising results.
Other than biocontrol options, the use of chemicals, traps, lures
and netting are being trialled overseas and the information is shared around the world.
“I would describe biosecurity measures as an insurance policy and it has to be an essential part of protecting our horticultural and agricultural industries.”
Robotics Plus has launched its autonomous multi-use, modular vehicle platform for agriculture.
It’s designed to carry out a variety of orchard and vineyard machine tasks - to alleviate ongoing labour shortages and transform the industry.
e multi-purpose Unmanned Ground Vehicle can be supervised in a eet of vehicles by a single human operator.
e vehicle uses a combination of vision systems and other technologies to sense the environment - to optimise tasks and allow intelligent and targeted application of inputs such as sprays.
Growers will be able to rotate multiple tools on the highly adaptable and con gurable agriculture platform, depending on the day’s work - for jobs such as spraying, weed control, mulching, mowing and crop analysis.
Robotics Plus, a specialist in the design and build of robotics, arti cial intelligence and autonomous machines, unveiled its demonstration vehicle at FIRA USA 2022, a California-based event dedicated to autonomous agriculture and agricultural robotics solutions for the North American market.
Robotics Plus co-founder and CEO Steve
MyNameisNeilWoodward.
IamadirectorofZ-Contracting-wearefamilyrun business,ourteamconsistsofthree,beingmyself,my sonandmybrother.
Ourorganisationhasbeenestablishedforover18 years.Ihavebeeninvolvedin applyingcropprotection programmeswithinthehorticultalindustrysince1966. Wespecialisewithinthekiwifruitindustry, We have theequipmenttosprayorchardswithour two Atomsprayers and one recently purchased Tracatom Formula tractor which is also available for mulching and mowing
Robotics Plus’ multiuse, modular platform Unmanned Ground Vehicle automates tree and vine crop tasks for orchards and vineyards.
Saunders says its world-class team worked alongside growers, researchers and best-in-class technology suppliers to deliver the unique modular architecture for its multi-purpose UGV, which can operate in a range of environments.
Carbon footprint
e highly manoeuvrable UGV has a small footprint and unique steering con guration, incorporating electric steering and independent motors, which increases productivity - allowing signi cantly more ground to be covered than machines which turn on every second row or greater, depending on row con guration.
IamadirectorofZ-Contracting-wearefamilyrun business,ourteamconsistsofthree,beingmyself,my sonandmybrother.
Ourorganisationhasbeenestablishedforover18 years.Ihavebeeninvolvedin plyingcropprotection programmeswithinthehorticultalindustrysince1966.
Wespecialisewithinthekiwifruitindustry, have theequipmenttosprayorchardswithour two Atomsprayers and one recently purchased Tracatom Formula tractor which is also available for mulching and mowing
Our Atoms aresetupwithradarspeedsensors,this combined with fullyautomated sprayer controllers and three nozzle ringsenhancesapplicationef ficiency and accuracy.
We also useaquadbikeforstripweedspray applications.
Weholdallcertificatesneededtomeet Globalgap compliance.
Welookatallchallengestohelpensureweprotect yourcropwithexcellence.
E-mail:zcl@zanadu.co.nz
Final export avocado volumes for Just Avocados and Darling Group growers were loaded out early this month, ending another challenging season.
Over the 2022-23 season Darling Group placed 66 per cent of its
volume into Australia and 34 per cent into Asia – a strategy that Darling Group chief operations o cer Jacob Darling says is slightly di erent to the industry overall.
“ e industry split is likely 72 per cent of export volume into Australia and 28 per cent into Asia.
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Combined with ITEST TMSOIL, irrigation scheduling and ITEST TMLEAF layering, MYSOIL CLASSIFICATIONTM allows growers to understand and manage their orchards through informed decision-making.
“Asian markets performed well in the early part of the season and volumes at this time were focussed as much as possible to this region.”
Support of Asia with early volumes of quality fruit is key to Darling Group’s strategy of developing this market for the future.
“Although our volume into Asia has been back from last year, we remain New Zealand industry leaders in this space, with all key markets representing a weighted average of 30 per cent or more supplied from Just Avocados.”
In Australia, the slowing economy had a signi cant e ect on demand and caused weaker than anticipated values in the wholesale market. However Darling Group’s exposure to the wholesale market was mitigated.
“Darling Group is fortunate that 90 per cent of our volume shipped to Australia goes to retail. e gap between retail and wholesale in Australia this season was from AUD $8.00 to $12.00 which was far greater than previous seasons.” e Australian food service and processing market has also been positive for Darling Group.
“At the end of January, we completed a signi cant programme into the food service channel with estimated orchard gate returns to be north of $5. Although this gure is low, it will make a considerable di erence when noting that 30 per cent of industry volume (Class 3 / process) was not packed or sold into the oil market this season.”
Harvesting conditions this season were impacted strongly by record rainfall. Quality and shipping issues also hampered supply.
“In the Bay of Plenty, 45 per cent of our available harvest days were lost due to rain and our Class 1 pack out was 14 per cent lower on average than last season.
“Shipping services this season were the worst we have seen with inconsistent services meaning what were supposed to be weekly services sometimes were up to four weeks apart.”
Jacob says the inconsistency of the supply chain cost their growers and customers, but their
business model shielded them from the worst of the outcomes.
“Remaining exible and adjusting to di cult conditions was imperative to getting through this season. Managing the total supply chain enabled us to work with the di erent departments to ensure we gave our customers what they required
despite the challenges.
“Managing harvest plans amid relentless rain through the busiest part of our season and delivering on market expectations was nothing short of diabolical; however, the Darling Group team navigated through well, and I can con dently say that all grades and volume were picked, packed and sold.”
Jacob says that this season has highlighted the importance of growers maximising production and pack out and of the Darling Group team selling all grades at value.
“Production and packout has a far greater impact on pro tability than dollars returned. We encourage growers to invest in their knowledge and/or new technology to improve these elements.
“Having an integrated supply chain has meant that our team can deal with the diversity of challenges and still get all crop picked, packed, and sold to hopefully result in a total dollars per bin this season that will be respectable.”
“I did love living there [the city], but I missed the outdoors.
“I feel relaxed and at home, it’s peaceful here.”
Laura jumps at the opportunity to prune her trees, something she did not see herself doing when she started.
“At the start, I was like, ‘there is no way I am using a chainsaw, they’re dangerous’.
“And then they bought this electric one for me and I got my safety gear
and it was actually alright - now it’s my favourite tool.”
Laura has no one else but her to rely on in the orchard. ere are hopes one day she may be able to hire someone if the prices for fruit rise.
But for now, it’s her and her twoyear-old collie, Ojas.
“It is crazy how my con dence has grown out here, and I think it just shows I am in the right place.
“I am not forcing anything, I want to learn about it. I’m very lucky.”
Leah Tubbutt/RNZAfter pursuing a career in fashion, and dabbling as a yoga and snowboarding instructor, Laura Schultz found the place she was meant to be was actually where she’d been running from.
It’s been a big year for Laura Schultz. She tends to spread herself across all sectors of avocado growing just as smoothly as the fruit glides across toast.
Keeping busy
She bought her rst home, won Young Grower of the Year for Bay of Plenty, works as a growing liaison o cer for Trevelyan’s, and spends weekends on the orchard she manages and leases o her dad.
“I’m constantly chasing my tail.”
ere is not much room for Laura time, I protest when she tells me about all that keeps her busy.
“No, not a lot. But I do love it out here...so,” she says with a smile.
Standing in an orchard with RNZ’s Country Life on a drizzly Saturday morning was almost the last place Laura thought she would be, had you asked a couple of years ago. Having grown up just around the corner from where she now spends her weekends, Laura wanted nothing more than to head to the city once she had nished school.
“I never thought it would happen, I was like: ‘I’m getting out of here’.
“I grew up out here and I did enjoy it, but I was always wishing I lived in town.
“Like Tauranga or Auckland where there were all sorts of things happening.”
So, o she went, rst studying for a Bachelor of Commerce before landing a fashion degree.
She eventually realised that wasn’t the industry for her and after the Covid pandemic interrupted travel plans, she found herself helping out on the orchard again.
Katikati is further securing its seat as the avocado capital of New Zealand –literally!
Two creative projects are being fundraised for this year by local groups including Katikati Open Air Art, Katikati Rotary and Katch Katikati to add to the avocado capital’s reputation. One is creating avocado shaped
seat to be dotted in the heart of the town and the other is making a large metal avocado sculpture to be installed at Diggelmann Park.
Katch Katikati promotions manager and avocado lover, Jaccqui Knight says the avocado chairs will be eye catching pieces similar to the Morrinsville cow
sculptures concept.
“People can sponsor a chair and then it will be painted by an artist and installed in the centre of Katikati. We’re aiming for 10 to start with.
“Hopefully the big avocado sculpture will be one of those iconic things like the Paeroa L&P bottle or the Cromwell fruit that people take a photo of themselves with.”
Decking out the avocado capital with iconic features has been in the pipeline for a few years says Jacqui, ever since the town was crowned with the capital title in 2018.
“Covid changed things. People didn’t have money to donate to things like this so it’s all been a bit messy but we’re thinking 2023 is the year to make it happen!”
All up Katch Katikati is seeking to raise $160,000 –requiring about $80,000 for each project.
“We’re about a tenth of the way there.”
Jacqui and the team are door knocking to raise funds and are planning to run fundraising events this year to support their avocado ambitions.
“If funding allows we’ll keep doing more and more chairs so it’s a really good marriage between avocado capital and New Zealand mural capital.”
“It will showcase our horticultural industry and how important avocados are to the region, and hopefully keep people here a bit longer if they are passing through.”
Jacqui tries to eat the super fruit every day and thinks it’s fantastic that Katikati is Aotearoas’ avocado cornerstone.
“It’s our livelihood for the region and it’s a great thing to be able to hang our hat on really.”
She says Katikati has the best soil for producing the best avocados in our country.
“ ere’s a lot of work going on in Northland at the moment with avocado’s… but we were one of the biggest regions to get [avocado growing] going and it really did start here right back in the 1970’s.
“We might not always be the biggest producer but you don’t have to be big to be best do you.”
Georgia MinkhorstIt’s no secret that bees are essential to our lifestyle, with one third
of all the foods we eat rely on the pollinators.
If you want to help the honeybee, there are a few things you can plant in your backyard to help our busy friends out. Honeybees aren’t picky and they’re easy to please, but there are some plants that encourage more bees to stop by.
You’ll want to plant owers that produce plenty of pollen and sweet nectar. Also remember that bees can’t see the colour red! ey’re naturally attracted to orange, yellow, purple, blue and white.
If you’re looking for annual owers to
colour up your garden and help the bees, plant camellias, borage, sun owers, fox gloves, cloves, marigolds, pansies, da odils, marigold or poppies. Trees, shrubs and climbers that make a nice bee stop include bottlebrush, lavender, rosemary, honeysuckle, clematis and wisteria.
If you want something that will feed you and the bees, consider planting sage, basil, blackberries, cucumbers, chives, fennel and squash. And local natives that bees like include NZ jasmine, pohutukawa, rewarewa, New Zealand ax, lemonwood, hoheria and tee tree.
Dishing up more summer protein and energy for your animals just got easier with the release of a home-grown white clover that helps lighten your farm footprint, too.
Ruru, from Barenbrug, is a two-for-one special, xing extra nitrogen from the atmosphere as it nourishes both your animals and your pastures.
e secret lies in those lush leaves, says Barenbrug area manager Paul Hames.
“Ruru’s been bred to grow more clover per hectare than older cultivars, and that means every plant can give you more free nitrogen. You win both ways!”
On average, one tonne of white clover xes 28 kg nitrogen per hectare into your soil. is natural ability to provide pasture with free, sustainable, continual nitrogen helped make New Zealand farms what they are today.
Paul says it is one reason this modest little plant is a farming superhero, now as much as ever.
Based on that average xation rate, Ruru grows enough extra yield to give you up to 14kg nitrogen per
hectare per year than some similar clovers.
Gimme more!
Your animals bene t, too, says Paul.
“ ey love clover. It tastes great, and keeps them thriving during late spring and summer with ample protein and the highest energy level of any pasture species.
“In warm weather, when grass is not always at its best, Ruru’s proli c growth makes cows, sheep, cattle and deer happy and productive.
“Fun facts – research has shown if a cow eats one kg of ryegrass and one kg of clover, she produces 30 per cent more milk from eating the clover compared with the ryegrass.
“And pasture with high clover content grows lambs at 50-100 grams liveweight per day more than pasture with low clover.”
Sow with con dence
Ruru has extra tricks up its sleeve to help it power your farm system, including high grazing tolerance, strong spreading growth and good tolerance of
clover root weevil, says Paul. New Zealand grown seed is available for sowing this autumn.
“Order yours from your seed merchant today, and get your pastures pumping.”
Mohaka has created quite an impact, not only in the field but with farmers across NZ.
•Broader leaved, well tillered hybrid suited to 2-4 year pastures
•Available with AR37 and AR1 endophyte
•Ideal for undersowing programmes
•Ideal for short term finishing pastures, runo pastures, supplementary systems AGRICOM.CO.NZ/PRODUCTS/RYEGRASS/HYBRID/MOHAKA
better, stronger.
If you’ve been thinking it’s wetter than usual, you’d be right. We have nished o 12 months of rainfall from January 1, 2022, to December 31, 2022, which was 3502ml for the year at the farm – a whopping 1521ml more than last year. At the yard, the 2022 rainfall was 2018ml compared to 1207 in 2021. e average at the yard from 20132021 (inclusive) is 1230.5ml, so 2022
was well over what we expected.
On our farm, we have recorded 389ml for January so far, compared to just 8ml for the same time last year and springs have sprung where they have never been seen before.
It’s much the same at the yard, with 139.5mls year to date verses none at all last year.
e extreme weather pattern, which has been felt all over New Zealand, has not just a ected holiday makers
– it has had a disastrous e ect around the country, especially on those charged with making a living o the land – farmers, contractors and horticulturalists to name a few.
Farmers on low land are really struggling with a shortage of feed with many placing their herds on once-a-day milking.
Maize contractors would normally be well nished planting by this time of year, but some traditionally plantable paddocks still have water on them – placing a question-mark over whether they will be productive and capable of growing maize, crops or grass at all this season.
I know of one grower in the Bay of Plenty who had 40 hectares planted over Christmas/New Year but which subsequently ooded, destroying the young plants and e ectively putting those 40 hectares out of use.
Farmers, contractors and horticulturalists are just a few people who are dealing with the e ects extreme weather in NZ.
He didn’t have an alternative area to recover what he had lost so his only option will now be to manage with what he has on hand.
It is not uncommon to hear older farmers say that the weather has not been this unpredictable, and/or wet, for 30 years. e inability to do their job has materially a ected maize contractors, who have their days planned months ahead of time to get all clients’ crops planted so they can be harvested in time and pasture re-sown in early autumn. If this doesn’t happen, the new grass doesn’t get established before winter so can’t be grazed until spring.
On our farm, the hay which would normally be cut in November and December is still standing as we wait for ideal conditions to harvest. ankfully, the rain we have had has meant the base has kept growing so the quality is still quite good – we just need a window of sunshine to cut and bale it.
On the plus side, good pollination of cobs on our maize crops is evident at tasselling, so we are con dent of harvesting good quality maize in mid to late February.
And while crops may be struggling, this wet humid weather is good for grass growth with the hills looking lush and green. e conditions also lend themselves, however, to growth of mould, bacteria and spores on grass which can variously e ect the quality of grass and compromise the health of grazing animals.
On the bright side, payout has remained stable despite prices at the Global Dairy Trade auctions falling, buoyed up by the strength of the New Zealand dollar. Read this column in full online at www.coastandcountrynews.co.nz
A record wet summer has delivered what farmers can only describe as “liquid gold” from the heavens.
If there’s a time for dancing in the rain, now is it, says Waikato Dairy farmer Andrew McGiven.
While his 182 hectare farm near Te Aroha is soaking up the summer downpour, NIWA reported that 2022 was the hottest year on record and the “eighth most unusually wet year”.
Regardless of the heat, farmers like Andrew are lauding the extended rainy season as a godsend for soil moisture, grass growth and productivity of stock going into the dryer months.
“As a farmer any rain that we get this time of year is a bonus... it’s liquid gold for a farmer.”
Since 2016, temperatures have continued to peak, with the nationwide average temperature for 2022 being hottest at 13.76C overtaking the 2021 average by +0.20C.
“La Niña was one of the primary drivers of last year’s weather patterns,” NIWA says in their 2022 Annual Climate Summary.
But Andrew says he has not seen rainfall continue this far into the new year for a long time.
Rainfall for a longer period during a hot summer was a sign of “money saved” because the period was a make or break time for farmers.
Drought season was estimated to take place between February to May.
ey would be trying to stock up as much as possible on hay and feed rather than feeding out excess amounts due to dry conditions.
e dry season could come at anytime and bring unforgiving weather conditions for grass growth.
”It’s certainly money in the bank... especially at this
time of year, If we can grow grass rather than feed out supplementary feed and then the bonus is that it’s topping up that groundwater table as well.
”For the past three to four years on average we’ve been probably two or three hundred millimetres below average rainfall.”
Rainfall
e nationwide rainfall anomaly for 2022 was 110 per cent.
In February, the Waikato region and ames Coromandel District, Bay of Plenty and East Coast had been lashed by a storm followed by Cyclone Hale, which brought “exceptional falls”.
Rain was “like free money from the sky for farmers” says Waikato Federated Farmers chairperson Jacqui Hahn.
“Any rain after Christmas is a bonus...it’s money for
nothing. It’s money for nothing basically when the rain falls versus what we had last year.”
e in ux of wet weather however did not mean a holiday for farmers, says Andrew.
Additional hands will be needed to maintain the over-growth of the pastures due to more water content.
“ e one thing I’d be worried about is not so much the rain, it’s the wind, so if we get some of these tropical cyclones coming down, with our maize crops...
if the wind knocks them over then that could cause some major issues down the track,” he said.
ere was also the risk of facial eczema if the “rain does stop, and it gets humid and sweltering”, says Andre.
But for now life was “pretty good” he said as it was a case of the more rainfall the merrier.
“Just enjoy the rain while you can,” says Jacqui.
John Carmichael was brought up on a dairy farm into a family that has been farming in the Bethlehem area for 70 years.
Farming aside, John has a creative streak, and a talent for making items such as rustic furniture, belt buckles, axes, implements and knives from beautiful native timber, steel and iron, and vintage machinery parts.
“My dad had a little forge and I really loved what could be made with it, and how we used re to shape or melt metal,” says John.
In his early teens he loved melting lead to make
sinkers, and on one occasion a lead shot put.
“One day my mate and I decided to try making shotgun pellets after reading that you could pour molten lead from a height into cold water and it would cool separating into pellets as it hit the water…
“ is is not what happened!
When the lead hit the water it went o like a bomb and we are lucky to be alive.
“ ere was molten lead on our skin, our clothes and all over the furniture in the lounge.”
Fast forward to adulthood and John still wanted to try and melt steel to fashion into decorative shapes. In 2012, at a car swap meet
in Rotorua, he saw a rebox for a forge mounted on a frame, with an anvil and a few tools. “It was just what I needed. It also came with a blower to keep the re going, which needed to be turned by hand.”
Once home the very heavy items sat in the shed as they were a mission to move. John used some vintage cast iron wheels from old farm machinery to mount each part of the forge onto a base with wheels.
“I also made a work bench complete with a vice and the anvil. “Having the blower meant using the forge was a two person job,
John Carmichael’s forge has all its parts mounted onto frame with vintage cast iron wheels to make transporting easier.
continued...
so I mounted 3.5 HP 1920s antique petrol engine that I had onto a wheeled frame and connected it to the blower by a pulley.”
e resulting little forge is fully transportable and can be winched onto a six metre low trailer, and be operated by one person.
John makes easy “hobby” items such as re pokers from steel, but isn’t a trained blacksmith.
“We take it to shows and do demos. It’s de nitely one of a kind and people love watching it in action and seeing things from the hot steel.”
Decisions you make in an instant on the farm can be the di erence between life and death.
When someone dies from a farm accident there’s almost always a farm vehicle involved, says WorkSafe. But there are some simple things you can do to help you go home safely at the end of the day.
Safety is about eliminating the risk, says WorkSafe.
To be safe when using farm vehicles you need to: choose the right vehicle for the job, make sure the vehicle is
up to the job, make sure the driver is up to the job, read the vehicle owner’s manual, wear a seatbelt, if one is tted – on and o the farm, wear a helmet when required and watch where you are going.
e right vehicle is the safest one, it may not be the one that’s most convenient.
To choose the safest vehicle you need to think about: whether you plan to take people with you, whether you need to carry a load, what the terrain on the farm is like and what the weather is doing, whether you need to tow something and what other jobs might come up.
Make sure you have the right vehicle for the right job.
Changes to freshwater regulations will help farmers continue to invest in wetland restoration, according to DairyNZ.
Changes to the Essential Freshwater 2020 wetland regulations, which will come into e ect this year, provide better wetland restoration, maintenance and water storage options for farmers.
“We were concerned about initial
Government proposals that had regulations applying to constructed wetlands,” says DairyNZ sustainable dairy general manager Dr David Burger.
Consents
“It made getting consents for constructed wetlands di cult for farmers and could have discouraged them from creating wetlands that would bene t the environment. is has now changed, which is positive for farmers and the environment.
“ e changes are timely, as more farmers are looking to reduce their environmental impact, and there’s growing interest in re-establishing and constructing new wetlands.”
DairyNZ continues to encourage farmers to invest in wetland restoration due to the environmental bene ts. Its water science team works with other science organisations to increase understanding of wetland performance and how farmers can best place new wetlands in catchments. Wetlands can signi cantly reduce nutrient and sediment losses on farms and improve water quality. ey also boost biodiversity and can provide a habitat for birds and sh.
Regulations
A constructed wetland about one per cent of the catchment size can remove an average 20-25 per cent of nitrogen and 50 per cent of sediment. In initial regulations, resource consents were not obtainable for construction of any water
storage infrastructure that could adversely impact the extent or values of a wetland.
A new pathway
e new consenting pathway has several conditions, including that the water storage infrastructure needs to provide signi cant national or regional bene ts. ese conditions set a high bar for the development of water infrastructure in and around wetland areas and are an improvement on previous regulations, which prevented farmers from creating storage structures if they would
adversely impact the extent of or values within a wetland.
“ e change addresses concerns raised in DairyNZ’s 2021 government submission on proposed wetland management changes to the Resource Management (National Environmental Standards for Freshwater) Regulations 2020.” DairyNZ also made a joint submission with Fish & Game New Zealand on aligned positions.
DairyNZ continues to support farmers wanting to protect and restore existing wetlands. Tools are available to help farmers manage and improve wetlands on-farm, such as the Constructed Wetland Practitioner Guide – Design and Performance Estimates which contains information on designing and constructing wetlands. Interested farmers should contact an environmental consultant to work through the guidance and seek regional council advice about consents and funding opportunities.
Smith Engineering’s goal, as a product manufacturer, is to develop products that are e ective, uncomplicated, robust and practical.
Several years ago they looked at the issue of e uent contamination on dairy farms, in particular when a travelling irrigator oods a pasture with liquid e uent. One concern was, according to Kevin Smith, “that cell phone coverage was not always reliable when relaying information back from the irrigator too the pump when a problem arises”.
Liquid effluent
“Our solution was to use the liquid e uent ow in the pipeline, from the pump to the irrigator, as the messenger. “It works like this: a trailer unit towed behind the irrigator detects when the
A research team whose work has signi cantly lifted the accuracy of measuring and reporting greenhouse gases, to better track progress and help nd solutions, has won the Supreme Award at the Science New Zealand Awards.
AgResearch’s Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Inventory Development Team has produced “excellent and signi cant science on an important topic for New Zealand”, according to the judges for the annual awards, which include entries from New Zealand’s seven crown research institutes and Callaghan Innovation.
“What is particularly impressive is that between the team members they have made a sustained contribution over a number of years,” says the judges.
“ ere is also a very high level of engagement with a broad range of stakeholders across New Zealand and internationally which is ensuring their results are being used for policy design and monitoring.”
e team - led by senior scientists
Cecile de
been able to
through its work that estimates of
and methane emissions should be signi cantly adjusted, compared to previous calculations using former standard methods from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. With support of partners, the AgResearch scientists guided the development of what is known as country-speci c “emission factors” to improve the accuracy of calculating New Zealand’s agricultural greenhouse gas emissions estimates.
Emission factors relate the quantity of an emitted greenhouse gas to a speci c activity, such as fertiliser application. is is critical for New Zealand given methane and nitrous oxide from agriculture make up approximately half of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions, compared to about only 10 per cent in other developed countries. is is the second consecutive year that AgResearch has won the Supreme Award in the Science New Zealand Awards.
irrigator has stopped moving and closes down the supply of e uent to the irrigator. is results in a “no ow” state in the pipeline back to the pump. is “no ow” of liquid is detected by a sensor at the pump which then shuts the pump down.
“ at same sensor (a Kelco IPG20) also has the ability to detect problems downstream from the pump. By working in unison with the PICSystem trailer, it completes the PICSystem’s complement of functions,” says Kevin. In summary the PICSystem monitors an e uent reticulation system, from the pump to the pasture and does so with only basic operator input. A GPS unit that doesn’t require cell phone coverage is a retro t option, to record irrigator travel.
Want to know more? Check out Smith Engineering’s advert on this page.
If you’re in Bay of Plenty and planning to carry out earthworks it’s important you understand the rules and protections you may need to put in place to minimise any impact to the environment.
is includes small scale earthworks on private property.
Each region around New Zealand may have di erent rules, so it will be best to check them out on your local council’s website.
Below is a rundown of what is expected in the Bay of Plenty according the Bay of Plenty Regional Council.
Further information can be found on the regional council’s website.
e issue
If not managed properly, earthworks can lead to erosion of exposed surfaces which produces sediment and dust.
As more land is developed for new subdivisions, sedimentation and dust is becoming an increasing problem in Bay of Plenty.
If the right controls are not put in place the sediment and dust can pollute streams, lakes and harbours, and kill both freshwater and marine vegetation and animals.
e rules
Rules help to manage the adverse e ects from earthworks. For Bay of Plenty these rules are set under the Bay of Plenty Regional Natural Resources Plan.
Rule 1 of this Plan outlines what is ‘permitted’ so long as a number of conditions are met, factoring in characteristics like land slope, distance to water bodies, volume of earthworks and area of exposed soil. If the proposed earthworks don’t comply with any aspect of the Bay of Plenty Regional Natural Resources Plan, you will need to apply for resource consent.
e permitted activity conditions associated with earthworks are focused on avoiding:
- discharging untreated storm water to vegetation or watercourses
- blocking river or stream ows
- causing erosion
- damage to wetlands
- causing a dust nuisance o site, and
- machinery must be kept out of streambeds.
If the proposed works do not meet the permitted activity threshold, resource consent is needed before any works are carried out.
An earthworks resource consent looks at the characteristics of the land where the proposed earthworks are to take place and sets conditions to
help achieve suitably engineered excavations and ll that meet the rules.
Site characteristics include:
- soil type
- dominant slope
- receiving environment
- assimilative capacity of the environment;
- and climatic conditions.
A resource consent also ensures that earthworks are undertaken in a manner that prevents or limits sediment discharge, thereby protecting the freshwater and marine environments. Generally a resource consent will be needed to work in any river, stream, lake or wetland. Depending on the scale of works you may also need a resource consent for works:
- where the exposed area is more than 1 hectare in any 12 month period (dependant on slope)
- where the volume is in excess of 5,000m3 in any 12 month period (dependant on slope)
- near watercourses
- on steep slopes (>35°)
- near coastal areas or on sand dunes; and
- in ephemeral or overland ow paths (ephemeral and overland ow paths convey stormwater during rain events).
If you are working on a construction site of any kind, it’s crucial that you have suitable erosion and sediment controls in place before you start earthworks. If the works are permitted through a resource consent, these controls will be speci ed in the erosion and sediment control plan that was agreed upon when the consent was granted. If works are being conducted as a permitted activity then sediment controls are still required. e controls are stipulated in the Bay of plenty erosion and sediment control guidelines for land disturbing activities.
Regardless of the type of site, people can use e ective methods for controlling sediment and erosion.
“ ere are few challenges we haven’t overcome when it comes to tree and land clearance,” says co-owner of Bax Contractors, Pete Johnson.
In business for more than 40 years, Bax Contractors has successfully undertaken “pretty much every challenge you could face” when it comes to clearing land of trees.
“ at’s our speciality. We provide sound advice, based on experience, on whatever land or tree clearance issue clients are facing.
“ e depth of our experience often means that the solution – and cost – clients initially envisaged is di erent - but in every case our prime motivation is to solve the problem, leaving the site clear and tidy.”
A quali ed arborist, Pete says he and partner Marcus Paprzik are personally involved in every job.
“ at’s important – we want our clients to know the buck stops with us. We visit the client, advise
and quote and remain involved, to some degree, in the actual job – so we have personal oversight from start to nish.
“ is attention to detail and focus on doing each job e ciently and e ectively generates repeat business. In essence our focus is on doing the job right, every time and building lasting working relationships – and lots of word of mouth!”
Pete is based in the Waikato and Marcus in the Bay
Association is pleased new Prime Minister Hipkins has stated he is going to focus on the big issues business is facing.
NRC CEO Justin TigheUmbers says for the road transport industry the biggest issue is the shocking state of our roads.
Every day problems
“Every day, potholes and un-driveable surfaces cause expensive damage and delays to our nation’s trucking eet. Our road conditions are a disgrace for a wealthy, developed country
like New Zealand. Ninetythree per cent of our goods are delivered by trucks – and our poor roading is making all these goods more expensive.
“Our road network is getting worse each year as maintenance continues to fall behind. Despite all the money collected for
roading, less than half of the maintenance needed is being carried out each year.
“NRC and the trucking industry call for Prime Minister Hipkins rstly to prioritise xing our roads by committing annual spend to cover all the road repairs needed.
Infrastructure plan
“Secondly, a 50-year roading infrastructure plan needs to be locked-in out of political reach.
“ is will give road contractors a pipeline of work, and the con dence to invest in tooling up, delivering more roading for the dollar over the long-term.”
of Plenty and they say their expertise is available across New Zealand.
“We will do anything as long as we can get onto the site.”
Bax Contractors specialises in all aspects of tree and land clearance; they chip, mulch and stump grind and are suppliers of rewood.
It is standard practice, where practical, for us at Kiwi Fertiliser to add boron to fertilisers containing calcium as these nutrients are synergists, increasing the bene ts that both nutrients bring to the crops and pastures
A third party that can improve things even more, is silicon.
Much of this bene t revolves around strengthening the cell walls that can then prevent fungal pathogens from invading the cells themselves. In addition, boron improves the cell
potassium, nitrogen, copper, iron, and zinc.
As an anion, B attaches to organic matter, so building OM is a priority. On many intensive farms in NZ, OM (measured as carbon) is decreasing. Minimum soil requirements for boron are 0.8ppm, but this is rarely found on a rst soil test.
Some of the many roles for B include a requirement for Rhizobium, Azotobacter, and Actinomycetes to x nitrogen.
We often see white nodules (B-de cient) on clover roots in pastures, when they should be pinkish-red.
White nodules do not x N. Nor will roots fully elongate without su cient B. is has implications during droughts. A sign of de ciency is growth described as “witches’ broom”.
Boron is involved in photosynthesis, the most important process on the planet. As leaves photosynthesise during the day, sugars build up in the chloroplasts. At night, B enables 60 per cent of the sugars to drain into the roots - 50 per cent of that sugar is exuded into the soil to feed the soil biology. ose microorganisms in turn, solubilise minerals for use by the plants, a very productive partnership that is all too often disrupted by modern farming and growing practices.
With avocados, a known boron lover, fruit set can be greatly improved by increasing B. But all crops have their upper limit. Grasses and clovers also bene t from boron where required. is is especially true if levels are low and seed crops are being grown. e addition of B in these circumstances will improve seed formation and pro t. Fungi are not as reliant on B as bacteria and algae are, in fact boron can be a fungal deterrent with Fusarium, Verticillium, powdery mildew and some rusts being B sensitive.
ere are many forms of boron, both for the soil and for foliar applications. ey all have their strengths and their weaknesses. Some last for months in the soil, while others are very soluble, ‘here today and gone tomorrow’ products. Caution is required, and other nutrients such as calcium are critical to the success or otherwise of trace element applications. It is not wise to focus on one nutrient, when all nutrients need to be considered in the correct order, from the most important ones through to the most neglected and ignored ones.
A soil fertility program is just that, a deliberate and reasoned program that takes time and patience to implement.
Moving up the plant, a B de ciency maybe noticed as hollow stems in brassicas, cracked carrots, crosswise cracking of celery, ‘corking’ and bitter pit of apples, shot berries in grapes and many other stunting symptoms.
It is becoming increasingly obvious that chemical analysis of soils is only one part of the story. e presence or absence of a plethora of microbiology will (among other factors) determine the extent of results, or lack of them from any materials applied to the soil.
Properly designed foliar applications are one of the most e ective tools to rapidly build soil organic matter and regenerate soil health by harnessing the plant’s photosynthetic engine, accelerating carbon sequestration and building soil organic matter more rapidly than almost any other management tool.
“Healthy plants are the engine that creates healthy soil. While healthy soil can produce healthy plants, that healthy soil was created by plants in the rst place — plants that were photosynthesising, sequestering carbon and building soil organic matter through root exudates and biomass accumulation in the soil pro le,” says Southern Humates’ Janet Brooker.
“Without plants’ contribution to soil health, soil would simply consist of decomposed rock.
“Southern Humates invests in independent eld trials including the e ect of spray application of liquid Southern Humate and urea on autumn pasture production which commenced in Southland in November 2020, with reapplication in November 2021.
“ e long–term e ect on the low fertility site
was assessed in December 2022. One year after application liquid urea increased yield by 11 per cent while Liquid humate addition to urea increased yields by 14 per cent to 22 per cent.
“Spraymate from Southern Humate contains a minimum of 14 per cent humate and, as a medium, transports nutrients from the soil to the plant because humic and fulvic acids hold onto ionized nutrients, preventing them from leaching. Humic Acid are also attracted to the depletion zone of the plant root.
“When humic and fulvic acid arrive at the root, they bring water and nutrients the plant needs to thrive.”
For more information phone Steve: 021 150 6050.
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NZ Dahlia Show (11-12 Feb), Hamilton Gardens.
Feb 23
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DO YOU HAVE something to sell orlookingtobuyorpromoteyour business? List it here for only $23 for up to 20 words. Email o ce@ thesun.co.nz or call 07 578 0030.
email with ‘Rural Event’ in the subject line to: editor@ coastandcountrynews.co.nz (must be under $50 or free)
Gate Pa/Pukehinahina
Historic Bike Ride, meet 5.45pm, e Strand, Tauranga, free. tinyurl.com/2r2e8shu
Feb 11
Paeroa Highland Games & Tattoo, 9am-9pm, Paeroa Domain, $25 at the gate. See paeroahighlandgames. co.nz
Jazz in the Park, 3-7pm, Whakatanē Rose Gardens, $15. See tinyurl.com/4k5dsrur
Cool Jazz Twilight Concert, 6pm, Haiku Park, Katikati, $25. See tinyurl.com/435y7rax
Feb 15
Free Composting Workshop, 6-7.pm, Firth Tower, Matamata, free but please book a space. See rthtower. co.nz/events
Otumoetai Pa Historic Bike Ride, 5.457.45pm, meet Maxwell’s Rd, Tauranga, free. See tinyurl.com/mr3teyhy
Feb 19
E-waste Collection, 9-11am, Cambridge High School, Cambridge. See urbanminers.nz/ collection-calendar
Feb 21
Orchid & Plant Auction, 7pm, Wesley Church Hall, 13th Ave, Tauranga, all welcome, cash only.
Lavenders, speaker from Acre Farm Cambridge with items for sale, 7.30pm, Waikato Horticultural Society talk, Gate 2, Hamilton Gardens. All welcome, $5 non-members. Ph Carmel 07 855 3404.
Feb 24-March 5
Hamilton Arts Festival, many events at Hamilton Gardens. See hamiltonartsfestival. co.nz
Feb 25
Wairoa River Historic Bike Ride, 9-11am, meet bridge car park, Tauranga, free. See tinyurl.com/ mxmm5m6
Rotorua Dahlia Show, 10am-3.30pm, Ngongotaha Hall, Rotorua.
Hamilton Gardens Highlights Tour (25-26 Feb), 12.30pm,
$15. See tinyurl. com/2xkmjprn
Plant Extravaganza, 10am-2pm, e Barn, Claudelands, $5. See tinyurl. com/3m8w4bw4
Home Composting Workshop, 1.30pm, Turangi & Taupo, free. Repeated monthly until June. See tinyurl.com/ zsvdvub
Feb 26
Stories in the Landscape, 9am4pm, Sculpture Park at Waitakaruru Arboretum, Tauwhare, near Cambridge, $15 (adult). See sculpturepark.co.nz
Mar 3
Morrinsville Dahlia Show, 11am-3.30pm, Campbell Hall, Canada St, Morrinsville.
Mar 4
Crop Swap, 9.30am-10.30am, 45 Beach Rd, Katikati. Ph 07 549 2337.
Hamilton Gardens
Highlights Tour, 12.30pm, $15. See tinyurl.com/2xkmjprn
Mercury Bay Art Escape Open Studios (4-5 March), 10am-4pm. Also next weekend. See hmercurybay-artescape. com
Mar 5
Plant Sale, 10am1pm, Te Puna Quarry Park (o SH2 near Tauranga), cash only. E-waste Collection, 9-11am, 420 Albert Park Drive, Te Awamutu. See urbanminers.nz/ collection-calendar
This is Kiwi Indigo Festival, 4-9pm, Hamilton Gardens, free. See tinyurl. com/4rchjd5u
With competition gathering pace throughout the country, with six
Advertise
7.3cm
competitions over the weekend just gone attracting a total of more than 250 shearers and woolhandlers nationwide, there will still be two competitions next weekend, with the Taihape shearing and woolhandling championships in the central North.
Rotorua Show society president Heather Brake, who successfully fought hard to make sure the show’s shears happened last year, says the farmer who had o ered the sheep this season has decided that as a result of the weather of the last few months, they will no longer be
suitable for competition.
Attempts to source other sheep have been unsuccessful and the decision was made that the Rotorua events could no longer take place without suitable sheep.
e only other show cancelled this year was the Manawatu A and P Show shearing and woolhandling championships, normally held in Feilding on the rst Saturday of November.
Agritech ConnectTour to stop inTauranga this month
During February and March, Agritech New Zealand will be back on the road touring. And people are being invited to join the tour and jumpstart the year!
e tour will be stopping o in Tauranga on February 10 at Zespri International on Maunganui Road.
“Our Agritech Connect Tour will share updates and gather your valuable input on the Agritech Industry Transformation Plan,” says event organisers.
“ e Agritech ITP was launched in 2020 to
turbocharge global growth for New Zealand’s agritech sector.
“We’ll be showcasing the great work that has been achieved during the last two years, plus discussing the refreshed ITP plan.
“Please join us and learn more about the ITP’s new focus and the role your business, industry and the Government can play in achieving these goals.
“You’ll learn more about our tools, resources and 2023 plans. It’s also the ideal opportunity to meet and reconnect with others.
“If you’re involved in agriculture technology you won’t want to miss our session!”
3.30pm Registrations
3.45pm Welcome, Session and Q&A
5.30pm Networking & Drinks
e Agritech Connect Tour is proudly brought to you in partnership with the Ministry for Business Innovation and Employment, Ministry for Primary Industries, Callaghan Innovation and New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.
Independent farm and agribusiness consultant Rob Macnab has joined forces with Beef + Lamb New Zealand to deliver workshops that support farmers with their farm plans.
Rob has a strong background in farming systems, nancial modelling, feed modelling and environmental planning.
He actively farms on his “home” sheep and beef farm, has a share in a dairy farm and is chairman of the board, leases two beef farms, and has a contract milker on an Otago dairy farm.
“We’ve been running iterations of the workshops since 2013. With all the new regulations coming through and
the requirement for FEPs, the need for assistance is growing,” says Rob.
Group workshops are encouraged as there is more information sharing between farmers.
“Eighty per cent of the farm plan is already in a farmer’s head, and the workshops are just a pathway to get it out into a coherent and documented working plan.”
One challenge is identifying a farm’s speci c vision and values, but most believe in the old farmer’s creed of “wanting to leave their land better than when they found it” and that includes protecting assets for future generations, he says.
“I always start with a farm map, marking
up land management units and critical infrastructure, and working on the land’s strengths and weaknesses and current use.
“ is very visual map is usually the turning point for people because they are empowered by the realisation that the plan is all about their knowledge of their farm which they live and breathe every day.”
By the time the potentially more contentious Critical Source Areas come up in the workshop, the farmers are already well engaged and coming up with their own proactive ideas for how to manage these areas on their own farms.
“ ey are already working out their farm’s risks and how they may a ect fresh water, soils, biodiversity, and greenhouse gas
emissions and what actions can be taken to mitigate and manage these risks.”
Workshops always end with “what makes my farm unique?”
Sharing information brings up stories about the farms, shows connection to their land and real pride, and a desire to actively protect the land.
“What falls out the bottom of these workshops is action plans, with speci c details for what needs to be done on each farm. If implemented over time, the plan will assist each farmer to meet market and regulatory expectations.”