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The ups and downs of 2016 – the year in review. PAGE 6-7

When you need a little “Brute Force’. PAGE 21

Newly elected president pledges to shake off any stuffiness in their image. PAGE 8

TO ALL FARMERS, FOR ALL FARMERS DECMBER 20, 2016: ISSUE 621

www.ruralnews.co.nz

Massey boss quits MASSEY UNIVERSITY chancellor Chris Kelly has resigned after coming under fire over a comment he made about women veterinary graduates. Despite apologising for the comment Kelly fell on his sword last week. He had claimed, in Rural News Dec 6, that a woman veterinary graduate was equivalent to two-fifths of a full-time male equivalent vet. In the offending article, Kelly says most veterinary students and graduates at Massey University are now women. He says women make up 75-85% of vet students in first year and more women than men go on to the second year of

studies. “That’s because women mature earlier than men, work hard and pass. Whereas men find out about booze and all sorts of crazy things during their first year,” he said. Kelly, a veterinary graduate himself, noted how men used to dominate vet schools, but this has changed. “When I went through vet school, many years ago, it was dominated by men; today it’s dominated by women,” he said.

“That’s fine, but the problem is one woman graduate is equivalent to two-fifths of a full-time equivalent vet throughout her life because she gets married and has a family, which is normal. So, though we’re graduating a lot of vets, we’re getting a high fallout rate later on.” Women and men on social media responded with animosity. “One woman graduate is equivalent to two-fifths of a full-time equivalent vet”??! Shame on chancellor Kelly for

spouting such sexist nonsense,” wrote Meg deBlanc-Knowles. “C’mon guys, you can hold this prat to account, surely to goodness,” Angela McLeod said. Linda Stewart added, “Really? Did I just wake up in the 1800s?” “How on earth can a man say that women are worth two-fifths of men?” asked Fred Vanholsbeeck. Women veterinary graduates also shared these views.

SPRING BRINGS HOPE NORTH CANTERBURY farmers Ian and Nick Hamilton are daring to hope the worst of the region’s record-breaking drought is over. Ian Hamilton is pictured checking the soil moisture level in a hilltop paddock on their Omihi farm after what he describes as a “fantastic spring”. Like many in the region, the Hamiltons had completely destocked over the past winter, sending their animals away for grazing. Their 400ha property is now carrying 1500 ewes, 350 hoggets and 160 dairy heifers -- still about 500 stock units down on where they should be – after bringing back their sheep in mid-August and heifers in September. On the day Rural News visited, the Hamiltons sent a truckload of lambs to the works, for the farm’s first income since April. See more page 5.

TO PAGE 3

JOURNALIST GUTTED THE RURAL NEWS journalist who wrote the story about Massey chancellor Chris Kelly commenting on the state of the veterinary profession says he’s gutted at the outcome of the story. Peter Burke says he is sad and angry at the way Kelly has been pilloried in Chris Kelly the media, and some of his comments had been taken out of context. Burke says he has known Kelly for many years and has huge respect for his scholarship and leadership and believes it is unfair to accuse him of sexism. “In my experience, Chris has been a champion of equal rights and instead of attacking his comments people should have seen this as an opportunity to engage in the wider positive debate about the state of the veterinary profession, which needs to happen.” Burke says Kelly, as chancellor of Massey, was an inspiring leader and a practical agriculturalist who had been trying to drive changes that would have made Massey an even greater agricultural university. “The attacks on Chris were totally unwarranted and unnecessary and I feel gutted that my actions in writing what I regard as an honest and fair piece of journalism has resulted in this outcome,” he says.

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RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2067

NEWS 3 ISSUE 621

www.ruralnews.co.nz

River plan hits a snag PAM TIPA pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

NEWS �� 1-9 MARKETS ��10-11 AGRIBUSINESS �� 12-13 HOUND, EDNA �� 14 CONTACTS �� 14 OPINION ��14-16 MANAGEMENT �� 17-18 ANIMAL HEALTH �� 19 MACHINERY AND PRODUCTS �� 20-22 RURAL TRADER �� 23

HEAD OFFICE Top Floor, 29 Northcroft Street, Takapuna, Auckland 0622 Phone: 09-307 0399 Fax: 09-307 0122 POSTAL ADDRESS PO Box 331100, Takapuna, Auckland 0740 Published by: Rural News Group Printed by: PMP Print CONTACTS Editorial: editor@ruralnews.co.nz Advertising material: davef@ruralnews.co.nz Rural News online: www.ruralnews.co.nz Subscriptions: subsrndn@ruralnews.co.nz ABC audited circulation 80,580 as at 31.09.2016

A LEVEL playing field is what Horticulture NZ, Federated Farmers and other primary organisations want from a judicial review of Waikato’s ‘healthy rivers’ plan change. The review application to the High Court was due to be lodged as Rural News went to press late last week, but was yet to be confirmed. It was understood a number of grower and farmer organisations were involved with HortNZ leading the process. The Proposed Waikato Regional Plan Change 1 had already been released for submissions when the regional council withdrew more than 120,000ha from the process. The Hauraki iwi had questioned consultation and this needed to be sorted, the council said. Horticulture NZ (HortNZ) chief executive Mike Chapman says they want a judicial review of the Waikato

Regional Council’s decision to take knows where it will go? They need to that area – about 11% – out of the plan deal with the whole process as one.” The planned judicial review aimed change and run a separate consultation to get the process working so everyone process with Hauraki iwi. “By dividing the area up into two is on the same page, Chapman says. bits, we have now got two regimes run- They want the submissions for the entire catchment to coinning, it will be awkward trying cide “so you can actually to do submissions on both,” deal with the whole thing he says. appropriately”. “Some of our vegetable “The Resource Mangrowers have existing growing agement Act talks about operations on either side. We we should deal with should have been consulted; catchment by catchment, it is just not the way you do and this area feeds into things. So we are asking the the Waikato River. How council to either remove the Chris Lewis can you have part in and whole lot, or keep the whole lot in and do a proper combined con- part out when you are trying to clean the river up? sultation process. “To me it doesn’t make any sense “It is about getting the process back on track. There is no suggestion we and for the sake of making the process are not supporting the clean-up of the better, why don’t you take it sensibly?” Feds’ Waikato president Chris Waikato River. We are just saying there Lewis says it is not anti-plan or antiis a process,” Chapman says. “Pulling part of the area out and environment. “It’s just for a level playrunning separate consultation pro- ing field,” he says. The iwi have been “very smart and cess on that is very messy and who

KELLY QUITS FROM PAGE 1

Merlyn Hay, a senior vet with 15 years experience wrote, “This is outrageous sexist nonsense and is insulting to male and female graduates. I can’t believe it’s been published and am embarrassed the chancellor would have such an outdated attitude.” However, Mike Porter took a different view tweeting: “Not a sexist statement. He’s merely stating an observation and his opinion is based on experience. Lighten up for goodness sake.”

Kelly is a Massey University graduate who worked as a veterinarian and for 12 years headed the state-owned enterprise Landcorp before he retired in 2013. He has been a member of the Massey University council since 2005 and chancellor since 2014. The chancellor chairs the University council, which is responsible for governance of the university. In the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2016 he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit (ONZM) for services to agriculture.

very strategic – nothing just pops up at the last minute”. The Feds have been involved the whole way through. The Collaborative Stakeholders Group (CSG) process was two and a half years and finished in June. There was preparation time before that. “The CSG process whether you like it or not was a process. But now you have this consultation with Hauraki iwi. “We have 120,000ha not potentially in the submission process. The whole way through – whether we liked it or not – we have been involved in this from Port Waikato where the water goes into the sea, all the way up to Taupo,” he explains. “When you take the lower stream out of it, which is just as important as the upper catchment, it has created a headache from a policy side. “How do we submit on it, how do we look at all this when our thinking is based on a whole regional plan from the last few years of work? It’s unfair.” @rural_news

facebook.com/ruralnews

SORRY NOT GOOD ENOUGH MASSEY UNIVERSITY tried to limit the damage from Kelly’s comments, with outgoing vice-chancellor Steve Maharey sending an email to all staff saying: “Staff may be aware of comments attributed to chancellor Chris Kelly published in Rural News. The chancellor has asked me to pass onto all staff the following: ‘I sincerely apologise for the remarks reported in a recent Rural News article. It does not reflect my personal view of Massey or its courses. It was certainly not my intention to offend anyone, but I concede I have

done so. I was trying to explain changes Massey University has made over a number of years in the veterinary science programme in response to industry needs, and I also concede that the information was not factual.’ “ However, such was the torrent of outrage and upset that Kelly late last week told Massey he would step down from his position, effective immediately. “Having had time to carefully consider the views of many staff, students and stakeholders, I believe it is in the interests of the university that I step aside,” he said.

RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2016

4 NEWS

Fonterra gives farmers Christmas cheer SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

FONTERRA CHAIRMAN John Wilson says a strong cooperative is able to support farmers when times are tough. Speaking at the coop’s annual meeting in Canterbury this month, Wilson outlined a raft of assistance provided to cash-strapped farmer shareholders in 2015-16. Last season, the final payout was below the average cost of production for most farmers; the co-op paid $3.90/kgMS as the farmgate milk price and 40c/share dividend or a final cash payout

of $4.30/kgMS to 100% shared-up farmers. Wilson says total earnings per share were 51c and the 40c dividend met the board policy of retaining 65-75% of normalised earnings over time. He says the dividend was paid while lowering debt by $1.6 billion, resulting in a year-end gearing ratio of 44.3%. “With 2016 being such a tough year, our response was to return every cent of value back to shareholders in the short term,” he says. “And at the same time, we are protecting our co-op over the long term by responsibly managing our bal-

ance sheet.” Despite the low milk returns, Fonterra stayed on course with its strategy, and accelerated changes started three years ago as part of its business transformation. Wilson says the end result was a cash payout “at the highest level we believe we could possibly have achieved”. “Importantly our management team focused on delivering the cash back to our farmers as quickly as possible.” Wilson says everyone talks about a strong co-op getting stronger; the milk price is a good example. Fonterra’s milk price

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manual sets a high bar for performance, he says. “Each year we aim to beat it and when we do the gains come to [farmers]; for example, since 2009 our co-op has made efficiency gains in our plants, improved yields, reduced overheads and the weighted average cost of capital has decreased. “Since 2009, $560 million has been added to the milk price as a result; that’s a 36c benefit to the milk price today versus 2009. “As a comparison with this year’s earnings per share at 51c plus that 36c, our co-op has in fact delivered over 85c in value on top of that 2009 milk price.” Wilson says when milk prices fell at the beginning of the 2015-16 season, Fonterra immediately made its support loan available on milk

Fonterra chief executive Theo Spierings and Whakatane farmer Gerald van Beek at this month’s annual meeting.

made up to December 2016. The co-op advanced $383m, and 76% of shareholders took up the loan. The co-op also increased the normal percentage paid in advance rate payments to support farmer cashflows.

Wilson says it also brought forward dividend payments to provide further cashflow support over the winter. “These advance dividend payments saw the surplus cash generated by efficient working capital

management pass quickly through to our farmers.” Wilson says this year $10.5m Farm Source reward dollars were earned. More than $18m in savings on fuel, energy and farming basics were passed to farmers.

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NEW ZEALAND’S primary exports will be down slightly next year, but will quickly pick up in 2018. That’s the word from the Ministry for Primary Industries in its half yearly situation and outlook report, which states that for the 2017 year exports will be $36.7 billion – a drop of just $0.3b. MPI’s director of sector policy, Jarred Mair, says this drop is due to falls in lamb and beef production combined with weak global meat prices. While dairy prices will rise by just 3%, production will be down by 1.7%. But the good news comes in 2018, when primary sector exports will be up by 12.5% to $41.2b and will continue to rise over the following three years, reaching $47.9b by 2012.

MPI says much of this rise will be due to the dairy industry coming back on track after years in the doldrums. By 2021, export earnings from dairy will be $20.6b, while meat and wool exports will largely remain static. Not unexpectedly, horticulture will continue to grow as a major force in the primary sector as kiwifruit, wine, apple and pears lift exports from the present $4.9b to $6.3b by 2020. Also of note is the prediction that kiwifruit exports will hit the magical $2 billion mark in 2020. Mair says this highlights again the strength of our primary industries and the benefits of our diversified primary sector. But he warns that lower economic growth in trade partners may create headwinds for NZ primary industry

export growth. Mair adds that demand from China and an increase in wood available for harvest are expected to help forestry exports reach $5.3b in 2017 and exceed $6.0b by 2020. The report states that NZ faces challenges in some markets. These include stagnating EU economies, lower-than-expected growth in the US and a mixed performance in emerging markets. Other issues of concern are Brexit and the likely cancellation of the TPP. “It’s pleasing to see the global dairy market rebounding after a difficult few years. The average payout for dairy farmers is now expected to be above break-even for most, and there is continued strong growth for sectors like horticulture, forestry and arable,” Mair says.

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RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2067

NEWS 5

North Canterbury drought broken? NIGEL MALTHUS

SOME NORTH Canterbury farmers are daring to hope the worst of the region’s recordbreaking drought is over. Omihi farmers Ian and Nick Hamilton are declaring the spring was “fantastic”. Like many in the region, they had completely destocked over the past winter, sending their animals away for grazing. Their 400ha is now carrying 1500 ewes, 350 hoggets and 160 dairy heifers -- still about 500 stock units down on where they should be – after bringing back their sheep in mid-August and heifers in September. On the day Rural News visited, the Hamiltons sent a truckload of lambs to the works, for the farm’s first income since April. Sitting at Ian and Robyn Hamilton’s kitchen table with their son Nick, we looked out at a green, healthy paddock of lucerne. “That’s about the best strike of lucerne. Just about every seed’s grown, I reckon,” said Ian Hamilton. However, the spring rain had been patchy. On one recent day they had recorded 2.5mm, while Amberley, about 15km to the south, had recorded 75mm. Inland Hawarden remained much drier. The older Hamilton, who has lived in the area all his life, says this had been the “worst drought ever,” although they may be better off financially than after the bad drought in the 1980s, because of today’s lower interest rates and more resilient pasture plants. He says many of the farm’s hilltops would take a few years to return to normal, but

was he surprised at how well some pastures had recovered without the expected weeds. Clovers are back in abundance, he says. “It’s not as bad as we thought. I’ve seen it worse.” But it has cost a lot of money to put some paddocks back into lucerne, and Nick Hamilton points out that most of their grazing bills had come in after the June 30 balance date, so there was still no chance of a profit this year. The Hamiltons’ farm had become the poster farm for the drought when the Minister for Primary Industries, Nathan Guy, visited the area in June to announce that the “medium” drought classification was being extended to the end of the year, making it officially New Zealand’s longest-lasting. On that occasion, Guy dug into the turf on a hilltop paddock to show that moisture from light rain extended only a couple of centimetres into the soil. Digging into the same paddock now, Ian shows that the ground is still dry under the top layer, but the rain has given them the confidence to have sown it in kale. Halfway down the hill, a small runofffed dam is noticeably fuller but still very low. “We want a wet winter really to get back to normal,” says Ian. Federated Farmers meat & fibre spokesman for North Canterbury, Dan Hodgen, says the spring rain has been “a pleasant reprieve” but North Canterbury still needs a lot more rain to bring things back to normal. Many farmers will not yet have been able to restock as the Hamiltons have.

“The hills are dry, but most people have a bit of feed in front of them,” he says. “We’re getting decent rain regularly, which is just keeping things going.”

Ian, left, and Nick Hamilton prepare to load up a mob of spring lambs from their drought-hit family farm at Omihi, North Canterbury.

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RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2016

6 NEWS

The ups and downs of 2016 – Another year has almost passed us by – again – and it is time for the annual review of 2016 in the primary sector as seen by the Rural News editorial team. THE UPS ZESPRI AND its chief executive Lain Jager: the best-run business in the NZ primary sector by a country mile and still climbing to new heights. The kiwifruit sector is an industry that works

Lain Jager

together and succeeds together. Jager will be a big loss when he steps down next year. Lewis Road Creamery and its founder Peter Cullinane: for showing the value of smart thinking, great branding, marketing, technology and combining all this to produce some amazing, exciting new foods. KPMG’s Ian Proudfoot: for great leadership and trying to prise the primary sector away from the old world and into the new. The Irish: for beating the All Blacks and getting the jump on us in developing the best green brand

in the world – Origen Green. Also for showing the NZ science and innovation sector how putting up serious money encourages young people into agriculture. We talk, they do. Massey University: for resuming its focus as an agricultural university

ther sign of a rebound in global milk prices. After two seasons of tough times, dairy farmers will be looking forward to making a profit again. Beef + Lamb NZ: for shifting the direction of their marketing activities to new and emerging markets and leaving the established ones to meat companies. And for getting the industry to actually agree on something. Silver Fern Farm shareholders: for voting overwhelmingly (twice) for the Shanghai Maling deal. Mind you, if you are faced with full ownership of a failing company or half ownership of a company with new investment and access to a one billion-plus market, it’s a no brainer. Bill English: started the year facing a tough economic outlook as finance

and getting rid of fringe, fluffy stuff that’s diluted its agricultural image. Landcorp: for persisting with its Pamu brand and putting high value products on the radar, and for modelling the use of technology onfarm. Fed Farmers: for its response to the Kaikoura quake, with Katie Milne and Lynda Murchison leading the charge brilliantly in dealing with out-of-touch townie Civil Defence bods. Rural News Group: for its initiative in organising teacher and student trips to farms and universities to encourage more young people into agriculture. Too many others in the primary sector are missing-in-action on this. The dairy sector: all dairy companies have lifted their payout forecasts for 2015-16 in a fur-

ford campus. Newly installed chancellor Robin Pollard has a tough job ahead. Greenpeace: if the multinational lobby group was not accusing Fonterra of single-handedly destroying the planet by its farmers using PKE, it was accusing the Government and irrigators of polluting every waterway in New Zealand. Leader exGreen Party chief Russel Norman has taken his anti-farming political stance from Parliament

Bill English

minister because of the dairy downturn, and ended the year with record surpluses lining up into the future and a new job as Prime Minister. THE DOWNS LINCOLN UNIVERSITY: having to sell or lease some farms and shed more staff as it struggles to correct a funding shortfall after recording a $6 million deficit last year. It’s also indicated it may have to stop training at its Tel-

Russel Norman

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RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2067

NEWS 7

6 – the year in review to the environmental lobby, showing that it’s time for Greenpeace’s non tax-paying status to be seriously looked at. MIE: the meat industry ginger group finally went down the offal pit this

Rob Hewett

year after treading water and achieving nothing. Started strongly, but soon burnt farmer and political support with its cantankerous attitude and myopic world view. Will not be missed. All the political and

economic doomsayers: for predicting the end of the dairy sector’s contribution to the NZ economy; interestingly they all seem to have vanished in recent months as the forecast dairy payout heads north of $6.40 and looks to keep on rising. The meat industry: for not predicting the Brexit or Trump vote, which could heavily disrupt markets. Mind you, they shared that with world media, pollsters and commentators. Anyway, if they had predicted it no one would have believed them. Lamb prices: NZ farmers struggle to get anywhere near $100 a lamb, while their Australian counterparts look like getting $200 a head. Why? Is Australian lamb twice as good as NZ or are Australian meat companies just

twice as good as ours at their business? The wool industry: for taking such a low profile this year that even the primary sector started to forget it exists. There were hints at innovation, followed by nothing. OUTSTANDING IN THEIR FIELD The farming and rural folk of North Canterbury and Kaikoura hit by a whopping earthquake in November and enduring many after-

shocks since. Despite many having homes, milking and woolsheds out of action they have rallied around their communities, supported each other and kept farming as best they could. MPI and others win the asleep-at-the-wheel award for 2016. They are finally working on ‘project green’ just 14 years after the Irish started up Origen Green. Such timing and speed… wow. Up the Kreik without a paddle. Hans and his

Hans Kreik

vegan mates who kept up their attacks on the lifeblood of the NZ economy to satisfy their publicityaddled egos. Should get real jobs instead of chipping away at NZ’s image and economic prosperity. Best event in the primary sector: hard to go past the Ahuwhenua Mike Petersen

Trophy Awards, which attracts about 900 people for the dinner. Brilliant show and great finalists. Ballance Farm Environment Awards: a truly

national and regional competition that showcases the best farmers making it financially and environmentally. Truly a win-win for the agricultural sector. Mike Petersen: NZ’s special agricultural trade envoy. Relentlessly positive about NZ agriculture and the benefit to NZ of freer international trade. Despite the setback of Brexit and the TPP not being implemented he remains positive and

future-focussed. A great communicator and excellent ambassador for rural NZ. Nathan Penny: the ASB rural economist who picked the dairy upturn long before others and held firm on a payout of $6 for coming year. John Key: like him or not, Key led the country for eight years, remained personally popular, kept National high in the polls, won three elections on the trot and retired on his own terms. Few politicians have done that.

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8 NEWS

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Fiona Gower

GOWER JOINED Rural Women NZ 10 years ago while living in the King Country. After leaving work, the mother of two needed something to “keep her brain active”. She had experienced Rural Women with her mother and decided “here’s something I could have some fun with”. After shifting to Port Waikato, where her husband Terry is a fencer and general hand on a sheep and beef farm, she knew nobody and “a lovely group of women” in Pukekohe looked after her. She started the Onewhero group, where she is now a member, as she could see a need for a group for younger ones. Three young women attended the group’s recent Christmas party with their children. Gower says she is a true ‘rural woman’ having lived and worked in the rural sector most of her life. With RWNZ she has started new branches, held various roles at branch and provincial level, working through to national councillor and rural environment portfolio convenor, vice-president and now national president. Much of Gower’s leadership training has been through RWNZ, including Kellogg Rural Leaders programme 2009 and the AgriWomen’s Development Trust Escalator programme 2013. She represents RWNZ on the LandCare Trust board, the Police and Rural Stakeholders Partnership Group, the Scotland’s Te Kiteroa Trust and the Rural Communities Trust. She was previously on the Onewhero-Tuakau Community Board and is a member of the Waikato Conservation Board.

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there is someone there you can always call on and say ‘hello’.” People can be members without being part of a branch. Not all people can get to meetings but they can still be part of the organisation and involved in the work it does. “The support and growth I have got out of it has been incredible.”

RURAL WOMEN NZ’s new president Fiona Gower says she wants to stimulate communication and shake off any stuffiness in their image. She wants RWNZ to be one of the main rural organisations people turn to. “We have a very powerful voice in Parliament, we do great charitable work and we have a strong network,” she told Rural News. The theme for the coming year is ‘C to the Power of three – Communication, Connection and Collaboration’. Then there’s the fourth ‘C’ -- community. “Those are the really important things… communication between our members and other organisations, connecting with other people and within ourselves,” says Gower, who lives at Port Waikato. “With collaboration – we are keen to get partnerships going, using the synergies of the organisations we are already involved with to move things forward.”

start to her term: the Kaikoura earthquake struck on the night of her becoming president. RWNZ has resurrected and is reworking the aftershocks fundraiser launched after the Canterbury earthquake; it then raised $130,000. The fundraiser is redand-white socks (Canterbury colours) bearing the Richter scale picture of the earthquake. Gower refers to RWNZ’s “amazing” members doing great work on the ground in the Marlborough and Kaikoura regions. They want to support the women and children to make sure they have what they need. RWNZ now has a new board rather than a council. This will help formulate good strategies to take out to members. “I can go anywhere in the country and never feel lonely. Wherever I go I can find members, whether individual or a branch;

198

pamelat@ruralnews.co.nz

They will be working with Young Farmers, Federated Farmers, Dairy Women’s Network, Agri Women’s Development Trust and the Country Women’s Institute, to name a few. “We will look to get some good partnerships going, and some financial partnerships, to help drive everything else forward.” She does not agree with the perception that women’s rural groups are dated. They are rejuvenating and simply need to communicate more to get that message out. “Some of the women we have in our organisations who are really enjoying it are learning and they’ve got connections because many have moved from different districts and don’t know anyone. “We are picking them up and being the ‘aunties’ and mentors and providing a social network for them and the social support they need.” RWNZ needs to better communicate so people understand they are doing a great job in that space. Gower had a literally shaky

PAM TIPA

RWNZ HELPS KEEP BRAIN ACTIVE

Shaking off the stuffiness

RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2067

NEWS 9

Signed, sealed and delivered THE LONG-RUNNING, hotly contested Silver Fern Farms (SFF) and Shanghai Maling partnership is now complete. SFF co-op chair Rob Hewett says this month’s completion of the $267m investment in SFF by Shanghai Maling will be welcome news to shareholders and suppliers. “This partnership is a genuine game-changer for SFF. It delivers a strong and sustainable capital structure, the resources to accelerate our plateto-pasture strategy in selected global markets and the capital to invest in optimising our production facilities and capability.” Hewett says he believes a key factor in the joint venture is that

it brings a collaborative and connected partner in the fastest growing red meat market in the world – China. “We have had overwhelming support from our shareholders throughout this process, and we are excited by the opportunities this partnership with Shanghai Maling will provide.” Shanghai Maling has invested $267m cash in return for a 50% stake in SFF’s business (now named Silver Fern Farms Ltd). Of the $267m, $57m stays with the co-operative, along with its 50% holding in SFF Ltd. “The co-op board will [shortly announce] the process for redeeming about $5m of remaining supplier investment

WHAT'S HAPPENED? ❱❱ New partnership took effect on 6 December ❱❱ New board of directors for the partnership announced ❱❱ Share buyback and special dividend to be completed by end of February 2017.

shares,” Hewett says. “In January, the terms of the $35m special dividend for the holders of ordinary and rebate shares will be decided.” Hewett says both are expected to be completed by the end of February 2017. Meanwhile, director appointments to the

new SFF board have been announced, including two New Zealand resident directors, by Shanghai Maling: Appointed by SFF: Rob Hewett (co-chair), Dan Jex-Blake, Richard Young, Jane Taylor and Trevor Burt. Appointed by Shanghai Maling: Xia Xu Shen

(co-chair), Gu Xiang Yi, He Ru, Sam Robinson and Michael Schubert. Hewett welcomed Xu Shen Xia, the chairman of Shanghai Maling, as co-chair; Xu will take the director and co-chair role in place of Wei Ping Shen. “I am delighted with the calibre of the board for the partnership.”

SFF chair Rob Hewett.

BUILT TOUGH.

FEDS TEAM UP WITH ONLINE TRADER FEDERATED FARMERS says helping its members save money and easily and securely trade stock online is behind its decision to sign a partnership with StockX. “The trend for business transactions to be done online is accelerating and it’s no different in farming,” Feds chief executive Graham Smith says. “Farmers are up against adverse weather, rollercoaster financial and export market trading conditions, and waves of new regulations. Every dollar counts and StockX delivers a digital platform that gives farmers more flexibility,” he adds. Smith says Federated Farmers is improving its own digital set-up and is pleased to partner with StockX. Since StockX launched about a year ago at least 1500 farmers nationwide have registered to trade livestock. It’s free to register and list livestock for sale or purchase. The only cost is 2.5% commission on sales. Its digital platform enables farmers to extend their sale or purchasing reach beyond their own district and pay lower commissions and fees. North Canterbury farmer Dan Hodgen says he had heard StockX is “straightforward to use and provides a level of security without an over-the-top cost”. Hodgen, Feds meat & fibre spokesman for North Canterbury, says he learned about this when drought forced him to look to the North Island to sell his lambs. He was told there was no demand, but StockX enabled him to test that for himself. “You’re chasing best value and the biggest thing is that it opens more doors. You’re accessing a wider market than perhaps your agent wants to deal with.” StockX managing director Jason Roebuck says linking with Federated Farmers is fantastic.

NZ MADE

Ant Beef Farmer

Pipe Fittings anka.co.nz

RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2016

10 MARKETS & TRENDS No No rth rthIsIs lan lan No d rth d Is lan So Sd u o th u thIsIs lan Slan odudth Is lan d CC h an h an ge g e CLhas Lan as tg t e CC h L as an h an tg e g e CLhas Lan as tg te L as t c /kgCWT c /kgCWT c /kgCWT c /kg c /kg We We ce /kg k ek We c /kg ce/kg k We We ce /kg k ek We e k L amb L amb- PM - PM 16.0kg L amb 16.0kg - PM 16.0kg -1-1 00 5 .1 5-1 .1 808 5n/c .1n/c 8 5 .3 5n/c .3 33 5 .3 3 S te S te e re -r P2 - P2 300kg S te 300kg e r - P2 300kg -1-1 00

5 .3 5-1 .3 505

5n/c .3n/c 5

5 .2 5n/c .2 00

MM 2B 2 ull B ull - 300kg - 300kg M 2 B-ull 15 - 15 - 300kg5.15.1 5 -515

5.30 5.30 5.15 5.40 5.40 5.30

P 2PCo 2 Co w -w230kg - 230kg P 2 Co - 10 w- 10 - 230kg3.90 3.90 - 10

4.00 4.00 3.90 4.30 4.30 4.00

MM CoCo w -w200kg - 200kg M Co - 10 w- 10 - 200kg3.90 3.90 - 10

4.00 4.00 3.90 4.20 4.20 4.00

LoLo calcal Trade Trade - 230kg Lo - 230kg cal Trade n/c n/c - 230kg5.35 5.35 n/c

5.35 5.35 5.35 5.30 5.30 5.35

P 2PSteer 2 Steer SI - 300kg - 300kg P 2 Steer n/c n/c - 300kg5.20 5.20 n/c

5.20 5.20 5.20 5.30 5.30 5.20

MM 2B 2 ull B ull - 300kg - 300kg M 2 B -ull 5--5300kg4.65 4.65 -5

4.70 4.70 4.65 4.70 4.70 4.70

P 2PCo 2 Co w -w230kg - 230kg P 2 Con/c wn/c - 230kg3.85 3.85 n/c

3.85 3.85 3.85 3.85 3.85 3.85

MM CoCo w -w200kg - 200kg M Con/c wn/c - 200kg3.80 3.80 n/c

3.80 3.80 3.80 3.75 3.75 3.80

LoLo calcal Trade Trade - 230kg Lo - 230kg cal Trade n/c n/c - 230kg5.20 5.20 n/c

5.20 5.20 5.20 5.20 5.20 5.20

5 .1 5-1 .1 555

5 .1 -5-5 5

4 .6 4 -5 .6 55

4 .6 5

Ve Ve n is n is on o n- Ve AP - AP n 60kg is 60kg o n - APn/c 60kg n/c

8 .1 8n/c .1 00

8n/c .1n/c 0

8 .1 8n/c .1 00

8 .1 0

SISI

North North Island Island North 16kg 16kgM Island M lamb lamb 16kg price price M lamb price

4.0 9-S ep 9-Nov 9-Nov

9-Mar

South South Island Island South 16kg 16kg M Island M lamb lamb 16kg price price M lamb price

4.0 9-S ep 9-Nov 9-Nov 5yr 5yr Ave Ave

3.5 3.5 9-S 9-S epep

9-Nov 9-Jan 9-Jan

9-Jan 9-Mar 9-Mar

9-Mar

South South Island Island South 300kg 300kg Island steer steer price 300kg pricesteer price

300 300 $3.00 $3.00

USc/lb USc/lb

$/kg

$/kg $/kg

5.5

4.5 4.5

200 200 $2.00 $2.00

4.5 3.5 9-S ep 9-Nov 9-Nov 9-Nov 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Mar 9-Mar 5yr 5yr Ave Ave 5yr Last Last AveYeYe ar ar LastThis Ye This arYeYe ar ar This Ye ar

9.5 9.5

9.5

8.5 8.5

8.5

9-Mar

50k 100

k k 0Aug 0Aug 1010

k 0 10 1010 Aug Sep Sep 1010 Sep Oct Oct 10 1010 Oct Nov Nov 10 Nov 1313 Aug Aug 1313 Aug 13 Oct Oct 13 13Oct 13 Dec Dec 1313 Dec 13 Feb Feb 13 Feb 5yr 5yr Ave Ave 5yrLast Ave Last YeYe ar ar Last This YeThis arYeYe ar ar This Ye ar

5k 5yr Last Last Ave Y ear Y ear

Last This Y This ear Year Year

This Year

6.5 6.5 9-S 9-S epep

6.5 9-S ep 9-Nov 9-Nov

9.5 9.5

9.5

8.5 8.5

8.5

9-Nov 9-Jan 9-Jan

9-Jan 9-Mar 9-Mar

6.5 6.5 9-S 9-S epep

6.5 9-S ep 9-Nov 9-Nov 5yr 5yr Ave Ave

9-Mar

595

+GST delivered

Proven beyo nd do ubt!

350 350

300 12 12Sep 12 Nov Nov

1212Nov 12 Jan Jan

12 1212 Jan Mar Mar

5yr A ve

8585 80% 80% 79.1 7575 71.3 70% 70%

12 Mar

5yr A ve 71.1 70.0

Procurement Procurement indicator indicator -- North -North indicator Island PProcurement rocu P rocu rement rement P Indicator rocu Indicator rement - North North Indicator I. Island I. -- North North Island I. 85 80% 75 70%

NUMBER OF DEATHS 0

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%% Returned Returned SISI % Returned - 1.2 - 1.2 SI66.5 66.5 - 1.2 67.7 67.766.567.2 67.2 67.770.0 70.0 67.2

nic ro g ct nin Ele can S

QUADBAR 5 YEAR SURVEY

NUMBER OF QUADBARS 479

450

Procurement Procurement Procurement Indicator Indicator Indicator

LEADER SHEEP IDENTIFICATION

“The Quadbar saved our employee from significant injuries.” – Colin van der Geest

600 500 400 300 200 100 0

831

Export Export demand demand Export indicator indicator demand - UK - UK indicator CKT CKT leg leg - UK CKT leg

300 300 1212 Sep Sep

200 $2.00

(NZ)

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For a Quadbar, call me, Stuart Davidson, owner of Quadbar NZ, on 021-182 8115. Email sales@quadbar.co.nz or for more info go to www.quadbar.co.nz

400 400

408

774 774n/c 774 774774 763 763774 831 831763

Procurement Procurement Procurement Indicator Indicator- South - South Indicator Island Island - South Island 6565 65 60% 60% 60% 9090 90 rement Last Last Y ear Y ear Last This Y ear This Year Year This Year P rocu P rocu rement PIndicator rocu Indicator rement - South - South Indicator I. I. - South I. 85% 85% 85% 50% 50% 50% 5555 55 11-Aug 11-Aug 11-Sep 11-Sep 11-Aug 11-Oct 11-Oct 11-Sep 11-Nov 11-Nov 11-Oct 11-Dec 11-Dec 11-Nov 11-Jan 11-Jan 11-Dec 11-Feb 11-Feb 11-Jan 11-Feb 80% 80% 80% 9-S 9-S epep 9-S9-Nov ep 9-Nov 9-Nov 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Mar 9-Mar 9-Mar 5yr 5yr ave ave 5yr Last Last aveYeYe ar ar LastThis Ye This ar YeYe ar ar This Ye ar 75% 75% 75% 7070 70 70% 70% 70% Venison VenisonPrices Prices Venison Prices 65% 65% 65% Last Last Year Year Last Year Last Last 2 Wks 2 Wks LastLast Last 2 Wks Last Change Change Change 5yr5yr A ve A ve 5yr A ve 60% 60% 60% This This Y ear Y ear This Y ear 5050 50 Week Week A go A go WeekYear Year A go Year 9-S 9-S ep ep 9-S 9-Nov ep 9-Nov 9-Nov 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Mar 9-Mar 9-Mar 55% 55% 55% NINI Stag Stag - 60kg - 60kg NI Stag n/c n/c - 60kg 8.18.1 0 0n/c 8.18.1 0 08.10 7.17.1 0 08.10 7.09 7.097.10 7.09 19-Jun 19-Jun 26-Jun 26-Jun 3-Jul 10-Jul 3-Jul 10-Jul 17-Jul 17-Jul 24-Jul 24-Jul 19-Jun 31-Jul 31-Jul 26-Jun 7-Aug 14-Aug 7-Aug 3-Jul 14-Aug 21-Aug 10-Jul 21-Aug 28-Aug 17-Jul 28-Aug 24-Jul 4-Sep 11-Sep 4-Sep 31-Jul 11-Sep 18-Sep 7-Aug 18-Sep 14-Aug 25-Sep 25-Sep 21-Aug 9-Oct 28-Aug 16-Oct 9-Oct 16-Oct 23-Oct 4-Sep 23-Oct 11-Sep 30-Oct 30-Oct 18-Sep 6-Nov 13-Nov 25-Sep 6-Nov 13-Nov 20-Nov 9-Oct 20-Nov 16-Oct 0-Jan 23-Oct 0-Jan 30-Oct 6-Nov 13-Nov 20-Nov 0-Jan 5yr 5yr ave ave 5yrLast ave Last YeYe ar ar Last Ye This This ar YeYe ar ar This Ye ar SISI Stag Stag - 60kg - 60kg SI Stag n/c n/c - 60kg 8.18.1 0 0n/c 8.18.1 0 08.10 7.17.1 5 58.10 7.24 7.247.15 7.24

9-Nov 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Mar 9-Mar 9-Mar 5yr Last Ave Last YeYe ar ar LastThis Ye This arYeYe ar ar This Ye ar

QUADBAR

450 450

NZc/kg n/c n/c

5yr A ve

P rocu P rocu rement rement P Indicator rocu Indicator rement -- North -- North Indicator I.Island I.Island -- North Procurement Procurement Procurement Indicator Indicator North North Indicator North I.Island 6565 65 60% 60% 60% 95 95 95 90% 90% 90% Last Last Year Year Last Year This This Year Year This Year 85% 85% 85% 50% 50% 50% 5555 55 11-Aug 11-Aug 11-Sep 11-Sep 11-Aug 11-Oct 11-Oct 11-Sep 11-Nov 11-Nov 11-Oct 11-Dec 11-Dec 11-Nov 11-Jan 11-Jan 11-Dec 11-Feb 11-Feb 11-Jan 11-Feb 9-S 9-S epep 9-S 9-Nov ep 9-Nov 9-Nov 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Mar 9-Mar 9-Mar 80% 80% 80% 75% 75% 75% 75 75 75 Procurement Procurement Procurement indicator indicator - South - South indicator Island Island - South Island Last Last Y ear Y ear Last Y ear P rocu P rocu rement rement PIndicator rocu Indicator rement - South - South Indicator I. I. - South I. 70% 70% 70% 8585 85 80% 80% 80% 65% 65% 65% This This Year Year This Year 60% 60% 60% 55 55 55 7575 75 70% 70% 70% 0… 2… 3… 3… 0… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 0… 3… 2… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 3… 3… 3… 2… 3… 3… 9-S 9-S epep 9-S9-Nov ep9-Nov 9-Nov 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Mar 9-Mar 3… 9-Mar

% of export returns % of export returns

7.5

203 622

250 $2.50

2Wks 2Wks 3 Wks 3 Wks 2Wks Last Last 3 Wks Last Change 5yr5yr A ve A ve A go A go A go A go A go Year Year A go Year %% Returned Returned NINI % Returned +3+3 NI 87.1 87.1 +3 83.6 83.6 87.1 84.1 84.1 83.6 79.1 79.1 84.1 %% Returned Returned SISI % Returned +3+3 SI 77.3 77.3 +3 74.2 74.2 77.3 73.3 73.3 74.2 71.3 71.3 73.3

South South Island Island South 60kg 60kg stag Island stag price price 60kg stag price

7.5 7.5

300 $3.00

Change Change

% of export returns % of export returns

7.5

NZc/kg NZc/kg 5yr A ve

Export Export Export indicator indicator US -95CL US indicator 95CL 95CL beef -beef US 95CL De Ddemand mand edemand mand Indicator Indicator D edemand mand - US --US Indicator 95CL B eef B-eef US 95CL B eefbeef

Procurement Procurement Procurement Indicator Indicator Indicator

North North Island Island North 60kg 60kgstag Island stag price price 60kg stag price

7.5 7.5

$/kg

100k 200

50k 50k 100 100

Last Last Year Year Last Year This This Year Year This Year 150 150 150 2Wks 2Wks 3 Wks 3 Wks 2WksLast Last 3 Wks Last $1.50 $1.50 12-S 12-S epep $1.50 12-S 12-Nov 12-Nov ep 12-Nov 12-Jan 12-Jan 12-Jan 12-Mar 12-Mar 12-Mar Change Change Change 5yr5yr A ve A ve 5-Jun 12-Jun 5-Jun 12-Jun 19-Jun 19-Jun 26-Jun 26-Jun 3-Jul 10-Jul 3-Jul 10-Jul 17-Jul 17-Jul 24-Jul 5-Jun 12-Jun 24-Jul 31-Jul 19-Jun 7-Aug 31-Jul 14-Aug 26-Jun 7-Aug 14-Aug 21-Aug 3-Jul 21-Aug 28-Aug 10-Jul 28-Aug 17-Jul 4-Sep 11-Sep 24-Jul 4-Sep 11-Sep 18-Sep 31-Jul 18-Sep 25-Sep 7-Aug 14-Aug 25-Sep 9-Oct 21-Aug 16-Oct 9-Oct 28-Aug 16-Oct 23-Oct 23-Oct 30-Oct 4-Sep 11-Sep 30-Oct 6-Nov 18-Sep 13-Nov 6-Nov 25-Sep 13-Nov 20-Nov 20-Nov 9-Oct 16-Oct 23-Oct 30-Oct 6-Nov 13-Nov 20-Nov A go A go A go A go A goYear Year A go Year 5yr 5yr ave ave 5yrLast ave Last YeYe ar ar Last Ye This This ar YeYe ar ar This Ye ar %% Returned Returned NINI % Returned - 1.9 - 1.9 NI67.1 67.1 - 1.9 68.9 68.967.167.9 67.9 68.9 71.1 71.1 67.9

$/kg

$/kg $/kg

3.5 3.5 9-S 9-S epep

$/kg $/kg

300 150k

100k 100k 200 200

2 Wks 2 Wks 3 Wks 3 Wks 2 Wks Last Last 3 Wks Last Change Change Change 5yr5yr A ve A ve A go A go A go A go A go Year Year A go Year 95CL 95CL USc/lb USc/lb95CL- USc/lb 4- 4 198 198- 4 202 202 198 198 198 202 203 203198 NZc/kg NZc/kg NZc/kg - 12 - 12 616 616 - 12 629 629 616 645 645 629 622 622 645

250 250 $2.50 $2.50

5.5 5.5

S outh S outh Island Island SWeekly outh Weekly Island Lamb Lamb Weekly Kill Kill Lamb Kill

300 300 150k 150k

10k 10

5yr5yr Ave Ave

4.5

6.5

400 200k

S outh S outh Island Island SWeekly outh Weekly Island C attle C attle Weekly Kill Kill C attle Kill 15k20

This Year

00 0 kk k 13-Aug Export Export Market Market Export Demand Demand Market Demand 13-Aug 13-Aug 10-Aug 13-Oct 13-Oct10-Oct 13-Oct 13-Dec 13-Dec 13-Dec 13-Feb 13-Feb 10-Aug 10-Aug 10-Sep 10-Sep 10-Sep 10-Oct 10-Nov 10-Oct 10-Nov 10-Nov 13-Feb Last Last 2 Wks 2 Wks LastLast Last 2 Wks Last 5yr 5yr Ave Ave 5yr Last Ave Last YeYe ar ar Last Ye This This ar YeYe ar ar This Ye ar Change Change Change 5yr5yr A ve A ve Week Week A go A go WeekYear Year A go Year UKUK Leg Legp/kg p/kgUK Leg n/c n/c p/kg 435 435n/c 435 435435 340 340435 408 408340 Export Export Market Market Export Demand Demand Market Demand

3.5 9-S ep 9-Nov 9-Nov

6.5 6.5

400 400 200k 200k

Last This This Y ear Year Year

1010 Oct Sep Oct 1010 Oct Nov Nov 10 Nov 13 Feb 13 13 Oct 13 Dec Dec 10 13 13 Dec 13 Feb Feb

South South Island Island South ww eekly eekly Island lamb lamb w killeekly kill lamb kill

UKp/kg

4.5 4.5

South South Island Island South Weekly Weekly Island Cattle Cattle Weekly Kill Kill Cattle Kill

2020 15k 15k

Last 5yrLast Ave Y ear Y ear

k 0 10 1013 10 Aug Sep Sep 13 Aug 13 Oct Oct

500 250k

% of export return

5.5

5yr5yr Ave Ave

k k 0 0 1010 Aug Aug 13 13 Aug Aug

This Year

10-Dec 500 500 13-Feb 250k 250k

5k5k

North North Island Island North 300kg 300kg Island bull bull price 300kg price bull price

Last This Y This ear Year Year

100 50k

kk k 0 0 0 10-Aug 10-Aug 10-Sep 10-Aug 10-Sep 10-Oct 10-Sep 10-Oct 10-Nov 10-Oct 10-Nov 10-Dec 10-Nov 10-Dec 13-Aug 13-Aug 13-Aug 13-Oct 13-Oct 13-Oct 13-Dec 13-Dec 13-Dec 13-Feb 13-Feb

10k 10k 1010

9-Mar

5yr Last Last Ave Y ear Y ear

200

100k

100 100 50k 50k

% of export returns

5.5 5.5

$/kg

6.5

$/kg $/kg

6.5 6.5

9-Nov 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Jan 9-Mar 9-Mar 5yrLast Ave Last YeYe ar ar LastThis Ye This arYeYe ar ar This Ye ar

5yr5yr Ave Ave

200 200

100k 100k

UKp/kg UKp/kg

4.0 4.0 9-S 9-S epep

5.0

10k20

300

150k

% of export return % of export return

5.0 5.0

2020 10k 10k

200k

300 300

% of export returns % of export returns

6.0

30k 40 20k

200k 200k

USc/lb

6.0 6.0

$/kg

7.0

$/kg $/kg

7.0 7.0

30k 30k 4040 20k 20k

North North Island North w w eekly eekly lamb lamb w kill eekly kill N ort N ort hIsland h Island Island NWeekly ort Weekly hIsland Island Lamb Lamb Weekly Kill Kill lamb Lambkill Kill 250k 400

150k 150k

Thousand head

9-Jan 9-Mar 9-Mar

40k60

Thousand head Thousand head

9-Nov 9-Jan 9-Jan

Thousand head Thousand head

40k 40k 6060

250k 250k 400 400

Thousand head Thousand head

4.0 4.0 9-S 9-S epep

North Island North Weekly Weekly Cattle Cattle Weekly Kill Kill NNorth ort N ort hIsland h Island Island NWeekly ort Weekly hIsland Island C attle C attle Weekly Kill Kill Cattle C attle Kill Kill

Thousand head Thousand head

5.0

Thousand head

5.0 5.0

Last Year 5.06 5.08 5.10 5.11 2.75 5.18 5.18 5.18 5.18 2.60

Slaughter SlaughterSlaughter

% of export returns

6.0

$/kg

6.0 6.0

$/kg $/kg

7.0

LAMB LAMBPRICES PRICES LAMB PRICES

Last Last 2 Wks 2 Wks LastLast Last 2 Wks Last Change Change Change c/kgCWT c/kgCWT Week Week A go A go WeekYear Year A go Year c/kgCWT NINI Lamb Lamb YM YM NI - 13.5kg -Lamb 13.5kg YM --10 1 -3.5kg 10 5.15.1 6 6- 10 5.26 5.265.16 5.06 5.06 5.26 5.40 PM PM - 16.0kg - 16.0kg P- 10 M- 10 - 16.0kg 5.15.1 8 8- 10 5.28 5.285.18 5.08 5.08 5.28 5.40 PX P -X19.0kg - 19.0kg -P10 X - 10 - 19.0kg 5.20 5.20- 10 5.30 5.30 5.20 5.15.1 0 05.30 4.30 PH PH - 22.0kg - 22.0kg Pn/c Hn/c - 22.0kg 5.21 5.21n/c 5.31 5.31 5.21 5.15.1 1 15.31 4.20 MM utto utto n n MM X1X1 M- utto 21 - kg 21n kg M X1 n/c n/c - 21kg2.90 2.90n/c 2.90 2.90 2.902.75 2.75 2.90 5.30 SISI Lamb Lamb YM YM SI - 1Lamb 3.5kg - 13.5kg YM n/c -1 n/c 3.5kg 5.33 5.33n/c 5.33 5.33 5.33 5.15.1 8 85.33 5.30 PM PM - 16.0kg - 16.0kg Pn/c Mn/c - 16.0kg 5.33 5.33n/c 5.33 5.33 5.33 5.15.1 8 85.33 4.70 PX P -X19.0kg - 19.0kg P n/c Xn/c - 19.0kg 5.33 5.33n/c 5.33 5.33 5.33 5.15.1 8 85.33 3.85 PH PH - 22.0kg - 22.0kg Pn/c Hn/c - 22.0kg 5.33 5.33n/c 5.33 5.33 5.33 5.15.1 8 85.33 3.75M M utto utto n n MM X1X1 M - utto -21kg 21n kg M X1 n/c -n/c21kg2.85 2.85n/c 2.85 2.85 2.852.60 2.60 2.85 5.20

Last Last 2 Wks 2 Wks Last Last Last 2 Wks Change Change c/kgCWT c/kgCWT c/kgCWTChange Week Week A go A Week go Year Year A go NINI P 2PSteer 2 Steer NI- 300kg - 300kg P 2 Steer - 10 - 10 300kg 5.35 5.35 - 10 5.45 5.45 5.35 5.40 5.40 5.45

5 .2 0

Bu B ll u ll- M2 - M2 300kg B 300kg u ll - M2 300kg -1-1 55

7.0 7.0

BEEF BEEFPRICES PRICES BEEF PRICES

Thousand head

Me at

LAMB MARKET TRENDS

% of export returns

Me Me atat

BEEF MARKET TRENDS

Thousand head

MARKET SNAPSHOT

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RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2067

MARKETS & TRENDS 11 PRICE WATCH

imported beef market has been waiting for the volumes to appear, and downwards pressure on price is evident as offers out of NZ increase. The 95CL bull meat price sits at US$1.98/lb, similar

rates have picked up as Christmas approaches, however they are still not at a level they would typically be at for this time of year. Overall, weights are still tracking below average. Processors in the South Island have turned their attention towards mutton lately. Lambs are continuing to just trickle out, and attempts to draw more out with firm schedules have proven unsuccessful to date. As a result, multiple meat companies have lifted their mutton prices in a bid entice more ewes in their direction, plugging some of the gap in the lamb kill. The North Island store lamb market continues to ease as the season progresses. There are still not huge volumes of lambs around, and interest is lack lustre. In contrast, the South Island lamb trade is in full swing now. There's some impressive returns being made, with per kilo prices consistently hovering above North Island levels.

Indicators in NZc/kg

Overseas Wool Price Indicators

Change

06-Dec

22-Nov

Last Year

Indicators in USc/kg

Change

06-Dec 22-Nov

Last Year

-4

409

413

594

Coarse Xbred

300

297

393

Fine Xbred

+10

421

411

630

Fine Xbred

+13

308

296

417

Lamb

n/c

517

750

Lamb

379

372

497

952

Mid Micron

+15

544

529

630

Coarse Xbred

Mid Micron

743

735

Wool indicator trends Wool Indicator Trends

850 800

CXI

750

FXI

650 600

39 micron wool (US$)

500 450 c/kg

SHEEP: North Island lamb slaughter

WOOL PRICE WATCH

400

350

550

300

450 4004-Dec 4-Mar 4-Jun 4-Sep 4-Dec WeekNo 42110 42124 42138 42152 42166 42180 42194 42208 42222 42236 42250 42264 42278 42292 42306 42320 42334 42348 42376 42390 42404 42418 42432 42446 42459

250 6-Sep

CXI

650 650

FXI

Coarse Xbred indicator Coarse Xbred Indicator Last Year

600

This Year

6-Nov

5yr ave

Last Year

6-Jan

6-Mar This Year

35 micron wool (US$)

500 450

550 c/kg

INTERNATIONAL BEEF: The US

to this time last year, but 25c/lb down on the five-year average. The market is expected to decline further in coming months. Demand for prime beef is currently being underpinned by the lack of volume out of Australia.

c/kg

BEEF: The pre-Christmas rush of cattle to slaughter has started and looks set to keep processors busy through to the holiday period. Operating prices have remained steady indicating that there is still plenty of capacity available at processing plants. As the plants fill up over the next couple of weeks processors are likely to be more successful in bringing prices down, particularly for bull. A grass market continues to reign supreme for store cattle, with no price easing in sight. There are many through the Hawke’s Bay looking to offload as conditions there dry, but demand from other regions is firm. Weaner calf prices have firmed in recent weeks, which is unusual for this point in the season. South Island prices are exceptionally strong, tracking around $200 above last year’s level. Demand for these has been driven by very good pasture levels through all South Island regions, while the fact that yearling cattle are very expensive at the moment.

c/kg

NEWS

550

450

500

400 350

300

450 350 Oct 6-Sep Dec

5yr ave

Feb 6-Nov

Apr

Last Year

Jun 6-Jan

Aug 6-Mar This Year

250 6-Sep

5yr ave

6-Nov

Last Year

6-Jan

6-Mar This Year

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RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2016

12 AGRIBUSINESS

Farmers look to 2017 with optimism, confidence levels staying high CONFIDENCE LEVELS among New Zealand’s farmers remain high but have tempered slightly, the latest quarterly Rabobank Rural Confidence Survey has found. The overall net confidence reading fell to +25 per cent, down from +35 per cent last quarter, but remained at net positive levels for the third consecutive quarter. The survey found the number of farmers expecting the rural economy to improve in the next 12 months had fallen to 39 percent per cent (down from 48 per cent in the previous quarter), while the number expecting it to worsen rose to 14 per cent (up from 13 per cent). A total of 42 per cent were expecting similar conditions (down from 37 per cent). Rabobank New Zealand general manager for Country Banking, Hayley Moynihan said the positive outlook for the dairy and horticulture sectors had kept overall confidence in the agricultural economy high.

“The prospects for the dairy and horticultural sectors are good for 2017 and, while overall confidence has come back slightly from last quarter, it’s still significantly higher than the levels recorded throughout 2015 and early 2016,” she said. Moynihan said the primary driver of the fall in overall confidence was reduced optimism in the prospects for the sheep and beef sector. “Sheep and beef farmers are likely to experience a tough season. Lamb prices have reached the seasonal peak, with the lucrative UK and EU Christmas trade now finished, and returns have been around 10 per cent lower than last year. While on the beef side, global prices are under pressure – and the beef schedule is likely to weaken in 2017,” she said. “The high New Zealand dollar, particularly in relation to the British pound, is also making life difficult for sheep and beef farmers – which is unfortunate considering the

improving market demand in other overseas markets – and the pessimism surrounding this sector appears to be the biggest contributor to the lower expectations for the performance of the broader agricultural economy.” Farmers’ expectations for their own businesses in the next 12 months also came back slightly from the previous survey, but remain strong. Overall 42 per cent of farmers expected the performance of their own farm business to improve over this period, 34 per cent expected it to remain the same and 21 per cent for it to worsen. This resulted in a fall in the net reading for this measure to +21 per cent, down from +28 per cent in the previous quarter. Moynihan said a closer look at the survey results by industry highlighted the vastly different expectations in farm performance amongst farmers in New Zealand’s two largest agri sectors. The survey found sheep and beef farmers were signifi-

11%

26%

23%

30% 34%

47% 41%

58%

46%

Oct 13

Dec 13

Mar 14

26%

70%

40%

Jun 14

20%

Oct 14

■ Improve

16% 15% 16% 15%

11% 11% Dec 14

Mar 15

■ Stay the same

Jun 15

Oct 15

■ Worsen

23%

27%

52%

47%

50%

36%

75% 49%

28% of farmers surveyed think they will increase investment next year

53% 54%

57%

50%

48% 37%

32%

61% of farmers surveyed think investment will stay the same next year

12% 19%

43%

60%

44% 27%

25%

alists’ expectations for their own businesses, however, it continues a run of net positive results dating back to the September 2015 survey,” Ms Moynihan said. Investment intentions amongst farmers rose to a net reading of +18 per cent from +11 per cent last quarter, the highest reading since late 2014. Horticulturalists had the strongest investment intentions with net +33 per cent looking to increase investment, followed by dairy farmers at net +22 per cent and sheep and beef farmers at net +7 per cent.

42%

55%

64%

32% 48%

12% 21%

49%

43%

35%

49%

39%

62%

35%

42%

34%

72%

10%

said. “This further improvement in dairy farmer confidence followed significant commodity price hikes in Global Dairy Trade Events since the last survey and Fonterra recently raising their forecast farm gate milk price for the 2016/17 season to $6.00 kg/ ms,” Ms Moynihan said. Horticulturalists’ expectations for the performance of their own businesses dropped to a net reading of +19 per cent back from +26 per cent last quarter. “This is the second consecutive fall in horticultur-

Farm investment for the next 12 months

24%

52%

57%

24% 29%

52%

20%

28%

cantly less positive about their own businesses than last quarter registering a net reading of –25 percent this survey, from +two per cent previously. Conversely, the reading for dairy farmers rose to +67 per cent from +57 per cent last quarter. “Given the current challenges facing the sector, it’s not surprising we’ve seen a substantial drop in sheep and beef farmer expectations. On the other hand, dairy farmer expectations for their own business have lifted for the third consecutive quarter,” she

Farm business expectations in the next 12 months (Sheep/beef)

Farm business expectations in the next 12 months (Dairy) 1%

Hayley Moynihan, Rabobank NZ general manager for Country Banking.

29%

21%

22%

Mar 15

Jun 15

34%

27%

26%

Oct 15

Dec 15

22%

25%

18%

Sep 16

Dec 16

7% Dec 15

Mar 16

Jun 16

Sep 16

Dec 16

Oct 13

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Mar 14

Jun 14

Oct 14

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Dec 13

WIN

Dec 14

■ Stay the same

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Mar 16

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10% of farmers surveyed think they will decrease investment next year.

RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2067

AGRIBUSINESS 13

This innovation cake has many candles Nearly 50 years ago, an Irish farmer’s frustration at waiting six months for a new dairy shed led to his starting a company to build them. Ned Harty’s business Dairymaster now employs 375 workers and is recognised worldwide for its science and innovation. Peter Burke visited during a recent trip to Ireland. THE ROAD to Dairymaster is anything but flash, taking you to the factory at Causeway, 16km from Tralee, County Kerry, a major dairying region. Tralee is the home of the famous Rose of Tralee competition and a popular tourist town. But the 16km to Causeway is pretty much a back road and the town an ordinary Irish village. It gives away nothing about the high-tech, 5ha factory complex, the global headquarters of Dairymaster, 2km from the village centre. Ned Harty’s grandfather once owned the farm where the factory is located. When Harty took it over it was milking 70 cows – big by Irish standards. Harty had the skills to build dairy equipment and has built the business that now exports milking sheds and other dairy equipment to 40 countries including New Zealand. Heading the company today is Edmond Harty, Ned’s son, who from childhood in Causeway

wanted to play a part in the family business. Always interested in software and electronics, even at school he would see to electric plugs in the school building. After graduating as a mechanical engineer he completed a PhD at University College Dublin in milking performance. “I would describe this as like optimising the engine of a car – making it perform better,” Harty told Rural News. “Except that my degree relates to improving the performance of the cow.” Edmond Harty says his education was to enable him to join the family company, where he’s now chief executive with an impressive list of awards including Irish International Entrepreneur of the Year. His passion for the company and his role as technical director is obvious. The products produced by Dairymaster are well known. One that has caught on well in NZ is MooMonitor+ which

allows farmers to monitor individual cows 24/7 for heat detection, feeding and behaviour which may signify a problem. This

information is conveyed to farmers’ smartphones. And Swiftflow Commander monitors and controls each cow’s

individual milking, feeding and health in the dairy shed. @rural_news facebook.com/ruralnews

Ed and Ned Harty.

IT’S BACK!

DAIRYMASTER OWES much of its success to research and development: about 50 of its 375 staff work on R&D. “We employ people with skills in engineering, software, electronics and mechanical design,” Edmond Harty explains. “Innovation is like baking a cake: you are combining a whole lot of ingredients to make something that looks a lot nicer, tastes a lot better and delivers a benefit for your customer.” The goal is understanding the needs of the customer and the potential of the cow and what works best for both. Harty says much of the R&D focus has been on getting cows to milk better; that requires mimicking nature in the milk harvesting process. “Essentially this is making a milking machine that works as closely as possible to the way a calf suckles a cow, which is sucking milk from the teat and then resting as it swallows the milk.” The goal is milking cows faster and harvesting more milk. The company has worked many years with scientists from Teagasc, the Irish research organisation, and has developed many products from this. “It’s all about linking science and nature,” Harty says. Dairymaster also tries to capitalise on enabling farmers to monitor and manage large numbers of cows more closely using technology. The days when a farmer knew each individual cow and how it was performing have long gone, Harty says, but he believes that knowing individual cow performance is inextricably linked to farm profitability.

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RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2016

14 OPINION EDITORIAL

EDNA

Outrageous! WHY ARE people so easily outraged and offended these days? Someone says or does something we don’t like, and people immediately take to their ubiquitous social media accounts, blog forums or comment pages to express their ‘outrage’, demanding the object of their outrage either resign, get the sack or be subjected to some other form of utu. Massey University’s chancellor Chris Kelly is the latest victim of the keyboard warriors, coming under fire for commenting during a Rural News interview (Dec 6) about women vet graduates. Kelly, who became Massey chancellor in 2013, discussed changes that will apply from 2019 to students taking courses in farming and veterinary practice. He explained that 75-85% of vet students have until now been women, and during first-year courses, which have long seen a high ‘cull’ of students, it has been the women who persevere with the mostly academic work. “That’s because women mature earlier than men, work hard and pass,” Kelly told Rural News. “Whereas men find out about booze and all sorts of crazy things during their first year.” Kelly, himself a Massey veterinary graduate, then referred to the high fallout rate from the vet profession by women graduates. “When I went through vet school, many years ago, it was dominated by men; today it’s dominated by women. That’s fine, but the problem is one woman graduate is equivalent to two-fifths of a fulltime equivalent vet throughout her life because she gets married and has a family, which is normal. So, though we’re graduating a lot of vets, we’re getting a high fallout rate later on.” How dare Kelly express such a view? the easily outraged chorus thundered. His comments were met with consternation by academics, politicians and students, who expressed their outrage in online posts. Such was the torrent of outrage and upset, and despite Kelly’s apology he has now been forced to step down. Despite the claims of the ‘outraged’ masses, Kelly was not, in any way, insinuating that women vets are lesser practitioners than their male counterparts. He was merely pointing out that with much higher numbers of women entering the profession and making it past the first year cull, their fallout rate from the profession inevitably is high as they take time out to have children, etc. How about the thin-skinned people take a chill pill and cease getting so ‘outraged’ about things; it’s really quite ‘outrageous’.

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“On the other hand, they may have had to accept sub-standard accommodation due to rocketing house prices in Jerusalem!”

Want to share your opinion or gossip with the Hound? Send your emails to: hound@ruralnews.co.nz

THE HOUND Diddums

Greenwash

Whining Winny

Where’d they go?

YOUR OLD mate notes that a bunch of Pommy vegans and vegetarians are ‘outraged’ (when are vegans never outraged?) that Britain’s new £5 notes contain tallow, a substance made from animal fat and often used in soap and candles. This came to light when the Bank of England confirmed there is a trace of tallow in the polymer pellets used in the base substrate of the polymer £5 notes. So far about 60,000 whiners have signed a petition to ban tallow in the manufacture of the notes. “The new £5 notes contain animal fat in the form of tallow,” the whiny vegan petition says. “This is unacceptable to millions of UK vegans and vegetarians. We demand that you cease....” Boo hoo! Your old mate thought the Poms had more to worry about – e.g. Brexit and having an awful Aussie coaching their rugby team!

THE HOUND understands that despite the Green Party’s staunch policy of carping constantly about dairy farms polluting waterways, etc, it is not above accepting donations from such polluters. Inside information passed to yours truly reveals that a big donor to the Green Party during the 2011 (election) year is causing water quality issues for its neighbours; and this supposedly ‘sustainable’ corporate farmer is doing little to mitigate the effects of this pollution on neighbouring farms. Apparently, throwing a few grand at the Greens gives this ‘corporate citizen’ – which claims to be “looking after the environment” and “maintaining and enhancing the environment in which it operates” – licence to greenwash the local community and fill the smug Greens coffers.

THIS OLD mutt has little time for career politician and serial taxpayer beneficiary Winston Peters who, despite sitting in Parliament since the 1970s, has achieved buggerall except fatten his wallet and backside. The Hound reckons the petty, small-minded attitude of the member for North Korea – sorry Northland – again stood out in his comments on John Key stepping down as PM and quitting politics. While other political opponents set aside their politics to thank Key for his service and wish him the best for his future, Peters could only muster more of his ridiculous conspiracy theories. This proves the MP, who entered Parliament in 1978, is not only bitter and twisted, but also again showing either symptoms of early dementia or signs of being tired and emotional.

YOUR CANINE crusader is looking high and low for the doom merchants in the political and economic commentariat who earlier this year were talking up doom-andgloom in the dairy sector and the end of the country’s earnings from dairy. These ‘experts’ could not get into the media fast enough, when the payout was at $3.90/kgMS, to pontificate about dairy’s demise and how it was the end of dairy farming in NZ. But with the payout now heading north of $6 and likely to go beyond this they’re about as quiet as an Australian rugby fan. Funny, that.

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RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2067

OPINION 15

Emission reductions will have costs NEWS LAST month that hill country greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are lower than previously estimated is ‘interesting’. Although farm animals aren’t included in New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme (no country has put agriculture in to any sort of GHG scheme), many people still point fingers at ‘polluters’ and regard the animals and their owners as free-loaders. This is odd when one considers how much of the economy, and hence the lifestyle of most of NZ society, relies on those animals, and the efficient management of

been shown to do what is claimed for it in comparison with subsistence farming. It does not, however, do so in comparison with developed agriculture. In particular, to achieve the same overall production, more land is required and more GHG are produced. Over the last 20 years, less than 1% of global emissions, but provides the protein requirements of about 45 million people (according to Massey University’s Riddet Institute). In contrast, the rest of the GHG emissions by NZ support the fuel and power needs of only 4.7m

Although farm animals aren’t included in New Zealand’s Emissions Trading Scheme, many people still point fingers at ‘polluters’ and regard the animals and their owners as free-loaders.

porting the economy. By doing so it enables NZers to do what they have always done – eat good food and enjoy it. • Jacqueline Rowarth is chief scientist, Environmental Protection Authority. The EPA operates and maintains the New Zealand Emission Unit Register.

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residents plus tourists from overseas. Kiwis can decide not to launch their jetski or turn on their air-conditioning, thereby reducing GHG contribution. In contrast, turning down agricultural emissions means altering biology – or getting rid of animals. Environmentalists have suggested this as a route to a more sustainable future, however, over 95% of NZ does not suit horticulture or cropping. In addition, cultivation tends to increase carbon dioxide losses from the soil to the environment as organic matter breaks down; it also increases the potential for erosion. At stake is the contribution of pastoral agriculture to the export economy. Animals turn the pasture that clothes the landscape into protein that humans can digest, and people overseas pay for that protein. Arguably they don’t pay enough, but milk and meat are still the main source of new money into NZ. Suggestions that NZ should switch to ecological farming on the basis that doing so would be profitable, reduce emissions and protect soil and water are also misleading. Ecological farming has

best. Researchers funded by the centre have made considerable advances in identifying vaccines, feeds and animal genetics with potential to make a difference. While the research continues, NZ agriculture is doing what it has always done: improving efficiencies and sup-

M AS T I T I S

the, which helps maintain low food costs. The latest Household Income Survey from StatisticsNZ makes the point. In the three years June 2013 to June 2016, average household income increased 11.7%. Food accounts for 16.8% of household weekly spending and it increased 14% from 2013. Within the food category, however, the major increase (28%) was in ‘restaurant meals and ready-toeat food’. More people are eating out (51.5%, up from 43.3%) and it is costing them more, mostly because of salaries, power and real estate – not the basic food ingredients. In addition, more of the weekly spending is on transport – up 23.4% from 2013. Air transport -- international and domestic -- benefitted, and a quarter of households bought cars. Headlines declaring that SUVs in NZ are now the most common purchase indicate that GHGs are not top-of-mind in decisions. But overall, NZ produces less more than 2% of global GHG emissions, so people are getting out there and enjoying life. The same rationale on ‘small contribution’ is not being applied to agriculture, which contributes

understanding the biological greenhouse gases’ discusses what can be done in the future. It makes it clear that more research, such as that on hill country emissions, is required. The New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Centre, in Palmerston North, is doing its

emissions efficiency of production in NZ has increased by about 1% per year by improving feed and nutrition, animal genetics, pasture management and animal health. A report this year from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment on ‘Climate Change and Agriculture:

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Restricted Veterinary Medicine. Available only under Veterinary Authorisation. ACVM No: A10884. *Baron Strategic Services, September 2016, Drummoyne NSW, Australia ^Bryan, M. A., Hea, S. Y., Mannering, S. A., & Booker, R. (2016). Demonstration of non-inferiority of a novel combination intramammary antimicrobial in the treatment of clinical mastitis. New Zealand Veterinary Journal, 64(6), 337–342.

RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2016

16 OPINION

East Coast sheep and beef expo a ‘must attend’ SARAH CHARTERIS

SHEEP AND beef farmers who attended the inaugural East Coast Farming Expo this year are encouraging colleagues to mark the 2017 event on their calendars. The East Coast Farming Expo (April 5 and 6) will again be hosted by the Wairoa A&P Society at its Wairoa showgrounds. The expo is a specialised annual event at which farmers and landowners can explore new ideas for sheep and beef farming in their region. It enables East Coast and Hawke’s Bay farming communities to interact face-to-face with industry innovators, and is a ‘laid-back’ environment for trade exhibitors demonstrating and promoting their products and services on exhibition sites and in seminars. The organisers say the expo brings fresh ideas to the region’s sheep and beef farmers, giving opportunity for stimulating interaction. Farming couple Karen and Rob Newman attended the 2016 expo to see what was new in the industry and how it could help

their operation. They run a 620ha sheep and beef farm at Tiniroto, north of Wairoa, and say they like to look at ways to improve production and save time. They also wanted to support the new local event. “It was great to be able to talk

to experts firsthand about different technology that is constantly being created or upgraded,” says Karen, who with Rob won the Gisborne Wairoa Federated Farmers Hill Country Farmer of the Year Competition for 2014. “The East Coast is a large farming area so having an expo right on our doorstep, rather than having to travel to the National Fieldays, is fantastic. And we get off the farm and see lots of familiar faces and talk farming. We both thought it was a great day well spent.” As a result of attending the

2016 expo, the Newmans have changed their farm accounting software, saving time and accessing it from anywhere. At the 2017 event they will explore options for measuring soil moisture for more informed decisionmaking on when to sell stock. They agree that technology and innovation are crucial to sheep and beef farming. “Knowledge is powerful in a modern farming operation. Having this technology enables us to make decisions, whether it is weighing animals, measuring feed or recording information,” Karen says. “These technologies enable us to link all these things together to help us make informed decisions about our farming.” Penny and Pete Hoogerbrug run Rimunui Station, an 1100ha hill country sheep and beef property near Gisborne. They also run the Kaharau Angus Stud and say attending expos and field days is an important way of learning something new, meeting new people, catching up with clients and friends and having valuable

conversations that enhance their farming business. Penny says the best part of the Wairoa Expo is having the same experiences as at field days in bigger centres, without having to travel five hours. She plans to look at GPS for farm water supply, opportunities to diversify beyond sheep and beef, and health and safety apps for phones. The Hoogerbrugs say technology and innovation are integral to sheep and beef farming and believe the East Coast Farming Expo is an asset to the district. “Technology is changing all the time and many clever, innovative people are designing new products or software or doing research to assist us to run our businesses more efficiently, economically and safely,” Penny says. “The first Wairoa Expo had impressive speakers on a wide range of subjects, and industry leaders from all over New Zealand, and it was only an hour from home.” An ‘Evening Muster’ will also be held on the evening of April 5, for expo attendees and exhibitors to socialise and hear a keynote speaker. www.eastcoastexpo.co.nz.

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Looking forward with optimism FIRSTLY, I’D like to extend my thoughts and best wishes to the people in Marlborough and North Canterbury after the earthquakes that hit those regions over the past month or so. I’m sure we hope all our affected farming and contracting colleagues can get through the tough and challenging times in the months ahead as the clean-up and recovery begins. Meanwhile, it is time to again reflect on the year that has been and plan for the new year ahead. I think we can all look forward to 2017 with a greater sense of optimism and enthusiasm. To sum up the last 12 months though, it has been tough. There’s no doubt 2016 has been another challenging year for those of us in the agricultural contacting sector. We’ve had cold, wet weather in some regions and hot, dry conditions in others. Dairy prices hit the bottom, sheepmeat returns have remained static at best and beef prices have come off record highs. However, I think we can look forward to 2017 with optimism. No doubt the lift in the forecast dairy payout to $6/kgMS – and with hopes of even more upside – will be a great fillip for both the rural and national economy. Looking ahead, the recent wet weather could send the milk price higher yet. Meanwhile, according to the latest Rabobank rural confidence survey, overall farmer confidence in the broader agricultural economy remains at high levels. Of course, expectations are lower for sheep and beef farmers, but dairy farmers’ and horticulturalists’ outlooks for their own businesses are rising. The report also says farmer investment intentions are at their highest level since late 2014, and there is talk about an improvement in lamb prices in some markets, except the UK. So, the outlook in many sectors for next year is positive. But there is little we contractors or farmers can do about the climate, international commodity prices or business expectations; we can only face these issues as they are and do the best we can. I am amazed at the adaptability and resilience of the contractors and farmers I meet and their ability to get on with things as best they can. And while there is little we contractors and/or farmers can do about the weather or commodity prices, we can certainly control how we look after each other at work to ensure we keep safe and well. As we head into the busy season, now is the time to ensure that we and our staff are reminded about using machinery properly and safely. Many contractors or staff are likely to be working alone at busy times, so having a plan in place for lone workers means if anything goes wrong the alarm can be raised. We all should have a risk management plan. It need not be overly complicated, but there must be one and it needs to be well understood by all the people involved in your business. Better to spend a little time getting everyone up to speed on safety plans and machine maintenance – especially with the busy season upon us – than having to deal with the emotional and other huge costs if something goes wrong. As this will be my last column for the year, I wish all rural contractors and their families around the country a safe, happy and prosperous festive season. Let’s hope 2017 brings good weather, improving commodity prices and plenty of rural contracting work. • Wellsford-based agricultural contractor Steve Levet is the president of the Rural Contractors New Zealand (RCNZ).

RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2067

MANAGEMENT 17

Maximise pasture renewal by paddock selection Now is the time to consider what paddocks to renew in autumn. Analysis of your pasture growth data and pasture condition will help you plan the most profitable renewal programme. Tim Wood of the Pasture Renewal Charitable Trust explains. DairyNZ analysis has shown that on dairy farms the difference between the best paddocks and the worst is commonly 100%. In other words, the former are producing twice the dry matter as the latter. Or to put it another way, if the best paddock is producing 16 tonnes DM/ha, the poorest is producing only 8t DM/ha. So it is important to establish accurately which paddocks are performing worst, because if they are successfully renewed the return on the renewal investment is the greatest. While you may instinctively know your best and worst paddocks, without measuring or assessing their pasture growth, paddocks cannot be accurately ranked to identify worst performance. Owl Farm at St Peters School, Cambridge, has confirmed that the best paddock[s] to renew are the poorest producers. These have the potential for greatest improvement; the trick is to know which these are. Analysis of their pasture growth data has helped plan the most profitable renewal programme.

I attended a recent Owl Farm focus day and was impressed with their pasture renewal programme. Though they have very good pasture performance records obtained by regular farm walks they may have these results confused by resident weed population. To improve their decisionmaking on which paddocks to renew they have been using the pasture condition score tool available on the Pasture Renewal Charitable Trust’s website. Using the tool, Owl Farm has achieved great results. Emma Bell from PGG Wrightson Seeds says scoring to identify poorest performing pastures is a similar exercise to condition scoring cows. “By ranking your paddocks from best score to poorest, poorest performing paddocks are identified and earmarked for cropping and/or regrassing.” Pasture condition scoring is carried out twice yearly at Owl Farm. Pasture condition score information is now available from scoring done in August 2015, February 2016 and August 2016.

Scoring is aimed not only at identifying poor performing paddocks, but also tracking paddock performance as part of a review of Owl Farm’s pasture renovation. With a complete year-onyear comparison now (August 2015 vs August 2016), they can understand the effect of the spending during the last 12 months to renovate pastures. The pasture scoring team follows a protocol identified and endorsed by the Pasture Renewal Charitable Trust and DairyNZ (see table/graph below). By scoring paddocks on a 1-5 scale, the process is repeatable and comparable within and between years. “Investment in pasture renovation in autumn 2016 has resulted in a substantial lift in pasture condition score at Owl Farm this August, compared with August 2015,” says Emma Bell. “About 90% of all paddocks either sown into new perennial pasture, or under-sown, have increased to a condition score of 4 or 5. “Pasture condition [can be] an indication of good weed control, desirable plant population and optimum fertility,

2016

and the people involved in the same exercise last year have noted how much these aspects have improved. “Our focus in future will be to continue to use data collection to help make informed decisions regarding pasture and cropping so we can ensure the best possible return on investment. “We have seen a significant improvement in pasture condition score which is a direct result of the investment made in pasture renovation in the last 12 months.” 22% of paddocks onfarm are now a condition score of 5, compared with only 1% in August 2015 60% of the farm is now a condition score of 4 or more, compared with only 41% last year 90% of all paddocks either sown into new perennial pasture, or undersown, have increased to a condition score of 4 or 5 41% of paddocks onfarm still remain in the 2 & 3 category, though these paddocks have not been improved since last year and so have not changed in condition.

Based on the shift in proportion of paddocks scoring better following pasture remediation work, Owl Farm concludes that so far investment in pasture renovation has been worthwhile. Condition scoring of paddocks will continue twice yearly to track ongoing benefits of renovation work, as well as continue to categorise paddocks for future under-sowing or summer cropping, as appropriate. The best paddock(s) to renew are the poorest producers as these have the potential for greatest improvement. The highest producing paddocks on a farm indicate the property’s overall potential. Under-producing paddocks highlight the opportunity for extra pasture growth. Use grazing and yield records to identify your best and worst paddocks. The more measures and assessments you have to compare the better (and easier) the decision will be. If records are unavailable or you are TO PAGE 18

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RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2016

18 MANAGEMENT

Good records vital for managing nutrients for helping farmers to analyse their nutrient use and see what needs doing to improve nutrient efficiency. “We know from our records how much fertiliser we have sold to a farm, for example, but what we don’t always know is where it was used, or if supplies were

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topped up from another provider. A farm might be feeding out silage or baleage from a run-off block, but not recording it as brought-in feed because to them it’s home-grown. The better the information provided, the better the accuracy and the value of the final report.”

gen leaching risk and nitrogen conversion efficiency results, allowing them to compare their performance with other farms in their region. And as controls on farming increase in, say, Canterbury and Waikato, the reports help farmers comply with local requirements.

Alastair Taylor

He says individual nitrogen reports provide farmers with their nitro-

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suppliers. He says these reports help the dairy companies, farmers and their Ballance reps to find ways to raise nitrogen use efficiency. “With many regional councils bringing in nitrogen and phosphate rules, and with both being fundamental to farm production, losses are a compliance challenge and effectively tip dollars down the drain. “Aiming for high maximum nutrient efficiency makes farming, financial and environmental sense.” The Ballance website offers free resources for farmers interested in turning the data from their reports into action.

IN THE Dec 6 issue of Rural News, the management article on page 26 – ‘Goats can save the hill country’ – omitted the key word ‘complementary’. Also mistakenly printed was the word ‘kid’, rather than ‘lamb’, to benefit from goat-grazed, clover-enhanced pasture. Simple management systems based on commercial experience and research suit this and other objectives, using electric fencing, specific grazing techniques and appropriate animals. Farming adaptable pastoral goats needs a different mindset to sheep and cattle. They do not fit stock units with reduced labour and capital costs, and eating unused feed at low goat stocking rates like adding one goat per ha. More: www.caprinexnz.com

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concerned that weed content is confusing the yield picture, use the Pasture Condition Score Tool and walk your farm at least six months before sowing date. Introducing new plants will not increase production if you do not resolve underlying causes of low pasture production; treat the cause, not the symptom. Be sure to check on soil fertility, poor drainage, pugging, soil compaction, overgrazing, weeds and insect pests. For more information check out: www.owlfarm.nz or www.pasturerenewal.org.nz

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WITH DAIRY farms’ nitrogen reports for last season now in the mail, farmers are being prompted to work as hard on this season’s recording as they do on producing milk. Ballance farm sustainability services manager Alastair Taylor says these reports are a good tool

Pasture condition scoring involves scoring each paddock using the Pasture Renewal Trust criteria: 1 – Entire paddock is severely damaged 2 – Parts of the paddock have severe damage 3 – Most of paddock has low level of damage, weeds, and less vigorous grasses 4 – Parts of paddock show signs of low level damage, less vigorous grasses and some weeds 5 – Whole paddock has dense sward of desired grasses and clovers.

RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2067

ANIMAL HEALTH 19

Help for stressed cows SUDESH KISSUN sudeshk@ruralnews.co.nz

THE MOST costly problems on dairy farms are linked to oxidative stress, say two visiting animal health experts. Cows pushed to produce high quantities of milk are therefore exposed to many different kinds of field stresses -- environmental, nutritional and psychological. However, professor Peter Surai, UK, and Dr Kevin Liu, Singapore, says these field stresses are associated with oxidative stress -- an imbalance between the production of free radicals and the ability of the body to counteract or detoxify their harmful effects. Surai and Liu recently visited New Zealand, on behalf of BEC Feed Solutions, talking at a seminar about a new form of organic selenium (Se) that fights free radicals in dairy, pig and poultry animals. Surai spoke about antioxidant requirements for NZ dairy cows; Liu talked about Selisseo, BEC’s new organic source of selenium. Surai says stressful conditions in animals can lead to over-produc-

From left, Dr Kevin Liu, BEC Feed Solutions country manager Trina Parker and professor Peter Surai.

tion of free radicals, or reactive oxygen species (ROS). “Under normal conditions, these ROS are naturally produced by cellular respiration and are neutralised by antioxidants; under stress conditions the balance of ROS/antioxidants is no longer efficient. As a consequence, oxidative stress negatively impacts productive and reproductive dairy cow performances.” Surai referred to a survey of 303 farmers in Europe on problems affecting profitability, chiefly mastitis, fertility issues and high somatic cell count. Selenium is a min-

eral that protects cows against damage by acting as an anti-oxidant, regulating blood pressure and keeping the immune system healthy. Surai says selenium has a major role in the immune system, in particular inflammation control. “A deficiency in Se decreases the capacity to fight against the infection, as Se is involved in the defense mechanism of the udder. “It has been demonstrated that a direct correlation exists between the selenium status of the cows and the level of SCC.” Selenium also helps

animal fertility; cows need an adequate Se for better reproduction performances, such as better spermatozoids motility in bulls and fewer ovarian cysts, less placenta retention and less metritis in cows. Liu spoke about why farmers need organic selenium, such as Selisseo, to help fight oxidative stress. While inorganic Se is commonly used for feed supplements, recent research has confirmed that organic Se, specifically seleno-methionine (Se-Met) or seleno hydroxy-methionine (SeOH-Met), is more easily integrated into body

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metabolism. Liu says Selisseo is an organic Se source that generates more deposition than inorganic Se sources, because of its high bioavailability. On the other hand, selenite gets reduced by ruminal microorganisms to insoluble and unavailable elemental Se, which is poorly absorbed and excreted in faeces. Selisseo is distributed in NZ by BEC Feed Solutions. The company’s country manager NZ, Trina Parker, says the seminar was a New Zealand-first, allowing farmers and nutritionists to learn firsthand about selenium supplementation. “It’s well known that NZ has low-selenium soils, and because it’s not essential for plant growth, this vital mineral is often overlooked. “We’re keen to raise awareness that selenium is vital to animal health and production and therefore supplementation is essential. The link to human nutrition of optimised selenium in animal products is an area waiting to be explored,” says Parker.

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RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2016

20 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

Now that’s a ute! MARK DANIEL markd@ruralnews.co.nz

A FEW days driving the MY17 Holden Colorado made it plain to this reviewer that this vehicle has moved on a long way from the previous model launched in 2012. Development inspired by 100,000km on roads in Australia and NZ has taken this vehicle to new levels. Heading into the season for predictions, Rural News forsees this Holden racing up the league table of the ever-increasing market for utes. First impressions, on approach, are of a ute that really is a truck, with a presence and size that fills the average driveway. Opening the door reveals a neat little design idea: to allow the doors to close ‘softly’ the windows open a centimetre to avoid the cabin pressure that otherwise would back up against the quality door seals. Viewed from the driver’s seat the top-of-the-range Z71 model has some nice things: the functional layout centres on an 8-inch infotainment screen that sees to radio, phone, satnav and connectivity; immediately below are the heating and ventilation controls. Seats are finished in high-grade black leather which, in the case of the driver’s perch, has electrical adjustment; the only negative is that the seat doesn’t go low enough for

Big, fast and square MARK DANIEL markd@ruralnews.co.nz

taller drivers, no doubt because of the electro-gubbins hidden beneath. The 4-cylinder 2.8L Duramax engine indicates the refinement created during development. Although it has the same 147kW output, with fuel usage about 8.5L/100km, there’s little noise – in fact it’s as low as in many premium brand saloons. The 6-speed auto box offers smooth, seamless shifts and acceleration is improved by a lowering of final-drive ratios. Further tweaks to the suspension see an increase in the size of the anti-roll bars and refinement of the spring set-up in the rear. This gives the truck a car-like ride quality, particularly when empty, and it doesn’t suffer from the over-springing that seems to be the norm in this market. Out on the road, 100km/h brings up 1500rpm on the dial and the 500Nm of torque offered by the

auto transmission means few sprinters will out-drag you from the traffic lights. Off-road, part-time 4WD allows the choice of 2H, 4H and 4L options, and traction is taken care of by electronics rather than differential locks, the only noticeable effect being a little wheel-spin before the electronics kicks in. A very useful feature is the hill descent system which maintains speed on slopes. This and a raft of safety features – seven airbags, parking sensors, rear view camera, collision avoidance and lane departure warnings – contribute to the truck achieving 5-star ANCAP safety standards. In practical terms, legroom and headroom are excellent and 3500kg towing capacity puts it up there with the best. It’s certainly one to watch in 2017.

CLAAS IS promoting its new Quadrant 5300 and 5200 models, which replace the current 3300 and 3200, as the fastest largesquare balers on the market. Producing bales 1.2 x 0.9m and 1.2 x 0.7m, respectively, both machines are said to have extensively upgraded drivetrains that maximise performance, bale density and driver comfort. In the Q 5300, rotor speed is raised 13% to 180rpm, rotor clutch torque is up 14%, and the packer clutch torque is up 13% to 9500Nm. Likewise, the packing performance of the Q 5200 has been increased by 30%, and the ram frequency by 10%. And greater bale density is gained by an increase in bale chamber length by 400mm to 3.85metres overall. Class says the Quadrant 5300 and 5200 are the first large-square balers available with a steplessly variable, hydraulically driven reversible intake. This combines with the 2.35m pick-up, power feeding system and roller crop press to present the ideal crop flow to the chopper/packer system, and also allows adjustments that take into account the need to handle sensitive crops gently.

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An added benefit is the ability to reverse the intake from the tractor seat in the event of a blockage. Feed options include Roto Feed (no knives), Roto Cut (25 knives) and Fine Cut (51 knives). A new automatic pressure control system allows the balers to be run at maximum capacity regardless of operator experience. Drivers enter the desired bale density and twine quality in the ISOBUS terminal before starting a job, and the baler automatically regulates the baling pressure based on measurements from three sensors mounted on the knotters and one on the main frame. Both machines have the new Claas HD knotter the company has developed since 1921 and which forms the basis of its logo. The new design includes a modified knotter bill hook and twine retaining plate and an active twine finger assembly control system, ensuring more secure and reliable knotting regardless of the twine type. The knotter is kept clean and free of bits-and-pieces by the maker’s Turbo Fan air ducting system which draws on technology developed for the Lexion combine harvester; two electric motors produce constant airflow at 140km/h that is oscillated over the back and sides of the knotter. www.claasharvestcentre.co.nz

Portable GPS

REAL TIME kinematic (RTK) navigation improves the accuracy of GPS systems by correcting the signal against a known base point; it is the favoured choice in large scale cropping. Claas has released RTK Field Base, a mobile station that provides high accuracy for automatic steering systems in any location. The unit uses a dual-frequency GPS and Glonass receiver to achieve an accuracy of 2-3cm. Useful in regions not served by a RTK base station network, or suffering from poor mobile phone coverage, the correction signal has a quality that enables it easily to compete with that of stationary transmitters. Depending on the topography, the system can achieve a reliable signal range of 3-5km, and even greater using external radio technology if the rules allow. The unit’s tripod assembly and compactness make it easy to transport and set up, and little time is lost when changing between field or individual properties, so it should prove ideal for contractors during seeding, spraying and harvesting. The signal can be used by an unlimited number of machines within the unit’s transmission range without incurring licence fees. www.claasharvestcentre.co.nz

RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2067

MACHINERY & PRODUCTS 21

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THE LARGEST agricultural tyre in the world, so claimed, has been unveiled: the Goodyear Optitrac LSW 1400/30R46. Goodyear suggests this tyre will be a real alternative to traditional dual wheel set-ups on 4WD tractors. The low sidewall technology allows fitting of larger diameter rim equipment to match existing rolling radiuses, gives better lateral stability and greatly reduces tyre hop in high draught, drawbar applications. Added benefits are reduced overall width and tighter turning circles. Prompting the tyres’s development was a changing customer perception of duals and their suitability for most work. Goodyear suggests that unless a grower is running between the rows post-emergence, there is no need for duals. It says the new tyre can avert the pinch-row compaction that occurs between duals – a perennial problem with the 710-70R42 or 800-70R32 duals. And it helps spread loads and ground pressure. – Mark Daniel

Kawasaki’s Brute Force 750 4x4 is designed for farmers wanting to do heavy-duty jobs quickly and without fuss.

MONSTER TYRES

we’re not convinced the Diamond White paint job truly suits a typical dairy farm; a more sensible hue might be a camo green or calf scour yellow.

A PRODUCT’S name can give away the maker’s intent, so it’s no surprise Kawasaki’s Brute Force 750 4x4 quad is the flagship of an extended range, designed for farmers wanting to do heavyduty jobs quickly and without fuss. Its industry leading 749cc SOHC, V-twin engine develops 37kW at 6750rpm, delivering it smoothly across the rev range; it was never found wanting on a 50km drive by Rural News on a typical Waikato dairy farm. A dumpy lever allows the choice of hi-lo-park and reverse and easily moves through its gate to select the appropriate ratio in the CVT style transmission. 2WD or 4WD is selected by a rocker switch on the right-hand handlebar, and on the left side a simple lever progressively engages the front differential lock, to ensure part-time momentum in sticky stuff or full lock-up in the really gnarly stuff. On downhill sections, Kawasaki’s engine brake control uses an electric actuator to lock the drive and driven pulleys in the CVT system to induce engine braking and allow control in all situations. With the high-performance engine comes impressive ability to stop,

2WD or 4WD engagement and warning lights for oil and water. The machine was very easy to ride, but lighter riders may find its weight and power a handful. And

markd@ruralnews.co.nz

thanks to 200mm discs on each front corner, with twin-pot callipers and sealed internal disc at the rear, built into the swingarm housing and protected against mud, dirt and water. Riding is a breeze with variable-rate electric power steering which is light at slow speeds and progressively heavier as speed increases. This combines with dual-rate, long travel suspension to ensure a comfortable ride, while taking on all types of terrain with a ground clearance of 240mm. Living with the machine day-to-day should be easy: it has a front rack of 40kg capacity, the rear 80kg and lots of tie-down points and towing capacity of 567kg. The writer towed trailed meal-bins around the farm on flat and undulating terrain and it was a cinch, the machine always feeling capable and in control. The quad comes pre-wired for a winch. Also useful is an array of cubbyholes and stowage areas where items can be safely carried, including a waterproof cubby on the left front fender and a box under the headlight that holds two 500ml drink bottles. Mounted centrally on the handlebars, an automotive style binnacle gives digital information on speed, trip, fuel and temperature, and shows

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RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2016

22 MACHINERY & PRODUCTS

No astronauts needed! Rope grips for

a secure load MARK DANIEL markd@ruralnews.co.nz

SECURING LOADS on utes can strain ingenuity and/or resources, so Transhold Systems’ clever Rope Grip set-up may rouse a cheer. Typically utes have anchor points built into well-deck floors, but these have limitations if the deck is full or the load sits higher than the sides, perhaps in the case of a loaded pallet. Each Rope Grip, made from high grade alloy, serves two purposes. First, its cleverly shaped profile allows a rope to be pulled over the load and wedged into the Rope Grip fitting, doing away with loops or truckers’ knots to keep things secure.

Second, the fitting acts as a mount for the side rails that run the length of the well-deck. The combination of grip and side rail allows the user to choose between rope or ratchet tie-downs for added security – or to use both. The supplied kit includes the two side rails, each carrying five Rope Grips. Mounting is said to be straightforward: drill 6mm holes along the edge of the well-side and securing the rails with machine screws secured by Nyloc nuts. Each Rope Grip is NZ certified to 215kg and suits use with tonneau covers. Rural News is reliably informed that in the spirit of Kiwi ingenuity the Rope Grips make good bottle openers. www.transholdsystems.com

MARK DANIEL markd@ruralnews.co.nz

OMARAMA CONTRACTORS David and Prue O’Neill (t/a David O’Neill) offer cultivation, baling, silage, direct drilling and mulching services and at the height of the season employ up to 22 staff. A key part of their operations are AGCO tractors – eight MF and seven Fendt. The oldest is a 2002 MF 8240 that has clocked up 13,000 hours – simple and able on any job; the newest, a 2015 MF 7618, has the latest technology from the MF camp. These are complemented by a brace of MF 7622s, all with SCR for reduced emissions and better fuel economy. O’Neill first bought Fendt tractors in 2006 and added six more over time. He likes them for their reliability and 50km/h road speed that makes them ideal for 110km trips to outlying clients. These are mostly sheep and beef farmers with paddocks on the flats, usually large, so O’Neil uses wide implements like a 5m direct drill,

A key part of David O’Neill’s contracting business is the 8 Massey Ferguson and 7 Fendt tractors that make-up his fleet.

typically pulled by one of the Fendts with its 240-270hp. Latest additions are a Fendt 824 and Fendt 927, the latter pulling a 5m direct drill on as much as 3000ha per season before spending the winter pulling a 4.5m cultivator. O’Neill likes the 120L/min hydraulic oil flows, ideal for powering the hydraulic fans on the air-seeders which run for up to 16 hours per day. Also favoured by O’Neill and his operators are the comfortable cabs on the 900 series tractors, whose

independent front suspension gives an unrivalled ride. All the Fendts have front linkages that run triple mowers and push-off stackers and carry front weights. Summing up the move to Fendts O’Neill says you can drive a Fendt and not worry about the computer stuff and settings. “Just drive it like a manual car. It’s easy to get a driver started on them and then teach them the fancy stuff later; you don’t need to be an astronaut to drive a Fendt”

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RURAL NEWS // DECEMBER 20, 2067

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