Coast & Country May 2017

Bernice and Carlos Delos Santos are award winners.

Read their story on pages 4-5.

Photo Elaine Fisher

Sheep & Beef PAGE 10-11

Winning attitude Dairy Industry Awards PAGE 21-23

Fishing PAGE

24

Avocados PAGE 28-29

Kiwifruit PAGE 34-37

Fertiliser PAGE 43-45

Fieldays PAGE 46-58

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Page 2

COAST & COUNTRY NEWS

The remains of the Edgecumbe stop bank wall look hardly up to protecting a town.

There is much we have direct control over in the maintenance and protection of our home and the land on which it stands, be it an urban section or a farm.

Prudent home owners heed warnings to clean gutters before storms and secure outdoor furniture.

Farmers, particularly those in flood-prone areas, routinely check drains and effluent ponds and prepare to move stock to higher ground.

Outside our own boundaries, we rely on the actions of neighbours, including other private and government landowners, and above all, the competence of local and regional councils to maintain infrastructures for our protection from adverse weather events.

Following the April floods in the Rangitaiki Plains and North Waikato, questions are being asked about how well maintained and managed were the infrastructures designed to protect property and lives.

The remains of the stop bank which failed in Edgecumbe look more like a concrete swimming pool wall, than something designed to protect a whole community.

It is close to miraculous that no one died when the wall breached and the river raged through the town.

Had it happened at night, there is a very high probability lives would have been lost.

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Not long after ex-Cyclone Debbie created so much destruction on the plains, ex-Cyclone Cook caused havoc in North Waikato. There the flood waters took longer than normal to drain and farmers wonder if changes have been made in a DOC administered peat dome, which is seen as a crucial part of the flood protection scheme. (see page 3) Both weather events were well forecast and what we got was just the tail end of Debbie. Given how badly affected so many farmers and communities were, I wonder what would have happened if full-forceDebbie had come ashore.

The Rangitaiki Plains flood protection scheme has been around for close on 100 years. Temporary flooding is part of the system which includes a network of drains, canals, spillways and the Matahina Dam, all designed to work together.

It’s vital all the infrastructure be regularly maintained and procedures are in place to react to triggers which require the implementation of key aspects of the scheme to control flooding.

Sir Michael Cullen has been appointed to lead an investigation into the floods and those affected will hope the inquiry provides answers as to why the impacts were so severe and the steps required to prevent a repeat.

Elaine Fisher

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COAST & COUNTRY NEWS

Concerns changes to peat dome slowed waters receding Concerns that changes may have been made in the Kopuatai Peat Dome, hindering its ability to absorb waters from the April floods, are to be investigated.

Hauraki/Waikato/Taranaki Region) says the department has water level management structures in six outlet drains around the Kopuatai Peat Dome, installed in April 2013.

“They were constructed to retain minimum water levels in the wetland to ensure the edges do not dry out during dry periods, and

Stu Husband, Waikato Regional Councillor chair of integrated catchment services, says farmers in the North Waikato believe something is not normal about the most recent floods and many think there may be management changes to the peat dome which has affected its ability to cope with flood water.

“The Kopuatai Peat Dome has a role in flood control.

The Kopuatai Peat Dome has a role It dries out in summer and in flood control. absorbs water in winter. are fully inundated at flood levels.

Council is taking farmers’ concerns Therefore these structures will be seriously and there needs to be a having no impact on the current full investigation into them.” high water levels in the catchment.

Locals believe dams or weirs may “DOC has information that there have been constructed in the area are other old weirs in the Kopuatai of the peat dome, retaining water around duck ponds that duck huntwhen it should have been allowed ers built many years ago. to dry out.

“We are auditing and compilThe Kopuatai Peat Dome, on the ing this information as part of Hauraki Plains, 70 km northeast of our review for huts/ponds in the Hamilton, is a freshwater wet2017/18 financial year.” land. At 10,201 ha it is the largest Stu says while farmers accept unaltered “restiad” peat bog in New they are in a flood plain, they don’t Zealand is and managed by the expect waters to take so long to Department of Conservation.

David Speirs (director, operations, drain away.

“The human cost is significant.

Some farmers have had 90 per cent of their farms underwater. They have lost production and income.

Farmers are resilient but this is tough.

“We have had so many offers of help from experienced people and are encouraging farmers not to try to cope on their own.

“If you put your hand out, there will be someone there to help – no problems.”

Matamata Federated Farmers chairman Ben Moore says the response of the rural community, including organisation, council, companies and individuals has been outstanding.

“One farmer had to shift 500 cows and we were able to do that over two days.

“Farmers have to get grass seed in now if they can. It’s so wet some may have to apply it by helicopter.”

Waikato Federated Farmers president Chris Lewis says, earthquakes and adverse weather in the last six months have honed the disaster response skills of Federated Farmers and other support agencies.

The response to the April floods has demonstrated the effectiveness of groups specialising in areas of expertise working together to help.

Those involved included councils, dairy companies, DairyNZ, Ministry for Primary Industries, Beef & Lamb, Rural Support Trust, Rural Women and Federated farmers.

Page 3

Help is at hand The flood waters may have receded but their impacts will be felt for a long time to come. That’s why Federated Farmers and The Rural Support Trust are urging farmers and their families not to try to “go it alone”.

Help, either in the form of hands-on work, grazing for animals, feed, grass seed, advice on how to manage flood-damaged pastures and finances, or just a friendly talk, is only a phone call away.

Federated Farmers' flood helpline, 0800 326 646 (option 3), is open for feed donations, or choose option 4 for

other on-farm help, including stock movements, generators etc.

The Rural Support Trust, phone 0800 787 254 is available anytime.

The trust members are local rural people that know from experience that severe weather, finances, relationships, and work pressures can all mount up.

The free service offers a confidential chat about you, your business, the weather, your finances; or a neighbour, partner, friend, family member, or worker.

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BOP flood inquiry’s terms of reference vital

The inquiry, headed by Sir Michael Cullen, and initiated by the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, was announced shortly after the April 6 floods which swept through the town of Edegcumbe, surrounding farms and at Galatea, Waimana and Taneatua.

Darryl, who has been appointed by the Ministry for Primary Industries as operations manager for rural recovery in the area, says 90 pumps working 24/7 for 12 days were needed to clear flood waters from affected Rangitaiki Plains farms.

“We had shifts of people manning the pumps, keeping them running, and re-fuelled. There were 50 permanent pumps and 40 pumps brought in from

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The knowledge of long-time plains farmers has been invaluable in the response to the floods, he says.

Now Task Force Green workers have been sent to help farmers in Edgecumbe, Galatea, Waimana and Taneatua, including restoring fencing and cleaning up farms.

“Farmers take great pride in their properties and hate to see farms in a mess, but they also have to focus on other jobs like re-grassing, talking to accountants and banks to sort out finances and planning for the season ahead.”

Recovery from the floods will take months and seriously impact the income of most farmers. However, Darryl says generous response to the floods from throughout the region and the country has been impressive and he urges farmers to ask for help when they need it.

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It is vital that the terms of reference for the inquiry into the Rangitaiki Plains floods are structured to ensure all areas of concern can be examined, says Darryl Jenson, President of Bay of Plenty Federated Farmers.

COAST & COUNTRY NEWS

Page 4

Award winner’s cash-strapped start in farming Sixteen years ago Carlos Delos Santos, newly arrived from the Philippines and short of cash, borrowed $140 to buy a pushbike so he could to get to a relief milking job at Mangakino.

Now he and wife Bernice are not only 50/50 sharemilking a 300-cow herd near Rotorua, but have also won the 2017 Central Plateau Share Farmer of the Year Award.

“I came in New Zealand in 2001 as a mechanical engineering student and got into farming almost accidentally because I needed work,” Carlos told those who attended to Central Plateau award field day on the 140 hectares McPherson Family Trust farm at Ngakuru.

Through that initial relief milking role, Carlos discovered an aptitude for farming and progressed to farm assistant and then herd manager for 1000 cows and from 2006 to 2007 was assistant manager on a 750-cow property.

Bernice, who was a registered nurse in the Philippines, came to New Zealand in 2007 and by 2008 the couple were married and variable order sharemilking a 300-cow herd.

“I was a city girl who didn’t know anything about cows, so it was a big learning curve for me,” says Bernice.

As well as hands-on learning, Bernice has completed a certificate in Agriculture Level 4 and an on-farm milk quality course while Carlos has gained a Diploma in Agribusiness Management.

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Carlos and Bernice Delos Santos, winners of the 2017 Central Plateau Share Farmer of the Year award.

Carlos also won the 2005 Cenpaddocks had poor pasture species casual staff to ensure it is operated tral Plateau Dairy Trainee of the on the hills and problems with safely and to the highest hygiene Year and the 2007 East Waikato weeds and soil fertility. standards.

Dairy Trainee of the Year. In Using a plate meter to assess Summer crop 2010 the couple were finalists in pasture on the hills is unrealistic, The herd is predominately the Waikato Sharemilker of the says Carlos, who has developed crossbred with a good number of Year award. Carlos and Berhis own pasture scoring system Jerseys and some Friesians and nice entered the 2017 awards to to help with management. The the stocking rate is 3.2 cows per improve their business, update couple, who have been runhectare. The farm operates as a their health and safety policy and ning the farm without any other system 3 with palm kernel used meet like-minded people through full-time staff, have re-sown the networking. steepest parts of the farm by hand. strategically to fill feed deficits from June to September and Bernice and Carols take hygiene Hand sowing January to March. Eleven hectares very seriously, regarding their The farm in Mangatete Rd, of chicory is planted for a summer farm and dairy as a food producNgakuru, was previously a crop and silage made on farm is ing area with detailed procedures drystock property and its steep used in early-spring. ...continued in the dairy to be followed by

COAST & COUNTRY NEWS

Waikato FarmWise consultant Mike Bailey with farm owner Anthony McPherson and 2017 Central Plateau Share Farmer of the Year Award winners Bernice and Carlos Delos Santos. continued...

Ten per cent of the farm is regressed to annual or perennial species and shorter grazing rounds are in place on the hills. All pregnant cows stay on-farm during winter and are fed grass, some hay and palm kernel.

Twenty-five young stock are kept as replacements and this year rising one-year-olds will be grazed offfarm from May 1.

Fertiliser is applied based on soil tests and Overseer records in spring and autumn. Urea is applied by plane and 30 per cent of the farm receives lime annually. Effluent paddocks don’t receive any extra fertiliser. Waterways are fence off and the sand trap to catch sediment is cleaned regularly. The plan is to put in low volume sprinklers and a new effluent pond is to be built this December.

enjoying the lifestyle of farming. Through planning, commitment and communications, we gain action,” the couple say.

The short-term goals for Carlos and Bernice are to minimise overdraft facilities and pay off at least $30,000 per annum on their principle loan. The medium term goal is to secure a bigger 50/50 sharemilking position of between 450 to 600 cows within one to two years; and their long-term goal is to own their own 250 to 300-cow dairy farm by 2030.

Elaine Fisher

Three merit awards

As well as winning the overall sharemilkers’ title, Bernice and Carlos won three merit awards; DairyNZ Human Resources, Ecolab Farm Dairy Hygiene, and the Ravensdown Pasture Performance and Westpac Business Performance.

“Our vision and goals are to keep expanding our business, to have security for our family while

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COAST & COUNTRY NEWS

Page 6

Cattle’s kind temprement paramount Beth McVerry’s determination and love of her Cambridgebased Riggit Galloway herd is finally showing results.

Riggit Galloway bull ‘Riland Ranger’ displays great temperament and attitude.

What started out with one Riggit has now led to more than 40 with two distinct bloodlines.

Beth has been working for 10 years to get the Riggit Galloway recognised and registered in New Zealand. Now, finally, the herd and the Riggit Galloway cattle has its own ‘herd book’ and acknowledgement of the rare breed.

Originally from Scotland with documented 1740 evidence, the Riggit Galloway and solid black were the true Galloway cattle. The white and belted cattle came later.

A Riggit Galloway is a black – and rarely a red – with a distinctive white stripe down the backbone. Some have white speckled face or a plain black face with white teardrops. The Belted Galloways are black with a distinct white belt.

There is a famous Riggit painting or engraving of George Garrards ‘Fat Galloway Heifer’ dated 1799-1814.

The breed was reintroduced into the United Kingdom in the 1980s where there is a substantial herd book that documents the breed.

There are four types of Galloway – black, white with black points, Belted Galloway bred from crossing Dutch Belt, and the Riggit – white markings down the backbone.

Double coat

All Galloways have a ‘double’ coat, they are naturally polled – with no horns – medium-framed, possess excellent mothering skills and they do very well on hard ground – foraging on roughage or poor terrain.

In 2007 Beth owned a couple of White Galloways on her and husband Paul’s lifestyle block just south of Cambridge. She saw an advertisement for a solid black Galloway and in the advert it mentioned Riggit. She Googled ‘Riggit’ and started on what was to become extensive research.

Although she missed out on buying the solid black bull she managed to lease the father ‘Ngutunui White Dunmore’ – a purebred Galloway

...continued

COAST & COUNTRY NEWS

Page 7

Determination leads to Riggit breed registration Beth has worked hard to keep immaculate records to ensure the breed can continue and be authentic.

“It’s not just memory – everything is documented, which will give the credibility for a rare breed.”

She hopes by doing this other Galloway breeders will keep any Riggit Galloways, which might appear in their herds.

“They [Riggits] continue to be produced when breeding either the white or black Galloways, which shows just how strong the Riggit line is.

“I feel responsible for the formation of the Riggit Galloway in New Zealand and I am determined they will be right – not just coloured but will also have all the correct attributes of a Galloway.”

Fritha Tagg

Beth McVerry is proud of her Riggit Galloway herd. continued...

– but it was not registered because New Zealand did not recognise the Riggit breed.

Beth decided to breed and keep the Riggit ‘throwbacks’ while pursuing the aim of registration and ultimately a New Zealand Herd Book for the rare breed.

Her first bull purchase was ‘Cherrybank Dunstan’, a black Riggit. She then purchased ‘Riland Ranger’ and he is now fathering Beth’s Riggit cows. The herd now has five Riggit generations with two different genetic lines.

Imported semen

This year Beth is importing semen from a United Kingdom Riggit Galloway bull – ‘Clifton Red Pride’.

“He is an outstanding bull and will add another dimension, another genetic line that will further improve our herd.”

Through all her research and determination, it is the temperament of the animal which is paramount.

“It is so important to have a kind, easy to handle animal, especially on a lifestyle block,” says Beth.

Good attitude

“Dunstan’s temperament was outstanding so when I look at any animal I want an outstanding animal – all the right physical attributes, but most important is their attitude. It must be good.”

It is down to Beth’s determination that New Zealand now has

a NZ Herd Book and the future animals can be recorded.

All animals put forward for inclusion must have an independent inspection on-farm to determine their soundness, true to type, hardy coat, polled, stocky, and docile features. They are photographed and verified and then all details along with photographs and registration papers are sent to the UK. “We now have our own New Zealand Herd Book, which sits alongside the ‘UK Riggit Herd Book’ with correct criteria and the history of the breed will be preserved.”

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COAST & COUNTRY NEWS

COAST & COUNTRY NEWS

Page 9

Wild flowers benefit bees and kiwifruit Te Puke orchardists Ramsay and Lorraine Muir have more than kiwifruit on their minds at harvest time.

The couple, who have 27 canopy hectares of mostly Hayward fruit on No 4 Rd, are as passionate about wildflowers as they are about kiwifruit and use this time of year to plan for what they hope will be a multi-hued display of colour around their home and orchard come spring.

“There’s no guarantees with wildflowers and sometimes you need to plant them multiple times before they strike; but when they do, the result is stunning,” says Ramsay.

A third-generation Muir from one of Te Puke’s longest established families, Ramsay has grown wildflowers for nearly three decades. While he began as a hobbyist, growing them in a garden bed near the house, Ramsay’s success motivated him to continue planting smaller plots around his section. Not stopping there, he continued sowing seed on driveways leading into his orchard and in small gully areas where kiwifruit can’t grow.

Helps pollination

Although initially planted for their beauty, the Muirs found the flowers also helped in the pollination of their kiwifruit. Unlike typical kiwifruit orchardists, who remove nearby flowers during pollination time, the Muirs choose to leave their wildflowers in place.

“Bees need nectar for energy and wildflowers are full of it,” says Ramsay. “We see the bees staying in our orchard where the food is before going on to pollinate the kiwifruit. No one else has wildflower beds in their orchard but it obviously does no harm. In fact, our best production often comes from parts of the orchard where the wildflowers are.”

He sources his seed from Wildflower World, spending hours thumbing through catalogues and planning out his spring and summer displays. The mix Ramsay most often sows is Highfield Meadow but he has also used Country Road, Summer Dazzler and Pollinator Mix, which helps to attract bees.

After preparing the soil, using a combination of hand-tilling and machinery, he’ll sow his wildflower beds from late July. The earliest flower varieties will pop up in August.

“We’ll see Toad Flax first then Purple Tansy, Gypsophilia then Poppies which are hard to beat when they’re out on mass,” says Ramsay. “They pop

Ramsay Muir, pictured in his wildflower garden in late-December, surrounded by Queen Anne’s Lace and Pink Celene. up in three stages and as they emerge it’s a source of continual wonderment.

“I love them and all the planting and weeding keeps me fit. Plus I believe it’s a good thing to be sympathetic to the environment and what its needs are.

Wildflowers are a plentiful food source for bees and bumblebees, in particular. Our orchard is a constant hum at pollination time with them and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The Muirs encourage other people to plant wildflowers and share concerns raised by the New Zealand Bumblebee Conservation Trust about the threat to horticulture posed by a decline in bumblebee populations.

The trust was created last year to educate New Zealanders about the immediate action required to protect bumblebees for the continued production of food crops, now and in the future. Its goal is to ensure New Zealand is continually plentiful in bumblebees and other pollinator insects.

Bumblebee food

Co-founder Geoff Brunsden applauds the efforts of the Muirs for helping to make a difference. “Wildflowers are a wonderful food source for bumblebees which are one of the best pollinators on the planet.

They are 50 times more effective at pollinating than honeybees, and many Kiwis don’t realise how crucial they are to our food crops.

“Extinction would see a dramatic decline in the whole food production industry, and loss of variety of crops. Food prices would increase and the country

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A summer display of wildflowers from the Country Road mix. would be more reliant on imports, which in turn would increase food costs. We need more people like the Muirs to play their part.”

Trust co-founder Helen Johnson says New Zealand is experiencing a declining number of bumblebees due to a ‘perfect storm’ of factors, including reduced greenscape, disease, increasing

use of toxic pesticide spray, loss of food resources, genetic modification of seeds and flowers and pests.

“What we’re doing at the NZBCT is encouraging people to look at bumblebees and pollinators in a new light and understand the significant contribution they make to the horticultural Alison Brown industry.”

SHEEP & BEEF

Page 10

The opportunity terminal genetics offer

Potawa Simmentals at Piopio holds its annual on-farm bull auction at the end of May.

Simmental breeders around the country are waiting eagerly for the next stage of the Beef & Lamb NZ Genetics Beef Progeny Test.

Begun in 2014, the B+LNZ Genetics Beef Progeny Test is comparing bulls of different breeds under New Zealand commercial farming conditions.

The test is involving about 2200 cows and heifers on five large properties across New Zealand. A mix of both internationally-sourced and New Zealand semen is being used. Steers and cull heifers will be assessed on their carcase traits, while replacement heifers will be tracked for their maternal characteristics.

Funding partner

Simmental NZ – a significant funding partner in the B+LNZ Genetics BPT – is especially excited by the test’s early outcomes. Simmental bulls have been used at Whangara Farms, north east of Gisborne and at Rangitaiki Station, east of Taupo. The Simmental bulls produced progeny with higher average weaning, 6kg higher, and yearling weight, at 20kg higher.

The difference between the highest and lowest average adjusted sire weaning weight in the progeny from the 2014 mating was 26kg. At a conservative price of $4/kg, that’s $104/head. If a sire produced 50 calves a year, that’s $5200. If the sire was used for three years, that’s $15,600.

An extra $15,600 looks attractive, especially if the cost is only the difference between buying one bull over another. But it’s also an insight to the

opportunity terminal genetics offer.

The progeny test is highlighting the monetary benefits commercial farmers can enjoy – if they make a small time investment and target specific genetic traits that will deliver them more of what they need.

It is great having this real-life demonstration happening right here in New Zealand. Commercial farmers can see first-hand that beef genetics work.

What they are seeing is calf performance very closely matching what is predicted by the parent bull’s Estimated Breeding Values.

Economic sense

This sort of outcome is not new or novel. Breeding values have been available in bull sale catalogues for decades for breeders and commercial farmers alike to use, and research around the world has demonstrated their application and predictability. It makes good economic sense to use a bull that has EBVs available rather than one you know nothing about. Bull breeders who record the information, which goes into the Estimated Breed Values, will tell you that the higher the accuracy of the EBV, the easier it is to see the genetics work.

Potawa Simmentals at Piopio holds its annual on-farm bull auction on Tuesday, May 30, at 1pm, and all 20 bulls catalogued have full EBVs available.

You can call them for a catalogue or check out their online catalogue at: www.simmental.co.nz Viewing of the bulls prior to sale is welcome, just give them a call.

By Tracey Neal of Potawa Simmentals

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SHEEP & BEEF

Page 11

1000 fewer sheep but same number of lambs

There are 8000 ewes, with 2500 replacements, and 100 rams, 550 in-calf beef cows, 120 calves and 15 bulls on the Southland farm Nick Miller runs.

Mandeville lies in the Riversdale area, between Gore and Lumsden – and the Miller family has farmed around Southland for many years, working up to this 2400ha farm.

Nick Miller, who runs it these days, spent some years working for others and ventured overseas but returned to the family farm 17 years ago. His parents still live on the farm, and his dad works more or less full-time, not fancying retirement even at 73. There are two full-time staff, but it’s a busy life.

Nick’s three children, aged 10, 12 and 14, are pretty keen on farm life and love to help out with feeding extra lambs and other farm chores.

For a writer who lives on one hectare with seven animals, Nick’s stock numbers were mindboggling.

There are 8000 ewes, with 2500 replacements, and 100 rams, 550 in-calf beef cows, 120 calves and 15 bulls.

Nick describes the topography

of the farm as about 60 per cent steep tussock country, which rises to 550m above sea level, and with more rolling hills and flats making up the other 40 per cent.

My reason for contacting Nick was that three years ago, when attending a meat company field day, he met Brendon Walsh of GrowFARM and became interested in the idea of running a more successful business than he was managing at that time. As one who’d left school and gone straight into farm work, Nick felt he was running a business and not just a farm – but didn’t know how to do it more profitably.

Clarity and planning

Getting to grips with the GrowFARM systems and software was initially a lot of work, but the clarity and forward planning involved has been just what he wanted.

These days Nick feels, with the programmes he uses, the whole business is at his fingertips and he’s in control. Now there is a clear plan in place, he can think strategically, and controlling and valuing dry matter makes perfect sense. It’s

all on the screen in front of him.

He says one of the first things he realised was he had too many sheep for the dry matter he could grow, and got rid of 1000 quickly. These days he gets the same number of lambs as before, but every sheep is better fed and worth more. He’s a ‘finishing’ man rather than a trader, and now can see his finished stock getting top prices and top weights.

More confidence

He’s also found that running a business properly involves working on it, and not just in it. Spending time on recording, costing and planning can be a lot more useful to the business than him rushing out to shift some sheep when there are others who can do that just as well.

Nick has a lot more confidence in his decision making now, but it has always been a comfort to know that when he has a tricky problem he’s been able to ring Brendon at any time for help to sort it out. He’s also hugely enjoyed the GrowFARM culture, which arranges times when big groups of clients can get together, discuss current

problems and celebrate together how much better they are all doing.

For Nick the key improvements have been getting his stocking numbers right for the land capability, and knowing that he is truly running a good business these days.

And Brendon’s always positive attitude has spurred him on when he knows other farmers in the district are not doing as well, but don’t appear ready to make changes.

Sue Edmonds

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CALF REARING

Liquid organic selenium for pre-calving nutrition After a successful launch in 2016, BEC Feed Solutions is again offering Selisseo as a pre-calving nutrition supplement.

Country manager Trina Parker says it is the world’s only organic selenium liquid, and being a liquid in five litre containers it is easy to dose via water application or daily drenching, without the need for invasive selenium injections.

“It’s the perfect solution to New Zealand’s poor selenium soil and animal health levels. We are excited with this concept, all our farmers are aware selenium and its effects when absent,” says Trina.

Antioxidant effects

Containing 100 per cent effective selenium ‘Selisseo 2% Se Liquid’ supports immediate and prolonged antioxidant effects, which will enhance performance of cows during stressful conditions such as pregnancy, calving, heat stress and sub-pathologies.

“It is well documented that NZ’s marginal selenium soil status contributes to clinical and non-diagnosed selenium deficiency across NZ’s livestock,” says Trina Low selenium status of animals can cause reproductive problems, poor immune status, increased disease rates, increased retained placenta, poor fertility and decreased production. Initial on-farm observations have shown positive levels of selenium deposition in milk. This confirms the positive deposition of selenium in the tissues, where it is needed and stored.

Daily dose rate

BEC Feed Solutions is launching a time and cost defined solution for dairy farms, to enable farmers to be proactive pre-calving. This package is designed to be used from June 1, or up to four weeks pre-calving.

It is designed to be delivered as a daily dose rate of 0.25ml/cow per day via metered water system or drench, delivering the widely recommended daily dose of 5mg of selenium. Being organic makes it 100

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The BEC Selisseo water system. per cent bio-available and it is stored in the animal tissue for times of stress such as calving or early lactation.

Benefits of selenium supplementation with Selisseo include transfer to foetus and colostrum and milk; more disease resistance in calves; and decreased Somatic Cell Counts, which can be due to improved immune function. Retained placenta is commonly associated with low selenium status, causing reduced in-calf rates and high treatment costs.

“Ideally, farms would continue to use this through to the end of mating. But pre-calving is a good start to ensure the optimal nutrition for your herd at this vital time for setting up the season,” says Trina.

CALF REARING

Page 13

New regulations for calf handling New regulations for young calves introduced by the Ministry for Primary Industries affect any farmer who sends calves off-farm for sale or slaughter, transport operators and meat processors of young calves.

digging into a bank or creating an earth mound against a wooden retaining wall to provide face to load off.

Depending on existing topography and available drainage, it may be possible to reduce the necessary loading height by digging down to lower the deck height of the truck so that the access point is lower.

Packed earth ramps If farmers are not prepared and Packed earth ramps; form sides do not comply with regulations, and loading face using treated they could either face fines or will posts and timber rails, then create not be able to transport calves the ramp by filling between the off-farm. For more information timber sides using packed earth. about the new regulations visit Using an existing raised the Ministry for Primary Indusstructure; adapting an existing tries website. woolshed or utilising a disused The following information tanker stand may provide a lowabout the new regulations can be cost option to achieve correct found on the DairyNZ website: loading height. www.dairynz.co.nz/animal/ Typically, loading ramps for calves/bobby-calves/loadingcows are not suitable for calves facilities/ because they are usually too steep Young calves must be slaughand often have wide gaps in the tered as soon as possible after sides that become trap hazards arrival at the slaughter premises. for calves. Attaching plywood The maximum time a calf can be with cable ties to create a solidoff feed is 24 hours. sided ramp may be an affordable Loading and unloading facilities Farmers must have calf loading must be provided when young facilities that meet the new regulations. option. A sheltered holding area may also have to be created. calves are transported for sale or Commercial holding platforms are available from a slaughter. This means that calves can walk onto and off timber merchant or farm supply stores in some regions. vehicles by their own action. Transporters must also Another option for raised platforms is a ramp incorpotake all reasonable steps to use these facilities. Suitrated into the design so calves will not have to be lifted. able shelter must be provided for young calves before, Using a tractor-mounted carry tray may be an option. during and after transportation.

Fit for transport

Other regulations for calves came into force in August 2016 and these included that calves must be fit for transport.

Calves must be at least four days of age – or 96 hours old – and physically fit before they are transported offfarm for sale or slaughter. This applies to any young calf that is up to 14 days old and has been separated from its mother.

There is to be no use of blunt force to the head for putting down calves, except in an emergency situation to avoid unnecessary suffering. This applies to any calf that has not been weaned off milk, or a milk replacement. There is a maximum duration of 12 hours’ journey time for young calves being transported and there is a prohibition on transport by sea across Cook Strait.

Whenever calves leave the farm on a truck, working with the transporter to make their job as easy as possible will help to ensure calves are treated with care.

Guidelines for calf holding and loading facilities regulations will come into effect from August 1, 2017.

These facilities must be off the roadside and accessible for the truck and trailer to reverse up to. Calves should be able to walk on to the truck.

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Page 14

Farmers should compare prices, quality of fertiliser Recently a farmer had contacted me boasting he had just applied a fine prilled lime product at 250kg/ha which he was told by the company selling it was the equivalent of applying 2.5 tonne/ha of standard agricultural lime and how this had saved him a whole lot of money on cartage and spreading costs.

I asked him how much per tonne it had cost, which was around $300/

tonne, and then informed him he had just applied a very expensive form of lime.

Fine ground lime may work faster than normal lime, but it has no greater calcium carbonate content and once it is ‘spent’ it is spent, so will need to be applied a lot more regularly to maintain soil pH than standard ag lime.

Normal lime costs between $16/tonne

and $30/ tonne, depending on source, and so long as it is ground down to the standard fineness recommended by the Lime Millers Association, will start working within a few months and keep working for several years, as the finer particles dissolve quicker and coarser particles dissolve slower.

Aerial limes

An on-farm trial using standard Ravensdown Supreme lime showed visual responses within weeks after being applied. Sometimes during busy times, lime quarries do not take time out to maintain their crushers, rollers and screens and consequently some lime is sold that is too coarse, which may take many years to work.

Also for some aerial limes, some companies have included a 3mm chip to help it flow. Ideally, lime should be less than 60 microns or 0.6 mm, and the old standards used to be that at least 55 per cent had to pass through a 0.5mm screen and 95 per cent through a 2mm screen.

At this year’s Fertiliser and Lime Research Centre conference at Massey University I took a senior Raven-

Robin Boom

CPAg MBSPC

Independent Agronomy & Soil Fertility Consultant

sdown staff member to task for selling their substandard BG4 Reactive Phosphate Rock rebranded as Direct Application Phosphate Rock, which he did not dispute would take 20-30 years to fully work. His response was: “If farmers want it, we will sell it to them”.

I told him this was not good enough, because farmers are buying such a product in ignorance.

Decades to work

Shareholders can go online to the Ravensdown website and look under phosphate fertilisers and see superphosphate at nine per cent P priced at $319/ tonne and DAPR at 13 per cent P at $349/tonne, so for an extra $30 a farmer thinks he is buying over 40 per cent more phosphate – at 35 per cent cheaper per unit of P – not realising it will take decades to fully work.

Ballance is selling this same product but getting farmers to sign disclaimer/waiver forms since it falls outside of the specs for being a true RPR. I doubt whether their reps are informing their customers it could take 20-30 years to fully work because no farmer in their right mind should be using such a product. However, I do know some reps refuse to stoop so low and will not sell this product.

Last month I had a client who wanted to apply a capital application of phosphate to get their P levels closer to biological optimum, and had their local rep price up superphosphate and asked me what I thought.

I informed them they could save tens of thousands of dollars getting a blend of triple super and sulphur from a private importer.

As the co-operative did not want to lose business a more senior staff member contacted them and tried to sell them BG4, informing them it was 26-28 per cent citric soluble P, since this could be competitively priced per unit of P against this cheaper triple super. I told them not to waste their money if they wanted to get their P levels up quickly and not wait 20-30 years for it to fully work.

Significantly cheaper

Currently, there are a number of private companies I know selling fertiliser products in the upper North Island significantly cheaper than the two big co-operatives – Zealyn, Fertilisers Direct, Fert Direct, Landco, Farmex, Dickey Direct, Fert Wholesale Direct and another couple, which will be bringing in products next spring.

For instance, there are three companies currently selling DAP for between $60-$120/tonne – or nine-18 per cent – cheaper than the co-ops. Two companies are selling triple super for about $180/tonne – or 25 per cent – cheaper. Four companies selling sulphate of ammonia for $50-$145/tonne – or 10-30 per cent – cheaper. And one company selling urea for $70/tonne – or 15 per cent – cheaper.

One tactic the co-ops use to try and dissuade clients from using such products is saying these products are not up to the same standard as theirs, which is ironic because some of their own products fall well short of the bar like BG4.

All of these importers, as far as I am aware, get each shipment tested before it leaves the country of origin and also tested here in NZ as soon as it arrives, and openly inform farmers if it is substandard.

Last year one importer of feed grade high analysis Dicalcium phosphate, 18 per cent P, was duped by a rogue trader from China who imported a shipment that upon arrival was tested and turned out to be a kieserite, magnesium sulphate, type product with only one per cent P. Needless to say the importer took a considerable financial hit on this, and sold the kieserite at a considerable loss. I had several clients who bought some of this cheap kieserite for their pasture and maize crops for less than one-third the co-ops were selling kieserite for.

Robin Boom, CPAg, member of the Institute of Professional Soil Scientists.

Ravensdown and Ballance were invited to respond to this article but declined to do so.

DAIRY

Page 15

Growth in the name of immigration It seems that the Government is happy to have very open borders, bringing in 70,000 people annually because it keeps growth in the economy.

That is probably true, but there are some serious distortions appearing. I also appreciate that these figures include Kiwis returning home to New Zealand – and a caveat here is that if the world turns grumpy there will be a massive rush back ‘home’ for all of those with a Kiwi passport.

Let’s consider some of the issues.

Say 70,000 people is a city the size of Invercargill arriving every year.

Unfortunately a lot of the ‘foreign’ immigrants come from overseas cities and immediately want to go to Auckland – and not rural communities – increasing all sorts of pressure there.

Say 70,000 people also want cars, there is a commensurate number of new and used cars on our already clogged-up city roads. I think there are 167,000 new cars coming onto our roads this year. Are they crushing the old ones that fast?

Pressure

Infrastructure – the pressure on roading, schooling, hospitals and all associated social services is immense.

This is all a big cost to the Government, but I guess the spending on all those facets is considered ‘growth’ to the economy. And, of course, they will be borrowing the money.

Crime – it must be difficult to vet everyone properly who comes into New Zealand, but it sounds like there are a number of less-thandesirables arriving and setting up crime cells and undercover gangs.

Labour – it is clear the vast majority of young people are working their butts off and making a huge contribution. Clearly there are a few who are on drugs – quote Bill English – but you have to admire those who are young and hard at it with house, families, businesses or working hard paying taxes to help run this country.

Concerning

Rapid growth – we know in commerce and business that managed growth is essential. Grow too fast and your need for new capital exceeds your cashflow. New Zealand, of course, is borrowing rapidly to fund this growth. But debt is debt, whichever way you look at it, and which generation will repay it?

Housing – we own some storage units in Waihi and every other

And – the footnote is – one can understand immigrants wanting to come and live in this amazing food-producing paradise safe at the bottom of the world. person asks if they can live in one as they have been displaced from their existing accommodation. This repetitive question is very concerning. Council may even consider well fitted 40’ containers as accommodation with a “licence to occupy”. Social housing they call it because of the displaced peoples.

Now I have raved on long enough here and I am not against immigration. It is, however, putting immense pressure on all parts of our society and infrastructure. New Zealand has to borrow to fund this growth and while our debt ratios are fine, debt is debt.

In summary, immigration is good for an economy. Managing the numbers seems very important so as not to overload our systems and society. It may be that the public will vote against the present government, who seem to know better than we. If the public vote against the present government will the other parties have a different view anyway?

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DAIRY

Page 16

We all have a part to play to address climate change It looks like all of those warnings we’ve been hearing for at least 20 years about the impacts on weather of climate change have come true – and with vengeance.

I said in the April column the weather had been weird, and it just got weirder.

We were fortunately able to harvest our maize in the few fine days between cyclones Debbie and Cook.

However, the ground was so wet we had to pull some trucks out with tractors and the paddocks were pretty roughed up with deep trench marks.

Springs have sprung up where no

springs had been before and we nearly lost machinery in one hole.

Instead of direct drilling grass seed as I would normally do, we will have to work up the paddocks to get them ready for sowing because they are so badly rutted, in preparation for winter grazing.

However, we have been luckier than some maize growers who didn’t manage to get their crops off and any that are waterlogged won’t survive because the plants start to die when their roots are deprived of oxygen for too long. Some that have blown over in the Whakatane

region also have silt on them, which can potentially cause problems with ensiling, but with the correct inoculant this problem can be addressed.

We have been fortunate enough to meet all orders for maize silage but unfortunately some others haven’t, so given the ongoing bad weather it looks like supplementary feed will be in short supply this season.

We have reasonable stocks and are able to source some if required.

Tough on farmers

The extensive flooding around Whakatane, Edgecumbe and Papamoa has been extremely hard on farmers with cows having to be dried off, stock moved and issues of re-establishing pasture in time for winter and milking in the spring.

Some kiwifruit orchards around Edgecumbe were also flooded and the continuing rain delayed pick-

ing, causing headaches for growers and post-harvest operators.

While there’s no argument that the rain brought by these two extropical cyclones was extreme, we have to be prepared for more of the same in future; and councils and roading authorities have to play a part in helping farmers have some control over flooding.

Pests and diseases

It took me three months to get resource consent to clean a drain near railway lines. That’s far too long and now I have to deal with not just local bodies but also roading authorities to get permission to do what was done as routine back in the ‘good old days’ when the catchment commissions had responsibility for drains and canals.

The weather might be tough for farmers but you can bet there will be some critters out there that will love these warm wet conditions and be lurking, ready to cause havoc on crops and pastures, so farmers need to be on the lookout for pests,

both insects and weeds, and disease now too.

Thankfully, it appears the milk price is holding and Fonterra’s predicted $6 payout should be certain.

Cyclones Debbie and Cook are a reminder that we all – farmers, growers and those living in urban areas – have to take responsibility for what’s happening to our environment and climate and do what we can to help bring about change.

Fewer cows not the answer Two reports just released reviewing New Zealand’s environmental performance, (OECD and GLOBE NZ) have both called for a substantial reduction in animal livestock numbers.

Prime Minister Bill English has stated that the Government has no intention of demanding the one third cut called

for in the reports. And that’s the best possible position because in our view it’s not the number of animals that’s the problem.

Nor is pastoral farming in general the cause of excessive greenhouse gas, and Nitrate-N entering streams, rivers, and groundwater. It’s the way it’s being carried out by so many farmers that is the issue.

Pastoral farming is currently seen, with justification, as the environmental villain, but with the implementation of some simple Kiwi ingenuity it can be the process by which NZ is able to meet its 2030 commitments under the November 2016 ratified Paris Agreement.

The recent OECD environmental performance review stated that New Zealand’s growth model has reached its environmental limits, with increased GHGs, freshwater contamination and loss of biodiversity now at unsustainable levels.

Storing carbon

Dairy farming is singled out as a significant contributor with the remedy being a reduction in animal numbers.

It’s a sensible and logical conclusion if in fact the basis of the argument on which it is founded is correct.

However consider the situation where pastoral farming, particularly intensive low land farming, reduces the concentrations of atmospheric CO2 by releasing oxygen into the atmosphere while storing carbon in the soil.

Carbon, when sequestered in the soil in a stable form, commonly known as humus, provides a highly effective filter

largely eliminating excess Nitrate-N, phosphorus, and other nutrient losses entering groundwater.

With every one per cent increase in soil carbon an extra 144,000 litres of water can be stored, and used by plants providing an increase in total pasture growth. So summer production can be lifted, less irrigation is required and nutrient loss is further reduced.

Minimal adjustment

And the process is simple with minimal adjustment to stocking rates, and when a reduction in animal numbers is necessary total farm production lifts. The transition time may take as long as three years however astute managers make the change more rapidly.

Understanding the grazing principles that maximise the performance of permanent pastures are also those that ensure highest per animal production, and when implemented, less total feed is required for maintenance and more becomes available for production.

The system now being practiced by an increasing number of farmers is founded on the widely accepted replacement of nutrient model using regular soil testing in New Zealand laboratories.

Phosphorus and sulphur are essential inputs with potassium applied as required using well-founded and longused nutrient removal models. A recent farmer convert stated that the process was far closer to conventional than he expected.

The difference lies in the use of fertiliser nitrogen. Nitrogen is a component of protein, and protein production is the essence of pastoral farming; the reason for the consumption of both milk and meat.

Nitrogen makes up 78 per cent of the air that we breathe and therefore a limitless supply is accessible. However, to make sufficient nitrogen plant available to maximise pasture growth requires substantial amounts of energy.

Under the present conventional farming model ...continued

DAIRY

Page 17

Personal power as important as skill sets The importance of personal power should never be underestimated, says Joanna Greaves. She believes when it comes to farming in particular, a positive mindset and can-do attitude is initially more important than practical skills.

In the All Blacks we have the best rugby brand and in our dairy industry we are also the world’s best.”

Those high standards are achieved in both the sport and the industry by attracting likeminded people with the skillsets to grow and add value.

Joanna is a chartered accountant who has worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers and When they were dairy Joanna and Richard Greaves, past dairy award WHK. Richard, who farming, Joanna and husband has a business degree in winners, today are directors of Richard Greaves looked for marketing and managetheir own business called ‘agbility’. staff with the right attitude ment, worked as sales and and a willingness to work hard, not necessarily those marketing manager for a farm machinery company in with previous experience.

Hastings, before the couple decided to change to dairyJoanna says people can be taught skills but it’s a ing in 2007. They later went 50 per cent sharemilking positive mindset and can-do attitude that helps ensure 1400 cows at Darfield, in Canterbury. success and resilience.

Their own positive attitudes and farming and Career development academic skill are among the reasons the couple won The couple say taking part in dairy awards helped the 2011 Hawkes’ Bay Sharemilker/Equity Farmer of with their career development and they strongly the Year title and were runner up in the New Zealand encourage people at all levels in the industry to enter Dairy Industry Awards. because doing so brings credibility, and opens up Richard and Joanna, today owners of their own busiopportunities. ness ‘agbility’, shared some of their experiences with Helping others unlock their personal and business those attending the 2017 Bay of Plenty Dairy Industry potential is what Richard and Joanna are now doing Awards field day on Scottie and Jill McLeod’s farm through their latest venture, the Tauranga-based near Whakatane in March. company they call ‘agbility’.

Rugby and dairying They have combined Richard’s extensive agribusiRichard says there are strong synergies between rugby ness knowledge and farming background, with his and dairying, a comparison unsurprising given his love down-to-earth nature and Joanna’s chartered accounting qualifications, hands-on know how, and zestful of both endeavours, which has included playing rugby approach to life, to help others make the most of in the United Kingdom.

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Balance of N comes from clover continued...

that energy comes from natural gas and is converted under the Haber-Bosch process to manufacture urea. Currently over 700,000 tonne is applied annually to this country’s best land with the ‘average’ dairy farm applying close to 400kg/ha each year.

The properties implementing a Functional Farming system do not apply urea, although they may apply a small amount of nitrogen in a different form in autumn and winter. Typically less than 30kg N/ha is applied annually.

The balance of the nitrogen required to maximise pasture growth comes primarily from clover, as it has for the last 150 years. The breakthrough has come from a better understanding of the conditions that favour the fixation of nitrogen by rhizobia on the root of clovers.

These conditions are also those that favour the fixation of nitrogen direct

from the atmosphere and with detailed measures from the last 10 years the system has been shown to be remarkably resilient and genuinely sustainable.

A shift in seasonal growth does occur with a little less pasture grown in August, September, and October.

Comparative data shows 17 per cent less grown in that period, however 74 per cent more was grown over the months of November, December, and January; 55 per cent more over February, March and April, with a total gain of 25 per cent for the 12 month period from June 1 to May 31.

A detailed cost analysis shows the Functional Fertiliser inputs costing a little less than a conventional nutrient programme for an intensive dairy operation where 160kgN/ha is applied annually. For more information contact Peter on 0800 843 809.

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DAIRY

Page 18

When will scientists stop believing they are wiser than nature?

Some scientists believe their critics are anti-science.

That makes them self-appointed spokespersons for the science community. It is the scientist’s ego and ignorance that is the problem, not the science.

We have been and are being lied to by government, politicians, corporations, institutions, news media, marketers, doctors and scientists. Misrepresentation seems to be the norm. Use of a true statement is often designed to confound their critics and the general public.

One such statement: “It’s not the urea, it’s the urine that’s the problem” is a blatant example. The equation is simple: more urea applied to dairy farms, the

Authorised licensee

ha versus 1.58kg/ha on more the cows urinate. More a daily basis. Nitrogen urea also ends up in the milk. usage is 84kg/ha as SOA The sellers of urea perand DAP versus 123 kg/ petuate the myth that farmers’ ha of urea. production will suffer without The advantage to the it. Nevermind much of it is Albrecht farm has only polluting our waterways and just started. Just watch being flushed out to sea, or the funding dry up now. into the atmosphere. We are Imagine what the potennot against responsible use of tial would be if all farms nitrogen. But the environment adopted the Albrecht is overloaded with it and that approach that “doesn’t has to change. work” according to numerous critIn a trial in its third year between a farm on the Albrecht system of soil fertil- ics? Environmental pollution would certainly improve. ity and a chemically fertilised farm near Methven, the Albrecht farm is 139 kg/ha ahead in production than the chemical ‘Not replicated’ one. The cows are producing 1.84kg/ This trial was criticised by a soil chemist for not being “replicated” and therefore of no value. Doesn’t he want the truth? Does he want random replication and doubleblind to boot? We know the results would be even better if there was biological representation on the committee, but it is left to the chemical brains to decide, and they clearly don’t appreciate the differences required.

Another aspect is food. Scientists measure the nutrition of food and

make statements comparing one with the other, again leaving out crucial information. The pasteurisation of milk and yogurt springs to mind. A scientist stated: “There are insignificant differences between the two”. The part that is left out is the once-living food has been killed.

Eighty per cent of our immune system is in our gut. The point of eating yogurt is to get the bacteria for our health. Well it used to be; now it is largely an unhealthy lolly experience for children. Pasteurisation is a convenient tool used so certain foodstuffs can be marketed and kept for extended periods; it has nothing to do with improving quality for the consumer.

GMO push

For most foodstuffs we know the Government is refusing to require country of origin labelling, and we know that is not for the consumers’ benefit.

Environment Minister Nick Smith pushes Genetically Modified Organisms using emotional blackmail as his argument. Dr Smith said the “Government was acting because it was worried local coun-

cils would stop important medical trials that use GMO technology from going ahead.” Rubbish; what a poor excuse. There is not a modicum of evidence that GMO organisms are safe.

In fact, there is a plethora of evidence that GM feedstuffs fed to animals cause serious organ damage and cancerous tumours, resulting in premature death. Yes, we need more definition around GMO and GE. In United States, scientists devised GMO corn to beat insects such as corn rootworm, a beetle larva. Now the rootworm has overcome GMO and has devastated large areas of corn in some states. Scientists told the farmers to plant GMO corn in conjunction with a soybean rotation. The rootworms simply learnt to eat the soybeans.

That beetle was accidentally exported to Europe, where it is not a problem because agriculture is more traditional with crop rotations and non-GMO crops. They have a similar problem in Brazil, but with a different insect. When will GMO and chemical scientists stop believing they are wiser than nature itself?

DAIRY

Family farming history dates to 1920s

Karamjeet Singh with cows and (inset) with his father Mahindar and photos of the family which came to NZ in the 1920s.

The farming gene runs strong in the Morrinsville Singh family. Mahindar Singh and his wife Jispal Kaur are the third generation to farm on their Piako Rd, Morrinsville, property.

The fourth generation – their sons Agiapal and Sahejdeep – now manage the two Fonterra supply herds on this property while the oldest son, Karamjeet, has taken the responsibility for a newlyacquired 180 hectares Tatua supply dairy farm on State Highway 27.

But you have to look back many years to the early 1920s, when a 15-year-old Mela Singh left his home in India to travel to New Zealand, to understand the depth of this Singh farming experience.

Karamjeet’s great-grandfather, Lt Mela Singh, managed to get entry into New Zealand because he could write his name – in English. Mela Singh did all sorts of farm work when he came this country, getting work wherever he could. After 10 years he returned to India to bring his wife and son, Lt Sarwan Singh, back to New Zealand.

The family has stories of the couple living in a tent alongside a river in Pirongia for two years while they worked on nearby farms. The hard work ethics paid off with the next generation.

In 1935 Sarwan Singh and his family managed to scrape money together to buy 10 acres in Taumaranui and as time went by they increased their land holding to 150ha. In 1935 the family moved to Piako Rd in Morrinsville where

the extended family all learned the dairy farming lifestyle.

Sarwan’s son Mahindar took over in 1973 and today his three sons have the responsibility of three dairy farms.

“Our three sons are progressing through the dairy sector and grasping the challenges they face with the balance of new and old methods,” says Mahindar. “As the generations are progressing, so is the technology.”

Latest technology

As a youngster Karamjeet helped on the family farm and after his schooling at Hamilton Boys’ High School he headed off to learn a trade off the farm as a fitter-welder before returning to work on the new family dairy farming venture on SH27. ...continued

PK / SILAGE BUNKERS

DESIGN – SUPPLY – BUILD

Page 19

FARM SAFETY & SECURITY

Page 20

Preventing injuries Farm workers do a variety of manual handling tasks. These involve using force, repetitive movements, stooping, static and awkward postures, continual bending and twisting at the waist, and handling heavy objects.

There are several ways to identify manual handling hazards on the farm: • Farm records (eg hazard registers, accident investigation forms, early report of discomfort) are a good source of information to identify manual handling tasks where people were harmed from these tasks.

• Talk with employees who can help you understand potentially unsafe tasks.

• Watch all manual handling tasks to

Technology saves time, money and milk

identify the hazards and assess the risk level each task poses.

• Make sure your workers know which manual handling tasks are hazardous and how they can reduce injury risks.

• Plan for appropriate handling of heavy objects Key points • Manual handling can harm your musculoskeletal system (bones and muscles), slowly, so the injury gets worse (chronic) over time. Prevention is the best approach.

• Identify the manual hazards on the farm and put steps in place to minimise handling injuries.

Source: http://saferfarms.org.nz/ - a dedicated website for farmers to get clear health and safety advice and information.

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He had the dairy farming basics, the ‘right’ way of farming and certainly had the experience – but he was keen to also embrace the latest technology and one of those innovations was the “Halo System”, a programme which enables dairy farmers to monitor aspects of their farming operation – like milk temperature in the vats and water levels in bores.

“The sole reason behind me installing the “Halo System” was to eliminate the staff errors like switching the chiller units on at start of milking, vat refrigeration faults and any chillers faults.

“Chillers are one of the most important parts to maintain the quality of milk,” says Karamjeet.

There was plenty of family discussion about new technology – the three farms are family-run and owned operations, they share ideas and experiences and they also share equipment. Purchasing the big ticket items like expensive tractors, drain diggers they can use on all three farms, sharing the expense, just makes good sense.

When they purchased the SH27 farm in 2010 it had a six-year-old cowshed and was already a Tatua supplier and for the first year Karamjeet just ran the farm “as it was”.

Different farming style

“It was very high input. The soil is sandy loam. We had been used to farming on the peat at Piako Rd. “This is a completely different style of farming so we had to readjust to make it work. We reduced cow numbers by 60 and reduced the high-input feed.”

They used to feed maize, palm kernel, molasses, even whey. “We wanted to bring it back to a more grass and silage to be more self-sufficient but it needed work. We needed to keep production up.

“We reconfigured the races – now we have a full loop.

The 50-bail rotary has Protrack and we have changed small things in the shed and installed a glycol chiller but I was also keen to get the “Halo System” up and running.

“I first became aware of this technology through Tag It, which are computer specialists for the dairy industry, then followed its progress through various websites feedback of other farmers who have installed it and the specialist.”

But he waited for a year or two to ensure all of the kinks were sorted. “I kept my eye on it, watched it progress. We installed it this season and it’s been great.

I can monitor the vats, ensure the milk temperature is where it should be. I can check the water levels around the farm, the irrigation and we can add other applications as we go – like weather stations.”

Karamjeet says Halo records milk temperature every five minutes. He uses his phone to open an app and the simple diagrams and graphs show exactly what is happening. During the interview the tanker arrived and five minutes after it left we could see the change in the data on his phone.

The farmer sets the parameters and if the temperature changes then an alert is sent by text or email so

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the farmer is aware of any problem.

Since installing this system it has already paid for itself with the early alerts of major vat cooling errors.

Earlier in the season, when the power to the vat tripped, the milk temperature changed but because Halo had alerted Karamjeet to the problem he was able to do something about it immediately. The system is run on solar energy so is not affected by power outage.

Karamjeet says Halo gives him peace of mind and he can be anywhere – all he has to do is check his phone or respond to an alert.

Avoid mistakes

He says it is another good tool, which makes farming easier and safer, and means they can avoid costly mistakes when power supply or similar fails and the milk temperature is jeopardised.

“As a young farmer I want to keep on top of the technology which will assist us. I feel it is in our best interest that we help progress and promote in a positive manner the dairy industry.

“If we improve our methods with the help of such systems we also can encourage the new generation into this sector. Leaving aside any stereotypical understandings of a dairy farmer and show the new generation how far dairy farming has come since my granddad and dad’s era.”

Mahindar says he wished he had Halo in his early dairy farming days. “In past years we’ve had to dump a few loads of milk because the power or something had affected the chiller and Fonterra won’t take milk which does not comply.

“The Halo system would have paid for just one of those spoilt milk loads,” says Mahindar.

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Karamjeet Singh at the dairy with, in the background, the Halo aerial that helps him monitor what’s happening on the farm and in the vat.

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DAIRY INDUSTRY AWARDS

Page 21

Safety key focus of farming business The 2017 Bay of Plenty Share Farmers of the Year Award winners Cameron and Marg Bierre with farm owners Jill and Scottie McLeod.

The award judges commended the couple’s excellent systems around staff management and welfare and the implementation of health and safety polices.

The couple also encourage and support training for staff both on and off-farm and use a buddy system to share skills between staff. Family and recreational time is also important.

It’s not just staff they manage well. The couple are in their fourth season working for Scottie and Jill McLeod on a 236 hectares effective dairy farm near Whakatane. Their first season was under a manag ment agreement and currently they are in the third season of a variable order contract.

While both had grown up on farms, they’d initially taken different career paths. Cameron, who has a Bachelor of Science in agriculture and agribusiness, was a Ballance Agri-Nutrients representative in the Bay of Plenty and then a consulting office for airyNZ in the Whakatane region for three years. Marg, who has a BSc in ecology and horticulture, has held serval roles in the kiwifruit industry, most recently working for EastPack at Edgecumbe.

During the field day on the cLeod farm, Cameron admitted hands-on farming has made him re-think some of the practices he used to suggest to DairyNZ clients during his time as consultant.

However, his in-depth knowledge of soil fertility and pasture are the attributes that have enabled him to run a successful low-input farm system.

Accurate records

Cameron ensures herd records are accurate and uses those records to support decision making around breeding, culling and herd management.

The McLeod farm’s soil type is peat over sand on the heavy country and sandy loam on the high land.

The farm is subject to surface flooding, including in the April floods which foll wed the field da .

Cameron focuses on using wet land and dry land strategically throughout the season to avoid undue

pasture damage.

Between 17ha to 30ha of new grass is sown as part of the summer cropping programme. Trojan and NEA2 were selected using forage value indexes and the chicory crop was hard-grazed before applying a halfrate of Round-up spray. This enabled 20 per cent of the chicory to come through in permanent pasture.

Cameron says the new grass paddocks are growing about 30 per cent greater than the farm average and the poorest performing paddock is growing at 47 per cent of the average. The farm has paspalum, mainly in small areas of a paddock, which does create grazing management challenges.

Full-time employees

The farm has a 50-bail rotary with a Mi-Hub system with in-line mastitis detection based on milk conductivity, and auto-draft facilities.

Marg had been working off-farm full-time and Cameron is full-time on the farm. The couple have three full-time employees.

Marg told those at the field day she and Came on are committed to safety for everyone on the farm. ”We recognise that our farm, like every farm, has risks associated with it. But we are committed to providing a safe work environment by identifying those risks and eliminating or minimising them.

“We make sure workers know how to do their jobs, handle stock correctly and that they can safely use farm vehicles and equipment. We talk regularly with all workers and ensure everyone understands how things are to be done.”

The farm has drug and alcohol policy with zero tolerance and random drug testing is conducted.

Helmets are worn on bikes and hi-viz jackets provided for road crossings. Contractors coming on to the farm are given an induction briefing and must sign in and out.

The couple’s goals include equity growth and positioning themselves in a resilient dairy business.

They plan to develop a diverse portfolio within primary industry ventures and property rentals. The long-term goal is to build that portfolio to produce a self-generating income and have land holdings in dairy or similar equal to a 400 to 500-cow property.

“We want to leave a land-based legacy, such as a hands-on dairy or similar for the next generation.”

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Page 22

Staff ‘like family unit’ for Anthony For Anthony Kiff, who is 2017’s Central Plateau Dairy Manager of the Year, competent, happy staff are vital to a successful farming venture.

“I could have the best farm, the best stock, but without the right people with a positive attitude supporting me, it would be impossible to grow any business,” says Anthony, whose excellent skills in leading a large team were acknowledged by the award judges.

“He leads with passion and sets a very high standard. He empowers his staff, who he also treats as a family unit. Anthony is motivated to be the best he can and this attitude fl ws through to his staff,” says the judges’ citation.

Part of Anthony’s success in achieving staff engagement and commitment has been giving unique and slightly amusing titles to their roles such as Action Man, Decuper, Cowboy and Cupper.

However, as he told those who attended the Central Plateau awards field da ,

Anthony takes his responsibility for the 30 people who live on-farm, including the six full-time workers, very seriously.

“Each employee has a GPS locator beacon. We have a buddy system for new employees, and radio or text check to confirm all staff a e home safe.”

Shanghai Pengxin

In the eight years Anthony has been in the dairy industry he’s progressed to farming manager of Pineview Farm for Landcorp, sharemilkers for a 385ha former Crafar farm now owned by Shanghai Pengxin, milking 1180 cows.

Anthony says after fi e years in receivership, the farm was rundown due to lack of maintenance including poor fencing, gates, old pastures, potash levels so high they couldn’t be measured and a cowshed in which it took 13 to 14 hours to milk the cows each day.

Today the farm has a 60-bail rotary with

Pokowhenua, Mac Carson, Redemption Plateau ps, illi Ph is nn De rm Fa who is 2017’s Central The team from Pineview nn – and Anthony Kiff, r.

Waimoa Ka, and Joe Du Yea Dairy Manager of the in-shed feed and a Protrack system. At the peak of the season 1180 cows are milked, producing 447,000ms/kg with the target being 500,000ms/kg from cows which

average 1.6ms/kg per day.

Anthony’s roles include directing all capital projects on the farm and initially this involved upgrading houses as well as farm infrastructure. “From 2013 we have completed 55 capital projects.”

His responsibilities include leading a safe and profitable business; looking after land wner and sharemilker budgets and finances; feed budgeting and long-term planning; ensuring environmental requirements are abided by daily; rosters and payroll; staff progression and monitoring intensive grazing systems.

Pre-empting risk

GRUNDFOS ®

“We set a culture of pre-empting risk rather than dealing with mistakes or accidents.”

Part of that culture includes finding a life balance for all team members and this includes rosters to provide time off, regular staff meetings, a culture of leading by example, respect for each other, providing meals for staff in spring time and encouraging them to further their qualifications Anthony is married to Danelle and the couple have three children aged four, seven and 10 and Anthony’s younger brother has lived with them since he was 13.

“My short-term goals are to be a professional farm manager to create a productive business for the farm owners and to have a good work/life balance to support and watch my young family grow,” says Anthony.

“Being in a corporate farm management position enables me to gather the technology, resources and education to manage my own herd at a later date.

“I am open to anything, but my medium term goal is to be contract milking and long-term goal is to be a 50/50 sharemilker.”

Elaine Fisher

DAIRY INDUSTRY AWARDS

Page 23

Entering awards bring confidence boost Taking part in the dairy awards has increased his self-confidence and mindset to do better, says Taylor Macdonald, who is 2017’s Central Plateau Dairy Trainee of the Year.

“The first time I entered I didn’t know what to expect or how to approach it. The second time has given me more confidence and benefited me as a person.

“It’s made me put myself out there, which is not something I would normally do,” Taylor told those who attended the Central Plateau awards field day in March.

“Anyone who is considering entering should give it a go. There’s nothing negative about it.

There’s nothing to lose and some great prizes to win. Also, you meet a lot of new people.”

Taylor, originally from Papamoa, moved to the Waikite Valley in 2011 where he lived on a deer breeding stud farm and attended Reporoa College until 2013.

When he left school Taylor worked full-time for sharemilkers Ross and Katrina Weren in Rerewhakaaitu milking 300 cows on 110 hectares.

In June 2015 he moved to a 2IC position for a contract milker in Reporoa milking 600 cows on 240ha and in October that year, became 2IC on Clearview Farms, working for Phil and Diane Herdman, milking 470 cows on 154ha.

The system 3 farm is producing 200,000kg/ ms per season and has one other full-time staff

member.

Taylor’s goals including managing a 600-cow herd by the 2018-2019 season and to build a substantial equity base within the dairy industry.

He plans to buy into a small 50/50 sharemilk2017 Central Plateau Taylor Macdonald is the the Year. ing operation of up to Dairy Trainee of 300 cows by 2022-2023 season and obtain a Level 5 and trail riding, hunting, fishing, mountain qualification in business and biking, spending time with his fiancé and “anyproduction management. thing with wheels or an engine”.

Taylor’s off-farm interests include motocross

From dairying to building and back A return to his dairy farming roots has paid off for Phillip van Heuven, who has won the 2017 Waikato Dairy Industry Awards Sharefarmer of the Year title.

Phillip and partner Erin Brown, a teacher, have been sharemilking for Brett Coubrough and Joke Streuken on their 70 hectares Tirau dairy farm for three seasons.

Phillip comes from a well-established Matamata dairy farming family. He was brought up and became very involved on the family farm, relief milking during his school years.

Encouraged by his parents to ‘get another skill’ he took on a joinery apprenticeship in 2005 before spending a year overseas. He came back to dairy farming in 2010 as farm assistant and Artificial Breeding technician and started buying stock “sneaking them onto Dad’s farm”. He moved to contract milking in 2013 all the while building up his herd ready for the sharemilking step in 2014.

Although he’s only on been the Tirau property for three seasons, Phillip has made many improvements both in pasture and in cow fertility. He re-grassed 65 per cent of the farm in the first two seasons, under-sowing both perennial and annual varieties. He grew four hectares of crop – chicory and turnips – in the first season, 9ha in year two and 1.3ha this last season.

The first season Phillip achieved 85,000kg/ms – just under the farm record – but the second year when the payout crashed he had to reduce costs to remain viable. He cut 10 cows from the herd and reduced the use of supplements – he says it was tough going.

This season Phillip hopes to get 75,000kg/ms even with the very wet winter and he’s had to increase the sup-

plement feed to protect the pasture on the farm.

“We have 290 cows and hope to double that number.” The plan is to increase herd size and get to farm ownership in 10 years.

As a qualified AB technician he selects the right sire for each animal and likes to use smaller bulls to ensure ease of calving.

“I’ve stuck with a mainly crossbred herd. I have a fairly young herd. I will keep older animals as long as they are

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Empty rate down

Phillip has reduced the empty rate from 12 per cent, down to 7.5 per cent during this tough spring.

As the only worker on the property he keeps a close eye on cow condition. and runs several small sub-herds, at 70 head, to ensure they are AB’d and then those still cycling will go into the bull herd.

“My Somatic Cell Count is fantastic 35-40 through spring.”

Phillip and Erin are currently looking for their next move, with their present landowners putting their son onto the farm next season.

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COUNTRY LIVING

Excellent fishing despite the weather We’ve had a month of mixed weather providing good results on days we could venture out.

We had a good hapuka trip out to Mayor Island with a group of lads from the Taranaki.

The boys wanted to catch something they hadn’t caught before, so we skipped past the snapper and tarikihi spots that are always so tempting, straight on to the 200m grounds.

With a first and second unsuccessful drop you could

feel the mood changing, but it was worth one more try before heading to the island. We dropped down and almost immediately one of the lines was buckled over with a nice hapuka and another two with a 20kg ling.

This catch had two hooks from different lines making for a bit of a healthy debate between anglers as to who caught it first. A few gemfish hit the deck as well before we headed off for a couple of hours sleep before day break.

About 5am the engine fired and we were heading out in near perfect condi-

Eddie Leog was among the happy fishers on the charter trip.

tions. Steaming out we joked we only needed a bluenose and bass to make it a perfect trip – and that we did within the first couple of drops.

Over the moon

All of the lads managed to catch at least one fish species they had never caught before and they were all over the moon.

On the weekdays we managed a few amazing day trips hitting the snapper schools out at 50m. On fish bins. Most snapper one such trip people were catching were between 1.5kg and up to three legal snapper – known 4kg. Once the fish come as a triple header – at a time. We off the bite after dark, we had our limit of snapper within 45 continue on our way while the minutes so headed out deeper to barbecue fires and the kettle boils. some rocks that we haven’t fished in Once at the island we anchor a few seasons. on a sheltered reef and berley up, One of these went off with lots picking up the odd stray snapper of tarakihi and multiple golden along with porae. The main target snapper at one time. By the end of though is the bait fish in the berley the day all bins were full and limits trail for fresh baits the following were reached and it was time to day. head home.

As the alarm goes off at 4am and Venturing out on overnight fishengine checks and a quick walk ing adventures, we headed straight around the boat are complete, you to the 50m-60m areas looking for can see the keen fishos are back fish schooling around foul ground on the bottom.

We usually find around the change of light that the smaller schooling fish are slow on the bite while the larger snapper become more confident in their feeding, effectively beating them to the bait.

Stopping for a quick fish on the way to Mayor Island is always good fun and puts Deckhand Shane Thompson managed his some nice eating fish in the personal best, a 24kg bluenose.

going in the early the morning.

Hapuka and gemfish

On the ground in around the 200m mark we drop the fresh baits and any ‘livies’ we managed to catch during the night. A few 8kg-12 kg hapuka and multiple gemfish come up. The only problem with the flat conditions is with no wind the drift becomes unpredictable. This causes a few tangles slowing down the day a bit.

Around the high tide we move off to the bluenose grounds dropping straight on top of the school, with every line on the boat hooking up, some with multiple bluenose. After two bluenose drifts we have more than enough fish. We head home trolling along the way, picking up a few nice skipjack tuna and some albacore to finish the trip off nicely.

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Page 25

Review will provide answers The Edgecumbe flood was a very big event – well over the capacity of the flood schemes, says Bay of Plenty Regional Council’s general manager, integrated catchments, Chris Ingle.

sioned an independent review of the infrastructure and the circumstances that led to the breach of the flood wall and associated flooding. The terms of reference and panel members are currently being established and we will know more when that review gets underway.

“It is worth noting that Bay of Plenty Regional Council “Ex-cyclone Debbie rainhas and uses an incredible fall levels were very high amount of data from more and on the Rangitaiki, than 100 sites around the sites logged between 200region from the top of the 320mm in 48 hours. The catchment all the way out to Matahina dam was lowthe wave buoy in the Bay. ered well below the ‘design “Remote and automated flood level’ in advance of sites throughout the catchthe storm and was able ments provide real-time to slow the spill from the information on rainfall, temdam to around 780 cubic Flood damaged homes and piles of personal effects perature, air quality, river waiting to be dumped, line Edgecumbe’s leafy metres per second while levels and flow. In addition, streets in mid-April. the inflow to the dam was we have staff out actively around 950 cubic metres. monitoring river levels “I visited Edgecumbe immedi“We also know that the spillway and fl ows during an event such as ately after the breach and later on was operating in advance of the Cyclones Debbie and Cook. Much during the recovery. I saw firstbreach at Edgecumbe but the of this is publically available live on hand the loss for the residents independent review will better our website. and the extent of the damage. I determine whether it could have “While I appreciate that many understand why people are looking done more; (a digger was sent out people are looking for answers at to council for answers about why later to cut further into the bank to and how the breach happened. this time, the review will be able to get more water running through).”

“In order to better understand the collect information and thoroughly and independently answer many of He is responding to comments many complicated and interacting these questions,” says Chris.

by David Law – (see page 41) and factors involved, council commisIan Kinvig (see page 37) about management of the floods.

Chris says the independent review commissioned by council into the floods will be able to look at the whole picture to provide answers to many of those questions when all the information has been considered.

   

EMILIO’S TIMBERS EST1981

Buck and his big bark rescues stranded cows The waters were rising quickly around the 250 cows marooned on the only piece of dry land on a Patetonga Farm, but the animals were stubbornly refusing to move.

To the rescue came Buck and his owner Stu Husband, farmer and Waikato Regional Councillor chair of integrated catchment services.

“We were having a briefing about the floods when a call came in that a farmer was having difficulty moving stock

which were stranded, so I fetched my Huntaway Buck and we went to see if we could help.”

Cows can and will swim, but sometimes they need a bit of encouragement, says Stu and that’s exactly what Buck and his loud bark provided.

“The water was bloody cold and we had to swim to the cows and then get them to swim out. But it worked and Buck had a great time.”

The cows were on one of many farms inundated in the April floods brought by ex-Cyclone Cook.

rural dog owners

Stu Husband, Buck and the cows they rescued.

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COUNTRY LIVING

Page 26

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John Arts comments:

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(John Arts, Founder Abundant Health Ltd)

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Attention Farmers

Tips for joint health – Part 2 In this column we look at some of the practical dietary and homehelp tips that can help with joints affected by arthritis.

While these are primarily targeting osteoarthritis, nutritional therapy can be very helpful for autoimmune arthritis such as Rheumatoid and Psoriatic arthritis.

These diseases need a more systemic treatment targeting immune function rather than targeting joint tissue as we would with osteoarthritis. For autoimmune disease the first place to start is testing vitamin D levels. There is a groundswell of excellent research linking low levels of vitamin D to immune system disorders in addition to other serious problems including mental health and cancer.

Often overlooked is the importance of staying well hydrated. Even slight dehydration can negatively affect cartilage function. Another helpful tip for joint problems can be having a bath with Epsom salts, or magnesium sulphate. The

magnesium helps to relax tense and stressed tissue in and around joints while sulphate helps with joint tissue structure.

Turmeric is excellent for joints. In supplements I use a 95 per cent curcumin extract, which helps reduce the inflammation associated with arthritis. I also recommend adding extra turmeric either as grated whole root or powder. Another tip is to add black pepper to your diet. Pepper contains piperine, which has the ability to transport curcumin from turmeric to our joints.

Raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar is an old naturopathic treatment for arthritis. Have two teaspoons in water before a meal. Gelatine contains collagen, which is a building block for cartilage and can help relieve the pain of arthritis. Dissolve a teaspoon in warm water and drink.

Freshly ground flax seeds are rich in anti-inflammatory plant based alpha-linolenic acid Omega 3. This will help your joints and will also help cholesterol balance and digestive health. Feel free to contact me for more information.

John Arts (B.Soc.Sci, Dip Tch, Adv.Dip.Nut.Med) is a nutritional medicine practitioner and founder of Abundant Health Ltd. For personalised advice, contact John on 0800 423559 or email: john@ abundant.co.nz Join his full weekly newsletter at: www.abundant.co.nz

Product protects electronics from corrosion A corrosion protection spray used by the Navy, marine vessels and power companies is also available to the public to protect or rescue flooded mechanics and electronics.

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Corrosion Control Ltd. “CorrosionX is safe to 39.000 volts and nonflammable. It is aviation approved, NZ Ministry for Primary Industries approved and military specified.

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“The product simply last longer than DIY grade products which is why Top Energy, Powerco, the Navy, Sanford Fishing, Sealink Ferries and Northpower are using CorrosionX the protect and maintain their installations.

Tom says preventative application of CorrosionX is the ultimate way to use the product.

“But if your electronics and mechanics are untreated when water got to them, there is still a very good chance for rescue with one single spray.

“CorrosionX is applicable over wet and already corroded metals of all kinds.”

COUNTRY LIVING

Page 27

Pet food solution to pest problems Turning pests into tasty nutritious food for pets is proving a winning formula for Sue and Mark Armstrong and Zac Howarth of Out of the Wild Pet Food.

“The environment wins because we are reducing the number of pest animals. Pets win because they are getting nutritious, raw meat – and we and our hunters are winning because the business gives us an income,” says Sue. However, while it may seem simply obvious to use possum, rabbits, hares, deer, wallaby and goats culled from the wild to create pet food – gaining licence to do so has been anything but easy.

“We have had to fill in endless application forms, undertake training and then gain certification for Ministry for Primary Industries for our small processing facility,” says Sue. “When MPI came to inspect the facility they were impressed, saying it is up to the standard of a butchery for human food,” says Mark.

The couple have no argument with the strict processes because they know they are designed to ensure the foods they produce for dogs and cats are safe for them to eat.

GPS location

“Every animal we kill ourselves, or is brought into us by our registered hunters, has the GPS position of where it was killed recorded, and a current

Sue and Mark Armstrong produce raw meat from wild animals for pets. long-term income security.

“We decided this was something we could do as a family so we started up Pest Pro NZ Ltd, contracting to control pests on private and government land.”

The company has contracts throughout the Bay of Plenty, and into parts of the Coromandel and Waikato. Both trapping and poison are used in these operations but no pet food meat is taken from blocks where poison is laid.

Sue says most people are totally unaware of how bad the pest problem is in New Zealand. “People just don’t get to see the significant number of rabbits, hares, wallaby, possums, goats and deer out in the wild, but we do.”

Good health

Yes please – Sue Armstrong’s cats love their raw food. certificate from the landowner stating no poisons have been used in that area.”

Sue and Mark didn’t set out to be pet food producers. Mark has been a farmer most of his life and Sue, who admits to wanting to be a butcher in her teens, was caregiver to the elderly.

Sue’s son Zach Haworth was working in pest control, a job he loved, but because he had to keep re-applying for blocks in which to hunt he had no

That’s why Sue and Mark have no problem finding enough wild meat for their pet food business. What they don’t hunt themselves, comes from hunters of all ages, both male and female, who are trapping and shooting pests, freezing the animals and delivering them to the Ongare Point facility on a regular basis.

There each animal undergoes a thorough inspection to ensure it was in good health. “Some people worry about tuberculosis but we know what to look for in a carcass and have never seen a sign of TB. The areas we are taking animals from are TB-free areas,” says Sue. Possum carcasses are thoroughly minced, bones and all and shaped into

meal-size blocks and frozen. Meat from larger animals is boned out and minced, and Sue and Mark also blend some of the different meats together. However, nothing else is added, no preservative or fillers, just wild meat.

“Cats and dogs, like humans, can be a bit particular about what they eat. Some cats will eat only possum, others love a bit of everything.”

Sue says the biggest pleasure she gets out of the business is the significant difference the raw food is making to the health and temperament of many animals. “One client has a dog, fed mainly dry foods, who was hard to handle and always bad tempered. Since feeding him on raw meat she says he’s like a different animal, so happy and content.”

Cat owners also report healthier happier pets with sleeker fur. “They are not always demanding to be fed because they are satisfied eating the kind of food cats were designed to eat.”

Page 28

AVOCADOS

Consistency of management element of success

With many growers recently completing avocado crop forecasts, the reality of the next avocado production volume is starting to hit in many orchards.

We are seeing the end of a great season for volume and pricing returns. Congratulations to the exporters on achieving this. However, it is important to the industry that we as growers are consistent in our cropping programmes.

Our pruning, fertility and injecting programmes will be consistent throughout the seasons. We may adjust the activity to suit the crop loading, but we won’t stop the activity.

Consistency in your pruning programme will be a key factor to addressing the issue many Bay of Plenty growers are facing. Overcropping in the “on year” could well lead to a stronger biannual cycle. To limit this we need to start pruning strongly with a wellplanned approach.

Plan ahead

Pruning complexity

My comments centre on having consistency in the cropping cycle also includes having consistency in your orchard management.

Consider the cropping cycle the orchard is in; adjust its nutrition to suit and importantly be consistent in your management. A number believe low cropping cycles is a time to significantly reduce inputs, however one thing we have learnt at AAL is the opportunity to plan ahead and set a programme that correctly meets the orchards’ long term goals; goals that include consistency.

Adding to the pruning complexity is the success we have had with heavy crops for at least two years with some trees needing very heavy pruning, despite an annual pruning cycle. Next year we would expect to be carrying a large crop loading on most trees. This could reduce the full pruning cycle. So pruning heavily now impacts the degree of over-cropping and sets the tree up to be in better shape for the flowering cycle and growth phase.

In setting your pruning programme I encourage you to also consider the following: The tree needs leaf area to

produce tree energy. Don’t prune low branches. Leave the tree skirts on. Regular pruning improves productivity, production and fruit quality. Prune for structure first and then tree height. Cut at least 30 per cent of your tree canopy.

Make some cuts as low as possible, from the ground.

Adjust to suit tree

At AAL we have successfully operated our pruning programme for many years. This year we will aim to complete the above programme, which manifests as an instruction of: two cuts for height and one cut for structure. However, the pruners will adjust to suit the tree. On less-pruned orchards this instruction may be reversed.

I also see us returning to our trees in the spring because it will be hard to get all of the pruning completed in a one pass. Trees will continue to grow during autumn and winter; and this year we will start pruning in early-winter, returning to the tree in the spring will be to reduce over-flowering and therefore over-cropping. The over-cropping reduces our ability to be consistent over time.

By Aongatete Avocados Ltd managing director Tony Bradley

Experienced manager joins the team Just Avocados and Avoworks have appointed John Emett to the position of orchard management and grower services.

John has been involved in the horticulture industry for most of his working life and is well-known to the Bay of Plenty avocado industry through his role as avocado manager at DMS for the last 12 years.

“John has extensive knowledge of the

Your specialist avocado service provider

John Emett.

horticulture industry, and specifically working with avocado growers on compliance requirements for export, orchard management, and logistics,” says Just Avocados general manager grower services and operations Jarrod Redwood.

John’s core responsibilities at Just Avocados are to work with growers to help them achieve their orchard goals and with a heavy focus on mid and Far North. He will also work closely with orchard productivity manager, Erica Faber, to provide technical support to these growers.

“I am passionate about delivering exceptional customer service, and transferring information to growers to help them maximise the potential on their orchards.

“I enjoy the challenge that growing avocados brings, and the fact that globally it is on the rise across most countries makes it an exciting crop to be involved with,” says John.

Within Avoworks, John will extend the current orchard management portfolio and provide management and orchard leasing expertise. He has successfully managed a number of orchards including one of the country’s largest on Motuhoa Island.

“The promise of working with a great team of people at Just Avocados and Avoworks, who are equally as excited about avocados as I am, is something I am looking forward to,” says John.

AVOCADOS

Fertiliser time is now

Rescue involvement ‘humbling’

If you are an orchardist and need fertiliser, or organic fertiliser spread, then Orchard Serices BOP can help.

Coromandel MP Scott Simpson, Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust trustee Peter Blackwell, Waihi Beach Coastguard president Tim Watts, Western Bay of Plenty Mayor Garry Webber and AVOCO director John Carroll at the official launch day for AVOCO Rescue.

Photo: Jamie Troughton/Dscribe Media.

AVOCO’s chance to take a leading role in helping equip the Waihi Beach community with a state-of-the-art rescue vessel is being described as nothing short of ‘humbling’ by its directors.

More than 70 people were on hand at the beachside community in March when AVOCO Rescue was officially blessed by Pio Formby, of Otawhiwhi Marae, and welcomed into the Waihi Beach Coastguard’s rescue fleet at its Bowentown headquarters.

Key dignitaries in attendance included Coromandel MP Scott Simpson, Western Bay of Plenty District Council Mayor Garry Webber and Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust trustee Peter Blackwell.

The $197,000 purpose-built vessel is a key acquisition for the Western Bay of Plenty organisation in helping provide full coverage of the Waihi Beach area – both at sea and in the Northern Tauranga harbour.

AVOCO Rescue is the fifth rescue vessel in the voluntary organisation’s 27-year history, and is a 5.8m Naiad-designed Rigid Hull Inflatable Boat, powered by twin 115hp Yamaha outboards.

It replaces Search Two, a 5.5m long vessel, which since being launched in 2003 clocked up more than 1000 hours on the water, and joins coastguard’s primary vessel ‘Gallagher Rescue’, a 9.5m Naiad powered by twin 250hp Yamaha four-stroke outboards.

The vessel is a result of a partnership between Avoco, TECT, The Lion Foundation, First Sovereign Trust, Valder Ohinemuri Trust and the Western Bay of Plenty Coastguard unit.

Ongoing sponsorship

Avoco, a leading New Zealand avocado export company, is a key contributor having pledged an annual sponsorship contribution of $20,000 for three years, which will go towards coastguard’s yearly operational costs as well as the running costs of AVOCO Rescue.

“It is humbling to be closely connected with such a vital voluntary organisation in the local community,” says Avoco director John Carroll.

“Volunteers are the lifeblood of any community and their efforts often go unrecognised. This vessel is the recognition of public gratitude and we are proud to be involved.”

Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust trustee Peter Blackwell labelled AVOCO Rescue a “game-changer” in providing an accessible service to ensure all Kiwis enjoy our maritime playground safely.

With more than half of the 200 rescues performed along the stretch of Western Bay of Plenty coastline in 2016 involving people from the greater part of the North Island, this is a vital upgrade.

Page 29

capability to cover two completely different areas, with Gallagher Rescue overseeing the Bowentown Bar, one of the most notorious in New Zealand, and AVOCO Rescue protecting the channels and shallow areas of the Northern Tauranga Harbour.

spreaders working in the orchard.”

Michael says orchardists order their own fertilisers plus compost, sawdust and chicken manure and liaise with him to carry out the Owner-operator Michael cartage and spreading.

Kerrigan says this time of the “We have an approved year is perfect for orchardPsa-V wash-down bay at ists to plan their fertiliser Orchard Services BOP has custom-built mini- our home base to ensure all applications and book in the our vehicles are clean and spreaders that work efficiently and spreading to ensure they get Psa-free.” tidily in the orchard environment. the optimum benefits.

Orchard Serices BOP Orchard Services BOP has also does machinery transportation to assist orchardists staff with many years of hands-on orcharding fertiliser to move equipment from one location to another. spreading experience.

“Our vehicles are custom-built mini-spreaders which enable us to work efficiently and tidily in the orchard environment.

“These machines are capable of both broadcast and band-spreading. The mini-spreaders are licensed to travel on the road so that makes them easy to move between orchards.

“We also have a machine that will place compost and other mixes into the plant hole prior to planting new orchards.

“We have a truck-and-trailer unit that can deliver bulk loads of fertiliser. It is self-unloading, which means it can work independently to supply the

~Avocado~

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“Set high standards, gather like-minded people around you and then go for it.”

MARIA WATCHORN, NEW ZEALAND AVOCADO GROWERS ASSOCIATION TOP GROWER 2016

“The community that you serve goes a lot further than Waihi Beach,” says Western Bay of Plenty District Council Mayor Garry Webber.

“Each of your calls starts off as someone in strife and a lot of people you have helped come from far and wide. These people are forever grateful for this service.”

Coromandel MP Scott Simpson says the new vessel is the physical manifestation of the tremendous support shown by the community for these efforts.

“The time, effort and energy you as volunteers give to the community is massive. AVOCO Rescue is a great new asset for the wider community.”

The fleet expansion means coastguard now has the

www.avoco.co.nz

CCQP280417

Forever grateful

Page 30

LIFESTYLE FARMING

Internal parasite treatment and control With the warm and moist weather at present, and young stock needing to eat a lot of grass to meet their growing requirements, there will be plenty of exposure to worms.

These internal parasites do a lot of damage to young animals in particular, which makes autumn an important time to have a worming control programme in place. The most prolific worm is Cooperia spp.

Following repeated exposure to worms, cattle and sheep generate an acquired immunity. This is why adults are less likely to need drenching unlike young stock that do in order to grow to their full potential. Horses and goats, on the contrary, may never acquire adequate immunity to

worms and therefore in general need drenching periodically throughout their lives.

Each species and each specific environment needs a worm control programme tailored to its specific needs. In general, there are some common strategies that can be employed.

Prevention of disease is better than treating stock that are already sick.

With warm temperatures parasites grow faster and start breeding sooner, which we know allows worm populations to become plentiful both inside animals and on pasture. Once populations reach dangerous levels, young stock will ultimately show signs of diarrhoea, poor growth,

sickness and even death. Worms typically have a life cycle of about three weeks, therefore drenching every four weeks, especially in lambs, is crucial to keep worm populations under control.

Appreciate what level of challenge and type of worms are present. Whether you are new to a property or it has been a while since a check has been done, it pays to send in some faecal samples to the clinic who can request lab testing for a Faecal Egg Count. The FEC should provide guidance as to the type of worm control required and sampling is better done prior to drenching of stock.

Use the correct drench in terms of type, dose rate and frequency to best counter worms on your property. Your local vet clinic staff are willing and able to assist you with this important challenge.

Don’t listen to your neighbour about subdivisions With so much change these days information is dating real fast. This has always happened but the speed seems to be picking up – and rural subdivision is getting harder.

Don’t be under any illusion that the government reforms to the Resource Management Act, recently announced, are going to make it easier either – from my experience it just gets harder and harder.

In many cases, your friend or neighbour has had experience of subdividing and at the very least they know someone who has done it. No doubt they think they can give you ‘good advice’.

Other professionals may offer an indication also but you should only use this as an indication. I’m sure they mean well but there are two problems here.

The first is the rules are continually changing and, even if they did it a couple of years ago, the rules may well have changed or your existing title may differ from theirs. The title date, its size and restrictions noted on it have significant effect in most districts.

Council rules differ

The second is each council has a different take on what is allowed under the Resource Management Act – and believe me they are very, very different. Some councils restrict the number of lots you can create, most restrict the maximum and minimum size and some even require you to purchase subdivision rights

from a third party before they will allow you to subdivide.

With the rate of change and the lengthy bureaucratic process involved, it is even difficult for council staff to provide complete information. As the rule changes go through the process, varying weight is given to old and new rules so, unless the staff member is well informed, they can’t be sure of what will be approved. They are often unaware of pending Environment Court rulings.

So it’s a bit like checking your health problems online. If you don’t know all of the specific background information then you are not going to find the right answer.

We are dealing with subdivision enquiries from more than 10 districts on a daily basis. Even though we know the current rules intricately we have to be continually checking for upcoming rules that might trip us up. Added to this complexity is the status of the individual title or titles we are attempting to subdivide or adjust the boundaries of.

Specific investigations

There is no exception to carrying out specific investigation into each proposition prior to providing advice to individual clients. The job of an experienced surveyor is to balance the allowable subdivision under council rules with the land topography and potential use to come up with a concept that helps you make the most of your biggest asset. In doing this we must listen to you, as the owner, because you know the land much better than we do.

So, if you are contemplating any subdivision or changes to your boundaries and want to get the best value out of your land, rather than talk to a friend, call an experienced surveying company for specialist advice. Feel free to give me a call and discuss your situation.

Brent Trail, managing director of Surveying Services, specialises in resource consent applications and complete subdivisions across the Waikato, Coromandel and Bay of Plenty. For further information call 0800 268 632 or email: btrail@surveyingservices.co.nz

GORRINGES

Page 31

How the Gorringe Bros has become Gorringes Although it was established in Katikati in 1965, the agricultural contracting company Gorringes can trace its origins back to Surrey in England.

That’s where Jess and Rene Gorringe operated a mixed cropping farm before immigrating to New Zealand with their three children Paul, Diana and Andrew. Initially, the family bought a dairy farm at Waitoa in the Waikato and then moved to Katikati to milk 120 Ayrshire cows on land just south of what was then a small country town.

ers can achieve with new rye grass cultivars available now.

“The only issue farmers sometimes have is with persistence, but the increased milk production that can be gained from new rye grasses still makes renewing pasture, together with a planned cropping programme, more than worthwhile.

“We are excited to be setting up rye grass seed trials in the paddock in front of our Katikati depot together with PGG Wrightson Seeds to demonstrate the effectiveness of some of these new cultivars and trial more recent developments.”

Dairying dominant

Andrew Gorringe, today business manager for the company known as Gorringes, says dairy farming was dominant in the region when the family arrived, with some horticulture, mainly citrus orchards and land in strawberry plant production.

It was Paul Gorringe who started the contracting business in 1965, employing Andrew, then still at school, to drive tractors and harvest silage. While Andrew completed a two-year course in dairying, Paul worked at steadily building up clientele until Andrew joined him in partnership in the company that became known as Gorringe Brothers.

Tragically, Paul died three years ago and Andrew re-evaluated his own and the company’s future. “I didn’t want to see all that the company had built up disappear, and we have a team of dedicated and talented staff whose futures I also wanted to assure.” So the decision was made 18 months ago to sell the business to Gavins Grain Ltd, a Waikato based company Gorringe Brother had a very long and close association with.”

Name change

Client Timotai Murray of Matakana Island.

River protection works underway.

Andrew was asked to stay on as business manager for the new company and all the staff have been retained.

The company name has undergone a slight change from Gorringe Bros to Gorringes.

“There are many synergies between our two companies. Like Gorringes, Gavins is a family business established

by Ian Gavin and operated by Ian and

son James who are both passionate about the effectiveness of crop production and processing.

Gavins also operate a large dairy goat farm and have expertise in producing feed blends for dairy cattle, dairy goats and other livestock.”

Gavins also has an impressive range of agricultural machinery, which is available to Gorringes, greatly expending the range of services offered to Bay of Plenty clients.

“People tend to think we just grow maize but we can also do so much more and we have the expertise to help clients with advice and guidance. We also have a huge resource in agronomists and other specialists we can call on to help out with tricky jobs.”

Range of services

The wide range of service’s offered

by Gorringes includes cropping and general agricultural contracting including drainage, as well as horticultural services such as orchard block preparation, earthmoving and contouring, shelter belt and tree removal, load-out and building platform development, roading and much much more.

Gorringes also offers grass seeding, underscoring, cultivating, orchard preparation, developing playing fields and horse arenas, earthmoving, drainage, logging, pasture spraying and Rotadairon stone burier work.

The company plants grass, clover, maize, brassicas, sorghum, chicory, Lucerne and much more.

Pasture renovation is a particular interest for Andrew, who is impressed at the improved production dairy farm-

Andrew Gorringe.

Page 32

EDUCATION

Farming profitably within environmental limits Dr Christine Jones – an international authority on soil health and profitable farming systems – will be back in New Zealand in May following a successful tour in 2015, when she ran seven workshops speaking to more than 700 farmers throughout the country.

contributes to this.

“New Zealand milk urea nitrogen levels are among the highest, if not the highest in world, and could be the underlying cause of unacceptably high empty rates in dairy cows; particularly in the Waikato.

“Research shows feeding mixed pastures like chicory and plantain results in a 20 per cent reduction in urinary N with no reduction and often an increase in milk yield and some research shows a 50 per cent reduction in urinary N simply by grazing a mixed sward.”

AgriSea New Zealand Limited general manager Tane Bradley says the company is excited to bring the seminars ‘Farming Three principles Profitably within Environmental Limits’ Her workshops will expand on her to Kiwi farmers. three principles for farming profitably “Along with her international expewithin environmental limits; support the rience, Dr Christine Jones is also innate capacity of soil microbial comwell aware of NZ soil conditions, has munities to fix atmospheric nitrogen conducted research on NZ farms and biologically; improve the capacity of the Dr Christine Jones. understands our environmental consoil to act as an effective bio-filter; and straints.” incorporate as much pasture diversity Her practical, well-researched workshops will show as possible to reduce the excretion of urinary N by farmers how they can farm profitably within environlivestock with the potential to reduce or eliminate mental limits. the need for inorganic fertiliser.

Christine says the use of inorganic nitrogen in Christine will be conducting four workshops in agriculture is recognised as a highly inefficient and the Waikato along with attending numerous meetpolluting practice. “Statistics New Zealand shows ings with dairy producers, regional councils, policy NZ imported 650,000 tonnes of urea in 2015-2016 makers and movers and shakers. at a cost of $281 million.

Workshop dates and venues are: AgriSea Paeroa May 23 from 9am-4pm; Ohaupo Rugby Club May High economic cost “Volatilisation and leaching losses of 60-90 per cent 25 from 9am-4pm; Reporoa Rugby Club May 26 from 9am-4pm; Piopio Hall May 30 from 9amwould equate to annual wastage somewhere between 4pm. $168 million to $252 million, representing a high The ticket sales are on Eventbrite: economic cost to farmers.” www.eventbrite.co.nz or directly through AgriSea on Christine says weaning off inorganic nitrogen 0800 SEAWEED and cost $50 per person or $80 wouldn’t entirely solve the problem – urine is an per double pass. issue and the high crude protein content of ryegrass

SONNINGHILL HOSTEL

Sonninghill Hostel is a modern boarding hostel, which provides a safe, supportive environment for girls attending Hamilton Girls’ High School.

The hostel is located in Marama Street, a short walk to Hamilton Girls’ High School.

For more information, please contact:

OUR VISION: Each young woman aspires to achieve her personal best.

Hamilton Girls’ High School embraces the challenges of the 21st century to support our girls to become thoughtful, confident and resilient young women.

Director of Boarding Sonninghill Hostel PO Box 512 Waikato Mail Centre Hamilton 3240

Telephone: (07) 839 0074 Email: director@sonninghill.school.nz

Hamilton Girls’

High School

Hamilton Girls’ High School Ward Street, PO BOX 1267, Hamilton 3204 Phone: 07 839 1304 Fax: 07 834 1394 www.hghs.school.nz administration@hghs.school.nz

EDUCATION

Page 33

Professor advises ministry on food Professor Grant Schofield has been appointed to a new role as chief education health and nutrition advisor for the Ministry of Education.

To ensure the Ministry of Education gets the best information around exercise and healthy food, one of New Zealand’s top sports and nutrition experts has been appointed to a new role as chief education health and nutrition advisor.

Professor Grant Schofield is Auckland University of Technology’s Professor of Public Health and is also the director of its Human Potential Centre. His research focuses on disease prevention, physical activity and nutrition health promotion.

Secretary for education, Iona Holsted says Grant will be working across government agencies to help New Zealand learners achieve their full potential through the use of international and national health and nutrition research.

“The Government is committed to combating childhood obesity. The 2015 Childhood Obesity Plan developed by the

Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor Sir Peter Gluckman acknowledges that education settings are an important environment for influencing children’s physical activity and food choices,” says Iona.

“The ministry has tasked Grant with lifting the quality of public debate around health and nutrition education. He will also bring together analytical, research and policy experts to assist the ministry.”

Grant, along with the ministry’s chief education science advisor Stuart McNaughton, the Prime Minister’s chief science advisor Sir Peter Gluckman and other education advisors, will work with a number of key government agencies and researchers in New Zealand and around the world.

“He will also help foster good practice within the Ministry, build bridges to academia and the profession to lift overall performance,” says Iona.

The role of chief education health and nutrition advisor is a part-time secondment from the Auckland University of Technology to the Ministry of Education. Grant will continue his research programme at the Auckland University of Technology and work for the Human Potential Centre.

Work begins on Tauranga campus The new Tauranga CBD campus development, led by the University of Waikato on behalf of the Tertiary Education Partnership, has reached a significant milestone.

A dawn karakia was held in March to mark the beginning of site preparation for the Durham St campus.

The ceremony was led by the elders of Ngai Tamarawaho to acknowledge those who will be working on the site to prepare it for construction.

Construction work is expected to commence midyear and will be marked by an event with regional funders – Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Tauranga City Council and Tauranga Energy Consumer Trust – and other key stakeholders.

The new campus will enable more students to stay and study in the Bay. The university is working closely with its tertiary partners Toi Ohomai and Te Whare Wananga o Awanuiarangi to extend the range of qualifications and study options for students in the region.

EPSOM HOUSE Boarding Positions 2017

KIWIFRUIT

Page 34

Kyle’s sign stands firm through flood Kyle Stevenson of Nexus Signs specialises in health and safety and hazard warning signs, but he never expected his own business sign to have to withstand an extreme hazard – the full brunt of the stop bank breach in Edgecumbe on April 6.

“The sign is still standing, exactly where I placed it – while my house and workshop behind it have moved off their foundations,” says Kyle.

He operated his business from a large shed directly behind the College Road home he shared with partner Zara and seven-week-old daughter Lomani – that was until the floods.

Now the house and workshop are condemned, Kyle has found new premises in Kawerau and with the help

whose father’s home was also affected by the floods.

Kyle, who returned to New Zealand from oversees to establish his own signwriting business six years ago, has developed a range of signs specifically for farms and orchards.

“The signs are custom-made with the name, and if required, the GPS location of the property plus a plan of the property, information about evacuation and assembly points, and any hazards. Most clients place the signs at the entrances to their properties, alongside a book for visitors to sign as they enter and leave.”

Clients generally email Kyle with the information they want on their signs, including the property map, and once the signs are complete, they are delivered to the owner for installation.

That the signs are durable is in no doubt – given the way Kyle’s own business sign came through the Edgecumbe floods.

of an insurance claim, has ordered new equipment to get his business up and running again. “I don’t want to leave Edgecumbe as this is my community but we’ve been welcomed in Kawerau.”

Fortunately only Kyle and his dog Thor were at home when the stop bank failed at 8am on Thursday April 6. “I got a phone call from a friend saying I should get out and went outside and saw two firemen on either end of the stop bank, and then water started coming through my house. That was shocking,” says Kyle, who left on foot, with Thor and nothing else.

Like others in the small town, Kyle is questioning why the wall failed.

“As ratepayers we contributed to a $50 million spillway which was supposed to protect Edgecumbe.

However, although I want to know what happened, I’m not focusing on blaming anyone. I’m getting on with my life and getting my business up and running again to support my family.

“There’s no point in getting down and depressed.

You have to keep going and be positive,” says Kyle,

Kyle Stevenson stands on the repaired stop bank opposite his condemned College Road home where his Nexus Signs billboard remains despite facing the full force of water from the stop bank breach.

With new Health and Safety requirements changing, there is a real demand on farm & orchard owners to keep compliant.

Kyle from Nexus Signs has been assisting owners by creating a very effective interchangeable H&S Site Sign tailored to each farm or orchard.

The sign consists of separate modules that can be updated as and when details or maps change.

It also features areas in which staff can fill in and wipe off temporary or new hazards.

Signs are made of Composite Panel Board, 1220 X 800 with high performance vinyl and Laminate.

Also available is a kitset with posts and fixings to keep things simple.

This H&S Solution has been so popular that he is rolling them out across farms and orchards all over the Country.

Contact Kyle @ Nexus Signs today to order yours.

Nexus Farms Ltd: 62 College Road Site Emergency Information

Nexus Signs Orchard: 62 College Rd Site Emergency Information

GPS Location: 176.944558, -37.978164

Contact Details for person in Charge of this orchard are:

This Site Address: Te Rahu Farm Ltd

220 Te Rahu Road Whakatane 3193

Name:

Cam Bierre

Ph:

027 2999 239

Position:

Manager

Nearest Medical Facilities:

Remember the emergency telephone Number for:

Phone:

Police: Ambulance: Power:

07 307 0586

Hospital:

Whakatane Hospital

Phone:

07 306 0999

- All people entering the property MUST sign in and out.

- This is a drug and alcohol free property. Zero Tolerance.

- Live electric fences – Do Not Touch.

- Open waterways (fenced off) and hidden

- Dairy Shed – slippery surfaces, pinch points,

Treat all fences as live.

rotating platform, hazardous substance - Slips, trips and falls

in effluent area.

4. First Aid Kit is located in the Dairy Shed in the toilet cupboard.

- Accident Register is located in the yellow letterbox.

- First Aid Kit is located in the Dairy Shed in the toilet cupboard

VISITORS REPORT TO: CAM BIERRE

PHONE: 027 2999 239

EMERGENCY PROCEDURES PROVIDE FIRST AID, CALL 111 EVACUATE WORK SITE IF REQUIRED

Police:

ORCHARD HYGIENE RULES

- Covered footwear must be worn at all times

-Stock

PLEASE REPORT ALL NEW UNIDENTIFIED HAZARDS TO MANAGEMENT

Notes

Fire:

have been trained - If you open a gate, shut it. All road gates MUST be shut.

- Abide by the speed limit of 20Km/Hr, 15Km/Hr for tractors.

- First Aider – Cam Bierre 027 2999 239

2. Contact the Farm Manager Cam Bierre as soon as possible – 027 2999 239 3. Move quickly to the evacuation point located opposite the vat stand at the dairy shed

Remember the emergency telephone Number for:

- It is your responsibility to report all hazards / accidents / near miss to the Farm Manager

immediately.

- Dust

and feed wagons

Bas Overdevest

Ph:

021 224 0732 Manager

PERSONAL HYGIENE This is a smoke free workplace - Always wash your hands before eating and drinking - Toilet facilities are located at the dairy shed

AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY! THIS IS A MULTIPLE HAZARD AREA

Ambulance: Power:

ASSEMBLY POINT

Nearest Medical Facilities:

DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT PERMISSION AND NOTIFICATION OF THE HAZARDS WITHIN

Phone:

07 304 9106

Hospital:

Whakatane Hospital

Phone:

07 306 0999

National Poison Centre 0800 76 47 66

In case of any emergency, it is important you.....

1. Remain calm 2. Listen to your supervisor 3. Move quickly to the Evacuation or Muster point identified below 4. Ensure you stay together with your group and take others with as you go 5. Remember to take your Orchard Health and Safety Folder 6. First Aid Kit with Supervisor (This Contains the names of everyone in your group. When you get to the muster point Check this list to make sure everyone is accounted for)

HAZARD

CONTROL

While on site, All workers shall take all practicable steps to ensure their own safety and the safety

and other workers or visitors safe.

GENERAL - Never undertake a task if you feel it is unsafe.

- Always be aware of all hazards on the property you are working on.

- It is your responsibility to report all and health and safety related issues to your Supervisor.

- Do not perform any task, operate any machinery or deal with any substance, unless you have been trained.

- SPS’s must be available at all times.

ACCIDENTS

COMMON SITE HAZARDS

Medical Centre: Riverslea Medical Cen

ORCHARD HEALTH AND SAFETY RULES of others. They shall carry out work in a manner that will keep themselves

DATE

Persons entering this property must comply with all Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and its amendments

the yellow letterbox.

- Report all accidents, including all near misses that could have resulted in an injury,

-Vehicle movement – Motor bikes, tractors

1. Remain calm

Name:

- Always be aware of hazards on the property you are working on. Full register is located in

ACCIDENTS

LIST OF NEW HAZARDS FOUND ON SITE

Contact Details for person in Charge of this orchard are:

Position:

- Do not perform any task, operate any machinery, or deal with any substances, unless you - Slippery / uneven surfaces and tracks

- Effluent pipes may be hidden by grass

In case of any emergency, it is important you.....

5. Farm Manager is a qualified First Aider

Edgecumbe

GENERAL

DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT PERMISSION AND NOTIFICATION OF THE HAZARDS WITHIN

COMMON SITE HAZARDS

62 College RD

farm safe.

THIS IS A MULTIPLE HAZARD AREA

drains in some paddocks

National Poisons Hotline: 0800 764 766

While on Farm, all persons shall take all take all practicable steps to ensure their own safety and the safety of others. They shall carry out work in a manner that will keep themselves and all others on

Persons entering this property must comply with all Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 and its amendments

Medical Centre: The Doctors Phoenix

Fire:

This Site Address: Nexus Signs Orchard

Farm Health & Safety Rules: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY!

- Report all accidents, including near misses that could have resulted in injury, immediately.

- Make sure you know who your first aider is.

- MOVING VEHICLES - TRUCKS, TRAILERS

- Keep your first aid kit in your work area at all times.

- BEES AND HIVES

QUAD BIKES, SPRAYERS OR MOWERS - RABBIT HOLES, UNEVEN OR STEEP

- OPEN WATERWAYS / DRAINS / PONDS

ORCHARD HYGIENE RULES

GROUND

PERSONAL HYGIENE

- DUST

- SPRAY DRIFT / CHEMICAL SPILLS,

- Do not eat or smoke under the canopy.

CHEMICAL CONTAMINATION

- Always wash your hands after eating, smoking and toilet breaks.

- KIWIFRUIT CANES AND DEBRIS

- NOISE

- PERGOLA WIRES AND PROTRUDING

- ELECTRICITY

- Always cover cuts or grazes.

- Cover mouth and nose if you sneeze.

- Only use designated toilet facilities provided.

- No rubbish is to be left on the orchard or placed in harvest bins/bags.

LIMBS FROM VINES

- Appropriate clean clothing and enclosed sturdy footwear shall be worn.

- SECATEURD, LOPPERS, POWER AND

- Any jewelery likely to be a hazard must be removed.

- SLIP, TRIPS AND FALLS

- Where required clean footwear and sanitise your hands prior to leaving and entering Orchard.

HAND TOOLS

VISITORS REPORT TO:............................................PHONE........................

PLEASE REPORT ALL NEW UNIDENTIFIED HAZARDS TO MANAGEMENT

EMERGENCY PROCEDURES

OPERATIONAL HYGIENE - Grazing of livestock under the canopy is prohibited during harvest or at spraying times.

- Animals must be kept away from harvest bins, including load out pads.

- Any risk of contamination to product must be reported immediately.

SICKNESS REPORTING

PROVIDE FIRST AID, CALL 111

- If you are feeling unwell, report it to your supervisor before it becomes an issue.

EVACUATE WORK SITE IF REQUIRED

LIST OF NEW HAZARDS FOUND ON SITE DATE

Full Hazard Register located in H & S folder in dairy shed.

HAZARD CONTROL

EMERGENCY ASSEMBLY POINT

IN THE EVENT OF EMERGENCY OR SPILLAGE MANAGER: BAS OVERDEVST PH: IF ANY ONE IS HURT PHONE AMBULANCE: 111 Advise - Location, Number involved, Chemicals

FIRE INVOLVED PHONE FIRE SERVICE: 111 Advise - Location, Nature of incident, Type and quantity of chemical involved

SPILLAGE INVOLVED

Contain spillage, warn others, advise H&S Manager if waterways Land contaminated National Poison Centre (03) 477 7000

Ph: 07 323 6608 M: 022 674 9339 41 Liverpool St, Kawerau kyle@nexussigns.co.nz

KIWIFRUIT

Page 35

Food security policy needed for New Zealand New Zealand produces an abundance of food and exports 60 per cent of our fresh fruit and vegetables to other countries around the world.

Horticulture is in a growth phase with export values growing 40 per cent for the two years from June 2014.

There are times each year when what we grow in New Zealand is needed to feed the people of New Zealand. Spring is one of those times. Pukekohe is where we get our supply of spring potatoes, carrots and leafy greens. This supply is now under threat from houses and lifestyle blocks. If we, as a country, lose Pukekohe to houses, New Zealand will be reliant on imported vegetables – that is something we should not let happen.

Under threat

It is just not Pukekohe horticulture growing land that is under threat from houses and lifestyle

blocks. Around New Zealand a lot of horticulture is co-located with the towns and cities. In many cases this is because it is where the best soils are.

The areas under threat from houses include Kerikeri, Mahurangi, Pukekohe, Hamilton, Matamata, Tauranga, Whakatane, Hastings, Gisborne, Palmerston North, Ohakune, Levin, Otaki, Richmond/Nelson, Christchurch,

Alexandra and the greater Queenstown area. This is a lot of land around New Zealand.

To preserve our domestic supply and export growth, we make submissions to councils up and down the country asking for high quality horticultural land to be protected.

Horticulture NZ has 29 sets of submissions before councils at present.

All of these submissions are aimed at protecting high quality horticulture land and protecting the right to grow – access to land, water – and rules that are not unduly restrictive.

applying to it and the other part has completely different rules applying to it. Consistent rules applying across all of New Zealand would seem to the right way to approach the issue.

This is where the Food Security Policy comes in. This policy would not only ensure New Zealand can feed itself, it would also ensure the export growth continues and that export growth in turns adds to New Zealand’s wealth.

Housing New Zealanders and

providing affordable housing are key action areas for the Government. The Food Security Policy proposal is not in conflict with that. Both housing New Zealanders and looking after food production can be achieved. In fact, they should be integrated so New Zealanders are housed and fed.

This cannot be done on a councilby-council basis. There needs to be one consistent policy for all of New Zealand protecting high quality horticultural land and housing our people.

REE FELLERS BIG OR SMALL - WE DO IT ALL

Different rules

One of the problems that occurs is different councils take different approaches and make different rules. This could mean that part of a vegetable garden, for example, has one set of rules

Zespri kiwifruit may be illegally grown in China Zespri’s lucrative new gold kiwifruit varieties G3 and G9 may be growing illegally in China and a Police investigation is underway in New Zealand to establish how the plants got there.

Zespri is working with the Police regarding a possible breach of Zespri’s plant variety rights to Gold3 (Zespri SunGold) and Gold9 (Zespri Charm).

The two varieties are subject to plant variety rights owned by Zespri in New Zealand and other jurisdictions.

Twelve months ago Zespri received information about potential plantings in China and immediately began an extensive due diligence process.

The reports were confirmed late last year, which then led to the investigation by the authorities in New Zealand that is now underway.

A Zespri spokesperson says: “Although we are now able to communicate some basic facts of the case, please note that the ongoing investigation limits the level of disclosure we can provide at the present time.

“In responding to the case, Zespri is working with a number of parties to resolve the issue and we will update the industry in due course. We do not believe that the situation has any material impact on our outlook for Gold3”.

Zespri chief operating officer Simon Limmer says Zespri is taking concerted action to protect and control its intellectual property. “We are seeking action to protect our plant variety rights in New Zealand and deter any future breaches.

“Zespri’s plant variety rights are important intellectual property, developed through extensive investment over many years. Although the plantings may be relatively small-scale in this specific case, we have zero tolerance for any breaches that we identify, wherever they happen.”

Licences to grow the varieties are granted by Zespri to growers on a country-by-country basis, and can only be transferred within the same country subject to the rules of each licence.

The purported sale of a licence from one jurisdiction to another by a third party is a breach of Zespri’s licences and plant variety rights, and potentially could give rise to allegations of fraud or misleading conduct. In this case, Zespri suspects that several years ago plant material was transferred and planted in China on a relatively small scale.

New Zealand kiwifruit orchardists growing the new gold varieties pay a significant sum in licence fees to Zespri but in return, achieve high returns for their fruit from international markets.

My Name is Neil Woodward.

I am a director of Z-Contracting- we are family run business, our team consists of three, being myself, my son and my brother.

Our organisation has been established for over 18 years. I have been involved in applying crop protection programmes within the horticultal industry since 1966.

We specialise within the kiwi fruit industry, We have the equipment to spray orchards with our two Atom sprayers and one recently purchased Tracatom Formula tractor which is also available for mulching and mowing.

My Name is Neil Woodward.

I am a director of Z-Contracting- we are family run business, our team consists of three, being myself, my son and my brother.

Our organisation has been established for over 18 years. I have been involved in applying crop protection programmes within the horticultal industry since 1966.

We specialise within the kiwi fruit industry, We have the equipment to spray orchards with our two Atom sprayers and one recently purchased Tracatom Formula tractor which is also available for mulching and mowing.

Our Atoms are set up with radar speed sensors, this combined with fully automated sprayer controllers and three nozzle rings enhances application efficiency and accuracy.

We also use a quad bike for strip weed spray applications.

We hold all certificates needed to meet Globalgap compliance.

We look at all challenges to help ensure we protect your crop with excellence.

Our Atoms are set up with radar speed sensors, this combined with fully automated sprayer controllers and three nozzle rings enhances application efficiency and accuracy.

We also use a quad bike for strip weed spray applications.

We hold all certificates needed to meet Globalgap compliance.

We look at all challenges to help ensure we protect your crop with excellence.

216 Pongakawa Bush Road Te Puke

To contact us: Phone: 021 907 621 E-mail: zcl@zanadu.co.nz

216 Pongakawa Bush Road Te Puke

To contact us: Phone: 021 907 621 E-mail: zcl@zanadu.co.nz

KIWIFRUIT

Page 36

7 573 6138 o@splashdirect.co.nz

Orchard under water for seven days John and Carol Harold have taken to the walls of their home with saws and Stanley knives to cut away sodden lining and carted off truckloads of damaged goods after flood waters raced through the house in April.

“We’ve had floods here before but they usually just cover the driveway – they don’t come into the house,” says John, who with Carol has lived in the home on their kiwifruit orchard since 1992.

A drain runs through the property, and when the water started to rise on April 6, John and neighbours began pumping water into a nearby canal.

“The water wasn’t getting away so someone went to check and we realised it was just coming back round because the stopbank at Edgecumbe had breached.”

The Harold orchard is in Otakiri Rd, about two kilometres from Edgecumbe, but that distance offered no protection from the flooding that also severely impacted Edgecumbe.

“It came up quite slowly, so we had time to grab some valuables and put some things up high, but in many cases it wasn’t high enough,” says Carol.

John got his two tractors up on tyres in an attempt to protect them, secured his boat to its trailer, and anchored it to a kiwifruit post, because he was worried the water would float it away.

Kiwifruit crop

But there was nothing they could do about their 1.8 hectares of kiwifruit vines – which are a mix of gold G3 and Hayward varieties. “It looks like we

Craig Bell Mobile 0272 931 268

Splash Direct 2113 Main Road Te Puke

Phone 07 573 6138 Email info@splashdirect.co.nz

Craig Bell Mobile 0272 931 268

have quite a good crop this year, but I’m worried about how the vines will recover from being underwater for so long.

“We’ve had Psa-V in the vines and this will probably make it worse,” says John.

It was seven days until the surface water receded from the orchard, leaving the ground sodden. While the orchard was flooded, John and Carol used a small runabout boat to check on their property. “I never thought I’d be going around my orchard in a boat but the water was too deep for us to walk,” says John.

Carol says the house was still full of water when they first returned. “When I opened the door to the laundry, everything came floating out to meet me.

The water was above my knees in the house.”

The couple are grateful they were well insured with AMI and that the house is well-built with a concrete floor. However, floor coverings, furniture, curtains and many of their personal possessions, plus the contents of fridge and freezer, have had to be dumped.

Maintenance questioned

“No good getting upset about it. You just have to get on and clean up as quickly as possible. Our family, especially our son-in-law Ross Cogle and our daughter Alethia, have been wonderful in helping cut the wall board so things can dry out, and cleaning up,” says Carol.

“This flood should never have happened. It was well known that the wall that failed in Edgecumbe was leaking in the 2004 flood. The rest of the stopbanks are not that great either, as I don’t think they are properly maintained – not like they used to be in the days of the drainage board.

“I will be making submissions to the independent investigation set up by regional council,” says John, who wants answers to why his orchard, and the farms and houses of hundreds of people were so badly affected by a storm that was forecast well in advance.

s in Open home – the bottom section of the wall y awa cut John and Carol Harold’s home has been been have els shov and and wheelbarrows, brooms . used to help clean up after the April floods

The orchard, once the floods had cleared.

KIWIFRUIT

More should be spent on data gathering Ian Kinvig counts himself very, very lucky. The flood waters that so severely damaged Edgecumbe just down the road and flooded neighbouring farms in April, didn’t flow through his West Bank Drive kiwifruit orchard.

“I went out to check the river and it was just starting to dribble over the stopbank, so was running at a depth of couple of metres above our orchard. We are so lucky it didn’t spill over,” says Ian, who got the first of his fruit harvested just after the April 6 flood.

Grateful as he is to have escaped, Ian is angry Edgecumbe residents were so hard hit, saying the wall which failed, letting the Rangitaiki River race through the town, should have been strengthened years ago.

“When you see the remains of the wall now it’s obvious it didn’t have proper footings. Most houses would have better footings than that.

“Council is continually increasing building specifications and reassessing where people can build

in light of predictions about what the weather will do in future as the climate changes, but it seems they don’t apply the same standards to their own structures.”

Ian also believes the Bay of Plenty Regional Council should invest more in sophisticated technology to gather data from the extensive catchments which feed the rivers flowing into the Eastern Bay. “The technology is available, and pretty cheaply. If it was used to predict big flows of water, then the drainage and canal systems could be better used to cope with it.”

Matahina Dam

In Ian’s opinion, the water in the “lake” which formed above Edgecumbe could have bene contained by the Matahina Dam. He acknowledges that the volumes of water brought by ex-Cyclone Debbie were extreme, with an estimated 900 cubic metres of water flowing through a system designed to handle about 500 cubic metres.

“There’s probably not just one thing which went wrong. It’s probably a combination of factors, including the water level in the Matahina Dam, the timing

of the use of the Reid’s fl floodway, the amount of rainfall and the maintenance of the stopbanks – especially in Edgecumbe.

“A lot of criticism has been levelled at Whakatane Mayor Tony Bonne, some one I have a lot of time for, and I’m not sure he is to blame.

Page 37

Ph 07 847 5333

Ian Kinvig on the stopbank between his orchard and the Rangitaiki River.

Agbeam

™

Monitoring systems

“However, I do think regional council has lost touch with what’s happening in this region and should use money from its share portfolios to improve its rainfall and river flow monitoring systems.”

Ian wonders if the independent inquiry set up by regional council, to be headed by former Labour deputy Prime Minister Sir Michael Cullen, will discover exactly what went wrong and apportion any blame.

“After all it was the Labour Government of 1987 that corporatised the New Zealand electricity industry including small hydro stations like the Matahina Dam, which was built in 1967 to provide a local power supply and act as a flood control mechanism,” says Ian.

Proudly supporting the NZ Steel industry.

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• Purpose made lightweight, hollow section Galvanised Steel beam to support Kiwifruit, Persimmon and other horticultural crops.

• 100% New Zealand owned and manufactured (no imported steel).

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• Solutions to help with heavy crop loading including Diagonal Braces to strengthen existing structures.

278 Kahikatea Drive, PO Box 9506, Hamilton Phone 07 847 5333 | Fax 07 847 8502 Mike Posa 021 441 723 | Email mike.p@industrialtube.co.nz

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Page 38

RURAL DRIVER

Nominate your favourite places to ride New Zealand’s Favourite Places to Ride competition gives New Zealanders the chance to nominate their favourite rides. Now in its fourth year, the competition is getting bigger and better, with new categories.

About 56 per cent of urban adult New Zealanders ride a bike on a regular basis, says New Zealand Transport Agency national cycling manager Dougal List. “This year we are looking forward to discovering where they enjoy riding their bikes the most.”

Last year the competition received more than 12,000 nominations.

This year it has a new Top Town award, which will go to the city or town that receives the most nominations across all of the categories.

The Transport Agency has also added a new category to celebrate all of the great community facilities, including Bikes in Schools tracks and community bike parks, that help support new riders and let more New Zealanders experience the joy of riding a bike, says Dougal.

“Through Kiwis sharing their favourite cycle routes and tracks

it helps encourage more people to get out on their bikes and discover new rides in their community and around New Zealand.”

Last year the Otago Central Rail Trail took out the Supreme Award.

Otago Central Rail Trail Trust facilitator Clare Toia-Bailey says they were absolutely thrilled with the honour.

“We knew we were up against some fierce competition, so for our trail to come out on top was quite an achievement.

“Winning the award has been a great promotion for our trail and an endorsement of the work of so many people that contribute to the trail being a world-class experience.”

Clare says she likes to think somewhere in Otago has a good chance at taking out the new Top Town award. “I think we have shown we are capable of punching above our weight and we hope some of our supporters that live in the bigger cities and towns nominate us.”

The competition is a fantastic way to acknowledge all of New Zealand’s beautiful rides, says Clare.

“New Zealand has some of the best places to ride in the world and we want to encourage as many people to nominate

their favourite.”

Nominations close May 31 and winners will be announced early-June.

The categories for this year’s competition are: • Urban ride. This category recognises rides around your town or city including new urban cycleways and shared paths.

• Nga Haerenga – The New Zealand Cycle Trail.

• Off-road or adventure ride. This category recognises off-road trails and mountain bike tracks.

• Community facility – for example, Bikes in Schools tracks, community bike parks and velodromes.

Simply by taking part Kiwis go in the draw to win their share of $1000 in bike shop vouchers.

Favourite Places to Ride is part of the Government’s commitment to making cycling a safer and more attractive transport option for New Zealanders. Through Kiwis sharing their favourite routes it helps to encourage more New Zealanders get out on their bikes and discover new rides in their community and around New Zealand.

To find out more and to nominate your favourite places to ride, visit: www.nzta.govt.nz/favplaces

EFFLUENT & IRRIGATION

Three pond system brings advantages In search of a more efficient and environmentally sustainable method of treating effluent, pond construction company Pondco has teamed up with innovative engineering solutions company Little Creek to design a threetiered pond system.

Hamish Forbes of Pondco is working with Little Creek’s Steve Foley on a system that uses ponds and filtration to treat effluent to a state where water in the final pond can be clean enough for stock troughs.

Steve says the system will cost little more than constructing a conventional effluent pond but will give farmers more control and more options over the use of the effluent, as well as reducing water use.

“The costs of pond construction are basically machinery time, labour and the liners, which will be about the same for one large pond as for three smaller ones.”

Steve says because of the filtration process, nutrients in the effluent will be more consistent than that in conventional ponds, so farmers will be able to accurately assess what they are spreading onto their pasture.

The level of treatment in the final pond can be tailored to what farmers require. It could be suitable for yard washdown, or pasture irrigation, or clean enough to fill animal drinking troughs.

Providing three levels of storage also means in the event a pond has to be spilled, such as a result of extremely high rainfall, then only the cleanest water will be released.

Steve says dairy farmers need to be seeking more innovative ways of maximising the nutri-

ent benefits of effluent, but also limiting the potentially adverse environmental impacts of spreading effluent on pasture.

The system the two companies are offering will also give farmers the option of having solids removed from the first pond and taken away for further processing into compost or fertiliser, leaving just the liquid on-farm. “In future we may be able to offer farmers systems to process the solids on-farm if they wish,” says Steve.

Steve says water quality makes the headlines every week and farmers are being spotlighted as a major contributor to the issues.

“What we offer is an economically viable way to mitigate some of those risks today and reduce the exposure that a farmer may have with fines and other restrictions Government and council are likely to impose in the not distant future, over and above what is already regulated.”

Pondco, which constructs ponds of any size and shape, can also build a three-tiered effluent retention and filtration system in conjunction with Little Creek engineers.

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Primary exports to reach $37.5 billion Primary sector exports are predicted to reach $37.5 billion for the year ending June 2017, up $0.8 billion from the previous December forecast.

“This is the first time the Ministry for Primary Industries has produced a quarterly update of its Situation Outlook for Primary Industries, which will give us a more accurate picture during the year,” says Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy. “Next year overall primary sector exports are expected to grow by 9.7 per cent to $41 billion. It shows we have a strong and diversified primary sector with sectors like forestry and horticulture continuing to do well.

It’s also pleasing to see dairy on the rebound after a tough few seasons.

“This year is likely to be more challenging for the sheep meat sector with market volatility and the United Kingdom’s exchange rate fluctuations.

“This is why the Government is strongly supporting the meat industry through the Primary Growth Partnership, with about half the funding going to red meat projects.

Access to China for chilled meat is also a major positive, along with renegotiated access to Iran.”

The SOPI report was released by Nathan at the Te Hono National Summit for primary industries leaders in Christchurch. A full copy is available at: www.mpi.govt.nz/aboutmpi/corporate-publications/

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EFFLUENT & IRRIGATION

Bio-reactors could help reduce N leaching Woodchip bio-reactors could be among the solutions for New Zealand farmers striving to reduce nitrogen runoff to waterways, say John and Catherine Ford, who have seen such a system in action.

“The most interesting research we saw in the United States that could have applications in New Zealand was into

bio-reactors, by Dr Tom Fisher and Tim Rosen.

“Bio-reactors can reduce nitrates in water by as much as 90 per cent and phosphates 75 per cent,” says John, who with Catherine won the 2015 Gordon Stephenson Trophy and National Ballance Farm Environment Award.

The couple, who also won the Bay of Plenty Balance Farm Environment Awards supreme award that year, are drystock farmers on Highlands Station in the Lake Tarawera catchment, which

has been farmed by the Ford family for 85 years.

As part of their national prize, the couple elected to undertake a three-week study tour to the US last year.

“We wanted to see what McDonalds did with our bull beef, and what farmers were doing to improve water quality around Chesapeake Bay.”

Chesapeake Bay

The Fords wanted to visit Chesapeake Bay because they were aware of work to improve the bay’s water quality and believed some of what was being done could have relevance to New Zealand, and Rotorua’s lakes in particular.

Chesapeake Bay is about three-quarters of the area of New Zealand but has 18 million people, and is governed by six states; New York, Virginia, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.

It was the Midshore River Keepers’ Conservancy group which installed the first wood chip bio-reactor in Maryland. Designed to intercept and treat groundwater, reducing the amount of nitrogen runoff to rivers, it involved digging a trench 100 foot long by 20-foot-wide and four feet deep, lined with a 20mm pond liner. A downstream box and an upstream outfall were installed.

Denitrifying bacteria

The system works by diverting water from the farm’s field tile and drainage system through the woodchip, which is host to denitrifying bacteria that live on the carbon in the wood. The bacteria consume the nitrogen in the water and release harmless nitrogen gas to the air. Scientists working on the scheme say it replicates a natural swamp or woodland system.

John and Catherine believe the system could be an effective and relatively low cost method for New Zealand farmers to reduce leaching of nitrogen into waterways.

Landowners in the US are encouraged to undertake environmental protection work by what the Fords describe as “absolutely huge levels” of subsidisation by the Government.

“Farmers’ attitude was to only do environmental work if it was subsidised. When we told them how much work New Zealand farmers did without subsidies they were impressed, but also thought we were absolutely crazy to do it without government assistance.

“Farmers that had done some environmental work which they called Best Management Practices, such as cover crops, fencing streams, riparian planting, or bio reactors, did so with an agreed Farm Environment Plan with agency they were dealing with.

“None of these plans were imposed on landowners, they were all agreed to between farmer and agency, and as a result both parties showed a strong commitment to the plan.

“This was an important difference between our situation in New Zealand where the imposition of rules is prompting some landowners into confrontation with councils rather than the genuine collaboration we saw in the US. “Of course, the subsidies help immensely with the attitude difference. But it also reflects the key difference in our societies where the US value personal freedom above fairness and NZ the reverse.”

John and Catherine also say that compared to New Zealand, the US has an extremely complicated political system with the extra levels of government, from local, county, state, and federal political bodies, plus non-government organisations.

“This level of complication and the sheer size of these organisations will make any change to their agricultural, environmental, and subsidy policies very slow.”

The couple did also get to see what happens to the meat they produce, which is exported to the US.

One billion patties a year

“We went to the McDonalds plant in Fresno, which was built adjoining a beef plant owned by Cargill Ltd. “The McDonalds plant processes 160 ton of meat into hamburger patties each day, which equates to about one billion patties a year.

“Thirty per cent of the meat used is frozen ‘95 per cent lean’ meat imported from New Zealand and Australia,” says Catherine.

“We saw cartons of Riverlands and Silver Fern Farm meat being used while we were there. Our frozen meat is blended with the higher fat percentage meat sourced from the adjoining Cargill plant to make the ‘perfect’ McDonalds meat patty.”

John and Catherine’s full report of their visit to the US is available at: www.nzfeatrust.org.nz/vdb/ document/117 Elaine Fisher

This woodchip bioreactor on a farm in Maryland USA, was visited by John and Catherine Ford.

“we make farming ezy”

EFFLUENT & IRRIGATION

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Edgecumbe should have been protected I live in Hamilton now but the news of the April flooding in my hometown of Edgecumbe struck an emotional chord.

Our family farm was just across the Rangitaiki River from Edgecumbe and in 2004, under similar weather conditions, the river’s stopbank blew out on the opposite side upstream from the town and flooded reportedly 17,000 hectares of farmland. Our farm of 162ha was in the middle of it.

Widespread heavy rain fell after an already wet winter, during three days from July 15 with 284mm being recorded in Edgecumbe.

On the morning of the July 18 we walked up the stopbank to view the height of the Rangitaiki River. Our house was 50m from the river and the banks were 2.5m above the surrounding land.

Call for help

The river was raging about 150mm from the top of the banks. Shortly after this there was an urgent call to help stack sandbags on the opposite bank of the Rangitaiki River about 4.5km downstream from Edgecumbe.

There were plenty of helpers so a couple of us raced back through Edgecumbe to see what the rest of the river was doing.

We stopped at that concrete wall on College Rd, which failed in this April’s flood, and the water was lapping the top. The concrete was quivering.

Because of repeated flooding there was a plan put in place by Bay of Plenty Regional Council to protect Edgecumbe and the lower Rangitaiki River .

The Reid Central Floodway, which runs parallel to the Rangitaiki River about 1-2km east, was set up as a second bypass river with stopbanks creating a 200m wide channel to take the pressure off the river banks in Edgecumbe town. This channel returns back to the river just before the sea at Thornton.

This work was completed in 1972 and

since then the weather cycle has changed and 25 years have passed with lower incidence of heavy rain, so not causing major floods.

There is a spillway upstream from Edgecumbe where the east bank of Rangataiki River has a lower section, which is about 300m long.

This spillway is about one metre below the rest of the bank. When the river overflows, it is channelled into the Reid Central Floodway.

It was this spillway we were The 2004 floods – on the opposite side of the river from racing to see. There was an air of Edgecumbe – the exact reverse of April 2017 floods. urgency as we could feel something bad was about to happen. plains from that 2004 flood.

When we arrived the river was just Since the 2004 flood a plan was put into action and starting to trickle over. Obviously, if finance attained to fix weakness in the drainage and the river was already running over 6km flood mitigation system, including the Reid Central downstream, the spillway needed to be Floodway to protect Edgecumbe. at least one metre deeper.

A great deal of the work was underway but not comWithin 10 minutes the river burst its pleted. The lowering of the river bank to activate the bank about 1km downstream from the floodway into the Reid Central Canal was part of the spillway on the eastern side, which was unfinished business.

3km before the town of Edgecumbe.

Of course this immediately dropped Not implemented the river significantly and the rest of On April 5, 2017, at 7.24pm Bay of Plenty Regional the river was safe. The general opinCouncil announced an urgent warning stating: ”Due ion afterwards was that if the river to steady rainfall the Rangitaiki Floodway and Reid hadn’t breached when and where it Central canal are likely to start operating as part of the did, it would have breached the bank flood protection scheme….” at College Rd within Edgecumbe with This action was not implemented until after the devastating consequences for the town. breach of the stopbank into Edgecumbe town. After Most of that breached water ended up the flooding into Edgecumbe and the threat of the in the floodway but with at least three second storm – Cyclone Cook – and more rain, action times the design capacity. Within a was then taken. couple of hours the uncontrolled water The Matahina Dam was lowered further to be able was topping the banks of the Reid Cen- to contain more water and subsequently reduce the tral and flooding farmland as it went. impact on the river. The bank of the Rangataiki River A blowout occurred some seven was lowered about two metres to activate the floodway kilometres down the canal where it automatically, if the water rose too high. narrowed to only 40m and could no This was the action needed to avoid the flooding of longer contain the flow. The subsequent damage from silt was devastating to the farmers affected It took three weeks of continual pumping, along with the innovative use of shipping containers as floodgates placed in the river bank of the Rangataki River, to clear the water. About 20 tractor-driven pumps were involved.

Millions of dollars were spent to repair damage and millions more on lost production throughout the Rangataiki

Edgecumbe, so was a little bit late.

I drove through Edgecumbe on Easter Sunday and out to the farmland, which was being pumped by tractors just like we did in 2004 on the other side.

The devastation was overwhelming and totally avoidable. The plan to mitigate the flooding was excellent but totally useless without any decision to implement it at the right time.

Ratepayers have paid for the flood protection, now those same people will pay again for the flood cleanup. Failure to proceed with the flood protection plan is disrespectful to the work and people involved in the making of it. For more see Opus mitigation options study: www.boprc.govt.nz

Yep!

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FORESTRY

Scion marks 70 years of forest research The Crown research institute Scion, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, had its beginnings in April 1947 when the then State Forest Service established a Forest Experiment Station beside the existing nursery at Whakarewarewa Forest, Rotorua.

The decision to centralise forestry research laid the foundation for today’s Scion, which supports forestry, New Zealand’s third largest export industry. In 2017 Scion employs more than 300 people at offices in Rotorua and Christchurch.

Scion’s research areas have evolved dramatically in the last 70 years. In the 1950s research into growth modelling for forests and timber engineering had only just begun, but some of the timber drying, preservation and fibre production that were developed then are still used today.

Scion now has science capability stretching across the value chain with work in fields from genetics to the design and use of wood,

fibre and other forest resources.

This reflects the enormous increase in uses for forests and their products during the last 70 years. Forests and their products are now used as sources of energy for liquid biofuels, feedstock for high performance bioplastic in car components and adhesives in sustainable wood products.

“In our 70 years, Scion has undertaken research that has brought benefits to forestry in New Zealand and around the world,” says Scion CEO Dr Julian Elder.

“It was our scientists who helped analyse the brown-rot fungi in the Auckland leaky homes in 2004, and it was our science that helped resolve technical issues with the production of wooden beams for the 2000 Sydney Olympics.

“Trees are very important to New Zealand, for our economy, our lifestyles and our environment.

“Going forward their significance will continue to grow. And we will continue to serve New Zealand by optimising forests and protecting them from potential risks and diseases.

“This 70th anniversary is an opportunity to

look back on those achievements but also to look forward as we continue to grow New Zealand through trees.”

Celebrations at Scion commenced with an in-house event in April and a commemorative staff photograph.

Activities and events are planned throughout 2017 to honour Scion’s past and look to the future.

Scion is a Crown research institute that undertakes research, science and technology development for the forestry, wood product, woodderived materials and other biomaterial sectors.

Formerly known as the New Zealand Forest Research Institute, Scion’s work contributes to beneficial economic, Scion’s longest serving staff member Tom Lamason and its newest, environmental and Amanda Matson, were chosen to cut the anniversary cake in a social outcomes for celebration of Scion’s past and future.

New Zealand.

Industry gears up for increased production A rise in the number of timber tree seedlings being produced indicates a recent decline in plantation forest replanting may be reversing.

A Ministry for Primary Industries’ survey of all 28 commercial forest nurseries in New Zealand shows stock sales in 2016 for planting this year were 52.2 million seedlings, compared with 49.5 million the year before.

Forest Owners Association chief executive David Rhodes says the increase in seedling sales is a positive sign the industry is gearing up for increased production, even if the trees planted now will not be harvested for about another 30 years.

“Improved log prices during the last year will be one factor. Another is the carbon credit value for planting trees under the Emissions Trading Scheme is increas-

ing, now we don’t have those bogus Eastern European credits in the market.

“One important trend is the gradual increase in the number of timber woodlots on farmland. “Farmers appear to be seeing the counter-cyclical value in having profitable timber plantations growing on their properties to balance low meat and wool prices. They may also have a long-term eye to carbon offsets from their trees, if agriculture was ever brought into the ETS,” says David.

Production from New Zealand forests will increase during the next five or so years, due to extensive plantings in the past, which peaked at a growth of nearly 100,000 new hectares planted in 1994. But some recent years have seen a reduction in New Zealand’s total plantation forest area.

Radiata dominance

The MPI survey has revealed other plantation forestry trends, including an increase in the use of Pinus radiata. Ninety per cent of current plantation trees are Pinus radiata, with Douglas Fir the next most important species, especially in the South Island. The Pinus radiata dominance appears to be increasing. The survey indicates nearly 94 per cent of 2016 seedling sales were Pinus radiata.

New Zealand Farm Forestry Association incoming President Neil Cullen is also heartened by the increased sales of plantation forest seedlings reported for 2016.

“It doesn’t look like a one-off. The indication from nearly all responding nurseries is that sales for 2017 are going to be the same or better,” says Neil.

“However, the new planting rate is still too low.

I don’t expect a big increase until the Government provides incentives to deliver policies of national importance through more planting, in particular for improved water quality and to offset greenhouse gas emissions.”

Neil says of special interest in the nursery survey is the reported sale of 9.8 million manuka seedlings, enough to stock 6300 hectares.

FERTILISER

Is dairying the culprit? Part One It is a concern that while farmers’ debt levels are skyrocketing, so too is their environmental footprint. Fish and Game coined the term ‘dirty dairying’.

ence of the key soil nutrients required to ensure good N-fixation.

•Promoting the drawdown of the 78 per cent free N in the atmosphere by promoting the free-living and associative nitrogen-fixing bacteria and archaea.

The above are productive smart management practices that would permit significant cost savings and are “environmentally friendly”.

They’d also help mitigate the high loss of nutrients on the permeable soils in the Canterbury, Mackenzie Basin and North Otago areas.

And while the dairy industry has and is emitting significant nutrients into our groundwater, waterways and atmosphere, it is not dairying per Graham Shepherd se that is the cause but the type of of BioAgriNomics is advice, including fertiliser advice, a soil scientist and given to farmers. farm consultant and Various mitigating measures include author of the widely Nutrient oversupply increasing plantings, fencing off commended Visual Soil Large amounts of nutrients are being waterways, reducing cow numbers, Assessment method. applied to our farms not because they and establishing initiatives like the are deficient but because their plant uptake is being Clean Streams Accord and Healthy Rivers. For suppressed by paradoxically the oversupply of some the most part, these are band aids that attempt to nutrients. address the symptom and do little to tackle the The excessive application of mineral N and P for cause of the problem – the excessive application of example will suppress biological biomass, diversity nutrients and in the wrong form. and activity.

An estimated 750,000 tonnes of urea – 345,000 Research has shown the biological fraction regutonnes N – was applied in 2014 mostly to dairy lates the chemical and physical condition of the farms, a 38-fold increase from the 20,000 tonnes soil, a fraction that is the ‘engine room’ of the farm. applied in 1983.

While this, of course, is due in part of the increase Regrettably we have traditionally ignored this at our cost. in cow numbers there has developed an over-reliExcess mineral N will also suppress the ability ance on mineral N to get our pastures to grow. It is of the soil to produce dry matter, suppress clover no coincidence that dairying’s high environmental footprint coincides with the excessive application of growth and the uptake of nutrients like B. Excess N will further cause the plant to luxury feed on nutrients and in particular N and P. K which in turn will suppress the utilisation of Ca and Mg. Cost-effective In addition, the excessive application of N will There are many efficient and cost-effective ways of produce a lazy plant with a shallow limited root applying N, measures that ensure the plant has all system because the N is readily available near the of the N required to enable good production and surface. at a significantly lower cost to the farmer and the If we didn’t suppress nutrient uptake in the first environment. place, we wouldn’t have to apply so much nutrient These include: at considerable cost to the farmer and the environ•Converting the volatile N – and P – in the efflument to attain the production levels sought. ent pond to less leachable and less ‘volatilisable’ While some may believe in ‘dirty dairying’, it is organically-bound forms and applying as a folia. not the cows that are the problem but the sort of •Increasing the clover cover and promoting the advice given including the overuse of water-soluble N-fixation capability of legumes by ensuring and non-biofriendly forms of fertiliser. good soil structure, good drought resistance and water-use efficiency of the pasture, and the presGraham Shepherd

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Page 43

Urban ecological restoration: the new frontier?

Cities have a part to play in maintaining native biodiversity – it’s something University of Waikato’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Research has been researching and promoting for many years, and he’s taking his message on the road in a public lecture tour. He begins on May 11 in Dunedin, followed by Wanaka on May 12 and Hamilton on May 16, before going to Rotorua on May 17, Auckland on May 23 and New Plymouth on May 24.

For more information about the lectures, visit: http://royalsociety.org.nz/events/

Page 44

FERTILISER

Reducing phosphorus in lake the aim Work has started on a three-year Phosphorus Mitigation Project to understand how detainment bunds can help prevent phosphorus moving from farm land to Lake Rotorua.

The project has been initiated by local farmers who are keen to trial new ways of minimising nutrient losses because too much phosphorus and nitrogen can cause water quality problems in Lake Rotorua and other lakes and streams.

“This project may have positive implications for farmers working in bettering water quality outputs from their farms,” says John Paterson, who is project manager for the Phosphorus Mitigation Project.

Funding support has come from Ballance Agri-Nutrients, the Government’s Sustainable Farming Fund and three regional councils. Massey University is providing the lead science supervision with additional support from Waikato and Lincoln University staff. NIWA is also a project partner.

A research project in 2013 provided ‘proof of concept’ for detainment bunds. Farmers were keen on the idea and 22 have now been built on farms in the region.

The new project aims to take that knowledge to the next level and quantify just how much phosphorus can be captured and how best to operate these structures.

Surface water

“Unlike nitrogen, which leaches down through the soil profile, phosphorus does not readily leach but can be carried away by surface water runoff during high intensity rainfall events,” says John.

“These events only occur for a few hours at a time and usually just five to six times per year, so it makes good sense to target them for phosphorus treatment.”

The project research is led by Brian Levine, a Massey

Massey University PhD student Brian Levine installing a V-notch weir to measure stormwater flows at a detainment bund site in the Lake Rotorua catchment.

University PhD student from the United States. “It’s very important to measure the volumes and phosphorus loading of stormwater both entering and leaving the detainment bund structures so that quantifiable results can be obtained for the amount of phosphorus that is removed by the detainment bund treatment process.

“We’ve just built a low timber weir upslope from one of the trial bunds so we can measure inflowing storm water,” says Brian.

Detainment bund

A detainment bund is a shallow temporary ponding area created by building a low earth bund across a valley floor. During high intensity rain events, the bund retains stormwater runoff which carries sediment and phosphorus.

After two to three days of ponding to enable particulate phosphorus particles to settle, the water is released slowly by pulling a drain plug installed in the base of the bund. Pasture in the ponding area can be then returned to full productive use without suffering significant damage from being flooded. To prevent the bund from being over-topped, a concrete riser on the upstream side connects to a culvert laid under the bund. The riser skims the surface layer of the ponded water after it has built up during a rain storm.

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FERTILISER

Disappearance of vital Ice age and new life soil carbon really worrying The Waikato Regional Council received at least a 1000 submissions on its healthy rivers plan change, a tribute to the umpteen meetings held, and farmers being harangued by interested parties.

I just hope they all help the council to think objectively about the original proposals.

In the interim some of their staff have been very busy doing sums and coming up with a first draft of an implementation plan for putting it into practice. Having read that, I was left somewhat boggled at the figures quoted, and the number of ‘third parties’ which will be involved in advising and monitoring.

Given the number of vested interests hovering around, particularly those whose only belief is that ‘science can fix everything’, I was persuaded any ideas or systems which don’t ‘conform’ might not have an easy time getting their points across. However, as readers will know, I’m a confirmed cynic.

Required research

If it’s going to take about 80 years to achieve clean rivers, how does that fit with the Minister’s latest fairy tale about getting “swimmability” by 2040? Admittedly, that idea involves loosening up the criteria quite a bit, and a blind faith in the scientists and experts getting their heads together nationally to do the ‘required research’. Given how things are funded these days, I can see commerce leaping into more things they could sell to farmers to ‘solve the problem’.

From my decade-or-so of experience

I’ve found a lot of farmers just focus on the current payout, cross their fingers during next year, and imagine that climate change can be ‘managed’ and our trusty soils will go on producing copiously, as expected, forever.

If not, farmers think maybe more chemicals will do it – despite the fact they haven’t really noticed they are growing less pasture than 20 years ago, and making up the shortfall with supplements while blaming it on having more cows.

Soil carbon

It’s the disappearance of our vital soil carbon which is really worrying.

I received some graphs recently that measured two neighbouring farms; one contributing to nature’s soil life, and one using only chemicals. The one relying on nature-plus had 38 per cent more carbon, 39 per cent more organic matter, and 42 per cent more nitrogen in the top 30cm. No wonder it was growing more pasture, not drying out when it didn’t rain, and coping with dumping rainfall with no puddles. The deep mesh of crumb structure, which holds the carbon, the nutrients and the rainwater, and allows the roots to go deep, must be maintained and grown where it has been depleted.

Nature managed her soils and their structures for millions of years by using the life forms which interact within them. Are we going to use chemical science to destroy that structure and those life forms within a century?

Until our ‘soil science’ experts get round to really looking at the whole of soil life and what is happening, give up their current fixed mindsets, and look out further into the future, Sue Edmonds I fear so.

Cyclone Multi-Task

Chaos Springs

A University of Otago-led study has discovered that the ‘Little Ice Age’ is linked to dramatic shifts in Southern Hemisphere wildlife.

The international research team used ancient DNA and carbon dating to assess archaeological remains from New Zealand and sub-Antarctic coastal sites, while also exploring prehistoric climate signatures from across the Southern Hemisphere.

Study leader Professor Jon Waters, of Otago’s Department of Zoology, says researchers found a “very clear pattern”.

“Cold-adapted sub-Antarctic penguins and sea lions suddenly moved north to mainland New Zealand, right at the start of the Little Ice Age, around 1500AD. One distinctive feature of our spectacular wildlife is how many species have arrived here only during recent centuries. This new research points to the role of climate change in redistributing species as conditions shift across the planet.”

Australian National University researcher Dr Ceridwen Fraser says there was a clear correlation between the downward spike in temperatures 500 years ago and the arrival of sub-Antarctic species.

The subsequent sudden drop in temperature, is also thought to have decreased the human population of southern New Zealand, which made the region more hospitable for new arrivals.

The ‘Journal of Biogeography’ has published the findings.

Page 45

FIELDAYS PREVIEW

Page 46

Large bowel and surgical bus part of health focus Rural health is in the spotlight, with a new area launched at New Zealand Agricultural Fieldays this year.

Michelle estimates there were “Farmers don’t always have the about 600,000 people living opportunity to get off the rurally, from Cape Reinga to farm and have their health Bluff. checks,” says NZ National “If it were a city that would be Fieldays Society’s head of New Zealand’s second largevents Lee Picken. “It’s really est city, and it doesn’t feel like important to have this at the rural sector gets that level Fieldays – it’s a great platform Fieldays visitors can enter the for health professionals to start Mobile Health mobile surgical bus and of attention when it comes to health.” that conversation.” watch a mock surgery taking place.

Poor access to healthcare or Mobile Health is a key delay in seeking treatment help can impact many partner in the Fieldays Health Hub, and its mobile medical conditions, which become more serious than surgical bus will be a cornerstone of the site. if they were treated earlier.

“We want to engage with rural people about health Michelle says the barriers to good health are varied. and make a difference,” says Mobile Health general They include lack of GPs and aged-care workmanager Mark Eager. “The idea is to get a lot of likeers in some rural areas, limited access to healthcare minded health organisations together and change how screenings or treatment due to geographic isolation, rural people think about health, and generate converembarrassment or difficulty talking about symptoms, sations.” and work pressures – it can be hard to ‘take time’ away from the farm, especially during busy seasons or if Access to surgery short-staffed.

The bus will be at NZ Agricultural Fieldays from “We want all rural people to be healthy and well, June 14-17 this year. And for 10 months of the year and the best way to do this is to make sure they have the bus travels the country, from Kaikohe to Balclutha, performing scheduled day surgeries in small towns equitable access to health services,” says Michelle, who says evidence suggests cancer impacted the rural comand rural centres. It works closely with district health munity at a higher rate than the national average. boards and local nurses to ensure rural people have better access to surgery.

Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand is Oversized exhibit backing the Fieldays Health Hub. RHAANZ CEO Among the proposed sites is a giant inflatable bowel Michelle Thompson says rural people are losing out from Bowel Cancer New Zealand. Large enough for when it comes to health. “Of the scant data that exists, people to walk through, the oversized exhibit will we know the health outcomes for rural people are be both educational and fun, and provide important poorer than for urban people. health information to the public.

“Agriculture, along with The Fieldays Health Hub will also host a series of tourism, is the power expert speakers doing free ‘MED Talks’ – 10-minute base of the New Zealand health presentations inspired by the popular ‘TED economy.

Talks’ concept.

“It makes good Engaging with rural people in a fun, non-threatening economic sense for the but educational way is the aim of the Fieldays Heath Government to focus on Hub, says Mark. the people supporting the The mobile surgical bus last appeared at Fieldays in rural economy.”

2011, and was a drawcard for many visitors.

The Fieldays Health Hub will be an interactive and non-threatening space designed to educate and inform Fieldays visitors about health issues affecting rural communities.

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Trade is about people and relationships Trade Agenda 2030, recently announced by Prime Minister Bill English, sets out a bold, ambitious and aspirational plan for New Zealand’s international trade moving forward. New Zealand has always excelled at producing and exporting, some would even say it’s in our DNA as Kiwis.

Our primary industries have been a shining example of economic success as a nation. Yes, tourism has now passed agriculture as New Zealand’s main earner, but there is still something intrinsically Kiwi about milking, shearing, planting and picking that will always be a pillar of our economy and culture.

New Zealand’s future rests on being an open, outwardfacing nation that embraces the economic opportunities that trade provides with both hands. As much of the world turns inward in the wake of Trump and Brexit, we must push onward to capitalise on new opportunities. International trade is vital for our economic security and hundreds of thousands of Kiwi jobs depend on us getting it right.

We are a small exporting country in the South Pacific, quite isolated geographically from the rest of

the world. It is easy to forget this because we punch above our weight. Against the odds, Kiwis have increased our exports of goods and services from $29 billion in 1995 to $70 billion in 2016. Trade Agenda 2030 is the blueprint for us to continue this work.

The agenda reiterates the Government’s commitment to free trade and sets a target of having free trade agreements cover 90 per cent of our goods exported by 2030, up from 53 per cent today. The scope of this challenge is not lost on me, but we are providing the tools required to achieve our goal with $91.3 million of new funding spent during four years; a new embassy in Dublin and a new High Commission in Sri Lanka; $35 million to support our primary sector exporters to access overseas markets; and a new Clearing House with single online point of contact for exporters encountering trade barriers and requiring support. We are backing our exporters to thrive, and will support them to translate hard fought market access to market success.

At the end of the day, trade is about people and relationships. We need to have the right people in-market to help businesses sell our products to the world. The value of people cannot be overstated and I’m very pleased to see positive steps in that direction.

Study shows rainfall helps mobilise microbes Bacteria in soil may be dispersed in the air for the climate, agricultural productivity and human there is no evidence this mechanism promotes via raindrops according to a study published health, diseases after heavy rain. in ‘Nature Communications’. This is a new mechanism that sheds light on our understanding of how bacteria may be spread over long distances.

Previous work has shown that as a raindrop impacts soil, aerosols – or suspended water droplets –are generated. Soils can act as an intermediate home for bacteria, but it has been unclear how bacteria might be transferred to the atmosphere because it was believed they would not survive the aerosolisation process.

Using high-speed cameras, fluorescent imaging and modelling experiments, Cullen Buie and colleagues found a single raindrop can transfer 0.01 per cent of bacteria on the soil surface to the atmosphere, where it can survive for more than one hour.

Although the percentage of bacteria transferred to the atmosphere seems low, the team calculates global precipitation may transport between 1.6 and 25 per cent of the total bacteria from land depending on differing soil types and local climate. Aerosolisation is visualised in three non-pathogenic strains of soil bacteria.

Although these findings explain how bacteria can be transferred to the atmosphere, which has implications

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Taking fuss out of effluent management componentry The Vibra Screen and retrofitted be to is flexible enough structure. ra inf , ng sti into most exi

Accredited in both irrigation and dairy farm effluent design, Rainer Irrigation ticks all of the boxes ensuring all compliance, efficiency and reliability requirements are met in a system designed specifically to suit a farmer’s needs.

Rainer Irrigation assistant manager Lucas Cawte says in recent times the dairy industry has experienced substantial growth, and this is reflected in the dramatic shift to dairy intensity across the country, further adding to New Zealand’s diverse successes as an agriculture hub.

“A major requirement of dairying is the correct management of dairy farm effluent.”

Local authorities across New Zealand have recognised the shift in dairy intensity and are aware of the potential environmental risks the industry may pose if dairy effluent is not managed correctly. They are

enforcing strict rules and guidelines for the storage and application of dairy effluent.

“After two years of development The Rainer Vibra Screen has taken the fuss out of dairy management by providing a low-input, easy way to process and utilise the natural resources contained in dairy effluent,” says Lucas.

The Vibra Screen and componentry is flexible enough to be retrofitted into most existing infrastructure, making use of existing sumps, wedges, tanks and storage systems. Its robust design can handle anything the industry can throw at it including feed pad waste.

Pumped solids can be separated to fluid and anything above 1mm in size.

The composition of individual effluent streams will determine the optimum flowrate but with standard milking shed effluent, the Vibra Screen can process up to 15 litres per second. The separated waste water can then be recycled for washdown requirements, stored awaiting further dispersal or transferred to the normal application process.

The percentage of solids removed limits the need for additional storage ponds and extends the requirement to clean out storage ponds, further reducing costs.

The Vibra Screen removes solids larger than 1mm, which allows dispersal through existing irrigation infrastructure such as centre pivots by reducing annoying nozzle blocking issues and affecting application accuracy. This provides a low input, convenient and flexible solution for effluent management.

Additional products can be added to further streamline waste management. The Variable Rate Irrigation – or VRI – is an innovative Zimmatic product, compatible with most pivot brands that provides ultimate flexibility. This allows control of how much water or effluent to apply and exactly where a farmer does or does not want to apply it – such as troughs or laneways. This technology can enable “proof of placement”, helping to meet local regulatory requirements.

Schools in tractor pull

Fieldays has upped the ante for the School’s Tractor Pull competition this year with a whopping $2,000 cash donation to the winning school, and $500 for runner-up.

A maximum of 10 local schools will compete in individual heats in May when the Giltrap AgriZone Tractor makes the visit. A team of 20 students at each school will attempt to pull the five tonne tractor 30 metres, against the clock. The two schools that complete the tractor pull in the fastest time will go on to compete at the final on site at Fieldays on Saturday June 17, at 1pm.

FIELDAYS PREVIEW

Online tool brings data together A new online tool, which combines all of the key data farmers need to make faster and smarter decisions on one easy-to-use online dashboard, will be showcased at Fieldays in June.

Developed by Fonterra Farm Source and Livestock Improvement Corporation, Agrigate has been designed to help farmers plan ahead using existing data to assess the interaction between different on-farm factors, such as weather conditions, animal health, milk production, financials, pasture cover and fertiliser applications. Agrigate will help farmers track what effect each factor has on the others so they can plan accordingly.

“Having data in one place and working in real time makes it easier to make comparisons, see trends and make better management decisions. A key outcome will be enabling farmers to make the most efficient use of their resources – which is important in both tough and better times,” says LIC chief executive and Agrigate chairman Wayne McNee. Fonterra Farm Source chief operating officer Miles Hurrell says the ultimate goal of this project is to support farmers by giving them a tool to help maximise their on-farm performance, productivity and profitability. “As a simple, easy-to-use tool Agrigate is a great example of dairy industry innovation.

“It allows farmers to identify areas of their business where they are performing well and areas where improvements can be made.”

Benchmark farms

For example, farmers will be able to see what impact factors like herd size, milking frequency and fertiliser use have on pasture cover, milk volume and quality, and milk solids production per hectare.

Agrigate will also allow farmers to benchmark these farm factors on a scale they haven’t been able to in the past, a feature that’s impressed Waikato farmer Bill Aubrey.

“I can compare past and present, regional and national, to see how I’m tracking and how I measure up compared to other same-system farms, even in my own area. Simply put, Agrigate takes the complexity of dairy analytics and turns it into a straightforward way to help me make smarter decisions and improve my bottom line,” says Bill.

Bill reckons there hasn’t been anything quite like it before. “Agrigate streamlines the way I view and analyse my farm’s most important data.

“Combining information from multiple sources, it gives me a top-line view of everything I need at any time and in real time, on one webpage. Weather forecasts, pasture growth and cover, production data and more, all on one single dashboard.”

Made for farmers

A prototype of Agrigate was trialled with 70 farmers last August and feedback from this group helped to develop the tool further. Agrigate has been made for farmers in conjunction with farmers and ongoing feedback will help the team develop new features that can make the tool even more useful.

Farmers can join the Agrigate community at any time by visiting: www.agrigate.co.nz. Access to Agrigate is free for Fonterra Farm Source and LIC farmers through until July 31. After that, subscriptions will be based on what information farmers want available on their dashboard and the cost will be kept as low as possible.

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New major sponsor for Fieldays A new three-year partnership between the NZ National Fieldays Society and Farmlands Co-operative Society positions Farmlands as a major Fieldays sponsor, supporting key events at the NZ Agricultural Fieldays in June, including Rural Bachelor of the Year, No. 8 Wire and Tractor Pull.

Farmlands brands NRM, McMillan and Gulf Oil have partnered with NZ National Fieldays Society to support their other major events – Equidays, held in October, and The Transport and Heavy Equipment Expo, also known as THE Expo, in March.

“We are delighted at this partnership with Farmlands, and the opportunity it presents,” says NZ National Fieldays Society CEO Peter Nation.

“Farmlands is a brand that’s wellknown and trusted by New Zealand farmers and those working in the primary industry.

“The NZ National Fieldays Society and Farmlands have similar values and we are both passionate about innovation and positive change in the agricultural industry.”

The NZ National Fieldays Society’s mission is to advance agriculture for the benefit of NZ through collaborate leadership in technology, innovation, education and internationalisation.

The charitable organisation was founded in 1968 and will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2018.

Long history

Similarly, Farmlands is an organisation with a long history supporting NZ farmers. It is NZ’s largest farmer

owner co-operative and was established in 1963. Farmlands is a top-20 NZ company, which offers its shareholders everything from fuel to fertiliser to finance and has a turnover of more than $2 billion annually.

Farmlands CEO Peter Reidie says the partnership will benefit NZ farmers and he’s delighted by the newly-cemented relationship and the potential it holds for the agricultural sector. “Farmlands was born from the desire of everyday farmers to work together for a better deal.

“Our partnership with the NZ National Fieldays Society will support their events to grow to the next level and help the industry to find new, smarter ways of doing things. New Zealand agriculture needs more collaboration and Farmlands intends to play a leading role here, and our partnership with Fieldays is a great start.”

Peter says Farmlands is well resourced and has strong connections to key markets. “I’m confident our partnership with Farmlands means we can grow Fieldays and our other key events, as well as the business overall.”

Economic benefit

NZ National Agricultural Fieldays is the largest event of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere and is a trusted brand on the world stage. In 2016 the event generated $430 million in economic benefit for the NZ economy.

There were 1462 exhibitor sites and 130,684 visitors through the gates during the four-day event. Last year economists valued the Fieldays brand, which is internationally recognised, at $380 million.

The theme for Fieldays 2017, from June 14-17 at the Mystery Creek Events Centre, is ‘leading change’.

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Dramatic increase in Blue Duck numbers thanks to traps As New Zealand’s Blue Duck (Whio) population continues its desperate fall, one community conservation group is bucking that trend in stunning fashion through the use of Goodnature self-resetting stoat traps.

The number of Whio – blue duck – are increasing on the Tongariro River thanks to the work of a charitable trust and use of Goodnature pest traps. ing pairs produced twice as many When the Blue Duck Project gariro Prison inmates and local ducklings this season as compared Charitable Trust began their rescue volunteers. to the section of the river covered programme in 2008 they had just

by DOC 200s. The self-resetting two breeding pairs of blue duck Recovery mode nature of the A24s means they can on the Tongariro River. This year With only 2500 blue ducks left kill multiple times, which means they’ve grown that to 22 pairs, of in the wild, Goodnature founder they provide greater protection which 11 pairs hatched 40 duckand director Stu Barr says the lings this season – an 1100 per cent from stoats in between times when significance of this result can’t be we are able to check and reset increase in numbers. underestimated. traps,” says Nick.

Key to this success has been “What people need to know Goodnature A24 traps are New constant control of stoat numbers. though, is that moving from surZealand designed and made. They The trust has established 26km vival mode to recovery mode can use CO2 gas canisters as a power of protected river habitat using a easily be achieved when communisource and reset themselves to combination of Goodnature A24 ties come together like the Blue strike up to 24 times during six self-resetting stoat traps and DOC Duck Project have,” says Stu. months.

200 single-action traps.

A great example of tourism and The trust was set up by Garth conservation coming together is the Oakden from Tongariro River More ducklings award-winning Rotorua Canopy Rafting, Craig Morey from Local ecologist and trust coTours.

Parklands Motor Lodge and local founder Nick Singers says since “The zipline company showcases ecologist Nick Singers after four the introduction of the A24 selfblue duck were found wandering in our native heritage and the benefits resetting traps, blue ducks have of their 200ha Goodnature trap the area. produced significantly more ducknetwork.” The two companies are Garth says local support lings than compared to when the sharing site LS43 at the Fieldays behind the blue duck project Lifestyle pavilion where they’ll be trust solely used DOC 200 traps. has been key in growing the showing how to make a difference number of whio on the river “We’ve observed that in the area with support coming from Tonin your backyard – however big. covered by the A24s, the breed-

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AgriSea wins funding for bee nutrition research Paeroa-based bio-stimulant company AgriSea NZ Seaweed Ltd has been awarded a project grant from Callaghan Innovation of $74,000 for research and development of its bioactive products and the nutritional needs of honey bees.

“This grant recognises the innovation happening at AgriSea and will continue to grow our research and development capabilities,” says Agrisea general manager Tane Bradley.

“To date there is limited scientific data around the nutritional needs of the honey bee, so this is really important.”

AgriSea’s organic products, which are derived from a unique fermentation process of a sustainably harvested species of native New Zealand seaweed – ecklonia radiate – are in-demand from customers in the dairy, horticulture, viticulture, equine and drystock industries. Apiculture – or beekeeping – is also an industry which is using AgriSea’s range of specialist products.

“Our Bee Nutritional range is proving hugely popular with New Zealand commercial beekeepers. It contains all 10 of the essential amino

acids along with a complex natural array of vitamins and minerals. We brew it with essential herbs for up to 90 days and provide it in an available form that can be easily consumed by honey bees.”

Tane says feedback from beekeepers and industry partners indicated that the products improved the health, disease resistance and honey production of the bee population, and the Callaghan Innovation project grant would enable further product enhancement and enable scientists to gather data to prove its benefits.

Plant & Food Research’s bee unit head of department Dr Mark Goodwin will lead the inquiry along with a team of scientists from University of Auckland.

Tane says AgriSea has a long history of self-funded research and innovation, and he welcomes the opportunity to expand their research capabilities and expertise.

“We are really excited about the potential of this research. The high-grade Manuka honey industry is worth $200 million per year to New Zealand and that is predicted to reach $1billion by 2028.

“Supporting the health of our honey bees is vitally important to the NZ primary industries and the economy.

“Scientific validation of AgriSea bee products will benefit the bee industry through increased disease resistance and honey production.”

Callaghan Innovation project grants are designed to help businesses break new ground or push the boundaries with research and development to uncover new scientific or technical knowledge.

“New Zealand derives an increasing amount of money from bees and honey products so developing bee health solutions to improve the productivity of this sector has huge potential,” says Calla-

ghan Innovation’s Phil Anderson.

Agrisea’s business growth advisor Peter Davey, who helped with the grant application, says the funding is significant.

“It demonstrates the fact that they are a robust, tenacious business and their products have real commercial potential worth investing in,” says Peter, who is part of the Waikato Innovation Park Business Growth Services team.

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Zespri’s neighbourly support for charity

Zespri’s Dave Courtney (second left) with John Paine, Campbell Hill and Andrea Green of Good Neighbourhood Trust at the launch event.

Zespri is to contribute a total of $30,000 to the Good Neighbourhood Trust as a gold sponsor, helping its work in delivering food and firewood for people in need and creating community gardens in Tauranga and the wider area.

Zespri will contribute $10,000 a year for three years to Good Neighbour, adding to its annual funding for community projects.

Zespri general manager for grower and external relations Dave Courtney says Zespri is proud to support Good Neighbour in their valuable work.

“Good Neighbour is a wonderful local organisation, involving many volunteers who dedicate their time

to help people and transform communities. Zespri’s success as a business is intertwined with the strength of our local communities, which makes this partnership an excellent fit.”

The Good Neighbourhood Trust opened in February 2013 and today supports about 45 local charities and community centres, such as Tauranga Foodbank, Women’s Refuge and Maketu Health and Social Services.

Trust manager and co-founder of the organisation Campbell Hill says Zespri’s support is hugely appreciated. “This sponsorship will help us bring together people in our own communities to make our local neighbourhoods a better place to be, support those who are struggling, share resources and build relationships,” says Campbell.

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FIELDAYS PREVIEW

Plea to address rural mental health A rural health leader is urging the Government to provide equitable funding for people in country areas struggling with mental health and addiction issues.

During the last decade the annual rural suicide rate per 100,000 people is on average 20 to 50 per cent higher than the urban suicide rate, says Rural Health Alliance Aotearoa New Zealand chief executive Michelle Thompson.

When the rural rate reaches 50 per cent higher than in cities, the Ministry of Health deem it statistically significant, says Michelle. She made the comments to coincide with the latest farm-related suicide research report conducted by Dr Annette Beautrais for RHAANZ, funded by AgResearch.

“When that happens we sometimes see a flurry of response or activity from the Government.

Trouble is you can’t turn suicide prevention activities on and off according to statistics.

You need to be proactive and continually build mental resilience within communities.

“When we ask the ministry what they know about the rural people who took their lives they can’t tell us anything about who they are, which town they came from or what work they did.

Rural-urban classification

“All they can tell us is the region they came from is deemed rural using NZ Statistics classification. No other department regularly uses rural-urban classification and the suicide statistics released by the ministry is the only time they use the classification.

In comparison, the Coroner’s Office cannot report by this classification at all.

“The new definition of rurality that we’re pushing for removes 300,000 people from urban areas that should be rural and removes 100,000 people from rural that should be urban. The net impact is that an extra 200,000 people are deemed rural in terms of where they access their healthcare.

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“When these people are added in, the differential in suicide rates urban versus rural and other major health markers are likely to be statistically significant.

The Coroner does record farming as a profession because some years ago the chief coroner became particularly worried about this group and wanted to start tracking it.

“But we can only access records as far back as 2007. We focused on suicide in people working on farm-related occupations as a rough proxy for rural suicide.”

Ground-breaking study

The latest research report by Dr Beautrais is quite ground breaking as it is the first in-depth study into farm related suicides in New Zealand and in many respects the world, says Michelle.

“We all agree with the recommendations contained within the report but how some of them get done will be controversial, such as improving pastoral care of farm workers and onfarm firearm safety. Guns, for example, are an integral part of farming life and the health and safety pressures on farmers are already deemed excessive.”

The report says farm suicides tend to be young labourers not farm owners. Suicide prevention programmes need to be targeted to this group and include workplace health and safety, suicide prevention education, alcohol and drug education, resiliency and lifeskills building programmes, and gatekeeper training programmes for farm employers, managers and rural communities and service providers.

Improved rural mental health in general would be expected to have its own impact on reducing suicide. This is being addressed in another project between RHAANZ and the Ministry of Health to create a framework to improve rural mental health and addiction outcomes, which was also launched at the national rural health conference in Wellington in April.

The benefits of gypsum in soil treatment are well known, but its value goes well beyond this: • Helps mitigate the flow of nitrates and phosphorus in New Zealand waterways • Can be used to address the issue of sodium from applied effluent • Reduces surface run-off and drainage loss, reduces preferential flow of water run-off in soil • Can be applied by a number of different means to target risk zones • Assists with addressing high soil potassium levels for more about Natural Gypsum and soil stabilisation visit www.gypsum.co.nz Rates vary per farm and soil type. Applications can last for up to three years and can be used as a base layer in stand-off (loafing) pads.

FIELDAYS PREVIEW

Page 57

‘Not feasible to eradicate’ red clover case bearer moth The red clover case bearer moth, Coleophora deauratella, has been detected in this country as a new incursion. The Foundation for Arable Research is working with

the Ministry for Primary Industries, Federated Farmers and other groups to understand more about this pest, how it might impact on New Zealand red clover crops and how to manage it.

Effluent technology makes job easy This newly erected Clean Green Effluent System is suitable for 1000 cows.

The multi-award winning Clean Green Effluent System is leading the way in effluent technology. This simple, but effective, fully automated distribution system has a minimal footprint as there is no need for mega ponds to be constructed.

Clean Green Effluent Co. Ltd managing director Lindsay Lewis says the system starts with a patented weeping wall encased in a concrete-lined bunker.

“This weeping wall removes the solids and allows the liquid to flow into a pump chamber. Green water is then stored for recycling. External yarding can then be automatically cleaned via floodwash or backing gate nozzles, effectively cleaning yards without the use of fresh water.

This reduces the water take from the standard 50L70L per cow to 20-25L per cow.”

Reducing water consumption has a two-fold effect.

Firstly, reducing the cost of freshwater extraction and filtration; secondly, the amount of effluent to be dispersed to land.

“The Clean Green‘s patented distribution system allows liquid to be dispersed over large areas at a super low rate of 1/4mm application depth. Effluent can be dispersed nearly every day of the year safely.

“As we can disperse effluent all year round at super low application depths, there is no nitrogen leaching and the pasture retains all nutrients provided thus increasing pasture growth by up to 35 per cent,” says Lindsay.

No mega ponds are required due to the one quarter of a millimetre application depth and therefore minimal storage is now required. The Clean Green

Effluent System utilises as little as two 30,000L water tanks to provide storage for greenwash and effluent dispersed. The advantage of the water tanks is they are guaranteed not to leak and have no rainwater catchment.

“Rainwater catchment in mega ponds equates to doubling the amount of effluent being stored and having to be dispersed by pump to land.

“The weeping walls are designed to retain 12 months’ worth of solids. Removal of solids is performed with a digger and chuck wagon. The solids retained in the patented system retain 100 per cent of the organic nitrogen and a large percentage of the liquid nitrogen. This dry matter then becomes a slow release fertiliser that is perfect for crop planting,” says Lindsay.

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Page 58

Auction ends 36 years of Hereford breeding It was a day of mixed feelings for Michael Bayly when the auctioneer’s hammer fell for the last of his stud Herefords – but, after 36 years of breeding the animals, it is time for a new direction.

“But we had made the decision and it’s time to move on,” says Michael, owner of Karamu Polled Herefords at Pahoia near Katikati.

Auction day in April saw all 40 lots sold, with a bull achieving the top price of $5500, while $4200 was paid for the top cow and $3200 for a heifer.

“The animals have all gone for breeding on farms including in the Waiarapa, Taranaki, Katikati, Northland, West Hamilton, Huntly.

“There was strong interest in the sale, including from some bidders who were not able to attend in person.”

Strung along the auction pen railings were show ribbons Michael’s animals have won over the decades, evidence of the quality of his livestock. But showing animals is behind him now so Michael also sold, among the auction’s sundries, grooming gear.

Breeding stud animals is in Michael’s genes. The Karamu stud was originally established in 1968 by his father and Michael took it over in 1985.

“I’ve been involved with pedigree stock all my life as my parents had four different cattle studs, four sheep studs and thoroughbred horses at various stages.”

In the Waikato, Michael owned two farms totalling 182 hectares and a stud of 137 Hereford cows.

He moved to the Bay of Plenty to seek new challenges and transformed a bare 20ha block of land at Pahoia into a highly productive, intensive stud farm.

Most of the Herefords have gone, but Michael has retained bull calves and will offer them for breeding in September.

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A $1.2m injection to combat agricultural and horticultural diseases The Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Farming Fund has committed $1.2 million of funding for three projects to combat animal and horticultural disease.

“I’m pleased to see investment in these three projects to tackle bovine viral diarrhoea virus, facial eczema in dairy and beef cattle, and infected potato seed tubers.

“These are serious problems which can cause a lot of suffering and cost,” says Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy. “The first project will investigate the prevalence of sub-clinical facial eczema and develop guidance on how to best monitor and manage the disease.

“This is a nasty disease. When cattle ingest the fungus that causes it, it damages their liver and causes chronic wasting and death. Badly damaged liver tissue never regenerates. There is no cure so prevention is the only way of protecting animals.

“This project will look at the production and welfare impacts of this disease and encourage farmers to address the problem before it gets to clinical level. The aim is to help farmers to know how and when to treat their cattle.

“This will ultimately lead to improved animal welfare, productivity and sustainability of pastoral farming across the country.”

The project will be led by the Facial Eczema Action group with representation from vets, farmers, researchers and DairyNZ. The project will receive $395,000 during three years and begin July 2017.

The second project looks at Bovine Viral Diarrhoea virus.

“BVD is a serious and widespread disease in New Zealand with around 80 per cent of NZ’s dairy and beef herds having been exposed to it.

Infection can cause reproductive losses, an increase in general disease, reduced growth rates, and lowered milk production.

“Estimates put the annual losses for dairy farmers at more than $100 million.

“This project will include identification of key transmission pathways, development of a business case for coordinated national BVD control and the building of a national model to track BVD status of individual animals and herds over time.”

This is the first time a BVD project has been funded by the Sustainable Farming Fund. During three years $585,000 will be provided and the project will be led by BVD Free New Zealand and will begin July 2017.

“Another project involves $252,000 of funding to detect and target disease in potato seed tubers, which is an important challenge for our $500 million potato industry,” says Nathan.

“Current disease control methods are time-consuming, expensive and involve significant use of agrichemicals. This project will target treatment to particular areas which require it, determine areas which shouldn’t be harvested and remove at-risk tubers during harvest.

“This should reduce the level of infection in seed tubers, increase yield and reduce the use of agrichemicals.”

The project will begin July 2017 and run for three years.

Page 59

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FARM MACHINERY & EQUIPMENT

Sustainable farming in Samoa is driven by women’s group Farmers in Samoa are combing tradition, hi-tech and organic practices to strengthen and sustain village economies and in doing so have become role models for other island nations.

“In Samoa, the most influential and successful farming group is led by Women in Business Development – essentially a group of women seeking to create sustainable incomes out of sustainable resources for rural families,” says Faumuina Tafunai, who is the media specialist for Women in Business Development Inc. “Unaware of the default ways of doing things in agriculture and economic development, they created their ways.”

The women first targeted smallholder farmers.

“Our Samoan farmers are families who have strong traditional farming knowledge and are tilling the land with a giant crowbar because they live on a volcanic island.

“They are cash-poor, and time-rich and in 15 generations, no-one who lives on the farm has ever had a bank account.”

Faumuina says it is under the formidable leadership of Adi Tafunai that Women in Business formulated the idea that it would be trade, tradition and technology that would achieve their aims of sustainability.

They began with planting trees to produce virgin coconut oil and helped farmers gain organic certifi-

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There’s even been a Fair Trade Deal brokered with cosmetic giant The Body Shop so today the coconut oil in the company’s products comes from Samoa.

Compulsory savings

The Women in Business Development group has set up its own microfinance system, tailored to Samoan culture. “Unlike countries like India, Sri Lanka and Kenya, Samoa does not have a market-based economy. There are only 190,000 people there and most are subsistence farmers.

“To get a loan from Women in Business, you must be in an income programme, which all have a compulsory savings element and you use your savings as equity.

“To make sure staff understood the value of savings, they also have compulsory savings that are only accessible at Christmas and Mothers’ Day.” Women in Business, says Faumuina, are fans of modern technology and after much trial and error, finally, using drones, were able to GPS map each farm so the group could respond to markets in terms of its ability to supply coconut products, cacao and later on coffee.

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Faumuina Tafunai is the media specialist for Women in Business Development Inc High tech is helping but low-tech also has a place. “The coconut oil is manually pressed using an adapted olive oil press, after the coconut flesh is dried on large concrete ovens with stainless steel tops and fires fuelled by coconut husks.

“You could do this in a centralised system because it would yield more and be more economic but you would be adding to the problem of rural depopulation and village unemployment.

“Plus when children see their parents working in an enterprise, they become part of the succession plan.”

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Faumuina says the leadership shown

by Women In Business has been recognised with three global awards for economic empowerment and Adi Tafunai also sat on the World Economic Forum from 2013 to 2015.

Five years ago a couple from the Solomon Islands approached Women in Business for assistance in beginning a similar scheme to their country. “With Women in Business assistance and the belief that they could have a thriving island economy and increase the wellbeing of their people, the Island of Simbo in the Western Province now has its own boat, a honey industry, produces virgin coconut oil, and has a fashion industry printing its own fabrics and making dresses and uniforms.

“They have also had a massive social change.

Where before on this island the women did all the work, now the men have partnered in their efforts because Women in Business Development male workers scolded and appealed to the men to get with the programme.” Elaine Fisher

FARM MACHINERY & EQUIPMENT

Page 61

COAST & COUNTRY NEWS

Page 62

trades & services

TO LIST YOUR RURAL EVENT please email: julie@thesun.co.nz with ‘Rural Event’ in the subject line.

May 1

Godwit Migration:

Long-haul Champions, talk by Keith Woodley of Miranda Shorebird Centre, 7pm. Moon Hair Salon, Coromandel town, Entry is a gold coin.

NZ Flower & Garden Show,

tickets on sale for this new show in West Auckland from November 29-December 5.

See nzflowergardenshow.co.nz

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PULLETS HY-LINE BROWN, great layers. Phone 07 824 1762 www.eurekapoultryfarm.weebly.com

advertise

ADVERTISE YOUR PRODUCT or service in the listing every month.

Phone Julie on 07 578 0030 or email julie@thesun.co.nz

for sale

May 5-7

Planning a Home Orchard,

Tirau, $250 each or $400 per couple. See: www.lals.nz.

May 6

Organic Gardening Course, 4

weeks, 10am-noon, Hamilton.

See tinyurl.com/zty9xac

May 6-7

Plant Sale, 10am-4pm,

May 20

Organic Market Gardening, 9am-5pm, Thames, $140.

Repeated August 5.

See pakarakafarm.co.nz

May 20-21

Native Plants & Their

Medicinal Properties, 9am1pm, Fraser High School, Hamilton, $75. See tinyurl. com/hom22r5

Hamilton Gardens information centre.

May 20 & 27

Rotorua Botanical Society

9am-3pm, Fraser High School Hamilton, $85.

See tinyurl.com/jxwolwf

May 7

Field Trip to Lake Taupo. See tinyurl.com/mksz9xe

May 7-13

Fungal Foray, Opononi,

Hokianga. All with an interest in fungus welcome. See www. funnz.org.nz

May 10 Heritage Rose Talk

by Sue Zwar of Australia, evening, in the Tauranga area. Ph Lorraine 07 862 9145.

May 13

Worm Composting Workshop, 1pm-3pm, Waihi

Beach Community Centre, $34.50. See: tinyurl.com/ hgetab6

Beginner Productive Home Gardening, day course,

Thames, $140. Repeated October 7. pakarakafarm.co.nz

Autumn Orchid Show, 10am-

4pm, Hamilton Gardens.

May 14

Advanced Productive Home Garden Workshop,

day course, Thames, $140.

Repeated October 8. See: pakarakafarm.co.nz

Guided Tour of Koanga

Institute, 1pm-4pm, Wairoa, $20.

May 18-21

NZ International Plant

Propagators Society Region Conference, Pukekohe.

See nz.ipps.org

trades & services

Garden Design Workshop,

May 21

Waikato Botanical Society

Field Trip. waikatobotsoc.org.nz

May 24

BPW Franklin dinner at the

Franklin Club, Station Rd, with guest speaker. Women of all ages are invited to attend – bookings to Ph/Txt Marilyn 0274 799 121 or catering@ bpwfranklin.org.nz

Rotorua Botanical Society Lecture, 7.30pm, on Trinidad and Tobago.

See tinyurl.com/mksz9xe

May 25

Waikato Horticultural Society: Mansfield Garden,

7.30pm, Hamilton Gardens (Gate 2). Visitors $5. Phone Carmel 07 859 0158.

May 27

Worm Composting

Workshop, 1pm-3pm, Community Church, Omokoroa, $34.50.

See tinyurl.com/hgetab6

Free Home Composting

Workshop, 3pm-4.30pm, Taupo Community Gardens (Richmond Ave). Register at tinyurl.com/gqseptb

May 28

Towards Self-Sufficiency, day course at Pakaraka Permaculture, Thames, $140. Repeated October 1.

See pakarakafarm.co.nz

Botanic Gardens Australia

New Zealand Open Day. Free entry today at Eastwoodhill Arboretum (Gisborne).

Coromandel author wins Margaret Mahy Medal Veteran children’s novelist Des Hunt of Whitianga is the winner of the 2017 Storylines Margaret Mahy Medal for an outstanding contribution and lifetime achievement in the field of New Zealand children’s literature and literacy.

“Des Hunt’s greatest contribution is his ability to ‘hook’ young people into reading through his riveting stories situated in familiar contexts, with characters similar to their friends and families. His school presentations make children feel that books are pivotal to their lives,” says Storylines chair Dr Libby Limbrick.

Des Hunt’s ‘Cry of the Des is the author Taniwha’ won the 2016 of more than 20 Storylines Gaelyn Gordon acclaimed chilAward for a Much-loved Book. dren’s and young adult novels, most set in New Zealand with strong environment and science themes.

Since his first novel for children in 2001 ‘A Friend in Paradise’ he’s produced one or two novels nearly every year, winning places on Storylines Notable Books and New Zealand Post book awards short lists. ‘Cry of the Taniwha’ won the 2016 Storylines Gaelyn Gordon Award for a Much-loved Book, and his latest ‘Sunken Forest’ is a 2017 Storylines Notable Book.

A secondary teacher for 40 years in physics, computing and electronics, Des has also won the Woolf Fisher Memorial Award for Services to Education, and a New Zealand Institute of Physics Award. He’s helped to develop science curricula in New Zealand, the Pacific and Scotland, and published two textbooks on science education.

Since retiring from teaching in 2007 to concentrate on writing fiction for children, Des has become a popular visitor to schools and libraries throughout New Zealand, combining his love of storytelling, the environment and science.

Previous winners of the Margaret Mahy Medal include Joy Cowley, David Hill, Kate De Goldi, Fleur Beale, illustrators Lynley Dodd, Gavin Bishop and David Elliot.

COAST & COUNTRY NEWS

Page 63

Taste of Croatia in this month’s book prize

FOR SALE

Caption this photo and be in to win a book prize.

O U NT R

N NIE

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FU

Y

Jessica’s caption was simply “Oh Deere” and “Deerey me John, I asked for a bubble bath not a mud bath” was the caption suggested by Paul. ˜ is month’s prize for the best caption of the rural letter box – see right – is ‘˜ e Adriatic Kitchen’ by NZ author Barbara Unkovic, published

by Exisle Publishing. ˜ is recipe book takes readers on a gastronomic journey to sun-drenched Croatia, celebrating the best of slow cooking traditions. Barbara has always been drawn to the land of her father, the island of Kor°ula, its way of life, its culture, history and food.

Now, inspired by the island’s culinary traditions and its abundance of fresh, seasonal ingredients, Barbara has produced a delightful, rustic cookbook full of gorgeous recipes and evocative memories.

From the vivid tangerine blooms of pomegranate stems in spring, to grapes and olives ‘beginning to grow fat and ripen’ beneath the intense heat of the Adriatic summer sun, Barbara viscerally evokes her love of place and intoxication with a landscape and culture over˛ owing with the rich bounty of the soil and sea.

More than 70 simple yet delicious recipes are included, such as Croatian Sweet Easter Bread fragrantly basted with sharp lemoncello; Black Risotto; Fresh Fig Crumble; Roast Chicken with Pomegranate and Spinach; Dalmatian Shepherd’s Lamb with Potatoes and Broad Beans; Sugared Almonds; Vanilla Horseshoe Biscuits; and Carrot and Mint Salad.

Infused with the warmth and vibrancy of Barbara’s beloved island, ‘˜ e Adriatic Kitchen’ is a must-

have cookbook for those wanting to experience traditional food at its best. And it is illustrated with rustic line drawings reminiscent of a family cookbook.

Barbara is of Croatian and English descent and the author of six published books, specialising in “˛ ash ÿ ction”. Barbara is the recipient of more than 30 writing awards in the United Kingdom and United States, including three International Book Awards and one USA Best Book Award.

She holds a Master of Creative Writing from Auckland University.

Growing and cooking wholesome organic food has been a pivotal part of her life. ˜ anks to Exisle Publishing Coast & Country News has a copy of ‘˜ e Adriatic Kitchen’ to give away.

To be in to win, caption the photo (at right) and send with your name and address, with Country Funnies as the subject, to: elaine@thesun.co.nz Or put these details on the back of an envelope and post to: Country Funnies, PO Box 240, Tauranga 3140 to arrive no later than May 15.

C

Captioning a photo of a tractor in a sticky spot has won Coast & Country News readers Jessica Lee of Opotiki, and Paul White of Whakatane, copies of the book ‘Hammer that Mortgage!’

by David Tillman.

‘The Adriatic Kitchen’ by NZ author Barbara Unkovic is the book prize for May.

This photo of a tractor in a fix was the Country Funnies image for March.

COAST & COUNTRY NEWS

Page 64

Charlie Rose, 1yr old tryin g goat paddoc k – Te Pahu to mow the , Hamilton.

n,10yrs Kade Griffi uru, from Ngak shing. ut fi Rotorua tro

Atkinson, you kid! Millie Here’s looking at apuni Donkey Stud.

2 yrs visiting Aw

from Whangarei.

Liam Oosterbroek, 5yrs the pig pen. watching dad sort out

PRIZE UP FOR GRABS!

Pictures and details can be emailed (high resolution jpgs) to kathy@thesun.co.nz “Country Camera” or posted to Coast & Country, PO Box 240, Tauranga. Please include a name, address and phone number with every entry.

xus Kelly urphy 13yrs, Le Jahdae Eyres-M roe 6yrs and Deryn-Lee un 9yrs, Cyreniti M s from Rotorua.

Kelly 11yr

Charlie Turn the dig er, 10yrs, che ger from ck Papam ing out oa.