Hoggard’s passing shot at Greenpeace. PAGE 3
MONSTER SLURRY WHANAU JOINS TANKER Custom-built to GOODYARN Fighting mental health PAGE 20
suit farms PAGE 39
JUNE 27, 2017 ISSUE 381 // www.dairynews.co.nz
KEEP SAFE, KEEP FARMING “The cows are still the priority, so we want to be around in one piece to take care of them.” – Julien Uguen, Dunsandel Dairies
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
NEWS // 3
Hoggard’s parting shot at Greenpeace PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz
FEDERATED FARMERS dairy Rotary for NZ farms. PG.07
China FTA talks resume. PG.16
Irrigation and land values. PG.32
NEWS ������������������������������������������������������ 3-17 OPINION ����������������������������������������������18-19 AGRIBUSINESS ����������������������������� 20-21 MANAGEMENT �������������������������������22-24 ANIMAL HEALTH �������������������������� 25-28 EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENT ������������������������������29-38 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS ��������������������������������������39-42
section chair Andrew Hoggard has stepped down after three years in the role -- but not before firing a broadside at Greenpeace in his final speech last week. He criticised Greenpeace’s Twitter campaign against dairying and its attack on DairyNZ board member Ben Allomes for talking about school bullying of dairy farmers’ children simply because of their parents’ occupation. Hoggard says he invited Greenpeace members to visit his farm to see the issues he faces and discuss them, but they never took up his offer. “To me Greenpeace seems to exist for one reason only -- to raise funds to provide employment for the people employed in it and provide them with trips to Italy so they can tweet from Rome.” He says if farmers and Fonterra
Andrew Hoggard at the Feds annual conference in Wellington last week.
and DairyNZ challenge Greenpeace they are likely to be portrayed as corporate bully boys. Hoggard addressed the usual issues of weather, the environment and compliance with employment agreements, then he took a strong line on how dairy farmers are portrayed in mainstream news media. Most provinces raised this matter during the conference, repeatedly discussing what might or could be
LEWIS NOW HEADS DAIRY FORMER WAIKATO Federated Farmers president Chris Lewis (right) is the new chairman of the dairy section. Wayne Langford and Jacqui Hahn are the vice-chairs and Richard McIntyre and Renee Rooney executive members. Andrew McGiven replaces Lewis as Waikato Feds president.
done to enable farmers to get their good news stories out to the public. Some discussed using social media to talk directly to the public, by-passing conventional news media. Hoggard suggested some recent research shows the public do not view dairy farming as badly as farmers may think. He singled out animal welfare, the environment and employment as issues facing NZ farmers. On the international front he warned that animal rights activists and environmentalists are pushing the green message and are saying people can get all the vitamins they need from lentils and tofu. And not only hippies are opposed to farming, Hoggard says. Some big business people are lobbying hard against so-called factory farming. “We’re too busy trying to jump on other farmers to get a bigger slice of the pie and are missing the point
that the pie itself is at risk of, at least, being reduced in size. “I sometimes wonder whether UK sheep farmers spend any time on their land. It seems to me they spend their time going to supermarkets to find NZ lamb chops to photograph so they can complain about them on Twitter; meanwhile lamb consumption there plummets.” Hoggard says he’s perturbed about the attacks by some NZ lobby groups on irrigation; their criticism is unjustified if not over-the-top. “Irrigation has been a favourite target for many of these groups because they link it to an increase in dairy and thus an increase in N runoff, so their catch-cry is ‘let’s scrap the government funding of irrigation schemes’ -- or subsidies, as they like to call them. “Lets be clear: these are not subsidies, rather they are part of a contestable fund there to enable the start-up of projects which in the end have to stand financially on their own two feet.” Hoggard says irrigation schemes should be treated like any other piece of infrastructure in NZ, such as roads. He says many roads in NZ he will never use, but he is happy to pay the tax used to build them and the same philosophy should apply to irrigation schemes. Irrigation is vital to food production in NZ and is an insurance policy against drought. Hoggard says people must understand that irrigation benefits all agriculture, not just dairying.
DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
4 // NEWS
Milne makes history at Feds PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz
WEST COAST dairy farmer Katie Milne has broken the glass ceiling to become the first woman president of Federated Farmers in its 72 year history. She was elected to the role last week at the Federated Farmers annual meeting, fighting off a strong challenge from vice-president Anders Crofoot. Former Feds dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard is the new vice-president. Milne says she became involved in Federated Farmers out of “righteous
anger” and frustration at seeing people who knew little about farming telling farmers what to do. She rose through the ranks, initially serving as her region’s dairy section chair, and was then elected to the Feds national board. She is also deputy chair of Westland Milk Products. She and her partner Ian Whitmore farm 200 high BW Jersey cows on their 100ha (eff) property near Lake Brunner, Rotomanu, near Hokitika. Milne has played a leading role in improving the water quality of the lake by helping initiate smart environmental practices.
She is also a member of the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee, is on the council of OSPRI, has a role in Worksafe as part of her Feds role and is involved in TB Free. Milne’s rapid rise to the top is because of her open, friendly tell-itlike-it-is personal style. She is seen as a person who can connect well with Feds members and with the public. Milne replaces William Rolleston, who stepped down after serving the mandatory three-year term. New Federated Farmers president Katie Milne.
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FARMERS’ ELECTION MANIFESTO TAKES AIM AT POLITICIANS FEDERATED FARMERS has unveiled a man-
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The document, made public in Wellington last week at the Feds annual conference, urges political parties to take a “sensible, practical and affordable” approach to tackling issues of high importance to its members. The federation wants a “targeted catchment approach” to addressing the nation’s water quality so that sustainable economic growth can be achieved alongside environmental goals. “We support a framework for catchment partnerships that co-ordinates community, council and scientific efforts. This could involve a range of taxpayer and region-wide rates-based funding to assist in the most costeffective way, to manage our regional waterways,” said the outgoing president William Rolleston. “This way we can target hotspots that need immediate attention by applying science-based data, and by investing resources and funds more wisely to understand and ultimately alleviate the worst-affected areas.
“Farmers are on a journey to improve our waterways and we call on all New Zealanders to not only back our campaign but to join us in doing our share. “As every catchment is unique in regard to its current state and how it should be managed in future, catchment communities should have more say in how their waterways are managed. “An open and frank consultation which weighs up economic and environmental outcomes is vital and can pave the way for changes that are sensible, practical and affordable.” In the wake of several high-profile biosecurity incursions in the past year, Feds recommends greater focus and spending on biosecurity measures as fundamental to protecting the country’s prized primary sector. The manifesto also asks for reform of the Resource Management Act for a redress of the economic priorities that underpin rural economies and their social prosperity.
DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
NEWS // 5
Healthy margins despite slight dip in prices around current levels over coming months. While global dairy markets pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz can change rapidly, for now, a period of relative calm lies ahead.” In its monthly update, Rabobank PRICE SIGNALS for New Zealand says supply remains constrained farmers all point to healthy margins across the export horizon, helping for dairy producers despite the slight to support prices. drop in the GDT Event price index of “However milk supply from 0.8% last week, says Rabobank dairy export regions will be moving back analyst Emma Higgins. into a modest growth phase Markets are likely to over the coming months – remain balanced over the “While global dairy markets led by the EU and NZ. coming months. can change rapidly, for now, “The opening forecasts Rabobank expects NZ a period of relative calm lies for NZ milk processors milk supply to return to have been announced. With growth in the new 2017-18 ahead.” – Nathan Penny the majority of milk proseason, also supported by more helpful seasonal conditions increased buying by the Chinese as cessors opening forecasts lying in a we move further into the second half relatively narrow range of $6.25/kgMS than prevailed in spring 2016. - $6.65/kgMS, the 2027-18 season is Higgins says there were some of the year.” SMP moved up a fraction (1.4%) already off to a more confident start weaknesses in last week’s GDT than the prior season.” Event, with the index moving mar- to US$2218/t. NZ milk production for the 2016“No SMP has been entered into ginally lower to an average price now European intervention stores for the 17 season is likely to close just 1% of US$3434/tonne. Fat continued setting record third week in a row, providing price lower than last season’s production volume (although the final tallies are prices. AMF lifted 4.4% to US$6885/t support for fresh SMP product.” ASB rural economist Nathan yet to be counted), Rabobank says. – a GDT average price record – while Total milk collection for 2016butter gained by 2.9%, with the aver- Penny also noted milk fats continued age price reaching US$5768/t (again their record run. At the last auction 17 will likely end up around 21.3m tonnes of milk. butter set a record high. another GDT record). The bank expects the anticipated “Overnight, the auction went one “Lower milk production from Europe across the peak of the season, better, with both butter and anhy- spread between proteins and fats to and less fat stocks, coupled with con- drous milk fat (AMF) setting fresh continue across much of 2017. “Global milk supply taps are tinued strong demand for milk fats record highs. In fact, butter prices from developed markets, are under- have more than doubled in the space starting to drip again and the resulting exportable surplus will increase pinning these outstanding prices,” of just a year,” he says. “All up, the global dairy market across 2017 and moving into 2018. Higgins says. “On the flipside, cheese prices lost outlook remains firm. Moreover, The additional supply will be met some ground, dropping 3.8% to an with supply and demand in bal- by steady, if modest, global demand average price of US$4121/t. Europe ance, we expect prices to fluctuate growth across this period.” PAM TIPA
has been gearing up cheese production as they work through the spring flush.” WMP price dropped a modest 3.3% to US$3022/t. There is less fresh product available as we move into our seasonal hiatus here in NZ over the next couple months, says Higgins. “However, we still expect to see
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
6 // NEWS
Sharemilking better be saved soon – consultant PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz
IF PROBLEMS now
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sharemilkers. He points out that sharemilking is integral to the dairy industry and notes there are new agreements being developed which have merit, including a variable order
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gence and seek advice from friends and experts, he says. “There is too much running on good faith when entering into new sharemilking agreements. Unfortunately the farm
James Allen, AgFirst.
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little cash to ride out bad times. “Many don’t start out with much money; some may have borrowed to buy even their farm bike.” A movement back to contract milking from variable order sharemilking is now occurring because it carries less risk. McIntyre notes that on some smaller farms contract milking does not necessarily provide enough income for people to progress further in the industry. “It’s now a big step to be a herd owning sharemilker and once people are in that position they are staying in their jobs longer because there are fewer opportunities.” Nowadays it appears that sharemilkers progressing to farm ownership is the exception rather than the rule, McIntyre says. While ownership is still possible, people are having to be creative and develop income sources off farm to gain the necessary equity.
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owner often holds the balance of power, and we don’t want people making an agreement under which the relationship was never going to work -- ultimately bad for both parties.” A challenge with sharemilking is that in high payout times a farm owner may tend to feel he is not getting just reward for his invested capital. But at low milk prices, the sharemilker feels he is getting burnt and going broke. A way is needed to smooth out the highs and lows, Allen says. Richard McIntyre, who represents sharemilkers in the Feds dairy executive, says the biggest challenge facing sharemilkers today is the volatility of the dairy market and huge highs and lows. In the days when prices were more stable the high-low problems did not exist; the incomes then helped sharemilkers progress to farm ownership. But with the volatility, sharemilkers face financial pressure and many may have
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
DELAVAL ROTARY E100 LAUNCH // 7
Rotary launched for pasture-based dairy SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz
ROTARY MILKING
machines are becoming more popular worldwide, says DeLaval executive
vice-president milking systems Jonas Hallman. External rotaries, where the operator stands outside the milking platform, sell well in New Zealand. “We also sell internal
rotaries but that’s mainly in Europe. NZ has always been a big market for rotary systems; it seems to be the preferred way of milking cows here,” Hallman told Dairy News. He was made these
NZ in box seat NEW ZELAND is best placed to take advantage of growing demand for dairy in China, says DeLaval executive Soren Lundin. China’s abandoning its one-child policy means three-four million babies will be born every year. Lundin says this will increase the demand for infant formula and other dairy products. While China is working hard to increase dairy production, it will rely on imports.
Lundin, DeLaval’s executive vice president cluster Asia and Pacific, based in Beijing, says the Chinese hold NZ in very high regard. “In grass-fed milk, food safety, environmental credentials and clean air NZ is top,” he told Dairy News at Fieldays. “I cannot think of any country that has a higher brand recognition for natural products in China. NZ’s role is that of a very important supplier of dairy products to China and the rest of Asia.”
comments at the unveiling of the new DeLaval Rotary E100 at Fieldays in Hamilton. The DeLaval Rotary E100, designed and built by engineers in Hamilton, is the result of a multi million dollar development process to create the ultimate rotary for NZ farming conditions. Hallman says this new DeLaval Rotary is designed to meet the needs of NZ farmers; it is not a ‘global compromise’ for the NZ dairy industry. Despite the dairy price slump of the last three years, DeLaval had key members of its global engineering team based at its Hamilton hub, working on the new
The DeLaval Rotary E100 on display at the Fieldays.
system. “Our company is longterm oriented; during downturn years and tough times it’s good to invest in R&D so that when the economy improves we can go to the market with new products that hopefully bring value to our customers. “Not often do we launch a new system platform so we are excited about the DeLaval Rotary
NEVER SEEN COWS SO CALM TIRAU FARMER Jack Scheres
ran the DeLaval Rotary E100 on his farm in a secret one-year trial. A 500-cow herd was the first to put the system through its paces over the 2016-17 season. Scheres had plans to build a new cow shed for his system five farm.
He says DeLaval proposed to trial the E100 for two seasons, but the E100 passed with flying colours in the first season. “The cows adapted to it well and within a week we were working with just one person. “I always thought DeLaval imported its technology and
products from overseas; it’s quite good to see the E100 is locally made with NZ technology. NZ dairy systems are different from overseas and it’s good they are developing systems for NZ conditions. “The whole exercise should have taken us two seasons; ours
was done within one.” Sharemilker Chap Zweirs had never worked on a DeLaval rotary. But he soon realised the cows loved the new E100. Scheres says cow comfort comes first on the farm. “I’ve never seen animals so calm in a cow shed.”
THE DAIRY DONGER
based farms in Europe, and a heavier version for mega farms in the US and China. Until the Fieldays, the DeLaval Rotary E100 was under wraps on a test farm in Tirau where a 500-cow herd was the first to put the system through its paces over the 2016-17 season. @dairy_news facebook.com/dairynews
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
8 // NEWS
Defining move in organic milk market SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz
PICK UP a bottle of Kapiti single-farm organic milk and you know exactly where the milk comes from. Kapiti, Fonterra’s premium ice cream and milk business, has made the latest defining move in the burgeoning organic milk market. The company is the first to source and market organic milk from a single
farm; the Kapiti product comes from Flipps farm in Oroua Downs, Manawatu. Kapiti marketing manager beverages Kevin Taffs says the one-farm supply strategy means consumers know where the milk comes from. “There are a lot of issues around food claims and health scares; people [want to know] where their food comes from,” Taffs told Dairy News. He says demand for organic milk remains
The four-generation Flipp family on their organic farm. PHOTO: VANESSA WU
strong in New Zealand; two out of three Kiwis buy organic at least occasionally, equating to a $217 million spend per year. Nearly all the growth in the milk market is in organic milk sales. Kapiti sells singlefarm organic milk in 1.25L and 750ml bottles – blue top homogenised and silver top unhomogenised organic milk. Taffs says the Flipps are passionate about the virtues of organic farming; “this means you know
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y’know stu, that ketosis is really sucking the energy out of my cows this spring.
Organic milk that can be traced back to a single farm.
where your milk comes from -- direct from farm to fridge”. Mark Flipp says four generations of the Flipps are farming the 508ha property; 600 Friesian
cows are milked with 300 split-calving in spring and autumn. The family is chuffed about supplying organic milk to Kapiti, he says. “I suppose it’s
because of our experience in organic farming and our ability to supply the milk throughout the year; this means we don’t struggle to supply throughout the winter which is traditionally a period when many organic milk brands struggle to meet demand.” Taking three years to achieve organic certification, the Flipps produce nearly everything they need inside their fence line. The only thing they use on their farm that’s not grown or made on it is the organic pellets they feed their calves.
“We’re proud to be able to share the milk we enjoy on the farm with the rest of New Zealand. We’ve stayed true to our roots working with the land and the weather to make the best milk we can. Some people might even find the milk tastes sweeter due to the organic fertiliser we use,” says Flipp. “It’s great to know that we can give people peace of mind in knowing that what they are consuming has been organically grown and produced, just the way it used to be.”
yep a costly disease that one, our vet put us onto rumenox. herd’s bounced back, you wouldn’t recognise the girls.
DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
NEWS // 9
Dairy tackles greenhouse gas emissions PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz
DAIRYNZ CHIEF exec-
utive Dr Tim Mackle says the new Dairy Action for Climate Change combines raising the dairy sector’s awareness of the issue and taking positive steps to mitigate the problem. Mackle says New Zealand does have high greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, about a quarter of these attributable to the dairy industry. A plan to deal with dairy’s GHG emissions was unveiled at Fieldays by the Minister for Climate Change, Paula Bennett. The plan is for DairyNZ, Fonterra, the Ministries for Primary Industries and the Ministry of Environment to research ways of miti-
gating GHGs and passing this knowledge on to dairy farmers to deal with in practical ways onfarm. Ten farms nationwide, with different systems, will model what is possible in different environments to mitigate GHGs. Fonterra will also run a farm GHG-recording pilot scheme in which up to 100 of their suppliers will report GHG emissions on their farms. There are also plans to host eight rural professional climate change workshops to boost awareness of the issue and to have 12 climatechange dairy farmers champion the awareness campaign. Starting immediately is a Massey University GHG course to train 60 rural professionals. The programme is
Tim Mackle
intended to raise awareness of climate change and to get the rural community ready to support farmers. It will also raise rural professionals’ capability to deal with GHG issues. Mackle says the industry must show leadership and that science is a key component in resolving
the issue. “Dairy farmers and the scientists working alongside them must show they are serious about improving the environment. This plan lays the foundation for dairy’s sustained, strategic approach to a lower carbon future. “We’re taking the first steps in understanding what dairy can do – with the wider agricultural sector, industry and urban communities – to help meet NZ’s Paris Agreement emissions reduction target. “Our farmers are already working on lowering emissions; they are used to rising to challenges and they’re dedicated stewards of their land who want to do the right thing by the environment.”
Synlait cuts milk price by 10c SYNLAIT HAS cut its forecast
farmgate milk price for the 2016-17 season by 10c to $6.15/kgMS. The total forecast milk price is $6.29/kgMS for the season, including 14c premium payments. That average premium payment will go to Synlait’s Canterbury milk suppliers creating value behind the farmgate with seasonal and special milk progammes such as a2 Milk, Grass Fed and Lead With Pride. “These premiums reward our suppliers for differentiating milk
on their farm. The forecast increase from our 2015-16 premium of $0.11/ kgMS reflects a growing number of our suppliers wanting to make more from milk,” says John Penno, managing director and chief executive. Synlait’s forecast base milk price has been cut from $6.25/kgMS announced in February following a significant drop in the dairy market. Penno says the company had been signalling to its milk suppliers that the $6.25/kgMS forecast was under pressure because of the mar-
ket’s rapid downturn. (The GDT price index dropped more than 9% in late February and early March.) “Gradual price improvements at the end of the season have made up some of the losses taken in March, but those improvements have been too late in the season to maintain the $6.25/kgMS forecast,” says Penno. Synlait’s final milk price for the 2016-17 season will be confirmed in late September. Its forecast milk price for the 2017-18 season is $6.50/kgMS.
i hear you get good milk protein gains too. Struth, best get onto it.
Mackle says addressing onfarm emissions is among the most challenging issues facing the dairy and food producing sectors, globally and in NZ. The two most critical issues are methane, formed when ruminant animals burp, and nitrous oxide, formed when nitro-
gen escapes into the atmosphere. He says reducing onfarm emissions will not be easy. “It requires our Government and the agricultural sector to work together; the plan is an important part of a broader work programme underway.”
Fonterra’s chief operating officer Farm Source, Miles Hurrell, says it is crucial to take an integrated approach to all the challenges facing dairy, e.g. climate change, animal welfare and protecting waterways, while maintaining dairy’s productivity and profitability.
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
10 // NEWS
Fonterra has introduced QR codes on its Anmun infant formula range to boost traceability.
Infant formula leads the export charge PETER BURKE peterb@ruralnews.co.nz
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formula are expected to reach the billion dollar mark by 2021, the Ministry for Primary Industry says in its latest Situation and Outlook report. It notes that in the year December 2015 to December 2016, infant formula milk exports from NZ increased by a massive 65% – well above the total world export rise of 44%. Unsurprisingly, much of the demand is led by China where consumers prefer imported products to domestic. And there is demand in China for NZ UHT milk and cream. The report says NZ’s dependence on the Chinese market is risky, but that the strong consumer demand for
safe, high quality products should see growth opportunities continue for the foreseeable future. Revenue from dairy products for the next five years is expected to rise from the present $14.6 billion to $18.2b by 2021, much of this attributed to rises in WMP, butter, cheese and infant formula. Jarrard Mair, MPI director of sector policy, says the WMP price is expected to hold the $3000/tonne mark. And there is lots of good news for the dairy sector in the “exciting stuff coming through from some of the big PGPs”. “The news has a good solid base and we are not seeing any big fluctuations coming; but we are seeing exciting high-end high-quality food opportunities due to investment in
the dairy industry over the past six years. We are seeing great value-add products coming from all the dairy companies.” MPI says cow numbers rose by 2.9% in the 2016-17 season despite a near-record cull in 2016, but cow numbers this season are predicted to remain static at about 5.9 million. Milk solids production for the coming season is predicted to be up 2% assuming normal weather, and to increase by 1% over the next five years to 2021. While MPI waxes lyrical about opportunities, it also warns that NZ has to get a better understanding of the dynamics of new markets. It notes in particular the rise and rise of e-commerce in China and the role and influence of the online platform Alibaba on traditional retailing.
RINGING CHANGES AT WESTLAND MILK WESTLAND MILK
Products chief executive Toni Brendish has been keeping her promise to get the company back on its feet after a couple of troubled financial years. This saw the departure of the previous chief executive and chairman. Brendish told Dairy News she has reconfigured the senior management team with the appointment of a new general manager in China, Garry Yu. A Chinese national, he has wide experience
Toni Brendish
of the China market, Brendish says. Most recently he was the managing director of Griffith Foods, Greater China, and prior to that worked in Coca Cola China, Unilever Bestfoods, Rich Products and
Nestle China in sales, marketing, R&D. “Garry Yu has significant local Chinese experience,” Brendish says. “And we have a new chief operations officer joining us next month, a new chief financial officer joining us in August, and we have put in a new supply chain general manager, Raul EliasDrago.” Brendish says WMP has been working on sales and operating planning and she has appointed a new person in this role, reporting
directly to her. Her focus has been on closing the gap and ensuring a competitive payout to producers in the range $6.40 - $6.80/ kgMS. “We are comfortable with that number looking at what we have done in the business. The team is working incredibly hard to get those costs under control so we feel confident about what is happing.” Brendish wants WMP to create more added value products and to promote its West Coast heritage and location.
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
12 // NEWS
Feed trials contest use of imports RESEARCH BY the BNZ Northland Dairy Development Trust (NDDT) at the Northland Agricultural Research Farm (NARF) is of national significance, says project science manager Chris Boom. NDDT has for two years been running a farm systems study investigating how farmers might reduce their use of imported feed. “We are starting to build confidence in our results and they are really interesting,” says Boom. Boom says dairy farmers are starting to learn about the fat evaluation index (FEI) of their milk. In some cases, the FEI will show the need to reduce the use of palm kernel expeller (PKE) to avoid exceeding Fonterra limits. “This is going to result in them having to change their systems. We hope they can learn from what we have been studying at NARF.” NARF is split up into three small farms: one uses only homegrown pasture (grass only farm), the second also doesn’t import feed but grows crops (cropping farm), and the third uses PKE to fill in feed gaps (PKE farm).
Farmers at a recent field day hear options for feeding cows.
This season the PKE farm had the highest production at 1118kgMS/ha, the cropping farm was next at 1053kgMS/ ha, and the grass only farm produced 965kgMS/ha. Last season the cropping farm produced the most and then the PKE farm, followed by the grass-only farm. “The cropping farm struggled during spring,” says Boom. “This was somewhat due to very soft soils that had been cropped the previous season.” Despite this, all farms exceeded their 2015-16 production this season. In the 2015-16 season the grass-only farm was slightly more profitable than
the other farms at the $3.90/kgMS milk price, despite having the lowest production of the three farms. The draft 2016-17 financial results have been calculated and were presented at the NARF field day on June 8. Farm working expenses were $3.81/ kgMS for the grass-only farm, $4.21/ kgMS for the cropping farm and $3.95/ kgMS for the PKE farm. At a $6/kgMS milk price, the PKE farm had marginally more operating profit than the grass-only farm at $2713/ ha compared to $2670/ha respectively. The cropping farm was lower with an operating profit of $2207/ha. The fig-
FEED TO SUCCEED
ures are sensitive to milk price however. At a $4/kgMS milk price the grassonly farm would have been much more profitable than the others; at $8/kgMS the PKE farm would have been much more profitable. “At a $6/kgMS milk price, there was 150kgMS difference in production per ha but similar profit levels between the grass-only and PKE farms. We all need to be careful we farm for profit not just production,” says Boom. “At NARF we measure the extra labour and machinery costs that cropping or supplementary feeding incur.
Sometimes the simple systems are the best, though grass-only farming definitely has its risks. “Use of PKE is going to be challenged.” Since January, milk from the PKE farm at NARF exceeded the FEI limit about 30% of the time, while cows were receiving 3kg PKE through much of this time. “Farmers are going to quickly learn about the interaction of PKE and FEI on their farms. This is something we don’t need to worry about on the grassonly farm,” says Boom. “The trial demonstrates what we see as best practice in how each of these systems operates, not that we get it right all the time. “Getting the grass only farm through a drought could be challenging; that farm was fortunate it rained in February this year. We are running this trial for a third season and possibly a fourth season. We want to ensure we have tested the systems in a variety of different climatic conditions.” • For more information or to subscribe to fortnightly email updates, go to www. nddt.nz
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
14 // NEWS
Ambitious dairy negotiators trying to open EU eyes PAM TIPA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz
ALL OPTIONS are still open on dairy
trade and negotiators will be “ambitious”, says lead negotiator for the FTA with the European Union, Martin Harvey. A scoping paper for the negotiations with the EU was released this month and referred to ‘sensitivities’ on agricultural products. “If you talk to someone in the EU on current tariff quota products they will only be talking about increased tariff quota access,” Harvey explained to Dairy News. “But if you look at the scoping document there are a number of things we can use -- extended trade phase out, tariff rate quotas -- and if you make them big enough you have free trade. “We effectively have free trade with sheep meat now because the quotas are way bigger than we can sell. “And it says for any other options
“We will be confronting interests in unfortunately they are used to lookwhich might be agreed between the parties – for example you could have a the EU which want limited access for ing at it as ‘this is our market and our safeguard mechanism which is another those products. Some of those are market only and anything that comes in is bad for us’. way of dealing with sensitive products “Our message to them is ‘look – you might have a trigger level for a at the global picture; we are safeguard which expands over really about NZ and EU time until it is no longer on the global stage; we necessary. are not talking about “If I had to do how much of your that I would want precious market an expanding one, we will take away; not a fixed one, we are not going so there are to be flooding it. a number of “We’ve got a ways you can job to explain do it. to them what “The safeNZ’s actual guard mech- European dairy companies like Arla Foods sell their cheese and butter in New Zealand so size is, our role anism in why can’t we sell our products in Europe? China basically acts like a tariff rate hard to fathom because the EU dairy in the world and world market relative quota until it disappears. It basically industry operates pretty much at world to the EU. Some of them don’t even says ‘you can have this much access prices now and they are expanding know we are eight times smaller than their global markets and competing they are in dairy production. and then you have to pay the tariff’.” “Part of the argument is that there Harvey says there is a range of with us everywhere else. “They are expanding their exports is increasing commercial collaboraoptions. “Our view is we will be ambitious, we would want the best access into our market so what’s the problem tion; it is jointly producing higher with us exporting a little to them? But value products for the local market possible.
and third markets. Some of those things are already going on. There is this great example of Fonterra taking whey from a major cheese plant in the Netherlands, making whey powder, and exporting that to China where it is mixed with product from Australia and New Zealand for China’s infant formula market. “That sort of stuff is only going to increase, but it is only going to get better with more possibilities if we are not constrained by limited access. “So we would like to incorporate in that product, imported product from New Zealand but we can’t because it is constrained by a tariff rate quota or the tariff is too high if it is a tariff-only product. “Surely it is going to increase the kind of production possibilities if we can have those options. “But some European agricultural interests just can’t look beyond the notion that anything coming into the market from the outside is bad for them.”
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
16 // NEWS
China FTA talks set to resume PAM TIPA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz
TARIFF ELIMINATION
on dairy into China is one issue New Zealand will be looking to progress in the Free Trade Agreement update with China, with negotiations starting in less than two weeks. “A handful of sectors are yet to have tariffs eliminated; dairy is one of them,” NZ’s lead negotiator Brad Burgess told Dairy News. “They are being phased out under the safeguards. That safeguard issue has
been mentioned by the sector as a non-trade barrier they are facing into China so it is certainly an issue we will be looking to... progress. “The safeguards on dairy expire under the current FTA; they expire in 2022 and 2024, so from 2025 all dairy products into China will be tarifffree. “The question will be ‘is there anything we can do to improve that situation before then?, but the FTA already allows duty free access for dairy in a number of years.” Dairy issues may also
arise as part of a broader conversation in the context of agricultural cooperation and access for service exporters such as agritech. “We have a number of initiatives bilaterally with China already, including an agricultural growth partnership; but we will look at what further cooperation might be appropriate in terms of the FTA upgrade.” The existing FTA with China came into force in 2008. That has been successful: two way trade with China has almost tripled since then and China
is now our largest goods export market The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade sees plenty of scope to upgrade the agreement including to grow twoway trade for all products to $30b by 2020 from $23b to June 2016. That was set when former Prime Minister John Key and President Xi Jinping agreed to explore upgrading the FTA. The negotiators have two broad objectives: first, reducing the barriers NZers still face in doing business in China -- either those we weren’t
Not all NZ dairy exports to China enjoy duty-free status right now.
able to address in the original FTA or new issues that have emerged since. The focus is on the barriers themselves, and on improving existing processes with China to address issues in the future. The second objective is to modernise the agree-
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ment to ensure it remains relevant by updating it to reflect developments in regulations since 2008 and developments in trade policies since 2008; and also to encompass new issues like digital trade. In 2014, Key and Xi agreed to explore the scope to upgrade the agreement. Two years were spent exploring that and agreeing on what the scope of those negotiations should be. “We saw public submissions as part of that and got a lot of submissions about some of those barriers to trade that are among our objectives in upgrading the agreement.” In November 2016 they reached agreement to launch negotiations. A top Chinese leader, Premier Li, has indicated that the upgrade was part of China’s leadership in trade globally. Negotiations were launched in April. Burgess said last week the second round will take place in China in two weeks and they will start talking priorities. The scoping document includes -- but is not limited to -- nine areas they have agreed to cover
which includes technical barriers to trade and agricultural cooperation. Sanitary and phytosanitary measures are outside the scope of negotiations as regulators are working on these and already have a five year implementation plan. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs and Trade now wants to hear from the public, business, NGOs and any interested NZers on what their priorities should be. They have identified three broad areas: goods and non tariff barriers or regulatory issues affecting the goods at the border, better access for NZ service exporters, and how they can advance digital trade. Public submissions have been invited and are still welcomed, in individual and group meetings; they are going out to all known services and exporters going into the China market and are happy to meet one-onone. They will upgrade their website after each round. MFAT is keen to get feedback from businesses and exporters, including red tape issues in China. @dairy_news facebook.com/dairynews
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
WORLD // 17
Sky lanterns turn UK farmers red UK FARMERS want a
ban on a popular Chinese festival where ‘sky lanterns’ are released. Farmers concerns over the possible effects of the lanterns on their livestock and land has led to the Maidstone and Kent Shine Up Festival being suspended. The National Farmers Union says it’s talking to local councils and encourages them to ban the use of sky lanterns wherever possible to protect the welfare of livestock and farmers’ land. NFU chief land management adviser Sam Durham says sky lanterns pose a serious risk to livestock and it is pressuring councils to ban the lanterns so that farmers can do their work without unnecessary worry. “It’s not just farm animals that can be affected,” says Durham. “Sky lan-
terns can cause fires in crops, grassland on moors and stacked bales of hay and straw, which could lead to a loss of buildings. “Some councils have banned sky lanterns and we encourage more to do so. The public and farmers can write to their local councils spelling out how dangerous sky lanterns can be. “The festivals’ use of biodegradable lanterns made of bamboo is still not enough to minimise the risk. “Bamboo is still a hardy and sharp material that can pose risk to livestock.” Shine Up Festival has announced four new dates for the lantern-releasing festival to be held in September. On its website it says lanterns are 100% biodegradable and ecofriendly, made from rice paper, bamboo and string.
LITTER NUISANCE, RISK TO FARMING ■■
■■
■■
■■
Litter nuisance: farmers and other land owners have to clear up the remnants of sky lanterns. Risk to animals: frames can contaminate forage crops which are later fed to the animals. The frames of sky lanterns can cause suffering or even kill farm animals if they are eaten. Animals can get tangled in or injured by the sharp wire frames, and bamboo framed lanterns can splinter, causing serious injuries if ingested. Major fire risk: once lit and let go you don’t know where an ignited lantern will land. Fields of standing crops, hay and straw stacks, farm buildings and thatched roofs are all at risk. False alarm: the NFU says the Coastguard has reported sky lanterns being mistaken for distress signals, and the Civil Aviation Authority is concerned airborne lanterns could be drawn into aircraft engines.
“They have been specially designed for large scale public events and comply with the UK industry code of practice,” it says. Shine Up is a “leave no trace event”.
A debate over sky lanterns is heating up in the UK.
“Not only do we pick up the lanterns, but we pick up any other litter we can find along the way. We have dedicated litter pickers on duty who gather litter after participants have gone home.”
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
18 // OPINION RUMINATING
EDITORIAL
Time to reconnect with the rest of NZ
MILKING IT... Open dairy VERY CONTRASTING attitudes emerged towards the news media at last week’s annual Fed Farmers conference. While the dairy section was open to the media, not so the meat and fibre section. The reason for no media was that they wanted to have a free discussion. But journalists’ presence didn’t hold back the dairy farmers from speaking out. It’s interesting, given that Feds is complaining about thin media coverage, but when journalists turn up they shut them out. Well done team dairy; a pity we can’t compliment meat and fibre.
Invite to rough it
Drink up, be thankful
Falling into sin
TWO JOB adverts placed by a farmer in a South Canterbury newspaper are causing uproar. The farmer’s blunt honesty in describing working conditions prompted some readers to ask whether the ads were intended to discourage local workers from applying. One advert said the successful candidate would be provided with “old house accommodation” and applicants would be subject to “drug testing at interview” and “police vetting”. It also said “rodents sometimes get into the house, but only at night”. The second advert said the accommodation provided was a “Portacom” on a “dusty track that services two farms”.
ANOTHER REASON for New Zealanders to be thankful to Fonterra and its farmer shareholders: Massey University research shows that children drinking milk at school grow bigger and develop stronger bones than children not drinking the Fonterra milk. The study followed 118 children in Manawatu drinking the milk. They were aged 5-10. Providing nutrition to school children is the job of parents, yet Fonterra spends millions every year to give kids milk. And during the dairy downturn Fonterra did not step back from its obligations under Milk for Schools.
A MAN has admitted falling at the gate of Kiwi tradition – stealing from a farmgate honesty box. Leonard Sorenson told police he was finding living costs hard, so he decided to steal the box of a rawmilk vendor, then next day he trashed the vendor’s machines. The forestry worker (41) pleaded guilty in the Palmerston North District Court on to two charges of theft and wilful damage. Arran Farm, in Manawatu, has vending machines for selling raw milk at the farm gate and is open to the public most days. Sorenson and some associates went there on May 20 and took off with the honesty box containing an unknown amount of cash. Next afternoon they returned, Sorenson’s associates keeping watch while he damaged the vending machines. Their actions were caught on camera.
THE NEW board at Federated Farmers faces a three-year challenge to deal with a pile of issues now threatening agriculture and their organisation. Top of the bill comes reconnecting with the rest of New Zealand. Under Bruce Wills’ presidency three years ago -- before William Rolleston took over -- Feds went into outreach mode and successfully connected with the public. Some Feds members may not have liked this, but it steered the organisation away from being an advocacy group, like Greenpeace, to one of leadership, like Business NZ. Under Rolleston the focus has been science – notably GE (genetic engineering). Behind the scenes this may have had merit, but the open public persona Bruce Wills created was lost; now it urgently needs to be recaptured. All the elected positions at Feds board level were contested – a sure sign many were unhappy with the status quo. Some were openly counting down the days. Farmers may wring their hands about the often rotten coverage of farming by journalists, but at times the blame for this lay squarely with Feds itself. While most Feds people know what they are about, those who chose to beat up the media for alleged mistakes negated the good work of others. Even a public relations junior will advise you to get onside with the media -- not offside. Understandably farmers get defensive, but how much time or cash do they spend on courting journalists? Feds also faces financial issues and it’s common knowledge that on key farming issues they are passive because they are short of cash. They also face conflicts within their own sector groups, for example, dairy versus meat and fibre over differing views on water. It’s not all bad news because at provincial levels Feds has shown great leadership over the many adverse events and has gained much public kudos for their efforts. But in the big-picture stuff the new board at Federated Farmers can choose to retain its present strict advocacy role and do battle with the other NGOs, or it can rise above this and show much-needed, long-awaited leadership in the rural sector. Unless it does the latter, Feds risks becoming a fading echo in a long-forgotten corridor – which may just be the destiny of some of these pesky NGOs.
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
OPINION // 19
Accept that our customers keep raising the bar Federated Farmers dairy chairman Andrew Hoggard stepped down at last week’s annual conference after three years in the role. Here are excerpts from his final speech. AS MY three years being your dairy industry chair comes to end, it is worth reflecting on what a rollercoaster ride the last three years have been for me. For the first two years the focus was mainly on the downturn in prices, and the various attacks on the dairy industry came a close second. During this last year, thankfully with prices recovering, the critics of dairy in particular and agriculture in general have really cranked things up. The pressure isn’t just happening here in New Zealand, but is universal in the developed world; at the recent international dairy federation meeting we spent a lot of time on the anti-dairy movement. The nuances are different in each country, but by and large it revolves around animal welfare and the environment. Often the two are linked, with the vegans pushing the animal rights side, and pointing to the co-benefit of saving the planet by going vegan Likewise, the environmentalists will point out that we don’t need animal agriculture anyway, as you can get all the nutrition you need from lentils, mung beans and tofu. And it’s not just the traditional hippy type activists who want to tell us how to farm. Many of you won’t have heard of FAIRR (Farm Animal Investment Risk & Return). This is an initiative to advise investors on the pitfalls of ‘factory farming’, put together by Jeremy Collier, an investment funds manager. Basically the people behind this manage about $1.5 trillion in assets. Think Gareth Morgan, but infinitely richer, and probably less prone to gaffs and cat jokes. I guess the
question for us is ‘do they see us as factory farming?’ Unfortunately, many of these types view any sort of farming -- where you either have to employ another person to help you or you have more than a handful of animals -- as factory farming. They exemplify some of the international challenges dairy and agriculture in general face. Unfortunately, internationally we are all too busy trying to get a jump on our fellow global farmers, to get a bigger slice of the pie, and we are meanwhile missing the point that the pie is at risk of shrinking. Also, there is much we should all be doing in the pre-competitive space before we start trying to knife each other. The classic example, of course, isn’t dairy but lamb -- particularly in the UK. At times I wonder whether UK sheep farmers ever spend any time on their farms; all they seem to be doing is loitering in supermarkets looking for a NZ lamb chop to photograph, and then complaining about it on Twitter. Meanwhile, lamb consumption plummets This also means globally we need to be aware of our farming practices and how they might be perceived, and be willing to change and adapt, so as to ensure we do not lose customers. Some farmers won’t like this, but here is the reality: you do not hold any rights that ensure people must buy your products; if customers like what you are selling then they will buy it; if they really like it they will pay more; but if they don’t like your product or the story behind your product they won’t buy from you. My message for farmers is simple: change is
constant, and the bar, particularly in respect of the environment and animal welfare, will continue to
be lifted by our customers. We must keep adapting to that and accept the fact.
Andrew Hoggard
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
20 // AGRIBUSINESS Claire Bourne, Ngai Tahu Farming.
Iwi farms sign for mental health boost THE WHANAU in the award-winning mental health programme GoodYarn has just got bigger. Ngai Tahu Farming has recently signed to put on GoodYarn workshops
for its staff and agricultural students. This business has about 100,000ha of South Island land in dairy, grazing, red meat and forestry. It produces 35 million litres of milk a season.
People and development manager Claire Bourne says Ngai Tahu Farming took up GoodYarn because it is “in line with one of our values -- manaakitanga (looking after our
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people)”. She says 50 people will be involved each year to “keep kaimahi (staff) healthy, safe and focused on initiatives that promote and foster their own wellbeing, resilience and grit”. Organisations wanting to offer GoodYarn must undergo a licensing programme to train their staff in running the workshops on how to stay healthy, recognise stress in others and respond effectively. GoodYarn was last year named joint Best Mental Health Promotion/ Illness Prevention scheme at the Australia and New Zealand TheMHS (Mental Health Services) Conference. Recently it was a finalist in the national Safeguard awards for best initiative to promote worker health. Bourne admits rural life can be “challenging”. “There is isolation and under-developed amenities, so our target audience is our staff, their whanau living in our growing community and our Whenua Kura students who live at our residential hall Kokomuka Lodge. “We hope GoodYarn will make them aware of mental illness and how common it is for people to experience [this] during their lifetime. [We will] give them skills and resources to recog-
nise when to seek help for themselves or their whānau, friends or coworkers.” GoodYarn was developed by WellSouth, a primary health organisation, and DairyNZ, as part of the Transforming the Dairy Value Chain Primary Growth Partnership programme. Dana Carver, DairyNZ’s wellness & wellbeing programme leader, says 19 organisations, including Ngai Tahu Farming, had taken up a licence and were incorporating GoodYarn in their business or the wider communities they worked in. These included Fonterra, Rabobank and various rural support trusts. “It’s good to have any business part of the fold, small or large, Maori or not, as this is about reaching an entire industry and creating culture change,” she said. “However, having Ngai Tahu on board ensures we’re covering the full spectrum of the industry and getting a comprehensive reach.” That reach is a key to teaching people how to stay healthy and help others. “Wellness… needs to be owned by everyone in the industry and ownership means delivering the message and putting people and money behind it.”
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IN BRIEF Nominations open NOMINATIONS have opened for the 2017 Rabobank Leadership Awards, recognising outstanding leadership in New Zealand and Australia’s food, beverage and agribusiness industries. The two peer-nominated annual awards – the Rabobank Leadership Award and the Rabobank Emerging Leader Award – are among the industry’s most highly-regarded accolades, acknowledging contribution of good leadership to the success of the food and agribusiness sector. The Rabobank Leadership Award is presented to an individual who has built an expansive career in management and leadership in New Zealand or Australian agribusiness and has, as a senior executive, led sustained growth and commercial success while demonstrating a wider commitment to the broader community. In 2016, this award was presented to New Zealand meat industry pioneer Sir Graeme Harrison, founder and chair of one of New Zealand’s largest exporters, ANZCO.
DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
AGRIBUSINESS // 21
Top Jersey cow sells for $10,000 TOP QUALITY Jersey cows sold at an average of $5364 at the recent Jersey Pride Elite Jersey sale in Wellington. Sponsored by LIC, the Jersey Pride sale attracted 11 entries of elite registered Jersey females. Two averaged $9250, four in-calf heifers averaged $4150 and five yearling heifers averaged $4780. The top price cow sold for $10,000. Jersey New Zealand president Alison Gibb says the sale of high-index, Jersey genetics supports the organisation’s national breeding objective and enhances the rate of genetic gain for the Jersey breed. “Our call to all Jersey farmers is to make Jersey number one,” says Gibb. “Clearly the value of top quality Jersey genetics is being realised despite low sales figures nationally through the autumn sales period.” Gibbs says there are environmental and financial benefits to Jersey herds. “Jersey is the fastest growing breed internationally, and is number one for feed efficiency, fertility, heat tolerance, milk quality and milk value. Jerseys produce 13% more milk solids than other breeds, and have the lowest environmental footprint.”
Genetic value ■■
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Top sale price of $10,000 reached at the national Jersey Pride Elite Jersey sale in Wellington Average sale price of Jersey reaches $5364 Value of Jersey genetics being realised despite low sales figures nationally through autumn.
The vendors included well-known Jersey breeders Okura stud, Luke and Lyna Beehre, Hikurangi; Lynbrook Jerseys, Steve and Nina Ireland, Temuka; and Willand Jerseys, Gavin and Rosemary Fleming, Otorohanga. Okura and Lynbrook Jerseys have supplied 250 bulls to sire proving programmes. Two sires from these studs, Okura Manhattan and Lynbrook Terrific, have offspring milking on almost every farm where Jersey genetics are milked. “Many of these breeders have bred proven bulls for the NZ dairy industry, and several lots in the sale were carry-
Jersey is the fastest growing breed internationally, says Jersey NZ.
ing contract matings to major artificial insemination companies,” says Gibb. First-time vendors Hamish and Charlotte O’Donnell from Baldrick Farms, who recently moved to their first farm in Rai Valley, Marlborough, have bought top Jerseys in recent years through elite cattle sales. “The purchase of quality genetics gives us an opportunity to breed
bulls for the industry and a chance to meet and share ideas and information with like-minded breeders and others in the genetic industry,” says Hamish O’Donnell. The Jersey Pride sale also included the sale of straws of some top Jersey bulls, supplied by LIC. Semen sold for up to $82 per straw. Other Jersey sales in autumn have
included the Jersey Power sale in Otorohanga where Just Jerseys Ltd vendors Nigel and Julie Riddell averaged $2235 for 30 in-calf heifers with a top price of $4600; and the Waikato Valley Jersey sale where Ngatea vendors Stuart and Heather Fowlie (Fynreath Jerseys) averaged $5680 for five in-calf heifers and an overall sale average of $2232 for 27 lots.
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
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22 // MANAGEMENT
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HEALTH AND safety (H&S) of promise H&S. “My initial role with Purata and people is the top priority for a farming group that’s among the largest in then Theland cemented my passion for making a difference. Working New Zealand. Theland Purata and Tahi Farm with Theland senior leadership team Groups collectively own 29 farms – 13 we have achieved a level of engagein the South Island (formerly Purata) ment across the business that we and the balance in the North Island are proud of. We apply a ‘one farm, one team’ approach that helps drive (formerly Crafar farms). Fostering a culture of everyone our culture and we share challenges, looking out for each other recently ideas and successes across all our helped the group gain secondary level farms to ensure we don’t reinvent ACC Workplace Safety Management the wheel at each worksite.” Theland’s H&S programme is Practice accreditation. Theland Farm Group H&S man- succeeding because it is owned and ager, Angie Saywell, says the accred- driven by the entire team; Saywell itation and the audit which preceded says people tune in once they relate it “allowed the group to showcase a workplace H&S to personal and family time. selection of initiatives... “We all want to go to keep our people safe”. home safe at the end of “You won’t find any each day and the key lies box-ticking here, rather in helping people recoga genuine commitment nise the impact an accito safety, led from the dent could have on the boardroom to the dairy time they spend with shed and everywhere in their children, family, between. friends or interests. “Historically, agricul“We consult clearly ture hasn’t had a great with our people and track record in safety Angie Saywell and we have worked hard to help communicate the ‘why’ behind everylead the change in culture necessary thing we introduce and roll out on to send every member of our team farm. If our team understand why they do something a certain way home safe, every day.” Saywell early in 2016 joined Purata or why they need to do it at all, it achieves much better buy-in. -- her dream job. “Engagement is achieved in daily “I’ve worked as a H&S practitioner for nearly a decade after grad- meetings where H&S is always the uating bachelor of science and arts first point of discussion. We also have from Otago University. I started my an active H&S committee with repcareer with ACC in assessment and resentatives from each farm team.” Recruiting the right people has case coordination roles, but wasn’t satisfied being the ambulance at the also pushed the success of the H&S programme. bottom of the cliff. “We understand the qualities and “An opportunity to join ACC’s injury prevention team saw me do skills that make great leaders, and a post-graduate diploma in occupa- support our people with their career tional H&S through Massey Univer- progression goals. “We work with our farm mansity and my passion in this field grew agers so they understand their from there. “Home for me is also a farm -- my H&S responsibilities and we keep husband Pete and I are in our second them well informed, particularly on season of contract milking on his changes to H&S legislation. “We don’t expect them to be H&S family farm near Geraldine -- and the hands-on experience helps me under- experts, but we do expect them to stand the environment that can com- lead by example, so keeping them
JASON AND Katy Day both work as 2ICs at Theland Tahi’s Taharua Farm near Taupo. “The H&S culture here at Theland Tahi has kicked up a gear over the last year. To be involved with people who understand the importance of their own and their workmates’ safety is satisfying.... knowing we all go home safe at the end of the day. “Being exposed to the inner workings of the H&S system is important; if you have support from management... it enables you to fully understand what they want to achieve and this ensures a positive attitude towards H&S, making it part of your everyday thinking.”
up-to-date helps them do that effectively. “And we understand our cultural diversity and communicate appropriately with our people. English is a second language for many so we use visual controls to ensure everyone understands H&S.” Theland farms display meaningful H&S information, e.g. farm hazard maps, emergency procedures and signage. In late 2015 a reporting system came online that can be accessed from dairy shed computers and mobile phones -- recording all accidents, incidents, near-misses and hazards. This allows analysis of data to identify trends and key hazards in incidents. An orientation programme helps identify any new person’s training needs, and training sessions during the dairy season upskill them. Despite the size and spread of Theland farming group, Saywell says the culture is family oriented. “Go onto any one of our farms and you will experience the same culture. “Everyone looks out for each other, and is quick to raise concerns if they see an unsafe act and this extends to contractors and visitors.” One-size-fits-all is not how it’s done in safety. “It’s a long, often bumpy journey that requires a commitment from the business and its leaders... driven by culture, not compliance. Our teams know we will listen, consult with them when introducing new policies or procedures, take their feedback on board and tweak our systems. We may not do things the way everyone else does but that’s ok; we are not afraid to think outside the square.” A recent review of Theland Farm Group H&S event data reveals that near-misses and non-injury events account for nearly 75% of all reported events. Each of those near-misses and non-injury events are investigated to help prevent a recurrence; teams are involved in investigations and learnings are shared across the business.
DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
MANAGEMENT // 23
p priority for corporate farmer JULIEN UGUEN is the supplementary feed and machinery manager for Dunsandel Dairies. “The group’s commitment to H&S means everybody cares for each other and I feel like the leaders care for their team members. The cows are still the priority, so we want to be around in one piece to take care of them. It also brings more human relationships into the business and helps people to interact. “I once used to look at things from the wrong angle, thinking H&S was a hassle, a restriction or something we must do because the boss decided or because it’s the law. “The communication with our H&S manager is the key to success. Her dairy farming background helps a lot. She made us understand how we could be involved, and each of us could take ownership of it and be a leader in that area, regardless of our position in the team or farming experience. “People with no NZ dairy farming background have to face great challenges and being safe makes their life more simple. People shouldn’t be injured at work, but it happens, and it will always happen. We must minimise the risk as much as we can, not to put more pressure on other team members and, of course, the cows. “The development of e-tools helps us to implement our H&S system (people hub, e-sign in/out, farm maps, etc) and be proactive even with the contractors coming on site. “The no-blame culture is important to build trust with team members so they can report what happened to them and what they consider not safe. “The H&S committee is important too. The monthly meetings, with a representative from every team (farms, maintenance, vets and office), and involving everyone from the farm assistant to the chief executive, help us to be proactive and keep information flowing across the business.”
SAM BROOKER has been
unit manager at Theland Purata Treevale farm, moving into the role of farm manager at Theland Tahi from June 1. “After working in the Theland Purata team for five years, and being on the H&S committee for four of those years, I’ve have
grown from the ‘she’ll beright’ attitude of yester-year to one of safety first, not just on my farm but in the entire business. “The group’s commitment to H&S means I don’t have to worry about coming to work and being asked, or asking another team member, to do
something that could result in them being seriously hurt or worse. “It also means my family knows that when I walk out the door to go to work I’m in an environment that puts H&S as its top priority which means a lot in an industry that can be very dangerous.
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at Theland Purata’s Robindale Farm. “Purata’s commitment to my safety makes me feel like a valued and important member of their team. It makes me feel motivated to get up for work every day. We feel looked after with the gear they provide us and the training they offer. I like that even though I’m the youngest team member; I’m encouraged to share my ideas and try new things. “My understanding of safety has changed massively; I didn’t used to talk about it, but now we talk about it all the time. We work in a big team... we have a voice and can speak up when things aren’t right. We talk regularly about hazards on farm and we get to help find solutions.”
DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
24 // MANAGEMENT
One swallow doesn’t make a summer LAST MONTH saw the annual release of the 2015-16 DairyNZ Economic Survey1 which contains a wealth of data on the average physical and financial performance of 250 randomly selected owner-operator herds during the 2015-16 production season. Several things stand out from the survey, but for the first time the full impact of low international prices for milk are seen at farm level. Income from the pre-
vious season had been inflated due to a very healthy deferred payment. The 2015-16 season had a $3.90/kgMS milk price and virtually no deferred payment coming through
from the previous season; in other words, it was as bad as it was likely to get. There is no hiding the fact that budgets of many individual farms looked pretty ugly. Table 1 shows that though high input farms were larger, milked more cows and produced more milk than low input farms, they incurred a greater loss. Many commentators have used this season’s data to push for de-intensification of dairy farms, saying that high input
Table 1: Owner-operators Production Systems 2015-16 season.
Farm System % Feed Imported
2 x 5 TEAT
PEN WATER TROUGHS
133
144
180
351
403
541
2.6
2.8
3.0
125,594
152,164
228,314
Milksolids per ha
948
1054
1264
Milksolids per cow
358
378
422
Net dairy cash income ($/kgMS)
4.66
4.46
4.45
Dairy operating expenses ($/kgMS)
4.24
4.53
4.60
Dairy operating profit ($/kgMS)
0.26
-0.10
-0.21
Operating profit ($/ha)
244
-106
-206
Total return on assets (%)
0.4%
-0.3%
-0.6%
Total return on equity (%)
-11.2%
-13.1%
-14.0%
-7.3%
-12.0%
-7.6%
Growing in equity (%) Closing term liabilities ($/kgMS) Debt to asset (%)
22.89
23.44
20.49
46.7%
53.3%
50.5%
Table 2: Average Profitability of Owner-Operator Production Systems from 2005/06 to 2015/16.
475
$
Farm System
Low
Operating profit ($/ha)
1669
1812
1978
Total return on assets %
5.42
5.36
5.95
Total reutrn on equity %
4.80
5.07
6.06
Growth in equity1 %
5.18
4.98
6.89
19.73
19.18
18.93
1
inc. GST
Closing term liability/kg milksolids 1
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Growth in equity and return on equity figures are from 2006/07 to 2015/16.
farms are less profitable than lower input farms. As my grandmother used to say, “One swallow doesn’t make a summer”, and unfortunately for the naysayers the long term average performance data on the three farm systems doesn’t support their argument. An analysis of the past eleven seasons (Table 2) shows that on
average, high input systems made more money and had the highest growth in equity and the lowest closing term liability, and this includes the two previous seasons. The data is quite clear: over the last 11 years, on average, high input systems have made the most profit/ha, have had the best return on assets and
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equity, have had the best growth in equity and have been less risky in terms of their closing liabilities/ kgMS. Intensification is not wrecking the profitability of NZ dairy systems. And going on the previous 11 season’s figures, I predict that this season’s payout will only reinforce the decision of many of those
farmers who have chosen to intensify – that they have made the right one. In my next article I will cover a few things successful high input farms do to make sure they capitalise on the higher payouts when they happen. • Ian Williams is a Pioneer forage specialist. Contact him at iwilliams@genetic. co.nz
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
ANIMAL HEALTH // 25
Drugs for bugs: beating AMR ADAM HEIKAL & GREG COOK
LAST MONTH in Dairy News (‘Antimicrobials deserve our full attention’, May 10) we discussed the rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR), the increase in agricultural antimicrobial usage (up 67% by 2030 to 100,000 tons/ year) and the threat of AMR to our health and food production. Now we look at approaches to developing new antimicrobials. These new drugs will transform the way we treat bacterial infections in humans and animals, giving us tools to combat AMR. As AMR has spread, our armoury of antimicrobials has been eroded and we are now faced with a shortage of antimicrobials. As global demand grows, the agricultural sector is faced with a ‘perfect storm’ – needing to keep animals healthy, despite the challenges of ever-increasing production and intensification, yet having fewer antimicrobial tools available to do so. Current antibiotics only target a small number of essential processes in a bacterial cell, and most were discovered in what microbiologists refer to as the ‘golden
age of drug discovery’ (1935-1965). Antibiotics are grouped into various classes, based on their chemical structures and, unfortunately, since the 1960s no new classes of antimicrobials have been discovered. Until recently, antimicrobial discovery focused on existing drugs, relying on chemical tinkering to produce new versions of old compounds. Whilst this was successful for a time, these drugs hit the same old targets and resistance developed quickly. Most current antimicrobials used in animals and humans are broad-spectrum agents (targeting many differing bacteria) and belong to the same structural classes. Because of this, the licence to use these compounds is being increasingly curtailed, adding to the already urgent need to develop new structural classes of antimicrobials that are not shared between animals and humans. Our vision for new antimicrobials is to develop narrow spectrum agents that specifically target bad bacteria, with little or no collateral
damage to the good bacteria normally present in our bodies. This will overcome the risk of AMR cross-over between animals and humans, which could affect our ability to treat infections in humans. We have recently taken biomedical research technologies such as highthroughput screening of bacterial cells and redeveloped them for agritech drug discovery. Our cell-based highthroughput screening allows us to discover antimicrobials that are both specific for a particular target bacterial species and also, importantly, work against the target bug under conditions relevant to the disease or environment. This sounds obvious, but until recently most antimicrobial discovery was only conducted under laboratory conditions, which might
Adam Heikal is a microbial biochemist with a background in antimicrobials for bio-medicine and agriculture. He works at the University of Oslo, Norway, and is co-leader of a MBIE project at the University of Otago, developing sanitisers for treating mastitis with the animal health company Deosan. Greg Cook is a microbiologist at the University of Otago, specialising in bacterial energy metabolism as a new antimicrobial. He has recently led projects funded by MPI and MBIE as part of his research into antimicrobials for NZ agriculture.
be very different from those the bacteria experience in a field, a milking shed or on the udder of a cow. This kind of screening is fast, sensitive and has the potential to deliver hundreds of new compounds. These new compounds will pave the way for entirely new classes of antimicrobials to be designed for purpose. As well as screening with synthetic chemical libraries we are also using libraries of natural products. These often have
far greater diversity in their chemical structure than synthetics; after all, they have had millions of years to evolve, while scientists have only been making molecules for a few decades. It’s possible that public and consumer acceptance is also higher for natural products. However, ever-increasing sensitivity in detecting residues (harmful or otherwise) in consumer products means we need to develop cost-effective and environmentally friendly inhibitors that
don’t end up in products. As well designing new antimicrobials for farmed animals, our lab is working towards reducing the environmental footprint of agriculture, chiefly greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in ruminant animals and soils, and nitrate leaching. New Zealand’s GHG profile is unusual in that 50% of these come from agriculture, and methane makes up 35% of this. The inhibitor 3-NOP was developed in Switzerland to target meth-
ane-producing bacteria in ruminant animals. Methane is a potent GHG driving climate change/ global warming. 3-NOP is narrow spectrum and does not act on other rumen bacteria (the good bacteria). The inhibitor has been extensively tested in US feedlot animals, reducing methane levels in lactating dairy cows by 30% over 12 weeks. Strikingly, an increase in weight gain, milk protein content and lactose was also recorded. The multiple positive aspects of 3-NOP are encouraging and validate the approach of designing selective molecules to target environmental microorganisms. So the prospects look bright for the NZ agritech sector to become a world leader in developing custom-made animal remedies that are not used in human medicine.
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
26 // ANIMAL HEALTH
Lab mutations seen killing fruit flies PESTS LIKE mice and wasps may
“If you don’t address damaged teats, you’re asking for trouble” “We knew of teat conditioners and knew it was recommended in general. We knew that cows with teat condition issues were more at risk for mastitis, however, we thought teat spray would be enough to combat that risk. Adding Teat Conditioner certainly made a difference.
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one day be killed off by a new technique now proven in laboratory tests on fruit flies. Professor Neil Gemmell, head of the University of Otago’s Department of Anatomy, says the ‘Trojan Female Technique’ (TFT) – in which females pass on genes that make male offspring infertile -- offers a means of New Zealand reaching the Government’s Predator Free 2050 goal. In a recent paper published by eLife, Gemmell and co-authors report their success against Trojan female fruit flies in a lab. “This is a world-first proof-of-concept and we need to test the general applicability of the approach more widely.” Gemmell says the technique uses naturally occurring mutations in mitochondrial DNA that affect male, but not female, fertility and fitness. Mitochondria are considered the ‘power generators’ of a cell and turn oxygen and nutrients into chemical energy which runs the cell’s metabolic activities. “The essence of our idea is to use these mitochondrial mutations to produce continuous, self-sustaining biological control. “What we discovered some years ago is that, as a by-product of the maternal inheritance of mitochondrial DNA, mutations that affect only
males can occur quite commonly in populations, potentially contributing to fertility issues in some populations. “Our idea turns this problem around. If these mutations can affect population viability, we wondered if they might be turned into a tool with potential to control and even eradicate pests. “Our paper – with Dr Damian Dowling and Dr Jonci Wolff of Monash University -- shows that population reduction, albeit at this stage quite modest, can be achieved in laboratory-raised fruit flies.” Gemmell says broadening this technique to introduce Trojan females into wasp and pasture weevil populations is under way, with funding from the Biological Heritage National Science Challenge and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. “There are several advantages of this approach, which does not require elaborate, and probably uncontrollable, delivery systems, such as parasitic vectors and intermediate hosts. “It is species-specific, there is little danger of accidental release or cross-species transmission, and it is adaptable to any pest species because mitochondria are common to all higher organisms. “While there are many tools to
control pest populations, we think this might be an important part of a growing arsenal. Certainly around New Zealand there is a great deal of interest in this approach as a way to control rats, possums and stoats as part of the Predator Free 2050 goal.” Co-author Dr Dan Tompkins, who is Landcare Research’s managing invasives portfolio leader, says it is a critical advantage that the approach does not require genetic modification. “This technique is now being explored for application to pasture weevils, which cause millions of dollars of loss to the dairy and other livestock industries each year. This is particularly relevant at the moment, given data suggesting that the current biocontrol of these weevils could be failing. “It could also be used for controlling vertebrate pests, but that line of research is several years behind insect work and is currently unfunded in NZ.” Pests are estimated to cost NZ about $3.3 billion a year through lost productivity and cause profound damage to native fauna and flora. The implications globally are even larger, particularly when insect-borne diseases like malaria are considered. @dairy_news facebook.com/dairynews
NEVER MISS A CALVING WITH MOOCALL A SIMPLE device underpinned by
a complex algorithm can alert farmers via text message that a cow will calve within one hour. Moocall Calving Sensors, developed in Ireland and available in Australia and New Zealand, are easily applied to a cow’s tail and can accurately predict when it will give birth. It does this by measuring tail movement patterns triggered by labour contractions. When they reach a certain level of intensity over a period of time it sends an SMS text alert to a cellphone one hour prior to calving. After calving, the sensor can be moved to the next cow. It is adjustable to any size tail. The device was launched in 2015. Since then 23,000 sensors have been sold in 38 countries. And this growth looks likely to accelerate: Moocall has been chosen for the Pearse Lyons Global Agritech Accelerator scheme run by biotech company Alltech, this year. Moocall was one of 10 companies selected from 183 applicants (from 38 countries) to join the
scheme; it was pitched to an audience of 3000 at the Alltech One17 Ideas conference in Kentucky last month. It is the idea of Alltech
Moocall co-founder Emmett Savage.
founder and president Dr Pearse Lyons and was open to start-ups now funded and ready to go to market. Moocall co-founder Emmett Savage says the resources and
expertise made available via the Accelerator scheme helped grow and develop his company. “The Accelerator has been massive for Moocall as a business, and for me personally,” he said. “The tutoring, training, pitch coaching and opening up a world of contacts helped spread Moocall around the world.” Moocall and the other successful applicants took part in a 15-week mentorship programme aimed at accelerating their business development. They now have access to Dr Lyons and other senior executives of Alltech which has a presence in 129 countries. Alltech chief innovation officer Aidan Connolly said, “[These businesses] want access to our footprint, our market knowledge and our contacts. “We have a strong network of people we can bring in who may be potential customers, distributors and even investors in these start-ups,” he said. – Stephen Cooke
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
28 // ANIMAL HEALTH
Managing nutrition leads to feedlot gains STEPHEN COOKE
Vaughn Holder, Alltech.
A NEW feeding programme designed by biotech company Alltech shows that with proper timing, nutrition can be a
ribeye area in large scale trials, and it has been seen to remove antibiotics. Dr Vaughn Holder, research project manager with Alltech’s beef nutrition department, speaking at the company’s ‘One
more powerful tool than genetic manipulation for controlling production, animal health and quality. Alltech’s nutritional programme Epnix has yielded increased carcase weight, dressed yield and
WERE YOU EXPECTING THIS? 1
Treating mastitis with Metacam® also improved fertility
We’ve come to expect therapeutic efficacy and productivity benefits from Metacam®. What we didn’t expect, until recently, were fertility benefits too. Our new large-scale (n = over 500) landmark study found that the addition of Metacam® to standard antibiotic therapy for mastitis was associated with a greater first-service conception rate, fewer inseminations and a higher probability of pregnancy by 120 days post-calving.1 Expectations of Metacam® treatment are changing accordingly. Are yours?
Longer reproductive life
Reference 1. Addition of meloxicam to the treatment of clinical mastitis improves subsequent reproductive performance. S. McDougall et al. Journal of Dairy Science. Volume 99, Issue 3, March 2016, Pages 2026–2042. New Zealand: Boehringer Ingelheim (NZ) Limited, Animal Health Division, Level 1, Unit 9, 42 Ormiston Road, East Tamaki, Manukau 2016. Toll free: 0800 802 461. Restricted Veterinary Medicine. Access is only through a veterinary authorisation. Australia: Boehringer Ingelheim Pty Limited ABN 52 000 452 308. Animal Health Division, 78 Waterloo Road, North Ryde NSW 2113. Toll free: 1800 038 037. Metacam® is a trademark of Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica GmbH, 55216 Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany. BIV/9633
17 Ideas Conference’ at its Kentucky headquarters last month, discussed the trials conducted with the USA’s largest lotfeeder Cactus Feeders. Epnix stems from Alltech’s nutrigenomics and epigenetics research work and provides a targeted nutritional approach to improving the carcase weight and performance of feedlot cattle independent of antimicrobial or beta-agonist supplementation. Nutrigenomics is the study of how diet affects gene expression. Simply put, nutrigenomics looks at what a person or animal eats and studies how their body responds to it. In 2008, Alltech opened the world’s first fully dedicated nutrigenomics and epigenetics lab. It enabled the company to pinpoint the specific feed ingredients necessary to optimise lean tissue deposition. Through nutrigenomics, the metabolic pathways crucial to muscle growth have been identified, allowing researchers to observe what has changed (increased weight gain) and why it has changed (improvements in energy metabolism); this led to the Epnix programme, which looks at providing the right blend of nutrients at the right time to encourage an animal to express its genetic potential. It includes a proprietary blend of ingredients and organic trace mineral supplements. “Using nutritional interventions specifically targeted to each stage of production, we can achieve better health, improved performance and increased profitability,” Holder said. “Through feedyard trials with Epnix, we have
seen increased carcase weight up to 6.35kg and significant increases in dressed yield and ribeye area. This increases profit per head and ultimately improves the producer’s return on investment.” Through its research, Alltech has been able to manipulate natural growth hormones and insulin receptors – central to the way Epnix operates. “The technology conditions cattle to utilise finishing technology that will drive home feed efficiency, health, production and improved economics.” Alltech began its large scale commercial research with Cactus Feeders in 2014. They compared cattle on the Epnix programme with a control group on the Cactus Feeders ration. A second trial used the Epnix programme and removed antibiotics. The control group contained trace minerals from mostly inorganic sources plus monensin and tylosin. Epnix diets contained organic trace minerals, yeast and bacterial preparations, but not monensin or tylosin. Both groups were fed for 165 days. The group on the Epnix diet put on an additional 18kg of carcase weight, which Holder validated eight years of work. The group of cattle on the Epnix programme minus antibiotics showed added profit of $4/head compared to the standard ration. “For an operator like Cactus, that’s an additional $4m a year,” Holder said. “You’d never take antibiotics out of a ration unless you had the incentive to do so or were forced to do so, but the option is there.” • Alltech funded Stephen Cooke’s attendance at the conference. Ed.
DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENT // 29
Where will all those inputs end up? ADAM DUKER
WHY IS it important to reduce sed-
iment, phosphorus and E. coli losses from winter grazed paddocks? On dairy farms there is potential for large losses of sediment, phosphorus and faecal microorganisms, which may impact water quality in streams and rivers. The effects can be addressed by good environmental management practices (GMP) onfarm. These will reduce your environmental and business risk and result in a more sustainable farm and healthier environment. There are expectations from our consumers and our communities to farm in an environmentally responsible manner and being able to say and prove “I farm to good management practice standards” is important. Nutrients Nutrients come from multiple sources on farm such as fertiliser, effluent, nitrogen fixation, supplementary feed and irrigation water. Having a good understanding of where nutrients come from and go to on your farm means you will be able to make better decisions, e.g. about purchasing and applying fertiliser. Applying the right amount of fertiliser in the right place at the right time will ensure the best possible response and return on investment and will minimise the risk of losses to water. Effluent Effluent loss to waterways is a major risk to water quality because of the nutrients and faecal bacteria it contains. All milk companies require effluent systems to be fit for purpose and be able to achieve 365-day compliance with the rules. Ensuring effluent is applied to pas-
tures and crops, at the appropriate depth, rates and times, reduces the risk of nutrient loss through leaching and runoff and maximises the value of effluent in terms of nutrient uptake. Having sufficient effluent storage will allow you to store effluent when soil or weather conditions do not suit application. Waterways Keeping stock out of waterways ensures stock stay safe and waterways healthy. Stock, when in waterways, deposit dung and urine which increases nutrient and faecal bacteria levels in the water. The stock also cause erosion and disturb stream banks and beds. Stock exclusion is among the best ways to improve water quality. Sediment, faecal bacteria and phosphorus can also enter waterways by overland flow. The use of buffer strips and riparian planting not only reduces overland flow of nutrients and sediment, it also provides shade and habitat for aquatic life. Irrigation Water is arguably the most important resource on farm, even more so on irrigated farms. Often there is limited water available and significant costs may be associated with pumping it around the farm. Water taken for farming is removed from the natural cycle and may reduce stream flows or groundwater levels. Ensuring water is not wasted will save money and benefit the environment. A well-designed irrigation system is easier to manage and more reliable. Managing well is key to ensuring the system operates efficiently and that water is applied at the right depth across the farm. This will result in more even pasture growth and easier pasture management.
Keeping stock out of waterways ensures stock safety and healthy waterways.
Effluent loss to waterways is a major risk to water quality.
Sediment Land, and more specifically the soils, are fundamental to a productive dairy farm. Management practices which result in pugging, compaction, extended periods of bare soil and grazing unsuitable land will result in top soil damage, erosion and loss of production. Sediment can be a limiting factor to water quality as it discolours the water and silts up stream beds, thus damaging the aquatic habitat. Nutrients, most notably phosphorus attached to the sediment, can cause undesirable plant and algal growth which also harms aquatic life. Sediment accumulation has downstream impacts on rivers, estuaries and harbours. Storage Infrastructure and waste
Feed and fertiliser are costly and a major source of nutrients in the farm system. Make sure you are getting maximum value from your spending by ensuring storage and loading are done correctly to avoid wastage and reduce the chances of any nutrients entering and contaminating waterways. Waste, including farm waste, household waste and dead stock, poses the risk of contamination of waterways, groundwater and land. Appropriate management reduces this risk. Winter grazing of crops Winter grazing of dairy stock on forage crops can account for a large proportion of annual sediment losses from the whole farm system. It has the potential for large losses
of sediment, phosphorus and faecal microorganisms, which may impact water quality in streams and rivers. Soil damage and reduced production are additional concerns. Compaction and pugging can seal the soil surface, increasing sediment and nutrient loss. How can you minimise nutrient and sediment losses when grazing winter crops? ■■ Strategic grazing management can cost-effectively reduce runoff and sediment loss ■■ Protect critical source areas (CSAs) which are the areas that contribute to the greatest losses, i.e. gullies, swales and damp areas ■■ Select winter grazing paddocks that will minimise nutrient and sediment losses ■■ Consider soil, slope, moisture and stock management before sowing a paddock ■■ If possible, avoid cultivation and stock grazing in critical source areas ■■ Graze least risky areas of paddock first and graze towards more risky areas ■■ Start grazing at the top of a slope and move downhill. • Adam Duker is a catchment engagement leader at DairyNZ. He gave this presentation at DairyNZ Farmers Forum in Taranaki.
DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
30 // EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENT
Make good decisions faster than a bullet train KENNETH IRONS
WHEN JAPAN Railways
Group wanted to enable the Shinkansen Bullet Train to go as fast as possible for the least possible fuel, that meant among many other design decisions, making the nose cone as aerodynamic as possible. But they didn’t design the shape of the nose cone by trial and error using a calculator, nor did they use a spreadsheet. They used a sophisticated algorithm written with the help of professors of advanced mathematics at Chubu University in Aichi. The massive computing power at the university’s disposal ran millions of computations based on sophisticated inputs such as wind tunnel data, hunting for the design that
would maximise aerodynamic efficiency and minimise such disadvantages as drag, cost and weight. So what’s the connection with dairy farming? Every day farmers make decisions to optimise farm performance, hunting for sets of choices to maximise productivity and efficiency and minimise cost, time and risk. A prime example of this is annual feed budgeting. A complex mix of inputs from pasture and a wide range of supplementary feeds, in the context of herd makeup and other dynamics, must gain the farmer optimum output measured in milk solids, body condition score, calving rates and more. Sure, farmers don’t have at their disposal the huge computing power of Chubu University.
Besides, most Kiwi farmers translating ‘body condition score’ into using Google Translate would find that a bit slow. Most farmers either use pen and paper based on last year’s records, work with a farm advisor or use one of several spreadsheet options available to mulitply out a half dozen different estimates to find the overall best result. Then when pricing, availabilty or demand change during the season, they can run the spreadsheet gain and see if they can find a better feed budget. Fortunately, computing power has so increased that even smartphones have more power than early mainframe computers did when the Bullet Train was first thought of in 1964. So farmers
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Feed budget sample.
human error and often late, incomplete and inaccurate, and stored only in a pocket diary -- were now shared via the cloud, those inaccurate, late, incomplete records would now be acted on by more people -- which doesn’t necessarily improve things. The term ‘garbage
in, garbage out’ springs to mind. There is a big step forward in sensor based data automatically coming from farm infrastucture, for ready access to information that tells farmers stuff via their laptop, tablet or smartphone, to enable good decisions.
That then can enable contractors and staff to provide ‘proof of application’ or ‘proof of completion” records. And this is a present state, not years into the future. • Kenneth Irons is the head of sales and marketing at Precision Farming Ltd.
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no longer have to choose the best from the half dozen best estimates they can come up with with a spreadsheet. The same technology that discovered the optimum shape of a nose cone – algorithms – is available to Kiwi farmers to find the optimum feed budget without feeling their way in the dark. Entering their own farm inputs like breed, mature cow weight, and milk fat, plus their context data like distance and contour walked and negotiated supplementary feed prices, the Feed Budget algorithm can then run literally millions of scenarios in seconds, to return the optimum feed budget based on either maximum profit or optimum production. It’s available through Precision Farming Ltd’s advanced farm computing platform either direct, or being integrated with Ballance Agri-Nutrient’s newly announced MyBallance platform being released in the spring. Its one example of a trend of sophisticated technology tools now available to farmers. Several such systems exist in the ag sector, just as in other industries. Basically they are fancy Dropboxes, enabling farmers to take manually created records stored in paper, and simply store them in the cloud. That might look helpful on the face of it, but if manual records -- subject to
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENT // 31
Water quality: what’s the problem? group of faecal organisms that affect health and recreational activities. Dairying is a key contributor to sediment, nutrients and faecal pathogens in waterways, but so are pastoral, horticultural, forestry and urban land users. For instance, sediment was identified by the Sea Change process as the most pervasive and powerful contaminant affecting coastal water quality in the Firth of Thames, of which 53% of today’s
TOM STEPHENS
THE WAIKATO
Regional Council (WRC) has received submissions on its proposed Healthy Rivers Plan for the Waikato and Waipa catchments, which is a response to the NPS-FW and Crown-Iwi settlement for management of the Waikato and Waipa Rivers. The plan will come into effect after hearings in the coming months, directing limits on water quality for four key attributes: • Phosphorus – to manage nuisance algae and weeds • Nitrogen – to manage nuisance algae and weeds • Sediment – to
Waikato River
manage effects on recreation and ecosystem health, primarily insects and fish • Faecal bacteria (E. coli) – to manage effects of faecal pathogens on health, recreation and cul-
tural activities. The Healthy Rivers Plan change process has not yet begun for the rest of the Waikato River, including the Waihou and Piako Rivers where dairying occupies a greater
SAVING NUTRIENTS IN 2011, the Government released its National Policy Statement on Freshwater Quality, aimed at improving long-term water quality nationwide. This triggered regional council planning processes to develop and implement policies to achieve the intended water quality targets. In many regions dairy farmers will need to reduce the amount of nitrogen (N) leached from their farm systems to comply with nutrient limits set out in these policy plans. In areas susceptible to overland flow or erosion, the risk of phosphorus (P) and sediment losses into
streams must also be addressed. In 2013, the dairy sector launched the Sustainable Dairying: Water Accord. This accord described the dairy industry’s commitment to improving NZ’s water quality, including targeted riparian planting plans, effluent management, comprehensive standards for new dairy farms and measures to improve the efficiency of water and nutrient use on farms. Saving nutrients is not only beneficial to the environment; in many cases efficiency improvements are also good for farm profits.
proportion of the land area. When it does, it is likely to share a focus on the same four contaminants but also emphasise their effects on the coast. The newly released Sea Change Marine Spatial Plan, which covers the wider Hauraki Gulf including the Firth of Thames, has identified key attributes for coastal water quality to include: • Sediment – to manage effects on bottom-dwelling shellfish, fishery nurseries and nutrient release • Nitrogen – to manage coastal algal bloom effects on deep water oxygen and acidity, which affect bottom dwelling shellfish and fishery nurseries • Faecal bacteria (Enterococcal species) – a
loading comes from pine forests on the Waihou (across just 6% of the Waihou-Piako catchment area). Fortunately, riparian management is an easy cost-effective way to manage the footprint in respect of the four attributes. • Tom Stephens is DairyNZ water quality specialist. This article was presented at DairyNZ Farmers Forum in Hamilton last month. @dairy_news facebook.com/dairynews
DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
32 // EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENT
Irrigation influences land valuations GREG PETERSEN
WHEN VALUING rural
land, the biggest influence is the quality of the underlying physical resources -- location, soils and irrigation water availability. Improvements such as buildings and fencing have a finite economic life and can be changed to suit with time and capital; however the underlying physical characteristics of the land are essentially fixed. Where land benefits from irrigation water, it may be sourced from consented groundwater, surface water take or from an irrigation scheme. Not all water resources are the same, so it is important that the volume, reliability, cost and infrastructure are all considered when
assessing the value of irrigation to the land. Valuation of rural land needs careful thinking in respect of irrigation water: does it get correct quantities when the farm needs it, at a reasonable cost and is the infrastructure in place to ensure the most efficient use of the water. Volume The volume of irrigation water a property receives determines the potential land area which can be irrigated. As valuers, we determine whether the volume of water is sufficient for the irrigated area of the property and whether further irrigation development is possible. If a property has insufficient irrigation water we cannot place full value on the irrigated land area or the infrastructure in place
to utilise this water. Key questions to ask are: ■■ Do the weekly, monthly or annual volumes place limitations on the actual abstraction rate per second? ■■ Do nutrient loss rules and consent conditions limit the taking of water? ■■ What are the irrigation requirements of the soils? ■■ What are the annual rainfall and the seasonal distribution of rainfall? Reliability It is important to consider whether the water is available when it is needed. Water storage can ensure water is available to continue irrigation in the height of summer when consented; scheme water may be less reliable. Some groundwater
takes are highly reliable whereas some surface water takes are subject to the maintenance of minimum flow rates which are often at their lowest when irrigation is most needed. Important factors here: ■■ Is water storage required? ■■ What is the long-term reliability of water source? ■■ What is the duration of the consented water take? ■■ What is the likelihood of the consent being renewed? Cost At times of strong value growth, the relative cost of irrigation is not always fully factored in. In a rational market, properties with access to lower cost irrigation should be valued at a
The volume of irrigation water a property receives determines the potential land area that can be irrigated. Inset: Greg Petersen.
higher rate than otherwise similar properties with more expensive water sources. The cost of irrigation water, whether scheme annual costs or electricity, is a significant farm working expense that affects profitability and subsequent value. Questions to consider: ■■ What is the annual cost of irrigation water? ■■ It is provided at pressure? ■■ What is the depth of groundwater? ■■ What pumping costs are likely to be incurred? ■■ What are the storage costs? ■■ Will the annual cost of water decrease once the debt funding por-
tion of the shares is repaid? Irrigation infrastructure The onfarm infrastructure enabling irrigation ensures that water is used in the most efficient way. Some farms may be facing significant infrastructure costs to upgrade to centre pivot and fixed grid irrigation to ensure nutrient loss targets and reductions are met. The market value of a farm therefore needs to incorporate all future capital expenditure requirements: ■■ Is the infrastructure sufficient for the area to be irrigated? ■■ What is the irrigation return? ■■ What is the age of infrastructure and
does it require significant maintenance? What is the evenness of application? How the water is sourced, stored and applied to the land and how much of it is available are essential to the value of the rural land. It has significant impact on both sides of the equation: it increases the productivity of the land and it adds to the operating costs of the farm and the future capital expenditure required. • Greg Petersen is associate director and a registered valuer at Colliers International Rural & Agribusiness.
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
34 // EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENT
Bio treatment tackles pond crust, smell NIGEL MALTHUS
TWO WAYS exist to get on top of
your dairy effluent pond, in the experience of Tokoroa’s Marcel Korstein: watch it thicken so much you can literally walk on it, or keep it sweet biologically using treatment from Auckland’s BioMagic environmental solutions company. Korstein is a convert to BioMagic’s Impact product, a cocktail of beneficial bacteria, fungi and nutrients you add to effluent ponds to keep them working correctly. This followed his years of struggling with the 50 x 50m, 3m-deep pond solidifying so much that he had to dig through the crust to get a pumping pipe in. He once had to spend $17,000 on a long-reach digger to clean out and
dump the sludge. “Within two or three weeks the crust was back. It was not a solution at all, it was just making it look good for a week or so.” BioMagic managing director Clive Breeds says Korstein’s pond is now open water. “When we first went there you could pretty much have driven a tractor over his pond. It was solid; three of us walked across the surface.” Breeds says though effluent from an ordinary pond “works” as fertiliser, most nutrients are in a form plants cannot readily use, so a lot ends up in groundwater, giving dairying its bad name as a polluter. Most pond bacteria are ‘facultative’, meaning they work best in an aerobic state but can work anaerobically, extracting oxygen from the waste and producing bad odours. Adding “the right stuff ” makes
When your effluent pond is no pond at all - Tokoroa dairy farmer Marcel Korstein’s effluent pond before it was brought under control with BioMagic’s Impact treatment.
ponds aerobic and helps them break down both the solids at the bottom and the crusting at the top, getting rid of 95% of odour and making nutrients available for better grass growth. Breeds also has anecdotal evidence of better herd health, because the good bacteria ate pathogens such as those that cause mastitis. “A lot of [customers] have come back and told us that when they spray over a paddock, normally the cows wouldn’t eat that grass for a good week
or 10 days. But after our effluent treatment they’ll eat it almost the next day.” Breeds says one customer did a test, irrigating different parts of a paddock first with water, then with untreated effluent, then with Impact-treated effluent; he found his cows ate down the treated patch to the ground “before they even looked at the other grass”. “That tells you the nutritional value of the grass is much higher; that’s what [the treatment] does.” After initial treatment with Impact,
it is then added regularly to ponds, costing about $200 a month. Korstein has now installed an automatic metering pump which adds a few mls each hour. “It seems to work even better. It’s pretty much work-free as well; it doesn’t cost me any time and effort.” Korstein milks 650 cows on his 265ha, daily using a feed pad. He says his farm is one of few entirely irrigated with effluent and no other fertiliser, so it has no nitrogen-leaching issues.
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENT // 35
Check water systems for big savings WATER SUPPLY is a vital component of a farm and making sure systems are working efficiently can save water, time and money. DairyNZ offers the following tips to help identify opportunities to reduce water use and improve efficiency. Farm reticulation system Older poor-quality water lines and connections are more likely to split and leak. • Identify problem areas and mark locations of weak spots on a farm map ·•Gradually upgrade older sections to help prevent water loss • Replace ill-fitting connections to decrease the risk of leaks • Bring the problem areas to the attention of everyone working on the farm. Water lines near the surface, running under races or over drains are at particular risk of damage. Mark the locations of these weak spots on a map. • Bury the lines deeper to protect them • If renewing or replacing lines, bury them alongside a fence to give added protection • To prevent problems where water lines must go under races, place them inside a larger rigid pipe for protection • Where lines cross drains, strap them securely to the bottom side of a pipe or post • Bring these water lines to the attention of everyone working on the farm. Regular check of troughs Having a check and maintenance system for water troughs that staff
are familiar with is an important preventative measure for leaks. • Use time bringing in the cows to look out for anything on the farm that might need attention, such as overflowing or empty water troughs • Tilting troughs slightly toward the race will make it easier to spot water loss on the drive-by • Carrying spare parts and tools on the farm bike allows for the immediate repair of simple problems • Schedule regular trough maintenance, including replacing troublesome ballcocks and checking balls, strings, arms and pins. Have a system to record and sign off these checks. Map your farm system A farm map can be used to outline details of the water system, highlight areas prone to leaks and losses, identify where improvements could be made and where meters should be/are installed. Farm water maps are useful for relief milkers and staff so problems can be solved when you are off the farm. Details should include: Water supply • Main source of supply • Other sources of water, e.g. roof rainwater tank • Any water treatment systems • Number of water meters (if any) and location. Reticulation and storage • Type of water lines (alkathene, PVC, galvanized, etc) • Locations of any isolation valves • Water lines buried, on the surface, or both • Storage tank(s) and capacity
LEAKS ON FARM IT IS estimated that 26% of stock drinking water is lost as leakage, wasting valuable water, causing areas of mud and flooding and incurring extra pumping costs. Having leak detection systems in place and a process to deal with leaks helps to manage them and reduce these effects. Leaks can vary in the rate of water loss. Fast leaks are often noticed immediately and fixed quickly while small leaks can often go undetected for a long time.
• Alert system (e.g. pilot light, pressure gauge) to detect possible water loss. Farm dairy • Water cylinder/CIP drum filling automated or manual
• Plate cooler water recycled or once through • Automated yard cleaning system or hosing • Where equipment is kept to fix leaks or replace.
A regular check and maintenance system for water troughs will help prevent water wastage.
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
36 // EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENT
Device prevents tank water losses Water loss due to accidents are common on farm.
WATER LOSSES due to accidents are common occurrences for tank owners. Jon Taylor, founder of WaterSaver, first learned this when working as an electrician in Raglan,
meeting several tank owners who had lost their water due to accidents. In one case, a digger had run over the main water pipe of a permaculture gardener, but more commonly he found taps
the pump in the event of an accident. His prototype, then called Jet Stop, evolved to become WaterSaver. Taylor entered the original prototype in the 2015 Fieldays technology section and was a finalist at the Innovation Awards, where he received glowing praise from the judges. As a reward for his making the finals, he was invited to join SODA Inc.’s incubation program, qualifying for funding and mentoring from then business growth adviser John Cunningham. At the end of 2016, Taylor asked for help and cash from Nelson Angels investors and a business was formed. The firm’s first production run is scheduled for this month.
were inadvertently left on, or water pipes had burst. WaterSaver discovered that at least 45% of water tank owners had lost their water accidentally. Taylor says in all cases the accidents led to the pressure pump continuing to run unchecked, often until the water tank was emptied. “Often, equipment needed to be fixed or replaced and emergency water had to be trucked in. One can imagine the disruption and inconvenience these accidents caused, not to mention the financial cost.” Taylor says when he found there was no offthe-shelf solution for the problem, he set about building one, focusing on cutting power to
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENT // 37
Many ways to reduce water use, improve efficiency EFFICIENT PROCESSES for milk cool-
ing, vat wash and yard hosing can add up to significant savings in water. The following tips from DairyNZ will help identify opportunities to reduce water use and improve efficiency. Milk cooling efficiency • The primary milk cooling system should use about two to three times as much water as the volume of milk cooled. If there is a continuous flow of water when milk is coming through the cooler intermittently, more water is being used than necessary. To cut this water use, a solenoid valve can be installed at the inlet to the cooler and linked to the milk pump, or a variable flow drive so water and milk flow match. • Use correct flow rates through the plate cooler – two to three litres to every litre of milk. Increasing water volume does not decrease water temperature. • Ensure the plate
SAVING TIPS Liquid ring vacuum pumps: half the water from liquid ring vacuum pumps can be recycled (as long as the temperature is less than 40°C) and half captured for yard wash. Check the manufacturer’s specifications for your pump as the temperature of the water needs to remain below specific values. Rotaries: minimise the number of nozzles in the milking shed and consider using water blaster nozzles to reduce flows. Have smooth easy-to-clean surfaces in the dairy and use scrapers to wipe effluent off the rotary to speed up washdown. Consider air blasts or other methods such as floating plastic toys instead of water to get cows to back off.
cooler is serviced regularly and has adequate pumps and water storage to function efficiently. Cleaning and improving the efficiency of plate cooling will require the services of a technician who can align the plate’s spacings correctly. • Pre-cooling water before it enters the shed can improve water use efficiency as less water is needed to cool milk. Reducing plant and vat wash water
• Ensure all refill tanks and cylinders have an automatic shut-off to avoid overflows. Toilet cisterns or trough floats are proven as refill and shut off options. • Consider heat exchange or pre-heating to improve energy efficiency. • Seek advice from your detergent rep on litres required for hot/ cold wash options. • Hot water used for plant clean-up can be
reused for any cleaning around the dairy shed (e.g. washing out buckets) saving electricity as well as water. Improving yard washing efficiency • On warm, sunny days, pre-wet the yard with a hose or sprinkler to help prevent dung from sticking. • Use a scraper or a chain (inside an old yard hose) on the backing gate to break up dung before hosing. • Wash the yard after each milking. • Work the hose water actively and close to the effluent. • Hose the yard with high water volume under low pressure so you are pushing effluent not spraying it around. • Include a timer setting on the yard washdown pump. Set a time standard for washdown and train staff to achieve it. • Consider capturing excess cooler water @dairy_news facebook.com/dairynews
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
38 // EFFLUENT & WATER MANAGEMENT Water Powered Technologies technical director Phil Selwyn with the PapaPump.
Water to far paddocks MARK DANIEL markd@ruralnews.co.nz
WITH THE high cost of electrical installation hampering the use of outlying or inaccessible land for livestock because of the need for a reliable water supply, farmers are always on the look-out for
a viable alternative. Th UK designed PapaPump offers such, by harnessing the flow from a spring, stream or river to deliver water over long distances, and to impressive heights, without the need for electricity. In operation, water passes from the feed source to the inlet side
of the pump, where it passes through a venturi which causes an increase in speed, before it passes through a non-return valve. From here, 30% of the water passes to the required storage point and 70% returns to the watercourse. To set the system up, the manufacturer suggests
water be diverted from a weir or pond to a supply tank, from which a feed pipe delivers water to the pump. A minimum of 2m head is required, although greater heads will deliver much greater efficiencies and the ability to deliver water to heights of up to 150m.
Typical delivery rates are 60L/min through a 50mm pipe, which is impressive through a pump that only weighs 4kg, is made from ecofriendly materials, is easily serviced and carries a fiveyear warranty. www.waterpoweredtechnologies.com. au
Numedic director Peter Reid (right) shows John Dryland the Hydrofan nozzle features at the Fieldays.
Washdown nozzle cuts wastage A NEW version of the Numedic Hydrofan washdown nozzle can save even more water than the previous model, the company says. A spokesman said farmers who own the previous version told them at the recent Fieldays, for example: “best thing I’ve ever bought”, “these nozzles really work”, and “much quicker and I really notice the water savings”. Numedic designed the new nozzle following the water saving success of the original. The company joined forces with Environment Canterbury to install Hydrofan backing gate nozzles on an 840 cow farm milking through a 54-bail rotary cow shed. This farm had been using spray nozzles made of flattened pipe ends to spray water on the yard as the backing gate moved.
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Daily consumption by these nozzles was measured for one month by a flow meter; the system was found to be using at least 61m3 per day. The new Hydrofan nozzles were fitted on February 9 this year and usage was monitored until May 19, showing the average daily water use was reduced to 38.5m3/day -- saving 22.8m3/day (36% saving). “The farm owner also discovered other benefits,” Numedic says. “Effluent quantities during one week were 159m3 (159000L) less. “More effective yard washing saved four hours labour per week there, and the lower effluent quantity saved another two hours labour weekly because the irrigator did not need to be moved as often.” All Hydrofan nozzles are of robust stainless steel construction.
DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
MACHINERY & PRODUCTS // 39
PLATE METER DOES MORE VIA ANDROID WITH 99% OF dairy
Veenhuis slurry tanker.
Monster slurry tanker with clever features MARK DANIEL markd@ruralnews.co.nz
STANDING OUT like the proverbial at Fieldays, no doubt because of its sunflower yellow paint job, was a super-sized slurry tanker from specialist Dutch manufacturer Veenhuis. The ProfiLine 16600 offers the same capacity as the name suggests and can be custom-built to suit users’ individual needs or situations.
This model was displayed with the company’s Euroject injection system which uses a three-part disc assembly carried on a double-acting, fourpoint rear linkage. The tanker has a two-compartment construction. In operation, the forward tank is emptied first, allowing the rear tank to transfer weight to the injection rig to maintain a regular working depth at all times. Many options were fitted, such as a sliding axle that pushes out one
set of wheels so they do not run on the same track as the other, so reducing compaction; and a hydraulic controlled, 8-inch suction system that allows the operator to stay in the seat when filling. An auto-dosage system controls the application rate, and proportional pressure regulation maintains an equalised flow of effluent to each of the injection units. Price is about $250,000. www.farmchief.co.nz
farms in New Zealand being pasture-based, the management of the primary input, grass, is important, making pasture meters a key part of the dairyman’s kit. The Lely rising electronic plate meter is accurate and robust and designed to take everyday knocks and scuffs; it has a folding handle and removeable plate to allow easy carrying, transport and storage when not in use. The Model EC-20 automatically records data, and displays the number of samples taken, and average pasture height and cover, when used with an Android app on a suitable mobile device. Data from up to 200 paddocks can be stored and exported via wi-fi or mobile data using kml and CSV files. A range of pasture
Lely rising electronic plate meter automatically records and displays data on your Android phone.
cover calculation formulae can be entered and selected, making the device suitable for a broad range of situations. When used with the
Android app, it can automatically recognise individual farms, identify paddocks within that farm, and it beeps to confirm a reading has been taken. The system can be used on up to two Android devices, or on more devices for an extra licence fee. www.lely.co.nz
DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
40 // MACHINERY & PRODUCTS
Brighten up the farm, stay safe MARK DANIEL markd@ruralnews.co.nz
FARMS MAY be awash with safety footwear for men, but not for the girls. If they need such footwear, they normally must buy it from mainstream outlets which sell boots tailored for the male foot, which as often or not are ill-fitting and uncomfortable. Following an industrial accident, the owners of Australian company SheWear set about designing safety boots inclined to the nuances of the female foot. Its aim was to develop footwear that was comfortable, supportive and an exceptional fit. Today the company
Ride-over Gate saves time and prevents livestock from escaping.
No need to get off THE PERENNIAL problem of getting on
Sharlene Emanuel, She-Wear at the National Fieldayts.
offers seven styles in eight colours from black through purple to pink and sizing from size 5/ EU36 to size 12/EU43. Complying with NZ and AU safety standards (as/ nz 2210.3.2009), the boots are also tested by the independent BSI
Group for further certification. They are made from Nubuck (full grain leather uppers) and have a rubber or other kind of sole. They come with steel or composite safety toe-caps, or without safety inserts for those
just looking for a good pair of boots. The boots have padded tongues and are water, oil and fuel resistant. So, if you want to inject a little colour onto the farm, or indeed your man, these are worth a look. www.shewear.com.au
and off quads to open gates, and the risk of not closing those gates properly looks easily addressed by the Ride-over Gate. Saving time, and more importantly preventing livestock from escaping, the gate makes this aspect of farm life much easier. Cleverly designed, and made of galvanised steel tube, the gate has an over-centre latch mechanism at the bottom edge which allows motorcycles, quads or shortwheelbase vehicles to drive over without
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JUMP-START WITH PROJECTA WITH WINTER weather here, batteries will take a hammering, so a decent jump-starter might be on the wish list. The Intelli-Start 1500 model from Projecta complements the maker’s 900A and 1200A 12V lithium jump-starters; this model is an ‘amped’ unit with more starting power and flasher technology. The smaller models are for consumer applications, but the 1500A is for busy workshops – diesel shops especially -where unlimited jump starts (via Rapid Recharge Technology – RRT) will help. The 1500A, 12V unit has a lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO₄) battery allowing full-day use without recharging, a faster re-charging cycle, and high power output, and all with eight times the life of an equivalent lead-acid jump-starter. The combination of LiFePO₄ battery and RRT enables this unit to take a charge directly from a vehicle alternator
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the rider/driver dismounting. It opens in either direction and is available in 2m or 2.5m widths. Once the vehicle has passed into the paddock or yard, a spring mechanism brings the gate back to its vertical position to keep the area secure. The manufacturer suggests the unit is suitable for vehicles towing calfeterias or livestock trailers as the drawbar keeps the gate down as the trailer passes over.
(it must be fully functioning), with the RRT automatically engaging when sufficient current is present – so it can be recharged on the move. Thanks to the fast recovery of the lithium battery, the jump-starter only needs connection to the vehicle battery for a few seconds to recoup the charge it used during the jump-start. Once the battery in the jump-starter has been fully recharged, the RRT automatically switches off to prevent overheating. With 550A of clamp power, the 1500A model is suitable for starting diesels up to 6L and petrol engines up to 8L. The unit is smaller and 75% lighter than conventional lead-acid starters; and unlike many lithium jump-starters, the Intelli-Start range is safe and reliable, ensuring the user, vehicle and jump starter are safe with no risk of fire. – Mark Daniel
DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
MACHINERY & PRODUCTS // 41
Two-wheeler still special on farms MARK DANIEL markd@ruralnews.co.nz
QUADS AND side-bysides (SxS) may get a lot of glory, but the faithful two-wheeler still has an important role on dairy and livestock farms. Few Kiwi farmers won’t have experienced such a machine, and there won’t be many who don’t know the legendary Yamaha AG series. In 1963 Yamaha introduced the now famous Land Scout, which by the early 1970s had morphed into the AG series with details like handlebar guards, front and rear racks and fully enclosed chain cases which have endured to this day. They’re important in the latest incarnation -Yamaha Ag 125 – which
broke cover at Fieldays. Today’s machine takes much of its brief from its predecessors based on the saying ‘if it isn’t broke don’t fix it’, and several tweaks will ensure the loyal following stays that way. The engine is a single-cylinder, 124cc, aircooled four-stroke, stirred into life by an electric prod and matched to a five-speed constant mesh transmission, with neutral at the bottom, so no need to be looking for a green light to confirm neutral has been found. A few tweaks will make the bike easier to live with and more useable. Up front, a wide, contoured fender keeps mud and the proverbial off the rider, even in tight highspeed turns. Likewise, at the rear the fully enclosed
Robert Morbey and James Mitchell at the Fieldays.
Keeping family jewels safe THE FIELDAYS Innovation Awards are a breed-
ing ground for inventors and entrepreneurs, this year notably students at St Paul’s Collegiate School, Hamilton. Winners of the 2017 Young Inventor of the Year Award for their tool called De-Fence, four year-13 pupils George Dyer, Robert Morbey, James Mitchell and William Eyre walked off with a cheque for $1000 and a brace of trophies for the school cabinet. The tool, originally suggested by one of the boys’ uncles, is a sturdy, simple device that removes redundant gate latch staples from the fixing post. A notch at the leading edge hooks under the staple, and a clever half-round shape that bears on the post has a lever effect, rotating to remove the staple. At the other end of the tool a square ‘bash plate’ makes a target for a large hammer to get the staple moving. But Dairy News suspects that a 1.2m bar swung on by a hefty farm boy will have the same effect, with no risk of a hit to the ‘family jewels’.
chain case is retained to prolong service life by keeping debris off the chain. Robust front and rear racks allow operators to carry all the necessities of daily farm life, while a redesigned flat-top fuel tank allows lambs to be
carried between the rider’s legs. A wide, low seat offers rider comfort and easy mounting and dismounting, and will get the thumbs-up from short people. Dual side-stands make for parking in all conditions.
The Yamaha AG 125 unveiled at the Fieldays.
‘Get it on’ with Tow and Fert Why are farmers all over the world in love with their NZ made Tow and Fert all-in-one sprayer, spreader and over-sower? Easy. Because they’re saving time, money and the environment. It’s love at fert site. Hook up with your own Tow and Fert at www.towandfarm.co.nz and find out how much you could save when you ‘GET IT ON’ with Tow and Fert.
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DAIRY NEWS JUNE 27, 2017
42 // MACHINERY & PRODUCTS
Safe, user-friendly farm machine MARK DANIEL markd@ruralnews.co.nz
BRIAN MASON and his staff milk 1000 cows at Waikauri View Farms, Wellsford, Northland, running Massey Fergusons for the last 10 years because they are “common-sense tractors” ideal for a dairy farming operation. Their latest addition is a MF 4708, delivered in October, and a second identical machine will arrive in August.
Wanting an upgrade from his previous MF 4245 tractor, Mason looked at several models before buying the first MF 4708, picking the tractor for its up-to-date technology and its fitness for general dairy farm jobs -- hay and silage feeding, spraying and loader work. One of Massey Ferguson’s Global Series, the MF 4708 is said to offer high performance and strength; it is one of a straightforward range offering efficiency and being a ROPS tractor it
suits operators getting in and out throughout the day. Built for reliability, ruggedness and fuel economy, it is powered by a 4.4L AGCO Power fourcylinder engine that delivers 85hp, matched to a new synchronised transmission with 12 forward and 12 reverse speeds in two ranges. The MF 4708 has a 65L/min, open-centre hydraulic system with two gear pumps providing rear lift of 3000kg. Mason says the MF
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4708 is safe and suitable for all his staff to use. “It has a low centre of gravity and is very stable on hill country. The wheels are set wide so it’s safe and well balanced. “It’s very user friendly, which is important as various staff members drive the tractor; they all comment favourably about the loader and powerful hydraulics.”
Waikauri View Farm manager Tony Marshall with the MF4708.
RATION MIXER GOOD ON UNEVEN GROUND CLAAS HARVEST Cen-
tres have released a new range of mixer wagons, the Trioliet Solomix2 VLL-S, to complement the existing ZK series already sold in New Zealand. They are easily powered by tractors of 100110hp. Unlike the ZK machines, the VLL-S is taller, making it a more compact wagon; it has a front discharge door and wheels outside the tub, which lowers the centre of gravity – better for use on uneven roads or pad-
Trioliet Solomix2 mixer wagon.
docks. The twin auger VLL-S models are available in
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capacities 16 – 24m3, ideal for supplementary feeding of medium sized herds. By contrast the ZX series, holding up to 32m3, are the best solution for larger herds or farms making total mixed rations. A low ratio gearbox fitted with a wide-angled PTO shaft helps reduce power demand at start-up and during mixing. All Solomix 2 wagons use two Twin Stream vertical augers with oversized top and bottom flights, patented tub inserts and up to 12 self-sharpening blades. The mixing augers thoroughly mix the ration and combine with the shape of the tub to create a homogenous mix that foxes choosy cows trying to pick out their favourite ingredients. In operation, Trioliet’s aptly named Dual-Flow system causes 70% of the feed to move up the auger while 30% moves down, helping to mix consistent rations irrespective of the type of ingredient. For chopping pota-
toes or fodder beet – now widely popular – two heavy-duty knives can be fitted to the bottom of the auger flights, removing the need for a chipping bucket. Hard ingredients can be chopped in a few minutes; the manufacturer recommends adding hard stuff to the tub first, chopping for five-eight minutes then adding the bulky materials for a complete mix. The completed ration can be discharged via the forward mounted chain conveyor which has a height adjustable extension, allowing the machine to deal with a variety of feeding situations. Standard features for NZ include stairs, viewing platform, windows and an adjustable weighing indicator, which all combine to allow the operator to watch mixing and feeding from the tractor seat. All purchasers get subsidised nutrition advice from specialists Milk Map Consulting. – Mark Daniel
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