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Vol 18 No 33, August 26, 2019

Draconian water rules feared

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Credit crunch Hugh Stringleman

hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz

ARMERS with average to heavy debt loads are very concerned about the new lending policies of banks coming on top of looming environmental compliance requirements. Federated Farmers national vice-president Andrew Hoggard has no doubt a credit squeeze is being applied in advance of the Reserve Bank’s change in capital requirements for banks. Banks need to give their farming clients more notice of new, restrictive policies and not just apply them across the board. “The Reserve Bank has only proposed the change in capital at this stage, not introduced it. “The banks need to show more honesty with their clients.” One farmer who contacted Hoggard was worried about nitrogen-loss requirements being imposed by his regional council at the same time as the bank edict – no new borrowing and pay down some of the loan principal. “His worry was, how is my farm going to remain viable?” As more environmental policies take shape farmers will worry about the costs of compliance and where that money is coming from. “Look at the noise about

winter grazing at present – all other options require more infrastructure and more capital.” Hoggard said there isn’t any point in arguing about how indebted farmers got themselves into that position. “The reality is they are there now so how do we deal with that without throwing them to the wolves?” His main concern is the fraught transition to a new debt reality without losing a whole lot of farmers, their assets, homes and families. The loss of about 40% in Fonterra share equity is very serious and compounding the balance sheet problems of dairy farms. Bank margins are now too high in many cases and less-indebted farmers should look around for a better deal, Hoggard advised. Federated Farmers Sharemilkers’ subsection chairman Richard McIntyre said his members are under a lot of tension. Their average debt of $1 million, plus about $150,000 seasonal overdraft, is 80-90% secured against cow values and the rest against plant and machinery. Any setback in dairying – a lower milk price, depreciating supply shares, weather problems – causes cow values to fluctuate and exposes sharemilkers to debt repayment concerns.

PROUD: Jon Pemberton says unity is the key and anyone with an agenda has got to put it to one side.

Ag Proud engages urban folk Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz SOUTHLAND farmers have formed a group to engage with their urban neighbours on what happens on farms and why. Ag Proud member Jon Pemberton says stress among farmers from a recent winter grazing media campaign by activists was the catalyst for its formation. It launched last week by hosting a free barbecue in Invercargill to engage with city people. It does not have an agenda other than to celebrate the rural

“The banks are keen to court sharemilkers when times are good because they are the future farm owners. “But now we are seeing proposals being turned down and young farmers concerned about

sector and to share that pride and information about what farmers do and why. The movement also hopes to highlight the issue of mental health among those in rural NZ. “It’s about being proud to be a farmer and to create awareness of the mental wellbeing and stress among rural NZ families.” Similar Ag Proud groups are forming in Otago and Canterbury and Pemberton, a dairy farmer, says the vision is to take it nationwide. Within 48 hours of footage gathered by the activists

getting funding if they want to enter the industry.” McIntyre said the bank refusals he had heard about are cases where sharemilking contracts were signed first before the banks were approached

surfacing in the media the group was formed and with support from 100 agricultural people hosted the barbeque. It aims to promote what is good about farming and farmers by talking to people in open and honest discussion. “Unity is the key on this and anyone with an agenda has got to put it to one side.” Ag Proud plans to host an evening farmers market in Invercargill in mid December.

MORE: SOUTHLAND STRESS

and farm budgets written. “My advice is talk to your banks before starting negotiations with farm owners.” He also welcomed the Farm Debt Mediation Bill, now at select committee stage in Parliament.

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NEWS

WEATHER

8 Chilled meat

OVERVIEW

access issue goes on

August is ending on a milder note, generally speaking, with windier spring-like westerlies kicking in for the rest of the month. Nothing too major is showing up for the final week of August other than windy westerlies that sometimes dip cooler southwest. These cooler changes will be felt most on the western side of the country, mainly in the South Island, and the lower South Island. Northern New Zealand has warmer westerlies, which means some in the east, like the Bay of Islands or parts of Hawke’s Bay, might reach the late teens at times. This spring-like set-up also encourages milder than average weather in the north and east and drier than normal weather in the north and east.

Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor hopes a longawaited breakthrough in access for chilled meat exports to China will come in the next year.

Newsmaker ��26

World ��36

ON FARM STORY

Wind

Rain With a spring-like pattern now here we’ll notice the bulk of the rain falling on the West Coast with average to slightly above normal rain in the western North Island and drier than average for much of the east.

Blair and Jane Smith freely admit to having their share of good fortune as they embark on their farming careers but that doesn’t mean they are resting on their laurels.

For the most part NZ is dominated by westerly quarter winds though some might briefly have southerlies. The general theme for this week is for west to southwest winds dominating, turning more northwest around Cook Strait at times.

Highlights/ Extremes

Temperature

34 Eagerly grabbing their chances

Pasture Growth Index Above normal Near normal Below normal

7-DAY TRENDS

New Thinking ��27 Opinion ��28

NZX PASTURE GROWTH INDEX – Next 15 days

With the west to southwest wind flow mainly dominating the country for the next week we can expect fairly normal daytime temperatures in the west and above normal in the east at times. Colder nights will come when winds ease.

There is nothing too significant this week but southern NZ does have some single-digit highs that will contrast with highs nearer to 20C in the upper or northeastern North Island. The finals days of August look to be warmer than average.

14-DAY OUTLOOK

With a spring pattern now kicking in we might see some bigger changes to soil moisture levels, possibly the biggest changes we’ve seen in a couple of months. Eastern areas of the North Island might just be starting to show signs of a slight drying out so another week of westerlies should lock that in. The air is a bit cold in the lower South Island with a couple of frosts possible inland but elsewhere a very positive pasture growth week is on the way.

SOIL MOISTURE INDEX – 22/08/2019

REGULARS Real Estate ��37-38 Employment ��39 Classifieds ��39 Livestock ��39-43 Markets ��44-48

CORRECTION A column in last week’s paper stated that the Interim Climate Change Committee proposed a methane reduction of 24-47% to combat climate change. This proposal is the Government’s. GlobalHQ is a farming family owned business that donates 1% of advertising revenue to the Rural Support Trust. Thanks to our Farmers Weekly and Dairy Farmer advertisers this week: $861. Need help now? You can talk to someone who understands the pressures of farming by phoning your local Rural Support Trust on 0800 787 254.

Source: WeatherWatch.co.nz

This product is powered by NIWA Data

For more weather information go to farmersweekly.co.nz/weather

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Draconian water rules feared Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz IMMINENT changes to freshwater management rules look like taking a one-size fits-all approach controlled by Wellington bureaucrats, sources warn. Environment Minister David Parker says the package, to be announced in the next month or so, will include a National Policy Statement (NPS) for Freshwater Management, replacing the previous Government’s 2017 document, and a new National Environmental Standard for Freshwater. In written responses to questions from Farmers Weekly Parker says he expects regional councils to act on the plans without delay. That hasn’t happened with the existing NPS. “Together they will direct councils to toughen up freshwater management, reducing contamination and increasing protection, including limiting certain activities that lead to contamination of freshwater.” The roles of regional councils will not change but there will be help for them to implement regional plans. Federated Farmers water spokesman Chris Allen says his organisation has been excluded from discussions on the plan but based on comments by the Freshwater Leaders Group and Parker he fears the plans will take a national approach, ignoring individual catchment features, soil type, land use or community priorities. “We think it will be a draconian, blunt tool that doesn’t address regional issues but addresses them at a national level.” He and others spoken to fear catchment groups will be buried under rules and regulations with outside lobby and pressure groups given greater influence. “Catchment groups are not

ON THE OUTER: Federated Farmers has been excluded from discussion on the planned new National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management, its water spokesman Chris Allen says.

We think it will be a draconian, blunt tool that doesn’t address regional issues but addresses them at a national level. Chris Allen Federated Farmers all about rules and regulations but about taking the community along,” Allen says. Sources say debate about acceptable nitrate levels is an example with some national groups seeking levels in waterways equivalent to a natural state, which would virtually prohibit any adjacent farming activity. Parker says more half the regional councils are unlikely

to have the current NPS on freshwater activated by 2025, delays that have added to declining quality. “That NPS was promulgated by the last government in 2017. Plainly delays of this sort are one of the reasons water quality has continued to decline,” he told a post Budget meeting with Forest and Bird. He promises tighter time frames for plans to be implemented along with a thorough overhaul of the 30-year-old Resource Management Act. “It takes too long. It costs too much. It has not protected the environment.” Allen believes a farmer wanting to intensify livestock will require resource consent and the guidelines for excluded stock from waterways will be extended. That was considered previously but deemed too difficult because of differing topography and soil

types between catchments and regions, he says. The Labour Party manifesto at the last election included the resource consent requirement for intensifying stocking rates and extending stock exclusion rules as well as tougher enforcement for breaches. It also campaigned on making rivers and lakes clean enough to swim in during summer without getting sick and reducing sediment from erosion including tighter rules on the practice of spray and pray. Parker said farmers are being asked to stop things getting worse. The final shape of the plans will depend on which proposals are implemented after consultation. “The impacts will also be influenced by the catchment in which the farm is based, the farm system type, topography, whether the regional plan has implemented the existing NPS

and current farm practice.” Parker acknowledged some farmers are reducing their impact on water but their efforts are undermined by those who aren’t. “We want to acknowledge positive efforts while making sure everybody plays their part.” Allen wants to see changes to the way water quality is measured and reported to include community values and priorities instead of solely using measures such as nitrogen, turbidity and phosphorus. “For example, can you swim in it, can fish and macroinvertebrates thrive in it?” “When we do issue national environmental reports the findings should come with the full picture, what was the season like, hot, dry, wet? “All of those things affect water quality and we need that context, not just bald numbers from a very limited number of sites.”

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News

THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Aussies cut cash for Kiwi branches Nigel Stirling nigel.g.stirling@gmail.com AGRICULTURE Minister Damien O’Connor is calling for calm heads as the appetite of the Australian-owned banks to fund the New Zealand economy and farming, in particular, is further squeezed. The news continues to worsen for the local arms of the big Aussie banks after their own regulator slashed the amount of their capital that can be allocated to foreign subsidiaries from 50% to 25%. Designed to limit the potential for losses from foreign subsidiaries to tip up their parent companies in Australia, the move by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) last week risks making it even harder for the NZ subsidiaries of the Australian banks to meet increases in minimum capital requirements already in the works here. Thoses NZ subsidiaries have already said the hefty increases in capital proposed by the Reserve Bank could lead to significantly higher borrowing costs as they hike interest rates to maintain the returns from their local operations. The banks warn rural borrowers will cop the biggest increases because of the higher risk weight applied to lending against farms, which historically experience bigger ups and downs in values and are seen as a riskier security than houses. In its submission to the Reserve Bank last month the country’s largest dairy farmer Dairy Holdings warned of a perfect storm where rising interest rates and falling international dairy prices could lead to massive falls in farm values. Speaking before APRA’s announcement O’Connor advised against slamming the brakes on lending to farmers.

WEAR IT: Banks should absorb some of the increased costs they face for the good of the economy, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says.

“If you look at the history of banks they usually have done pretty well, regardless of what happens in terms of profits. “They certainly have been very healthy over the last number of years and if they could absorb some of the additional cost for the security of themselves and the NZ economy and the primary sector then we would probably all be better off.” Multiplied across the rural sector’s $63b debt pile O’Connor said the impact on borrowing costs of the capital proposals is about $300m or 6% of annual profits though those figures are based on the Reserve Bank’s own estimates and considerably lower than the banking industry’s estimate of the cost. “It is hardly going to undermine their viability if they absorb that increase in cost and allow farmers to carry on through a flat time for commodity prices,” he said. O’Connor also had a word of advice for a generation of farmers used to easy credit. While he doesn’t want to see them cut off at the knees by their bankers the minimum capital proposals

being debated are indicative of a shift to a more conservative approach to banking following the financial crisis a decade ago. “The reality is that land prices are not going to swing up wildly and (that has been) sobering for some people who just assumed that farm prices were going to keep on going up and up. “Farming for capital gain and not running a positive cashflow is a risky way to progress.” O’Connor said even if the Government wanted to it cannot force the Reserve Bank to back down on its proposals. “That decision is an independent one for the Reserve Bank governor and it clearly seems to be based on him being concerned about international financial stability and the exposure our banks have to debt, particularly in the primary sector. “The reality is hard to deny and I guess it is how they manage it.” The Reserve Bank is expected to announce its final decision on how much capital the banks must hold by November.

Banks support farm mediation Colin Williscroft colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz

A FARM debt mediation scheme will provide consistency and clarity for both farmers and banks and has the support of the banking industry. In its submission on the Farm Debt Mediation Bill presented to the Primary Production Select Committee the Bankers Association said it supports the Bill, which has the potential to shorten the amount of time taken to get a resolution and avoid the need for creditor enforcement. The association said it was working on a farm debt mediation scheme with its members, based on Australian experience, before the Bill appeared. Most Australian states have legislated farm debt mediation schemes and their experience indicates they can be effective and beneficial for creditors and farmers, the submission said. “We understand that some lenders to agribusiness operations may not have such processes in place or treat such enforcement mechanisms as a last resort and therefore this Bill seeks to set a minimum standard for lenders generally. “The Bill’s application to second and third tier lenders or lenders of last resort is a real practical benefit to farmers.” Banks work closely with farming lenders and when there are problems

with farmers being under financial stress they try various options to reach mutually acceptable solutions to avoid enforcement actions where possible, it said.

The Bill’s application to second and third tier lenders or lenders of last resort is a real practical benefit to farmers. However, legislation needs to provide banks with a mechanism to act with urgency in certain situations, including where collateral is at risk of damage or destruction, environmental noncompliance, crop wastage, misappropriation of assets, concealment from a creditor, where a farmer requests enforcement action or where there are animal welfare concerns. In those emergency situations creditors should be able to bypass the mediation process as an interim measure or get an emergency enforcement certificate or court order to preserve the status quo. Alternatively, the creditor should be able to apply for a protection order on the same grounds, which would allow it to take specified actions to avert those risks while mediation continues.

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Dairy farm costs nudge $6/kg Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz BREAK-EVEN for dairy farmers has risen 8c to $5.95/kg milksolids produced in the 2018-19 season just finished, DairyNZ senior economist Matthew Newman estimates. It is a much smaller rise than the 70c in the 2017-18 season. Increased farm working expenses in feed and fertiliser have flowed on to the higher break-even, he said. The break-even number is net of livestock purchases or sales and doesn’t include any non-farm income, perhaps from a partner working outside the business. Average debt levels on dairy farms haven’t changed for some time, staying around the $4 million mark, Newman said. Half a percentage point increase in bank margins represents $20,000 extra cost to the average dairy farm or about 12.5c/kg milksolids. While the average debt level is $23-24/kg MS it includes 10-15% of farms that have little or no debt.

Therefore, the average-sized dairy farm mortgage is $27.20/kg. Newman calculates the average by dividing the total dairy farm debt of $42 billion by 85% of the total milksolids produced that season. In 2017-18 total dairy farm debt increased despite 57% of farms reducing their debt. Reductions were offset by about a third of farms increasing debt. During that season farm working expenses went up 47c to $4.20/kg. The figures were published in the DairyNZ economic survey and came from the DairyBase industry-good data set. One quarter of farms had higher expenditure than their cash income from milk and were included in the third not making money even with $6-plus milk payouts. Expenditure includes farm working expenses, interest and rent, tax and drawings. It does not include capital development, depreciation or loan repayments. The 2018-19 economic survey

MONEY: Farms need to be more profitable not just to cope with rising costs but also to provide an adequate return on investment, DairyNZ senior economist Matthew Newman says.

won’t be published until April next year. Newman said farm balance sheets have recently come under pressure from depreciating assets, mainly farmland values and share prices. “Farms need to be more profitable, not only to cope with

rising costs but also to provide an adequate return on investment, which in previous years might have come from rising land prices. “When surveyed farmers often say they intend to produce more for less cost but, in reality, that doesn’t always happen.

“Their intentions for reducing debt come into that category but the industry’s macro debt numbers don’t yet show that being carried out.” Farms with very high debts, perhaps representing 80% or even 90% of equities, contain some vulnerable businesses, he said.

Finance factors conspire against farmers A TOUGH line by banks on rural borrowers is a response to years of farmer procrastination about repaying principal, a former senior rural banker says. Going back 25 years when interest-only loans first became available in New Zealand, more and more farmers took the option, which has now become expected, an entitlement. “Rural bankers were then told to convince their clients to begin repaying principal in the good years but they have struggled to

change the psyche of farmers.” Repeated warnings by the Reserve Bank that dairy debt is a key risk factor for financial stability in NZ, lower land values and an inability of some highly indebted farms to break even are also factors in the squeeze. Some banks have stopped all new lending to dairying and banks have tightened their criteria for new proposals, with minimum equity levels required. “The big banks have been beaten up by the Royal Commission of Inquiry in Australia, the Reserve Bank of NZ has proposed higher capital

requirements and farming has been hammered in the media about environmental effects and the social licence. “So the senior management wants to rebalance their loan books away from lower-margin rural to higher rate commercial or business lending. “They have centralised handling of the bottom end of farm clients, transferred numbers of rural staff members into the city and cut back on resources. “The face-to-face aspect of our work has dwindled and we are losing connection with farmers and with new relationship

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opportunities,” he said. To the rural sector it appears banks have suddenly taken a tougher line but a number of influences have coincided this year. Along with the request to repay principal banks want to clean up unused overdraft facilities or charge a facility fee. Banks have to take some of the blame for ratcheting up the pressure on farmers quickly, losing some of the rural institutional knowledge and adversely affecting traditional relationships, he said. “We competed for rural clients in the past, interest-only became

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the norm in dairy at least and farmers were able to switch banks if they didn’t like loan conditions. “On the other hand, why shouldn’t farmers pay down loans when times are good, in preparation for the downturns? “That should be standard, careful management by farmers and their financiers.” An unfortunate aspect of the situation is an inability of older farmers to exit the industry, either through too-high value expectations, lack of overseas buyers, children who don’t want to go farming or the tighter borrowing rules.

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News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Stressed southern farmers get help Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz AGRICULTURE leaders are scrambling to support Southland farmers struggling to deal with the seasonal pressures accentuated by a media campaign questioning their winter grazing management and animal welfare. Southland Rural Support Trust chairwoman Cathie Cotter says the campaign has added to the seasonal stress of calving and lambing and a wet, cold latter part of winter. “We are very concerned for farmers. “They certainly have got an increase in the amount of stress from these campaigns.” After a mild start to winter the last three weeks have been wet and cold, which coincided with activists taking pictures of stock to support their campaign. Cotter says numerous factors can affect winter grazing management and portray a farmer poorly. “It’s really concerning for us the way pressure is being put on farmers at this time of the year.” Cotter fears the pressure could make stressed farmers isolate themselves instead of seeking help or talking to others. Southland Federated Farmers meat and fibre chairwoman Bernadette Hunt agrees stress levels are higher than she has seen previously but farmers also fear for the future of their industry given the regulatory, financial and environmental challenges. “I have heard from lots of people, a lot of them who have been farming for a long time, and they have never felt so uncertain about what the future holds for the farming sector and I have heard these multiple times.” Farmers go to bed fearing pictures of stock on their farm will appear in the media without context. Federated Farmers is calling

UNREPENTANT: Environmental activist Angus Robson is not repentant about highlighting winter grazing problems because the focus has been on a broken environment and animal welfare comliance system for three years.

We are very concerned for farmers. They certainly have got an increase in the amount of stress from these campaigns. Cathie Cotter Rural Support Trust a meeting of rural organisations to discuss how they can support stressed farmers. Waikato environmentalist Angus Robson says he and animal welfare activist Geoff Reid worked loosely together on the campaign, for which Robson is unrepentant. The focus for the last three

years has been to correct a broken regulatory and compliance system for the environment and animal welfare. “We’re not talking about individual farmers here. We’re talking about the system.” His goal is to have farming systems that produce quality food in a way that does not harm the environment or animals and which commands premium prices. Robson says agricultural sector groups, farming leaders, regional councils and the Government were all told of his plan. “If I had not done anything nothing will change.” Asked to respond to claims he is adding to the stress, Robson says that has come from banks and sector leaders who encouraged and willingly lent money to

farmers, locking them into a production system they cannot get out of. “The stress is from bad decisions made years ago with the launch of hyper intensive dairying or way more stock than the land can handle. “Now they have borrowed up and got the banks down their necks.” He accused Southland farmers of being a flat earth society in denial of the impact of their farming system and refusal to listen to those who questioned them or offer alternatives. Robson has been named on a Government task force to look at winter grazing practices, which is to report back by the end of this month. Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says he has asked

the group to do a stock take of initiatives promoting good winter grazing practices and determine why they are not working for all and how to encourage farmers to adopt them. Environment Southland chief executive Rob Phillips is concerned at some winter grazing practices, highlighted by an abatement notice issued to a farmer who allowed runoff from a crop paddock to flow into the grounds of a neighbouring kindergarten. “Farmers need to understand that they must use good management practice for all winter grazing, including using portable water troughs and back fences to prevent cows going back into already grazed areas as well as carefully managing critical source areas.”

News

THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Chilled meat access still not resolved Nigel Stirling nigel.g.stirling@gmail.com AGRICULTURE Minister Damien O’Connor hopes a long-awaited breakthrough in access for chilled meat exports to China will come in the next year. In the year to June chilled beef exports to China surged 271%, leapfrogging Japan to become New Zealand’s largest market for chilled beef by volume. However, the NZ meat industry is being held back from making even more of China’s rampant demand for high-value chilled exports by a lack of approved plants. China gave the green light for 10 plants to export chilled beef and sheep meat in a trial more than two years ago. While the six-month trial was extended indefinitely the Ministry for Primary Industries has been working with its Chinese counterparts on getting more plants added ever since. O’Connor earlier this month met officials from China’s new State Administration for Market Regulation in Beijing where he renewed a co-operation agreement, which, he says, should speed up the approvals process. “The officials in the new agency

are still seeking individual plant registration. “We are working with them to get an easier pathway for the other plants in NZ to be accredited and for us to expand the trade.” Asked the likelihoods of more plant approvals by this time next year O’Connor was hopeful. “I would hope so but the

The officials in the new agency are still seeking individual plant registration. Damien O’Connor Agriculture Minister Chinese did not give us any commitment in terms of a time line but ensuring that there is a fair process is assurance for us that it can be achieved.” An overhaul of China’s food safety agencies over the past couple of years has frustrated progress. Meat Industry Association chief executive Tim Ritchie said NZ came close to having the chilled trial expanded to include more

plants before the reorganisation. Unhelpfully, some officials dealing with plant approvals have been moved on. “The task that we as well as everyone around the world had to go through was to renew their credentials and relationships within that new agency.” With the bureaucratic landscape in China now more settled, faster progress can be expected. “We came very close a year or two ago but the hope is we are catching up very fast by resubmitting various bits and pieces … it could happen anytime.” In the meantime China’s growing appetite for high-quality chilled cuts of meat means the lost opportunities for those companies without plants approved are mounting. “We want due process to occur as quickly as possible given the commercial consequences to those who do not have that listing,” Ritchie said. “It remains our most important market access issue along with Brexit.” At the moment Silver Fern Farms, Alliance Group, Anzco and Affco each have two processing plants approved for chilled exports to China and Hamilton-

HOT TOPIC: Chilled meat access to China is the industry’s most important market access issue along with Brexit, Meat Industry Association chief executive Tim Ritchie says.

based Greenlea Premier Meats and Hawke’s Bay-based Ovation one plant each. Exporters needed to demonstrate relationships with distributors in China with facilities capable of handling chilled meat. Scale and geographic spread of

plants were also key criteria. Ritchie said both sides are working towards a system of equivalence where Chinese officials accept MPI standards for registering plants as equal to their own without having to come here to visit them individually.

Turning water into beer AFTER a great deal of uncertainty following the introduction of water regulations for the Lake Taupo catchment James and Elissa Cooper turned a negative into a positive by diversifying their finishing farm to brew craft beer. Using water pumped from directly underneath their farm the pair have developed several award-

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farmersweekly.co.nz/farmersvoice

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News

10 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Fairton pelt operation closing Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz THE final blow is about to hit Silver Fern Farms’ Fairton processing plant with 44 jobs on the line. The company plans to close the pelt house, kept running since processing stopped in May 2017. A depressed global pelt market and low sheep numbers in the South Island have been cited as the key reasons. Those factors, coupled with the high overhead costs of the large site, make pelt processing unsustainable at Fairton, the company said.

The 44 staff processing pelts at Fairton and four people preparing pelts at the Pareora plant in South Canterbury have been given redundancy and options for work at other SFF sites. An SFF spokesman said continued low sheep numbers mean there is excess pelt processing capacity in the South Island. And processors are getting low returns from the global market. “The large and old Fairton site with high overheads is no longer in any capacity economical or viable in SFF’s operations.” The company plans to consoli-

CLOSING? A decision on whether the remaining activity at the Fairton works will be made at the end of the month.

date South Island pelts at the Finegand pelt preparation facility in Southland, getting efficiency gains through the early part of the pelting process. SFF has investigated alternative processing options with others in the industry and should the closure go ahead, it intends to consolidate its volumes through other pelt processors for mutual benefit. A decision is expected at the end of the month. The only thing that could change the proposal would be if an option came forward from staff in the consultation period. “Then we may extend that decision period.” A neighbouring 450-hectare farm owned by SFF that has been an integral part of pelt house effluent disposal consents is likely to be sold. “But like what happens with the whole plant site, the decision on what happens with the farm will also be announced at the end of the month,” the spokesman said. The Fairton plant was one of the biggest employers in Ashburton District for 120 years. SFF has committed to preserving items from the plant that have historical interest for the local community. At peak the plant was a threechain sheep meat operation employing more than 700 staff.

Drone helps calendar PHOTOGRAPHY student Anna Langdon will put her new barking drone from DJI Ferntech to good use as she puts together a calendar of agricultural scenes. Langdon, who is studying in Palmerston North, grew up on a Whakatane dairy farm and is combining her passions for farming and photography for her

major project at the Universal College of Learning. Langdon won the drone earlier this year after entering the Farmers Weekly contest online. She says it will help in taking images for her calendar, which will include landscapes, animals and other farming scenes.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Sector mainly open to GE review Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz CALLS to rework genetic engineering regulations have been largely welcomed by the primary sector as producers seek out options to deal with gas emissions, nutrient loses and market opportunities for healthier produce. Professor Barry Scott who headed a Royal Society panel on GE technology has described the existing GE regulations as obsolete and stymieing New Zealand’s efforts to keep pace with global competitors picking up the technology. The last review of GE technology was almost 20 years ago when it was included in the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act. While allowing for GE trials, the regulations make the trials near impossible to do in NZ. Latest GE technology contrasts to earlier techniques that often involved trans-species gene interchanges. Today’s Crispr technology effectively edits small pieces of one species’ genetic material. “Our work has really opened the door to this conversation, one that has not been held for some time. “I think, in a general sense, the discussion is a lot more considered than it was a few years ago. “The Government also finds itself in something of a dilemma. “GE crops could prove to help with greenhouse gas emissions so it puts the Government in the hot seat and they would be foolish if they did not look into these possibilities,” Scott said. But Beef + Lamb chief executive Sam McIvor said the body supports the regulations as they stand, preventing genetically engineered meat entering the food chain. “B+LNZ notes there are many other genetic technologies

We can now look back over 25 years of GE food grown and there have been none of the consequences predicted. Alison Stewart Foundation for Arable Research

CONSIDER IT: Professor Barry Scott believes New Zealanders are more open to the GE option.

available to support animal breeding and plant development that do not involve genetic modification, such as individual animal and herd genotyping/ phenotyping,” he said. He acknowledged technology like Crispr might help pastoral farming address issues like gas emissions and nutrient losses. “But at the same time both NZ and international consumers continue to have concerns about genetically modified food.” He noted, however, those views are not always predictable, given new alternative protein foods often use GE ingredients. Scott said Otago University work on consumer food perceptions indicate while clean and green values are important, GE or nonGE is less so. McIvor acknowledged B+LNZ’s own research shows consumer reluctance around GE eased when it was proved the technology provides health

and environmental benefits. Foundation for Arable Research chief executive Alison Stewart said it is debatable whether NZ food will fetch a premium for being non-GE. “That may be right for a few products but if health benefits can be shown when we use such technologies, that is quite likely to be picked up by consumers.” NZ would be severely remiss to not revisit the regulations, she said. FAR can already see benefits to growers and consumers in picking up the latest technology. “We can now look back over 25 years of GE food grown and there have been none of the consequences predicted. I think the public are more open to it.” She agrees the concept of being clean and green and using GE technology are not mutually exclusive. “We must support the technology if it can be proven to

help reduce pest levels, nutrient losses and disease levels in crops.” However, FAR members will be led by consumer demand. “If you have a market out there saying ‘no, we don’t want it’ then you won’t do it but if consumers accept it we would explore the benefits it can bring.” DairyNZ chief executive Tim Mackle said there is now a broad spectrum of possible GE applications not permitted, ranging from gene editing to genetic modification. “The time has come for us to have a mature national conversation about the application of gene editing technologies in NZ. “If climate change is a sufficiently serious global challenge for NZ to be considering how to restructure our entire economy then every tool should be considered as we look to reduce emissions. “That should include further

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exploration of the role gene editing may have to play, particularly when it comes to climate resilience and reducing agricultural emissions. HortNZ deputy chief executive Leanne Stewart said it is important to breed plants resistant to pests, diseases and drought to reduce pesticide use and respond to water shortages. “To maintain NZ’s competitive advantage we may need to look for tools that speed up the breeding of new plants to support continued innovation and growth.” But Zespri, one of Hort NZ’s largest stakeholders, remains ambivalent about the use of the technology. A Zespri spokesman acknowledged the value such technology might bring but also that Zespri maintains its conventional breed discovery programme fits with consumer perceptions of kiwifruit. Forest Owners Association president Peter Weir said the Royal Society’s work highlights the problem of wilding conifers that continue to spread despite millions being spent on them. “If the fertility was switched off in these trees through a gene edit then not only would the spread of wildings be curtailed, the tree would divert more energy into growing wood, adding to carbon dioxide absorbed and help combat climate change.”

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12 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Getting the protein from leafy crops Luke Chivers luke.chivers@globalhq.co.nz NO ONE denies vegetables are nutritious. Whether they’re delicious – that’s debatable. But a Kiwi start-up has an ingenious plan to produce leaf protein concentrate ingredients for consumer food companies around the world. It could help to feed the planet and reduce on-farm emissions, too. Leaft Foods co-founders John and Maury Leyland Penno launched the venture this month and are partnering with Canterbury farmers to get the idea off the ground.

It would be much more efficient if we could capture protein directly from leaves. John Leyland Penno Leaft Foods At a farm-level it’s as simple as producing leafy crops. “There’s no better climate, soils and farming base for producing leafy crops than New Zealand,” Leyland Penno, the former Synlait chief executive, said. Maury Leland Penno is a former Fonterra executive. “But, of course, those leafy crops often have too much protein in them for the animals that graze on them. That protein can hold back the performance

of the animals and it can lead to excessive nitrogen losses out of the farming systems. “It would be much more efficient if we could capture protein directly from leaves.” So, using scalable industrial technologies and food processing techniques the Leyland Pennos plan to produce highly functional leaf protein ingredients, ultimately enabling food companies to create sustainable food products. The couple wouldn’t disclose the exact technology but insist it integrates with what farmers are already doing. And their protein products are expected to have high nutritional value and a lighter environmental footprint than animal or grain protein sources. “We’ve had some farmers let us harvest some of their crops in sample areas as we work up our processes,” Leyland Penno said. “I’ve been speaking with many farmers about how these systems might integrate into their existing farming systems and we’ve been doing some modelling work considering how it might change their environmental footprint.” If Leaft Foods continues to get the green light Canterbury farmers could soon supply raw crops to the business. Growers would be paid on the amount they supply. The Leyland Pennos are optimistic. They believe their process will not only extract high-quality protein but also produce a reduced protein, high-quality ensiled feed that has the potential to increase animal performance and reduce nitrogen losses from dairy and beef farming systems. Arguably, crops have risen

GOOD FARE: Leaft Foods co-founders Maury and John Leyland Penno expect their protein products to have high nutritional value and a lighter environmental footprint than animal or grain-based proteins.

and fallen in favour, but today a growing number of consumers seem to agree it ticks the box against the biggest problems plaguing the Earth: climate, food and health. The Leyland Pennos have long recognised that and are adamant the global food industry must change to responsibly feed a rapidly growing population while protecting the planet. They created Leaft Foods to be part of the solution. “NZ’s innovative farmers and businesspeople have used the natural advantages of the climate and environment of Aotearoa NZ to create world-leading business models, especially in the production, manufacture and export of dairy, beef, lamb and wool commodities,” Maury Leyland Penno said. “One of the critical factors behind these strengths has been the ability to grow green leafy crops.” Leaft Foods has already partnered with some of NZ’s leading research institutes, universities, agricultural advisers and farmers. “We have achieved enough to be confident that Leaft Foods will

be able to commercialise this,” he said. “The reality is, if you want to transform you’ve got to be able to do it at scale. “It’s got to work for farmers. “It’s got to be something that farmers can do and profitable – and more profitable than what they are currently doing – otherwise they’re not going to make the change.

“We’ve already had conversations with some targeted companies and we’ll continue to have those conversations over time.” The business is focused on Canterbury but given its structure it could be operated NZ-wide and abroad. Leaft Foods is looking to get infrastructure in place and recruit staff in coming months.

Demand for poor colour wool POORER colour wools surprised by selling well at Thursday’s Napier wool sale after struggling at recent auctions. There was also good competition for longer hogget wools and some secondshear wools were firmer, PGG Wrightson North Island auctioneer Steve Fussell said. The sale had 7000 bales on

offer, with a pass-in rate of 5%. Sales, all by micron level, price per kg/clean, full wool, good- to-average colour: 32, $4.20kg/clean, steady; 35, $3.24, steady; 36, $2.93, up 24c; 38, $3.10, steady. Crossbred second shear: 33, 2-to-3 inches, $2.76, up 2c; 37, 3-to-4 inches, $2.77, down 14c; 2-to-3 inches, $2.49, down 5c; 39, 3-to-5 inches, $2.89, up 12c; 2-to-3 inches, $2.49, down 5c.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Rotorua farmers dodge bullet Richard Rennie richard.rennie@globalhq.co.nz THE Environment Court’s interim decision to uphold Plan Change 10 rules for nitrogen allocation in Rotorua Lakes District has been welcomed by farmers as a win for common sense and rural communities. The 70-plus farmers in the catchment have been fighting what they see as an about turn by Rotorua Lakes District Council after it opted to support and fund iwi efforts to re-allocate nitrogen discharges earlier agreed on among land owners, environmentalists and councils. After a decade of discussion the change appeared to be in doubt if the ruling went in favour of forest-owning iwi, the council and forestry companies. It would have enabled nitrogen allocations for 1500ha of iwi-owned forest to be increased sixfold at the expense of farmers. Council group manager JeanPaul Gaston said the council had joined with iwi and forestry groups in the challenge because of concerns the change did not support the longer-term sustainability of the catchment and excluded forestry and under-

developed land from future development. It also argued the allocations grand-parented nitrogen based on sector averages, preventing underused land from meeting its potential production. Dry stock and dairy farmers in the catchment would have faced nitrogen discharge reductions of a further 40% and 80% respectively if the case had succeeded. Nitrogen already allocated to pastoral farmers would effectively have been re-allocated to iwi forests. In his ruling Judge Kirkpatrick noted any environmental model faces some uncertainty, particularly given the questions remaining over Overseer’s predictive ability on nitrogen losses. However, it was a significant matter that farms already required to cut nitrogen losses would have further reductions. But there was no compelling evidence changing the allocations would be in the public interest. Kirkpatrick also raised concerns no assessment of the re-allocation’s impact on the environment was done. He also hoped iwi would realise they are part of a wider community and while the re-

SAVED: Rotorua farmer Neil Heather says the ruling is a lifesaver for Rotorua farmers.

allocation might advantage one group of Maori landowners it would disadvantage others. The plan change requires landowners to play a role in reducing 140 tonnes of nitrogen losses into the lake system, requiring nitrogen reductions of 35% for dairy farms and 17% for drystock. Rotorua lakes farmer and

Lake Rotorua Primary Producers Collective member Neil Heather said he faced the prospect of his 18kg nitrogen a hectare limit, which he has already met, being screwed down to nearer 10kg a hectare if the challenge succeeded. Last year he said it would leave him little more than a lifestyle block farmer.

“The judge tended to look beyond just what iwi needs were in this case by rejecting the demands for land use capability methodology to be used to determine allocation. The outcome for us under land use capability would have been devastating.” Heather already faces the prospect of further tightening in 2032 on his 45ha drystock unit. Farmers are “very dark” the council had not only opted to side with iwi, after supporting the long evolution of the plan change, but had also spent a significant sum of ratepayer money to do so. “And we are still trying to determine just how much the council has spent on this process.” Combined funding of about $100,000 from local farmers and similar funding support from Federated Farmers to oppose the re-allocation were critical in fighting the case. Federated Farmers environment spokesman Chris Allen said the federation had allocated significant resources to the case, where a ruling against farmers would have had dire consequences for farming and the Rotorua community. DairyNZ also contributed some money and expertise.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Water storage vital for future Todd Muller gave up a senior leadership career in agribusiness to become a politician. The National Party’s new agriculture spokesman tells Neal Wallace his grandparents inspired his interest in politics. NEW Zealand needs a rethink about how it uses and stores fresh water, the National Party’s new agriculture spokesman Todd Muller says. He has replaced former Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy and says water management needs to change to meet the required doubling in the volume of hydro electricity generated to replace a decarbonised economy and sustain food production in a climate that will be drier in some areas. Muller says the food and fibre sectors will remain NZ’s economic drivers but the Government’s approach to water management is Wellington knows best instead of working with the sector. “The ideas that seem to come from this Government is management built on a brutal planning regime.” He described the approach to water storage as woeful despite the country having an abundance of water. Given the challenges facing the country water storage requires a strategic approach and the primary sector needs certainty so it can use water strategically and responsibly. “We spend all our time fighting each other rather than getting

out and building things at scale,” he says of how we deal with the challenges. He fears the primary sector is being swamped by a tsunami of regulation, costs and change and given tight time frames in which to comply. That will start to negatively affect the economy. Farmers are given little credit for the changes or improvements they have made. “Essentially, the regulatory framework expected of the average farmer is massively ahead of 10 years ago.” Muller was elected for the Bay of Plenty electorate in 2014 after an agribusiness career. He was born in 1968 to sharemilkers on a Papakura dairy farm. Five years later they moved to a kiwifruit orchard at Te Puna, which is still in family ownership. They later added a pack house, cool store and a spraying business in which Muller worked to fund himself through Waikato University. His interest in politics stemmed from his grandparents, Henry and Eileen Skidmore, who were the former mayor and mayoress of Te Aroha and who were influential in his life.

SPLITTING: National Party agriculture spokesman Todd Muller says the Government is widening the ruralurban divide.

“I saw through their lives the value of service and what they did for their community and the huge impact they made. “I was really impacted by it and realised I wanted to get involved in politics.” On leaving university Muller worked in the office of former Prime Minister Jim Bolger during his second term in the mid 1990s. The need to get out of the Wellington bubble and experience the real world saw Muller return to Bay of Plenty and a job with Zespri where he stayed for 10 years, reaching the role of general manager. On leaving Zespri he stayed in

the horticulture sector as chief executive of Apata Group, a company providing post-harvest services to kiwifruit and avocado growers. In 2011 he resigned to work at Fonterra where he became group director of co-operative affairs, with responsibility for stakeholder relationships including shareholders and government. He is a former Waikato University councillor and sat on the boards of Plant and Food Research and the Sustainable Business Council. Muller is married to Michelle and they have three children, Aimee, Bradley and Amelia. His priority issues are water, helping industry bring consumers closer to producers and ensuring the sector has the necessary staff, connectivity and capability. Asked how he would respond to Mycoplasma bovis, Muller says eradication is the right tactic but he has concerns the Ministry for Primary Industries has unresolved issues with farmers that have created immense stress. On rural community concerns about the impact of afforestation Muller says trees have a place and acknowledged forestry is a significant industry and export earner. But he says the structure of the Emissions Trading Scheme is flawed and distorts the market by favouring the blanket planting of trees on pasture by investors wanting to offset their emissions.

He also questioned why changes introduced by the Government that streamline Overseas Investment Office approval for foreign investors wanting to buy forests or land for planting but not those wanting to make other investments. Muller says the Government’s proposed methane reduction targets are too high, based on Climate Change Minister James Shaw’s own figures, while ignoring the advice of his officials. The urban-rural divide is real and Muller says the Government has contributed by using divisive tones in reference to farmers and the primary sector. “The Government narrative is always pointed, always in conflict with the sector. “They have absolutely exacerbated the urban-rural divide.” His solution is to remind people of agriculture’s positive contribution, that farmers have already made significant changes to improve the environment and their practices and are prepared to make further changes. The Government needs to help the sector. “It is a different tone of conversation, that the primary sector matters.” A year out from the election Muller says he intends meeting farmers and farming leaders and doing plenty of listening as he prepares policies ahead of next year’s ballot.

Guy says it’s time for a change Colin Williscroft colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz NATHAN Guy might be walking away from national politics in a year’s time but the former Primary Industries Minister says he still has plenty to offer the agriculture sector. Guy, who turns 50 next year, will not stand in next year’s general election after deciding he could not commit to another three years as an MP. After close to 15 years in Parliament he decided it is time to bow out on his own terms having achieved a considerable amount for the agriculture sector and NZ. “I go out holding my head high.” Guy is considering what his future might hold but throughout his time in Parliament he maintained a hands-on connection to the rural community. “I’m still very involved in the family farming business near Levin. “It’s a great release from Parliament to come back at weekends and days when it’s not sitting to get my hands dirty and get back to the grassroots.” That does not mean he plans to farm full-time in future. “I want to put my skills to use in other areas. I can still make

a worthy contribution to the ag sector. It’s something I’m passionate about.” The achievements he is most proud of from his time as minister include supporting rural communities through adverse events like the dairy downturn, a prolonged North Canterbury drought, the Kaikoura earthquakes and floods. He also managed an allof-governemnt response to a blackmail threat made to contaminate infant formula with 1080. Not only did that end with a successful prosecution, it involved extending testing and auditing procedures to protect infant formula security while maintaining communication with Chinese officials to minimise potential trade problems. Failure to do that could have been disastrous for the agriculture sector and the economy, he said. Guy is confident Todd Muller will be a strong opposition agriculture spokesman. “He’ll be fantastic. “He has very strong business credentials from his time with Fonterra and Zespri.” The knowledge Muller has from the 18 months he held National’s climate change

portfolio will also be valuable. As part of Muller stepping into the agriculture role he has taken Guy’s role on the primary production select committee with Guy taking Muller’s place on the environment select committee. One of the big challenges facing farming is getting positive stories in mainstream media, Guy said. “Farmers need to get social media platforms up and share stories about what they are doing.” He encourages farmers to, where they can, get more children on their farms. “I know that nowadays that’s harder than in the past because of the health and safety red tape but if we can get more kids on farms they will have a better understanding of what happens there.” The Young Farmers model farm near Auckland has huge potential to further that understanding. Guy said he will miss the cut and thrust of Parliament but not the negativity that goes along with it. He leaves with no real regrets and is confident National can win the 2020 election. “For me it was just about timing. I’m keen to do something different.”

CONNECTED: Former Primary Industries Minister Nathan Guy has maintained his farming links during his time as an MP.

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16 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

The chef, the farmer and the high commission Colin Williscroft colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz A NORTH Island high-country farmer, an acclaimed English chef and the home of the British high commissioner proved to be a recipe for a great night out in Wellington earlier this month. Homewood, a listed heritage home that dates back to the 1850s, played host to Jack Cashmore, who has worked in some of Europe’s top restaurants and Blue Duck Station owner Dan Steele as part of this year’s Wellington on a Plate festival. Cashmore’s restaurant, The Chef’s Table, operated last summer as a stripped-back, popup, fine dining experience on top of the highest ridge on Blue Duck Station, reachable only by helicopter or four-wheel-drive. There he offered a 10-course degustation menu largely inspired by and sourced from the station and served with views of Tongariro and Whanganui National Parks. His presence in the Holmwood kitchen as part of the festival followed an initiative to get the high commissioner’s residence to contribute to its upkeep by being

hired out as a venue, particularly when it can collaborate with a British connection. The result was the Blue Duck Station at Holmwood event, held over three sold-out nights in the historic home’s grand dining room.

It’s a farmer and a chef coming together. Completely natural.

Cashmore took his passion for taste and knowledge of cuisine from time spent at two Michelinstarred restaurants, Sat Bains in Nottingham, In de Wulf in Belgium and as head chef at Anglo in London, and mixed it with a menu using foraged ingredients and meat from the farm, complemented with wine from Ata Rangi. Dishes included wild garlic tart and smoke venison heart, wood ear mushrooms and sage, Blue Duck Station mutton and beetroot and smoked eel custard and apple. Each evening wound up with a

discussion with Steele, over coffee and digestifs, on conservation, sustainability and a better New Zealand. What they have done at Blue Duck Station, in Ruapehu District on the banks of the Whanganui and Retaruke Rivers, is turn farming into conservation, Steele said. “And I want to share how we did it and why it is the best way forward, not only for us but for the whole of NZ.” He met Cashmore about 10 years ago when the now chef was travelling the world as an 18-yearold. A friend of Cashmore had previously volunteered at Blue Duck and suggested if he was coming to NZ he do the same. His commitment and cando attitude set him apart as an exceptional volunteer, Steele said. So when Cashmore, having stayed in touch after returning to Europe and establishing himself as a top chef, said he wanted to return to NZ with the idea of creating a unique on-station dining experience, Steele was happy to help. Despite his success in Europe

TASTY: Jack Cashmore uses ingredients from Blue Duck Station to create the menu at The Chef’s Table.

Cashmore says establishing a restaurant in the middle of nowhere in NZ could be seen as crazy and might be the hardest thing he has ever tried. “But there was no way I was walking away without giving it a go,” he said. “This is more than about making money or making a

splash in the restaurant scene. This is about living what we say we believe and leading a vision to create a self-sufficient restaurant based on ethical production and run in a sustainable way, where your way of life and beautiful food become intertwined. “It’s a farmer and a chef coming together. Completely natural.”

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Call for switch in farming focus Colin Williscroft colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz IT’S likely to be painful for some farmers but land management practices need to become more sustainable for agriculture to thrive in the future, Blue Duck Station owner Jack Steele says. He acknowledges the significant changes he is talking about will hurt some but the potential benefits for future generations outweigh that pain.

CHAMPION: Dan Steele wants to show farming does not come at the expense of nature.

We need to change the way we do things. Dan Steele Blue Duck Station

Looking after precious resources that give farmers a natural advantage over foreign rivals means protecting our biodiversity. Land use diversification, rather than intensification, will play a key role in that and for that to succeed different industries will

need to learn to work together more. One of the biggest challenges is getting farmers and landowners along for the ride, he said. They will need advice on how that approach can be made to pay for itself in the marketplace, how food producers will benefit

by focusing on quality rather than quantity and using a variety of land uses. “If we do this everyone in NZ will be better for it but it is a huge ask. “A lot of farmers don’t see it but a percentage do. “It’s going to be a big ask to get

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“New Zealand has a massive opportunity to lead the world in the supply of high-quality and sustainably produced products,” he said. “But for that to happen we need to change the way we do things.” Steele has never believed making a farm pay and looking after the environment are mutually exclusive.

everyone to agree on a pathway forward and then to get them to stick to it.” The higher the quality of products sold, the better they will be received by overseas customers. To get that message across telling the story about those products and how they are produced will be important. There is also a largely untapped opportunity in using the increasing number of tourists to NZ as ambassadors for our food once they leave. Steele is already walking the talk. He wants to demonstrate that, done the right way, farming can be about protecting nature. Blue Duck is a sheep and beef farm underpinned by environmentally minded, conservation-driven principles. Its location in the King Country back country on the banks of the Whanganui and Retaruke Rivers allows Steele to also run an ecotourism business with five lodges and outdoor activities including horse trekking, canoing, jet boating and tramping. Work to preserve the blue duck and kiwi populations is supported by money from manuka honey produced on the station.

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18 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Protein punches Fonterra profits Hugh Stringleman hugh.stringleman@globalhq.co.nz PROTEINS in milk have become the basis for dedicated, offshore focus teams, New Zealand Milk Products chief operating officer Kelvin Wickham says. Two team leaders were in Auckland this month for reporting and budgeting talks and a media briefing. Maarten van Beek heads the medical nutrition and healthy aging unit in Amsterdam and Komal Mistry-Mehta heads the sports and active lifestyle unit in Singapore. Both businesses operate in growing global markets worth hundreds of billions of dollars already, they say. Mistry-Mehta said her market segment is growing worldwide at 8% a year, including 20%-plus growth in Asia. NZMP, Fonterra’s biggest division, is the giant ingredients processing and worldwide marketing operation, which in the 2018 financial year had revenue of $16.3 billion and earnings before interest and tax of $879 million. Wickham said a third of its products are now advanced ingredients from customised milk powders to functional foods. Fonterra’s plants have been pioneers in caseinates and milk protein concentrates. “We have been responsible for many firsts in dairy protein, have one of the widest portfolios of dairy protein in the world and we can produce proteins of consistent quality at scale. “We are big enough to have scale and small enough to be nimble.” It works with multinationals

We are big enough to have scale and small enough to be nimble. Kelvin Wickham NZ Milk Products through to start-ups, offering functional ingredients, research and development help and market insights. Medical and sports protein formulations earn three to five times the margins of normal milk proteins. And intellectual property fees and royalties are obtainable from behind tariff barriers in markets Fonterra cannot access traditionally. Van Beek said billions of servings a year are already provided by health providers to patients and elderly people and that is not yet well understood by NZ dairy farmers. Age demographics mean there are a billion people in the target audience now and will be 2b by 2030. Governments in developed countries are endorsing and subsidising protein-rich food and beverage consumption. The high-protein products are aimed at the huge issues of malnutrition, muscle-loss, cancer and diabetes. “But often the products don’t taste good and patient compliance is low, leading to weight loss. “With excellent work done by the Fonterra Research and Development Centre we have

ADVANCED: New Zealand Milk Products medical nutrition and healthy aging head Maarten van Beek says billions of servings a year of milk proteins are given by health providers to the sick and elderly.

re-invented these products and formulated new ones that have good taste, texture and absorption. “We have patented products by working with the big pharmaceutical and nutraceutical companies.” Fonterra will gain from sales of advanced ingredients, royalties on the products it has developed for other companies and from some brand opportunities down the track. NZMP has introduced the trademarked names SureStart (paediatric), SureProtein and SureLife as sub-brands for labelling and marketing, Wickham said. Mistry-Mehta also put her marketing unit in a worldwide context of functional foods for lifestyle choices, often to counter modern afflictions like anxiety and stress, tiredness, obesity and sleeping troubles. Protein powders are no longer the domain of weightlifters. Health and wellness nutrition is rapidly going mainstream, with eight out of 10 consumers looking for l Escorted group tours functional benefits when l Exclusive experiences and sights snacking. “Dairy plays a big part in l Meet farming colleagues what these consumers are l Trusted for over 30 years! looking for, in particular Fonterra’s expertise in ph for details proteins, probiotics and phospholipids.”

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The research centre has developed a whey protein concentrate that when incorporated in a snack bar ensures the bar does not harden over time and reaches higher protein levels. A model for such bars is now available to intending customers. Fonterra now sells HNO01 and HNO19 probiotics in the United States as ready-to-mix beverage powders and dry supplements. Other markets will follow as will food formats like confectionery, bars and bakery ingredients. Customers such as Foodspring, the German targeted nutrition business of which Fonterra until recently had part-ownership, are developing and marketing new products with considerable success. Foodspring launched dry protein ice cream kits and pioneered protein breads and brownies and makes 90% of its sales online. “Feedback from consumers is quick and we are then able to change formulations and try new things. “It’s a dynamic and fragmented market and we need to work with new companies from start-up,” she said. Dairy derivatives like lactoferrin and phospholipids, previously used in baby foods, are now migrating to foods for adults and seniors. Ready-to-drink products are expanding very quickly from 5% of the sports and active lifestyle markets historically to 20% now.

FUNCTIONAL: New Zealand Milk Products sports and active lifestyle director Komal Mistry-Mehta says her market is growing 20% a year in Asia.

Fonterra supplies one of the biggest US ready-to-drink makers with milk protein concentrates that have consistent qualities, avoid chelation issues and have superior taste and texture. Wickham said Fonterra is sourcing whey protein concentrate from its joint ventures in the Netherlands and the US to meet the demand for advanced ingredients from customers of the medical and sports business units. “As demand grows we would potentially buy-in milk protein concentrates also, having first maximised the value of our NZ milk.”

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20 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Horseman changes tack at 80 IAN Brickell is nothing short of a legend. At 80 he continues to farm his Kotemaori property, Te Wae Wae, alongside his grandson Jacob. It is a steep, remote, hill-country block with 304ha of effective land and 259ha of bush in a QE2 trust. He runs 600 Romney ewes and a Black Welsh stud with 85 cows but also grazing the steep paddocks are his pride and joy – about 100 Te Wae Wae horses. Farmed the old-fashioned way they are split into stallion mobs with the sires that grace the hills ranging from a Missouri Foxtrotter, which was imported from the United States, to a Morgan stallion, also from imported bloodlines, as well as a grey Hanoverian Warmblood, a Pinto sport horse and a Puketoro stallion. One for the Te Wae Wae sport horses history books was their first horse auction, which was held at the property on August 10. The horses are typically sold

privately but Brickell said he wanted to give an auction a go. “You have to try different things and I wanted to see how it would go. “It also gave people the opportunity to come out and see Te Wae Wae.” With the quality and versatility of Brickell’s horses already known, close to 100 people made the journey to the remote Wairoa property and a quarter registered as buyers. On offer were about 30 broken and unbroken horses from Te Wae Wae, ranging from rising three to rising seven, which were all sired by Brickell’s stallions and were born and raised on the steep hill country. To keep the cogs turning on the day was a team of helpers, lead by Tommy Atkins. This team of four came in this year to help Brickell wean, brand, geld and handle the foals then set the wheels in motion for the first horse sale held at the property.

SINGLE SALES: The Te Wae Wae horses were presented in three lots though each horse was sold individually. Photo: Matilda Ormond

An air of anticipation hung over the yards as the sale got under way with many in the crowd knowing they were part of a special moment for Brickell who opened the auction with a heart-warming prayer for his beloved horses before Neville Clark took over the reins as auctioneer. Top unbroken price was $2000 for a show-stopping grey-dun gelding by Brickell’s Hanoverian Warmblood out of a Cricklewood mare while the average price for the unbroken lots was $900. The top priced broken-in horse was sold on behalf and made $5000. Buyers were mostly local though stretched to Gisborne and down further into Hawke’s Bay and Whanganui and most made more than one purchase. At the end of the sale Brickell was happy with how the day went. “It was not a roaring success but well worth it”. And when asked if he will hold another auction said “Absolutely, with a few tweaks here and there.”

HANDLER: Ian Brickell with one of his horses.

Photo: Matilda Ormond

HELPER: Sean Mantell-Harding, bringing in the mob, was part of the crew that helped prepare the horses for sale. Seen here bringing in the mob. Photo: Hayley Parker

ADVANCE: The sale horses were brought in a few weeks before the sale. Photo: Hayley Parker

GETTING READY: Preparing the horses for sale.

Photo: Hayley Parker

News

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Familiar names appear at PGW Alan Williams alan.williams@globalhq.co.nz MAJOR figures in PGG Wrightson’s early history are back and moving up the share register. Given their backgrounds that might point to some corporate action. Rural Equities, the farm-owning company controlled by Sir Selwyn Cushing and his son David, has bought Ngai Tahu’s 3.63% stake in PGW at $2.35 a share, adding to the 2.66% shareholding of their main investment vehicle H and G. That and smaller holdings bought on the market by Rural Equities gives the Cushings a 6.42% share in the nationwide rural services group. Gould Holdings, a company controlled by former PGW managing director George Gould, has emerged on the share register with a 0.57% stake. He said he had just bought a few shares when the PGW seeds business was sold and

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has no plans beyond that at this stage. The business is much simpler and easy to understand now and more interesting as an investment without the potential complications of the seeds division. “Seeds was dynamic and exciting, with the intellectual property, but the overseas risk is gone now.’’ There will be speculation about how long PGW’s 44% shareholder Agria Corporation of China will remain involved after the big return of capital following the sale of the PGW seeds business. It is still understood to have debt to pay down and its reputation has been dented by run-ins with the New York Securities Exchange and New Zealand’s Overseas Investment Office. The OIO required Agria to reduce its shareholding in PGW, which it did by unwinding a shareholder agreement with Ngai Tahu, leaving the South Island iwi

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with a direct 3.63% stake. Agria also sold shares directly to H and G in March. A view in the market is that both Agria and Ngai Tahu were interested mainly in having an international interest through the seeds business. A rural services group operating only in NZ is considered small by their ambitions and Agria could be a seller at the right price. Rural Equities executive chairman and PGW deputychairman David Cushing could not be contacted for comment. Nor could PGW chairman Rodger Finlay, also a Rural Equities shareholder and its deputy chairman. He is also a Ngai Tahu director. Sir Selwyn Cushing used to control Williams and Kettle, the Hawke’s Bay rural services group, merged into the then Wrightson in the early 2000s. Fruitfed, now one of PGW’s best businesses, was part of Williams and Kettle. In 2005 the merged Wrightson

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There will be speculation about how long PGW’s 44% shareholder Agria Corporation of China will remain involved.

RETURN: Former PGG Wrightson managing director George Gould has renewed his involvement with the company.

group merged again, this time with Canterbury-based Pyne Gould Guinness, long associated with the Gould family. Sir Selwyn was a director of Wrightson and then PGG Wrightson for several years. Gould was a director of PGW from 2010 and became managing director in February 2011 to stabilise the business and focus on the core rural servicing activities. His start in the job coincided with the major Christchurch

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earthquake and the partial takeover bid by Agria to lift its stake from 19% to 50%. He ended his involvement with the company in mid-2013. He didn’t have a shareholding then and looks to have bought back only in recent months. Gould, who owns just over half of Gould Holdings, said he has total confidence in the new board and management. “David knows what he’s doing.” New chief executive Stephen Guerin ran the retail business when Gould was managing director. He didn’t have a view on whether or not Agria would stay as a shareholder. The PGW investment looks to be the first major play by Rural Equities after deciding two to three years ago to pursue investments outside direct farm ownership. It has sold several farms over the last few years and has a market value of nearly $150 million on the Unlisted platform.

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22 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Farm land needs protection too Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz PRODUCTIVE farmland needs the same protection the Government is giving to vegetable-growing soils, Wairoa Mayor Craig Little says. A Beef + Lamb study that showed sheep and beef farming has greater community benefits than forestry, underestimated impact of losing farmland, he said. The research by BakerAg found if all 189 sheep and beef farms covering 132,000ha in Wairoa District were converted to forestry, 700 local jobs would be lost, the equivalent of one job in five, and the local economy would each year have $23.5m less money spent in it. Little says his district is still the focus of companies looking to blanket plant exotic forests and it needs the protection of Government legislation. Earlier this month the Government released a national policy statement for urban development, It requires councils to do a full analysis of alternatives, benefits and costs when considering urban expansion onto highly productive land used for growing food, vegetables and primary production. The BakerAg report for B+LNZ reveals in the last two years seven Wairoa farms covering 8486ha have been sold for forestry conversion despite a sharp rise in the district-wide average price. In 2017 the average price of land in the district was $5212 a hectare but it rose sharply to $9465 in 2018 before easing to $7355 this year. From 2015 to 2017 there were no sales of farms for forestry conversion. The Labour-led Government has introduced two policies critics say unfairly favour forestry. The Billion Trees scheme

HELP: Productive farmland around Wairoa must be protected from trees, Mayor Craig Little says.

If all the farms go to trees then we might as well close up Wairoa because there will nothing here. Craig Little Wairoa Mayor provides taxpayer incentives for planting trees though it is weighted towards natives and changes to the Overseas Investment Act lowered the legislative barrier forestry companies must meet to invest in NZ while lifting it for foreigners looking at other investments.

Forestry Minister Shane Jones says he is hearing the concerns of communities like Wairoa. “That’s why we are committed to reviewing the impact of the change to the Overseas Investment Office regime. “Currently, there have been too few cases through the process under the new approach to draw any useful conclusions. “Te Uru Rakau (Forestry NZ) is also looking closely at the impact of different types of afforestation on rural communities. “Our overall approach as a Government has been to help farming businesses integrate forestry into their existing operations.” Little believes the estimated 700 jobs lost should the district become forestry is too light,

given the scale of downstream consequences on jobs. “If all the farms go to trees then we might as well close up Wairoa because there will nothing here.” He believes productive sheep and beef farmland needs protection. “It beggars me why, when I have spoken to Government officials and Ministry for Primary Industry officials, we can’t protect productive farmland which is aligned with the Paris Accord which says we should not threaten food production. “We can’t eat trees.” Little says the owner of a farm that sold in the district recently accepted a lower price from a fellow farmer than was offered by a forestry company to prevent the land from being planted in trees.

“He deserves a medal that guy.” B+LNZ chief insight officer Jeremy Baker says the report shows the impact of poorly designed policy allowing fossil fuel emitters unfettered access to land for trees to offset their emissions. “This report illustrates the huge risks of unintended consequences from poorly designed policy and emissions targets, which will incentivise a high level of afforestation and result in a devastating impact on rural communities,” he says. Forestry jobs come at the end of the growing cycle while the carbon credit benefits for investors using trees to offset their emissions go to landowners, usually outside the district, not to the local rural community.

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farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Decisions made. Made easy.

Lincoln to retain its own identity Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz LINCOLN University has welcomed the decision by Education Minister Chris Hipkins to shelve the proposal for a formal partnership with Canterbury University. The decision provides certainty for Lincoln’s future direction, allowing it to collaborate with Canterbury and other organisations while enjoying the benefits of independence, acting vicechancellor Bruce McKenzie said. “Lincoln’s own unique culture, identity and brand are significant strengths as it continues to deliver leadingedge teaching and research. “We see the minister’s decision as a vote of confidence in Lincoln and a major commitment from the Government to the land-based sectors. “I feel extraordinarily positive about our future,” McKenzie said. Hipkins told both universities last week he will not endorse the proposal because the costs outweigh the benefits. Several changes since the proposal was submitted influenced his decision. They included Lincoln’s financial position being helped by a $45 million 201011 earthquake insurance settlement in May, effectively

BACKING: Education Minister Chris Hipkins’ decision to dump a planned Lincoln and Canterbury Universities partnership is a vote of confidence in Lincoln, its acting vice-chancellor Bruce McKenzie says.

removing the need for a formal partnership with Canterbury. The decision earlier this year to scrap long-held plans for a $206m joint research facility at Lincoln University after partner AgResearch pulled out in favour of building its own facility was also a significant factor. The sale of part of a farm and several houses leased to staff further improved Lincoln’s balance sheet. Both universities said they intend to continue achieving the benefits proposed through

collaboration and co-operation. McKenzie said the working group formed to develop joint programmes will continue its work and both universities are confident that will position New Zealand’s land-based sector to make the greatest possible contribution to a sustainable economy. Existing collaborative projects between Lincoln and Canterbury include the Children’s University Canterbury Partnership, a proposed postgraduate school and new joint qualifications. “To support our strategy we are also seeking partnerships with a wide range of other organisations, including Crown research institutes, universities and the private sector,” McKenzie said. The proposed formal partnership came after the Government approached Lincoln last year to discuss achieving faster growth to meet the goals set out in the 2017 Transformation Report. Following those discussions, Lincoln and Canterbury submitted a proposal in December outlining a partnership agreement that offered a range of benefits for students, research and industry with the universities requesting Crown fundin. McKenzie said Lincoln is now on a very sound financial footing with enrollments for 2020 looking very strong.

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B+LNZ Genetics waiting for funds BEEF + Lamb Genetics is to become a separate business entity of Beef + Lamb as it seeks more funding to continue working. Over the coming months the genetics unit, a wholly-owned subsidiary established in 2013 to consolidate farmer investment in sheep and beef genetics research and innovation, will be integrated with B+LNZ’s business activities. It will continue to operate as a separate business unit with the transition scheduled for completion on October 1. The initial funding partnership programme between B+LNZ and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment has ended with B+LNZ taking over sole responsibility for funding of its activities.

“This is a logical decision for the sector,” B+LNZ chief executive Sam McIvor said. “It will mean we can more fully power up BLG’s worldleading tools and technologies developed under the MBIE partnership.” Genetics is critical to achieving the industry’s vision of profitable farmers and thriving rural communities. “It plays an integral part in our three priorities of unlocking market potential, enhancing our environmental position and supporting farming excellence. “BLG’s most direct impact is in our farming excellence priority, which focuses on growing farm profitability through improved productivity, efficiency and reduced costs.” McIvor said B+LNZ has committed ongoing support for the beef programme so its activities can be completed

while it awaits the outcome of its funding application with the Primary Industries Ministry’s Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures Fund. BLG chairman Chris Kelly will act as executive director till a new general manager is appointed while existing B+LNZ and BLG director George Tatham will be interim chairman. Kelly said BLG has achieved a number of successful milestones over the past five years including the establishment of NZ Genetic Evaluation, the launch of standard indexes for commercial ram buyers and the introduction of single-step analysis genomic testing. The decision to integrate BLG means B+LNZ can provide continued support of vital work, achieve synergies and improve opportunities for collaboration in existing programmes, Kelly said.

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24 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Gas measures bring farm cost savings Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz WINTON dairy farmer Dean Alexander stumbled into the world of measuring carbon emissions. Ironically, he had just spent more than $500,000 on resource consent and infrastructure to increase cow numbers when he realised the expansion meant an increase in his greenhouse gas emissions. Alexander told the recent Dunedin meeting of the Ministry for the Environment’s Action and Agricultural Emissions public consultation he realised he needed to learn more about climate change. From that research he concluded it is a real and looming threat, there is no silver bullet and farmers need to start reducing their emissions now. “You need to do little things well and it is about starting now,” he says. Alexander is a DairyNZ climate change ambassador whose views

are driven by several underlying principles. The first is to not jeopardise food security, a view stressed by signatories to the Paris Accord on climate change, and that efforts to address climate change are driven by science not emotion, something he fears is not the case. “I am fearful that emotion is dictating things, not science.” It also requires strong leadership and businesses such as farming must remain profitable to ensure solutions can be unded. Farmers will have to make some sacrifices and Alexander accepts regulation is required to set bottom-line expectations but it shouldn’t stifle innovation. Though he considers himself an efficient farmer, steps he has taken to reduce farm emissions have also reduced costs. They include applying more effluent instead of urea on newly grazed paddocks, which has cut his urea use by 15% to 20% without affecting grass growth.

He has already reduced soil cultivation but now uses nontillage techniques even more while still replacing about 10% of his pasture each year. Alexander says the biggest gains have been from improving herd efficiency through artificial insemination to lift performance, putting beef breeds over poorer cows and reducing the number of empties. The focus on efficiency does not mean running fewer animals. He assessed the merits of covering his effluent pond but it would have tripled the cost for minimal gain. The Government’s proposed target of reducing methane emissions 10% below 2017 levels by 2030 is achievable through many small steps but the longer-term target of a 24% to 47% reduction by 2050 is more challenging. “I am comfortable with a 10% reduction by 2030 and most of us can achieve that with 2% to 4% savings through many small steps

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but I have real concerns with the 2050 target range of 24% to 47%.” He questioned why the Government has included the higher target range when science says it is not needed to achieve environmental gains. Alexander describes as a major concession the Government splitting targeted reductions for methane from nitrous oxide and carbon dioxide. “We would be buggered without it.” The Government’s other concession, to cover 95% of the cost of agricultural emissions, is also a stick. “If we don’t front up as a farming community my belief is that the 95% will be ratcheted down pretty quickly.” It will be farmers who lead

change and Alexander supports the Primary Sector Climate Change Commitment in which the primary sector has offered to work on a five-year plan to reduce agricultural emissions. Though rejected by the Government it would have required farmers and growers to calculate their emissions and offsets at the farmgate, assess options to reduce or mitigate those emissions while supporting research. It would also enable the sector to prepare for farm-based pricing by 2025 rather than paying a fiveyear interim processor levy from 2020. Alexander is confident farmers will have new mitigation tools in the next 10 to 20 years but believes they could be costly.

Officials hear common gas concerns loud and clear Neal Wallace neal.wallace@globalhq.co.nz OFFICIALS have heard, loud and clear, several common themes from public consultation meetings on policy to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Ministry for the Environment climate change policy director Roger Lincoln told 40 people at the final meeting in Dunedin the list includes wanting the point of obligation for emissions to be the farm from the start. There is also public concern at the way the carbon price, or New Zealand Units, will be managed, the impact of afforestation to offset emissions and how that and other climate change policies affect rural communities. The Dunedin meeting reiterated earlier concerns about the point of obligation initially resting with processors, which they say will discourage farmers from actively reducing emissions. A group of farmers who

follow regenerative management spoke passionately about how their systems can reduce carbon in the environment but for which they get little or no recognition. From 2020 to 2025 processors will have to collect the levy or tax on methane emissions on behalf of farmers but by 2025 those emissions will be calculated and levied on-farm. In 2022 the Government will report on how to implement farm monitoring and pricing then a year later farmers can voluntarily report their emissions. That reporting will be mandatory in 2024 and, if feasible, an annual levy will be implemented calculated on individual farm emissions from 2025. Alliance company secretary Danny Hailes, and Silver Fern Farms sustainability manager Justin Courtney both raised concerns about processors collecting the levy. Courtney warned it will also cloud the market signals companies send to farmers.

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Roadshows define agtech strategy Colin Williscroft colin.williscroft@globalhq.co.nz FARMERS are being encouraged to have their say on the types of technology that will be of most benefit to the primary sector. The Agritech Strategy Roadshow is travelling around the country seeking feedback to help identify key priority areas for Government action to support the sector. Agritech New Zealand is partnering with several government agencies to develop a range of industry-led initiatives and actions to help the agricultural technology sector, lift export earnings and provide more innovation. Executive director Peter WrenHilton says one of the aims is to help farmers and growers sustainably produce higher-value goods. Workshops have been held in Palmerston North and Auckland with others scheduled for Hamilton, Lincoln and Tauranga. While the Auckland workshop attracted a strong representation from tech companies and industry providers it is expected the Hamilton and Lincoln events will see farmers well represented. Adoption of agritech on farms is a key driver to increase productivity, profitability and sustainability so Agritech NZ has begun talking to the Precision Agriculture Association to see how the two organisations can collaborate. Association board members Brendan O’Connell, Kenneth Irons and Sophie Rebbeck have been appointed to the Agritech executive council. Innovation needs to be driven by farmer and grower needs and companies creating new technologies are aware of the importance of that because those people will be the end uses of products that make it to market, Wren-Hilton said. Agritech NZ recently hosted a

USEFUL: Tech companies know innovation must be driven by the farmers and growers who will use it, Agritech New Zealand executive director Peter Wren-Hilton says.

In the past five years NZ exported about $1.5 billion of agritech products annually with no real, exponential growth.

workshop for a delegation of NZ companies heading to Ireland and Britain next month while in June NZ agri robotic and automation researchers and entrepreneurs visited northern California to look at opportunities for NZ agritech companies created by increasing labour costs and

shortages faced by horticultural and cropping operations in the area. The British visit will be largely dairy tech based and will include the National Ploughing Championships in Ireland, which performs a similar role to NZ National Fieldays, attracting 300,000 people over three days. One of the biggest challenges the NZ agritech sector faces is the large number of early-stage companies involved in what is, in NZ at least, a limited market, Wren-Hilton said. That is one of the reasons why companies are also looking at overseas opportunities. Many technological innovations will benefit farmers here and abroad. There is plenty of room for the

NZ agritech sector to grow. In the past five years NZ exported about $1.5 billion of agritech products annually with no real, exponential growth. Israel on the other hand exports about 10 times that amount, closer to $13b. The head of the all-ofgovernment agritech taskforce working with Agritech NZ, David Downs, told the Our Land and Water Symposium information gathered at the workshops will be used to develop a plan to transform the industry. The plan will map out the state of the sector, global trends, obstacles to growth and NZ’s comparative advantages. Obstacles the industry faces include a shortage of growth capital, the slow uptake of

Beef and beers at the lake This month Wiggy heads to Taupo and catches up with James and Elissa Cooper who run a finishing farm and have diversified with Lakeman Brewery. Due to catchment regulations they have turned a negative into a positive and use this water to make their beer.

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technological innovations by some parts of the primary sector and a lack of sustained and coordinated commitment from the Government and industry, Downs said. It’s hoped that by having a number of government departments involved in establishing the plan there will be greater co-ordination of funding and regulations, which will benefit the NZ agritech industry as a whole and the farmers and growers who will benefit from its development. Agritech NZ is a purpose driven, membership-funded organisation launched last year with more than 80 members including Fonterra, Zespri, Ballance, LIC, AgResearch and Callaghan Innovation,

26 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Newsmaker

Birth unit warning ignored While Southland midwife Nicky Pealing tended to expectant and new mothers last year she was also part of a group fighting to retain medical services in her community. She talks to Neal Wallace.

HE northern Southland community might have lost more than the battle to retain full maternity services in

Lumsden. The recent bruising battle with the Southern District Health Board appears to have also sapped the energy and enthusiasm of key health leaders including Te Anau midwife Nicky Pealing. While loving the job and the privilege of being with mothers throughout their pregnancy and after birth, fighting health bureaucrats to ensure rural people have access to adequate services has taken its toll. “It is a job that gets under your skin. It is an amazing job but I am worn out,” Pealing said. For several years the northern Southland community fought a decision to downgrade its primary birthing unit in Lumsden to a birthing hub. The unit served a population of more than 20,000 people spread over a vast area prone to extreme winter weather. When Pealing moved to the area in 2008 she described the

structure of maternity services as perfect. Three midwives served the community, which let two be present during a birth and on call cover if one was on leave. The Lumsden unit was developed by the community and owned by a trust employing the midwives and providing them with a car and cell phone. Running costs were funded by the board and nurses provided post-natal care. “It was the perfect solution. There were three of us and there was always two on call,” she says. By 2012 the trust’s finances were stretched because its income had not increased since 2007. It had no choice but to focus on the biggest cost, the midwives. In 2013 the trust fell apart and the midwives became independent contractors, Pealing said. “The board refused to give any more. The trust really was in a horrible space.” Then, in a cost-cutting measure, the board closed the unit in 2014. The delivery suite complete with a bath for pain relief and three postnatal rooms with en-suites and nursing support for three to four days is now used as a hub to check pregnant women. Births requiring medical intervention go to Invercargill but postnatal care is available at Lumsden. As a hub Lumsden offers antenatal checks by midwives, help with breast feeding and

WARNED: Te Anau midwife Nicky Pealing warned the Southern District Health Board about the consequences of shutting down the Lumsden birthing unit.

has facilities for an emergency birth. Pealing said that creates issues because two midwives are required at a birth to provide safety, which is difficult to arrange at short notice, as is preparing the birthing suite and other facilities for a mother in labour. “There is nobody at the hub full time. They’ve ripped out the support structures. “That was a big thing that they took away when they closed the unit, the second midwife on call.” Pealing warned the board of the risks, saying half the 30 pregnant mothers she dealt with in a sixmonth period gave birth within 30 minutes of arriving at Lumsden, an event consistently repeated.

It is a 30-minute drive from Lumsden to primary birthing units at Winton, 45 minutes to Gore and an hour to Invercargill. Te Anau is an hour from Lumsden and two hours from Invercargill. A 2016 review of Otago and Southland maternity services revealed staffing gaps in centres like Wanaka but Pealing says the board used selective information in that report to support its Lumsden decision. It used 2013 births – the same year midwives lost their contract with the trust and when one of their number retired and expectant mothers on the edge of their region employed midwives in Gore, Winton and Queenstown. “They were numbers that were very low.”

Numbers subsequently recovered but it didn’t matter, the decision had been made, which Pealing says was because the board had painted itself into a corner and could not back out. Its decision was rejected by the community, which staged protests and lobbied the board, which Pealing says seldom fronted to defend its position. People also took their argument to the Health Select Committee and to Health Minister David Clark to no avail. Warnings that babies would be born in ambulances as mothers went to other primary birthing units proved accurate twice. The community’s frustrations were compounded by delays in installing promised medical equipment and arranging midwife cover. The board has now appointed a hub co-ordinator, installed emergency equipment and employed a midwife at the hub for eight hours every Monday. Pealing says she still fears for a mother in labour having to drive to a primary birthing unit during winter, a journey which is now longer and therefore riskier than it was previously. She hopes the northern Southland community will once again rally and provide some of the services it has lost from Lumsden, such as postnatal care, to allow new mothers to be closer to their families. “I think we have just got to go and do it ourselves.”

Psa scientist wins top honour It was a discovery that could have crippled New Zealand’s kiwifruit industry but almost nine years after the bacterial disease Psa appeared in orchards exports are booming and orchard prices are at record highs. A Kiwi scientist has been recognised for his efforts that bore fruit for the industry. Luke Chivers explains.

HEN Dr Philip Elmer began his scientific career in the 1980s pesticides were the go-to option for treating plant diseases. But Elmer turned to nature for answers. Now the New Zealand scientist has won the kiwifruit industry’s top innovation award for his contribution to fighting diseases naturally and the industry’s efforts to become more sustainable. Elmer, a senior scientist at Plant and Food Research, was awarded the Sir Brian Elwood Award at Zespri’s annual harvest dinner for leading the team that developed the organic-certified biological control agent Aureo Gold which is being used in the fight against the damaging, vine-killing Psa disease. “Aureo Gold was developed during a time of real hardship,” Zespri chairman Bruce Cameron said. “Most of NZ’s 2600 kiwifruit

growers were forced to cut out all or some of their vines because of Psa, with many pushed to the financial brink. “The industry needed hope.” And Elmer and his team played an important part in that, leading the effort to find a new way of controlling the disease that was safe, bee-friendly and did not affect the quality of the canopy and fruit. “Thankfully, despite the immense pressure, his team succeeded and Aureo Gold is in high demand today. It’s also taken on new significance with more consumers now looking for more sustainably produced products and growers looking to further reduce their environmental footprint,” Cameron said. Aureo Gold was developed through the industry’s longstanding partnership with Plant and Food, AgResearch and UPL. It ticks both boxes as a biological control that is BioGro organically certified, adding to the industry’s sustainability efforts.

Psa impacts the health and viability of the plant, not the fruit directly. It is spread by airborne spores, meaning it is easily spread by heavy rain, strong winds, animals and humans. It has already cost the NZ kiwifruit industry an estimated $1 billion in exports from when it was discovered on a vine in 2010. But had it not been for the development of Aureo Gold the impacts of Psa could have devastated the sector even more. Kiwifruit NZ chairwoman Kristy McDonald QC said the importance of science and innovation to kiwifruit is underlined by the discovery. “The kiwifruit industry has a proud record of innovation, investing heavily in developing new varieties and products in search of better-tasting, higheryielding fruit with a lower impact on the environment. “Innovators like Dr Elmer are an important part of those efforts. He’s thoroughly deserving of this recognition and we thank him for his contribution.” Elmer is no stranger to research and development. He has spent more than 30 years developing tools and technologies to manage diseases that affect horticulture. He is a world leader and uses his expertise to improve how the industry expands and

manages pests and diseases in a more sustainable manner. Last year he was presented with a lifetime achievement award at the Kudos Awards for his regional and national contribution to science and to the international profile of NZ science. Elmer said the joy he gets from his work stems from leading a team that is both passionate and energetic about helping NZ horticulture become more environmentally sustainable. “I love biocontrol research and the freedom to develop new biologically-based solutions to industry problems. “Where else can you realise that a micro-organism you stashed away in a freezer over a decade ago is the key to controlling a bacterial pathogen that killed so many vines? “I guess that makes me a stamp collector that collects microorganisms instead of stamps.” When his team started they had their fair share of sceptics and many thought Psa was just too tough for a biological control to handle. “Therein lies the heart of why we do what we do – our team loves a challenge and Psa was the biggest one we had ever faced. “This award means a huge amount to my team and recognises all the hard work

DOUBTERS: Dr Philip Elmer had his fair share of sceptics and many thought Psa was just too tough for a biological control to handle.

and technical barriers we had to overcome from discovery in 2012 to a commercial product being sold in 2018.” But their mission does not end here for the kiwifruit industry. “We are constantly looking to improve what we have developed and right now we are working on a new plant defence booster that will help boost the power of Aureo Gold so watch this space,” Elmer said.

New thinking

THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Love vibes lure bugs to death Insect mating calls broadcast in orchards are proving a way to serenade destructive bugs to their deaths thanks to efforts by a team of Italian and Kiwi scientists grappling with demands for lower pesticide use against surges in pest incursions worldwide. Richard Rennie visited them in Trento, northern Italy, to learn about how the relatively new science of biotremology might help win the crop protection war.

N A research station near Trento, northern Italy, doctoral candidate Imane Akassou sits in the shade of grape vines, a set of headphones clamped around her ears as she pores over her laptop. Akassou’s work involves recording the mating call of one of the region’s most dangerous pests, the leafhopper Scaphoideus titanus, using high-tech laser equipment. This Pied Piper science known as biotremology aims to turn the bugs’ mating call into a siren song, luring them into specially designed traps. The work so far has managed to capture something of a greatest hits of insect courtship calls from assorted leaf and sucking insects at frequencies undetectable to humans, transmitted through the substrate of plants. But the brown marmorated stink bug is the latest and arguably most critical bug needed on this compilation. It has already devastated Italy’s €300 million pear industry and, as it advances across the country, high-value kiwifruit, grapes, apples and berries are all under threat. Its impact could effectively destroy a key fruit bowl supplier to Europe and much of the world. Plant and Food Research’s leading insect control scientist

Professor Max Suckling, who is also on the staff at Auckland University, has spent this summer working with Italian scientists, like renowned biotremologist Dr Valerio Mazzoni, who supervises the students. They hope biotremology will provide another biological control option alongside pheromone trapping, parasitic wasps and sterile male release in the fight against the bug. “Biotremology is really a sound version of what natural pheromone trapping is, except you are replacing the pheromone with the sound to attract the bugs,” Suckling says. “For some bugs pheromones do not work but sound does. The sound is detected using laser vibrometers that detect the vibration emissions by insects.” Trapping using pheromones on stink bugs has proved only marginally effective, catching less than 10% of populations in some areas because the insects don’t go all the way into the traps. The science of biotremology has been around since after World War II but it is only with the development of lasers and digital, synthesised, sound generators many years later it could be put to practical use. Using the sound vibration for mating disruption and nonchemical pest control has the scientists on the leading edge of

GREATEST HITS: Doctoral candidate Imane Akassou records insect mating calls in Trento, northern Italy.

this so far obscure but emerging science. At another nearby research vineyard in the Trentino, where Suckling has been based this summer, Mazzoni has installed a series of vibration emitters strung along the vine wires.

We now have a good understanding of how this duet kicks off. Valerio Mazzoni Fondazione Edmund Mach The wires deliver the signal and broadcast a disturbance noise for Scaphoideus titanus, a sucking insect that is disrupted from mating. “It is the first mating disruption vineyard in the world using vibrations,” Mazzoni says. “Both the male and females have a call and sing something like a duet that we can disrupt with our system. “We now have a good understanding of how this duet kicks off.

“If the male starts with a call the female must respond and they effectively handshake using sound. They then start their courtship song together.” The scientists have determined the song can vary depending on the time of day. “Knowing this sort of thing means it will be possible to vary the broadcast, specifying different songs for different bugs depending on the time of day.” Playing the song from a nonexistent mate disrupts mating routines and scientists are also combining that with pheromones for other species to reduce mating ability. “With biotremology the challenge is to preserve the signal to be as genuine sounding as possible otherwise the bugs will learn it is a machine singing to them,” mechanical engineer and post-doctoral fellow Alice Berardo says. Luring the bugs with the song broadcast, the next challenge for scientists is to design a trap to catch them, a further challenge that has not been done before with sound signals. “The degree of difficulty is higher than when you use pheromones, in terms of the trap’s shape, design and the type of insect you are wanting to draw

to it. There is no research work related to this,” Berardo says. Another option might be to broadcast a signal that drives females away from keen male bugs if a dominant female signal can be identified. The Italian research site has several biotremology traps being tried and Suckling describes their effectiveness as okay with potential to be improved. He hopes Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment funding might come next month in New Zealand to expand on the biotremology work he has established in Italy, drawing on the benefits of consecutive summers and a rich pool of doctoral talent the two countries can share. “This is a new field and we are only just opening up the possibilities. “It will not be the only solution but, for NZ, biotremology traps could be surveillance method. Here in Italy where the stink bug is already established they could be used to monitor pest density to determine if spraying is required at certain times. “There are also other challenging bug targets in NZ, like the passion vine hopper and tomato potato psyllid,” he says.

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Opinion

28 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

EDITORIAL

Farm debt nags at nervous banks

MONG many worries and uncertainties keeping farmers awake at night is the tougher line being taken by banks. Nothing gnaws at the intestines like money worries when your debts have seven figures and the land, the livestock, the family and the future depend on you.The euphoria at having had a finance proposal approved and the work done becomes a distant memory when the not-so-friendly rural banker turns up. A consequence of the tighter policies has been resignations among those rural bankers because they don’t want to come down hard on their friends. The furore also owes much to bad timing, both by the banks and by local and national authorities under a Labour-led Government generating new, restrictive policies like a catherine wheel. Bad behaviour by bank bosses in Australia hasn’t helped. The Reserve Bank started the ball rolling quite some time back, warning dairy debt is one of three big risks to New Zealand’s financial stability. It then proposed raising the capital requirements of banks and that sparked the new approach to rural lending – tighten your belts and pay down some principal. Good commodity prices point to prudent debt repayment as the country has done under successive administrations since the global financial crisis and the Christchurch earthquakes. But the change in attitude towards NZ farming by Australian-owned banks goes deeper into trans-Tasman differences, public vilification and perceptions, even climate change controversies. There are areas of society and business requiring loan finance that don’t carry the freight of environmental degradation, repeated SAFE allegations of animal cruelty, carbon accounting and debt mediation. Farmers looking for the pass-on from a 1% official cash rate might instead find bank margins increase, not decrease. To sleep a little easier, ask a farmer who went through the 1980s how double-digit inflation and interest rates affected them and how they fought through debt remediation and government subsidy removal. Then, as now, they relied on the support of family and friends and faith in farming and food.

Hugh Stringleman

LETTERS

DairyNZ must back its farmers WELL, I have just finished reading your latest paper and the message coming over loud and clear is farmers must be heard. Isn’t it time for our so-called representatives at DairyNZ to call extraordinary meetings all over New Zealand in an effort to show dairy farmers some support and to work out a plan to show NZ we’re not dirty dairy farmers. We’re letting the Government, lobby groups, propaganda, scientists and environmental groups here and from overseas have plenty of say. They are placing all the climate change and water quality responsibility exclusively in farmers’ hands. Urban New Zealanders

have no idea what the dairy industry means to NZ. They have no idea what a good, safe product we provide for them. Farmers have made great efforts under dictatorial pressure from regional councils, all at their own cost with no tax incentives or subsidies, to be environmentally friendly and it still isn’t enough? I applaud Dr Jacqueline Rowarth, She is right on the button with her views. Come on NZ dairy farmers, we don’t have to throw cow dung all over the place like the French farmers but we do need to have a voice. Defend our industry. Haven’t we all had enough? Sandra Cottle Waikato

Don’t pay them I HAVE never been a dairy farmer yet I feel I have a stake in New Zealand’s biggest company, Fonterra, simply as a citizen who relies on such companies for our well-being as a nation. Nor have I ever been a believer in co-ops and have challenged the capital structure of co-ops such as PPCS and the now Chinesecontrolled SFF years ago but can applaud the success of Tatua – a true (dairy) cooperative. I note the decision of Fonterra not to pay a dividend. It makes much more sense to me, in the first instance, not to pay the directors as an indicator of the directors’ role in this debacle. It was the directors who

appointed Theo Sprierings then watched, apparently helplessly, as the company haemorrhaged. Have any longstanding directors offered their resignations? The market would demand full accountability. Will the owners of this co-op do the same? Gerry Eckhoff Alexandra

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Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

GREEN FARMER: Ian Mackenzie in a developed area of the creek where mudfish and eel share the waters that run through the farm. Many hours have been spent planting areas along the creek to protect the mudfish.

Govt spurs hate-a-farmer mania Ian Mackenzie

HEN I was on Federated Farmers board a few years ago I did a presentation to the council where I described farmers as being like possums in the headlights of an oncoming truck. We felt if farmers could show they were willing to address our effects on the environment then that despised possum might be able to morph to a much loved kiwi icon. I was wrong. At the end of the day it doesn’t matter how much we do to address our effects on the environment, we’re still the despised pest. The message is clear this Government has every intention of running us over and would have done so already had it not been for NZ First who’ve caused the truck to swerve a couple of times. However, from what Environment Minister David Parker and his colleagues are saying we are their prime target in their quest to save the world. They have lots of proposals. Under the banner of climate change the Government is intent on introducing taxes on nitrogen fertiliser and livestock emissions. That is justified by the Government repeating the lie we are responsible for 48% of New Zealand’s emissions. It is simply not true because that calculation doesn’t take into account the carbon dioxide our pastures and crops take out of the atmosphere in the first place. The equation is simple. Every kilogram of drymatter we grow

The

Pulpit

in plant material takes roughly a kilogram of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The more productive the land the more carbon dioxide we remove. The Government’s numbers give no credit to agriculture for this nor for our shelter belts, riparian plantings and other non-productive areas growing vegetation but, instead, refer only to our gross emissions. An agricultural science degree is not needed to understand if you are serious about global warming then the carbon dioxide we take out of the atmosphere is as important as the gases we emit. Most of this carbon is exported from our farms as food, fibre and leather where it has been deemed unacceptable to tax people for eating and wearing it. Instead, our Government is proposing to tax food producers. No other country is even considering this simply because what is proposed in NZ has

nothing to do with stopping climate change. This Government is proposing Resource Management Act changes to further limit rural development while enabling and expediting urban expansion, though not now on our elite soils. It proposes changes to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater, which it has signalled will require rural catchments to comply to higher water-quality standards in rivers and lakes, meaning less nitrates and a swimming standard for E coli. In doing so it is likely to have to introduce an exceptions regime. The existing policy has a no-exceptions rule other than for naturally occurring events such as lahars. It means all New Zealanders have to accept they are part of the problem and they cannot just blame farmers. The so-called bottom lines or minimum standards for our water bodies were set at a level that are achievable in most cases for all water bodies polluted below those standards. The policy requires regional councils to plan to bring all those polluted water bodies up to standard – urban and rural. Our most severely polluted water bodies are nearly all in urban catchments. Changes to the minimum standards for water quality will make it almost impossible for urban authorities to comply with the policy, hence the need for an exceptions regime. If the Government is serious about addressing the health of water bodies then having standards that apply to all water bodies is imperative. Encouraging this hate-a-

farmer mania might appeal to its supporters because it lets it off the hook but it does nothing to help the environment. If these proposals are not enough to scare away farmers, the Government is also proposing to slow down traffic in rural areas, supposedly for safety reasons, rather than investing in upgrading our arterial roading networks to cope with the increases in traffic volumes. Instead it is going to invest in mass transit projects to allow the continued expansion of urban areas.

Our most severely polluted water bodies are nearly all in urban catchments. It has excluded farmers from the targeted use of GM technology to enable the development of potential solutions and pulled any assistance for infrastructure projects such as water storage to help cope with population growth and giving the country some resilience to climate change. It is subsidising overseas investors to buy our farms for forestry conversion and has even proposed a tax on my farm truck to subsidise townies to buy electric cars. All this comes when we farmers are already struggling to pay for riparian fencing and planting, effluent systems upgrades, farm environmental plans, consents, auditing and compliance, nutrient allocation and biosecurity levies to pay for controlling exotic diseases, pests and weeds.

Don’t get me started on the Primary Industries Ministry’s incompetence in dealing with Mycoplasma bovis and then there’s the threat of taxes on emissions and fertiliser. The list goes on and it is too much. It is sapping the fun, excitement and morale out of farming. I’ve recently been made chairman of a Landcare Trust/ Environment Canterbury project promoting the asset value of having wetlands on farms. We’ve been overwhelmed with offers of wetlands for the project. All these wetlands have been preserved, enhanced and nurtured by enthusiastic farmers at their own expense without regulations, policy statements, rules or overburdening bureaucracy. We, as farmers, want to play our part in saving the planet but central and regional governments have to target the actual problem and not just look for expedient possums to run over. A sceptical, broken, bitter and sullen farmer is not going to be a co-operative participant in saving the planet.

Who am I? Ian Mackenzie farms a diversified cropping, sheep and dairy farm at Eiffelton, south of Ashburton. He is a former water and environment spokesperson on the Federated Farmers board and Land and Water Forum member.

Your View Got a view on some aspect of farming you would like to get across? The Pulpit offers readers the chance to have their say. farmers.weekly@globalhq.co.nz Phone 06 323 1519

Opinion

30 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Australia is getting on with life Alternative View

Alan Emerson

WE’VE been in Australia and the difference between the countries regarding their reaction to climate change is marked. In New Zealand climate change dominates the headlines and the political agenda. In Australia it is largely irrelevant. I’d suggest we’re obsessed, they’re not. For a start their global footprint is far bigger than ours. They fly at whim, burn coal, export coal, mine extensively and drive greater distances than we do. That aside I get the distinct impression they won’t compromise anything while we’re trying to save the planet. In Australia they’re making the resource consent process easier if you want to mine coal. In NZ I can’t see a resource consent being granted. In Australia they’re exporting coal to China and they’re looking at exporting to India. Coal is worth A$25 billion annually to the Australian economy. Is any of that likely to save the planet? The old and inefficient Liddell coal-fired power plant’s life has been extended over concerns of power shortages and other coalfired generators are enjoying the same support. The South Australian renewable energy policy has been blamed

for the power shut-down in 2016 when the wind farms failed, plunging the state into darkness. The commentary on the failure suggested it would not have occurred if coal-fired generators had stayed in place. Air travel has a massive carbon footprint. In Australia that won’t be compromised because they “don’t want to return to the 1920s”. Whereas we’re all fired up about electric cars to the extent they’re subsidised by both the taxpayer and road users the commentary in Australia is exactly the opposite. “Wealthy motorists who can afford electric cars are unfairly using roads for free at the expense of poorer drivers,” was one quote. That comment could equally apply in NZ. Oil and gas exploration, halted in NZ, is all go across the Tasman. On being elected in NZ the coalition Government immediately stopped support for irrigation. Irrigation is a sensible, costeffective and reliable way of reducing the effects of climate change. It also fulfills part of the Paris Accord that says food producers should be supported to find ways to mitigate the effects of climate change. Australia has built six new, large irrigation schemes in the last decade and the federal government is investing over A$600m in five new water storage schemes. The total cost of the new water storage is A$1.6b. An editorial in the prestigious Australian strongly argued for more irrigation dams. There was also a push to build

KEEP AT IT: Australia encourages mining, including that of coal which is exported or used in power stations.

a large, 500-hectare solar scheme on land marked for irrigation. Solar lost to irrigation. In NZ we’re blanket planting good farmland with pine trees to supposedly help the planet. In Queensland they’re cutting pines to restore native. Something is drastically wrong somewhere. Whereas we have a Zero Carbon Bill that is going to kick the tripe out of farming and the dairy industry Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison wants A$A100b worth of farmgate milk products by 2030 and that’s just over 10 years away. The price of petrol is a dollar a litre cheaper in Australia.

My issue is that we have one problem, climate change, and two countries with vastly different approaches. We want to save the planet and Australia wants prosperity first. Saving the planet seems an optional extra for them. And if you’re wondering if Australia could give a fig about what anyone else thinks of their climate change priorities then the Pacific Forum should convince you otherwise. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern achieved major notoriety in Australia for saying Australia has to answer to the Pacific on climate change. A fair point.

The cries of righteous indignation from the Ockers were cacophonic. Aussie talk back host Alan Jones suggested Scott Morrison shove a sock down her throat for having the temerity to suggest Australia answered to the Pacific received considerable coverage and reinforced to me that Australian talk back is lowest common denominator. He was only outdone in the stupidity stakes by Greenpeace NZ head Russell Norman suggesting Morrison would be about as welcome at the forum as diarrhoea in a wet suit. Having worn a wet suit often and never suffered the Russell Norman affliction I have to take his word for it but the comment was totally inappropriate and almost lunatic fringe, like most Greenpeace statements. Australian Deputy Prime Minister McCormack didn’t cover himself with glory either by suggesting Pacific people will survive climate change by picking Aussie fruit. The prestigious Australian newspaper had the heading, Hypocrisy and greed are suddenly rife amongst our friends in the Pacific. The final word from the forum went to Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga who made the point Australia is concerned with saving its economy while the Pacific is fighting to save its people.

Your View Alan Emerson is a semi-retired Wairarapa farmer and businessman: dath-emerson@wizbiz.net.nz

It’s not as big as appears to be From the Ridge

Steve Wyn-Harris

THE fine line between fact and satire became increasingly blurred with news last week United States President Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland. Before dismissing it as the idea of a complete lunatic let’s give the matter the benefit of some research and thought. Greenland is the world’s largest island because Australia and Antarctic are considered continental land masses. It’s big. Three times bigger than Texas, for example. But don’t be fooled by the many maps that make Greenland look massive. It is impossible to project a spherical earth onto a flat map without significant distortion. Mercator maps keep lines of longitude and latitude straight but

must expand the polar regions to make it possible. That makes Greenland look bigger than it is. And for you flat earthers, it’s decent proof the Earth isn’t flat because drawing a flat earth onto a flat map would be a piece of cake. Sorry to burst your bubble. Or globe. Greenland has been occupied by humans on and off for 4500 years, the first being Eskimo cultures who went there from Canada. In 986 the Norsemen and Icelanders arrived, led by Erik the Red. He and his father were exiled from Norway for a bit of killing then Erik was exiled again from Iceland for killing Eyiolf the Foul. Who had it coming. Erik was the first merchant of spin. Determined not to fall into the trap of calling your country Iceland or another turn-off for tourists and settlers he decided Greenland had a nice ring to it. Hi son, Leif Erickson, was the first European to visit North America some 500 years before Columbus. With the coming of the Little Ice Age, the Norse presence disappeared and was replaced

by the Thules, who had migrated from Alaska around 1000. Denmark later claimed ownership of Greenland. In 2009 Greenland gained self-rule with Denmark still in control of defence and foreign affairs. The Americans occupied Greenland during World War II and, showing history does repeat, offered to buy the island from Denmark for US$100 million, an idea first floated by Secretary of State Harry Seward way back in 1867. But the Danes rejected the offer. Seward had better luck buying Alaska off the Russians in 1867. The purchase was known as Seward’s Folly and Alaska as Siberia’s Siberia. But he got it for a song at $7.2m or 2 cents/acre. No one knew about the gold, oil and gas, to name a few resources all that ice hid. The States has shown a knack of picking up large tracts of land for bugger all. Earlier the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 off the French doubled the size of the US and included 15 current states and cost just $15m ($18/square mile). The US has maintained several

NASTY? Dansih Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has hurt United States President Donald Trump’s feelings.

air bases on Greenland including Thule. In 1968 a B52 bomber crashed near there with four nuclear bombs on board. One has never been recovered. So, Trump’s seemingly random offer to buy a continent sized island is not without precedent.

He might be a climate change denier but maybe he’s covering his bets and a bit of decent global warming could make Greenland the food basket of a fried US. Certainly, owning a big chunk of the planet has strategic value and the Chinese and Russians have been getting friendly with the Greenlanders of late. Or perhaps he is just throwing in a diversion to take the focus away from his self-inflicted crises. And why not? It’s worked well over the last three years. He has just cancelled his upcoming visit to Denmark because Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said his offer to buy Greenland is absurd. He said she was being nasty. Looking at a map of New Zealand there are a few islands we don’t use much that we could possible offer Trump. Maquarie, Campbell, Auckland and The Pyramid are all islands that come to mind.

Your View Steve Wyn-Harris is a Central Hawke’s Bay sheep and beef farmer. swyn@xtra.co.nz

Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

BRACE YOURSELVES: Farmers are likely to be much more demanding of Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell at the next annual meeting than they were at the last.

Losses mean more asset sales The Braided Trail

Keith Woodford

FONTERRA’S capital shortage has now got a great deal worse, with no easy answers. Its forthcoming asset writedowns of more than $800 million, announced on August 12 by chairman John Monaghan, are clearly damaging to the balance sheet. It also means Fonterra will now make a loss for the year of about $600m. However, the implications go much further than that. The losses mean Fonterra will need to sell more assets to bring its debt-to-asset ratio under control. The losses also ping back to the balance sheets of its farmer members, where the Fonterra shares are assets against which these farmers have their own debts. Many dairy farmers are already struggling with their balance sheets, with banks now requiring debt repayments on loans that used to be interestonly. If these write-downs are the full story then Fonterra will survive. The big question is whether these are all of the write-downs, both for now and the foreseeable future. It will be no surprise to those analysing Fonterra that asset write-downs will wipe out this year’s operating profits. For analysts, the surprise will be the

extent of the losses and where they have come from. In contrast, most of Fonterra’s farmers had no prior insight of the emerging situation. One of the worries is that Fonterra has made no comment about its Chilean endeavours with Soprole and Prolesur. There is a risk they might prove to be considerably overvalued. There is also concern we have seen only the first stages of necessary Australian rationalisation. Not only is Australian dairy production in decline but Fonterra has been losing market share to its competitors. It would be remarkable if the $70m Australian writedown, which includes the $50m loss associated with closing Denniston, is the end of that story.

If these writedowns are the full story then Fonterra will survive.

Beingmate is another worry. It is on Fonterra’s books at about $244m. However, based on the share value of about five renminbi, a value of about $190m looks more appropriate. I don’t know anyone who foresaw the announced loss of $200m for DPA Brazil. That would have been well below the radar for most of us who try to figure out what is happening at Fonterra. Similarly, the overall projected write-down of $200m for New Zealand consumerbased activities seems totally remarkable. This figure is net after

allowing for Tip Top having been sold well above book value. The other consumer-based activities in NZ must be in big trouble. There are now increasing questions to be asked about what is going to happen to the Fonterra Shareholder Fund. It is the entity where non farmers buy a financial interest in Fonterra and it determines the price farmers buy and sell their shares. It has been shrinking in size and even more so in value over the last 12 months. The reduction in size has come about because farmers wanted to buy FCG shares to meet their production requirement and they came from the FSF. This need by farmers to buy shares has coincided with a loss of confidence by institutional investors in the FSF. To a large extent it is now the small retail investors who have been left as unit holders. They tend to be less well informed than institutional holders but there must surely be a limit to their patience. It is now increasingly difficult to see how Fonterra will be in a position to pay a dividend, not just for the year just ended, for which there is now definitely no dividend, but in the immediate years ahead. It is easy to see a further weakening of the price of units and hence also farmer-owned shares as this reality dawns on the retail unit investors. Why would any non-farmer investors want to retain units in the present environment? Farmers have a right to be angry at being blindsided by these losses. There was no hint from Fonterra that these losses were likely until now.

to wait until September when Rather, Fonterra has been Fonterra publishes its annual resistant to the perspective accounts. Even then, there are of a range of commentators likely to be more questions than that things were not all well at answers. Fonterra and its challenges were I expect farmers will be greater than had been admitted. much more demanding of both In these situations farmer Monaghan and chief executive instincts have been to trust the Miles Hurrell than they were at leaders of their company. the last annual meeting. Fonterra has also now announced the board is looking again at its capital structure. Serious attention will need to Your View be given to whether the current Keith Woodford was Professor of capital structure is fit for purpose. farm management and agribusiness Any move to undo the structure at Lincoln University for 15 years to of farmer members and non2015. He is now principal consultant farmer unit holders is likely to be at AgriFood Systems. He can be messy. contacted at kbwoodford@gmail.com The problem Fonterra now has is that it needs more capital but there is no obvious source. This is not a new problem but it has now got worse. I have always been sceptical whether the capital structure, implemented in 2012, would be long-lasting. Until now, it has not really been tested given the benign environment of the last few years. It certainly is Sam Whitelock going to be tested Farmstrong now. Ambassador But there is not enough information to make any further definitive For tips and ideas, judgments. visit farmstrong.co.nz We will have

Under the pump?

I perform at my best when I build rest and recovery into my daily schedule.

Opinion

32 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Turning a negative to a positive thing The Voice

Craig Wiggins

RECENTLY I went to Kinloch on the shores of Lake Taupo and interviewed a very dynamic young couple, James and Elissa Cooper, who farm on what is described as the Taupo Lake water catchment area, which is heavily regulated on what they can and can’t do on their land. This land was previously farmed by Landcorp and was sold at a reduced price once the regulations on nitrogen leaching and stocking rates were introduced. Ironically, Landcorp changed focus and developed dairy farm dairy platforms for Wairakei Estate, which, under pressure from environmental groups and financial constraints, had to cut the number of planned dairy conversions drastically on the Wairakei land in 2016. The shift from the Taupo water catchment area to land that runs into the Waikato River has been questioned by many locals I talked to as not the best lead-by-example decision made. However, that move has allowed

energetic and diverse farmers like the Coopers to get onto that land and have a crack at farming it sustainably within the bounds of the new water catchment rules. They wanted to go the whole hog and looked at diversification and turning a negative on water quality into a positive so after having the farm’s bore water tested and realising it was in fact pure and of a salable quality undertook to capitalise on the available resource and started making craft beer.

The same negative perception was brought to the surface recently with the cowsin-mud campaign in Southland.

Those first few brews have now morphed into the very successful Lakeman Brewery Co. This has led to employing staff and developing a potential tourist attraction right in the heart of the farming area, showcasing the produce from the farm and topping it off with a Lakeman ale. The real positive for the area, though, is the continual testing of the water shows a purity and consistency good enough for use in barista coffee.

The bore this water is drawn from is right in the heart of the regulated area. The beer is a good drop with lots of different brews and I hope they continue to develop this business and see the success they deserve. Take a look at the latest Farmers Voice video for their story. There are some serious questions that need to be asked on this move by Landcorp from the water catchment land to the big development at Wairakei. The chance to be seen to make dairy farms from land covered in trees and enjoy the benefits of a lease deal that should have, in the eyes of the Landcorp management, given a great return financially looks somewhat foolhardy now as we are being told tree farming is the way of the future. In a very short time what were trees covering land that has had erosion issues in the past with its pumice soil was converted into dairy farms next to one of the busiest stretches of road in the central North Island. The perception of trees to dairy was seen as a negative by many. Petitions and a backlash helped create a rethink on the Wairakei Estate objectives for the land to create a showcase for environmental protection, economic development and future-focused farming. The same negative perception was brought to the surface

CHANGE OF USE: Land once farmed by Landcorp is now producing beer.

recently with the cows-in-mud campaign in Southland. I’m not going to pass comment on the rights and wrongs of winter grazing but more on the division those photos and campaign created among farmers. Many a social media post was targeted in the direction of the farms involved by farmers who felt let down by the negative connotations such images had on the industry as a whole. We are all guardians of our industry, whether it be Landcorp in Taupo or the neighbours of farmers who might for any number of reasons be letting the team down. How many vets, rural industry support staff and neighbours drive past cows in mud and feel they can’t make contact with the farmer to check and see if there is maybe a mental health or illness issue, a personal crisis or even

just a misunderstanding of the responsibility the farmer has to both stock and the image we portray? How many people drive past and say it’s not my problem? The risk of being shown the front gate and being told not to let it hit you in the butt on the way out is worth taking. There might be an issue inside that gate crying out for help but not sure where to look for it. If the gate gets slammed and the situation for the stock does not improve then seek help from the Rural Support Trust, a local farmer who might have a connection or even the many organisations that can investigate the cause. It’s a lot better that the activists doing the investigation.

farmersweekly.co.nz/farmers-voice

Entrenched thinkers dig in on soil and farming communities respond with “Nah, that’s not what we were taught?” WHY is it when someone comes And, probably because up with a new way of thinking there’s a lot of money, time and about growing things the science prestige tied up in continuing as we always have, their representatives will defend to the death We have a vacancy for a fencer/general at the right to go on Glenaray Station, Northern Southland. doing so. Sir Albert This is a sheep, beef and deer farm with fencing Howard, in the on flat, rolling and hill country. 1930s, began to Glenaray is in the picturesque Waikaia valley think about what where there is a strong community and primary mycorrhizae and perhaps other school. forms of soil life, Our hydraulic post driver is mounted on a actually do in the Mitsubishi BD2G dozer. soil. And J I Rodale, influenced by Extensive fencing experience is essential for Howard’s writing, this role. Experience driving tractors is also began publishing necessary. his views on an Feeding out in winter on rostered weekends is organic and holistic part of the job. whole-systems approach to A very comfortable 3-bedroom house is agriculture in 1942. available with primary school bus at the gate. But the previous For more information please contact: knowledge Mike O’Donoghue, Manager imparted by Justus von Liebig in 1840 03 202 7720 evenings that plants use To apply please email CV to: chemicals to grow office@glenaray.co.nz was mainstream Applications close Friday 20th September 2019 thinking. Sue Edmonds

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FENCER/GENERAL

And when the gas-controlled system dreamed up by Haber and Bosch was found to be capable of not only producing dynamite but with a tweak could also produce nitrogen as urea any thinking about soil as a living entity went right onto the back burner. The Green Revolution was off and away and it stayed that way till the late 1980s.

A system that grows more and better quality food while helping save the world by sequestering carbon in soil in quantity has surely got to be worth looking at.

It took members of the Rodale family and their institute till 1985 to get the United States Congress to include funds for what was initially called low-input, sustainable agriculture. Eventually the setting up of the US Agriculture Department’s sustainable agriculture research and education programme in 1990

saw an agri-ecological approach to farming validated in 1990, at least in the US, an approach picked up by Gabe Brown in 1991 and which has made him world famous. The long-term effects of the chemical-based Green Revolution have taken time to be recognised and accepted, with steadily reducing crop and pasture harvests and heavily increasing costs for fertiliser, pesticides and herbicides despite a number of scientists, even in New Zealand, refusing to recognise such figures. But the acceptance of climate change and its likely future effects has seen popular research organisations worldwide take up the challenge of putting all that excess carbon and carbon dioxide back into the soil, where it can stay for millennia, and promoting the idea that Nature knows what she is doing and soil life is clever stuff. Apart from some tiny fertiliser manufacturers, those using added soil life and other natural products and not man-made chemicals, NZ agriculture has dropped behind other countries in this idea and the focus has seemed to be totally on planting trees to do the job. And the tiny fertiliser

manufacturers, despite frequent lobbying of the powers that be, have, to date, been rubbished or ignored despite producing years of data proving their points. However, from articles and Facebook and Google group entries read lately there are a growing number of actual farmers here who are finding the ideas of regenerative agriculture and also finding each other so a bottom up movement is growing, even here. And a NZ inventor has produced the ultimate notill machine, which sells well overseas. Gabe Brown’s book, Dirt to Soil, and David R Montgomery’s Growing a Revolution, both published in the last couple of years, should be required reading for all our farmers. A system that grows more and better quality food while helping save the world by sequestering carbon in soil in quantity has surely got to be worth looking at, even if the reps with calculators are still insisting on being right and so-called Green.

The next article will demonstrate the difference between conventional and regenerative farming in practice.

Opinion

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Details will help compo claims Geoff Gwyn WITH the spring calving and milk production season now in full swing the Mycoplasma bovis programme reminds farmers they might be eligible for compensation if movement restrictions have been put on their property or if they’ve been directed to cull animals. Naturally, we’re anticipating a seasonal increase in the number of claims related to spring calving and milk production so we want to make sure farmers have a clear understanding of what they can claim for in relation to losses associated with calving or milk production. In claiming for calving losses it’s critical farmers maintain detailed records about what happens with their calves, particularly if they’ve been directed by the programme to cull animals or if the calves have been culled on-farm, ie, bobbied. If you would normally have kept your calves for other purposes but have been legally directed to cull them, be prepared to show what your normal business practice is using your previous records. If your records are accurate, complete and easily verifiable, the M bovis compensation team will be able to turn around claims much more quickly. In short, the better the records and the more information provided, the faster the programme will be able to assess individual compensation claims. Claims for compensation can be

ADD IT UP: A tool to help farmers calculate milk production losses from Mycoplasma bovis is available from the Primary Industries Ministry, its M bovis programme director Geoff Gwyn says.

submitted immediately after stock has been culled. If farmers prefer to wait until they’re less busy to submit a claim, that’s not a problem as long as the claim is made within one year of the date their loss can be verified. More detail on compensation can be found in the M bovis section of the MPI website mpi. govt.nz/protection-and-response/ mycoplasma-bovis/ in the section titled Advice for farmers under controls. In all cases, compensation will

be paid only if there is a verifiable loss that is a direct result of MPI exercising its powers under the Biosecurity Act. Compensation for milk production losses is based on net losses after deduction of avoided production costs and mitigations resulting from the exercise of powers by MPI. To August 15 the programme has paid out $9.07 million to claimants for milk production losses. Industry partners, consultants and the M bovis programme have

worked together to develop a tool to help calculate milk production losses. We have also put together an information pack with guidance material to help farmers claiming compensation for loss of milk production. That information can be found on the MPI website at the above web address, under Milk production. Every case is handled individually so the overall process might vary depending on your business arrangements. A milk production loss claim that might be eligible for compensation will be assessed based on whether a farmer is: • A farm owner; • A dairy herd owner or; • In a contractual arrangement that entitles you to a share of the milk production loss, Farmers submitting claims will be required to provide the compensation team with information about their business arrangements, eg sharemilker agreements. More detail and answers to commonly asked questions about milk production loss can also be found on the MPI website at the above address in the Milk production section. For general information about compensation contact the M bovis programme compensation coordinator on 0800 00 83 33 or email: compensationcoordinator@ mpi.govt.nz. And if you need help from the DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb New Zealand compensation assistance

We’re anticipating a seasonal increase in the number of claims related to spring calving and milk production. Geoff Gwyn MPI teams they are a great resource that’s standing by waiting for your call or email. They can help farmers: • Understand whether they are eligible for compensation; • Clarify what losses can be claimed and; • Help them complete and submit their compensation claims. It is a free service run independently by DairyNZ and B+LNZ, supported by MPI. Call them on 0800 32 22 81 or email dbcat@dairynz.co.nzor dbcat@beeflambnz.com. Our continuing goal is to make sure the process for submitting compensation claims and/ or milk production losses is as straightforward as possible for affected farmers during this busy time of year. Please feel welcome to contact the team, they’re there to help.

Who am I?

Geoff Gwyn is the Primary Industry Ministry Mycoplasma bovis programme director.

Farmers worked with the system Barbara Stewart MYCOPLASMA bovis is one of the realities farmers have had to adapt to over the past few years and being a part of the eradication programme is a challenging experience. For two Tasman farmers it was a hard road but now they’re on the other side they’re able to reflect on their experience. Steve and Julz Campbell’s farm is situated under the western ranges between the Wangapeka and Sherry River catchments of Tasman. They describe themselves as traders who read the market and look for opportunities. Part of their business is calf rearing and they also have sheep on their property. They’re constantly adapting to meet market forces. It’s this business trait that enabled them to cope with the very stressful process of surviving M bovis. They credit the help and advice they received from the M bovis programme along the way, even though it sometimes went

against their personal ethics. When they learned they might have M bovis infected animals and were put under a Notice of Direction they became extremely worried. At the time the Ministry for

We had to back up our business decisions with logic and our records gave us the required proof when it came to compensation claims. Julz Campbell Farmer Primary Industries’ laboratory testing had delays caused by the sheer volume of farms in the system. It took two rounds of testing then in September 2018 they learned they had an infected herd. “We had to learn to work with

the system. Plan A was business as usual. Plan B was lease more land and finish everything we could and when we didn’t have any funds PGG Wrightson helped us by pre-sale of stock on contract to give us a cashflow. “This got us out of a tight financial situation,” Steve said. Julz says they were a team. “Steve planned and managed the situation on-farm while I kept records of everything. “My recording system is simple, handwritten in an ordinary notebook. We recorded stock movements and Nait numbers for individual animals with weights. “MPI required us to prove every single claim and those records were pivotal when it came to providing proof and why we made business decisions. “We had to back up our business decisions with logic and our records gave us the required proof when it came to compensation claims. It’s so easy to forget. “We locked down part of the farm for the infected stock and brought in feed.” Almost 12 months later the

RELIEF: Steve and Julz Campbell can smile now they have got through their Mycoplasma bovis crisis.

Campbells look back and say getting over the initial shock and stigma was important for getting through the situation. “Back then we had lime in our gateway and strict protocols to follow. “We were worried our farming reputation was ruined. “Over time MPI systems have improved, which makes it easier for farmers going through this process,” Julz said. “We learned to accept advice and follow it through. The advice gave us confidence and helped us to get through what was a very tough, scary time.”

The Rural Support Trust helps farmers manage stress at difficult times, such as being a part of the M. bovis programme. If farmers need extra support the RST is always available, whether it’s just for a conversation over a cuppa or more extensive ongoing assistance for the tougher times.

Who am I?

Barbara Stewart is a member of the Rural Support Trust in Nelson

Rural Support Trust 0800 787 254 or rural-support.org.nz/

On Farm Story

34 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Eagerly grabbing their chances Blair and Jane Smith freely admit to having their share of good fortune as they embark on their farming careers but that doesn’t mean they are resting on their laurels. Neal Wallace reports.

T MIGHT be a cliche that business success is all about opportunities but that is the reality for North Otago farmers Blair and Jane Smith. In 2008 as they were in the process of taking over Jane’s family farm neighbours Bruce and Faye McNab invited them to look over their hill property. Blair says they initially had no idea why they got the invitation but the farm was for sale and the McNabs viewed them as potential owners. “We basically had an interview but we didn’t know it at the time,” Blair says. The McNabs were not going to sell their 1100ha farm in the Kakanui foothills to just anyone. When the Smiths received a second invitation they started to wonder if the McNabs were selling, only to be presented with documents that included a valuation, chattels and details such as the volume of silage to be left in the event of a sale. The offer and opportunity were too good to ignore even though Blair was still running a Southland transport company in which he was a shareholder and Jane was still working in rural banking. Jane says there were multiple synergies, other than the proximity, why the deal was a great fit. The McNabs had a passion for livestock genetics as did the Smiths and being at higher altitude provide some insurance against summer dry though seasons are slightly shorter. The deal was done. “It wasn’t easy but it came together,” Jane said. Looking for opportunities and grasping those that fit is a common theme of the Smiths’ careers. When they took over Newhaven in 2008 from Jane’s parents, David and Robyn Ruddenklau, part of

the attraction was to continue the genetic improvement of the Newhaven Perendale stud. In 2016 when Neil and Rose Sanderson asked if the Smiths could graze some of their Fossil Creek stud Angus cows they decided it would be better for both parties if they had a stake in the business. They are now equal shareholders in the stud, an extension of their interest in genetics but also a further example of grasping opportunities. The Smiths now farm 1370ha at Five Forks in two blocks: 230ha of flat to rolling home farm and an 1100ha hill property ranging from 350m above sea level in the Waiareka Valley to 650m asl in the Kakanui foothills. Over half is considered steep. They winter 2600 ewes, of which 1700 are stud Perendale and will calve 320 stud Angus cows, threequarters of which are first calvers. In addition, they carry 900 ewe hoggets and 500 ram hoggets, 125 yearling heifers and 58 yearling bulls. Selling stud stock is their main source of income. They kill only 1000 prime lambs a year. Blair says the key to farming in drought-risk North Otago is flexibility, which is a central plank of their management. “We can wean from December 3 to January 20 depending on the season. Flexibility is the key.” Annual rainfall varies from 400mm to 1100mm and even though just 6km separates the two farms their rain patterns also vary. “Normally, if we get three months out of the bottom place, we get six months from the hill block. Even though it is just 6km away you can have double the rainfall.” Both Blair and Jane followed a work and save model to achieve farm ownership. On leaving school Southlandborn Blair went shearing for two years then worked in administration for Blue Sky Meats for a further four. Despite not having a heavy traffic licence he shifted to a dispatcher’s role for Ryal Bush Transport for a further four years before Invercargill transport mogul, the late Bill Richardson,

HIGH: Farming above the snow line are, from left, Blair and Jane Smith and farm worker Jack Price from Newhaven Farms, North Otago. Photos: Neal Wallace

saw something in Smith that he liked. He presented him with a chance to be an equal partner in a Southland company, Heenans Transport. “It enabled me to accumulate capital and together with Jane we leased some land.” Jane grew up in North Otago conscious she was also going to go farming. At Lincoln University she studied agricultural science and commerce then worked as a shepherd and helped on the home farm in the holidays. For 10 years after graduating she worked for Ravensdown as a field representative then had a role training field representatives before joining Rabobank for three years. Freshly ensconced on their

NEW GENERATION: Fossil Creek Angus R2 heifers in snow at Newhaven Farms earlier this month.

farm the Smiths adopted two fundamental philosophies: to grasp opportunities and to adopt a business approach. That meant surrounding themselves with people who contribute ideas and expertise. “While we enjoy farming we also enjoy the business side as well,” Blair says. The couple have complementary skills and a similar business policy of constantly looking where they can make a difference to their bottom line. That fundamentally comes from two focus areas: feeding and breeding. “Even though we have got a lot of debt we are not afraid to invest money in the farm to make money in the long term. “We don’t hold back in regrassing or fencing,” Jane says. They credit the Ruddenklaus and McNabs for providing them with a foundation on which they can grow their business. Equally the Sandersons provided them with an opportunity in 2016 to not only buy into their Angus stud herd but to also expand their

knowledge of cattle genetics. The Newhaven Perendale stud was established by Jane’s parents in 1972 and over the years, in response to client demand, they started breeding Perendale-Texel and Romdale rams. All rams are based on Perendale ewes. Each year they sell about 300 rams and 65 stud and yearling bulls. They are also in a joint venture in a small Perendale stud in Victoria, Australia. The two studs are low input. Their stud Perendale ewes have not been drenched for 30 years after David Ruddenklau incorporated selection for low parasite burden. Commercial sheep might get two drenches in their life but monitoring shows they have no internal parasite resistance. Blair says pregnancy scanning of his ewes is consistently in the mid 170% which produces about 160% to 162% lambs born, optimum for what he can manage and to give ideal growth rates. They have kept a focus on wool quality, confident consumer interest in the fibre will return. Ewes produce 35 micron and

EASY CARE: Stud Perendale ewes at Newhaven Farms, North Otago.

On Farm Story

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

TUSSOCK: Fossil Creek stud cows being mustered on the Smith farm in North Otago last month.

hoggets 30 micron wools. “In the end it costs the same to shear poor wool as it does good wool,” Blair says. Cattle are predominantly run on the hill blocks and breeding aims mean they need fewer drenches than is normally expected. Winter crops on Newhaven consists of about 10ha of fodder beet, 6ha of kale, 10ha of swedes and 30ha of rape, which is used for sheep and young cattle. The at-times unreliable North Otago climate can make managing feed a challenge and when it does get dry the biggest mistake is to delay making a decision. “You have got to make early decisions and that can mean selling ewes and lambs all counted but at least you have made a decision,” Jane says. Christmas is a key marker. “Once you get to Christmas then you reach a point when you start looking to next year.” That can require prioritising stock so the focus can switch to next year’s production, such as freeing up room to build ewe condition heading into tupping. “You pay for the drought in the year in which it occurs rather than the year after. It is about being really clinical,” Jane says. The couple quickly learned farming in North Otago means having back-up plans they are prepared to implement when needed. Those plans include lambing older ewes separately so if conditions turn dry they have a ready mob to sell quickly. They are also flexible about weaning time. The Smiths are part of the North Otago Irrigation Company, which gets water from the Waitaki River in the next valley to the north, which is then gravity fed to farms in the Kakanui Valley in a twostage development. The first stage provides water for 10,000ha at the top of the valley and the second, which is being rolled out now and to which the Smiths are shareholders, will eventually supply water to 64,000ha at the lower end of the valley as far south as Maheno near the coast. The Smiths irrigate 80ha of the home block using a K-Line system that has transformed what was

their most drought-prone land into their most reliable. “It was a big decision to go with it but we realised we only get one chance,” Blair says. Importantly, it takes pressure off other parts of the farm when it gets dry and ensures they can grow out the ram hoggets. He estimates the reliability provided by irrigation has boosted pasture production on the home farm by two tonnes a hectare of drymatter a year.

You have got to make early decisions and that can mean selling ewes and lambs all counted but at least you have made a decision. Jane Smith Farmer “It means we can utilise the dry land better and make decisions about putting the right stock at the right time in the right place,” Jane said. The certainty provided by irrigation let them carry several hundred more ewe hoggets than usual this year, giving them the choice of killing them in spring or selling them as capital stock. The Ruddenklaus were active in

the North Otago Sustainable Land Management Group during 1990s. It focused on soil conservation and management of North Otago dryland soils plagued by drought. Jane says her father never thought he would see the day when water from the Waitaki River would flow down the valley. She has continued that involvement with the group recently being resurrected. It has 200 active members along with groups like Forest and Bird, iwi and Fish and Game and helps farmers manage irrigation and meet their environmental obligations. “Farmers feel very blindsided about where to start with all these environmental issues,” she says. The group has shown the greatest gains come from local initiatives decided by local people talking around a table and understanding concerns, issues and challenges. “It makes the local farming industry accountable to make a collective difference. “The top-down approach from Wellington doesn’t work, which is why I am investing my time making a local difference and front-loading it so farmers change our own destiny,” she says. The Smiths are doing their bit using direct drilling to sow crops on slopes with a westerly perspective, planting trees to protect livestock and the environment and using strategic fencelines for environmental and management benefits.

EXPERIENCE: Waitaki Boys High School students Jack Price and Tom Laurenson who are working on North Otago farms as part of the Gateway education programme.

NEWBORN: A stud Angus cow and newborn calf in the snow at Newhaven Farms in North Otago.

“These extra things make a difference. We’re not doing it because we are told to but because we want to,” Jane says. They find benefits in being members of a Red Meat Profit Partnership action network group and a North Otago business group that exposes them to new ideas and thinking. The business group involves eight farmers as varied as bull beef, dairy, high country and intensive finishing who meet every six weeks. Its strength is in the diversity of members and the mixture of fresh ideas and thoughts on issues as diverse as employment, return

on investment, risk management, equity debt ratio and other common challenges. “It is those sorts of things where we can benchmark against our business.” They are also active in community and industry affairs and Jane is an independent director on the Red Meat Profit Partnership and has just ended a three-year term on the Veterinary Council. Blair is the chairman of the Five Forks School. They have three children, Charlotte, 12, Henry, 10, and George, 7. >> Video link: bit.ly/OFSsmith

Boys set their sights JACK Price was always going to be a farmer and his choice of school has ensured that. In his final year at Waitaki Boys High School Price has found himself working on Blair and Jane Smith’s Five Forks farm through the Gateway programme that allows students to work for up to half the year as part of their NCEA level three education. The experience also counts towards his practical requirements for enrollment at Lincoln University, where he will go next year to study for a agriculture and farm management diplomas. Tom Laurenson, 17, from Rolleston works for Conrad and Tania Sim at Mt Dasher Station under the same scheme and

will also head to Lincoln next year. Price, 17, from Southbridge in Canterbury, is not from a farm but has worked on them during school holidays. At Waitaki he experienced the primary sector by working on the school’s 17ha property, Fraser Farm, as part of its agriculture course. Fraser Farm runs about 110 ewes. “We are running our school farm just like any large-scale unit,” he says. During lambing boys are up early to do the lambing beat before school and are required to help with tailing, shearing and crutching. Retired local farmers and old boys Murray Isbister, David Ruddenklau and Ray Fox provide guidance.

World

36 THE NZ FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Poll finds British farmers want GM MORE than three-quarters of British farmers would adopt genetic modification crop technology if United Kingdom regulations change, a poll has found. The sample of 750 farmers, done by the UK Farmers Guardian, determined 77% have a positive attitude to GM crops as a safe and sustainable way to produce more food. Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to liberate the UK’s bioscience sector from anti-GM rules. National Farmers Union deputy president Guy Smith said if farmers are to cut greenhouse gas emissions without reducing food production they will need to use every tool in the box. However, he warned that while GM technology gives foreign growers a competitive advantage British farmers must be wary of compromising markets. “We need to remember this is not just about regulatory consent but market consent as well. “For right or wrong, there is retailer and consumer resistance to food grown using GM technology so farmers must always be wary of compromising markets. “However, it is clear from

IT’S A WINNER: Genetic modification is essential to address the climate change and sustainability challenges facing farming, National Institute of Animal Biotechnology chief executive Dr Tina Barsby says.

consumer polls this is not as controversial as it was. “We import millions of tonnes of GM protein into the UK every year and many UK growers would understandably like a shot at that market.” An ABC/Populus survey last year found only 20% of people aged 18-30 in the UK feel negatively towards gene editing or GM and 67% agree such technologies could play a major role in making farming more sustainable. Bayer pulic and government affairs manager Dr Julian Little said access to advanced plant

agrievents

Red Meat Profi t Partnership (RMPP) – facilitation training workshops For rural professionals looking to facilitate an RMPP Action Network Action Group. Lead Facilitator 2019 workshop dates: Palmerston North 4-5 September

Phone 0800 85 25 80 or email adcopy@globalhq.co.nz

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Whangarei A&P Society Rural Business Network meetings 2019 Wednesday 28th August 2019 Ian Williams - Pioneer Brand Products Forage Specialist Thursday 26th September 2019 Mark Wynne - CEO Ballance Agri-Nutrients Wednesday 16th October 2019 Dr Bruce Campbell - Dr Bruce Campbell Consultants Ltd Mix and mingle and fi nger food from 5.30pm to 6.00pm, prior to the speaker commencing. Venue: Barge Showgrounds Events Centre. Attendance to the meetings FREE to members of the Whangarei A&P Society and any TeenAg members. Join today to attend two meetings and get the third FREE! Ph: 09 438 3109 or email events@wap.org.nz to RSVP

Should your important event be listed here?

“There have been no adverse consequences from transgenic GM events in the 25 years they have been around. “We have great potential to use this technology to reduce the environmental impact of agriculture by protecting crops using genes rather than chemical sprays.

We need to remember this is not just about regulatory consent but market consent as well. Guy Smith National Farmers Union

“Instead of spraying say, 15 times a year to control late blight, you will need to spray only once or twice a year to control early blight.” Improving a variety such as Maris Piper, the most widely consumed variety in the UK, is particularly beneficial in UK regulatory terms, he said. “Other Europeans do not grow Maris Piper. It is just grown and consumed in the UK. It is not processed to crisps so approval for other countries will not be an issue, except Scotland.” UK Farmers Guardian

UK nations oppose GM use

AWDT Understanding Your Farming Business 3 full-day workshops and an evening graduation ceremony run over four months. Equips and supports women involved in sheep and beef farming to lift business performance. Registrations for 2019 programmes are now open, visit the website for more information and to register. Locations and dates (3 modules & graduation): Kaikoura: 28 Aug, 25 Sep, 23 Oct & 20 Nov Pukehou, Hawke’s Bay: 4 Sep, 2 Oct, 30 Oct & 27 Nov Masterton: 5 Sep, 3 Oct, 31 Oct & 28 Nov Clinton: 11 Sep, 9 Oct, 6 Nov & 4 Dec Lawrence: 12 Sep, 10 Oct, 7 Nov & 5 Dec Website: To register visit www.awdt.org.nz/uyfb/ Contact: keri@awdt.org.nz or 06 375 8180 for more information.

Friday 25/10/2019 – Saturday 26/10/2019 Rangiora Show 2019 Where: Rangiora A&P Showgrounds, Ashley Street, Rangiora, Waimakariri

breeding will give farmers the tools to become more competitive globally but investment in GM in any country is a difficult decision until Government ambition is understood. “We do not know Theresa Villiers’ stance on this but George Eustice coming back into the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs means the interest in gene editing and other breeding technologies is positive.” But Johnson could force change on the country’s acceptance of GM crops. He twice mentioned the potential for GM crops in his first two speeches since moving into Number 10.

Speaking at the Manchester Science and Industry Museum on July 27 Johnson said he wants to allow the UK to lead the world in producing genetically modified crops, adding blight-resistant potatoes will feed the world. National Institute of Animal Biotechnology chief executive Dr Tina Barsby said “This technology is going to be essential in addressing the challenges the industry faces in climate change and sustainability. “GM technology is becoming more powerful. “It is more and more frustrating that we have seen Europe hold back on allowing these modified crops to be grown despite the fact the science and safety assessments tell us that everything is okay.” As a result, NIAB has not grown any GM plants in the field since 2007, which Barsby said is common across the industry. “We are close to industry and if they cannot access this material there is no point producing it.” Johnson’s plans to liberate the bioscience sector from rules against GMOs are a breakthrough for Professor Jonathan Jones of the Sainsburys Laboratory, which has developed a GM variety of Maris Piper with traits that include complete resistance to late blight and storage at 2-4C without need for sprout suppressant. “GM is the most successful new technology brought to market in the last 50 years.

LEADERS in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not back British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s desire to use genetic modification in British agriculture. The Scottish Government is sticking rigidly to the Scottish National Party policy of opposing the growing of any GM crops in Scotland’s fields. Wales is also opposed to GM technology and uses the European Union’s optout mechanism along with Scotland and Northern Ireland. Responding swiftly to Johnson’s comments a Scottish Government spokesman said “This government remains committed to ensuring no GM crops will be grown in Scotland. “The decision to opt out of cultivation is in line with twothirds of EU members and we have recently transposed the EU directive so that we maintain the powers to opt out of cultivating future EUapproved GM crops.” At the moment, Scotland has devolved competence for GM policy, in accordance with European legislation, but that could change quickly with Brexit. Ironically, the James Hutton Institute at Invergowrie

houses some of the most advanced genetic engineering technology available and employs plant breeders with all the skills required to use it. It does, however, rely heavily on Scottish Government funding and is required not to take its latest advances beyond the laboratory. The institute’s chief executive Professor Colin Campbell, said “Not all new plant breeding technologies are the same. “So, we would welcome any review of the regulations that resulted in a more consistent approach to all GM and gene editing. “These do indeed have great potential to develop crops with biological resistance to pathogens including blight in potatoes, which is the third most important staple crop in the world. “Any new crops need to go through proper risk assessments and take account of what is socially acceptable in different parts of the world and to reflect local conditions and local market sensitivities. “The James Hutton Institute is pioneering new ways of conventional breeding and uses GM and gene editing to help understand how to do this better. We have also done

GOOD: Deploying of genetic modification will help address the climate crisis and loss of biodiversity, Professor Colin Campbell says.

Not all new plant breeding technologies are the same. Professor Colin Campbell James Hutton Institute many of the ecological risk assessments of GM crops.” It can now use its new vertical indoor growing

systems to grow multiple crop generations all year round. This could potentially halve the 10 to 15 years conventional breeding takes to produce a new variety, Campbell said. “The deployment of GM and gene editing also needs to help address the climate crisis and loss of biodiversity we see around the world. Biological resistance would reduce the reliance on chemicals and potentially reduce the environmental risks often associated with synthetic biocides.” UK Farmers Guardian

PULLING OUT ALL THE

Bayleys pulls out all the stops to find the right buyer for your rural property. The spring 2019 edition of Bayleys’ Country magazine will see all systems GO for sellers of farm, specialty and lifestyle properties around New Zealand. For 20 years, Country has sent a clear signal to active and passive buyers – nationwide and beyond – that the rural and lifestyle property market is laden with opportunity. A multi-channelled Country campaign, with its combination of printed and digital promotion, brings more buyer eyes to your rural asset and the Bayleys’ team has proven strategies to set the sales wheels in motion. That’s why Bayleys is New Zealand’s number one rural brand.

Not easy being green

FEATURING

Pressure is on for more farmland to be put into trees, but there is a cost to going green.

Pest patrol and control

Dealing to predators so lifestyle blocks and tracts of native bush can survive and thrive.

FARM, SPECIALTY AND LIFESTYLE PROPERTIES FOR SALE ISSUE 1 – 2019

Talk to your local Bayleys office today about a cost-effective Country campaign – the spring edition is in the works and if you’re quick off the mark, you’ll get pole position.

Bayleys will pull out all the stops to get an altogether better result – so, let’s GO!

RURAL REAL ESTATE BRAND

To learn more about Country magazine, call 0800 BAYLEYS or visit bayleys.co.nz/country. LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

A LT O G E T H E R B E T T E R

Residential / Commercial / Rural / Property Services

farmersweekly.co.nz/realestate 0800 85 25 80

Real Estate

FARMERS WEEKLY – August 26, 2019

RURAL | LIFESTYLE | RESIDENTIAL

ATHENREE GORGE, BOP Great Location, Great Opportunity A rare opportunity to secure a prime 52ha (more or less) farm of rolling contour located just 10km to Waihi and Waihi Beach in two titles. North facing and well subdivided into 32 paddocks with approximately 26ha mowable. Improvements include implement sheds complete with concrete floors and power, two hay barns, old cowshed used for calf rearing. Bore water. Tidy three bedroom home with office, semi open plan living and swimming pool. Seldom do properties of this quality come to the market in this sought after area, make your appointment to inspect now.

PRICE BY NEGOTIATION Plus GST (if any)

VIEW By Appointment Only

Lester Mullan M 021 121 4940 E lester.mullan@pggwrightson.co.nz

pggwre.co.nz/WAH30877

TEMUKA, SOUTH CANTERBURY

DEADLINE PRIVATE TREATY

Cropping / Finishing Woodlands is a well-developed, 451ha dryland arable unit just 7km from Temuka. With its rich, deep, silty loam soils, the current farming practice has been predominantly intensive dryland cropping with some livestock finishing and grazing. Farm infrastructure is well above average, including three good homes plus quality large sheds and numerous outbuildings to support the farming operation. Several purchasing options are available including the total property, the 142.5ha Flats Block, and the 308.5ha Downs Block as one unit or in two or more parts. We welcome your enquiry.

Plus GST (if any) (Unless Sold Prior) Closes 1.00pm, Friday 27 September

Simon Richards M 027 457 0990 E simon.richards@pggwrightson.co.nz Peter Crean M 027 434 4002 E pcrean@pggwrightson.co.nz

pggwre.co.nz/CHR30882 Helping grow the country

PGG Wrightson Real Estate Limited, licensed under REAA 2008

FOR SALE WAIHUE QUARRY MAMARANUI, KAIPARA

Boundary line indicative only

SMALL-SCALE OPERATIONAL QUARRY PLANT AND MACHINERY INCLUDED

Eketahuna 166 Taylors Road Wai Hiwi Farm - Dairy/Intensive red meat Options abound on this quality property currently a 'once a day' system milking 350 cows with scope for dairy support and dry stock with all the facilities here. 38 ASHB milking shed, 19 bays of calf sheds, two excellent homes and a self-contained sleepout, three stand woolshed and numerous support buildings. A summer safe 262 hectare home block and 44 hectare run off nearby. These properties can be purchased together or separately.

Tender (unless sold prior) Closing 4pm, Fri 20 Sep 2019 186 Chapel Street, Masterton View by appointment Lindsay Watts 027 246 2542 lindsay.watts@bayleys.co.nz Andrew Smith 027 760 8208 a.smith@bayleys.co.nz EASTERN REALTY (WAIRARAPA) LTD, BAYLEYS, LICENSED UNDER THE REA ACT 2008

This small-scale operational blue and brown metal + 15.1710ha freehold land title quarry located in the Kaipara district is offered for + Significant resource remaining sale on a ‘walk in, walk out basis’, with significant + Resource consent until 2026 plant and machinery included in the sale. A perfect opportunity for a passive investor, quarry + Plant and machinery included operator or contractor to take control of this operational asset and continue to supply the current client base of local farmers, first rotation foresters and roading contractors. Contact CBRE today to obtain a detailed Information Memorandum and access to the Dataroom.

Choices are here with a combined dairy/dry stock operation offering the best of both worlds - not to mention the trout fishing on the boundary

bayleys.co.nz/3060565

ASKING PRICE $1,000,000 + GST (if any) WYATT JOHNSTON 027 815 1303

JEREMY KEATING 021 461 210

www.cbre.co.nz/216334Q48 CBRE (Agency) Limited, Licensed Real Estate Agent (REAA 2008)

PART TIME CAR DRIVER REQUIRED

Orari Gorge Station

The position requires excellent grazing management of both intensive and extensive systems for sheep, cattle and deer. Good team management, record keeping and communication skills are essential. The successful applicant will be responsible for the day to day running of the property as well as being involved in all strategy planning and development.

Please apply by email to: turnerl.stk@xtra.co.nz

Experienced Shepherd

Applicants can email robert@orarigorge.co.nz for more details and a full job description.

Drystock Station, Taupō

For more information contact: The Manager on 027 263 6116 or email CV to: jobsinopepe@gmail.com

SEE PAGE 32

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Applicant requirements: • Honest, hardworking and positive attitude • High standard of stock management and husbandry • Working dogs • Good understanding of pasture management • Competent in all general farm duties • Health and safety minded

FENCER GENERAL ROLE

LK0094587©

CALF TRAILER MATS

DOLOMITE

Specialists in mustering Wild Goats, Cattle, Horses and Sheep across New Zealand Check out our website and let results speak for themselves

NZ’s finest BioGro certified Mg fertiliser For a delivered price call ....

www.aotearoastockman.com

Working alongside Crusader Meats

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Ph: 027 959 4166 aotearoastockman@gmail.com maiexperiencejohnnygray

0800 436 566

ANIMAL HANDLING FLY OR LICE problem? Electrodip - The magic eye sheepjetter since 1989 with unique self adjusting sides. Incredible chemical and time savings with proven effectiveness. Phone 07 573 8512 w w w. e l e c t r o d i p . c o m CRAIGCO SHEEP JETTERS. Sensor Jet. Deal to fly and Lice now. Guaranteed performance. Unbeatable pricing. Phone 06 835 6863. www.craigcojetters.com

TH IN K P R EB UILT

ANIMAL HEALTH www.drench.co.nz farmer owned, very competitive prices. Phone 0800 4 DRENCH (437 362).

NEW HOMES

BOOK A WORD AD. Phone Debbie on 0800 85 25 80 to book or email classifieds@globalhq.co.nz

SOLID – PRACTICAL

WELL INSULATED – AFFORDABLE

Our homes are built using the same materials & quality as an onsite build. Easily transported to almost anywhere in the North Island. Plans range from one bedroom to four bedroom First Home – Farm House Investment – Beach Bach

ATTENTION FARMERS

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Call or email us for your free copy of our plans Email: info@ezylinehomes.co.nz Phone: 07 572 0230 Web: www.ezylinehomes.co.nz

We are currently seeking a Farm Manager for our Kowhai property, a stunning 440ha farm with 3 levels of terrace flats. Kowhai runs approx. 1750 breeding ewes and up to 500 2-year Angus steers. Kowhai is part of a 1860ha business which includes two hill country farm blocks and a down country block.

An exciting opportunity exists for a keen and motivated individual to join the Hazlett Livestock team in the North Island. We are looking for two Livestock Representatives to join our expanding stock and station company, whose strong culture views its people as its greatest asset. Both full time roles, one is to be based in Manawatu and one in Hawkes Bay. Hazlett is a family owned business, launched in 2008, well established in the South Island and looking to increase its footprint in the North. We’re committed to providing New Zealanders with top-of-the-line livestock broking services, insurance, funding and agri-supplies.

The successful applicant will be responsible for the day-to-day running and up keep of the property as well as working with the owner in planning and development. They will also be required to assist on other properties within the group when required.

This role will suit a candidate with exceptional relationship building skills, experience in marketing and selling livestock and an ability to grow a client base. Whilst you will receive great support from the team, the nature of this role is very independent, therefore time management, planning and organisational skills and administrative experience will set your footing for success. Skills required: > Experience with marketing and sales of livestock services to new and existing clients is preferable > Ability to grow your client base > Ability to cold call and canvas > Excellent planning and self-management > Strong communication skills > Solid technology skills and administrative nous > A full, clean and current NZ driver’s licence

This role will suit a self-starter with a strong work ethic and good communication skills who is comfortable working independently as well as part of a team. The position would ideally suit someone looking for their first management position or someone with previous management experience.

If you would like to discuss further please call Tom Mowat on 027 462 0190. Please send applications to erough@hazlett.nz by 9th September.

Kowhai is located 30 minutes from Feilding and 50 minutes from Palmerston North. A 4 bedroom house is available. For an informal discussion about the position phone Hamish Brown after 7pm on 027 22 66 276 or email medwayhills@gmail.com

Noticeboard

VETMARKER

With automatic release and spray system. www.vetmarker.co.nz 0800 DOCKER (362 537)

Kowhai, Kimbolton

hazlett.nz

classifieds@globalhq.co.nz – 0800 85 25 80

LAMB DOCKING / TAILING CHUTE

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Must be GST registered. Remuneration on application.

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Hourly rate, minimum 20 hours guaranteed. Overnight stays at owner’s expense.

FARM MANAGER

Manawatu & Hawkes Bay

Orari Gorge Station is a progressive 4300ha property ranging from river flats to rolling downs to steep tussock Country. It is a breeding, finishing and stud property totalling 25,000su. It is located in the South Canterbury foothills just 10 minutes from Geraldine which provides a choice of schooling and other amenities.

Long distance Taupo to Cape Reinga, weekly itinerary will vary.

Rural background preferred, experience driving on rural roads an advantage.

Livestock Representatives

Farm Manager

Must have full licence. Period 6-12 months with Pukekohe based owner as passenger.

classifieds@globalhq.co.nz – 0800 85 25 80

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Agri Job Board

FARMERS WEEKLY – August 26, 2019

FAST GRASS www.gibb-gro.co.nz GROWTH PROMOTANT Only $6.00 per hectare + GST delivered Brian Mace 0274 389 822 brianmace@xtra.co.nz DAGS .25c PER KG. Replacement woolpacks. PV Weber Wools. Kawakawa Road, Feilding. Phone 06 323 9550.

SOFT, DURABLE, FREE draining rubber mats. Easy to clean. Call to order on 0800 686 287 – www. numat.co.nz

DOGS FOR SALE BIG STRONG 10-MONTH old brindle Huntaway dog, excellent bark. 5-MONTH old brindle Huntaway pup, very good bark. Phone 06 388 0212 or 027 243 8541. FOR SALE, HUNTAWAY, 15 months, keen to work, $800. Phone 06 863 9815. VIEW SIXTY DOGS on video. Deliver, trial. www.youtube.com/user/ mikehughesworkingdog/ videos 07 315 5553.

DOGS WANTED 12 MONTHS TO 5½-yearold Heading dogs and Huntaways wanted. Phone 022 698 8195. QUICK SALE! No one buys or pays more NZ Wide! 07 315 5553. Mike Hughes.

FARM MAPPING FOCUS ON YOUR strengths with a farm map showing paddock sizes. Contact us for a free quote at farmmapping.co.nz or call us on 0800 433 855.

FOR SALE SERIOUS INCINERATORS. Heavy duty long lasting. w w w. i r o n t r e e p r o d u c t s . co.nz Phone 021 047 9299.

GOATS WANTED LOOKING TO EXPAND goat milking herd. If you have any goats, kids available in a large amount please contact Abby 021 158 9564. GOATS WANTED. All weights. All breeds. Prompt service. Payment on pick up. My on farm prices will not be beaten. Phone David Hutchings 07 895 8845 or 0274 519 249. Feral goats mustered on a 50/50 share basis.

GOATS WANTED

FERAL GOATS WANTED. All head counted, payment on pick-up, pick-up within 24 hours. Prices based on works schedule. Experienced musterers available. Phone Bill and Vicky Le Feuvre 07 893 8916.

HORTICULTURE NZ KELP. FRESH, wild ocean harvested giant kelp. The world’s richest source of natural iodine. Dried and milled for use in agriculture and horticulture. Growth promotant / stock health food. As seen on Country Calendar. Orders to: 03 322 6115 or info@nzkelp.co.nz

PUMPS HIGH PRESSURE WATER PUMPS, suitable on high headlifts. Low energy usage for single/3-phase motors, waterwheel and turbine drives. Low maintenance costs and easy to service. Enquiries phone 04 526 4415, email sales@hydra-cell.co.nz

SITUATIONS VACANT RELIEF MILKER. Position available for experienced milker. CASUAL weekend and some weekday milkings, 5 minutes from Rangiora, 200 cows. 24 ASHB. NOW until May. Drive in position. Phone/text 021 185 6691.

STOCK FEED HAY 12 EQUIVALENT squares $70. STRAW 12 equivalent squares $55. BALEAGE at $80. Unit loads available. Phone 021 455 787.

TRACTOR PARTS JOHN DEERE 6410, 6600, 6610, 6800, 6900, dismantling Andquiparts. Phone 027 524 3356.

Livestock

LIVESTOCK FOR SALE WILTSHIRES-ARVIDSON. Self shearing sheep. No1 for Facial Eczema. David 027 2771 556. HEREFORD BULLS, purebred yearlings. BDV negative and vaccinated. Phone 027 4944 262.

YEARLING SPECKLE PARK BULL SALE

BOOK AN AD. For only $2.10 + gst per word you can book a word only ad in Farmers Weekly Classifieds section. Phone Debbie Brown on 0800 85 25 80 to book in or email classifieds@ globalhq.co.nz

MANUKA SITES WANTED CENTRAL NORTH ISLAND. Whanganui, Taranaki, Wairarapa. Excellent site rental paid on quality honey. We are looking for long term relationships. We are experienced and honest. Contact 027 372 0842. Email: zerbywerby@ gmail.com

PROPERTY WANTED FARM SOLD. Require a hundred hectares or more. Distance from town and a bit rough ok. Prefer NI. Up to $850,000. Phone 07 876 7440. HOUSE FOR REMOVAL wanted. North Island. Phone 021 0274 5654.

2nd October 2019, 12pm 400 Brunskill Road, Cambridge

GOING GOING GONE! Have you got a sale coming up? Advertise in Farmers Weekly To advertise Phone Nigel 0800 85 25 80 or email livestock@globalhq.co.nz

livestock@globalhq.co.nz – 0800 85 25 80

Livestock

MORRINSVILLE SALE YARD

FARMERS WEEKLY – August 26, 2019

SELDOM OFFERED TO MARKET

ON A/C CLIENT 29th August 2019 11.30 am CLOSED HERD

166 HIGH FIGURED XB COWS OAD

Outstanding Spring herd in top condition

220 Frsn/Frsn X & Kiwi X In milk and CTP Cows Farm sold, cows must go

Within top 5% BW133 PW197 My Vendors (retiring after many years) have established this Top Herd to present to Market.

This herd has been in the family for 30 years using CRV nominated AB Sires, but never recorded. Bred for tidy udders and great conformation. Consistently producing 400 kg solids on System 2.

Realistically Priced at $1800

Very low cell count, never averaging more than 100,000 Fonterra cell count cert. available M. Bovis milk tested negative 60% of the herd in milk with the other 40% springing LK0099015©

Genuine Inmilk Cows to suit everyone.

1st October delivery. Option for immediate delivery.

Enquiries to Glen Tasker 0274 777 345 Or Liam McBride 0212 222 662

Select your own Bulls & Mating programme All enquiries to: Noel Baker 0274 555 828

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Kokonga Ironside 5005 Boehringer Ingelheim Dairy Sire

11:30am Tuesday 10th September 2019 Richard and Christine Lansdaal and Family 200 Luck at Last Road, Karapiro, Cambridge Sale held Under Cover with Lunch Provided Free coffee-van on site

Enquiries to Richard and Christine 027 353 5693

SEE PAGE 39 FOR MORE BULL SALES

Kokonga East Road (end of road by woolshed) off the Port Waikato - Waikaretu Valley Road, RD5 Tuakau

Need an Angus bull

Quality, Well Grown, High BW , Low Risk Catalogue available on mylivestock.co.nz and jersey.org.nz/link-livestock Ross Riddell - 0272 111 112 Linking Buyers and Sellers

Ollie Carruthers - 0274 515 312

CONSIDER THIS . . . Fully Registered 300 cow herd

NEED TO MOOOVE SOME STOCK? Advertise your stock sales in Farmers Weekly

Wednesday 18 September 2019

Chris & Karren Biddles, RD1, Te Kopuru, Northland P: 09 439 1589 m: 021 795 929 e: chris@teatarangi.co.nz

Hillcroft Est. 1960

+0.2

Birth Weight

+2.9

+4.3

400 Day

+83

+81

600 Day

+106

Self Replacing

+147

+112

Angus Pure

+170

+131

PGG Wrightson Cam Heggie 027 501 8182 Pete Henderson 027 475 4895 Central Livestock: Shane Scott 027 495 6031

Annual Spring Bull Sale 97 ANGUS 2 YR OLDS 23 ANGUS YEARLINGS Selected for heifer mating

* Fertility and semen tested * HD50K Genomic tested for better EBV accuracy * All Bulls carcass scanned * BVD tested and vaccinated * EBV recorded, C10 TB status * Well grown, suitable for heifers or cows

30 HEREFORD 2 YR OLDS Sires:

Rangatira 13-4 Sire of 1 & 2 yr olds

Call for a catalogue or view on www.angusnz.com

4th Sept 2019, 12.30pm

• Ardo Prophet 2329. Top 5% Hereford prime and dairy maternal. Top 10% NZ calving ease, NZ carcaseweight • Riverton Lochie 1320. Top 5% C ease

On bull farm: 820 Waiterimu Road, Ohinewai • Monday 17th September 11.30am Mark & Sherrie Stokman 07 3332446 Mark 027 640 4028 Sherrie 027 499 7692 mtkiwi@farmside.co.nz

Enquiries welcome – call for a catalogue or view online www.angusnz.com or FB hillcroftangus • www.hillcroftangus.co.nz

Malcolm & Fraser Crawford: Matahuru Rd, Ohinewai Malcolm Phone 07 828 5709; Fraser Phone 07 828 5755, 0272 85 95 87

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+2.1

106 Yearling Angus bulls at our Annual sale, on farm

Hillcroft bulls: born and bred on our closed breeding unit. No bulls have been leased.

Your Angus Bull Source Calving Ease

Full EBVs on all animals

FERTILITY Calve as 2 yr old Only 43 day mating Cull everything that doesn’t rear a calf

WHO ELSE IN NZ TICKS ALL THOSE BOXES?

Our complete program (all 300 cows) is focused on ease of calving and heifer mating

1708 Te Kopia Road Rotorua - 1.00 p.m.

NZ Breed Average EBV’s on Stokman Sale Bulls Average

All our best bulls offered at our annual yearling sale Excellent Temperament

Phone Nigel 0800 85 25 80 or email livestock@globalhq.co.nz

Stokman Angus Yearling Bull and Heifer Sale 95 Registered Bulls 60 Commercial Angus Heifers

Specialising in ease of calving and heifer mating

Good selection of bulls with growth and carcass attributes without compromising ease of calving

Livestock

FARMERS WEEKLY – August 26, 2019

Okupata Herefords

livestock@globalhq.co.nz – 0800 85 25 80

Looking for a bull for

HEIFER MATING

33 Annual Bull Sale rd

Under cover on farm sale Monday 9th September 2019, 12 noon

AUAHI CHAROLAIS BULL SALE 9TH SEPTEMBER, 7.30PM

Think Mahuta – Herefords & Angus

56 - Registered 2yr Hereford Bulls 47 - Commercial 2yr Hereford Bulls 8 - 2yr Murray Grey Bulls

OKUPATA STUD 860 Okupata Road, RD 1, Oparau 3885 P: (07) 212 2284 • M: 027 711 1291 (Thomas Atkins) E: okupataherefords@farmside.co.nz

ANGUS

YEARLING BULL & HEIFER SALE

To register: • Sign up at www.bidr.co.nz • Save your PGG Wrightson account to your bidr profile Or contact the bidr team on 0800 TO BIDR (0800 86 2437)

Annual Yearling Bull Sale Friday 20th September 2019 Offering: 50 Hereford bulls & 10 Angus bulls

12 noon Tuesday, 10th September, 2019 Karamu, 662 Rangitatau East Rd, Wanganui

For further information contact: Karl Swanson – 027 202 0865 Kevin Mortensen – 027473 5858

BLNZ recommend specialist bulls for yearling heifer mating and troublefree calving sets a heifer up to produce a good weaner. These bulls are well grown [500kg], have high calving ease EBVs [top 5%] and many above average growth.

YEARLING BULL & HEIFER SALE

ON OFFER: 30 yearling bulls • 35 yearling heifers

LK0098599©

RANUI

Auction takes place at www.bidr.co.nz on Monday, 9th September @ 7:30pm

Contact: John Allen 09 233 3097 or 027 440 7504 jvmeallen@xtra.co.nz

12 noon Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Karamu, 662 Rangitatau East Rd, Wanganui ENQUIRIES

A bidr® sale, hosted at www.bidr.co.nz

Bid, buy, sell all things rural

TO: Lindsay Johnstone 027 445 3211 On offer: 25 yearling bulls Lin Johnstone 027 445 3213

30 yearling heifers, which will be sold in lots

Ryan Shannon 027 565 0979

We have your Stud & Service Bull needs covered for 2019

INQUIRIES TO: Lin Johnstone Lindsay Johnstone 06 342 9833 06 342 9795 W & K AGENTS Blair Robinson Don Newland 027 491 9974 027 242 4878

Upcoming Auctions to the 20th September Date

Client

POLLED HEREFORDS

FOR BUTTS, NUTS AND GUTS

ANNUAL ON-FARM BULL SALE

Friday 6 September 2019 12 NOON - UNDER COVER PAULSEN ROAD, WAERENGA, TE KAUWHATA, NORTH WAIKATO

90 quiet, easy-calving Hereford bulls 2 year olds & yearlings

Kaeo

Neil Miller

027 497 3492

Fri 6th

Hikurangi

Tim Williamson

027 511 7778

Fri 6th

Keith Shotter & Janne Ross 15mth, 1yr Jerseys

New Plymouth

Colin Dent

027 646 8908

Mon 9th

Okupata Station

2yr Hfd, 2yr Murray Grey

Oparau

Ben Deroles

027 702 4196

Tues 10th Kevin Flower

2yr Hfd, 1yr Hfd

Dargaville

Haydn Evans

021 985 863

Tues 10th Kokonga Herefords

1yr Herefords

Waikaretu Valley Bruce Orr

027 492 2122

Wed 11th Haumoana Herefords

1yr Herefords

Whangarei

Tim Williamson

027 511 7778

Wed 11th Charwell Hereford Stud

2yr, 18mth, 1yr Herefords

Manawahe

Bruce Orr

027 492 2122

Wed 11th Piquet Hills Farm

2yr Hfd, Ang, Jrsy

Te Akau

Jack Kiernan

027 823 2373

Colin Dent

027 646 8908

Brian Pearson

027 603 4477

Fri 13th

Puketahi Stud

Fri 13th

Sandstone Downs

2yr & 3yr Hfd, Ang, Jrsy, Aysh, 2yr Frsn, MG, Jrsy. Stratford 1yr Jrsy 1yr Hfd, Sp Pk, 1yr Hfd Hfrs Waiuku

Mon 16th Hillcroft Farm Ltd

2yr Ang, Hfd. 1yr Ang

Waiterimu

Craig Chamberlain 027 532 0253

Tues 17th Waitangi Angus

1yr Angus

Waitangi

Reuben Wright

027 284 6384

Tues 17th Fowler Farms

2yr & 3yr Hfd, Ang, Red Dvn Patea

Brent Espin

027 551 3660

Fri 20th

1yr Hereford & Angus

Dave Anderson

027 498 1201

Mahuta Polled Herefords

Glen Murray

BULL POWER PLAN

FREE GRAZING UNTIL 1 OCTOBER 2019 BVD tested clear and twice vaccinated Tb C10 and Lepto Vaccinated

Have Your Service Bulls Covered This Season

ALL BULLS FERTILITY & SEMEN TESTED

Purchase your Spring Service Bulls now and pay only $60 per head LK0098532©

& Lisa Hansen 07 826 7817 or 0274 40 30 24

Agent Contact

For full details & times for our upcoming auctions Visit www.carrfieldslivestock.co.nz

Bred, reared and raised naturally on strong hill country

Enquiries to: Dean

Sale Location

Waimarie & Otengi Polled 2yr, 18mth, 1yr Herefords Hereford Stud Matapouri Polled Herefords 2yr, 1yr Herefords

Thur 5th

HUKAROA

Breed

Admin fee and with the balance due by the end of February 2020* *Terms and Conditions Apply

LK0098971©

 Vet inspected  Quiet temperament

LK0098773©

PGG WRIGHTSON AGENTS:

 All cattle BVD & EBL tested Callum Stewart 027 280 2688  All cattle electric fence trained Ken Roberts 027 591 8042  TB status C10

livestock@globalhq.co.nz – 0800 85 25 80

Livestock

GroWTH & meAT

FARMERS WEEKLY – August 26, 2019 feeD effICIenCY

mIlK & mATernAl

TE TAUMATA POLL HEREFORDS PREDICTABLE PROFITABLE PERFORMANCE GENETICS

33rd AnnuAl on fArm Bull SAle

June 7th 2012 at 12pm

Romney and

To view our bull sale catalogue & Border Leicester pictures of sale lots go to:

Rams www.tetaumata.co.nz Bookings by September 1

Auahi Charolais Bull Sale Young Herd Sire Te Taumata Banjo 10302

AuctionTBstarts 7.30pm, 9th September 2019 BVD VACCInATeD C10 CArCASe SCAnneD

free DelIVerY

Beef Industry Driven Performance from a true dryland farm POLL HEREFORDS Est. 1962

Te Taumata Genetics

KAIRAUMATI POLLED HEREFORDS SALE

For more information go to bidr.co.nz or contact the team on 0800 TO BIDR

LK0098973©

Alistair & Eileen McWilliam Ph 06 372 7861 www.tetaumata.co.nz

Alistair & Eileen 06 372 7861 or Jim 06 372 7718 Email: studstock@tetaumata.co.nz 150 Te Kopi Road, RD 4 Masterton 5884, www.tetaumata.co.nz

Bid, buy, sell all things rural

STOCK FOR SALE 140 AUT FRSN BULL CALVES 120kg

STOCK REQUIRED AUT FRSN/HERE BULL CALVES 105kg+ 1YR FRSN BULLS 170-260kg

12.30pm – 68 NGATAIPUA RD, TURUA, THAMES

EXPORT WANTED

1YR ANG & AX or EX HEIFERS 230kg 2YR FRSN BULLS 450-500kg SIL MA EWES DUE Aug/Sept MA BEEF or BEEF X COWS Due Sept

Late January delivery 2020

FRIESIAN HEIFERS 18 Born In Calf – $1550 19 Born Autumn – $1100

www.dyerlivestock.co.nz

Ross Dyer 0274 333 381

LK0098644©

Contact Roy or Kaye Ward 021 128 7174 Dave Stuart 027 224 1049 Cam Heggie 027 501 8182

North Island Luke McBride 027 304 0533 Wayne Doran 027 493 8957 Harry Van De Ven 027 486 9866 South Island Richard Harley 021 765 430 Greg Collins 027 481 9772

A Financing Solution For Your Farm E info@rdlfinance.co.nz

26 RSG 20 MTH BULLS 24 1-YEAR BULLS

Bulls born and bred on the top of the Coromandel

Safe, Traceable, Quiet Bulls

LK0098859©

19TH SEPTEMBER 2019

Specialist Bulls recommended for heifer mating

Bulls For Heifer Mating

23rd Beef & Dairy On Farm Bull Sale

AIMING FOR ZERO BOBBIES AND HIGH VALUE CALVES?

180 Registered & Purebred 1 year & 2 year Angus, Hereford, Murray Grey & Jersey

Full Traceability and Strict Biosecurity Policies Contact Robin Blackwell 06 762 4805

300 BULLS AVAILABLE MIKE CRANSTONE - 027 218 0123 SALE Thursday 19 Sept, 12noon Riverton Herefords, Wanganui WILL MORRISON - 027 640 1166 SALE Tuesday 24 Sept, 12noon Ardo Herefords, Marton

www.ezicalve.co.nz

LK0098969©

Thursday Sept 19th 2019, 12 Noon 183 Mangaotea Road, Tariki, Taranaki

LK0098665©

THE CHOICE IS

It is well recognised that calving ease and fertility are major drivers of profit and this is especially relevant for heifers. Higher calving ease means more live calves on the ground. Calving difficulty costs money in labour time, veterinary fees and delayed rebreeding for the heifer. In addition, loss of one calf costs more than the profit from 20kg of growth across a group of 25 animals. Mahuta Herefords and Angus Studs run by John and Mary Allen specialise in breeding bulls for heifer mating. While the focus is on beef heifers, there are bulls with calving ease EBVs in the top 1% for calving ease ebvs and these are suitable for dairy heifers. Repeat clients are evidence of the success of this program. John says “using a high calving ease bull gives you peace of mind in calving 2-year-old heifers”. John places emphasis on breeding bulls which will increase profits for their clients. These are bulls with sound structure and higher calving ease, higher growth, and fertility. Most bulls also have negative gestation. Bulls are semen tested before the sale and vaccinated for BVD. LK0098600©

craigmore

polled herefords We’ve done the work for you!

All bulls are: • Performance recorded • Genomics tested to improve accuracy of EBVs

• Polled gene tested • Sire verified

All bulls are ready to perform!

Monday 9th September 2019, at 12.30pm Luncheon available

On A/C D.B & S.E Henderson At the stud property: 429 Rukuhia Road, RD 2, Ohaupo 101 Registered Well Grown Bulls

Craigmore Hereford bulls carry the Hereford Blue tag. We have bulls that will suit beef and dairy farmers www.craigmoreherefords.co.nz

For further information or inspection, please contact: Vendors: David 07 825 2677, 021 166 1389 or the selling agents: PGG Wrightson: Vaughan Larsen 027 801 4599, Cam Heggie 027 501 8182

LK0098623©

YEARLING BULL SALE

Livestock

FARMERS WEEKLY – August 26, 2019

livestock@globalhq.co.nz – 0800 85 25 80

SALE TALK

TURANGANUI ROMNEYS

An elderly couple, who were both widowed, had been going out with each other for a long time. Urged on by their friends, they decided it was finally time to get married. Before the wedding, they went out to dinner and had a long conversation regarding how their marriage might work. They discussed finances, living arrangements and so on. Finally, the old gentleman decided it was time to broach the subject of their physical relationship. ‘How do you feel about sex?’ he asked, rather tentatively. ‘I would like it infrequently’ she replied. The old gentleman sat quietly for a moment, adjusted his glasses, leaned over towards her and whispered - ‘Is that one word or two?’ Supplied by Lindsey Thompson

Survival, one of the few traits you will never get too much of

SIL Dual Purpose Survival Genetic Trends

600 500

DPS - cents

600

Turanganui Romneys DP Flks Avg

500

400

300

200

100

7 199

95 199

1 200

3 200

7 5 200 200

9 200

1 201

3 201

5 201

7 201

At Turanganui we have always paid attention to Lamb survival demonstrated above where the red line denotes Turanganui’s progress, the blue line is the average of 1199 SIL flocks.

If you’ve got a joke you want to share with the Farming community (it must be something you’d share with your grandmother...) then email us at: saletalk@globalhq.co.nz with Sale Talk in the subject line and we’ll print it and credit it to you. Conditions apply

List on bidr® for nationwide reach

HAVE A SALE COMING UP?

-100

5 199

Here at Farmers Weekly we get some pretty funny contributions to our Sale Talk joke from you avid readers, and we’ve keen to hear more!

Bid, buy, sell all things rural

LIVESTOCK ADVERTISING

-100

Head to bidr.co.nz to find your accredited livestock agent today.

Call Nigel 0800 85 25 80 livestock@globalhq.co.nz

Holmes Warren

Jarred Pead

Michael Warren

06 307 7841 0274 465 312

027 363 0899 LK0093699©

06 307 7802

RD 2 FEATHERSTON 5772

Key: Dairy

Beef

Sheep

WILLIAMS JERSEYS HIGH BW JERSEY BULL SALE Monday 2nd September, 11.30 AM On Farm: 1013 Wiroa Road, Okaihau Northland

MEAT-MAKERS

Comprising: 7 2yr Jersey Bulls BWs 144-198 weights up to 354kg 6

A2A2 Bulls including 1 Cross Bred 2yr Bull

42 Yearling Jersey Bulls

Second Annual Sale

Bulls over 200 BW up to 233.

Sires include: Kaino, Bastian, Goldie Index, Integrity, Conrad, P.C.G. Favour, Desi, Terrific, Kingpin, 5 Star Sultan, Thor, Limerick, & Frankie.

September 12, 2019 at 2pm 216 Wiltons Road Carterton

Please note: ‘Up-to-date’ weights available on sale day. Yearlings include 31 A2A2 bulls & 3 A1A2 bulls. The high genetic Williams herd of 230 cows is milked at Puhi Puhi under Mary Williams guidance. Bull calves, when 4 days old go to Okaihau to be reared/cared for by Brian & Gillian. The Williams stud has bred 148 bulls for the industry with 25 premier sires. The herds BW is currently making it one of the top in the country. Mary also sells females annually.

Lot 25 Tag 8361

Williams Jerseys are still in the business of selling top bulls. • Delivery to suit up to end of October, trucks go south regularly. • A2 tested. • Tested negative & vaccinated twice for BVD. • 7n1 & Lepto Vaccinated. • Bulls are very quiet - moved daily with electric fence.

Lot 29 Tag 8288

40 Years of Proven Performance 37 Top Quality Simmental Angus Bulls

www.mcfadzeancattlecompany.co.nz 7% rebate for non participating agents

22ND ANNUAL BULL SALE A/C TETLEY JONES AGRICULTURE LTD Monday 9th September 2019 Starts 11.30AM On farm 105 Tahaia Bush Road, Otorohanga (signposted from State Highway 3 South of Otorohanga) Comprising:

113 2yr Jersey Bulls 31 2yr Angus Bulls One line of very well bred Angus bulls. 70years of breeding background. TB, EBL, BVD tested clear. These bulls are always in suitable mating condition & are farmed on rolling country, ideal for dairy cow & heifer mating. All bulls have had two vaccinations plus one booster for BVD. Free grazing on vendors property until October 20th 2019, or 50kms transport subsidy if purchased bulls taken from sale venue to purchasers property on the day after the sale. Purchasers must have NAIT number on sale day. A great opportunity to purchase genuine, clean one vendor farmed bulls. All enquiries: Wium Mostert 027 473 5856 or 07 871 9188 Vendor Ross Tetley-Jones 027 454 3909 or 07 873 0622

• Weights available & in catalogue - weights up to 293kgs 10/7/19 on 1YR old bulls. Vendor Contact: Brian Williams 027 447 5491 or 09 401 9086

Secure your bull team now

PGG Wrightson Agents: Vaughan Vujcich 027 496 8706 LK0097450©

For more information or a catalogue contact us: John McFadzean 06 372 7045 Johnie McFadzean 06 379 7401 / 027 429 5777 Andrew Jennings PGG Wrightson 027 594 6820

Other

Andrew Reyland 027 223 7092 Jason Roberts 027 243 1429

Freephone 0800 10 22 76 | www.pggwrightson.co.nz

pggwrightson.co.nz/deferabull

Helping grow the country

MARKET SNAPSHOT

Market Snapshot brought to you by the AgriHQ analysts.

Suz Bremner

Mel Croad

Nicola Dennis

Cattle

Reece Brick

Caitlin Pemberton

Sheep

BEEF

William Hickson

Deer

SHEEP MEAT

VENISON

Last week

Prior week

Last year

NI Steer (300kg)

6.00

5.75

NI lamb (17kg)

8.40

8.30

8.35

NI Stag (60kg)

9.00

11.40

NI Bull (300kg)

5.60

5.40

NI mutton (20kg)

5.50

5.20

SI Stag (60kg)

9.05

8.95

11.40

NI Cow (200kg)

4.50

SI lamb (17kg)

8.10

8.05

8.20

SI Steer (300kg)

5.80

5.75

SI mutton (20kg)

5.50

5.40

5.30

SI Bull (300kg)

5.40

5.30

Export markets (NZ$/kg)

SI Cow (200kg)

4.30

4.25

4.50

UK CKT lamb leg

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

6.56

7.66

6.95

North Island steer slaughter price

$/kg CW

6.0

5.5

11.5

4.5

10.5

7.5

Oct

Dec 5-yr ave

Feb

5-yr ave

Jun

2017-18

Dairy

Aug 2018-19

Apr 2017-18

Jun

Last week

Prior week

Last year

Coarse xbred ind.

3.12

37 micron ewe

30 micron lamb

$/tonne

6.75 6.25

Aug 2018-19

Urea

616

523

3.42

Super

314

304

DAP

787

753

Company

400

320

May-19 Jul-19 Sept. 2020

DAIRY FUTURES (US$/T)

Jul-18

Sep-18

NZ average (NZ$/t)

Top 10 by Market Cap

360

Nearby contract

Jun

Last year

440

Mar-19

Apr 2017-18

Prior week

480

Nov-18 Jan-19 Sept. 2019

Feb

Last week

CANTERBURY FEED WHEAT

7.25

Sep-18

Dec 5-yr ave

Fertiliser

Aug 2018-19

Grain

Data provided by

MILK PRICE FUTURES

5.75

Oct

FERTILISER

(NZ$/kg) Apr

7.5 6.5

WOOL

Feb

8.5

5.5

5.0

Dec

South Island stag slaughter price

9.5

6.5

5.5

Oct

8.5

6.5

4.5

North Island stag slaughter price

9.5

5.5

$/kg CW

South Island steer slaughter price

Last year

10.5

6.5

8.5

6.0

Last week Prior week

7.5

South Island lamb slaughter price

4.5

$/kg CW

8.67

7.5

5.0

$/kg MS

9.82

North Island lamb slaughter price

8.5

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

$/kg CW

8.14

7.72

$/kg CW

8.11

US domestic 90CL cow

Last year

11.5 9.94

Export markets (NZ$/kg) US imported 95CL bull

Last week Prior week

$/kg CW

Slaughter price (NZ$/kg)

Ingrid Usherwood

Nov-18

Jan-19

Mar-19

May-19

Jul-19

CANTERBURY FEED BARLEY

YTD High

Westpac Banking Corporation

29.4

30.56

YTD Low 24.437

Australia and NZ Banking Group Ltd

28.21

30.75

24.198

Telstra Corporation Limited

3.89

4.19

2.867

Meridian Energy Limited

4.975

5.03

3.316

Auckland International Airport Limited

9.59

9.9

6.967

The a2 Milk Company Limited

14.75

18.04

10.42

Fisher & Paykel Healthcare Corporation Ltd

15.68

16.82

12.192

Australian Foundation Investment Co Ltd

6.55

6.669

5.955

Spark New Zealand Limited

4.225

4.185

3.49

F&C Investment Trust PLC

13.19

13.723

11.853

Listed Agri Shares

5pm, close of market, Thursday

Company

YTD High

YTD Low

The a2 Milk Company Limited

14.750

18.040

10.420

Comvita Limited

2.620

5.420

2.600

11.720

12.500

9.400

Prior week

vs 4 weeks ago

440

WMP

2930

2985

3130

420

Delegat Group Limited

SMP

2425

2455

2530

400

Fonterra Shareholders' Fund (NS)

3.400

4.850

3.390

Foley Wines Limited

1.900

2.000

1.470

Livestock Improvement Corporation Ltd (NS)

0.900

0.962

0.668

Marlborough Wine Estates Group Limited

0.225

0.240

0.192

New Zealand King Salmon Investments Ltd

2.150

2.980

1.760

PGG Wrightson Limited

2.360

2.531

2.024

Sanford Limited (NS)

6.870

7.000

6.269

Scales Corporation Limited

4.640

5.028

4.253

SeaDragon Limited

0.002

0.003

0.001

Seeka Limited

4.990

5.350

4.096

Synlait Milk Limited (NS)

9.310

11.350

8.450

AMF

5620

5830

5900

Butter

4750

4955

5100

Milk Price

6.38

$/tonne

Last price*

380 360 340

6.41

320

Jul-18

* price as at close of business on Thursday

WMP FUTURES - VS FOUR WEEKS AGO

Sep-18

Nov-18

Jan-19

Mar-19

May-19

Jul-19

WAIKATO PALM KERNEL

3200

350

$/tonne

US$/t

3100 3000 2900 2800

Sep

Oct Nov Latest price

Dec

Jan 4 weeks ago

Feb

300

T&G Global Limited

2.620

2.810

2.550

S&P/NZX Primary Sector Equity

15810

17434

15063

S&P/NZX 50 Index

10725

10898

8732

S&P/NZX 10 Index

10367

10696

8280

250 200

Jul-18

Sep-18

Nov-18

Jan-19

Mar-19

May-19

Jul-19

S&P/FW PRIMARY SECTOR EQUITY

15810

S&P/NZX 50 INDEX

10725

S&P/NZX 10 INDEX

10367

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019 NI SLAUGHTER BULL ( $/KG)

5.60

SI SLAUGHTER LAMB ( $/KG)

8.10

SI SLAUGHTER STAG ( $/KG)

9.05

MEDIUM MIXED SEX LAMBS AT TEMUKA ( $/HD)

121

Signs of spring approach NORTH ISLAND

BIG wet after the mild winter in Northland is causing some concern on dairy farms as they move into the mating season but cows are in good condition. There’s great grass cover and dams are starting to fill. Thousands of lambs are coming to the area for fattening and doing very well on the new types of grasses planted after the kumara harvest. Around Pukekohe a welcome dry start to the week was short-lived and the weather turned again mid week and brought heavy downpours, showers, colder temperatures and low sunlight. Some crops have been damaged by hail and others have decided that they have had enough of the rotten conditions. Growth has slowed and the fields are waterlogged but they’ll quickly dry out as soon as better weather arrives. Calving is about 85% through in Waikato and that’s starting to put pressure on in the feed department though spring is just around the corner. Calf rearing is going well with good heifer replacement numbers. Pasture and feed supply are generally in good shape and the consultant we speak to says there’s an air of confidence among sheep farmers with signals of high demand out there as opposed to an air of caution among dairy farmers. They’re keeping their hands in their pockets. In Bay of Plenty wet weather has been slowing up the avocado harvest but shipments are heading out over coming weeks to Australia, Korea and other parts of Asia where there’s high demand. It’s still wet underfoot in Taranaki after a damp and cold week and a big frost last Monday. Calving is proceeding well. After being badly hit by storms this time last year sheep farmers on the East Coast are enjoying a dream run with lambing in full swing. It’s been a great season so far, too dry if anything, which is a slight worry going into spring and summer. There was a ferocious frost in Hawke’s Bay on Tuesday, minus 3.5C, in some orchards but damage is likely to be limited because the season is running about a week later than normal. Drier than normal weather and a lot less mud have made it easier for those doing winter jobs like pruning and spraying. Some early summer fruit like nectarines and apricots are in flower but cherries are a long way off. Things are starting to get a bit stressful for sheep and dairy farmers in Manawatu with more rain and cold and waterlogged soils. It’s colder now than in June or July and they’re hoping for a bit of sunshine to get the grass growing. After a mild winter they’ve gone from cruise mode to just keeping more of an eye on things. Calving is more than half way through but the bulk of lambing is still to come. After a cold weekend it’s back to weird, warm weather in Wairarapa though there were a couple of frosty starts last week. One South Wairarapa farmer says not having the long, cold southerlies this winter has been great. His early calving is about two thirds of the way through and lambing among mixed aged ewes is about to start. Most vineyards in the region are

Short supply driving up dairy livestock market Trade in dairy livestock has been light during the winter, with few quality animals available. PGG Wrightson National Dairy Livestock Manager Jamie Cunninghame says, with demand exceeding supply, prices have been buoyant. “Anything available is selling well, and in the spring, anyone who offers stock with any quality will be well received by the market. “Buyers are keen. Our sales of mixed age cows have ranged between $1400 and $2000 per head in recent weeks. Even for lesser cows prices are strong, boner cows are similarly scarce at present, with the meat value holding them up, too. “Numbers are low. Because neither quantity nor quality is exceptional at present, when the right animals become available, the market has upside,” he said. Younger stock are also scarce. Significant enquiry from China recently has focused on rising one year heifers. With less stock available than at this time last year, Jamie says the market is strong. “We do not have large numbers of animals traded at present, in which case supply and demand is driving values. Where quality is available, it is selling well,” he said.

BRAVE: Fog and a minus 5C frost greeted attendees at last Monday’s Temuka store cattle sale.

nearing the end of pruning. One vineyard manager says there’s been more vigorous growth than normal because of rain last year and that means extra labour costs but they’ve had enough hands in the vineyard to wrestle with the vigour and things are on schedule. SOUTH ISLAND Pruning in orchard blocks has been a stop-start affair in Nelson after a showery week. On Wednesday night 30mm was left in the gauge when a northerly storm passed though. Friday was fine though and once conditions dry up growers will continue planting new trees and setting up irrigation systems in apple blocks. In stone fruit orchards there’s been some early bud movement. Marlborough’s had some rain too and a couple of frosts. Our contact up the Waihopai Valley says lambing is over the half way point, survival rates are good and tailing is in full swing. He says now that pruning has finished in his vineyard he’ll look at getting some fertiliser on soon. The farmer we rang near Hokitika on the West Coast told us it was jolly wet but in a more colourful way. He’s given up measuring how much rain has fallen but knows the soil is full and it’s been hard yakka farming lately. He thinks there have been only five or six days with sunshine this month. Calves are arriving in muddy conditions. His herd is about half way through. He says he’s supplementing the cows’ diet with silage and straw because the grass is so waterlogged it just doesn’t have any guts in it. Yili, the company that’s taken over Westland milk, is giving farmers a better opening advance for the season than they would have received under the previous regime. Canterbury’s had a mixed bag of weather with probably the hardest frost of the winter at the start of the week. Paddocks are sticky which is

limiting spring cultivation and sowing, particularly on heavier soils. Pasture growth is slower than it was earlier in the winter. The farmer we hear from is preparing two paddocks that will be sown in hemp for fibre production alongside areas for radish, barley and fodder beet crops. Central Otago’s taken a cool turn. There’s been snow on the hills and some good frosts that will check pasture growth and knock back lucerne that was starting to move. It had been pretty mild and blossoms were even appearing in warmer spots in gardens. So far not too many lambs have been born. Pruning in vineyards is coming to an end. There’s quite a bit of rabbit control going on. The second strain of RCD released 18 months ago seems to have worked in some places and not others. In south Otago the weather’s been fabulous with sunny days and clear, blue skies. That’s allowed the ground to dry out a bit. Dairy farmers are in the thick of calving. The farmer we spoke to says he wore shorts for the first time last week then admitted they were under his overalls but says even so, it’s a sign the seasons are definitely changing. Southland’s had frosty mornings and sunshine and sheep have even managed to dry out enough to be shorn. It had been dreary and damp so farmers and animals have loved having the sun on their backs. A lot of people are set stocking ewes for lambing, which means they stop moving them to feed them and put them in a paddock to settle down and camp up. Our contact says at this time of the year he checks on his ewes twice a day to make sure they haven’t become cast. They’re heavily pregnant and quite fat and if they’re in a flat paddock they can roll over and not be able to get up. On a warm day he’ll have to right three or four in each paddock. Southland’s dairy farmers are at the half way mark for calving.

Courtesy of Radio New Zealand Country Life You can listen to Country Life on RNZ at 9pm every Friday and 7am on Saturday or on podcast at rnz.co.nz/countrylife

Coming up soon and running through to mid October, the bull sale season will feature sales throughout the country, through saleyards, and on-farm. This is prompting plenty of farmers to apply for a PGG Wrightson Defer-A-Bull purchase agreement, enabling them to finance a bull team with no upfront cost and no re-payments until the bulls are sold. Jamie says Defer-A-Bull is a proven winner for many farmers. “For most of our customers, who would otherwise have to go to the bank to secure extra capital to fund their bull purchases every year, this is a preferable option. DeferA-Bull gives the ability to invest in your bull team when you need it, without putting any pressure on funds early in the season, when cashflow can be tight. “It is easy to use and a great way to fund your bull purchases. Any farmer who is interested should talk to their local PGG Wrightson rep about the simple application process,” he said. Helping grow the country

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FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

Turning of the tide for the store lamb market After the excitement of the Marton Hogget Fair the previous week old season store lamb throughput will now wind down towards the end of the season. Prices continue to be very strong but have come off the peaks seen towards the end of July. With the heavier weights from a mild winter coupled with lambs making more than one visit to the yards, average per-head prices for August for North Island yards are still at the higher end of records at $155-$160, which is slightly up on last year’s $151-$159. South Island yards have averaged $128-$138 a head. NORTHLAND Wellsford store cattle • R2 beef-dairy steers, 388-458kg, held at $2.87-$3.00/kg • R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 255-413kg, were steady at $2.87$2.93/kg • Four R2 Angus-Friesian bulls, topped their section at $2.76/kg • R1 Hereford-Friesian steers, 177-266kg, earned $690-$805 • R1 Hereford-Jersey steers, 252kg, lifted to $720 After two weeks of bigger cattle fairs, last Monday’s yarding at WELLSFORD was a smaller sale with 312 penned. Most managed steady results, despite varied quality and a significantly reduced buying bench. Buyers were selective on the R2 heifers and Angus, 314-334kg, sold to per head budgets at $895-$900, for varied $/kg at $2.69/kg to $2.85/ kg. Three Hereford-Jersey, 425kg, sold well at $1225, $2.88/ kg. Results were mixed through the R1 pens. Six Angus steers, 178kg, improved to $590, while Angus-Friesian, 210kg, managed $660. Beef-dairy heifers, 130-186kg, returned $470-$565, with 202-212kg at $560-$605. Wellsford yearling cattle fair • Angus steers, 229-271kg, lifted to $850-$940 • Angus-Friesian steers, 212-221kg, improved to $685-$785 • Most Hereford-Friesian steers, 208-303kg, earned $835-$935 • Angus heifers, 180-227kg, strengthened to $600-$760 • Friesian bulls, 261-326kg, improved to $845-$1000 Just under 1100 cattle were penned at WELLSFORD on Monday, August 12 for the yearling cattle fair. Buyers were selective in their bidding, with off-types and those sold later in the day harder work. Angus steers, 199kg, returned $770, while Hereford, 236-289kg, eased to $760-$925. AngusFriesian heifers, 220-288kg, held at $750-$860, though lighter 189-215kg eased to $560-$655. Friesian bulls, 196-207kg, improved to $605-$720, while Angus-cross, 139-175kg, sold to per head budgets at $450$485, Autumn-born beef-dairy heifers, 97-112kg, managed $450-$480, while Angus-cross steers, 115kg, made $520. Friesian bulls, 101-116kg, improved to $430-$525. A handful of autumn-born one-year cattle mainly earned $2.70-$2.90/ kg.

AUCKLAND Pukekohe cattle • Light-medium prime steers made $2.93-$3.12/kg • Medium R1 steers sold for $840-$852 • Medium R1 heifers earned $730-$870 • Light boner cows sold for $1.30-$1.83/kg There was a small yarding of cattle on offer at PUKEKOHE last Saturday, with few cattle at finished weights. Prices remained strong with competition from regular buyers, and prime heifers were firm at $2.72-$3.03/ kg. Quality store cattle remained sought after, with R2/18month heifers at $2.81-$2.90/kg and R2 steers fetching $2.91-$2.96/kg. Quality weaner steers sold very well at $880, while medium heifers were more affordable at $400-$490.

COUNTIES Tuakau sales • Hereford-Friesian steers, 307kg, earned $1180, $3.84/kg • Top ram lambs made $241 • Prime ewes sold to $198 TUAKAU drew a small yarding of store cattle last Thursday, but the market was firm,Carrfields Livestock agent Karl Chitham reported. Yearling prices were particularly strong, with 307kg Hereford-Friesian making $1180 and 245kg Hereford-Friesian, $900. Weaner steers at 99kg earned $570 and weaner heifers, 99-143kg, $500-$710. Hereford-Friesian yearling heifers, 354kg, fetched $1075. Prime cattle prices remained firm on Wednesday, with

heavy steers, 590-750kg, trading at $3.11-$3.22/kg and light-medium, $2.96-$3.10/kg. Heavy heifers lifted to $3.14$3.22/kg and medium, $3.06-$3.11/kg. Well-conditioned Friesian cows sold at $2.10-$2.36/kg, with medium boners earning $1.95-$2.08/kg. Medium primes earned $162-$184 on Monday and store lambs, $118-$143. While medium ewes were $141-$153 and light, $60-$73.

WAIKATO Frankton dairy beef weaner fair • Hereford-Friesian heifers, 114-131kg, earned $500-$570 • Red Hereford-Friesian heifers, 102-133kg, traded at $450-$500 • Hereford-Friesian bulls, 146-160kg, returned $700-$715 • Friesian bulls, 117kg, held at $545 Just over 530 mixed quality weaners were penned at FRANKTON last Tuesday. All classes had more weight at the top end, but lighter lines eased on recent levels. HerefordFriesian heifers, 82-106kg were discounted to $410-$500. In the bull pens six Angus bulls, 121kg, managed $505. Most Hereford-Friesian, 101-140kg, softened to $555-$665, however 20 well-marked bulls, 120-122kg, held at $655. Most Friesian bulls traded at a discount on last sale, with 121-166kg back to $500-$600, though 19 at 97kg were well received at $460. Frankton cattle and feeder calf sale • R2 beef-Friesian steers, 398-483kg, earned $3.09-$3.16/kg • R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 352-383kg, softened to $2.98-$3.05/ kg • R1 Hereford-Friesian steers, 175-212kg, improved to $700-$850 • R1 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 192-236kg, held at $630-$710 • R1 Angus bulls, 195-259kg, lifted to $625-$760 Just under 800 mainly dairy-beef cattle were yarded at FRANKTON last Wednesday. R2 Angus steers, 411kg, earned $3.24/kg, while Hereford-dairy heifers eased to $2.83-$2.93/ kg, and 382-388kg, $2.95-$3.05/kg. R1 Angus-Friesian steers, 198-272kg, held at $685-$900 while HerefordFriesian bulls, 211-284kg, lifted to $740-$840. All prime steers, 524-704kg, held at $3.01-$3.07/kg, as did beef-dairy heifers, 461-475kg, $2.96-$3.00/kg. Just on 1070 feeder calves were yarded. Good Friesian bulls lifted $125-$155, with medium at $85-$100 and small, $40-$55. Hereford-Friesian eased, with medium to good back to $200-$300, though small calves improved to $110-$160. Most Angus-cross traded at $70$160. Hereford-Friesian heifers eased with medium to good $110-$160, and small $40-$60. Good Angus-cross heifers lifted to $130, with lighter earning $20-$60.

BAY OF PLENTY Rangiuru cattle and sheep sale • R2 Angus steers, 405-480kg, made $3.17/kg • R3 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 423-458kg, sold for $2.98-$3.08/kg • Prime Hereford-Friesian heifers, 512-531kg, bettered equivalent steers at $3.13/kg • The best prime lambs made $217, with ewes $140-$145 A smaller yarding of both store and prime cattle featured at RANGIURU last Tuesday. R1 cattle continued to sell solidly and Hereford-Friesian steers, 193-272kg, sold for $790-$970. R1 heifer lines had more breed variety; beef-cross, 263kg, the best at $810 with Murray Grey, 240kg, at $790, while Hereford-Friesian, 175-275kg, were $660-$730. Forwardstore lines sold well; R2 Angus steers, 479kg, made $3.22/kg and R3 Hereford-Friesian fetched $3.14/kg. A handful of incalf R2 heifers were presented and Angus-Friesian, 354kg, made $820, with Angus-cross, 318kg, at $650. Prime supply remained limited with beef-cross steers over 530kg trading for $3.06-$3.11/kg. Few boner Friesian cows presented, with the price for 465-505kg up 5c/kg to $2.13/kg.

POVERTY BAY Matawhero sheep • Heavy mixed-sex store lambs made $158 • Mixed-age Romney ewes with lambs at foot made $107 all counted • Top prime mixed-age ewes sold for $190-$196 The volume of store lambs at MATAWHERO last Friday came to just 455 head. Heavy ewes made similar money to the heavy mixed sex at $150, while medium types sold for $121-$128. Mixed-age Romney store ewes mostly sold for $137. Prime lamb numbers lifted, the top end earned $196$231, with the balance at $150-$184.

TARANAKI Taranaki cattle • Top R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 474-500kg, strengthened to $3.28-$3.38/kg • R2 Red Devon-cross heifers, 380kg, sold well at $3.00/kg • Autumn-born 1-year steers made $1020-$1350, $3.24-$3.29/kg. Buyers were selective at last Wednesday’s TARANAKI cattle sale, although competition remained for good quality. Most R2 heifers sold in a range of $2.74-$2.84/kg, with lighter and dairy types harder to move. R1 cattle made up most of the yarding and those with good weights sold well, owner bred Hereford-Friesian steers, 237kg, and Shaffercross, 254kg, both sold at a premium reaching $925. Heifers over 215kg typically made $575 and above.

HAWKE’S BAY Stortford Lodge prime cattle and sheep • Angus and Angus-Hereford steers, 648-786kg, held at $3.11$3.15/kg • Top male lambs held at $201.50-$220 • Very heavy ewe lambs eased to $187-$198 • Very good ewes held at $150-$151.50 • Good ewes softened to $131-$143 Cattle were back last Monday at STORTFORD LODGE, though beef heifers, 460-545kg, eased to $2.89-$2.94/kg, but Hereford-Friesian, 554kg, pushed to $3.01/kg. Lamb throughput lifted and the market was steady for male lambs, though top ewe lambs eased. Very heavy males held at $184.50-$202, as did heavy at $170-$189. Fifty monstrous ram lambs took top honours at $228. Very heavy mixed sex held at $180.50-$200, while heavy types improved to $175$183.50. Heavy ewe lambs held at $158-$187. Very heavy ewes lifted to $190-$200, and heavy, $166-$176. Mediumgood ewes softened to $117-$120, as did light to medium types at $81-$111. Stortford Lodge store cattle and sheep • R4-R6 Angus cows, vetted-in-calf to Angus bull, sold for $1505 • Heavy male lambs eased to $177-$183.50 • Good mixed sex lambs made $137-$164.50 • Good ewe lambs ranged from $129 to $169, on a steady to softer market • Light to medium mixed age Romney ewes with multiple lambsat-foot made $113-$123 all counted Store lamb volume was higher than expected at STORTFORD LODGE last Wednesday, and the market eased. Mixed sex lines from the Chatham Islands were mainly ewes and wethers and matched the ewe lamb market. The ewes in the lambs-at-foot pens were a lesser type to the previous week, which was reflected in the prices, though the market was steady. Store cattle volume was low as the yards move into the pattern of fortnightly large sales. Nearly all age classes were present, albeit in small numbers. Features included R2 Hereford-dairy heifers, 423kg, at $2.93/kg, and R1 Angus steers, 188kg, $800

MANAWATU Rongotea • Two-year Angus-cross steers, 513kg, made $2.82/kg • Two-year Friesian heifers, 465kg, sold for $2.73/kg • Friesian-cross and Jersey cows with calves at foot traded at $750-$760 • In-milk Friesian cows and heifers earned $810-$920 • Friesian boner cows, 405-475kg, made $1.93-$2.16/kg At RONGOTEA last Wednesday prices were mainly steady. Two-year Hereford-Friesian steers, 372-437kg, earned $2.74-$2.93/kg, with beef-cross, 350kg, at $2.91/kg. Angus-cross bulls, 590kg, earned $2.56/kg. Yearling beefcross steers, 270-295kg, fetched $700-$795, with HerefordFriesian heifers at $2.79-$3.21/kg. Autumn born weaner Hereford-Friesian bulls and heifers, 105-150kg, made $400$450, with 172kg steers above this at $650. Feilding prime cattle and sheep • In-calf boner Friesian cows, 555-730kg, returned $2.58-$2.69/kg • Boner dairy cows, 465-615kg, were mainly $2.18-$2.26/kg • Boner dairy heifers, 360-440kg, made $2.26-$2.40/kg

SALE YARD WRAP

FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019

BOVINE BONANZA: Close to 1000 store cattle were penned at Temuka last week. The yarding was dominated by Hereford-dairy cattle though it also included big entries of R1 Friesian bulls. • Good prime lambs earned $209-$233 • Good prime ewes went for $141-$159 Just under 200 prime cattle were available at FEILDING last Monday, of which more than three-quarters were dairy cows. In-calf cows continued to command a premium of 25-30c/kg on the rest, with in-calf lines mostly $2.46-$2.63/ kg, whereas $2.15-$2.30/kg was normal for the rest. One 620kg Hereford bull was $2.75/kg. It was a quiet day for lambs and ewes. Standard prime lambs were $181-$202, though quite a few were more “forward-store” types, making $159.50-$171. Good quality meant the larger lines of ewes were all above $140. Feilding store sale • Traditional and exotic R2 steers, 445-535kg, made $3.27-$3.44/kg • R2 Friesian bulls, 470-550kg, eased to $3.03-$3.16/kg • Traditional and Simmental-cross R1 steers, 185-230kg, were $4.10-$4.24/kg • Average store lamb eased to $145 • Ewes with LAF mainly made $115.50-$126 all counted Almost a thousand store cattle had more quality than last week but were just a little softer selling. The better R2 steers were around $3.25-$3.45/kg whereas a number of 310-350kg types were usually $2.90-$3.15/kg. Top lines of R2 bulls were around $3.15/kg, with the rest mainly $3.00$3.10/kg at 395-550kg. Some 380-430kg Hereford-Friesian topped the R2 heifers at $3.01-$3.11/kg. The heavier 275285kg R1 Angus steers made $3.60-$3.65/kg, above similar 265-275kg heifers at $3.38-$3.54/kg. Small lines of R1 bulls were hard moving – 235-310kg sold or passed in at $2.66$2.79/kg but some 330kg Friesian were $2.92/kg, $960. A yarding of almost 5000 lambs met mixed interest, with prices mainly down due to lower quality. Good male lambs still went well at $163-$178.50, whereas medium types were more like $136-$156. Five large lines of ewe lambs were the strongest at $156-$170 but most of the medium types were $130-$152, and the rest $114-$119.50.

CANTERBURY Canterbury Park cattle and sheep • Heavy ewe lambs made an average of $141 • Heavy prime ewes made $177-$195 • R2 traditional steers strengthened to $3.10-$3.16/kg Well-conditioned prime bulls earned up to $3.01-$3.03/ kg.Store lamb numbers lifted at CANTERBURY PARK last Tuesday with the average price lifting to $136. Heavy

mixed-sex lambs sold for $140-$145, with medium types at $110-$137 and medium ewe lambs averaged $126-$136. Prime lamb volume also lifted, with heavy lambs selling for $191-$226 and medium to light, $132-$168. Good quality store cattle were in demand, while poorer types were harder going. Top R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers sold well at $2.88$2.92/kg. Quality was mixed in prime pens, although the top end of steers managed steady to lifting results, with 615-775kg bought for $3.10-$3.22/kg. Heifers also improved to $2.96-$3.08/kg at the top end. Coalgate store and prime cattle; all sheep • R2 Hereford-Friesian steers, 380-462kg, sold for $2.68-$2.76/kg • R2 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 375-427kg, fetched $2.60-$2.69/kg • 1-year Angus-cross heifers, 310kg, sold well at $910 • R1 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 249kg, made $640 A smaller yarding of cattle featured at COALGATE last Thursday, where heavy prime steers, 525-575kg, sold for $3.13/kg, 23c/kg above last year, while 490-510kg steers dropped 13c/kg to $2.83/kg. Heifers were selectively bought; the best were 587kg, $3.11/kg, with most others $2.76/kg to $3.04/kg. Cows, 610-708kg, tidied up the prime pens at $2.00-$2.10/kg. The top prime lambs made $200$227, thought the majority ranged from $155 to $199. Ewe quality was varied; the best achieved $204-$227, with medium to good steady at $150-$189. Store lamb throughput rose 50 percent to 1220 head, with the top store lambs $140-$153, and the next cut down at $129-$133. Small types made $65-$110.

SOUTH-CANTERBURY Temuka prime and boner cattle; all sheep • Medium to good store mixed sex lambs came back to $107-$132 • Heavy Merino wether lambs made $142-$159 • Prime Angus steers, 530-660kg, eased to $3.07/kg • Prime Hereford-Friesian heifers, 480-655kg, eased to $2.88/kg • Boner Friesian cows averaged 495kg and came back to $1.89/kg Another wintry blast had a detrimental effect at TEMUKA last Monday by lifting volume which meant supply exceeded demand for most classes. Store lamb volume climbed to 4900 with a large portion Merino wethers. Demand was very limited, and prices came back $13-$22 on the previous week. In contrast a moderate prime lamb offering was keenly contested with the majority firm at $180-$219. Ewes also ticked off another consistent week for a variable yarding, with prices ranging from $90 to $230.

Similarly an increase in cattle volume meant buyers could be selective, and prime steers and heifers eased, while boner cows came back 8-17c/kg. Boner heifers managed to firm though with Friesian, 390-455kg, averaging $1.82/kg. Temuka store cattle • R2 Angus steers, 465kg, sold well at $3.13/kg • Good quality R2 Angus-Hereford heifers, 435-465kg, lifted to $2.99-$3.09/kg • The better 170-240kg R1 beef-Friesian steers went for $3.31$3.47/kg • R1 Hereford-Friesian heifers, 170-240kg, mostly made $3.00$3.20/kg • A large showing of 140-210kg Friesian bulls were $2.50-$2.67/kg At the TEMUKA STORE CATTLE sale last Thursday the typical late winter pasture pressures were evident with a lift in cattle volume. Demand for traditional lines remained, although dairy-beef mostly eased with R2 ereford-Friesian steers mostly earning $2.66-$2.76/kg. R1 cattle above 200kg sold on a steady market, although lighter types were cheaper buying.

OTAGO Balclutha sheep • Heavy prime lambs made $160-$180 • Heavy prime ewes eased to $150-$170 • Heavy prime rams sold for $100 At BALCLUTHA last Wednesday there was a small yarding of prime lambs, good quality lambs continued to sell well, with light to medium types at $130-$150. Store lamb numbers were limited although demand was still strong.

SOUTHLAND Charlton sheep sale • Heavy prime lambs made $190-$206 • Local trade rams earned $45-$80 • Heavy store lambs fetched $135 • Ewes scanned-in-lamb with singles sold for $168 There was a very small yarding of prime lambs at CHARLTON last Thursday, although the market lifted with light to medium types making $145-$180. Prime ewes held with the top end earning $160-$169, and the balance $100-$150. Store lamb volume was also limited and prices remained on par to previous weeks with light to mediums trading at $100-$125.

Markets

48 FARMERS WEEKLY – farmersweekly.co.nz – August 26, 2019 NI SLAUGHTER LAMB

NI SLAUGHTER STEER

SI SLAUGHTER BULL

($/KG)

R2 FRIESIAN BULLS, 470-550KG, AT FEILDING

($/KG)

8.40

6.00

5.40

high $125-$155 lights Good Friesian bull

3.03-3.16

feeder calves at Frankton

Indian market value grows

Annette Scott annette.scott@globalhq.co.nz

ERFORMANCE, patience and perseverance sum up the challenge for cracking the market into India, Alliance chairman Murray Taggart says. But despite the three P challenge Alliance is committed to developing the India market. “Farmers expect us to take a long-term view and if there’s one we need to be early into it’s this opportunity with India,” Taggart said. Alliance chief executive David Surveyor, director Sarah Brown and Taggart have just returned from an in-market visit to India. India is an emerging market prospect for Alliance. It has partnered with Quality NZ, which features New Zealand cricket celebrities, there for several years. “We certainly have a much better appreciation of how Quality NZ has developed that market and where to from here,” Taggart said. “There’s certainly been good ground made over the past six years. “But there is a lot of work to do before India will become a major market for NZ. It’s not an easy market to enter. “It’s not going to become another China overnight but with its population and economic growth and the three Ps it’s certainly going to be a valuable market of the future.” In-market developments are targeting the higher socio-economic category of more than 200 million people. It is expected to more than double in the next decade. India is forecast to exceed China’s GDP by 2022. While now a small value market, Alliance’s view is over the long term India has the potential to become a large consumer of the co-operative’s products, Taggart said. Meat Industry Association chief executive Tim Ritchie said the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) has the potential to deliver new market access to India.

FAR OUT: Farmers expect Alliance to take the long-term view it is doing with the Indian market, chairman Murray Taggart says.

India will undoubtedly present major opportunities for New Zealand meat exporters, particularly sheep meat. Tim Ritchie Meat Industry Assn NZ doesn’t have any form of trade deal with India and this is an opportunity to address this. “India will undoubtedly present major opportunities for NZ meat exporters, particularly sheep meat. “Indian consumers have a positive attitude towards sheep and goat meat

and this, combined with expected future growth in India’s population and average disposable incomes, and an increased demand for improved food quality are all factors that make the Indian market an attractive proposition,” Ritchie said. But red meat faces very high tariffs of 35% to 100% for sheep meat and up to 100% for beef. There are also some significant non-tariff barriers such as regulatory requirements that make India a challenging market. “We understand that the RCEP negotiations are complex, not only due to the number and differing levels of development of participating countries but also due to differences over the levels of ambition in terms of outcomes. “That said, RCEP has the potential to address trade barriers and further open up the region, including the Indian market,” Ritchie said.

$490-$550 R1 Friesian bulls, 185210kg, at Temuka Store Cattle Sale

ACROSS THE RAILS SUZ BREMNER

Market grows for ewes with lambs-at-foot YARDS around the North Island are resonating with the sound of new season lambs as the ewes with lambsat-foot market gains momentum. Over the years it is a market that has grown in popularity for sellers, going from one that was there out of necessity to a popular outlet. While the hard work of lambing must be done beforehand it has proved over the years to be a lucrative market and one that some specifically target. For many buyers the fact the lambing beat is done and they can see exactly what they are getting is attractive. It is also the only way to secure new season lamb numbers early in the season and while they look young now, those being sold will be the first to finish. This market sits between the scanned-in-lamb and the weaned markets and is always interesting to see if it comes out trumps over both of them. This year so far has been stronger than the scanned-in-lamb market though, if the strength of the weaned lamb and cull ewe markets continues, then prices should come out fairly evenly matched. The market in the North Island has started strong with prices $5 up on last year. Medium to good commercial Romney ewes with multiple terminal lambs that are not docked but are a few weeks old have made $128-$134 all counted while lighter ewes with multiple lambs have also sold well at $110-$120. Essentially, that means a package deal of an ewe with two lambs has made a total of $330-$402. In 2010 the same type of ewes and lambs were selling for $55-$78 all counted though the increase in price is very much in line with improvements across all classes of sheep from cull ewes to lambs. suz.bremner@globalhq.co.nz

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