Issuu

INSIDE: Food insecurity widespread throughout the country

P10

SEPTEMBER 2026 EDITION

US ushers in emergency tariff-free beef imports P3

Resource act reforms welcomed Industry leaders say the Government has listened to their concerns over the unworkable rules and made the changes they had advocated for – but there is still work to be done. P6

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September 2026

NZ Farmer

News 3

Updated all day at

ew Zealand is well placed for its beef to be picked up as part of an emergency tariff-free quota being ushered into the United States by President Donald Trump, but Beef + Lamb New Zealand say it is too soon to tell if local product will benefit from the measure. On August 22, Trump announced his administration would allow more tarifffree beef into the US temporarily to counter record high prices in the country. The beef allowed in is destined to be “ground beef” or what New Zealanders would call mince. Beef in the US is trading at a 9% increase over last year’s prices because of lower herd numbers across the country, and a flesh-eating pest outbreak in Mexico, which usually sends about 10-12% of imported beef to the US. Beef coming from Mexico has reduced drastically, according to media reports. Another major beef exporter to the US, Brazil, has had a 50% tariff put on its beef to the country, officially enacted as retaliation over the prosecution of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, a close right-wing ally of Trump. To counter soaring beef prices, which are sitting on average at US$21.25 (NZ$35.65) a kilogram – up 9% over the year – as much as 300,000 metric tonnes of beef will be imported into the US for the next 90 days without activating an “out of quota” tariff, which is a tax that goes into effect once a certain quantity of that product enters the country. Trump said the extra beef would be sold at 25% below current market rates. New Zealand beef currently attracts a tariff of less than 1% going into the US because it was left out of the group of Kiwi goods attracting a 12.5% import tariff recently. However, if it was to supply even some of the extra 300,000 metric tonnes, that would comprise a lot of business for New Zealand. This country currently exports 170,000180,000 metric tonnes of beef to the US, mostly lean frozen mince for the burger trade. However, Trump is refusing to say where the extra beef will be coming from, and Beef + Lamb NZ doesn’t know either. “It is too early to assess the potential implications of this announcement for New Zealand’s beef sector, as the United States has not yet specified which

Beef + Lamb NZ awaits Trump’s OK The Trump administration is again attempting to bring in tonnes of meat to lower domestic US beef prices – and once more is triggering domestic pushback. By Dita De Boni.

The price of beef mince in America has soared to US$21.25 a kilogram, prompting US President Donald Trump to allow up to 300,000 metric tonnes to be imported without activating tariffs.

countries would be covered by the measures,” a spokesperson told The Post. “New Zealand already has excellent access to the US market and is one of several countries that export beef to the US, alongside suppliers such as Australia and Brazil. “We are also aware that similar measures announced by the US Government in the past have not ultimately been implemented. We will

continue to monitor the situation closely,” they said. The comments refer to a trade manoeuvre attempted by the Trump administration last year when, much like now, soaring domestic hamburger prices saw a proposal to completely eliminate tariffs on all imported foreign beef. However, following intense political backlash from furious American cattlemen's groups, the administration

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Flooding the market with foreign beef hurts our livestock industry. Deb Fischer, Republican Senator quickly withdrew the plan before it could be fully implemented. This time as well, the pushback from cattle producers and conservative ruralstate Republicans has been swift, as AP reported. “We all want lower grocery prices, but as I’ve said for months, we cannot do it at the expense of American producers,” Republican Senator Deb Fischer, of Nebraska, told the news service. “Flooding the market with foreign beef hurts our livestock industry and undermines the long-term solution: growing the US cattle herd to meet demand.” Glynn Tonsor, a professor at Kansas State University who focuses on the cattle and beef industry, told AP he would like to see more details about the latest deal but that his immediate assessment was that it wouldn't have a big effect on prices. That’s because 300,000 metric tons amounts to roughly 3% of what Americans eat yearly, he said. “The relative magnitude we are talking about is pretty small.” David Anderson, professor of agricultural economics at Texas A&M University, said he was sceptical other countries could redirect so much beef to the US in such a short time period. “Is that even achievable?” he questioned in a phone interview. While a 9% yearly increase in beef has prompted the Trump administration to act in the US, beef prices in New Zealand have gained by much more over the year, with zero measures enacted to bring it down. Beef mince has gained 11% over the year, while everyday products have gained 15% to 21% depending on the cut. Beef mince has skyrocketed by more than 30% since early 2024 in New Zealand. New Zealand exports over 90% of the beef it produces.

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NZ Farmer

September 2026

From the Editor

RMA reform bills a welcome start

Contents 03 America needs meat

More tariff-free beef being allowed into the US could be an opportunity for New Zealand

06 Freshwater Farm Plan reforms

Industry leaders welcome changes making life easier for farmers and growers

Food insecurity rises Meet the Need impact report shows families are increasingly turning to food banks

From citrus to kiwifruit Brazilian grower moves to one of the largest private kiwifruit growers in New Zealand

Salmon farm approved Approval fast-tracked for $2b open-ocean ﬁshery off Rakiura/Stewart Island

Increasing pasture production Research project highlights the beneﬁts of using lucerne to boost production

Agritech Waikato farmer develops a new smartphone app to measure pasture

Sonita Chandar Editor

hen the Coalition Government formed in 2023, NZFarmer asked industry leaders for their priority goals for the new administration. High on that list was reforming the Resource Management Act (RMA). The consensus was clear: environmental policies introduced by the previous government were unworkable, unfair and financially crippling. Beef + Lamb New Zealand research even warned these rules could force some farmers out of business. The combined weight of these regulations stifled growth, drowning primary producers in red tape. Above all, leaders agreed that freshwater management needed an overhaul. Policies had to be pragmatic and fair, striking a balance between environmental, economic and public interests across both urban and rural communities. The coalition listened. Last year, the Government announced plans to replace the two primary regulatory directives managing freshwater: the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management and the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater. These would be key steps forward to restoring balance in how fresh water was managed across the country and ensure the interests of all water users – including farmers – were properly reflected. When industry leaders raised ongoing concerns, ministers worked collaboratively with the sector to refine the reforms. Last month, the Government released proposed changes to the resource management reform bills that industry leaders say are welcome. The changes will cut much of the excessive, expensive and unnecessary red tape involved in farming. They will immediately ease the pressure on farmers and growers and give them clarity and certainty. They need this. Farmers have spent far too long tangled in paperwork,

20 Red Meat Sector Conference

Industry leaders, policymakers and supply chain partners to discuss key issues

30 Doing things differently

Wine growers adapting to a changing world by rethinking how they operate

Arable strategy FAR introduces ﬁve-year plan that will deliver greater value to growers

38 Cruising along

Explore European rivers on a luxury cruise

Contact us NZ FARMER EDITOR Sonita Chandar 027 446 6221 sonita.chandar@stuff.co.nz DESIGN Kwok Yi Lee, Sam Davenport COVER PHOTO Gianina Schwanecke HEAD OF REGIONAL & RURAL MARKETS Kate Boreham 021 279 5361 kate.boreham@stuff.co.nz

STUFF

Have your say Letters to the editor are welcome and should not be more than 250 words. If you have an opinion you would like to share or ideas for what you would like to read in future issues of NZFarmer, get in touch with us at: nzfarmer@stuff. co.nz or write to us at: The Editor, NZ Farmer Level 7, Cider Building 4 Williamson Ave Grey Lynn Auckland 1021 jumping through hoops and paying exorbitant compliance costs just to stay operational. Under the new settings, consent processes are streamlined. Only high-risk farms will require a certified and audited Freshwater Farm Plan – a process made clearer and fairer by leveraging existing industry assurance programmes for certification. It’s a good lesson that the “onesize-fits-all” approach imposed by the previous government does not work. Imposing blanket rules

and regulations on all farmers and growers instead of a tailored approach to each farming business, or even more broadly, types of farms and activities, is lazy governing. In agriculture, there is no path where this is ever a good thing or will work. It has taken three years, almost the entire time the coalition Government has been in charge, to dismantle unworkable regulations and build a pragmatic alternative. Regardless of which political party is elected to government this November, we can only hope this momentum continues.

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September 2026

NZ Farmer

News 5

Updated all day at

Safety risk warnings as Govt relaxes farm drone rules Technology

Andy Brew

he Government has announced sweeping reforms to slash red tape for agricultural drone operators, but key industry ﬁgures warn the changes put public safety and the environment at serious risk. Under the new policy, lower-risk routine drone operations – such as spraying pesticides, applying fertiliser and sowing seeds across farmland, orchards and forests – will no longer require pre-work certiﬁcation from the Civil Aviation Authority. Operators will instead only need to notify the authority before starting work. The overhaul aims to address a regulatory system that Regulation Minister David Seymour and Associate Transport Minister James Meager describe as outdated and restrictive. Currently, securing a Part 102 exposition manual from the authority can take up to nine months and cost thousands of dollars. Meager said existing rules were impractical and failed to keep pace with evolving technology, placing Kiwi farmers at a disadvantage

compared to international competitors in places like Australia, where drones up to 150kg operate on farmland under basic licensing. “We will scrap requirements for lower-risk routine drone operations to apply and wait for certification before starting work,” Meager said, adding that the new notification pathway would come into effect in mid-2027 following detailed design and public consultation. However, drone training and consultancy provider Fenix UAS warned that removing training and oversight controls could lead to severe consequences on farms and surrounding communities. Fenix UAS director Dr Andrew Shelley agreed the eight-month certification wait was far too slow, but cautioned that allowing untrained individuals to operate heavy machinery in the air posed major hazards. “An agricultural drone is like four large, upturned lawnmowers in the sky weighing 180kg when fully loaded and they are getting bigger all the time,” Shelley said. “An out-of-control drone can fly sideways into traffic on a road or even take out an aircraft.” Shelley also pointed to the possible environmental risks, noting that

unmonitored chemical application and spray drift had previously been the cause of a reported $20 million in damage to vineyard rootstock in Gisborne. He called for mandatory Civil Aviation Authority-regulated pilot licensing, including structured training on drone handling and safe chemical application. Meager maintained that highrisk drone operations and aerial spraying from traditional aircraft will remain subject to existing safety rules, ensuring regulation remains proportionate to risk.

Agricultural drones are becoming larger and more powerful, increasing the consequences when things go wrong, says Fenix UAS director Dr Andrew Shelley.

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NZ Farmer

September 2026

6 News

ndustry leaders are welcoming the recent announcement by the Government on proposed changes to the Resource Management Act (RMA) reform bills. Its changes to Freshwater Farm Plans will provide farmers with clearer rules, cut through the red tape and reduce the costs involved. Agriculture is the major driver of the national economy, so unnecessary red tape puts a drag on productivity, economic growth and the income of every New Zealander. Last year, the Government released for consultation a primary sector package and proposed changes to the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management (NPS-FM) and the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater. These changes to national directions and standards were aimed at simplifying regulation for the electricity sector, quarries, house building and farmers. At the time, Minister Responsible for RMA Reform Chris Bishop said this was the biggest change to national direction since the RMA came into force in 1991 and this planning system would fundamentally change the way our economy operates for the better. The Government proposed to replace two regulatory directives for managing freshwater, the National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management, and the National Environmental Standards for Freshwater. It recently released proposed changes to resource management reform bills and industry leaders say the Government has listened to them. The changes, which were announced last month, would create a simpler, cheaper system focused on real risk, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay and Associate Environment Minister Andrew Hoggard said. “Farmers told us this system was too costly and too complicated for the risk involved on many properties. These changes fix that,” McClay said. The revised framework aimed to ease immediate compliance costs while broader resource management reforms were worked through. Under an amendment paper to the Natural Environment Bill, strict certification and auditing would apply only to the specific part of a farm where higher-risk activities occurred. “The Government has clearly listened to farmers’ concerns with the initial drafting of the legislation,” Federated Farmers RMA reform spokesperson Mark Hooper says. “Federated Farmers raised some serious concerns about the workability of the new planning system, but announcements appear to address many of those issues. “We’re welcoming this announcement as a positive step forward that will cut red tape, unlock investment and help grow our export-led economy.” Hooper says the Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill represent a fundamental shift in the way New Zealand manages natural resources. “The Government’s changes will address some of the real-world, on-the-ground challenges farmers have been grappling with under the badly broken RMA system. Having a resource management system that’s practical and easy to implement will help cut costs, improve productivity and grow the economy. It will also support the great environmental work farmers are already doing, while removing the unnecessary cost, complexity and uncertainty of consenting processes.” Hooper says the announcement marks an important milestone in New Zealand’s resource management reform, but it’s only the halfway point in the process. “The bills set out the framework, but we still need to work through the national direction and national standards,” he says. “Newly established councils will then need to develop new policy and plans, which could take years to put in place. “There’s a long road ahead before the system is up and running, but there are things the Government could do to speed

Freshwater plan changes welcome news Industry leaders have welcomed updates to the resource management reform bills and say they are more workable and will help instead of hindering. By Sonita Chandar.

Federated Farmers RMA reform spokesperson Mark Hooper

Horticulture New Zealand chief executive Kate Scott

B+LNZ chairperson Kate Acland

DairyNZ chairperson Tracy Brown

up the beneﬁts of these reforms.” Federated Farmers are particularly pleased to see confusingly drafted resource cap provisions dropped from the proposed legislation. “The resource caps aimed to describe the maximum amount of a resource that could be used before an environmental limit was breached,” Hooper says. “This implied councils would set out caps on things like fertiliser, stock numbers or even the amount of land in pastoral production. “Those are incredibly restrictive controls that would have been an absolute nightmare for farmers and rural

communities to grapple with.” Kate Acland, chairperson of Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ), says “Freshwater Farm Plans have been a major area of focus for Beef + Lamb New Zealand, and we have been working hard to ensure the system is practical and workable for sheep and beef farmers.” Acland says B+LNZ supports the intent that Freshwater Farm Plans replace rules and consents where that makes sense, because it should make things easier for farmers who would otherwise have needed a consent. “B+LNZ had been pushing for an exemption for low-risk extensive farms as

we believe the administrative burden for these properties to complete a Freshwater Farm Plan wasn’t proportionate with the low risk they pose. “Although we were unsuccessful in achieving the exemption, the framework proposed by Government, especially around certification and auditing expectations, is much better than it was.” Most sheep and beef farmers don’t need a consent to farm, so it has been critical that the requirements clearly differentiate between levels of risk. Low-risk farms should face a light-touch system, because tailored approaches are always better than costly blunt national or regional rules. “Only high-risk farms will need a certified and audited Freshwater Farm Plan. High-risk activities include dairy farming, commercial vegetable growing, feedlots, and intensive winter grazing or irrigation above the proposed thresholds. “All other sheep and beef farmers will still need to prepare and implement a Freshwater Farm Plan, but it won’t need to be certified or audited under the national scheme. “Importantly, if only part of a farm triggers the need for certification, only that part of the farm or that activity will need to be certified. “That is a significant win for sheep and beef farmers and reflects what we have been advocating for.” Freshwater changes and resource management changes will also provide growers with greater certainty and ease immediate pressure on them. “At a high level, these changes are pragmatic and should give many growers a clearer path forward,” Horticulture New Zealand (HortNZ) chief executive Kate Scott says. “Growers have been asking for practical clarity and a pathway that recognises existing lawful food production while the resource management system is being reformed. “The changes should reduce immediate compliance pressure for many growers and support a more sensible transition, while retaining clear expectations around good management practice and environmental improvement.” Growers will still need to prepare a

September 2026

NZ Farmer

News 7

Updated all day at

Nutrient Management Plan showing how Good Management Practices will be implemented to manage and reduce nutrient losses. For commercial vegetable growers, the removal of the 35% nitrogen reduction requirement is a significant improvement. “We expect growers may be able to meet this requirement through existing industry assurance plans, such as the NZGAP EMS add-on, which would be a good outcome. “It should make the consenting process more certain and less costly, while still requiring growers to show they are following good management practice.” The Government has also released more information on Freshwater Farm Plan changes. It has confirmed that only higher-risk farms will need their plans checked and audited. Commercial vegetable production is considered a higher-risk activity. The changes also increase the threshold for who needs a freshwater farm plan. For orchards, the threshold will be 50 hectares. For all other horticultural land uses, the threshold will be five hectares. DairyNZ has also welcomed the improvements made to the Natural Environment Bill and Planning Bill through the select committee process, while saying further work is needed

Most sheep and beef farmers don’t need a consent to farm so B+LNZ advocated for the requirements to clearly differentiate between levels of risk.

to ensure the new system enables practical on-farm decision-making. DairyNZ chairperson Tracy Brown says the reported-back bills showed the Government and select committee had listened to concerns raised by farmers and the wider agriculture sector. “The recognition of food and fibre production in the goals of the Natural Environment Bill is an important and welcome change,” Brown says. “New Zealand’s resource management system needs to protect and improve the environment while recognising the essential contribution food and fibre producers make to our economy and regional communities.” The select committee has also made significant changes to the framework for setting environmental limits. The reported-back bill clarifies that limits can take a range of measurable forms, including narrative or outcomebased limits. It also requires decisionmakers to consider environmental, social and economic expectations, existing resource use and activities, naturally occurring processes and levels, and costbenefit analysis. “These are significant changes,” Brown says. “Recognising food and fibre production, allowing measurable narrative limits, and requiring decision-makers to consider naturally occurring processes, existing resource use and cost-benefit analysis should support a more balanced and workable system. “They provide much stronger safeguards against unrealistic or purely aspirational limits being imposed without proper regard to what is achievable in a catchment or the consequences for farmers and communities. “The focus should be on delivering the environmental outcomes our communities are looking to achieve, recognising what is practically achievable in individual catchments and given existing resource use.” DairyNZ also welcomes the removal of proposed comparative permitting and market-based tools for primary allocation, the restoration of controlled activities, and tighter safeguards around natural resource levies. The select committee has also clarified that non-regulatory measures should be considered when decisions are made about how activities are classified. Brown says DairyNZ would like to see

Freshwater Farm Plans play a key role as a practical alternative considered through that process. “A key test of the new system will be whether Freshwater Farm Plans can reduce reliance on inefficient rules and repeated consenting, rather than becoming another layer of regulation,” Brown said. “However, the reported-back bills do not yet provide a clear statutory pathway for certified farm plans to replace the need for consents where farm-specific risks can be effectively managed.” DairyNZ also wants further work on how existing activities are treated in catchments where environmental limits are exceeded. “Farmers need a clear and workable pathway for existing activities to continue while a commitment to environmental improvements occurs over time,” Brown says. However, Brown says DairyNZ will continue pushing for the remaining changes needed to ensure the new system works on farm and delivers durable environmental outcomes. “This is a significant improvement and shows that constructive engagement can make legislation more workable. “The job is not finished, but the reported-back bills provide a much stronger foundation for a system that can deliver environmental improvement, greater certainty and lower unnecessary regulatory costs for farmers.” Industry organisations have successfully advocated for changes to sections 70 and 107 of the Resource Management Act which will give councils more flexibility during the transition period. Councils could allow activities to continue where effects are already occurring, as long as there are requirements to reduce those effects over time. The pathway for existing industry assurance programmes to be approved as equivalent to a national Freshwater Farm Plan, meaning farmers should only have to go through the process once was welcomed by industry organisations who will be able to provide certification and audit services for members through existing farm planning programmes. Farmers will have up to five years to complete their Freshwater Farm Plan once the regulations are switched on next year to develop plans and have them certified.

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NZ Farmer

September 2026

8 Opinion

Grazing management lost There are many factors that affect productivity, but from a soil fertility perspective, there is one that is glaringly obvious, says Doug Edmeades.

t is a research paper rich in mathematical jargon and complex mathematical analysis, far beyond my limited skills, but thankfully, it boils down to a simple message: productivity – the ratio of inputs to outputs – in the dairy sector over the past 10 years has ﬂat-lined. According to the lead author of the paper, Mario Fernandez, of DairyNZ, this is because increases in per-cow production – a consequence of increasing supplement use – have been offset by the cost of those supplements. Dairy farmers, you could say, are buying production, not productivity. Phil Journeaux, a well-known and respected agricultural economist, has taken this a step further. He suggests that because of the increasing use of supplements – and I am assuming that he is treating fertiliser nitrogen as a supplement – farmers are losing sight of their “grazing management skills” – the ability to optimise the growth and utilisation of pasture. We see this most urgently in previous DairyNZ data showing that farm proﬁtability is directly related to the amount of pasture and crop harvested on-farm. I think we can safely extrapolate this a little further: it is not just the management skill base we are losing. Recent comprehensive reviews by two respected pasture specialists, John Caradus (AgResearch) and David Chapman (DairyNZ), have shown that while there have been some improvements in forage plant breeding over the past 20 years, these improvements have not always been captured on-farm and that what progress has been made in terms of improving pasture productivity on-farm in the last 20 years can be attributed to the increasing use of fertiliser nitrogen (N) and an increase in stocking rate. There is, believe it or not, a further twist to this sad tale. At the 2025 Grasslands

The fertility of our pastoral soils is woeful. Something like 70% of our soils are deﬁcient in one or more of the key nutrients. Conference in Hamilton, I presented the evidence that shows the fertility of our pastoral soils is woeful. Something like 70% of our soils are deﬁcient in one or more of the key nutrients: potassium (K), sulphur (S) and, to a lesser extent, phosphorus (P). That is to say the levels are below those optimal required to grow healthy, productive and resilient clover-based pastures. And remember that clover has a

higher requirement for all nutrients relative to grasses, and hence it is the component in the pasture that disappears ﬁrst if the fertility is not optimised. I hear it frequently from farmers – “the clover has largely disappeared from our pastures” or “we don’t grow clover like dad did”. Returning now to the theme. No doubt there are many factors that affect productivity, but from my soil fertility

perspective, there is one that is glaringly obvious. Clover is the cheapest feed source for ruminants. The marginal cost of a kilo of clover-based pasture dry matter is about 4c to 5c. Grass fed with N costs about 10-12 cents and crops and supplements come in well above this. Furthermore, animal production, as either milk or meat per kilo of dry matter consumed, from clover is greater than from grasses. And the icing on the cake is that clovers add, effectively, free nitrogen to the pastoral system. It really is a no-brainer. For many farmers, moving away from a predominantly clover-based system to a more intensive fertiliser N/feedsupplement system has increased production, sure, but it has come at a cost – productivity has declined. Does it matter if productivity is not improving? I am not an economist, but as I understand these matters, if productivity does not keep pace with inflation, the industry is sliding backwards into tomorrow. So, what to do? What things can be done in the short term, and I am thinking here about the next few years, to improve productivity? I think the first step is to recognise the importance of clover in the overall scheme of things – what can be done to improve the clover content of the pastures? Radical steps may be required, such as sacking your current farm adviser and finding someone who can see past the fertiliser N/supplement paradigm – someone focused on profitability, not production. This will probably mean ignoring those imbued with, am I allowed to say this, the DairyNZ philosophy. Step two, shun the seed industry. They have a strong focus on developing and selling the latest grass cultivars. Current high-producing grasses will look after themselves and persist if clover is abundant. Finally, get the soil fertility of the farm properly assessed and develop a fertiliser programme based on sound science and designed to optimise the soil fertility and hence clover production. This may mean closing the gate to the current crop of fertiliser consultants. And remember, as you contemplate these matters, that we already have all the necessary science and technology to make adjustments and improve the productivity of the dairy sector.

Many are the promises The season of promises is upon us, new schemes and dreams with little practical understanding of what it takes to actually run a farm, argues Gordon Stuart.

O Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announces new conservation funding on a sheep and beef farm south of Auckland. BRUCE MACKAY/THE POST

h no, it’s election year and New Zealand politics is dominating media coverage again. On holiday in the South Island, I have chatted with many farmers over a beer. Regulation, rates, how we are going to meet Paris Agreement targets … the political show we are seeing before us. There is a group of angry voters out there, many shaking their heads over how the establishment (politicians, councils and bureaucrats) has deteriorated so far. It’s just that politicians, councils and bureaucrats are not on the same page or sometimes even the same planet. Farmers live in a world where

consequences are immediate. Rain arrives, or it does not. A lamb or calf is born at 2am. A fence breaks. A crop needs drilling, spraying or harvesting at precisely the wrong time for a public holiday. Decisions are made with incomplete information, limited cash and no option to postpone reality until the next committee meeting. You need to be nimble on your feet because there are direct costs for a wrong decision. Politicians, councils and bureaucracy operate differently. They lack accountability and are dealing with other people’s money, not their own. Budget surpluses are nearly always a futuristic

September 2026

NZ Farmer

Opinion 9

Updated all day at

Large processors can move huge numbers of pigs, but that does not automatically mean the farmer captures more value. By Jason Palmer.

Jason Palmer says bigger is not necessarily better for farmers.

ou can learn a fair bit when you leave your own farm and spend some time outside an Iowa pig barn. I recently joined two other farmers on a tour of the United States pork industry. The scale of everything stood out: feed mills, ethanol plants, processing chains and the constant focus on efficiency. We came away agreeing that New Zealand should not try to copy America’s scale. We simply can’t. Instead, we need to make more of what we already do well: high-health herds, local supply, strong biosecurity and food grown close to home. That means being clearer and more conﬁdent about what makes local pork different. In Iowa, pig farming is tied tightly to corn. Ethanol plants produce feed ingredients such as distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), corn fermented protein and cheap local grain. That gives US producers options we simply do not have. Feed is still the biggest cost on the farm, and the Americans have built a whole industry around managing it at scale. But scale has hard edges. Some contract growers are doing an excellent job while operating on thin margins and carrying the responsibility for buildings, labour, animal care and daily risk. Large processors can move huge numbers of pigs, but that does not automatically mean the farmer captures more value. That is a lesson New Zealand should take seriously. We are a domestic producer in a market where more than 60% of the pork eaten here is imported. Local farmers are expected to meet high welfare, environmental and biosecurity standards, yet imported product is not always judged against the same expectations. If the only comparison is price, New Zealand pig farmers are exposed. Price matters, especially when household budgets are tight. But pork cannot become only a commodity conversation. We need to keep telling the story of locally raised pork: traceability,

Making more of what we do well animal care, practical environmental management, strong biosecurity and the regional jobs our farms support. The disease pressure in the US was one of the clearest reminders of what we have to protect. Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome is part of daily life for many producers there, and African swine fever remains a global threat. New Zealand’s high-health status is a real advantage, but we cannot take it for granted. Good biosecurity is what helps protect the future of our industry. The Americans are also working hard to explain pork to consumers: how to cook it, where it comes from and what modern production looks like. That is something NZPork has been investing in. If we want New Zealanders to choose local pork, we have to keep earning trust and speaking plainly. Traceability is part of that trust. At one processing site, cuts could be traced back to the farm. That connection between product and producer is powerful. New Zealand should be well placed to build on it because we are smaller, more connected and able to move faster when

farmers, processors and retailers pull in the same direction. We should not dodge the hard questions, but we should be confident about the value we bring as food producers who care for animals, manage nutrients, employ people and produce fresh, local protein for New Zealand families. I came home optimistic, but with plenty to think about. The American system shows what scale can achieve, as well as its limits. Bigger is not automatically better for farmers. Integration does not guarantee fair returns. A system can be efficient and still leave the person on the land wondering whether enough value is flowing back. New Zealand needs to take a different path. We need a profitable domestic pork industry that consumers trust, with fair rules, strong biosecurity and proper recognition of the standards farmers meet. Our smaller scale can work in our favour if we stay close to customers, respond quickly and make sure more value comes back to the people raising the pigs.

That backing needs to come from across the system: from consumers who choose local, from regulators who apply fair rules to all pork consumed in New Zealand, and from decision-makers who show support through what they buy. Fair returns for farmers will not come from goodwill alone. They require a market and a policy environment that recognises the standards New Zealand farmers meet, and procurement choices that back local production in practical ways. Government has already shown, through its approach to New Zealand wool in public buildings, that buying decisions can help support local producers. The same principle should be part of the conversation for bacon and pork bought by government agencies or Parliament. We do not need to become the US. We have the chance to build a conﬁdent, trusted and resilient pork industry here in New Zealand, supported by fair rules and practical buying decisions. Jason Palmer is an NZPork director and a Mid-Canterbury pig farmer.

made to us but seldom seen is common sense story three to four years out. Remember the British TV sitcom Yes, Minister – elected politicians arrive promising change, only to discover that the machinery of government has its own memory, momentum and survival instincts designed to stop any change. Similarly, Utopia on Netﬂix also accurately reminds us of our infrastructure problem. Nothing gets built by the ﬁctional National Building Authority in Australia’s strange world of public administration, where a problem can become a programme, a programme can become a strategy, and a strategy can require a new team to communicate why nothing can happen yet. The farmers I speak with don’t mind that rules exist. Most farmers understand the need for environmental standards, animal welfare, biosecurity, safe roads and responsible land use. Mine and their irritation comes when rules are designed by people who have minimal practical experience, never had to fund

wages after or through a bad season, shift stock during a ﬂood or explain to a bank manager why the forecast was wrong again. The problem becomes worse when every new regulation is presented as common sense. Common sense to whom? A rule that appears sensible in an office can become absurd on a farm, where terrain, weather, geography and timing refuse to co-operate. This is why watching Clarkson’s Farm is great medicine and resonates so strongly. It is a lot better than watching the news. The politically incorrect humour (and language) at Didley Squat farm comes from the collision between practical farming and officialdom. Jeremy Clarkson may be an unlikely agricultural hero, but he has opened eyes, and viewers recognise the frustration: the belief that a person can be competent enough to run a business, yet still be defeated by an application form, a planning restriction or an official interpretation of the rules.

Country Calendar, on the other hand, offers a more respectful counterpoint. Townies love it. It shows farmers who are not seeking applause or political attention. They are simply getting on with the work – adapting, investing, solving problems and carrying risks that most of the country never sees. There is little grandstanding. The credibility comes from competence or innovation by the likes of Gallaghers or Halter or others. As we move into an election year, there will be plenty of promises. Who will have the biggest ﬁscal hole? There will be carefully staged farm visits and photographs of politicians. Social media will feature heavily. Farmers will be told they are valued, essential and the backbone of the economy. You certainly are, leading the economic charge at present. I’m not expecting much. There is little money to throw around, infrastructure demands mean higher levies, and if taxes

are not going up then the quality of healthcare will probably go down. Who would want to be a politician? Perhaps our best response is not to become angrier, but to laugh. We look an awful lot better than the political shambles unfolding in the United Kingdom and Australia. Our laughter should not become contempt. Farmers need government, just as government needs farmers. The country needs foreign trade agreements, rules, infrastructure and public services. The challenge is to create them efficiently with humility – and with enough practical knowledge to recognise when a tidy policy will create a muddy mess. Grab an ale, open the popcorn, expect a frenzy of promises as political parties favour populism ahead of real leadership. If you need an out, remember, there is always this Wednesday night’s episode of Clarkson’s Farm if the political news gets tiresome.

NZ Farmer

September 2026

10 News

Food insecurity increases

The Meet the Need Impact Report shows the rising cost of living is hitting more families than ever before. By Sonita Chandar.

ood insecurity is affecting more New Zealanders than ever before, with one in three households reporting experiencing food insecurity in the past 12 months. Furthermore, nearly one in five reported facing severe food insecurity. Of the food-insecure families, 68% reported that they had only begun struggling to afford enough food within the last year. The findings, released in the Meet the Need 2025-26 Impact Report, show that food insecurity is a growing, widespread challenge affecting everyday families, many for the first time. The rising cost of living was cited by 83% of affected households, with 30% of fulltime workers unable to consistently afford enough food. The report said the price of beef mince rose 23.2% year-onyear to $24.46 a kilogram, putting it out of reach of many households. Nutritious protein is the first item cut from the weekly shop. The report also highlighted that the groups most affected are Pacific people (64%) and Māori (51%), while 50% of 18- to 24-year-olds reported food affordability struggles. Meet the Need has continued to bridge the gap between abundance and need, delivering nutritious protein from farms directly to families. Over the past 12 months, the charity delivered 1,277,241 nutritious mince and milk meals through a nationwide network of food banks, taking the total number of meals provided since its launch in 2020 to more than 4.2 million. Meet the Need general manager Zellara Holden says the organisation is seeing a significant shift in who is asking for help. “This year has reinforced what we already knew – our work matters more than ever,” Holden says. “These aren’t just the families people might traditionally expect to need food support. They’re working families, rural households and people who have never had to ask for help before. “The cost of living continues to put enormous pressure on household budgets, and nutritious protein is often one of the first things families stop buying. That’s why the work we do has never been more important.” Despite the growth in meals delivered, demand continues to outpace supply, Holden says. Food banks across the country report increasing numbers of first-time users, longer waitlists and growing demand for nutritious protein. Meet the Need also increased its support of food banks from 135 to 148. However, 158 food banks are still waiting to receive support. At Māngere Budgeting Services in South Auckland, demand for food support has more than doubled in just two years. Since transitioning from a traditional food bank to a Social Supermarket in 2024, the organisation has recorded a 100.7% increase in demand for food support, while requests for financial mentoring have also surged. Chief executive Lara Dolan says it is a reality being experienced by food banks and Social Supermarkets around the country. As the cost of living continues to bite, demand for food support is rising across Aotearoa – and increasingly, the people seeking help are working families who

Food insecurity is increasing and widespread across New Zealand households.

“

These aren’t just the families people might traditionally expect to need food support. They’re working families, rural households and people who have never had to ask for help before. Zellara Holden

simply cannot make their household budgets stretch far enough. For Dolan, the changing face of food insecurity is clear. “More and more of our clients are employed. When I started in 2022, most of our clients were receiving a beneﬁt. Now we’re seeing more and more of what we call the ‘working poor’ – families who are doing everything right but simply can’t keep up with the cost of living.” She says families are increasingly being forced to make impossible decisions. “Do I pay the rent? Do I pay the power bill? Or do I put food on the table?” When budgets are stretched, nutritious food – particularly fresh protein – can quickly become a luxury rather than a staple. “Beef is unaffordable,” Dolan says. “Without Meet the Need, we simply wouldn’t be able to provide mince consistently. Every client that comes through our doors picks up the packets of mince.”

Holden says food support should never be viewed simply as putting food in an empty cupboard. “Food is about so much more than nutrition. It’s about family, connection, routine and dignity. When someone is experiencing ﬁnancial hardship, being able to choose nutritious food and prepare a meal their family enjoys can make a real difference. “The stories we hear from organisations like Māngere Budgeting Services remind us that every donation represents more than a meal. It can mean a parent feeling a little less pressure, children enjoying a favourite dinner, or an older person being able to share a cup of tea with a neighbour.” The reality is that while Meet the Need has increased its impact, the need has grown even faster, Holden says. “Every meal delivered is only possible because of the generosity of New Zealand farmers, our corporate and community partners, volunteers and individual donors. This report is a celebration of what we’ve achieved together, but it’s also a reminder that our work is far from over.” Meet the Need chairperson Nick Fisher says collaboration across the agricultural sector continues to be critical as food insecurity in Aotearoa rapidly rises. “What we’re seeing now is a structural shift. More families are under pressure, and demand for food support continues to outpace supply,” Fisher says. “New Zealand grows enough food to feed everyone. The challenge isn’t supply, it’s connection. That is what we do. “Meet the Need exists to bridge that gap, ensuring quality New Zealand protein reaches families who otherwise couldn’t afford it. “Over the past year, we’ve strengthened partnerships across the agricultural sector, expanded our donor base and supported over 130 food banks each month. “But the reality is clear – demand is growing faster than we are. Our focus for the future is scale. More farmers. More partners. More meals. Because no-one in a food-producing nation should go hungry.” Founded on a simple idea of connecting New Zealand’s food producers with families experiencing hardship, Meet the Need works alongside farmers, processors, transport companies, food banks, businesses and donors to ensure

CHRISTEL YARDLEY/WAIKATO TIMES

that nutritious beef mince and milk reach those who need them most. “Our mission is simple,” says Holden. “Together, we can ensure more Kiwi families have access to nutritious protein during some of the hardest times in their lives. With demand continuing to grow, we need more people alongside us to make that happen. “At Meet the Need, we are uniquely positioned to respond. Our model – connecting surplus and donated protein directly from farmers to food banks – is simple, efficient and deeply human. “In the past 12 months, we’ve delivered over a million meals, but behind every number is a story. “A parent skipping meals so their children can eat, a food bank stretched beyond capacity, a farmer choosing to give back. “The challenge ahead is not just to sustain this impact but to grow it.” The organisation is encouraging more farmers, businesses and everyday New Zealanders to get involved by donating livestock, milk or cash, or by partnering with the charity to help meet growing demand. Ōhaupō farmer Simon Boshier runs 150 head of beef each year on 20ha. He is one of the many farmers who has donated a beast. He first heard about Meet the Need through Silver Fern Farms, right at its inception. Then he visited The Village Community Services Trust and saw the impact firsthand. A woman came in with her five children – emotional and grateful, especially for the mince. “That really hit home,” Boshier recalls. “I thought, ‘This is something I really want to contribute to’.” For Boshier, giving a beast a year isn’t about recognition. It’s about remembering the privilege of rural life, and making sure Kiwi families can put mince on the table. He has donated a beast for the past six years, and says it is not hard to do so. He encourages other farmers to get involved. “Farmers are doing well. They’re getting record prices for their beef and milk. It’s not hard to give a beast. “There’s no better time than now, while prices are so high.” And if hesitation is the only barrier? “They’ve got to get the moss out of their wallet.”

September 2026

NZ Farmer

News 11

Updated all day at

Farmers chipper as debt drops “ Economy

Charlotte Graham

ockies are riding the wave of strong payouts across much of the rural sector, with increased debt repayment and capital spending. Rabobank’s general manager of country banking, Bruce Weir, says he has seen a lift in farmer confidence, and believes many farmers are turning towards succession planning as one of the biggest exchanges of wealth approaches. “It was only a couple of years ago that a lot of farming families were questioning their future. “Succession was a challenge because a lot of the next generation were not interested in coming home to the farm, because they had watched their parents struggle. “But certainly in recent times, with the strength of commodity prices, and the role that New Zealand is playing in some really cool free-trade agreements, the confidence is really elevated. “I think the dairy debt peaked around July 2018 at roughly $22.50/kgMS, and it’s probably sitting around $17.50/kgMS now, so businesses have got breathing room. “Lower debt means improved cash flow and the confidence to invest.” Weir estimated that on average, the industry would have retired about $5/kgMS of debt. Reserve Bank data showed that agricultural lending reduced by $1.4 billion month-on-month to $61.2b in April. However, agricultural debt was up by $968m (1.6%) again in May, in line

It was only a couple of years ago that a lot of farming families were questioning their future. Bruce Weir, Rabobank

Bruce Weir, GM of country banking at Rabobank, says technology is a key area for farmer investment.

with seasonal trends, and off the back of increased farmer investment in land, stock, machinery and on-farm infrastructure. Federated Farmers’ recent survey of 540 farmers highlighted that the number of respondents with mortgages under $2m had risen to 41%, up from 38% six months earlier. The average mortgage interest rate was 5.49%, down from 5.78% in the November survey, and two out of ﬁve respondents to the May survey had more than 75% of their loans on ﬂoating rates. Drystock farmers were spending more time on catching up with deferred maintenance after years of doing it

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Federated Farmers treasurer Megan Johns says older farmers are looking to succession planning now.

tough, so fences, water systems and fertiliser were all key reinvestment areas. Technology like virtual fencing and drone use was another favourite area for farmers to explore, especially with the next generation entering the industry. Across the board, farmers were starting to make succession plans as well, the survey found, with farm owners now able to leave some money in the business to facilitate transfers, do family lending or purchase secondary blocks. “Our succession paper that we put together last year showed that over half of farmers were going to be about the age of 70 in the next 10 years. At that

point, it would be about $150 billion of land assets that need to be transferred, so that’s a huge challenge, but we’d like to see it as a huge opportunity,” Weir said. He noted that there had been a healthy number of ﬁrst-farm buyers this year, and there was a resurgence of 50/50 sharemilkers, with some farmers now able to ﬁnance stepping back and bringing them on. Farmers were still “cautiously optimistic”, with the Iran war having pushed fertiliser and fuel prices up, as well as Fonterra narrowing the forecast for 2026-27 to $9.25/kgMS, with a new range of $8.00-$10.50/kgMS. Federated Farmers treasurer and accountant Megan Johns said she had seen similar patterns among her clients, with young farmers focusing on repaying debt, and those reaching retirement exploring how to pass on the farm.

NZ Farmer

September 2026

12 Regional Round-up

From citrus in Brazil to kiwifruit in Waikato Whitehall Fruitpackers production and harvest manager Miguel Peterle grew up on citrus orchards in Brazil but now he loves growing kiwifruit in Waikato.

CHRISTEL YARDLEY/ WAIKATO TIMES

Business

Charlotte Graham

iguel Peterle has had a passion for horticulture since he was a kid and it’s one that has grown after entering the booming kiwifruit industry. Peterle said the industry is in a strong position and the secret to his success managing orchards in Waikato is attention to detail to mitigate PSA and environmental issues. He grew up in Brazil but came to New Zealand in 2007. He is now the production and harvest manager for one of the country’s biggest private kiwifruit growers, Whitehall Fruitpackers. Peterle grew up on his family’s citrus orchards in south Brazil and said he always knew he wanted to follow in their footsteps. In school, he studied horticulture before going on to study agronomy at university – a degree he never quite ﬁnished. ﬁnished. “I paused my study to come and spend six months working here in New Zealand and then six months turned into a year, which turned into two.” He was working at a kiwifruit orchard

in Katikati for the first two years, but when his partner got a job in Cambridge, he took a job at Whitehall as an orchard manager. “The company was in a position where they started buying more orchards and then we had PSA, which was a disease that caused a lot of problems for kiwifruit, but I just kept always working with intensity and passion and they noticed me. “I think because I come from a family of growers, I understand that you need attention to detail in the orchard and you’re working with people, training and managing them. We employ a lot of people from overseas, so I think they relate to me straight away because I have the same experience.” Peterle was promoted to his role in 2020 and now has six managers under him. It’s a big job with the business employing more than 70 fulltime staff as well as about 200 contractors across 400 hectares of orchards. He said that this year a core focus point for him would be improving the people and culture side of the business. Part of that was getting the new office office spaces they have built at Gorton Rd up and running. Peterle thought the industry was “very positive” with prices consistently strong over the past few years. Zespri’s indicative June orchard gate return forecast showed Zespri Green sitting at $9.40$10.40 a tray and organic at $13-$14.50. Meanwhile, Zespri Sungold was at $11-$12.25 and organic was at $15-$16.50. Zespri’s corporate net profit profit after tax, including licence revenue, is forecast to be $355-$365 million, up from $280m $280m last year. Kiwifruit growers must buy commercial licences to grow and this year’s auctions showed strong bidding.

Auctions in April and May saw 416ha of Gold3 fruit reach $684,000/ha for unrestricted plantings. The value is a significant lift on last year’s value of $561,000/ha. The unrestricted Red80 licence went to $457,000/ha. Whitehall produced just over 3.6 million trays of kiwifruit in the 2026 season. The company grows gold and green kiwifruit and during the past year has grafted the slightly more temperamental red kiwifruit as well. At Whitehall, all of the Hayward green kiwifruit and a quarter of the Sungold grown is certified organic with BioGro. Gold is the most hardy species in terms of resistance to environment and PSA, while the red needs to be covered to protect against wind damage, the cold and it’s more susceptible to PSA, making it a tricky species to grow in Waikato. However, as the red’s popularity grows, especially in China, Peterle said it was a smart move to keep up with the fresh demand. The company was also ready for harvest earlier in the season, so it complemented the other varieties. While the damp Waikato made it trickier to manage PSA, Peterle said a cold winter was good for kiwifruit because it put them in dormancy. However, managing the risk of frost in early September was a constant worry because this is when the vines start to bud. They protect against frost with wind machines, helicopters and by spraying water on the vines. When the vines have icicles formed on them from the spray, it holds the temperature steady, protecting them against lower dips in temperature that kill the growth. While PSA is still a concern, with the loss of about 30% of a green crop last year, he said each year the plants were becoming more resistant and they were learning to manage it better. Originally a sheep and beef farmer, Whitehall co-founder Mark Gardiner planted the first vines in 1975 and still remains active in managing the business with his wife Robyn. The first harvested fruit was packed by the team in 1985 and they grew in size until they relocated to Gorton Rd in Karapiro in 1999.

Fast-track OK for southern salmon Southland

Rachael Kelly

outhland district mayor Rob Scott has welcomed the fasttrack approval of a $2 billion open-ocean salmon farm off Stewart Island/Rakiura, but says housing its workforce may present some challenges. The decision, delivered by an independent expert panel under the Fast-track Approvals Act 2024, grants resource consent for Ngāi Tahu’s Hananui aquaculture project. Located 13km northeast of Oban in Foveaux Strait, the project is expected to deliver up to $2b in national operational value added and create hundreds of local jobs. Scott said extensive strategic planning had gone into aquaculture in Southland,

inﬂuenced by the Beyond 25 project and the aquaculture strategy. “It’s kind of like the right tree in the right place, but for aquaculture the same thing is important there, that we’re getting the right ﬁsh in the right place or the right aquaculture in the right place, so it’s not coming at the expense of anything else, including the environment and the coast that we all love out there,” Scott said. The challenge may be in housing the new workforce, he said. “There’s opportunities, and with those opportunities come some challenges. You look at where Rakiura sits in the equation as well, which clearly doesn’t have expansive land to put a whole lot more houses up.” Infrastructure Minister Chris Bishop said the proposal had taken about seven years to progress through previous planning

pathways before being lodged under the fast-track process in November last year. Ngāi Tahu initially lodged a conventional consent application under the Resource Management Act 1991, which was withdrawn, before an application under the Covid-19 fast-track consenting mechanism was declined by an independent panel in August 2023 over environmental concerns. The Hananui Aquaculture Project is the 31st project and the ﬁrst aquaculture project approved under the fast-track legislation. Led by Ngāi Tahu Seafood Resources Ltd, a subsidiary of Ngāi Tahu Holdings, the 1285-hectare farm will be built in two stages between 2km and 6km offshore. Stage 1 will feature 10-pen blocks across four marine farm sites, discharging up to 15,000 tonnes of feed a year.

Progression to Stage 2 – which would add another 10-pen block per farm and raise feed discharge to a maximum of 25,000 tonnes a year – is strictly dependent on monitoring results remaining within defined environmental thresholds over at least two full production cycles. Ngāi Tahu Holdings chief executive Todd Moyle described the approval as an important milestone following years of careful work. “We will now take the time to thoroughly assess the consent conditions and confirm our pathway before making any decisions on how we proceed,” Moyle said. “This is a significant long-term investment and we want to make sure we get it right, for Kāi Tahu whānau and the Murihiku community.” Ngāi Tahu Seafood will now engage

September 2026

NZ Farmer

Regional Round-up 13

Updated all day at

Reform plan could beneﬁt local farmers Agriculture

Catherine Groenestein

For Good Lives Wairarapa’s Garden Survival Challenge, participants are creating raised gardens behind IDEA Services in Masterton.

Food security grown locally Charity

Chris Peterson

ood Lives Wairarapa, a local charity that supports the disabled community, is currently running a programme to help people with learning disabilities learn to grow their own food. In its Garden Survival Challenge, participants are building and planting a series of raised gardens behind IDEA Services in Masterton. In the face of climate change and increasing challenges to food security, they are setting an example for us all. Good Lives Wairarapa shares a common kaupapa with several other local community groups seeking to educate and encourage people to grow fresh vegetables for a healthy, nutritious and environmentally friendly diet. Most importantly, in these difficult cost-of-living times, it is also affordable. Researchers around the globe have real concerns about the security of the complex, integrated food system that has developed worldwide over recent decades. Although fundamentally attributable to the climate crisis, this concern is being exacerbated by geopolitical events, including the United States-Iran war and tariffs undermining the global free-trade system underpinned by long-standing collective agreements. This food system has served humanity

well and is fundamental to trade and economies worldwide, involving elaborate and efficient supply chains serving widespread markets. Distance is no barrier to availability. Exotic and relatively fresh foods are on the menu everywhere. However, it is a system critically dependent on the fossil-fuel bonanza that underpins modernity. Agricultural systems are dieseldependent, shipping relies on “dirty” bunker fuels and productive yields require fertilisers. Preventing spoilage also requires chemicals, plastic packaging and refrigeration. All are manufactured from or powered by fossil fuels, and all contribute to the greenhouse gas emissions dangerously warming the planet. This same system enables one in every nine people to consume too much. That is almost a billion people. That a similar number go to bed hungry is not because of the amount of food the system can and does produce, but because of about 30% of it being wasted and failures in distributing that abundance. The powers that be are, of course, well aware of the looming vulnerabilities. Researchers worldwide are looking for less energy-intensive and more efficient genetic variants and methods. These include precision agriculture, regenerative farming and alternative forms of propulsion for shipping. Governments, universities and research bodies realise the race is on for a

zero-emissions future. Money will be made and lost. So back to those raised gardens, growing vegetables that need little fossil fuel, are produced locally, flourish on natural organic fertilisers, require no elaborate distribution networks and can help keep the neighbourhood well fed and healthy. It is not a case of one or the other. Although worlds apart in many respects, these are complementary approaches and, hopefully, both will continue to improve and adapt. But in a fast-changing world, with increasingly frequent extreme weather events – floods, droughts and heatwaves – making modern, large-scale industrial farming less predictable and riskier, ordinary citizens might have more confidence in their ability to provide for the family table over the longer term if they have access to a vege patch. That might be through a community garden, a community-supported agriculture scheme, re-established market gardens, farmers’ markets or something else. Or it could be a plot at home, which was the whole point of the quarter-acre section that New Zealand is famous for. Hats off to those toilers at IDEA Services and their example for us all to pick up on. The Garden Survival Challenge is supported by Masterton District Council’s Climate Action Fund and the IHC Foundation.

farm welcomed by mayor with Murihiku papatipu rūnaka, the local community and other stakeholders as it works through the consent conditions and considers the next phase of the project. Mana whenua representative Barry Bragg said the decision was extremely welcome news for the iwi and southern papatipu rūnaka. “Rakiura is a special place for our people. We have a deep connection to the whenua, to the moana and to the mauka Hananui, which the project is named for,” he said. “For me, this decision recognises that history, and gives us the chance to think about what aquaculture could look like in our own takiwā, on our own terms. “I’m excited about the project’s potential to support local employment, strengthen our communities and create beneﬁts for future generations, while continuing to uphold our responsibilities as kaitiaki in a

phase, regional value added is place that means so much expected to reach $781m to to us.” Oceans and Fisheries $888m with 415 to 480 regional jobs created. Minister Shane Jones said that at full scale, the farm Nationally, operational value added could reach was projected to produce 14,400 tonnes of salmon $2.05b, with total household income returns in Southland a year, generating more than $310 million in sales expected to hit $386m. At full scale – expected after 10 years of and between 415 and 480 regional jobs. a 25-year consent – annual gross revenue is projected at $500m. The fast-track approval Ngāi Tahu Holdings chief documents show economic The documents show regional executive Todd Moyle development agency Great South assessments project says the iwi firm “will significant long-term gains noted its own more conservative thoroughly assess the modelling estimated benefits for the region. consent conditions and at $498m and 298 jobs, but During the establishment confirm our pathway it acknowledged the project phase, regional value added before making any was estimated between $61m would deliver large-scale, longdecisions”. term economic benefits and and $78m, creating 200 to 260 jobs. In the operational strengthen regional resilience.

Taranaki farming leader reckons one unitary authority for rural folk and another for city dwellers is the way to best replace the current three district councils. Taranaki Federated Farmers’ new president Nick Brown, elected in May, had mapped how the split could happen. New Plymouth District stretches from Ōakura in the south to Urenui in the north, ending up with about 70,000 people. The New Plymouth metropolitan unitary authority would be focused on the city and its immediate fringe. Rural parts of the current New Plymouth District would join a larger rural Taranaki unitary authority also encompassing South Taranaki and Stratford districts, he said. Federated Farmers was promoting a rural-city local government split nationwide across New Zealand as a solution to the Government’s moves to abolish regional councils and reduce the number of district councils. The current plan being proposed by South Taranaki and Stratford District Councils was to combine into a southern unitary authority, and for New Plymouth to be a separate authority. The proposal, which both councils agreed to submit to the Head Start pathway by the August deadline, was a decision made in response to strong community feedback. “I applaud these two councils, mayors Neil [Volzke] and Phil [Nixon], for their hard work to get this thing passed. Big ups to them for listening to their communities.” The smaller councils had balked at the idea of a single unitary authority with New Plymouth for fear of losing their voice and being outvoted by the area with the largest concentrated population. However, this would also affect rural residents around the city, Brown – who farms sheep and beef at Huiroa, near Stratford, with his wife Sophie – said. “Rural communities are quite complex, they need people who understand them,” he said. “These local government reforms are a real biggie, that’s going to set the direction for Taranaki for the next 30 years. Last time it was done [in 1989], I was only 2.” He was critical of the combined Taranaki Regional Council and New Plymouth District Council decision to pursue a separate Pathfinder Proposal, which would identify multiple options for Taranaki reform, aiming for a final decision in March 2027. “I’m disappointed the TRC got involved, they are out of their lane. It was for the three territorial authorities to create a Head Start plan.” The cost of the Pathfinder proposal was being shared by the two councils. “It’s outrageous that ratepayers are being asked to foot a $1.3 million bill for a reform programme that two of their councils – Stratford and South Taranaki – don’t even want,” he said. “They’re completely ignoring the fact that pretty much no-one outside New Plymouth wants to be part of a council that includes the city.” Brown, a fifth-generation farmer, was the first sheep and beef farmer to head the Feds in Taranaki in about 20 years. He succeeded Leedom Gibbs, who had held the role since late 2023. Farming had a pretty positive outlook overall, he said, and when farmers were doing well, towns in rural communities thrived too. But inflation and cost of living pressures were being felt by everybody. “The challenge for the next councils will be to grow the rural community, ideally without increasing rates too much.”

NZ Farmer

September 2026

14 Science and Research

Apple breeders eye vitamin C

‘Tiny, ugly’ apples are high in vitamin C, while delicious varieties have next to none. Using genomics and speed breeding, scientists are working to combine the best of both worlds into one cultivar, writes Catherine Hubbard.

ou might have heard that an apple a day keeps the doctor away, but the symbol of health actually won’t help you meet the recommended daily vitamin C intake, a scientist specialising in the fruit says. At the Bioeconomy Science Institute – formerly Plant and Food Research – senior scientist for tree crops Ben Orcheski is part of a team breeding a high-vitamin-C apple. “The problem is that all the good tasting apples have no vitamin C, and the apples that have high vitamin C are just not very good quality,” Orcheski said. “They’re tiny little crabapples, or they might be big but they’re nasty, very ugly and mushy. We want to breed apples together to keep the quality and boost the C.” To do this, scientists at the institute have been using new breeding and horticultural technologies such as

Left: At the Bioeconomy Science Institute, formerly Plant and Food Research, a team is about five years away from producing a prototype apple of good quality that has high vitamin C. Right: Crabapples like these might be tiny and taste awful, but they are packed with nutrients and vitamins.

genomics and speed breeding. Orcheski said that by using these techniques and the “right parents” they had already identiﬁed, the team was about ﬁve years away from a prototype apple of good quality that had high vitamin C. Thanks to genomics, a technique that had only become affordable in the past few years, scientists sequenced a high-vitamin-C apple genome, which was about 650 million DNA bases, and created a genetic cross with a highvitamin-C parent and another pleasanttasting apple that was low in the vitamin. The seedlings of that cross could then have their genomes sequenced, so scientists could discover what parts of the genome in that high-vitamin-C apple were controlling vitamin C levels. Progress on the cultivar would be accelerated with the help of speed breeding techniques developed at the research institute, which could shave

20 apple species of the genus several years off the generation Malus. time of the apple variety, Researchers were meaning that instead of searching through this taking five to seven years unique collection to find to bear its first fruit, the the apples that had high tree would produce vitamin C, in order to apples in three or four. find multiple sources of Planted in vitamin C that could be glasshouses, the brought together into a seedlings and trees were single cultivar. pumped with heat, light Orcheski said the fruit and fertilisers, prompting would “excite healththem to “go through conscious consumers” and puberty” and mature earlier, stimulate demand for healthier Orcheski said. Senior scientist New Zealand-grown apples. The Bioeconomy Science for tree crops Ben He expected that the Institute houses the national Orcheski is part of uptake would be strong from apple repository for New a team breeding New Zealand growers, who Zealand, a collection of about a high-vitamin-C appreciated novelty and were 450 types of apples running the apple. receptive to new varieties they gamut from heritage dessert could use to stand out in a apples hundreds of years old crowded apple market. – including one from the 1600s – to the

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September 2026

NZ Farmer

Science and Research 15

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Right legume in right place Pasture

Tony Benny

uch of the science needed to help New Zealand farmers adapt to climate change has already been done, but getting those lessons adopted on-farm is being hampered by the way research and extension is funded, says agricultural scientist Derrick Moot. Dryland farmers who have changed their farming systems to include lucerne, the plant Moot has studied for most of his career, have dramatically increased their dry matter production and with that their profitability and sustainability in the face of climate change. At a Lincoln University State of the Land seminar, the scientist said a research project on a Banks Peninsula farm that compared unimproved pasture with lucerne showed average pasture production increased from 8.5 tonnes of dry matter per hectare to about 14 tonnes. “So that’s the potential that’s sitting there, simply by having the right legume in the right place, and giving that farmer the opportunity to utilise it,” Moot said. Early in his career, having completed his studies at Lincoln, Moot travelled to England in the early 1990s, and it was there he first encountered research into climate change. “They weren’t interested in production agriculture there; they were actually only interested in their environment, including climate change, and I was involved in some of the very first experiments that

Agricultural scientist Derrick Moot is a specialist in lucerne.

There’s an opportunity on about 440,000ha, about 5% of farmland here, to grow an extra 7.5 tonnes per ha, a total of 3.1 billion kg. were done on the impact of CO2 and temperature changes on wheat.” When he returned to a job at Lincoln, Moot saw that sheep and beef farmers

on New Zealand’s east coast, subject as they were to ﬁckle summers and variable production, could beneﬁt from a more resilient pasture system, eventually concluding lucerne was the way to achieve that. In 2017, he was awarded the Beef+Lamb New Zealand Sheep Industry Science Award for his success in developing grazing systems that maximise the value of lucerne. While he values pure science and rigorous research, he is happiest on-farm where practical trials and real-world case studies show real-world examples of how lucerne can boost production without the need for additional nitrogen fertiliser. While many farmers have taken his

advice, Moot said there’s enormous potential for others to follow their lead. “There’s an opportunity on about 440,000ha, about 5% of farmland here, to grow an extra 7.5 tonnes per ha, a total of 3.1 billion kg,” he said. “At 15c a kilogram, that’s about $500 million a year sitting behind the farm gate, easily accessible, that we could do if we had the opportunity to go out and do that extension. “It’s not going to cost very much, we already know how to do it.” Moot’s frustration is that he can’t get funding to get that message out to farmers and help them make what would be a fundamental change to their farming system. Instead, he said climate change funding is going into more esoteric projects such as genetics, methane inhibitors and vaccines and modified ryegrass, which he estimates, based on an AI analysis of scientific spending, has cost up to $1 billion during the past 20 years. “At the moment, there is not one type of technological mitigation that does not have significant barriers to use, effectively precluding adoption.” “I have no problem with New Zealand having spent research money on trying to reduce methane production from our ruminants. “What I have a problem with is that it’s been at the expense of every other avenue that we might have had and taken as we went through the last 20 years. “It’s essentially taken all of the research money.”

What can science learn from farmers? Opinion

John King

espite temperatures ticking up, CO2 levels, soil carbon and microbial respiration increasing, and no discernible change in rainfall, researchers at Ballantrae Research Station are unable to explain why pasture production has been falling over the past four decades. Considering their production systems are backed by fact and rigorous scientiﬁc reasoning, where do scientists look when logic no longer works? If the environment isn’t behaving as expected, could that be signalling that professionals are doing science wrong? Farmers know if the tramlines of professional logic aren’t working, it’s time to jump the tracks. When sheep breeder Gordon Levett set up a research trial with an AgResearch scientist to discover the impact of parasitic worm burdens, he dropped the scientiﬁc protocols because of their short timescale. By breaking the rules, he discovered his most resistant animals. Farmers often make discoveries without intending to; they’re usually the result of accidental observations. In Gordon’s case, it produced outliers the industry couldn’t ignore because the insights eventually lifted the whole industry. The thinking required for agricultural science is not the same as that required for running a farm. The world of academia involves arranging logic and data for the purpose of winning arguments to promote theories, products or agendas. There’s an assumption farming needs more powerful reasoning when that’s seldom the case; farmers are looking to expand their situational awareness. While industry advice is to pour on urea in the spring, what’s the point when the

Sheep breeding benefited from Gordon Levett’s on-farm research.

weather is cloudy, wet and cold? Using a leachable product under such conditions is like driving in top gear with the choke out. What are the other options? The recipe approach mirrors a much wider professional problem in which industry advice reduces competitive advantage so every farm looks the same, like its neighbours. Because financiers and scientists use only the easiest quantifiable metrics, this behaviour railroads agriculture to a singular outcome while amplifying negative effects such as nitrogen leaching or fertiliser price increases. It comes from reducing actions to a model and then believing the model accounts for all aspects of reality. That creates a race to the bottom and is how economics destroys capitalism by limiting innovation. What’s the secret to being innovative? It’s being comfortable with ambiguity. Many farmers don’t start with a definitive answer or hypothesis. Instead, they take a

KELLY HODEL/WAIKATO TIMES

leap of faith and use subjective judgment industry breakthroughs by focusing on to create opportunities for optimising procedural neatness rather than pattern serendipity. That could include a specific recognition? area on the farm for trialling multiple Organic systems are not optimised fertiliser rates, seed mixes, lambing for averages but for a desired level dates and grazing practices. of variance because complex Even if they’re not physically systems don’t follow a bell measuring outcomes, the curve. repetitive daily observations The Ballantrae study sites of animals and plant have largely remained static behaviour trigger insights in their grazing and fertility that build on snippets from management for 50 years, but paddock talk, saleyards, industry farmers never do this. events and other sources. Instead, they change Curious Cockies They operate like detectives management depending on a founder John King wide range of circumstances gathering anecdotal evidence, not scrupulously scribbling because that’s healthier for the down every fact and figure in pursuit environment and their sanity. In a world of a singular right answer. As tech where farmers mix management systems entrepreneur Jeff Bezos states, “when to create resilience, could science mimic I find a conflict between data and more of that behaviour? anecdotes, I normally find it’s the data that’s wrong.” John King is the facilitator of Curious Does agricultural science Cockies and author of Curiosity – underestimate the role of randomness in Farmers Discovering What Works.

NZ Farmer

September 2026

16 Innovation and Technology

How automation can help apple industry hit $2b target Robots are expected to revolutionise the apple and wider horticulture industry within the next 10 years and humans will no longer be needed for arduous tasks on farm. By Aimee Shaw.

New Zealand apple growers produce 400,000 tonnes of fruit a year.

hile other parts of the New Zealand economy continue to wane, the country’s apple and pear growers are having a cracker of a time, with export returns forecast to surpass $1.3 billion for the 12 months to June. But costs, particularly labour costs, are high and getting higher, which is why the sector is united behind a belief that automation and technology will play a vital role in helping the industry reach $2b in exports by 2034. The tools will be a boon to the country’s total food and fibre sector, which is the backbone of the New Zealand economy, comprising about 82% of all exports. They generated $64.3b of export revenue in the year ending June 30 and contribute 15% to GDP. When growers assembled at the Apple and Pear Industry Conference in Queenstown, they were happy about the sector’s trajectory, but noted the downweighing factors of Donald Trump’s tariffs, and escalating input costs of things like oil and fertiliser. Luckily, the food and fibre sector tends to be counter-cyclical with the rest of the economy. “When the rest of the economy is in the doldrums, as we know it has been for some time, food and fibre tends to outperform, and that’s the counterbalance. The ballast to New Zealand’s economy,” said Chris Kerr, chief transformation officer and director of strategy insights and evidence at MPI. He told attendees at the July conference that the industry was “booming”, adding, “thank goodness you are, given the state of the rest of the economy”. But hitting the $2b target for exports would require further innovation. “Automation and innovation behind the farm gate is absolutely mission-critical to lifting our ambition,” he warned, over and above what was already being done in the pest and disease management space, where AI, autonomous robots and remote sensing were already commonplace. Incremental change would make the difference, with technologies already being introduced – things such as commercial platforms that use a gentle vacuum to pull unseen fruit from rows, and 2D “fruiting walls” that include a design to remove hidden branches, making it easy for multi-armed robots to do the work of picking. There may be a lag between now and full automation, “but you have to start somewhere and you have to continue to invest in that pipeline,” Kerr said. “The cost of labour is 60-70% of the cost of capex behind the farm gate, so we have to hunt for that labour productivity.” Orchardist Stuart Kilmister, of Hawke’s Bay-based Kilhaven Orchards, agreed. He said it was expensive and complex to automate on an orchard, and the technology was not yet up to a level where it was more efficient than a “good worker”. “The robot, it’s not there yet. As a

MPI expects humanoid robots to become common on farms.

Apple and pear growers – including Hamish Rush, owner of Nelson-based Aporo Orchards – say the sector is riding high but bearing the unpredictability of tariffs, rising costs and too much red tape.

“

It just means that people will have to be skilled in different ways. But I don’t see job losses in the orchard environment at all. Steven Hartley Hartley Orchards smaller grower, we don’t have the budget of a corporate to get it wrong, so it’s not in our interest to be an early adopter.” Hamish Rush, owner and operator of Nelson-based Aporo Orchards, shared a similar perspective: “We need to adopt innovation and technology, and AI is going to supercharge all of that sphere, it’s just about how quickly or where exactly the most benefits lie. “We have to be aware and open to it ... with any sort of new opportunity, there’s always a risk matrix, and we need to be aware that it will provide opportunity, but there are risks and some costs involved, too.” Rush doesn’t have robotics on his farm, but he knows he will in the future. “The first iterations won’t be what we have five years down the track, but if we don’t look forward for that opportunity, we’re going to stand still, and standing still is effectively going backwards. “As soon as I can see an opportunity that’s affordable and is going to deliver outcomes that are going to reduce my costs or increase quality, I’ll definitely bring it in.” Most growers already have automation and smart technologies at work in their packhouses, using robotics to put apples in the trays or AI systems for quality control, but on-farm is different. But maybe not for long. Steven Hartley, of Hartley Orchards, believes technology will revolutionise the apple and wider horticulture industry within the next 10 years, and humans will no longer be needed for arduous tasks on farm. Already, AI can enable growers to identify which fruit to pick, increase the

speed with which you can pick it, and help to improve accuracy. “It just means that people will have to be skilled in different ways. But I don’t see job losses in the orchard environment at all,” he said. MPI chief insight officer Jarred Mair said AI was going to permeate through everything and every industry, and encouraged growers to think about how they would implement AI and nextgeneration automation in their businesses. Mair said humanoid robots that could be deployed speciﬁcally for farms were developing quickly overseas, and he expected these to be commercialised within the next few years, and commonly used within the decade. “The new AI models that we’ve got in China, in terms of a study around how you pick fruit and ensure fruit quality using a robotic hand ... is now 80% in terms of both fruit quality and consistency,” said Mair. “What we’re seeing is a move to a programming of general purpose robotics.” That technology would have the ability to automate the whole process for growers, he said. “Why are robotics so interesting to us? Because we shaped the world around the human form. We will see robotics in the agricultural sectors here in New Zealand within 10 years. The only reason we say 10 years is because it’s about supply, it’s not about demand.” Aporo Orchards’ Rush said the upcoming election brought with it a plea from business: for “consistency of policy and delivery from government and local government”. “We need regulation that allows us to

do business, and what we need is more of a bipartisan approach to policy settings so that we can commit to upholding the high standards that we all want to meet, whether it’s environmental, social or economic,” Rush told The Post. “Having a huge pendulum swing depending on the ideology of individual parties’ own ambitions gets in the road of productivity and growth for our economy and businesses alike, and ultimately New Zealand Inc.” Rush would like to see immigration policy that better supports the industry. “Our entire industry is dependent on a labour supply that might come into the country, and that’s our biggest risk. If you can’t pick it, we don’t have an industry. If we don’t have the staff, we don’t have an industry. “People are our biggest cost and our biggest risk ... the Government needs to support us where we ask for support, and then get out of our road on the stuff that we’re not asking for interference on.” That sentiment was shared by Kilmister, who told the Sunday Star-Times he spent more time – about 40 hours a week – doing compliance than on his orchard, and any reduction in red tape would go a long way to help growers focus on their fundamentals. Kilmister, who operates almost 50 hectares of orchards, said margins in apples were small, but the industry was on the up, and global demand for New Zealand apples was putting growers in a good position for the future. Some of his trees were wiped out in Cyclone Gabrielle in 2023 and he has been rebuilding ever since. He also has a loan left over from the Covid pandemic, when pickers were unable to come in and the crop fell on the ground. Kilmister compared the risks of running an orchard to that of owning a property without insurance, and accidentally burning it down every ﬁve years. Many apple growers did it out of passion. “One year you might have a heatwave, that might be the next thing that goes through, and who knows what this season is going to be; drought, that can affect the apples ... it’s deﬁnitely a high-risk game.” Aimee Shaw travelled to Queenstown courtesy of New Zealand Apples & Pears.

September 2026

NZ Farmer

Innovation and Technology 17

Updated all day at

Agri-firm takes AI pasture tool to UK Innovation

Charlotte Graham

eremy Bryant has combined his passion for farming and analytics to make pasture management as simple as taking a quick video. The Waikato business he founded, Aimer Farming, has taken off during the past year and is taking its AI pasture management to the United Kingdom. “I dairy farmed when I left school, so I knew the challenges of time management,” Bryant said. “You’re trying to juggle looking after the cows and pasture, and measuring it was always a struggle. “For many, the idea is to plunk a plate meter in a paddock 50 times and then walk to the next one, which can take three or four hours ... “Fast-forward and I thought, ‘well everyone’s got a smartphone, why can’t we just measure using that?’ ” The idea is simple: walk or drive into a paddock and take a video scan of the paddock. The AI and data-driven software will do the rest, measuring grass growth, creating forecasts and suggesting tailored grazing rotations as well as supplement use to optimise productivity. Alongside measuring dry matter per hectare, it gives optimum grazing scores, allows farmers to predict 14 days of growth and lets them play out test scenarios of different supplement rates or setting paddocks aside for silage. “The more grass you can get the cows to eat, the more they can produce milk. “The better you manage this process, the better quality feed you’ll produce and

A comparison of the traditional plate meter reading of dry matter per hectare versus the app’s video-based measurement.

that’s increased milk production. You can be saving on supplement use as well with how it recommends times when you don’t need to feed it.” During the past month, they have also launched a satellite capability to sit alongside the phone app and live modelling web app. On clear days, farmers can skip a scan and let the satellite image estimate grass growth.

AI is fundamental for the scanning function but Bryant said the accuracy was down to putting time into developing real models based on testing results and creating a hybrid model with AI. Bryant founded Aimer Farming in 2021 and officially launched the business in 2023 after months of data collection across Waikato farms. What started as just Bryant working on it alone a couple of days a week has grown

into a business with 20 employees, and Bryant expects to hire a further 10 to 15 people over the next year. The technology is now used by more than 650 farms across New Zealand and Chile, and this month, the company has also launched in the UK with its partner Precision Grazing. “In terms of revenue, over the last year we’ve grown six-fold. The accuracy has really improved.”

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September 2026

18 Dairy Ruby Mulinder and Sean Nixon are a young couple approaching dairy sheep a bit differently.

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ReGLOVES are made from low-density polyethylene and come as a shoulder-length and a “C-neck” version that covers the chest.

Fresh approach to sheep-milking farm Sheep

Nixon and Mulinder farm 770 ewes and 330 hoggets.

Charlotte Graham

n the edge of Lake Taupō is a young couple doing things a bit differently on their sheep milking farm, Waihora. Sean Nixon and Ruby Mulinder dreamed of owning their own farm, and seven years after making that a reality in Tihoi, they are happy balancing young kids, part-time jobs and running hundreds of ewes. Unlike the traditional dairy system, where ewes are brought in to milk as soon as they lamb, the couple follow a lamb-on system. This gives them the best of both dairy and sheep and beef worlds because they leave the lambs on their mothers for ﬁve to six weeks before weaning them and bringing the ewes into milk. “I’m an absolute animal lover,” Mulinder said. “I wanted our values to be something that I could be really proud of and I just think the lambs-on system, when you get it right, it’s a really great story. “It’s also got a nice ethos in terms of actually farming because you value the maternal worth of the ewe as much as you do her being a milking unit.” They looked at the lambs as a co-product of their dairy operation rather than a by-product. After weaning, they grew them out on grain for a month and then on pasture. The couple farm 770 ewes and 330 hoggets on their 150ha farm as well as 60 angus breeding cows. They start lambing in mid-August and milk from about September until April, supplying Maui Sheep Milk. They keep about 500 replacement lambs, which are gradually selected down to 350 as they mature. Of the non-replacement lambs, they sell about 200 prime and grow out another 800 to 900 until they are about 30kg and sell them store. Nixon said that between 30% and 40% of their income comes from the lambs and it was a good way to use them because traditional sheep farmers were often giving surplus lambs away for free with the rearing costs high. Nixon said that with milking sheep being a relatively small industry in New

KELLY HODEL/ WAIKATO TIMES

Zealand, there was less of a cookiecutter model to follow so they could find systems that worked for them. They gained skills through trial and error, and before that, had started to look at dairy farming differently after they spent two years working in the United Kingdom, where Mulinder managed milk supply contracts for dairy cow farms and Nixon worked as a process engineer. The dairy cow farms were often smaller there and not as centred around bobby calves as New Zealand. They are both from farming backgrounds and Nixon said they always knew they wanted to own a farm, but were “acutely aware that the best way to buy a farm was to keep doing our professional jobs”. “We were more interested in sheep and beef than dairy and then we started to hear about sheep milking about 10 years ago ... We got keen on it because we saw the ability to buy a smaller drystock block that wouldn’t normally be financially viable and then intensify it in terms of income with the sheep,” Nixon said. They ended up stumbling across the property, which was slightly bigger than they initially wanted. It worked because the retiring farmers wanted to help the youngsters out through vendor finance, which acted as a second loan for the couple that they paid off during the first five years. They still worked part-time as farm and engineering consultants while they were running the farm as well

as keeping an eye on their two young boys, Conor and Flynn. They said their backgrounds had helped them develop critical thinking and ﬁnancial skills that worked well for them structuring their business. Nixon was the risk taker, which drove Mulinder “slightly insane half the time” as she’s the realist. Flipping the farm from predominantly beef to sheep helped make the nitrogen cap in their catchment workable because they were a less intense stocking class and were more productive. In what little spare time the couple have, Mulinder sits on the Federated Farmers national executive team and is the Taupō and Rotorua meat and wool chairperson, while Nixon has set up Feedwise with his brother Ryan. Feedwise is a feed analysis tool that predicts and helps manage diets to improve production and animal health. It is currently in its beta testing phase. They said managing feed, fertiliser and being hands-on with stock management were some of the biggest challenges on the farm, especially because they had a short growing season in the cold area, but they loved the job. “When it’s going well on a nice day you can look around and see that you’ve set the farm and the stock up well. It’s so satisfying and I think the thing about farming is that it’s so much bigger than you and your feelings. “My responsibilities are my land and my animals, so you deﬁnitely can’t be self-centred,” Mulinder said.

Addressing a plastic problem Recycling

Tony Benny

roubled by the huge number of single-use plastic gloves thrown in the bin by practitioners like her, Waiuku vet Jennifer Stone has developed an alternative made from recycled plastic that she says performs better and reduces waste. Made from low-density polyethylene, plastic that’s had a previous life as a bread bag or food package, her gloves solve an issue that had bothered her for years. “I’ll put on a virgin plastic glove for an internal examination and might only have it on for 20 seconds and then it’s thrown away. I was surprised it wasn’t regulated by the government, like with supermarkets not being allowed to use plastic bags,” Stone said. A vet for 20 years, she thought about it for a long time before deciding she should actually do something about it, starting with research. She learnt about plastic and looked at what had already been tried to reduce waste, including washing and re-using the gloves or making them biodegradable or compostable. These options haven’t really worked, Stone said, either because they were not practical or not strong enough, so she decided to focus on using recycled plastic instead. While there seems to be no getting around the gloves having to be single-use, she believes at least if they’re made from recycled plastic, that will reduce the total amount being used. “You can’t really tell the difference between a post-consumer recycled polyethylene glove and a virgin plastic one and I feel a lot better when I’m putting one on. It’s already had a life so it’s a step in the right direction,” she said. She launched the ReGLOVE last year following intensive R&D that had to ﬁt round her busy life as a vet. “Testing in the ﬁeld was essential, including by the toughest critic – me,” she said, adding that her gloves are tough enough for New Zealand farming conditions, tactile for detecting calf positions or AI placement and safe for procedural uses. She sells a shoulder-length glove and a “C-neck” version that hooks over the user’s head and gives greater shoulder and chest protection. She’s tweaked the design slightly with a wider thumb angle, something she thinks will appeal to vets. Stone reckons switching to her gloves should be a no-brainer for vets, AI technicians and farmers. “We’re always on farmers’ backs about their emissions and sustainability and I thought we were quite hypocritical because I’ve got a ute full of plastic here. “Vets have a role in demonstrating positive changes.”

September 2026

NZ Farmer

Dairy 19

Updated all day at

Special $300m dividend from A2 Milk Dairy products

Rob Stock

ast-growing infant milk formula company A2 Milk has declared a $300 million “special” dividend despite a big drop in after-tax profit, which it blamed on one-off costs relating to the purchase and integration of a Pōkeno manufacturing plant. Statutory net profit, or the bottom line after taking into account the one-off hit, dropped by 44% to $113.6m from $202.9m. This included a one-off hit associated with its acquisition and integration of an advanced manufacturing facility in Pōkeno, a town to the south of Auckland. However, underlying net profit – which excludes the impact of a one-off cost – gained 7% to $235.8m. The company is dual-listed on the ASX and NZX sharemarkets and has grown rapidly through the sale of milk and infant formula made with a type of cow’s milk that contains only the A2 beta-casein protein, instead of the mixed A1 and A2 proteins found in regular milk, making it more easily digested by some people. In the 12 months to the end of June, A2 Milk grew revenue by 12.4%, reaching $1.975 billion. The company expects to break the $2b mark during its current financial year. A2 Milk managing director and chief executive David Bortolussi said: “[The 2026 financial year] was another year of strong execution by our team. We delivered revenue growth of 12% with all markets and categories in growth.” Things could have been better because the company’s China label infant milk

A2 Milk chief executive David Bortolussi says the company is “focused on executing its recovery plan”.

formula performance was impacted by product availability issues late in the year. However, Bortolussi said the key contributing factors had been resolved, and the company was “focused on executing its recovery plan”. Social media sentiment about the A2 Milk brand dropped sharply in China as a result of stock shortages and concerns

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over an A2 Milk infant formula recall in the United States. The company invested heavily in boosting its reputation in China, including through product endorsement advertising with the state-owned Xinhua News agency, a leading Chinese academic and the popular Daddy Lab social media inﬂuencer.

Bortolussi said A2 Milk had also introduced traceability on its formula, with consumers able to scan each tin to link it to batch-by-batch testing results from independent laboratories in China and New Zealand. A2 Milk had gained market share for its liquid milks in New Zealand, Australia and the US. Bortolussi was excited about A2 Milk’s moves to diversify its product range, including developing products aimed at the senior market. The payment of a $300m special dividend and increased ordinary dividends this year demonstrated effective capital management, he said. A2 Milk was also paying $153m in ordinary dividends. He would not be drawn on market speculation that A2 Milk was working with Fonterra on a possible takeover of Synlait. “All I would say is that we have got a long and great relationship with Bright and Synlait. The production issues that we’ve had are behind them, and their production has resumed. We have no concerns with Synlait,” Bortolussi said. China’s Bright Dairy is the majority owner of Synlait, while A2 holds almost 20%. Bortolussi was also optimistic about the Pōkeno acquisition. “The successful acquisition and transformation of A2 Pōkeno is a significant step in strengthening our supply chain and enabling growth with the launch of two new China label infant milk formula products planned for the first half of [the 2027 financial year].” Shareholders are being told to expect another year of strong growth.

NZ Farmer

September 2026

20 Sheep and Beef

Navigating evolving global markets The Red Meat Sector Conference will bring together industry leaders, policymakers and supply chain partners to discuss the key issues that are shaping the sector.

Red meat

Sonita Chandar

he Red Meat Sector Conference 2026 is set to tackle change head-on as industry leaders, policymakers and supply chain partners come together to discuss the key issues that are shaping the sector. The sector plays a vital role in New Zealand’s economy and identity, delivering high-quality products to the global market, which is rapidly evolving. This means collaboration across a connected sector is more important than ever. Meat Industry Association (MIA) independent chairperson Nathan Guy says the event comes at a time when the operating environment for the sector is complex and fast-moving. “The sector is navigating global uncertainty, the ﬂow-on impacts of the conﬂict in the Middle East, shifting market dynamics and ongoing cost pressures. “We’re also celebrating some key milestones and achievements such as the India-NZ Free Trade Agreement and strong underlying demand for our beef and lamb from across the globe.

“This conference is about taking stock and focusing on where to next for a sector that produces quality nutritious protein for the world, and underpins regional communities and the New Zealand economy.” The two-day conference offers a valuable opportunity to share ideas, challenge thinking and explore practical solutions to the opportunities and challenges ahead. It will feature a number of guest speakers from across markets and the supply chain sharing their views on how the sector can continue to enhance value, strengthen resilience and uphold the standards that underpin New Zealand’s international reputation. Alongside Guy and Beef + Lamb NZ chairperson Kate Acland, the guest speakers include Dr Victoria Hatton, of FoodHQ, a strategic foresight leader who helps boards, executives and sectors anticipate change and turn it into advantage. She is a recognised voice on the future of food and ﬁbre, and works to move New Zealand beyond commodity exports towards premium, resilient value, with clarity and a gift for bringing people with her. Wayne McNee, chief executive of AgriZero NZ, specialises in leadership,

the Trump administration strategy and sustainability and foreign governments across the agribusiness and to advance the US cattle health sectors. and beef industry’s trade Simon Quilty priorities. established Global Other guest speakers AgriTrends Downunder, include Kroger Co chief which offers a variety of executive Greg Foran; updates on the sector, Brett Stuart from US including a podcast, ﬁrm Global Agritrends, a monthly newsletter who advises companies and weekly updates for around the world on global subscribers as a meat and agriculture trends, with livestock analyst. Diana Reaich is the Meat Industry Association an emphasis on Asia; Ministry for Primary independent chairperson Christchurch International Airport chairperson Industries’ (MPI) associate Nathan Guy Sarah Ottrey; and Felicity deputy director-general for Roxburgh from the New Zealand trade and international relations. International Business Forum. She provides senior leadership “This will be a great opportunity to across MPI’s market access and trade hear directly from across the value policy system, helping to position New chain, and ensure we are aligned on the Zealand’s primary sector to navigate priorities that will strengthen the sector an increasingly complex and uncertain into the future,” Guy says. global trade environment. “Getting people together in one place Kent Bacus is the executive director, allows for the kind of conversations that government affairs, of the National don’t happen anywhere else.” Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) in The conference, hosted by the the United States. He leads the business Meat Industry Association (MIA), and policy team, which manages issues such delivered in partnership with Beef + as tax, ﬁnancial services, cattle markets Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ), will be held and international trade, and serves as at Tākina in Wellington on September the NCBA’s lead on international trade 28-29. policy, where he works with Congress,

Meat processor stresses weak points Meat sector

Canterbury reporter

he Japanese owner of Christchurch-based meat processor and exporter ANZCO Foods has given investors a pointed assessment of weaknesses in its own business as it prepares to spend $800 million buying rival Greenlea. Itoham Yonekyu Holdings said Greenlea had achieved “top-tier proﬁtability” among New Zealand meat companies, while ANZCO had not reached the same level. The Commerce Commission cleared ANZCO’s purchase of Greenlea on August 17, ﬁnding that enough competition would remain for farmers selling cattle and customers buying beef. The acquisition still requires Overseas Investment Office approval before it can be completed. ANZCO’s core operations are in the

Christchurch-based meat processor and exporter ANZCO Foods operates processing plants across the country.

South Island, including Canterbury, which Itoham said did not offer the same logistical efficiency for buying livestock, processing meat and making sales as

Greenlea’s Waikato base. Greenlea operates beef plants in Hamilton and Morrinsville, in the heart of a major dairy and cattle region, and relatively close to the Port of Tauranga. Itoham said this gave Greenlea a more stable year-round supply of cattle and reduced swings in how heavily its plants were used. ANZCO is headquartered in Christchurch and operates four processing sites in the South Island – at Ashburton, Kōkiri on the West Coast, Marlborough and Rakaia. Its Ashburton operation alone employs more than 1000 people. Itoham also said Greenlea ran simpler operations and used its working capital more efficiently than ANZCO. ANZCO’s lamb, healthcare and blood serum businesses require it to carry more inventory, while its lamb business is particularly exposed to seasonal swings. Even within beef, Itoham said, Greenlea was more efficient.

Expensive factories that are not necessarily busy all year are a longstanding problem for New Zealand meat processors. ANZCO’s own application to the Commerce Commission said about 85% of meat processing took place between November and June. Because of seasonal swings, plants across the industry operate at an average of about 48% of capacity over a full year. At the same time, processors are paying high prices for livestock. ANZCO said record cattle prices were beneﬁting farmers but increasing processors’ costs and the amount of cash they needed to fund animals before meat was sold overseas. Greenlea processes about 240,000 cattle a year, compared with about 370,000 at ANZCO. Itoham said it expected the combination to produce more than $10m a year in additional pre-tax proﬁts within two to three years, but the eventual gains could be about twice that amount.

September 2026

NZ Farmer

Sheep and Beef 21

Updated all day at

ased on a recent analysis of Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s 75 years of farm data collection through our Economic Service, we found that the single biggest driver of profitability on New Zealand sheep and beef farms across all regions is meat production per hectare. Put simply, it is kilograms of carcass weight leaving the farm gate. That may sound obvious. Yet if it is so obvious, why aren’t more of us measuring it? Benchmarking has consistently shown the value of tracking performance. You would assume every sheep and beef farmer could readily tell you their kilograms of meat produced per hectare. But many cannot. On our own farm, we certainly couldn’t. When we asked farmers in one of our quarterly surveys, fewer than 20% said they regularly tracked the metric at all. That should concern us. Twelve years ago, we converted part of our farm to dairy. While I am not involved in the day-to-day running of that operation, I can still tell you our total milk production, kilograms of milk solids per hectare and per cow, empty rate and six-week in-calf rate. Ask our young manager and she would quickly add submission rate, pasture harvested, supplement utilisation and a host of other key figures. The numbers are ingrained because they matter. By contrast, many sheep and beef farmers struggle to get much further than scanning and tailing percentages. Those measures are important, but they are only part of the story. Dairy farmers have developed a culture of relentless measurement and analysis. They understand that productivity drives profitability, and they track the numbers accordingly. The sheep and beef sector has been slower to embrace that mindset. In recent years, we have made significant changes to our own stock policy. Rather than focusing heavily on lamb finishing, we have directed more feed towards replacement ewe lambs. Our objective has been simple: get 100% of replacements to tupping weight and ultimately produce a lamb from every hogget. As a result, we now sell a much larger proportion of our lambs as store stock.

Focus on the critical benchmarks

Dairy farmers have developed a culture of relentless measurement and analysis. They understand that productivity drives proﬁtability, and they track the numbers accordingly. The sheep and beef sector has been slower to embrace that mindset. By Kate Acland.

Beef + Lamb New Zealand chairperson Kate Acland says New Zealand’s biggest strategic asset as a country is its ability to produce food efficiently.

CLARE TOIA-BAILEY

The change felt right. The back-ofthe-envelope calculations suggested it was working. But recently I found myself asking an uncomfortable question: how did we actually know? A shift of that magnitude should have been backed by robust analysis, not instinct and educated guesswork. So, I sat down to calculate our meat production per hectare over time. It should have been easy. We use both farm management software and farm accounting software. Yet the exercise quickly became more complicated than expected. Store animals had been entered into the accounting software on a per-head basis rather than a weight basis. Grazing arrangements for dairy stock and areas planted in crops created further challenges. Eventually, I worked through the numbers by retrospectively estimating liveweights for store sales, converting these to carcass weight equivalents and adjusting the effective farm area to account for grazing and cropping. The methodology may not have been perfect, but the exercise highlighted an important lesson.

Consistency matters. If we are going to compare performance over time, we need a repeatable approach and a focus on getting the base data right – getting into habits like sample-weighing stock going to sale yards and entering these against invoices. And if we are serious about benchmarking across farm systems and regions, we need a nationally shared framework as well. Farming will always be a blend of art and science. Experience, judgment and intuition remain invaluable. But in the sheep and beef sector, many of us have leaned too heavily on the art and not enough on the science. We rightly celebrate the enormous productivity gains achieved since 1990. New Zealand now exports close to the same volume of sheepmeat with less than half the number of sheep. That is a remarkable achievement and a credit to generations of farmers. But we also need to be honest. Much of that productivity growth has stalled over the past decade. At the same time, our industry’s attention has understandably been drawn towards environmental performance. That focus is necessary

and important. But productivity and environmental outcomes are not competing goals. In fact, the most productive farms are often the most efficient users of land, feed and resources. If we want stronger proﬁtability, stronger environmental outcomes and a more resilient sector, we must start by measuring what matters. That means knowing things like our kilograms of meat per hectare – as well as weaning weights, condition score, growth rates and more. It means benchmarking ourselves against the best, replacing assumptions with evidence and gut feel with data. This is something that B+LNZ is going to be focused on over the next couple of years. The sheep and beef sector has proved before that it can deliver extraordinary productivity gains. We have done it once. We can do it again. But ﬁrst, we need to start counting. Kate Acland is chairperson of Beef + Lamb New Zealand and a mid-Canterbury sheep, beef and dairy farmer.

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NZ Farmer

September 2026

22 Horticulture

Outstanding contributions Awards

ustainable growing practices, scientific innovation, decarbonisation and exceptional support for the Recognised Seasonal Employer scheme were among the achievements recognised in the 2026 Horticulture Industry Awards. Five awards were announced at the New Zealand Horticulture Conference Industry Awards and Gala Dinner in Wellington on July 29. They were presented in recognition of outstanding contributions to commercial fruit and vegetable growing in New Zealand. The Horticulture Bledisloe Cup, the premier award in the horticulture industry, was awarded to Pukekohe-based grower Peter Reynolds, of TA Reynolds Ltd. The cup is awarded to a person who has made an outstanding and meritorious contribution to the New Zealand horticulture industry. Reynolds has made a significant and lasting contribution to New Zealand horticulture through decades of leadership in vegetable growing. He has championed sustainable farming practices, improving soil health, reducing environmental impact and strengthening grower capability. He is widely respected for openly sharing knowledge, for his leadership in responding to regional challenges and for his commitment to future generations, including support for young grower programmes. The President’s Trophy, which aims to celebrate and develop inspiring leadership within the horticulture industry, was presented to Ben Smith, general manager at T&G Global. A former Young Grower of the Year and Young Horticulturist of the Year, Smith’s career reflects the full pathway from emerging talent to industry leader, driving excellence in growing systems and sustainable production. Over more than two decades, he has progressed from technical roles to general manager. Smith continues to give back through his involvement in Tomatoes NZ and wider sector initiatives, sharing knowledge, supporting collaboration and making a lasting contribution to strengthening New Zealand horticulture and its future resilience.

Peter Reynolds is the 2026 winner of the Horticulture Bledisloe Cup.

The FMG Sustainable Innovation Award was presented to the steering group for the Kiwifruit Postharvest Industry Refrigerant Decarbonisation project, which tackles the challenge of transitioning away from high-globalwarming refrigerants and ageing infrastructure. The collaborative initiative between Bay of Plenty postharvest operators was launched in 2024, with the steering group comprising Lloyd Franks (Seeka), Ollie Hoare (HumePack), Sarah Lei (Trevelyan’s) and Les Dimond (G4 Kiwi Supply). Supported by $1.75 million in combined government and industry funding, the project has already delivered pilot upgrades across 29 systems, cutting

potential emissions by more than 17,000 tCO2e. The Manaaki Award, sponsored by Mr Apple, was awarded to Emeritus Professor Dr Richard Bedford in recognition of his exceptional and sustained contribution to the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme since its inception. The award recognises a person, group or organisation that has risen above the call of duty to support employers and workers. It recognises the positive impact an act of service has had on employers, workers, the community and the whole RSE scheme. For nearly 20 years, Bedford has played a pivotal role, providing independent, objective and data-driven insights that

have helped to shape the RSE scheme’s direction and success. Through his research, leadership and advocacy, and ability to translate complex data into practical insights, he has supported informed decisionmaking, continuous improvement and strengthened outcomes for workers, businesses and communities. His work has also articulated the “triple win” model, highlighting the benefits of the scheme for employers, Pacific workers and communities and New Zealand’s economy. The Industry Service Award went to Dr Mike Currie, who leads the Stage 2 New Cultivar Programme at the Kiwifruit Breeding Centre. The award recognises people with long and dedicated service to a supplier or service role (not a grower) who have worked beyond the call of duty for the betterment of the horticulture industry. Currie has made an outstanding contribution to the New Zealand kiwifruit industry over more than 30 years. His applied science has consistently improved orchard productivity, fruit quality and grower profitability, with innovations widely adopted across New Zealand and international growing systems. He has played a key role in developing practical tools such as girdling, as well as advancing new cultivars and supporting programmes like Taste Zespri. A collaborative leader and committed mentor, his innovation and growerfocused approach are highly respected for bridging science and on-orchard practice, ensuring that research delivers real value for growers. Horticulture New Zealand board chairperson Bernadine Guilleux said the award winners all showed absolute dedication to the horticulture industry, making valuable contributions to its position as one of New Zealand’s fastestgrowing and most valuable primary sectors. “The breadth of our award winners’ contributions, from growing, science and research to innovation and sustainable production, encompasses the great and varied work being done across the horticulture sector to provide healthy, affordable produce for New Zealand and for the world, contributing significantly to the economy at regional and national levels.”

How to prevent pesticide resistance Agrichemicals

new industry-good campaign is encouraging growers and farmers to prioritise pesticide resistance management, to future-proof their businesses and help offset a potential $1 billion industry risk. Keep what works, working is an awareness campaign led by the A Lighter Touch programme, with industrywide support. It is focused on users of agrichemicals, and is urging growers and farmers to have conversations with their advisers about how to prolong the efficacy and longevity of crop protection products by practising good resistance management. A Lighter Touch programme director Livia Esterhazy says resistance management should be viewed as an investment in the future resilience of growing and farming businesses. “Growers rely on a relatively limited number of crop protection tools to manage pests, diseases and weeds. Once resistance develops, those tools become

Decisions on farms can slow resistance development.

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progressively less effective, and some can eventually fail altogether,” Esterhazy says. “Growers and farmers can make a difference to the speed at which resistance develops. By having a conversation with their adviser before the season starts, they can take practical steps that help protect the tools they depend on today, while preserving options for the future. “Thousands of good decisions made across farms, orchards and vineyards can slow the development of resistance and

protect the tools we all rely on. The ﬁrst step is starting the conversation – before you reach for the spray.” Analysis undertaken by the New Zealand Institute of Economic Research (NZIER) found that reduced resistance management could impose signiﬁcant costs on New Zealand’s horticulture, arable and viticulture production systems over time. Scenario modelling over a 10-year horizon estimated potential losses

ranging from $74 million under moderate impact scenarios through to more than $1.26 billion in severe scenarios where resistance problems become widespread. These impacts could stem from lower yields, declining product quality, rising input costs and increased market access risks. The campaign spans the horticulture, viticulture and arable sectors, although its message is relevant to pastoral farming systems where agrichemicals are used, particularly for weed management. It has been developed in consultation with industry to address the ever-growing threat of resistance development. To support conversations, an adviser tool kit has been developed, including fact sheets on pesticide resistance, modes of action, and the role of Integrated Pest Management in resistance management. In addition, 14 sector-speciﬁc technical case studies provide examples of resistance being managed in crops relevant to growers. More information about the campaign can be found at keepwhatworksworking.co.nz.

September 2026

NZ Farmer

Horticulture 23

Updated all day at

HortNZ welcomes RSE reforms Opinion

Kate Scott

easonal workers sit at the heart of New Zealand horticulture. At Horticulture New Zealand (HortNZ), we see that reality every season, as growers work to get fruit and vegetables from orchard and paddock to market and Pacific workers support their own families and communities at the same time. That is why the Government’s announcement of positive and practical reforms to the Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) scheme is so welcome. HortNZ has been clear about what is needed. RSE settings must be fair, futurefocused and sustainable for employers, workers and Pacific partners. These plans are a strong step in that direction. They strike the right balance, strengthening protection and clarity for workers while giving growers greater certainty to plan, invest and harvest crops. As the RSE scheme approaches its 20th anniversary next year, it is worth reflecting on what it has made possible – a reliable seasonal workforce for growers, and life-changing income, skills and opportunities for Pacific workers and their communities. Horticulture is a New Zealand success story, but growers need confidence in their workforce to make long-term decisions. With export revenue forecast to reach more than $9.7 billion in 2026/27, practical settings are essential if the sector is to keep lifting productivity and value. The value of RSE work is also felt across the Pacific, where strong labour mobility

Seasonal horticultural workers in Hawke’s Bay.

partnerships are built on trust, respect and reciprocity. The reforms recognise that this is a mutually beneficial relationship, and that productivity and worker wellbeing must go hand in hand. For growers, the policy changes will help maintain access to the people needed to pick, pack and process high-value produce. For workers and Pacific partners, they place wellbeing at the centre of the scheme’s future. New Zealand workers must remain the first priority for employers. The RSE scheme should continue to complement that workforce by filling genuine seasonal labour gaps when enough local workers are not available. The practical improvements give growers and workers clearer expectations, strengthen protections and reduce unnecessary compliance for trusted employers.

practices, and to support a world-class standard of Pacific labour mobility. A dependable seasonal workforce is central to horticulture’s continued growth and value. If we are serious about the future of the industry and the New Zealand economy, we need practical, effective settings in place. These RSE reforms show how government, industry and the Pacific can work together on practical solutions that focus on risk, cut red tape and let growers get on with growing. The opportunity now is to show what world-class, values-led labour mobility can look like. The RSE scheme has A graduated supported growers, workers accreditation model and a and Pacific communities for more transparent cap process almost two decades. These will help growers plan, invest reforms help keep it fit for the future. and grow. With these changes, the scheme HortNZ boss Standardised cost-recovery Kate Scott says will be more transparent, resilient agreements, clearer rules on and better equipped to support RSE changes allowable costs and stronger must be fair and horticulture, sending-country complaints processes will make partnerships and the people who sustainable. the system easier for workers to make the harvest possible. navigate. It will support the sector’s RSE workers’ main responsibilities will ambition to double the farmgate value continue to be planting, picking, packing of horticulture production by 2035 and and harvesting, while allowing them to contribute to the national goal of doubling carry out related tasks, including using food and fibre export value. machinery, where that makes practical Most importantly, it gives growers the sense. confidence to expand production, lift The reforms also build on the sector’s productivity and drive greater value while Whānau Moana Nui – “Family of the keeping people and partnerships at the Pacific” – approach. That work brings centre. growers, government and Pacific partners together to strengthen pastoral care, Kate Scott is the chief executive of accommodation and employment Horticulture New Zealand.

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NZ Farmer

September 2026

Green Grass, Red Ink: A Sharper Spring

By Dr Maria Elena Duter, Head of Agronomy at Farmlands

pring has always been New Zealand farming’s season of promise as the grass comes away, calves hit the ground, and there’s a sense the hard transit through winter is finally paying off. This year, that promise comes with an asterisk: forecasters say El Niño will strengthen through spring and into summer, bringing the kind of dry, unpredictable weather that can turn a good season sour fast. But here’s the thing seasoned farmers already know: an El Niño spring isn’t a crisis waiting to happen. It’s a heads-up. And a heads-up is something you can actually use.

The weather window is narrowing, so we need to use it early With El Niño narrowing the reliable weather windows for spray and fertiliser applications, the farmers who come out ahead this spring won’t be the ones with the biggest budgets, but those who booked early and planned around the gaps instead of hoping the gaps wouldn’t show up. If there’s one practical takeaway for the next fortnight, it’s this: get nutrient plans locked in now, not when the forecast forces your hand. Costs are up, but so is the case for control Nobody needs reminding that fertiliser, fuel and feed have all crept up again, partly on the back of global shipping and Middle East tensions. The instinct is to feel squeezed. But the more useful frame is this: this year’s cost pressure is mostly about price, not supply; meaning the tools to manage it are firmly in farmers’ hands. That’s very different from a shortage you can’t plan around. Deferring non-essential spending, prioritising where the dollars go, and locking in prices where possible are all real levers right now, not wishful thinking. Milk and meat returns are still holding up in most cases; the job this spring is protecting the margin underneath them. Condition score: the number that’s earning its keep If there’s one metric worth watching closely this spring, it’s body condition score. It’s unglamorous, unrelenting work, but it’s also one of the few levers farmers can pull that pays off almost immediately, regardless of what the weather or the markets do. Stock that go into spring at the right condition recover faster, get back in calf sooner, and hold production better through a dry patch than stock that don’t. In an El Niño year, where feed cover can turn tight without

much warning, that buffer matters more than usual. It’s also happening against a tighter labour market than farmers have seen in a few years. Recruitment difficulty across the sector is a real strain, but it’s a known one, and known strains can be planned for: prioritise the animals furthest off target, get ahead of any feed gaps before they bite, and don’t leave condition scoring as the job that happens “when there’s time.” Shade, wind and facial eczema risk An El Niño spring plays out differently around the country, but shade matters either way. Stronger, more frequent westerlies typically bring drier, windier conditions with more high-UV days to the north and east of both islands, while Southland, Otago and the West Coast tend to see more rain instead. In the drier, sunnier east, stock without shade start showing the effects of heat stress well before it’s obvious to the eye: they eat less, spend more energy trying to cool down, and that energy tradeoff shows up directly in the vat and on the scales. A run of a few consecutive hot days can knock milk production back, and the drop can linger for days after the weather breaks. Paddocks with established shelterbelts, trees or portable shade structures deserve the same attention as nutrient planning this year, because they’re one of the few levers that pays for itself precisely when the season is testing it. Those same El Niño westerlies do damage well beyond drying pasture out. Sheep systems feel it hardest at lambing: exposed, wind-chilled conditions increase the risk of mismothering and can push lamb losses up sharply in hill country with little natural shelter, even

without hard frost. Beef and dairy herds calving into wind and rain face a similar dynamic: calves chilled soon after birth need colostrum and warmth fast, and cows without shelter burn extra energy just holding condition, working against the same body-condition targets already under pressure this spring. Beyond the stock, wind takes a toll on infrastructure and pasture alike: fences and shelterbelts damaged or down, hay and baleage stacks disturbed, and pasture growth itself checked as strong, drying winds pull moisture out of the sward faster than it can be replaced. None of it shows up on a single day’s forecast, but across a full spring of stronger-thanusual westerlies, it adds up to a real cost across every class of stock. Beyond the stock, wind takes a toll on infrastructure and pasture alike: fences and shelterbelts damaged or down, hay and baleage stacks disturbed, and pasture growth itself checked as strong, drying winds pull moisture out of the sward faster than it can be replaced. None of it shows up on a single day’s forecast, but across a full spring of stronger-than-usual westerlies, it adds up to a real cost across every class of stock. The flip side is one that catches farmers out every few years: facial eczema in the autumn and early winter. The fungus behind it thrives in the leaf litter at the base of the sward once night temperatures hold above 12 degrees for two or more nights with enough moisture around, and this year that risk sits mostly with the wetter regions El Niño tends to favour the West Coast, rather than the drier east. Even in typically drier areas, a humid spell or a patch of unseasonal rain can create a pocket of risk, so it pays not to assume distance from the wet regions means distance from the disease. The toxin it produces does its real damage

to the liver, and by the time the visible skin damage that gives the disease its name shows up, that damage is already done. Spore counts can climb quickly once conditions turn, which makes this early summer through to early winter season for regular pasture monitoring with FECPAK test kits rather than waiting for symptoms to appear in the herd. None of this is new advice, but it’s worth tailoring to where you farm this spring: closer monitoring for facial eczema risk in the wetter west, and closer attention to shade and heat stress in the drier, sunnier east. Either way, it’s a manageable risk rather than an unavoidable one, provided it’s on the radar now rather than discovered in the yard come January. Other animal health considerations include ensuring that adequate good quality water supply is always maintained. With drier El Niño weather, pasture plants tend to burn off, and can leave stock without sufficient mineral and vitamin intakes for meeting production needs. Providing a molassed salt block is one ideal solution. Infective stages of gastrointestinal parasites are often reduced during an extended dry period. However, within a few weeks of a decent rain livestock – especially young stock, may face a tsunami-like wave of parasite challenges when already bodily stressed or weakened after a long dry spell. Regular monitoring of stock for parasite burdens with FECPAK faecal testing is worthwhile and helps to offset unnecessary drench treatments during an El Niño event. Not forgetting to keep vaccinations up to date helps reduce the disease challenges which may otherwise come. Adapting what we do well Zoom out, and there’s a genuinely hopeful thread running through where New Zealand farming is heading. Industry conversations this year have made the point clear: farms don’t have to choose between profitability and lower emissions, as some of the most profitable operations in the country are also among the least emissions-intensive. Other nations are watching how New Zealand handles this balance - not because we’re behind, but because our small, export-focused sector has a track record of adapting at scale when it needs to. That’s really the story of this spring. Nothing here is a surprise on the scale of a true shock; the weather signal is out, the cost pressures are visible, the labour crunch is documented, and the heat, wind and facial eczema risks are exactly what this El Niño’s regional split of drier east and wetter west would be expected to bring. The farmers who do well over the next three months won’t be the lucky ones; they’ll be the ones who took the warning seriously in August and did something about it before October arrived. Spring rewards preparation. This year, more than most, it will.

September 2026

Rural never grows it alone. You can count on us this spring. And for every spring to come. Talk to your Farmlands rep, order in FarmlandsPRO or head into your local store.

NZ Farmer

September 2026

26 Forestry

Beyond the log: Is this the future of New Zealand forestry? Scott Downs Head of Sales and Key Clients, Stand

or generations, we have measured the value of a forest by the logs it produces. Grow the trees, harvest them, send the better logs to domestic processors and export much of the remainder. But what if we looked at a tree differently? Instead of simply producing logs, our forests could provide timber, energy, renewable fuels, chemicals and other biomaterials. A proposed integrated forestry processing hub at Kaingaroa provides an interesting glimpse of what that future could look like. The concept brings wood processing, bioenergy and biochemical production together near one of New Zealand's largest forest resources. Rather than residues being treated as a low-value by-product, they become the raw material for another industry. The concept is relatively simple: extract as much value as economically possible from every tree. Our better logs can become structural and appearance timber, including increasingly sophisticated engineered wood products. Lower-grade logs can be used for industrial timber, panels and ﬁbre products. Bark, sawdust, woodchips and other processing residues can provide renewable process heat or be converted into pellets, chemicals and potentially liquid biofuels for industries such as shipping and aviation. There is also an opportunity to

For generations we have measures a forest’s value by the logs it produces. But what if the future is more about extracting as much value as economically possible from every tree instead?

reconsider how we view forest residues. Around 3.5 million tonnes of harvest residues are estimated to remain in New Zealand production forests annually, with around 1.6 million tonnes potentially recoverable from landing sites. Not all residues should or can be removed, but if this material develops commercial value, what is currently viewed as a liability could increasingly become a resource. Perhaps the most compelling argument for processing is the value it creates. Value-added wood products account for only around 15% of New Zealand's forestry export volume yet generate more than

40% of forestry export revenue – close to $3 billion annually. More processing also means skilled employment, investment and economic activity remain in regional New Zealand. There is, however, an uncomfortable question. If processing wood creates so much value, why have several New Zealand wood-processing facilities closed in recent years? Simply having plenty of trees does not guarantee a successful processing industry. New Zealand processors face high energy and labour costs, large capital requirements and international competitors operating

at enormous scale. We need to make processing in New Zealand more competitive. Integrated processing hubs offer one potential solution. Sawmilling, engineered timber, panel manufacturing, bioenergy and biochemicals can operate alongside each other, sharing infrastructure while turning one processor's residues into another's raw material. Greater automation, secure long-term wood supply agreements and a focus on highervalue products can further improve the economics. Government also has a role – not necessarily through subsidies, but by providing stable policy and an environment that encourages longterm capital investment. Government procurement of New Zealand-made, lowcarbon timber for schools, hospitals and other infrastructure could also help create the scale and certainty processors need. We shouldn't expect New Zealand to manufacture commodity wood products more cheaply than every overseas competitor. Our opportunity is to manufacture smarter, higher-value products from a forest resource we grow exceptionally well. For generations, we have measured forests by the tonnes of logs they produce. Perhaps the next generation will measure them by how much value we extract from every tonne. The future of New Zealand forestry may not be about growing more wood. It may be about becoming much smarter at what we do with it.

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September 2026

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September 2026

28 Health and Safety

Take care exiting tractor cab This article is part of the Safety Alert series: learnings from real-life incidents that have happened on farm. They are part of Safer Farms’ Farm Without Harm strategy and action plan, which has been developed by the agriculture sector, for the agriculture sector. Safety alerts

ushing to get a job done, a farmer jumped down from a tractor cab without using the steps and suffered an ankle injury that impacted his ability to work for the next six weeks. He has shared his story as the subject of the latest Safety Alert from Safer Farms, highlighting how easily routine tasks can result in prolonged downtime when safety steps are skipped in the name of speed. The experienced arable farmer was preparing to shift some irrigation. Because he was working with water, he was wearing standard gumboots. In a hurry, he stood on the front wheel and jumped down from the cab instead of using the tractor steps. He landed on uneven ground and rolled his ankle. That caused a chip in a bone, and as a result of the injury, he was off work for three weeks, followed by three weeks of rehabilitation, during which he could only manage limited tasks. For an owner-operator or a worker on a small farm, an injury like this hits the business hardest because there are no extra staff members to spread the load. While ACC cover provided some

financial help, the farmer found that securing skilled relief labour at short notice to keep the business running proved nearly impossible. Rushing the task was the primary driver of the incident, leading the farmer to use the front wheel as a step rather than using the proper tractor steps to climb down safely. Additionally, while gumboots are the only fit-for-purpose footwear choice for irrigation work, they do not provide ankle support when jumping onto rough terrain. Safety Alerts can be downloaded as easy-to-read, one-page handouts and shared with farm teams to promote discussions about safety. This alert can be used to talk about: ■ Always use the steps: never use wheels or guards as makeshift steps, and never jump from a tractor, quadbike or any farm machinery. ■ Always maintain three points of contact until your feet are firmly on the ground. ■ Acknowledge footwear limitations: Because you can’t wear sturdy lace-up boots for every job, take care when transitioning from machinery to rough terrain.

Who are we? Safer Farms is a membership organisation that recognises the whole sector beneﬁts from improved health and safety. It brings together farmers and senior leaders from agribusiness, agricultural industry groups and government. Safety Alerts document real-life incidents, distilling key lessons from farmers into concise, one-page handouts for managers to use in safety discussions with their teams. Safety Alerts are a great way to learn from incidents that have happened on other farms. Ask yourself: ■ Could this happen on my farm? ■ What do I have in place to prevent this from happening? ■ How can I implement these learnings? To view the Safety Alerts, visit farmwithoutharm.org.nz/ safety-alerts. Alerts can be printed out for use in training and discussions and there is an option to be emailed when new Safety Alerts are added. The steps from a tractor cab are there for a reason – to help prevent avoidable injuries.

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NZ Farmer

Employment News 29

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Prepare for new leave laws Opinion

In a significant change, leave calculations will be based on hours instead of full days.

Ashlea Maley

ew Zealand’s leave system is undergoing its biggest reform in more than two decades, following the Employment Leave Act 2026 receiving Royal Assent on August 6. The new legislation will replace the Holidays Act 2003 from August 6, 2028, introducing a simpler framework for how leave entitlements are earned, taken and paid. While the new rules will not apply until 2028, the two-year transition period is already under way. For farming businesses, now is the time to understand what is changing and begin preparing for the impact on workforce management, payroll systems and employment documentation. Why the reforms matter For many employers, calculating leave entitlements under the current Holidays Act has been far from straightforward, particularly where employees work variable hours, seasonal schedules or irregular rosters. These complexities have led to payroll errors across the country and made it difficult for many businesses to conﬁdently manage their leave obligations. The Employment Leave Act is designed to create a simpler, more transparent framework that provides greater certainty for both employers and employees. The key changes One of the biggest reforms is the move

from a system based on weeks and days to one based on hours. Under the new framework, annual leave and sick leave will accrue in hours from an employee’s first day of employment. Bereavement leave and family violence leave will also be available for the employee from day one. Other significant changes include: ■ A single hourly rate for calculating leave payments. ■ A new 12.5% Leave Compensation Payment for additional and casual hours worked. ■ Greater flexibility for employees to cash up annual leave. ■ More detailed pay statements and leave information. ■ A new “Otherwise Working Day” test to help determine public holiday entitlements for employees with irregular work patterns. ■ The removal of the parental leave annual leave payment penalty.

The overall goal is to make leave entitlements easier to understand, calculate and administer. What this means for farming businesses For the agricultural sector, the reforms are particularly relevant. Many farming operations experience ﬂuctuations in labour demand throughout the year, whether during calving and lambing seasons, harvest periods, planting cycles or other peak production times. Businesses often rely on a workforce that combines fulltime employees with seasonal and casual staff, whose hours can vary signiﬁcantly depending on operational requirements. An hours-based leave system is expected to provide greater clarity for these types of working arrangements by creating a more direct link between hours worked and leave accrued. It should also improve transparency for employees and reduce some of the

complexity associated with managing leave for workers with irregular schedules. The legislation also introduces distinctions between standard hours, additional hours and casual hours, making it important for employers to understand how different working arrangements will be classiﬁed under the new system. Start preparing now Although businesses must continue complying with the current Holidays Act until 2028, the transition period is already under way. Employers have two years to review their systems and processes before the new framework takes effect. For farming businesses, practical steps include: ■ Reviewing employment agreements to ensure hours of work are clearly documented. ■ Assessing how permanent, seasonal and casual workers ﬁt within the new framework. ■ Reviewing payroll systems and recordkeeping processes. ■ Updating workplace policies where required. ■ Seeking professional HR or payroll advice to understand the potential impact on the business. ■ The businesses that start planning early will be best placed for a smooth transition when the new framework is in force. Ashlea Maley is director of operations for Peninsula New Zealand. For further information or advice on HR and health and safety, visit peninsulagrouplimited.co.nz.

NZ Farmer

September 2026

30 Viticulture

Why this downturn is different Opinion

Erica Crawford

he increase in United States tariffs on New Zealand exports from 10% to 12.5% has prompted plenty of discussion about what it means for smaller businesses like ours. The truth is, tariffs matter. They make exporting more expensive, they squeeze margins and they create another layer of uncertainty at a time when exporters – wine, dairy and horticulture – are already dealing with enough. However, if there’s one thing more than 30 years in the wine industry has taught me, it’s that tariffs are rarely the whole story. Wine isn’t priced like beans or lamb chops. It’s a discretionary purchase, so prices tend to stay steady rather than moving up and down with demand and seasonality. That means we don’t get to ride high margins in the good times. So when costs rise, there’s no cushion and they are largely absorbed rather than passed on. We’ve already had two or three genuine cost increases stack up before this most recent tariff landed. The war in Iran has pushed nearly everything up in price. Freight, glass, fuel, packaging – it’s all moved up in price. This tariff is just the latest line on a list that was already long, and there’s only so much a business can absorb before something has to give. Could this be the year prices actually change? It’s a question we’re weighing carefully, not one with an easy answer. If we do take a price increase, it would likely be in small steps rather than one sharp jump; something like a 2.5% lift on our end, which by the time it works through an importer and various distributors, might land as a couple of US dollars more on the shelf. Why so cautious? Because we’re fighting for shelf space against both the big New Zealand brands and the big US ones, which don’t carry the same tariff burden (bulk shipments and lower product prices on entry) and have scale we don’t. It’s David and Goliath – except there are a lot of little Davids and only a handful of true Goliaths. And this fight is happening at an already difficult time. Consumption is down. Economic pressure is biting into discretionary spending everywhere. Add in interest on business debt that many wineries are carrying, and it’s genuinely tough. I don’t think every business in this industry will see it through. I’ve lived through downturns before, the 2008 financial crisis among them, but this one has more layers to it. It’s not just economics. It’s geopolitics, and frankly, it’s also simple oversupply:

Kiwi wines are fighting for shelf space in the United States against each other and US brands without the same tariff burden.

“

Consumption is down. Economic pressure is biting into discretionary spending everywhere. Add in interest on business debt that many wineries are carrying, and it’s genuinely tough. I don’t think every business in this industry will see it through.

there is too much wine in the world right now. Like many parts of agriculture, wine can’t turn on a dime. Animals take time to grow, orchards take years before they produce a worthwhile crop and vineyards are the same. It takes roughly five years for a decision made in the vineyard, such as changing to a different varietal, to reach a glass in someone’s hand. We’re mothballing some of our own pinot gris vineyards right now, a recognition that drinking trends move, and if we’re not close enough to consumers to see where they’re heading, we’ll be five years too late. That lag is exactly why staying close to the customer matters more than ever. So what do you do with all of that? Manage your costs everywhere you can – vineyard, winery, overheads. Above all, protect your brand. In the US particularly, brand is everything right now. It’s the difference between competing on story and quality or competing purely on price, which nobody wins for long. It also means looking beyond the markets that are already tapped out. Korea is shaping up as a genuine growth market for premium New Zealand wine, and India is one we’re actively exploring, too. Neither will replace the US overnight, and they shouldn’t have to. But diversification isn’t optional anymore. Increasingly, I think you have to pick a lane. Sit in the middle of the market and you’re exposed from both sides. You either compete on volume, with the scale to back it, or you commit fully to being an authentic, premium niche with a real and

true story. There’s very little room left in between. Family ownership helps, too. Businesses such as Saint Clair Family Estate or Kumeu River can make decisions for the next generation rather than the next quarterly result, which is a real advantage when you’re riding out a squeeze like this one. It’s also worth remembering that New Zealand wine overall is still growing in the US despite everything. The commonly quoted ﬁgures only capture retail/offtrade; they don’t include restaurants and bars, where brands such as Loveblock are stronger, so the full picture is often better than the headlines suggest. The real lesson isn’t that one channel outperforms the other; it’s that you can’t afford to be strong in only one. That’s something we learned through Covid-19: once restaurants shut and people stopped eating out, being overweighted to on-trade was a vulnerability. So we’ve deliberately built up our off-trade presence too, so that resilience comes from being well-placed across both, not from leaning on either. Farmers understand cycles better than most industries; the bottom is often wider than you expect and you come out the other side changed, not broken. That’s where the wine industry is now. Hold tight, manage what you can control, protect your brand and keep adapting. These cycles always pass. Tariffs are another challenge. But they certainly won’t deﬁne the future of New Zealand wine. Erica Crawford is co-founder and vintner at Loveblock Wines.

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NZ Farmer

Arable 31

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Looking to arable’s future Planning

The FAR strategy focuses on delivering greater value to growers.

Heather Chalmers

he Foundation for Arable Research (FAR) has launched its new five-year strategy, setting a clear direction for supporting a confident, resilient and profitable arable sector that produces trusted foods, feeds and seeds for New Zealand and global markets. The strategy, which will guide FAR from next year until 2031, reflects the organisation’s commitment to connecting growers, science and industry to support successful arable farms and a valued arable sector. Built around four strategic goals, it focuses on delivering greater value to growers through trusted research and innovation, impactful extension, the promotion of the arable industry’s role in New Zealand and an efficient, growerfocused organisation. FAR chairperson Steven Bierema said the strategy was designed to ensure that growers receive practical, independent support in an increasingly complex and interconnected arable sector. “New Zealand’s arable growers are facing both significant challenges and exciting opportunities. Our new strategy sets out how FAR will connect growers with the science, information and industry partnerships they need to make confident decisions and build resilient businesses,” Bierema said. Under the strategy, FAR will focus on four key goals:

Extension with impact FAR will deliver value to arable growers by providing trusted and timely information, delivering research results promptly, translating science to support practical on-farm decisions, and continuing to evolve extension approaches to meet growers’ needs.

a visible and valued arable sector by championing arable farming’s contribution to New Zealand, building a robust evidence base to demonstrate the sector’s value and strengthening relationships with government, commercial service providers and other primary sectors.

Trusted research, development and innovation FAR will contribute to arable farm success by engaging growers to identify the research that matters most, prioritising those projects that promise maximum industry impact, and partnering with growers, research providers and industry, nationally and internationally, to deliver outcomes.

An efficient and effective FAR FAR will be a responsive and agile organisation, focused on careful stewardship of grower investment, continuous evaluation of its programmes and the ongoing development of a connected and capable FAR team. FAR chief executive Dr Scott Champion said strong connections to growers and collaboration are at the heart of FAR’s approach. “Everything we do starts with growers. Their investment, experience and insights

Building arable sector understanding The organisation will work to ensure

help shape our priorities and ensure our work delivers real value back to them. “This strategy reinforces our commitment to being grower-focused while strengthening the connections between farming, science and industry. “Growers also want us to help them think about the whole system: those other crops and the integration of livestock that are part of many arable farms.” He said the strategy also recognises the importance of increasing awareness of the arable sector’s contribution to New Zealand’s economy, food systems and rural communities. “Arable farming plays a critical role in producing the trusted foods, feeds and seeds that underpin New Zealand’s agricultural success. “We want the sector to be more visible, better understood and recognised for the value it creates across the economy and society.” The strategy is underpinned by FAR’s principles of being grower-focused and enhancing the arable community, together with the organisation’s core values of being trusted, independent, collaborative, curious and engaged. Champion said these principles and values would guide FAR’s work over the next five years. “Our vision is for a confident, resilient and profitable arable sector. This strategy provides a roadmap for how FAR will work alongside growers and industry partners to help achieve that vision.”

Don’t cut corners for silage crops Yields

Heather Chalmers

espite the cost of growing a maize silage crop rising about 30% during the last four years, growers should not be tempted to cut corners because this could result in a reduced yield, Corson Maize national research manager Mike Turner says. “When you are growing a high-cost, high-input crop, doing the basics right is more important than ever,” he told a Foundation for Arable Research maize winter workshop. From 2021-22 to 2025-26, his analysis shows total maize silage costs, from sprayout to covering the silage stack, rose from $4026 a hectare to $5143/ha. Fertiliser/ lime and seed-related inputs recorded the biggest increase, at about 41%.

“When costs are going up, you need to protect that investment and yield at harvest,” Turner said. Base fertiliser increased from $450/ha in the 2022 modelling to $850/ha now. “In comparison, the cost of a soil test is very cheap. “So, if you are getting your fertiliser spend wrong, either too much or too little, it can have a big impact on costs.” When growers get the basics right, a higher yield dilutes their costs, Turner said. For example, a 17-tonne-per-hectare drymatter maize silage crop equates to 31.9c a kilogram of drymatter. At 25 tonnes/ha, this falls to 21.7c/kg/DM, and at 28 tonnes/ha to 19.4c/kg/DM. “Yield spreads cost across more kg of feed. This is the strongest reason for growers to protect crop establishment and the basics. Most costs in a maize silage

crop are ﬁxed. So, the only real way to offset that is to get a good yield.” FAR senior maize researcher Rene van Tilburg said that growers need to factor soil nitrogen into their input calculations and, if they are applying more nitrogen than their crop can take up, they are wasting money. “Maximise your soil N; use it or lose it.” Growers are recommended to use a Mineral N test to determine soil N, as well as a Potentially Mineralisable Nitrogen (PMN) test, which indicates how much N may become available during the growing season. This allows side-dress N applications to be better matched to crop demand and soil N supply, improving proﬁtability. In a FAR maize grain production trial at the Corson Research site at Newstead, near Hamilton, large differences in soil N supply between plots in 2024-25 resulted

in side-dress N inputs ranging from just 75 kg to 360 kg SustaiN/ha. Soil testing showed the soil supplied from $599 to $1016 worth of N at a SustaiN price of $1400/tonne. Despite these large differences in N inputs, grain yields remained remarkably similar, with all treatments producing about 16 tonnes/ha of grain. The result saved $446 to $805/ha if no allowance had been made for soil N, with the lowest SustaiN rate having one of the higher yields, though not signiﬁcantly so, indicating no yield penalty for using the soil N tools. Growers, particularly on goodstructured soils, can also consider their cultivation intensity, saving diesel and machinery costs and labour. FAR work shows no yield penalty from moving to strip-till or no-till on sites with highquality soil.

NZ Farmer

September 2026

32 On the Farm

Kiwis abroad a model for NZ farming system A North Island dairy farming couple went looking for a new challenge, which led them to Chile. First they found their feet, then success and now their daughter has joined them at the helm. By Sonita Chandar.

hen Chris White and Sue Connolly visited Chile in 1998 to do some consultancy work, they were blown away at the potential opportunities in the Latin American country. After achieving their goal to sharemilk 1000 cows in Rotorua, they wondered “what next?” and although they did not speak Spanish, they made the move to Chile, along with their children, and started Agricola Dos Kiwis, which translates to “Two Kiwis”. What drew them to that country was the untapped potential of large areas of unfarmed land and the soil quality. The family arrived in a town called Osorno, which is the geographical agricultural hub of Chile and an old German settlement. At the time, they were one of the few foreign families not of German descent. The family started small, milking 110 heifers with a single milking unit. Fast forward 13 years and today they have seven farms with four dairy units and one drystock unit totalling 800 hectares. This spring, they will milk 1150 heifers. All of their land is leased long-term and they have 12 permanent staff members and employ calf rearers during the busy calving period that began about July 10. They have also diversiﬁed and now have consulting arm Pāmu Consulting, as well as milk-bottling business Kōura, to showcase the end-product value of pasture-based Kiwi-style farming to the Chilean market, which is currently dominated by UHT-boxed milk. Growing up in Chile, Georgia, 32, said she remembered being excited when she

arrived. “We started a new school and needed to learn a new language. I don’t remember it being particularly traumatic, I remember it being happy. “However, I learnt as an adult that the ﬁrst few years were seriously difficult for my parents but my younger brothers Jackson and Lincoln and I weren’t aware at the time,” she said. “Initially we attended a German-centred school so were learning German and Spanish at the same time. This was a bit much at once, so we then moved to an English-centred school where Spanish was the main language but they taught English and there were teachers who spoke English, which made it a bit easier.” After completing her undergraduate in Chile, Georgia moved to Europe where she did a Masters in International Management in the Netherlands before moving to Devon in the United Kingdom. There, she worked for a milk factory in procurement then in strategy-focused roles. Following this, she worked in purchasing for Costa Coffee in London, which at the time had just been acquired by Coca-Cola. “While all of this was an amazing experience, at a certain point I began ﬁnding myself searching for more purpose and alignment and decided to move home to Chile in October 2024. “While farming is where I am meant to be, I am grateful for the management and leadership skills I gained when working overseas,” she said. “I learnt a lot through working in very demanding roles for very large-scale businesses. I was very young, working with some very experienced people, and it helped me build character and resilience.”

Chris White and Sue Connolly, with daughter Georgia, moved to Osorno, an agricultural region in Chile. There, they started Agricola Dos Kiwis, which translates to “Two Kiwis”.

September 2026

NZ Farmer

On the Farm 33

Updated all day at

Georgia White was only 7 years old when the family moved to Chile but says she remembers it being an exciting time. She is pictured with some of the 1150-cow herd on ADK Cascada Farm, with Osorno Volcano in the background.

Left: Georgia White studied in Europe and after spending several years working in the corporate world in the United Kingdom, she gravitated to her main passion of farming. The first job she did when she returned to Chile in spring 2024 was fertilising. Right: The family started small with 110 cows and has grown tenfold. They will milk 1150 heifers this spring.

“

Georgia has been co-managing the farm with her dad Chris for almost two years and said she has learnt a great deal working alongside him. “Dad always says to me that every day is a school day and he is so right. I don’t think I’ve ever learnt so much in such a short period of time as I have working on the farm with him. He is such a visionary; he has such an amazing brain. He’s always very on top of day-today operations, as well as thinking about what’s needed next week or next month.” Georgia and Chris each manage different areas of the farm and businesses. “While we’re co-managing, I’d say Dad is still very much the boss.” Chris looks after pasture management, agronomy, all farm maintenance, roading, and runs the consultancy arm of the business. The farm is predominantly grass-ﬁrst and is widely recognised as a reference model for New Zealand-style dairy systems in Chile. They do also feed concentrate. “Concentrate is quite widely used in dairy farming in Chile. While we’re predominantly a grass-fed farm, we use it as a bolt-on to the diet, particularly after calving to help our milking herd recover body condition. It also helps get the cows into the shed during the cold winter months.” As a model for a New Zealand-based system, they often have people visiting the farm to learn what makes it tick. “They often want to understand how we use grass as our main source of feed.

Dad always says to me that every day is a school day and he is so right. I don’t think I’ve ever learnt so much in such a short period of time. Georgia White

Georgia White won Producer of the Year Award in June this year. It’s a big deal in Chile.

There are a lot of farmers who graze their cows here but grass is just a bolt-on to the diet. “They are also interested in the people side, as while we’re not lean for a New Zealand farming team, compared to a Chilean farm we have a very small team and they’re multifunctional.” The large amount of interest in the farm system, combined with a change in the Chilean government, led to the launch of their consultancy arm. “With the change of government earlier this year, the economy started picking up again and there have been a lot of farmers wanting to invest in their farms, as well as many looking to switch to simpler or more pasture-based, New Zealand-style farming. “There was a lot of interest in Dad’s Kiwi farming knowledge so we decided to set up a consulting arm, Pāmu Consulting, earlier this year. It’s going really well and the work varies from providing initial farm designs and plans to helping farmers

get fully functioning cowsheds up and running.” Georgia manages the farming team, animal health, milk production, genetics, and the milk-bottling system, which is a new project they started to test the demand for fresh milk. “In Chile, they predominantly consume UHT milk. We made a few small batches of pasteurised milk to get people to taste it to see what they think and launched it via Instagram (@koura.puyhue) and it was very popular. “We continue to keep our sales very limited. There are challenges regarding regulation. As there isn’t really a distribution channel, we’ve created a subscription service where people subscribe to X number of litres every week and it gets delivered to their doorstep.” A pivotal factor in the farm’s success is the use of data. The Agrícola Dos Kiwis team has been using Tru-Test Active Tags from Datamars for the past year. They have taken an innovative approach to the way they interpret and use the data. “Instead of focusing solely on data from individual alerts, we’ve been using the data to understand behavioural patterns, both at the individual level and, more importantly, at the group level – making it possible to observe how our cows are responding in real time to management decisions and giving oversight of how the entire farm is functioning as an operation. “We’ve found the value has been not only in understanding what is happening

today, but in learning from those patterns over time, allowing contributing factors to be corrected and, where possible, avoided in the future. “Using the data from the collars in this way has truly been a game changer in enabling us to make the best-informed decisions we can for the overall productivity and efficiency of our operation.” Georgia was recently named Dairy Producer of the Year – a big deal in the industry in Chile. The winner is decided via a popular vote by industry members. “I think I received the award partly due to the role I’ve tried to play in bringing more awareness to the dairy industry. I’ve done a fair bit through our Instagram account to highlight how important farming is for Chilean families and show the work that goes into the product.” Last year, she was asked to join the board of SAGO, the Agricultural and Livestock Board of Osorno, which she sees as an important role for strengthening the future of the industry. “I am the youngest member on the board and was asked to join to bring in more of the youthful perspective and ideas about how we keep making farming relevant for younger people. “It’s a very old society, which began in the early 1900s. Its role has traditionally been to advocate for farmers amongst government. It has since expanded to become a bit more about bringing value to the sector.” Georgia said she doesn’t have a lot of time off but when she does manage to get away, she likes to spend the time with her partner and friends. “My partner is a vet and genetics expert so we spend a lot of time talking about cows. It’s probably our favourite topic of conversation. I spend a bit of time watching him competing in triathlons as well as going to the gym or stand-up paddle-boarding or doing other lake sports with Mum and Dad. “Any other spare time I have, I try and spend with my friends. I was away for seven years so I feel like I missed out on a lot of weddings, babies, etc., so have been doing a fair bit of catching up these past couple of years.”

NZ Farmer

September 2026

34 Travel

Sundowners in Rwanda From encounters with wildlife to lakeside sundowners and bush breakfasts, Brett Atkinson savours the rituals of safari in Rwanda’s Akagera National Park.

ed dirt, a terracotta sunset and the shade of a spiky acacia tree. Throw in a well-mixed G&T, a frosty local lager or an overly generous pour of South African wine, and sundowner drinks on safari become one of travel’s great pleasures. Often there’s the opportunity to compare species-spotting notes with fellow guests, and with a bit of savvy planning by your guide, twilight snacking and libations could come with a side order of hippos, zebras or elephants crossing a river. At Wilderness Destinations’ Magashi Peninsula safari lodge, sundowners even extend to a boat trip on a lake and “breakfast in the bush” amid the wide-open plains of Rwanda’s Akagera National Park. The sundowner tradition is often traced to the 19th century, when explorers, British colonial officials and travellers mixed gin with quinine-laced tonic water to make the anti-malarial medicine more palatable. Some of Africa’s best-known safari destinations are now malaria-free and modern tonic water contains only a tiny amount of malaria-busting quinine, but old habits deﬁnitely linger in the African bush. Especially when shiny tiffin boxes of biltong, mini samosas and devilled cashews also join the party. With just two private villas and a larger residence for groups and families, Magashi Peninsula is one of East Africa’s most exclusive safari destinations. Our ﬁrst sundowner experience is

Above: Lions at Rwanda’s Magashi Peninsula safari lodge. Left: Safari sundowners.

CAROL PIPER

Fact ﬁle: For tailor-made safaris and travel in Africa, contact the Africa experts at World Journeys, phone 0800 117 311. See: worldjourneys.co.nz, wildernessdestinations.com and visitrwanda.com

The lodge has two private villas and a larger residence for groups and families. WILDERNESS DESTINATIONS

on Lake Rwanyakazinga, where our guide, Venuste Ndungutse, steers a sleek electric-powered pontoon boat across serene waters. Akagera National Park is an East African conservation success story, rebuilt with careful management after Rwanda’s genocide and civil war in the 1990s, and now once again home to the full “Big Five” roster of safari animals. Hippos abound along shores framed by grasslands, some loitering just a few metres from our villa. Spiny reptiles up to 3m long slither around “Crocodile Point”. Even in such remote surroundings, we have chilled prosecco, spicy macadamia nuts and a choice of local beers to toast the Rwandan twilight. The next day, we’re back exploring with Venuste, this time bumping along in a Land Cruiser on the dusty 4WD trails of Akagera’s Kilala Plains, known as Rwanda’s Serengeti for its expanding

species range. It’s still before breakfast, but already we’ve seen a trio of lionesses tracking on the near horizon, white rhinos enjoying life in Rwanda after being translocated from South Africa’s Kruger National Park last year, and scores of zebras and skittish impala. Venuste jokes that the plentiful antelopes are “Bush McDonald’s”, and in this idyllic big-sky location, we’re about to tuck into our own Happy Meal. An advance party from Magashi’s main lodge arrived earlier, and a mini-bush encampment reveals folding tables topped with an impressive bush breakfast. Just metres away, herds of zebra roam, seemingly oblivious to cinnamon morning buns, egg savouries, granola, yoghurt and skewers of fresh fruit. Only the signature sunbaked aroma of the African bush and safari-green Stanley flasks filled with coffee reveal the meal’s true location. Approaching sunset after completing a day at Magashi, we observe a pride of lions relaxing lakeside, first from the water in the boat and then from just metres away in the Land Cruiser, conveniently relocated by lodge staff so Venuste can seamlessly continue our adventure. Later that night, we’ll watch them feeding on a hippo, illuminated by red-hued spotlights, the warm glow of the light invisible to nocturnal animals. Over a couple of hours, dusk falls on Akagera, and the leonine antics of the pride frame another sundowner session in one of East Africa’s most surprising national parks. As the day’s last light drains from Lake Rwanyakazinga, semi-submerged hippos watch from the shallows while Venuste slices knobbly limes into a final G&T. It’s a perfect coda to one of Africa’s most enduring and enjoyable safari rituals. The writer travelled with the support of World Journeys and Wilderness Destinations.

September 2026

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NZ Farmer

September 2026

36 Travel The Sealy Tarns Track begins gently and zigzags steeply.

PHOTOS: TSEWANG NURU SHERPA

Aoraki awaits

Nestled in the heart of New Zealand’s South Island, Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park is Australasia’s most rugged alpine wonderland, writes Tsewang Nuru Sherpa. Best time to visit Spring and summer are ideal for hiking in Aoraki/Mt Cook National Park. Between December and March, you can see blooming wildﬂowers such as Mt Cook lilies, alpine daisies and gentians, as well as open trails and long daylight. April and May bring fewer crowds, cooler weather and stunning landscapes. The park’s weather can change quickly. Check the forecast and the avalanche advisory regularly.

There are several accommodation options at Aoraki/Mt Cook, including the Hermitage Hotel.

The alpine centre dedicated to Sir Edmund Hillary, located within the hotel.

Glacier Explorers is the only glacial boat tour in New Zealand, cruising past sharp-crested moraines.

Where to stay The Hermitage Hotel offers lodge and motel options, dining establishments and an on-site cafe. Families might prefer ensuite rooms at Aoraki Alpine Lodge or the studio units at Aoraki Court Motel. Budget travellers can opt for the Haka House Hostel, which features a relaxing sauna. The Old Mountaineers Cafe in the village offers food and drinks, a historic photographic gallery and views of Aoraki/Mt Cook. White Horse Hill campground is great for campervans and tent campers. Glentanner Park Centre, 22 kilometres from the village, is the nearest holiday park. Must-do walks Visitors to the park can enjoy a range of walking and hiking tracks, including the one-hour Governors Bush Walk, which passes through silver beech forest, and the 3km Kea Point Track from the village. The Sealy Tarns Track is a steep climb with a 600-metre elevation gain over 2200 steps, offering views of the Hooker Valley and Aoraki/Mt Cook. For full-day or overnight hikes, continue climbing from the Sealy Tarns to Mueller Hut and soak up the views of Aoraki/Mt Cook, Mueller Glacier, Mt Sefton and Hooker Valley, with kea and falcons soaring. These tracks are also accessible from the White Horse Hill car park, including the 8km return Hooker Valley Track. This well-formed trail, crossing swing bridges and following glacial rivers, offers stunning views of Hooker Lake and the south face of Aoraki/Mt Cook. For more challenging hikes in alpine terrain, such as Plateau Hut and Ball Pass Crossing, both Alpine Recreation and Alpine Guides can arrange guided one-day or multi-day hikes in the park. Get up close with Aotearoa’s largest glacier More than 40% of the park is covered in glaciers, including the majestic 23km-long Haupapa/Tasman Glacier. Hop on the only glacial boat tour in New Zealand to get a close-up view of moraines and learn about the glacier’s past size and its retreat. Or kayak below glacier mountains and slalom around icebergs on New Zealand’s only glacier kayaking tour. You could go hiking on the Tasman

Glacier, combined with the thrill of a scenic helicopter flight over New Zealand’s highest mountain, Aoraki/Mt Cook. Visit Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Centre Learn about the history of Mt Cook through exhibits on transport, climbing, Sir Edmund Hillary and the Hermitage Hotel, spanning more than 140 years. The centre features a 126-seat theatre and a state-of-the-art digital dome planetarium. Upstairs is the Hillary cafe and bar, with indoor/outdoor seating and floor-to-ceiling windows offering great views of Aoraki. Discover the night sky The park is part of the Aoraki Mackenzie Dark Sky Reserve, the largest reserve in the southern hemisphere and the third-largest globally. Join a 90-minute tour with an astronomy guide under a night sky to learn about the Southern Cross, the Milky Way, planets, star life cycles and the universe’s scale. If the weather is bad, explore the southern night sky indoors at the centre in New Zealand’s first 360-degree digital dome planetarium with 4K images. Explore the Mackenzie Basin’s high country Hop aboard a custom 4WD Mercedes Unimog Overland Adventure through high-country farmland to Glentanner Station’s Top Block. This journey follows the original road to Mt Cook Village and traces explorers’ footsteps, with scenes of glacial riverbeds, tussock plains and alpine ridges, telling stories of pioneers and valley life. See the Southern Alps from above Soar over the Southern Alps, enjoy views and walk a high-country trail on the Glentanner High Country Heli Hike. Take a 30-minute ski plane to the Tasman Valley and Hochstetter Icefall for a glacier landing, or a helicopter tour around the country’s highest peak, with views of Fox and Franz Josef glaciers. For thrill-seekers, jump 5030m from a plane over New Zealand’s tallest mountain – possibly the ultimate skydiving experience.

Fact ﬁle: Getting there: The drive to Mt Cook via State Highway 80 is about four hours from Christchurch or 3½ hours from Queenstown. Both gateway cities offer car rentals, flights and daily bus services by Great Sights, InterCity and Cheeky Kiwi. See: doc.govt.nz

September 2026

NZ Farmer

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NZ Farmer

September 2026

38 Travel

Afloat and active

From kayaking Amsterdam’s canals to cycling through Brussels, the Avalon Impression offers a more lively take on river cruising, writes Emma Stanford.

he sun beats down on Amsterdam as I roll my bag across the Jan Schaefer bridge toward the Avalon Impression. Sitting along the IJ Harbour, the 135-metre vessel looks more like a sleek boutique hotel than a traditional cruise ship. In river cruising, “under lock and key” takes on literal meaning as rising canal water unlocks the gates to the next town, but there’s no better way to ﬂoat through Europe.

The food Breakfast offers a buffet alongside an a la carte menu of eggs benedict, waffles and a daily special such as crepes or rice pudding. Order a continental breakfast to your room to watch the water from bed. Lunch pairs favourites such as burgers and Caesar salads and the daily ice cream ﬂavour with star buffet features, from whole honey-glazed roasted salmon to a build-your-own laksa station. Four o’clock brings afternoon tea with cakes, macarons and ﬁnger sandwiches, followed by a nightly happy hour of complimentary classic cocktails. Each night, an entree, soup, main and dessert celebrate the destinations we sail through, with items such as Dutch potato and Flemish chicken soups, apple

LEANDRO PEREIRA

chess and free-to-use bikes for land exploration, there is a small, windowless gym with just a rowing machine, treadmill and a weight tower. I saved my energy for on-shore excursions instead. The service With a 3:1 guest-to-crew ratio, the 47 staff members provide exceptional hospitality with a nightly turn-down service and waiters who quickly memorise your travelling party and make sure coffee cups are never empty. On our ﬁnal night, cruise director Attila played Imagine on the piano for a roomwide sing-along. It really symbolised the genuine care we felt from the crew all week.

The ship Part of Avalon Waterways’ Suite Ship ﬂeet, the Avalon Impression accommodates 166 guests across four decks. Even when fully booked, it never feels crowded. The cabins Panorama Suites at 18.6m² are more than 30% larger than the industry standard. The queen bed faces a wall-to-wall, ﬂoor-to-ceiling window that opens wide, transforming the room into a balcony. Suitcases slide under the bed, leaving room for a couch, chair, desk, a mini fridge of complimentary soft drinks and a wardrobe. In the marble-accented bathroom, L’Occitane bath products add fragrant luxury, and two different coloured towels end any “whose is whose” debate. While the rooms are peaceful, light sleepers may prefer Deck 2 in case of any early-morning runners thudding on the Sky Deck above. However, a room on Deck 3 has more consistent views during the low-water season.

A canal in Amsterdam.

Avalon Impression combines river cruising with active excursions ashore.

Cruising through Ghent, Belgium.

pie and the savoury pancake pannekoek. It’s paired with a different red, white and rosé wine each night and the waiters are always happy to pour a taster ﬁrst. Dietary choices are clearly labelled and the chef meets guests on day one to iron out preferences. The entertainment It’s wonderfully low-key, ranging from trivia nights to karaoke, live music and board games.

The routes The Avalon Impression sails rivers across Europe. This Holland and Belgium route trades majestic architectural views for working canals, sailing past industrial sites, scrap metal and reﬁneries. The excursions Fares include six of the 22 excursions. Others cost extra, ranging from €59 (NZ$115) to €103 (NZ$202). On this itinerary, 80% of the choices leaned into active and hands-on experiences, with 20% dedicated to classic walking tours. Highlights included a 16km bike ride in Brussels, kayaking 9km on the Amsterdam canals, chocolate and herring tasting and painting tiles at the Royal Delft Museum. When low water blocked docking in Ghent, the crew organised coaches for us from Antwerp without missing a beat. Some excursions were cancelled, but we were given lunch money for our day ashore.

The amenities The communal spaces all maximise the views. The Inside the Panorama Suite The details Avalon Waterways’ eight-day Panorama Lounge is the Active and Discovery Holland central gathering point and Belgium itinerary sails round-trip for daily port talks, happy hour and from Amsterdam. Deluxe staterooms start entertainment. from NZ$5612 based on double occupancy The quiet Club Lounge, stocked 24/7 for a May 8, 2027, departure. Panorama with hot drinks, ﬂavoured waters and Suites start from $8011. fresh sweet regional treats, has a tranquil aft deck for watching the ship’s wake. Beyond the Sky Deck whirlpool, giant See: avalonwaterways.co.nz.

September 2026

NZ Farmer

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NZ Farmer

September 2026

40 On the Farm

On the land with the Huntress Jannine Rickards’ (Ngāpuhi, Te Roroa, Ngāi Te Rangi, Ngāti Hauā) wine label, Huntress, is a nod to one of her other passions – hunting. As Matariki approached, the Wairarapa winemaker reflected on her deep appreciation for the land and how the seasons influence her approach to wine and kai. By Anna Brankin (Kāi Tahu, Kāti Māmoe).

“My friend Angie was the one who came up with the name for Huntress, over one of many phone calls where I was agonising over it. She just said, ‘J, you’re the huntress’.”

annine Rickards, 45, has spent more than two decades making wine, but ask her what she loves and she’ll tell you it’s also the kai, the kōrero, the long table laden with beautiful dishes that celebrate the whenua. “I’ve always loved creating those spaces for people to come together,” she says, “from hosting potluck dinner parties in the shearers’ quarters where I used to live to working with chefs to host boutique dinner parties, talking about where our food comes from and sharing stories around the table.” So, her next statement is a little bit surprising. “Over Matariki, I’m not available for dinner. I’m not interested in making myself busy or creating an experience for anyone else,” she says. “On one hand, it’s awesome that as a country we’re all getting out there and celebrating Matariki. On the other hand, it was actually traditionally a time to slow down. For me, it’s family time. If it’s just me and Mum – great. That’s how it should be.” Rickards’ wine label, Huntress, brings together her love of kai, kōrero and connection with a deep commitment to living by the maramataka – Māori ancestral knowledge of the lunar cycles and how they affect the environment – on her own terms. “I’ve been following the maramataka for a while now, and I ﬁnd that winemaking actually ﬁts into it quite well,” she says. “Learning about matiti – summer – and realising that traditionally

PHOTOS: ALANNAH BROWN

“

I think hunting and winemaking have actually helped each other – that stillness, reading what’s in front of you, using your senses. Working with what you’ve got rather than what you wanted. “When I first made a chilled red I was inspired by this woman from northern Italy – she had a terrible 2017 season and made this really fresh, elegant, juicy, delicious wine that went gangbusters.”

we recognised seven phases of summer, beginning in spring and ending in autumn – well, that perfectly coincides with the growing and harvest season for grapes.” Rickards remembers that the approach of spring used to be a source of stress, with her focus channelled on the vineyard, looking for signs of growth that would prompt a frenzy of frost ﬁghting and the beginning of the growing season. “It would always make me anxious because I knew how fast the season would unfold, and how fast I’d have to move to keep up with it,” she says. “Now, I’ve learned to listen for the pīpīwharauroa in the bush, and observe

different ﬂowerings, and the colours changing. When you start to think about those tohu and what they’re signalling, you can align it with what’s happening in the vineyard.” People who are familiar with her wines talk about her unique “thumbprint” – a distinct ﬂavour or essence that shows up across different varieties, different regions, different seasons. For Rickards, the explanation is simple. “When you bottle a wine, you’re not just capturing the variety or the vintage. You’re capturing the mauri of the people who have grown and nurtured those vines and then made the wine,” she says.

Jannine Rickards “I’ve worked vintages where the team hasn’t gelled, or there have been other issues, and I really notice it in the wine. You’re capturing energy, which is a living thing.” This awareness extends beyond the vineyard. “It’s the same with kai – if you make it with aroha, if the ingredients are grown and sourced and combined with intention, then it’s going to be nourishing and you’re going to pass on something of yourself.” Rickards grew up on a farm near the coast of Te Tara-o-te-ika-a-Māui Coromandel Peninsula, close to Tīkapa Moana o Hauraki Firth of Thames. The

September 2026

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On the Farm 41

Updated all day at

Jannine Rickards says: “I don’t hold anything in. I’m pretty open ... I’m glad that I live in the time that I do, where there’s freedom to express ourselves.”

A pie made from hare, shot by Rickards from the back door of her home.

knowledge of where food comes from is something she absorbed young, and without ceremony. “I learned at a young age where my lamb chops came from. Dad put our pet lamb on the dinner table and I was pretty upset about how he presented that to me – but the next day he had me packing the meat while he was cutting up the homekill,” she remembers. “We had pigs and chooks and a big farm. My granddad had nets for ﬂounder and kahawai and we collected kaimoana – oysters and mussels – on the rocks near Kaiaua. “My grandparents had great vegetable gardens, and my parents had a more basic one that they could manage around the demands of work and raising kids. I always knew where my food came from. That was just normal.” Her knowledge of the food industry began when she worked in a food emporium that imported “bougie” ingredients like truffles, cheeses, chocolates and wine. “I also worked in hospitality, and somewhere in the middle of all of that, I got into wine.” Hunting has also played a big role in shaping Rickards’ relationship with food. The foundations were laid in gathering kai in childhood and deepened in her early 20s – mostly because of disappointing steak bought at a butcher for a date night. “I was so disappointed by how much these two steaks cost me, especially compared to the quality. “That’s when I asked a friend to teach me about the bush, how to hunt and break down my own game.” Hunting has been a constant in her life ever since, and she knows that getting out into the bush is key for her wellbeing – and has had a positive inﬂuence on her winemaking. “It’s all in the intuition and connection to what you’re doing,” she says.

Rickards says she remembers years and vintages the way others remember years and birthdays: “Life is chapters, I think. And each vintage is its own chapter.”

“I connect the senses I use in winemaking to the bush. I think hunting and winemaking have actually helped each other – that stillness, reading what’s in front of you, using your senses. “Working with what you’ve got rather than what you wanted.” Rickards’ relationship with food and the land feeds directly into Huntress – into the dinners she hosts with chefs around the country, the foraging she weaves into everything, and the vision she holds for what the business might eventually become. “I love kai and I love community, and somehow I want to evolve Huntress to intertwine those things. One day I’d like to host people, share mana whenua stories, work with collaborators. That’s the dream.” The past few years have held a lot of loss – the death of her father in 2020, and her brother not long after, and the end of a signiﬁcant long-term relationship – and until recently she didn’t give herself the chance to process it. “I kept myself busy because I didn’t want to face any of it. I didn’t want to sit around and be sad, so I just didn’t slow down. But these things have a way of catching up to you,” she says.

“This year I’m deliberately trying to ground myself and sit with things a little bit more.” Rickards and her mother, Robyn, live together on 1.4 hectares just outside Martinborough, in a tiny place called Kahutara. “Mum and I have been besties for a long time. We’ve always gone on holidays together and we’ve worked together, so it made sense for her to relocate down here after losing Dad and my brother,” she says. “And we’ve got big plans for this place. We’re planting trees, building a garden.” This winter, Rickards looks ahead to the release of her 2024 pinot noir, made from organically grown fruit in Wairarapa. It’s a vintage she holds close – recently singled out in a blind tasting of 45 wines by both New Zealand and Australian wine writers. For her, the recognition isn’t about polish or perfection. “It wasn’t because it ﬁt the idea of what pinot noir should be,” she says. “If anything, it stood apart. It had its own shape, its own energy – a reﬂection of the season and the place it came from.” That sense of working with the land, rather than trying to shape it into something predetermined, sits at the heart of her approach. Each year brings different fruit, different weather, different challenges – and with it, a new expression. “I’m not trying to repeat myself,” she says. “I’m just responding to what’s there – the vineyard, the season, the conditions we’ve been given – and trying to honour that in the wine.” For Rickards, winemaking embodies not just annual seasons but also the seasons of life. “Wine is a living thing. You bottle it and it’s evolving and it’s going to transform – like we do. We’re evolving and we’re ageing and we get our peak and then we get the more delicate parts of life. “Wine’s exactly the same. You’re capturing that seasonality. You’re capturing the mauri of the people who made it. And then you give it away, and hopefully something of that passes on.” This story appears in the Takurua Winter edition 2026 of Shepherdess magazine, out now. Find the edition in supermarkets, dairies and specialty book and design stores across the motu. Subscribe and order your copy online at shepherdess.co.nz.

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42 Advertising NZ Farmer feature - Bull sale season

Quality commands a premium – what the record breaking 2026 season tells us

ew Zealand's bull sale season is firing on all cylinders in 2026, and a record-breaking result from Marlborough has set the tone for what's shaping up to be a standout year. In June, a Taimate Angus bull near Ward sold for a new national record of $168,000 which eclipsed the previous mark of $161,000 set in Gisborne in 2025. That kind of endorsement matters. It reinforces what farmers across the country are feeling right now: confidence in the sheep and beef sector is high, and elite genetics are delivering real returns on farm. The sales season is heating up, buyer confidence is holding firm, and clearance rates are tracking well above recent seasons. Against a backdrop of rising farm costs, shifting climate conditions and growing pressure around emissions, farmers are voting with their wallets and they're backing quality every time. Opportunities for Sellers in 2026 For sellers, 2026 presents a strong market. Farmers are highly aware that elite genetics serve as a shield against rising farm costs and shifting climate conditions. Breeding bulls are firmly viewed as strategic investments that drive herd productivity and farm resilience. Key trends driving seller optimism this year include: ■ Input Efficiency: Producers need bulls that deliver robust growth rates while eating less. With farm working expenses remaining high, sellers who offer bulls

In June, this Taimate Angus bull near Ward sold for a new national record of $168,000.

with proven feed conversion data will see strong demand. ■ Climate-Adapted Genetics: Recent extreme weather patterns highlight the need for bulls that thrive in unpredictable conditions. Buyers will heavily favour bulls bred for foragebased systems and resilient enough to handle both drought and heavy rainfall. ■ Environmental Compliance: As the agricultural sector focuses on emissions, farmers want genetics that improve carbon and methane efficiency. Breeders who can demonstrate low-methane traits or high overall efficiency will capture a growing segment of the market.

How the 2026 sales have fared so far The early results are in, and they make for good reading. Clearance rates are sitting between 85% and 95% across many yearling and two-year-old sales, several sought-after herds have sold out entirely, and average prices across most beef breeds have lifted 8% to 12% on last year. Buyer conﬁdence is holding ﬁrm and the market is rewarding quality without hesitation. That momentum has a clear foundation. Last year's East Coast Angus bull week generated $8.6 million, up nearly $3.7 million on the year before and set a national price record of $161,000 for Tangihau U418. The buyer, Wairarapa

farmer Keith Higgins, has since declared the purchase worth every cent, his top sire delivering a great season with his females. That kind of real-world endorsement carries real weight in the sale room, and it has helped set the tone for what followed. In 2026, that momentum has carried through in force. Crowds have followed, too. At Taimate Angus, around 300 people turned out to bid or watch, with buyers spilling outside the sale room entirely. PGG Wrightson auctioneer Neville Clark noted that while online bidding is growing, most farmers still want to be there in person and this season, they have shown up in force. Average prices have followed suit. Across most beef breeds, averages have lifted 8% to 12% on last year, buoyed by strong schedule prices and renewed optimism in the store market - a trend that builds directly on the record-breaking momentum established last season. Angus sales have shown particular strength, and the top of the market has delivered some genuinely historic moments, none more so than the new national record of $168,000 set at Taimate Angus in June. Premium sires backed by outstanding data and physical presence are commanding prices well above expectations right across the country. The headline result captures exactly what buyers are chasing in 2026. Taimate stud owner Paul Hickman described his record-breaking bull as "outstandingly

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44 Advertising NZ Farmer feature - Bull sale season

2026 bull sales season ﬁres on all cylinders FROM PAGE 44

good in every way you could possibly think of an animal” - exceptional pedigree, performance data like nothing seen before, impressive size, and a quiet temperament. The successful buyer, Gisborne’s Dean McHardy of Tangihau Stud, travelled from the East Coast to secure him and, in doing so, gave up his own national record set just last year. That commitment says everything about where serious money is going. Top-end buyers aren’t bidding on looks alone they’re backing bulls that stack up across the board: high growth figures, calving ease, low-emissions credentials, and the genetic compatibility to lift an entire herd. Not every sale has soared, and that’s worth acknowledging. The market is increasingly divided: bulls that tick every box are attracting fierce bidding, while those that fall short on data, structure or temperament are meeting a more selective buying bench. In 2026, elite bulls sell themselves; the middle of the pack has to work considerably harder. PGG Wrightson auctioneer Neville Clark puts it simply - the perfect result is buying the bull you wanted and being happy five or six months later. The broader backdrop adds further reason for optimism. Clark points to a global herd rebuild underway across the three biggest beef-producing nations - the United States, Australia, and Brazil - as a powerful tailwind for New Zealand beef. For buyers who do their homework and back the right genetics for their operation, the returns are there. Buyer Guidance: Confident Bull Selection The 2026 bull sale season provides excellent opportunities, but buyers must be precise with their investments. The

the bull can travel and graze effectively. 5. Mind Temperament: Safety is vital on modern farms. Choose bulls with calm, manageable temperaments to protect your staff and keep herd dynamics peaceful. 6. Focus on Longevity: Pick bulls backed by strong health records and structural integrity. A bull that works for an extra season or two signiﬁcantly lowers your breeding costs. 7. Seek Expert Advice: Talk to genetic advisors, sale agents, or your local vet. Many sellers also provide excellent postsale support to help you settle new bulls into your system safely.

While online bidding is growing, most farmers still want to be at the bull sales in person.

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The Path Forward The 2026 bull sale season relies on transparency and cooperation across the sector. Sellers must give buyers accurate, comprehensive data to make informed choices. Meanwhile, buyers need to focus strictly on long-term herd goals rather than chasing short-term trends. If the results so far are any guide, that formula is working. The broader outlook adds further reason for optimism. With the United States, Australia, and Brazil all entering a herd rebuild - the three biggest beef-producing nations moving in the same direction at the same time - the global demand picture for New Zealand beef looks exceptional. As Keith Higgins put it, there’s a lot of conﬁdence in the sheep and beef industry right now, and the hope is it continues for a few years yet. By combining modern genetics with proven farming principles and backing that with strong global tailwinds, New Zealand’s livestock sector is well placed to build lasting resilience and secure future proﬁtability.

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