Dairy Focus October 2018

Dairy Focus OCTOBER 2018

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Dairy Focus

2

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Fonterra elections under way

INSIDE

PAGES 10-13 THE RURAL DIVIDE

PAGE 5 CURTIS TO HEAD OFF

PAGE 8 GDT SOFTENS AGAIN

Voting is now open for the Fonterra board of directors’ election and two Canterbury farmers are lobbying support.

Mid Canterbury farmer and MHV Water irrigation scheme chairman John Nicholls is standing for the Fonterra board with South Canterbury’s Leonie Guiney the other selfnominated director candidate.

Voting will also include the shareholders’ councillor elections in two wards and seven annual meeting resolutions.

Five candidates are vying for three places on the board. They are independent nomination candidates Peter McBride, Jamie Tuuta and Ashley Waugh, and selfnomination candidates Guiney and Nicholls.

Guiney served on the board for three years but failed to win board nomination last year. She has several farms in South Canterbury with husband Kieran.

Nicholls is a co-director/ owner of the Rylib Group, with six farms in the Ashburton and Hinds districts.

He heads the governance of a Mid Canterbury irrigation scheme formed last year after the merger of Mayfield Hinds Irrigation and Valetta Irrigation.

Among the independent candidates, Waugh is retiring by rotation and will stand again, while former chairman John Wilson and Nicola Shadbolt have stood down.

In the five-way competition for three seats candidates must receive more than 50 per cent of shareholder support. If more than three candidates reach this level then the trio with the highest percentage of votes in favour will be elected.

Fonterra shareholders

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have the opportunity to meet director candidates at seven meetings, starting in Gore on October 23 and finishing in Whangarei on October 26.

The only Canterbury meeting is at Ashburton to be held at the Hotel Ashburton on October 23.

At the meetings candidates will explain how their governance skills and attributes will best serve the co-operative’s shareholders.

Mid Canterbury dairy farmer Mark Slee is the sole candidate standing for central Canterbury’s ward 21 in the shareholder council elections.

His name was the only one nominated so no election

is required for the ward.

His acceptance will not be formally confirmed until the results of other ward elections are revealed at the co-operative’s annual meeting.

Slee and his wife Devon, from Ealing, won the Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Awards in 2014.

Only one candidate was nominated for eight of the 10 shareholder council wards, including Michelle Pye for ward 22 in South Canterbury.

An election is required for the Waipa and Tasman wards.

Voting began on October 15 with internet or post voting closing at 10.30am on November 6 and the results announced later that day with successful candidates to take office at the close of the annual meeting.

Voting is also open for the annual meeting resolutions.

Shareholders are being asked to vote on six ordinary business resolutions and one shareholder proposal.

The annual meeting is being held at the Fonterra Lichfield site near Putaruru on November 8.

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3

Payout cut stings farmers in pocket Mid Canterbury dairy farmers face losing $82,500 to $165,000 in income from Fonterra’s lower milk price forecast of $6.25-$6.50 a kilogram of milksolids.

The 25c to 50c/kg cut to the September forecast of $6.75/ kg for the 2018-19 season will hurt farmers in the province more than average farmers nationally as they have larger herds and produce more milksolids.

Nationally, farmers producing an average of 160,000kg of milk solids with a herd of 430 cows will lose $40,000 if 25c/kg is cut and $80,000 if 50c is removed.

Average Mid Canterbury farmers collect 330,000kg with herds of 760 cows.

The sting will flow on outside of farming with the lower milk price expected to remove $50 million to $100m from the Mid Canterbury economy alone and nationally $380m to $760m.

Fonterra revised the expected price mainly because global milk supplies are stronger at this stage than buyer demand. The latest cut follows a 25c/kg prune in September.

Federated Farmers Mid Canterbury dairy chairman Chris Ford said the payout drop would result in $160,000 of revenue being removed from his 1000 cow farm.

He said farmers would understand that the milk price had been dropped because of a global over-supply of milk, but it was a pity this had not been offset by a lower dollar the past few weeks.

“No one likes a drop in the payout. Once again, it’s money off the bottom line and with the lowering business confidence it is less money spent in the district.

That $160,000 is a nice new tractor.’’

Tim Cronshaw

RURAL REPORTER

Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell.

Farmers were looking at a total of 50c to 75c removed from the payout since September, he said.

They would hope that the payout might turnaround again as ASB was still sticking to its $6.50/kg forecast, he said.

“The weather can have a massive impact and if we have the dry that is predicted supply could drop off.’’

However ASB admitted that it was not fully confident with its forecast and it continued to carry risk of being trimmed.

The bank said Fonterra’s revision had been expected as previous forecasts had been on the high side and it was at a more realistic level.

Initially more downward pressure was expected on dairy prices, but the mediumterm outlook remains favourable, with strong demand from Chinese and South East Asian consumers.

Rabobank’s forecast is at

Dairy farmers have taken the latest payout drop well considering it will erode their revenue.

PHOTO ASHBURTON GUARDIAN

$6.65/kg.

Fonterra lifted its forecast of New Zealand milk collection volumes by 1.3 per cent to 1550 million kilograms of milksolids as a result of good growing conditions.

Fonterra chief executive Miles Hurrell, said the change to the farmgate milk price forecast was because global milk supplies were stronger than demand at the moment.

“We are still seeing strong production coming from Europe, United States and Argentina. While the hot weather in Europe has slowed down the region’s production growth, it is still tracking

ahead of last year. US milk production is up slightly and Argentina’s is up 6.8 per cent.”

Hurrell said the New Zealand season had got off to a positive start, mainly because of good weather and early calving in the South Island.

He said global demand was simply not matching supply growth.

“Demand for whole milk powder, in particular, continues to grow in China, and it remains strong across South East Asia, but it simply isn’t matching current levels of supply.”

In a new move, the co-op has

provided a milk price range.

Hurrell said the range was introduced to provide the best possible signals for farmers as it was difficult to pinpoint an exact forecast in a “hugely volatile’’ global marketplace.

Farmers should still budget with caution because of volatility and the advance rate was based on $6.25/kg, he said.

Ford said farmers would approve of the timing of the latest update which was beyond Fonterra’s requirements from the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA).

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Dairy Focus

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Demand for dairy products soften A bumper start to the milk season has coincided with soft demand for Oceania dairy products the past few months, says Rabobank.

The waning demand is despite the bank tracking slowing milk growth across the world’s major seven dairy exporting nations over the third quarter of its dairy quarterly report.

A slowdown in combined milk production in the second quarter from the “Big 7’’of the European Union, the United States, New Zealand, Australia, Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil at just one per cent from last year has trickled through to this quarter.

Drought conditions in parts of northern and western Europe have contributed to less milk going on the market.

The report says the lower milk production from drought areas is at odds with New Zealand’s start to the dairy season where near-perfect weather and more cows milked over the winter has resulted in production growth of five per cent from June to August.

Rabobank’s lower forecast

Tim Cronshaw

RURAL REPORTER

for the farmgate milk price of $6.65 a kilogram of milksolids was just before Fonterra reduced its own prediction to $6.25 to $6.50 on October 10.

Rabobank dairy analyst Emma Higgins said the jump in New Zealand milk supply had created a lack of buyer urgency for Oceania products over the past quarter and this continued in the latest GDT auction.

“This lack of buyer urgency has resulted in weaker pricing which fed into the bank’s downward revision to its fullyear forecast from $6.80/kg to $6.65/kg for the 2018/19 season.’’

Higgins said there had not been a larger downward revision because global milk supply growth was expected

to tighten in the coming year.

She said a likely lift in Chinese demand across the remainder of the year would help underpin the New Zealand milk price this season.

Outside of Europe, hot and dry weather has shrivelled pastures in Australia and US milk supply continues to track below historical averages, while the Brazilian truckers’ strike earlier in the year curbed milk supply growth and expensive feed could now start to bite Argentina production.

As a result, estimated milk

flows for the Big 7 during the third quarter were expected to be at 0.4 per cent growth – the lowest since 2016.

Higgins said the impact of more expensive feed costs and tighter margins for producers globally were now evident and would continue the squeeze into next year.

National dairy herd numbers are shrinking in Australia, Europe and the US as a result of producers scrambling to manage costs. Their farmers would need better milk prices to offset the higher feed costs and to lift the production of

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their herds.

The report says developments in the US/ China trade war, currency values and New Zealand production growth have the potential to “move the needle” on global dairy prices in coming months.

Domestic milk production growth of two per cent is expected for the full 2018/19 season. However, Fonterra’s penalties for palm kernel extract use, now in effect, would create more uncertainly in milk production levels for the first half of next year.

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5

Curtis leaves big shoes to fill After almost a decade of service as the chief executive of IrrigationNZ Andrew Curtis will soon be calling it a day and moving on to new ground.

He will not be a loss to irrigation, however, as he leaves to start Irrigation Support, an independent advisory service to assist irrigators with good management and Water Strategies, a consultancy providing expert advice for water allocation and management.

Curtis said he has enjoyed his time with the organisation and was keen to spend more time with his family.

He felt he had made a useful contribution to the irrigation industry over the past decade.

“I have decided it’s time for a change and I have been in the role for a decade and it’s time that someone else takes over and for me to sink my teeth into passions that have come about from this role.’’

Curtis said he had found New Zealand irrigators to be among the most progressive in the world during his travels.

He said the Irrigation

service

Tim Cronshaw

RURAL REPORTER

Support service was aimed at assisting irrigators with good management and providing them with a plan, while the other consultancy was aimed at offering practical and “honest and independent’’ advice for regional councils and government departments.

IrrigationNZ chairwoman Nicky Hyslop said Curtis had made a major contribution to the organisation and to the irrigation sector.

“Andrew’s keen understanding of the environment and New Zealand’s natural water systems, his knowledge of the consenting and policy landscapes and his ability to forge relationships with our many and varied members and partner organisations has been

IrrigationNZ chairwoman Nicky Hyslop says Andrew Curtis’ departure will be a loss.

PHOTO ASHBURTON GUARDIAN

hugely valuable. We wish him well.”

Before joining IrrigationNZ Curtis was a strategic advisor for water at Hawke’s Bay Regional Council. He has also farmed and originally worked in the United Kingdom.

During his tenure with the irrigation body he was instrumental in developing

good irrigation management practice which is now the performance standard for all irrigators in New Zealand.

More than 4000 irrigators have been through good management training so far and there are also NZQA linked qualifications and an apprenticeship programme for the industry.

He has championed practical water measurement regulations and has also given the irrigation sector a voice in Wellington, providing practical advice to policy makers through government working groups.

He will remain in his role to March to assist with handing over the role to his successor.

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Dairy Focus

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EDITORIAL COMMENT It would be fascinating to spend a day in the office of one of Fonterra’s number crunchers trying to forecast the elusive milk price.

Only a special person could go through screeds of numbers around the world, punching in milk data, plotting out the globe’s droughts and floods, calculating the whims of buyers and currency swings and second guessing what Donald Trump is going to tweet next and how China or Iran might react.

Trying to throw a dart in a

Tim Cronshaw

RURAL REPORTER

great heaving mass of volatility can’t be easy, but you would hope though that Fonterra gets its forecasting more right than wrong. Erring on the side of caution would be preferable

to falsely raising the hopes of farmers only to produce a lead balloon after the final wash up.

The farmers I spoke to were surprisingly understandable about the latest drop in the dairy giant’s forecast. It made sense to them that there was more milk swilling around than buyers.

I often wonder how accountants, teachers and lawyers might react if they were told their income was going to be $82,500 to $165,000 down the tubes (nationally $40,000 for a 25c/

kg cut or $80,000 for 50c).

Yes, I know it’s not a wage and it’s revenue and it’s not a great comparison, but the numbers still stand. That’s what many Canterbury dairy farmers stand to lose as a result of Fonterra dropping its payout by 25c-50c from September’s $6.75 forecast for each kilogram of milksolids.

Actually, it’s worse because the co-op started with $7/kg as a likely starting point.

Fair credit to the new guard of chief executive Miles Hurrell and chairman

John Monaghan – they have taken note of deep farmer grumblings and have introduced a range to allow for volatility and to help farmers plot an accurate budget. Other milk co-ops did this long ago.

Farmers are still smarting from Fonterra recording its first full year loss of $196 million in its 17-year history.

So, as hard as it might be, getting accurate with the payout would be a good start.

You can’t help but think that the days of over-inflated opening forecasts are over.

Dairy Focus Dairy commodity prices ease Dairy Focus is proudly published by the Ashburton Guardian Limited

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By Tim Cronshaw Tim.c@theguardian.co.nz

Whole milk powder prices eased on the world market, but less than expected by analysts.

Dairy prices slipped again at the Global Dairy Trade auction as bidders mull over the prospect of more Fonterra milk production landing soon.

The overall price index dropped 0.3 per cent from the last auction two weeks ago and was on the back of prices dropping in the four previous auctions from mid-August.

By the final bid last Wednesday the average price was $US2885 with 41,945 tonnes of dairy products traded among about 180 bidders.

The key ingredient of whole milk powder eased nearly 1 per cent to $US2729, and cheddar and casein fell about 1.7 per cent.

Propping up the overall price was a 2.4 per cent rise in butter at $US4114 and anhydrous milk fat was up 1 per cent at $US5106. Skim milk powder prices were unchanged at just below $US2000.

NZX dairy analyst Amy Castleton said dairy commodity prices performed better than expected.

“Whole milk powder prices had been expected to fall, as ... Fonterra both lifted its milk production forecast for the season and increased the volume of whole milk powder

it intends to offer on the GDT platform over the next three months.

Whole milk powder was a little more resilient than anticipated, however.’’

She said the average price for whole milk powder to ship in January actually lifted 0.8 per cent, indicating there was some mediumterm need for product.

Castleton said the butter increase was the first lift seen in the butter price index since June.

Price increases were focused on earlier contracts, however, as prices

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Demand for milk fats has been fairly solid, but the available supply seems to have been outweighing demand in recent months.

“The GDT result will spur hopes that a corner has been turned in the milkfat market – but it is too early to say whether prices will continue to rise,’’ Castleton said.

The next auction is on November 6.

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7

Raising river flows a balancing act The government recently released a new Essential Freshwater plan. It aims to have new rules in place by 2020 to stop waterway degradation and achieve noticeable improvements in freshwater quality within five years.

The plan introduces a number of new advisory groups representing science and technical advisors, Maori, councils and other interests.

The government’s first focus is on at-risk catchments where water quality is deteriorating - a recommendation of the Land and Water Forum. They are expecting to have a report on possible interventions by December.

Their next priority is amending the RMA to enable regional councils to review consents and more quickly implement water quality and quantity limits.

The Government plans to work with Kahui Wai Maori, the Freshwater Leaders Group and others on nutrient allocation options and consult on these in 2019 and 2020.

They want to recognise Maori rights and interests

Rivers are at the heart of a new Essential Freshwater plan.

Andrew Curtis

IRRIGATION NZ

in water allocation, and also consider existing user’s rights, economic development, and efficiency issues. Where water is scarce and this is limiting growth, the government may consider measures to support economic growth, land development, and community and environmental resilience.

These could include environmentally responsible water storage and distribution, managed aquifer recharge, and technology to support greater efficiency. Options on water allocation will be developed in 2019/2020.

By 2020, the government wants to adopt a new National Environmental Standard for Freshwater Management.

This may provide national direction on reviewing consents,

a default regime for ecological flows where none exist, and details of how minimum flows apply to existing consents.

Farm Environment Plans may also become a requirement.

The government also plans to amend the Freshwater National Policy Statement by 2020. This will be based on the Sheppard principles which prioritise water quality above other issues and this may include new rules on sediment, copper and zinc, and dissolved oxygen, and direction to councils on how to set limits and policies on at-risk catchments.

Amongst all these changes, we would like to see consul-

tation with primary sector representative organisations occur. The representative groups are heavy on scientists and councils. We need to see the impacts of any changes tested on the ground to ensure they are practical and affordable for farmers and growers to adopt.

We also need to understand the impacts of national changes on water allocation policy and consent reviews on communities. The economic and community impacts of any increases in river flows need to be considered as well as environmental impacts.

While it’s appropriate to have

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the ability to review consents, farmers also need certainty about the future in order to invest in making improvements like installing more efficient irrigation systems.

We are pleased to see the government supporting the use of Farm Environment Plans and looking at some of the innovative solutions to address water shortages being adopted overseas. Issues around Maori rights and interests in water are complex and the government’s timelines for making progress seem overly ambitious in this area.

A lot of these issues the government is regulating on have already been worked through by communities in places like Canterbury and difficult decisions already made.

Let’s hope the changes don’t undermine this work.

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Dairy Focus

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Digging in to latest GDT result NZX dairy analyst Amy Castleton runs the rule over the dairy commodity markets and the latest GDT result.

The NZX milk price forecast for the 2018-19 season has fallen 15 cents to $6.18 a kilogram of milksolids.

While we saw some relatively positive results at last week’s Global Dairy Trade (GDT) event, the price for key commodity whole milk powder did fall and the outlook for dairy commodity prices has continued to deteriorate.

Whole milk powder prices eased 0.9 per cent overall at the GDT event on October 16. Regular grade whole milk powder to ship in December eased 0.7 per cent.

While this result was better than anticipated, the outlook for whole milk powder prices has worsened over the past couple of weeks, impacting the milk price forecast.

The November whole milk powder futures contract

Amy Castleton

$US2000/t for most of the season, only lifting any higher than $US2100/t in April and following months.

The NZX spot price has actually lifted 17 cents to $6.41/kg. The spot price indicates what the milk price would be if October 16 GDT prices were achieved over the entire dairy season at current exchange rates.

The jump was driven by the good results for milk fats, and the slightly stronger price for skim milk powder.

The dollar has also declined about one cent against the US currency, contributing to the lift in the milk price. A one cent decline in the exchange rate typically equates to a 10 cent lift in the milk price.

The September 2019 milk price futures contract is down 11 cents from where it was a fortnight ago, settling last Wednesday at $6.15/kg.

Interest continues to grow in this contract.

There are 4850 open positons at this stage in this contract, equivalent to 29.1 million kilograms of milksolids.

DAIRY ANALYST

trading on the NZX Dairy Derivatives market settled at $US2605 a tonne last week, $US120/t lower than where it was a fortnight ago.

The derivatives market still expects prices to lift throughout the rest of the season, but projected price levels are lower than where they were when the NZX milk price forecast was last calculated.

Butter prices had a surprisingly strong result at the last GDT event. Butter was up 2.4 per cent overall and unsalted butter to ship in December jumped 5.1 per cent.

However, butter futures prices have come down from where they were a fortnight ago. The November butter

Dairy commodity prices have overall continued to deteriorate.

PHOTO ASHBURTON GUARDIAN

futures contract settled at $US3990/t last Wednesday, down $US150/t from a fortnight ago. All butter futures contracts until May are lower than where they were a fortnight ago.

Similarly, anhydrous milkfat (AMF) had a good result at the GDT event, lifting 1 per cent overall. Regular grade AMF to ship in December lifted 3.5 per cent. But AMF futures have also declined

over the past fortnight. The November AMF futures contract settled at $US5025/t last Wednesday, $US225/t lower than a fortnight ago.

Skim milk powder had a flat GDT result. Medium heat skim milk powder to ship in December lifted 0.5 per cent. However, the outlook has also declined slightly for this commodity. Skim milk powder prices are expected to stick largely to about

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BY NOW we all understand that applying fertiliser or growing almost anything increases your soil acidity or lowers the pH of the soil. All good farmers apply Aglime to correct this acidification, however the final target pH level for optimum nutrient availability is and always has been a moving target.

The absolute building blocks of growth such as Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Sulphur and Magnesium, are theoretically not even close to their peak availability at a pH of 5.5.

The table below goes some way to indicate what the approximate nutrient availability is at various pH levels.

As you can see below, a pH at 5.5 seems inefficient and illogical.

However, at the pH between 6 and 6.5 availability increases exponentially and even starts peaking across many nutrients.

WHAT IS THE OPTIMAL PH AND WHY?

Your soil’s pH is one of the

key drivers in what nutrients are available to the plant. With a pH that is too low (sub 5.5pH) some real nasties like Aluminum and Manganese may be available and can heavily diminish growth or even kill crops. On the inverse, a pH near 7 or neutral, can be too high and limit the availability of Zinc and Manganese. The general consensus locally is that a pH of 5.5-5.8 is ‘good enough’, but the science just don’t back this up.

5

5.5

6

6.5

7

7.5

8

8.5

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ACIDITY NITROGEN PHOSPHORUS POTASSIUM SULPHUR CALCIUM MAGNESIUM IRON

MANGANESE BORON COPPER & ZINC MOLYBDENUM

9

“One aspect that has baffled us for years, is the apparent disconnect between fertiliser application and the availability or efficiency of the very nutrient being applied due to soil acidity.“

Almost every element of a fertiliser is represented in the nutrient availability table to the right. When you are spending good money on fertiliser, you should be damn concerned if your advisors aren’t ensuring that the nutrient you are applying is at or near maximum availability. If they are not, you need to ask yourself why not, maybe they have a vested interest in selling more fertiliser?

In the grand scheme of things, liming is relatively cheap, especially when you consider that a shift in pH could potentially double the efficiency of a fertiliser in both the short and long term.

The table to the right indicates this point and goes some way to show how a capital investment in liming may affect your overall and ongoing annual fertiliser spend.

To see the results for yourself, get in touch today for a quote: 0800 303 980 • www.vlime.co.nz

FERTILISER EFFICIENCY AT VARIOUS SOIL PH VALUES

Soil pH

N Efficiency

P Efficiency

K Efficiency

Overall Fertilizer Efficiency

pH = 6.5

95%

63%

100%

86%

pH = 6.0

89%

52%

100%

80%

pH = 5.5

77%

48%

77%

67%

pH = 5.0

53%

34%

52%

56%

vanRoestel, J. (2014, March). The Value of Maintaining a Good soil pH.

CAPITAL LIMING TO LIFT TO AN OPTIMAL PH OF 6.2 – 6.5

As a rule of thumb 1 tonne/ha of high quality Aglime will raise the pH by 0.1 pH unit. Therefor a 6 tonne/ha application is required to increase the pH from 5.7 to 6.3.

To maintain the optimum pH of 6.2-6.5, maintenance applications of at least 500kg per annum will be required.

The above rates are based on high quality Aglime, and not all lime is created equal. Ensure your Aglime supply has a Lime Equivalency or ‘As delivered’ Calcium Carbonate content of 90% or greater. The particle size should meet New Zealand Aglime standards of 50% passing .5mm and no more than 10% passing

2mm to allow good even spreading and consistent long term release into the soil. Consider solubility and ensure you are dealing with a limestone resource that has been proven to lift pH as expected. Talk to a few neighbors, they will know the history.

Keep in mind we can mix your fertiliser(s) with Aglime prior to dispatch to make your annual applications even more cost effective.

FREE SOIL PH TESTING

We have a full laboratory based at our Coalgate site and are more than happy to pH test your Soil free of charge. We also have loan soil probes and sample bags available.

Dairy Focus

10

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The great divide – who is to blame?

Tim Cronshaw

RURAL REPORTER

New Zealand farmers aren’t alone in feeling the urban-rural disconnect, as BBC’s Anna Jones has observed this strong undercurrent in the UK. Is there really a divide and who is to blame? asks Tim Cronshaw.

BBC journalist Anna Jones at a Foundation for Arable Research presentation at Templeton.

PHOTO TIM CRONSHAW 161018-TC-ANNA JONES BBC

M

any decades ago farmers set about their business without the many worries of today.

They tilled the soils, milked the cows and tended their flocks and herds and then at night put their head on the pillow safe in the knowledge that there was an appreciation of the hard graft they did.

There were more farmers then and people in the towns and cities had a close connection with them.

Visits from the outside were common as there were no online, social media or multichannel distractions and weekend drives often involved a farm stop.

People off farms had a closer understanding of

farming and knew that meat didn’t come from plastic packaging in supermarkets and that animals had to be killed for meals to go on their plates.

They took it for granted that calves had to be separated for cows to produce milk for human consumption. They knew that an old ewe on its last legs had to be taken each week for mutton to go on the farm table or for dog tucker.

There was no big marketing ploys to disguise the fact that meat was meat and not plasticcoated branded protein.

In those days there were no animal activists, there were no vegans and there was little public scrutiny as they set about intensifying their operations and

improving their food and fibre production.

The growing world population needed food and had no appetite for questioning nitrate leaching in rivers, carbon emissions, mulesing, intensively housed pork and poultry operations or short-lived bobby calves.

Farmers got about their business without the goldfish bowl of public perception and probing media scrutiny they live in today.

Reports from mainstream media were mostly in a positive light. After all, New Zealand was an agricultural nation, dependent on its primary exports for bringing much-needed cash to the economy.

Nor did farmers have to fill

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in countless forms for effluent discharging, consent to take water and draw up farm maps to accurately account for nutrients in their soils.

That is the daily burden that farmers face today to have the “social licence’’ to farm.

Furthermore, the media has been hot on their tails, eager to report any tales of wrongdoing, as have the many lobby groups of Peta, Greenpeace and vociferous bird protection and angling groups often frowning upon farming.

This isn’t a phenomena exclusive to New Zealand.

Farmers are coming under scrutiny world-wide.

Which raises the question: has the rural-city disconnect gone too far – can it be

Alps

bridged? Or is it beyond repair?

Observing this closely has been Welsh-born Anna Jones, who in April entered freelancing as a TV and radio producer/director, writer, broadcaster, blogger, Nuffield farming scholar and public speaker.

A visit to New Zealand saw her present her findings to farmers, farming leaders and farming service people, including a presentation to rural people in Ashburton.

A farmer’s daughter, until lately she covered rural news for BBC, directing its Countryfile programme, aimed at a “broad appeal’’ audience, and presenting Radio 4’s On Your Farm, as well as reporting agricultural

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issues often around the world for the World Service.

She grew up on a small sheep and beef farm on the Welsh border alongside England. Attracted by the bright lights, she left for a career in journalism, but found her rural roots ran deep and gravitated to farming news.

As she grew more experienced, Jones became part of a team that took Countryfile from its morning position on Sunday to the most-watched factual programme on British television with a viewing audience of up to nine million people weekly.

As she gazed across newsrooms she observed she was often the only reporter with a farming link.

“I was finding myself unique at BBC with a rural background. I was aware of the disconnect of family and friends in the city and strong opinions about food, farming and the environment.’’

Delving deeper into this divide, she saw a convergence between media and social media of “fake news’’ coming from the farming background.

She also watched farmers often carrying a chip on their shoulders.

The rural-urban disconnect is perhaps understandable in the UK with a 17 per cent rural population and 1 per cent farming population contributing just 0.5 per cent to GDP. Unsurprisingly, any news agriculture story comes from an urban perspective.

“I felt there was a problem there and something worth exploring, so in 2015 I applied for a Nuffield scholarship and said I would like to examine this disconnect ... and to try and see if there is any way to bridge the gap between these two worlds.’’

Her investigations into mainstream media’s coverage of farming and countryside issues took her around the world.

In Kenya she visited a country completely dependent

11

Many farmers feel there is an urban-rural divide.

on farming and everyone she spoke to had some sort of rural connection. Nearly 75 per cent of its population makes some sort of living from agriculture. Kenya’s media provides “almost an extension service’’ for farmers, but the trade-off is that its government is not great at supporting agriculture.

“This disconnect, I was starting to learn, was very much a condition of the west.

It exists where pockets are deep and bellies are full,’’ Jones said.

Often the divide was more grey than black and white.

Glyphosate – known as Roundup in New Zealand and used for preparing soils for new pasture and crops – came close to being banned in Europe. The agri-chemical only gained a five-year reprieve by the “skin of its teeth’’ and is seen as a lost cause because of anti-chemical sentiment.

Curiously, the heart of the anti-chemical lobbying came from France.

This is the same country

PHOTO ASHBURTON GUARDIAN

where farmers can do no wrong, food is at the centre of its identity, and its people embrace tractor protests on their streets. They love farmers, but the farming industry is under intense scrutiny.

Jones found the nation where the “disconnect’’ ran deepest is the United States.

Agricultural states – South and North Dakota, Iowa, Illinois and Wyoming are often sneered at as “fly-over’’ states and “Trump-land’’ by city dwellers on both coastlines, yet 18 per cent of the US population is in the rural hinterland.

“The vast majority of people on the coast and the vast majority of people I met in Chicago look down on these areas and that’s not being too strong about it. It goes the other way as well.

When you spend time in South Dakota or Iowa there is a sort of sneering attitude to city people as well – they are clueless, ignorant, don’t understand us and we feed them.

“I think the US serves as a warning to the UK and New Zealand because if you don’t keep people informed about changes in agriculture this is what happens when you get silo farming away where people can’t see it.’’

In her mind, the growing disconnect can be traced to some time during the intensification of agriculture.

“The intensification of agriculture has been happening since World War Two and because it has worked to produce enough food for so many people at prices they can afford no-one thought it was worth telling the public about it.

“Well that disconnect happened when we had our backs turned because the public have lost their connection. They don’t remember having a parent or grandparent on a farm, they have city lives and now with growing incomes and education they want to know where their food comes from.’’

City dwellers without family connections on farms are

finding out about farming from lobby groups with an agenda.

“They don’t like what they see because what they thought was Old MacDonald on a farm is old MacDonald on a factory farm.’’

In the UK her experience is that “pigs, poultry and dairy’’ have come in for the hardest criticism, for many of the same reasons seen in New Zealand.

The main catalyst is the vegan debate and animal welfare groups – animal welfare is probably the biggest flashpoint in the UK, a nation of animal lovers.

“Pigs and poultry are inherently the most intensive sectors and dairy because of the dairy scary thing.

“The general public never realise that in order to drink milk you have to take a calf off a cow and never put two and two together. Now somebody has put two and two together for them and they are shocked by it. continued over page

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Dairy Focus

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From P11 “[That somebody] is a small minority, but that small minority make a big noise.’’

Powerful lobby groups such as Peta and Greenpeace admit they have to “catastrophise’’ to get the public’s attention and get them to sign their petitions.

The other driver is urban bias which colours everything which mainstream media does about agriculture mainly because it has to be relevant to the largest number of viewers, readers and listeners.

The largest audience is urban and if the media FB Range 1 14/9/18 11:01 AM isn’t making relevant news Ad-2_15x18cm-print.pdf then it’s going to go out of business. That’s unlikely to change because it’s pointless promoting news to a small audience. Just about every story farmers get angry about will have this driving it, she says.

In Jones’ view there is blame on both sides for the The town mouse and country mouse: Anna Jones and her dad on the farm in Wales. disconnection.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANNA JONES The lack of rural transparency concerns her “There is no chance defensive with any challenge back foot?’’ with a lot of farming systems somebody working on the deemed to be criticism. “In However, the divide can also hidden away from the public Guardian, the Telegraph or many cases the industry voice be the fault of media as its and the media. It took her six the Times would get within is too dominant. Farming is journalists often take the easy months to get access to an sniff of that place.’’ always defensive and we get route of going to farming intensive pig operation in the Often she found the UK’s bored of it. Why isn’t farming lobby groups and senior UK and she is a specialist rural farming industry to be overly on the front foot and not the leaders for comment rather reporter.

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than directly to farmers.

The lack of specialisation in UK rural journalism is “frightening’’, she says.

“It makes me wince because ... we have to find a way to encourage our journalists to specialise in agriculture, because the media is thronging with stressed-out generalists with no time and no resources to research their stories properly. The age of door knocking is over. I have painted a very gloomy picture, but I do think there are things we can do.’’

During public presentations in New Zealand she is often asked why the media doesn’t do more good news stories.

That’s not their job to have in-built patriotism about food production, she explains.

Equally, she is uncomfortable with the belief of journalists that “it has to bleed to lead’’ and positive stories are simply “puff and PR’’.

This view seems engrained in news culture, but some journalists and broadcasters want this to change.

In Denmark award-winning investigative reporter Ulrik Haagerup looked in the mirror one day and questioned if he was writing for his own ego and began looking at negative bias in mainstream media.

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He founded the constructive journalism movement with the fundamental belief to give the best obtainable version of the truth and to include solution stories after breaking news.

Jones says the BBC has committed to a certain percentage of constructive stories and trials have shown that newspaper sales have risen.

She says journalism is losing its agricultural journalists at a worrying rate. While it’s unrealistic to expect “agricultural posts’’ to continue in newspapers because there aren’t enough farmers to warrant their investment, fewer people are covering rural affairs.

That leaves a wide opening for media newcomers to make their mark and when Jones returns to the UK in between overseas assignments, she will start visiting journalism colleges to promote these opportunities.

Journalists in the UK and here must look beyond the “usual suspects’’ for comment and work harder than a cursory Google search for a quick sound bite from farming organisations, she says.

“This will help the industry in the long run by not having dominant voices.’’

13

Anna Jones believes that ‘independent voices without an agenda might go some way to breaking down the disconnect’.

PHOTO COURTESY OF ANNA JONES

Industry voices are still required, but farmers are needed in case studies to find the voice in the middle and illustrate the problem.

To that end, Jones has set up the Just Farmers network.

Starting with 12 UK farmers, and recruiting another 24 each year, she will work with

them at media communications workshops so they understand how the media works.

The workshop includes a visit to a vegan restaurant for a positive experience with people passionate about veganism. Guest journalists are due to talk to them during a January workshop putting

them in front of cameras.

“The media side is to connect colleagues in the media directly to these farmers. In return for the training they receive, the farmers have to make a commitment to always being open to the media and to answer any question and to

always have an open door to try and break down that perception of being secretive and defensive, which is often what the media thinks of farmers.’’

Independent voices without an agenda might go some way to breaking down the disconnect, she says.

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Dairy Focus

14

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TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

JobDone gets it done!

Our new app is even simpler to use and continues to work when out of mobile coverage.

When you have an award winning software solution that helps farmers manage their teams, workload, assets and farm compliance requirements, what do you do next? “You make it better,” says JobDone general manager Simon Gillson.

We’ve listened to feedback and continue to develop features that add value to our clients’ business.

“On November 1 our new app will be available from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store to download.

It’s so easy to use and all staff can submit timesheets, review and complete their jobs, access and contribute to H&S, create new jobs from the field and communicate with all team members. It operates seamlessly even when out of cellular coverage and automatically syncs when back in range.

“We’ve also listened to feedback from a number of large multi-farm environments which has led

to the development of our Enterprise Version.

“Enterprise suits corporates or those managing multiple farms such as consultants and service providers. Of particular interest was the ability to create standard operating procedures that could be replicated across the group seamlessly.

“If any process improvements were applied they would also update processes across the group.

“This lends itself to lean management methodologies to encourage continual

improvement.

Communication of important information across the group was crucial so now notices can be published to all or any of the group farms to ensure managers and their teams are up to speed with the latest news, events or procedural changes.”

Greg McCracken uses JobDone on his property and says it has transformed his operations.

“Without a doubt, this system gives every staff member more focus on the jobs that they are doing,

meaning the completion rate is way up. As soon as the worker checks their phone, they see what needs to be done - and you know how often people check their phones these days.

“With JobDone I can see who is on farm at any time and what they are currently working on.

“Timesheets and recording breaks are a simple one-click action that is linked into the check in system so it is very easy for the team to log their hours worked.”

Not only does JobDone save farmers time and money, it makes operations more efficient, improves health and safety compliance and helps the whole team contribute to solving problems.

JobDone even takes the staff member through the steps involved in every task, ensuring all bases are covered.

“This is more than just an app, it’s an extra pair of eyes and ears,” said Greg.

“Now the team are more observant and can easily take a

photo of something that needs attention from the field and upload it so everyone is aware.

“Recurring maintenance tasks can be automatically assigned to team members and when completed become a permanent maintenance record for our assets. If a job is overdue or running late I get a notification which means I can see what the problem is and rectify it before it becomes an issue.”

Summing up the value of JobDone, McCracken says it has enabled his farm to become more organised, safer and better managed.

“Once you use this system, there is no going back. It uses the smartphones we all have today, which makes it easy to get started. It’s just a better way to farm.”

Farmers can find out more about JobDone and sign up for a free one month trial by going to www.jobdone.nz

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TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

15

Taking care of detection After calving, heat detection is one of the most labourdemanding times of the dairy season, and one of the most critical. Traditionally, accurate heat detection requires a mix of tail-paint, heat detectors and – most importantly – observation.

Diligence in the latter is often the bane of farmers’ lives during the dairy mating season however there is a solution which generates one of the highest rates of heat detection in the world.

Waikato Milking System’s newly released NaviGate Dairy Management System is the ‘brains’ of farm dairy providing a range of options which enable the farmer to fine-tune the performance of the herd and the dairy.

Heat management is one such component, the NaviGate heat and health collars utilise cutting-edge technology to reliably generate heat detection rates of around 95%.

The collar continuously monitors each cow’s behaviour comparing this to her normal behaviour patterns and those of herd mates, correlating any

change to a cause.

Using this gesture recognition technology it is possible to determine heat events. The collar monitors and records behaviour, downloading collected data to a reader when the cow comes within range of the dairy.

An alert is then issued to the operator.

Unlike visual observation,

NaviGate Heat’s six hour observation window enables identification of the peak of the oestrous cycle ie the optimum time for insemination, with the potential to improve the farm’s pregnancy rates. It identifies cycling and non-cycling cows, silent or standing heats, and short and long returns.

Changes in the behaviour of

individual animals also enables NaviGate health management to reliably and consistently provide early detection of sick animals minimising labour and animal health costs while improving herd health, fertility and conception rates.

Farmer feedback confirms that the NaviGate Sort Gate’s three-way drafting is one of the best on-farm investments in overall time and operational efficiency. The gate consistently achieves 99 per cent ear-tag read rates of all cows providing exceptional cow flow through its wide exit.

Drafts can be set ahead of, or during, milking so operators can relax knowing the right cows will be waiting in the right yard at the end of milking.

The gate’s wide exit provides exceptional cow flow and the soft close technology, which enables the gates to open and close quietly, minimising the tendency for cows to panic and back-up when following herd-mates, reducing stress on animals.

Laser distance sensors,

unaffected by light or wet/ dry cows, are positioned in the roof of the sort gate protected from effluent and the weather.

The NaviGate Dairy Management System also includes a powerful feed management component which saves money by improving the ease, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of supplementary feeding.

The system’s flexibility enables feed quantities to be tailored to individual cow requirements. Simplicity is key to the system with cows easily transferred across a range of feed groups ie days in milk, milk yield or cow status.

A range of reports correlate per cow production to feed intake in dollar terms improving the overall cost efficiency of the farm’s supplementary feeding regime.

Other options of the NaviGate Dairy Management System include milking data and weight. The system is modular so it can easily be retrofitted and extended to any farm dairy.

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TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

Taking the hassle out of timesheets If you have a hard time getting staff to fill out accurate timesheets before pay day, you’re not alone.

Dairy is the only industry that’s regularly checked by MBIE’s labour inspectors to make sure employers are paying /salaried/ staff at least the minimum wage. That means filling out timesheets.

For most employees, for most of the year, timesheets won’t impact what they get paid, so they’re seen as a hassle and a bit of a joke.

Plenty of farm owners and managers have to chase timesheets every pay day, and hours recorded are often inaccurate. It’s generally only farm assistants over the calving period whose hours might make a top-up necessary to meet minimum wage, creating more admin when dairy employers are at their busiest.

This is why some farmers are turning to electronic systems to save time and make compliance a breeze.

James and Shannon Burke are dairy farmers in Ngatea.

Shannon looks after payroll on farm on top of her job with The Regions Immigration Law & Recruitment.

“We were running timesheets at the milking shed but it seemed like every fortnight I had to chase the team. Once I went back to my job off farm, I went looking for a system to help save time,” Shannon said.

“I asked a few of the farming families in the local area but none were impressed with the systems they had tried. Then I came across PaySauce through a seminar they hosted with The Regions in Ngatea and gave them a go.

“Staff have responded really well to the change. They pop their hours in on the phone app each day and we can see their daily entries. Once I approve those on pay day, PaySauce calculates all the payroll obligations then does all the banking and PAYE filing. Payroll used to take me a couple hours every month.

Now I spend about 5 minutes per fortnight.

“The payroll part wasn’t too bad for me. I had a thorough spreadsheet set up to manage the calculations and check if top-ups were needed to meet minimum wage. But in terms of chasing timesheets, improving accuracy, and managing all the filing with Inland Revenue, it’s been a massive improvement.

“The support staff at PaySauce have been great.

It seemed like I was calling them every pay day for the first couple of months but

“

“The more dairy farmers using PaySauce, the better. I just feel it’s a bulletproof system for compliance.”

– Andrew Hoggard, Federated Farmers National Vice President

If you’ve got four or more staff earning an average wage, or 10 or more earning minimum wage, you’ll likely be caught by the changes. If not, you can skip this article.

Good for you.

What’s new? they gradually trained me to manage everything myself. In terms of value for money, it’s been a great change. Better accuracy and confidence, can’t go wrong.”

Logan Tyson, business development manager at PaySauce, said “we’ve been fortunate to partner with Federated Farmers and we’re now looking after payroll for almost 10 per cent of the dairy farms in NZ, which gives us a pretty good understanding of the industry.

Dairy businesses aren’t the same as your average SME and it’s important for service providers to appreciate the differences. When customers call us with a payroll problem

on farm they can be confident our team will actually know what they’re talking about.”

Changes to PAYE filing in 2018 If you’re employing staff, you’ve probably heard that PAYE filing is going digital under the Inland Revenue’s “payday reporting” scheme.

Here’s what you need to know.

Are you affected?

Kiwi employers paying over $50,000 PAYE and Employer Superannuation Contribution Tax (ESCT) per year will need to move to payday reporting on or before April 1, 2019.

The Employer Monthly Schedule (EMS) you currently send in once a month (or twice if you’re a large employer) will be replaced with electronic filing within two business days of payday. Yep, that means more filing.

If you can’t get reliable internet, you’ll have an extra five business days to take care of payday reporting.

On the plus side, the Kiwisaver tax code declarations that new staff fill out will be going digital too, cutting down on repetitive paperwork.

What’s next?

If you’re calculating pays

and filing PAYE manually, your admin workload is about to go up. It might be time to consider using a service that takes this off your plate.

If you’re already using payroll software, or your accountant handles your pays, talk to your provider and make sure they’ll be ready by April 1 next year. Some aren’t making the leap, so you may want to look at alternatives.

Look for a system that handles the lot PaySauce is cloud payroll that you can run from a laptop or smartphone wherever you are. It includes digital timesheets and payslips, the standard payroll calculations you’d expect, and automated banking and PAYE filing.

PaySauce customers won’t notice a thing when payday reporting kicks in - filing will be automatic and real-time.

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TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

K-Line irrigation powered by Loncel TM

This latest innovation from Loncel allows irrigators using K-Line™ systems by RX Plastics to work smarter, increase productivity and use water more efficiently.

Productivity levels are enhanced by using the Loncel system to automatically start/stop multiple K-Line™ sprinkler lines thereby not having to relocate the lines as often.

By duplicating an existing K-Line™ and being able to independently control each line, you can halve the manual effort in relocating a single line.

Whilst this requires the purchase of additional K-Line, there is a quick payback in labour-saving.

Automation also allows more frequent starting/stopping enabling more controlled water application.

Visibility and control are available via any internet-connected device … being able to make changes from your smartphone provides a whole new level of control, even while you are away from the farm.

Latest innovations from Loncel for monitoring and control of K-Line™ and G-Set™ irrigation systems.

PHOTO SUPPLIED

Loncel control systems available for G-Set™ pod irrigation systems Loncel provides intelligent monitoring and control as an after-market solution for integration with G-Set™

irrigation systems by RX Plastics. The Loncel system provides front-end monitoring visible via your smartphone or other internet-based device. Irrigators can also easily and intuitively change program settings from their smartphone.

The Loncel system can

also be integrated with soil moisture sensors to ensure efficient use of water without over-watering.

About Loncel

Loncel Technologies (2014) Limited is a New Zealand company based in Auckland and is one of the very early

suppliers of Internet of Things (IOT) services.

For over 15 years, Loncel has sought to provide its clients with state-of-the-art remote monitoring systems with the aim of: • Providing real time and historical information, • Improving operational efficiencies, • Reducing cost and duplication.

The company designs all its monitoring hardware and software in-house to deliver data for the Internet of Things (IOT).

Loncel solutions are available for precision solidset irrigation, frost fan monitoring, soil moisture monitoring, water remote monitoring and industrial monitoring and control.

For more information, go to www.loncel.com

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TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

19

New rules create surprises New milk cooling regulations are here and now creating some surprises for dairy farmers.

Three years ago, when an assessment was done of existing farm cooling compliance, it was estimated around half of the farms would comply with the new regulations with little or no capital spend. This has not quite materialised and there are several subsequent changes (affecting primary cooling) responsible for this: 1. Lower groundwater levels 2. Warmer groundwater temperatures 3. Reduction in the quantity of primary water used due to concerns around effluent storage and water usage More recently, changes in dairy company collection times (such as from night to day collections) have added many more farms to the noncompliant list.

As expected we now have a bottleneck where suppliers and contractors are unable to keep up with

Murray Hollings

systems were the flavour and quite a number were installed. These are very effective at cooling milk to low temperatures and generally good systems although with more emphasis now on milk quality, there are now some concerns about the potential for glycol to contaminate milk through plate cooler faults.

Also, glycol through milk silo pads (instead of refrigeration) is discouraged as it is less efficient, is hard to clean from the milk silos and where the chilling system faults there is no milk cooling at all until the fault is rectified.

Looking to the future, the latest focus is on designing systems to cool milk to storage temperature, utilising pure water as a medium.

Dairycool now have new technology chillers designed to deliver milk to the silo at storage temperatures.

COOLING OFF

milk chilling product supply and installation, although this will catch up again in the autumn. In situations where new equipment needs to be installed for compliance quickly, there are ways to manage this process, so talk to a reputable product provider for advice. Also, if you suspect you may not be compliant, it is best to talk to your provider earlier as your options are not as limited as to the solutions available.

Due to the generally larger farms in Canterbury most now require snapchilling systems to be installed with milk entering the silo at much lower temperatures.

So where is technology heading now with milk snapchilling??

We have been through

some interesting times over the last five years where various supposedly superior technologies have emerged

and been replaced by simpler, less expensive but just as effective ones.

Five years ago glycol

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• Low maintenance • Cost-effective and won’t break the bank Contact Lee Gilbert today for all your dairy farm cooling systems enquiries on 027 334 4365.

20

Dairy Focus

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TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

In control of your processes Established in 1985, we have extensive experience in Serial Data Communication systems and have a range of sophisticated monitoring, remote control, data logging and text alert products utilising this technology We’ve incorporated the latest advancements in UHF telemetry and GSM networking to give you control of important processes on your farm.

Farmtrenz is a new division of Electronic Specialists dedicated to the design, manufacturing and servicing of electronic farm monitoring systems for effluent, weather stations, water bores, tanks and electric fences.

These include our popular TIM and KIM effluent failsafe field devices, a leader in the market for more than 10 years.

Our key effluent control products give farmers peace of mind that their effluent is going to where it needs to be applied and not into waterways.

Sharing the pump for more than irrigating effluent is a

growing trend on dairy farms today. However this can be a problem when the effluent monitoring system has control over the one and only pump.

This is not a problem with the Farmtrenz TIM, KIM or PIM effluent monitoring systems designed and manufactured in Invercargill.

These systems for traveller, pod and pivot irrigators have been specifically designed to

control not only irrigation from the effluent pump but also the transfer and greenwash functions when combined with powered actuators and just one pump if using a shared pump.

“This makes it easy to achieve by simply installing one system and avoids having to install additional pumps or other equipment,” says Richard Conroy, manager of

Electronic Specialists.

Farmtrenz effluent monitoring systems made by Electronic Specialists have for many years had the ability to integrate the irrigation, transfer and greenwash functions using just one pump.

Having one system controlling effluent avoided the added capital and maintenance costs of additional equipment when

farmers least needed it, particularly noticeable during the recent low pay-out years.

Mr Conroy says Farmtrenz TIM and KIM telemetrybased effluent fail-safe systems focus strongly on monitoring down the paddock, where farmers look to see how their effluent system is performing, and not back at the pump this allows the system to monitor more accurately where the effluent is applied, this also has the advantage that if a GPS is required for a resource consent then a GPS can easily be added to the irrigator where the effluent is being applied.

The TIM, KIM and PIM system has the added advantage that it can be remotely started from the Irrigator, allowing the farmer to set it up, start it and carry on with other important jobs without the need to go back to the dairy shed to start it.

Rest assured, we service what we sell. We may also have authorised installers available throughout New Zealand.

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Watching – when you’re not

Farmtrenz is a division of Electronic Specialists that designs and manufactures electronic farm monitoring systems. Our key effluent control products give farmers peace of mind their effluent is going to land and not to waterways. We also make a range of other farm-related products.

EFFLUENT TIM

TIM™ stands for Travelling Irrigator Monitor. TIM™ mounts to all travelling effluent irrigators including Cobra, Torpedo, Weta, Briggs, Plucks, Williams, Ecostream, Numedic, IrriMax, Spitfire.

WATER

FENCE

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Know when there’s a fence outage and avoid a potential stock break-out.

Vat Monitor monitors milk temperature and multiple cooler, vat wash and tap sensors. Receive text alerts through optional Text Unit if something goes wrong.

See how the weather’s impacting your farm with Farmtrenz GUI software for graphical display and analysis.

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TECHNOLOGY FEATURE

21

Technology that works for you Harvest Electronics offers a range of on-farm monitoring and control solutions. As a privately, and proudly Kiwi owned and operated business, Harvest has been a technology provider to the hort and vit sectors for 14 years and the ag sector for 10 years.

Our product line was built on the principle of providing real-time information to end users to aid in management of assets.

At the time of first release, smartphones, iPads, RBI, UFB, 3G, 4G etc didn’t exist.

The first products Harvest provided were frost alarms to Kiwifruit orchards and vineyards. Air temperature sensors coupled with Harvest 2G telemetry were installed on the orchard or vineyard and provided near real-time temperature readings on the site.

User settable frost alarms were automatically sent to customers via SMS. Since that time technology has marched on and Harvest has been quick to make use of new technologies which are now often referred to as IoT

(Internet of Things).

In recent years the industry has seen plenty of new compliance requirements – including water meters, effluent failsafe/tracking, nitrate management, milk vat temperature, soil moisture, management of waterways and most recently overhauls to health and safety.

The current range of Harvest remote monitoring and control products include solutions for management of resources – eg. soil moisture monitoring, feed silo monitoring and weather stations.

Other products also achieve the dual purpose of meeting compliance – eg. water meters, effluent failsafe/tracking and milk vat temperature.

Collecting information is only one part of the puzzle – access to the data is the other crucial part. Whether it’s on your smartphone, tablet or desktop computer, information needs to be presented in a way that makes it usable as part of a farm management plan.

The ability to not just see soil moisture as a percentage

of volumetric water content (VWC) but also being able to see the capacity and wilting points along with deficit (in mm) enables smart decision making around irrigation.

Localised weather forecasts can be used to save water on irrigation - something especially critical in Canterbury!

Viewing feed silo levels in real-time from the office can streamline the process of ordering more feed while also keeping H&S compliant by no longer needing anyone to climb and check silo levels.

If you have sections of electric fences that have given trouble or want to know that your fences are at the correct voltage, then voltage can be monitored in real-time at key locations with alarms set to trigger when voltage drops below a threshold, minimising the risk of stock escaping.

Please give us a call on 0800 HARVEST to request a visit by our Mid Canterbury based rep, Jeffery Farrell, or to find out more about the products and services Harvest offers.

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Installation of electric fence and soil moisture monitoring site.

PHOTO SUPPLIED

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IRRIGATION FEATURE

23

Farmers learn how to manage irrigation over a long hot summer An El Nino weather pattern leaning towards a dry summer is on the minds of 56 farmers developing their irrigation expertise by attending workshops in South Canterbury.

The workshops run by IrrigationNZ have been organised by the Morven Glenavy Ikawai Irrigation Company (MGI), Benmore Irrigation Company (BIC) and Opuha Water for their shareholder members.

“It’s looking like the coming summer may be challenging for farmers in South Canterbury with NIWA scientists predicting El Nino conditions are likely to affect New Zealand until the autumn of 2019,” said IrrigationNZ technical project manager Steve Breneger.

“This typically brings hot, dry conditions to east coast regions and often droughts.’’

He said the approaching dry conditions made careful irrigation management important for farmers.

“Good irrigation management improves water use efficiency and reduces nutrient losses and can also significantly reduce electricity costs so there are many benefits from having staff well trained in irrigation management.”

The training sessions covered tips on operating and scheduling irrigation and using tools including soil moisture monitoring equipment and weather forecasts to make irrigation decisions.

Farmers also learnt about managing irrigation over summer through budgeting their water use and how to reduce it while having

Farmers carry out a bucket test at the Opuha Water workshop.

the least impact on their operations.

They received advice about carrying out pre-season checks to see if irrigation systems were ready to be used and then did a bucket test on a centre pivot irrigator. The test checks whether water is being applied evenly by an irrigator and irrigation systems are running correctly.

BIC chairman Henry Williamson said its shareholders were active about using good management on

Need water?

From consent to the pump

their land.

The training session helped to improve the irrigation management of shareholders, he said.

“The workshop is also a way of bringing farmers together to share their challenges, ideas, skills and experiences.

It also allows farmers to address actions that have been identified from Farm Environment Plan audits.’’

MGI environment manager Judith Neilson said the scheme provided an irrigation training

residential

we can help you with water wells

PHOTO SUPPLIED

workshop each year for its shareholders.

The workshop covered collective and individual requirements within the scheme and actions to meet the audits.

“The workshop helps to keep irrigators up to date with current knowledge and practical irrigation management strategies. It is a good mix of theory and practical learning that irrigators can apply on their farms.”

irrigation

Ph 03 324 2571

Opuha Water spokeswoman Lucy Millar said the scheme also held a free workshop before the start of the irrigation season to increase the skills of shareholders and their staff.

She said the workshops often raised technical questions by irrigators about their systems, good management and complying with audits.

IrrigationNZ is also running irrigation training workshops in Darfield in November.

lifestyle

www.drilling.co.nz 120 High St, Southbridge

24

Dairy Focus

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IRRIGATION FEATURE

Amuri offers to buy consents for closed Hurunui irrigation proposal Amuri Irrigation Company has made an offer to buy all the resource consents for the Hurunui Water Project (HWP) after it failed to go ahead.

The HWP board decided in September to close a water rights share offer after not enough applications were received to advance the proposed irrigation scheme.

Amuri scheme chairman David Croft said the proposal might not have been successful, but the company believed there was still an opportunity for the social and economic benefits of irrigation to be enjoyed north of the Hurunui River for farmers south of the Hurunui.

“We believe that there is the potential for a staged smaller irrigation scheme south of the Hurunui which would utilise some of the consents currently held by HWP along with unused water within the AIC schemes, when available.’’

AIC irrigates more than

(Left) David Croft AIC chair and (right) Peter Harris (HWP) chair.

28,000 hectares of land in the Amuri Basin, taking water from both the Hurunui and Waiau rivers and has just completed an $87 million pipe upgrade of its open canal distribution network.

He said one company managing most of the water use and environmental impacts of irrigation in the Hurunui River catchment would provide benefits for the community and efficiencies for all irrigators.

If AIC is successful in buying the consents, it proposes a smaller piped

irrigation scheme of 800010,000 hectares initially between the Hurunui River and Hawarden.

Initial water reliability from the proposed AIC scheme would be similar to the HWP offering and was expected to increase when a storage facility is built in the future.

AIC needs to invest in water storage in the future to allow for higher minimum flows in the Hurunui River and greater reliability was expected for irrigators north and south of the Hurunui River.

The HWP consents

PHOTOS SUPPLIED

authorise water use over a much larger area of 58,500ha.

A smaller staged development was expected to reduce environmental risk and allows environmental monitoring to confirm that effects followed consent conditions before any further irrigation was considered.

All farmers joining the addition would have to hold Farm Environment Plans, detailing any developments they needed to make to their infrastructure and management.

Over the last three years, 15 per cent of the area irrigated

by AIC has been upgraded from border dyke and older inefficient sprinklers to modern, efficient irrigation systems. New irrigators will be required to be audited.

Croft said it was in the interest of the entire community that water quality outcomes were achieved.

“Farming families have a significant recreational interest in the Hurunui River and we wish to carefully manage the river for our future generations.’’

HWP chairman Peter Harris said the HWP board, staff and shareholders was disappointed with the proposal not going ahead.

“We have worked long and hard to try and bring the project, that was initiated over 15 years ago by a group of Hurunui catchment farmers to fruition. However, that is not to be.’’

Harris said the board was considering the AIC offer and would hold a special meeting of shareholders on October 23.

The consent buy-out would require 75 per cent shareholder support to proceed.

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Wayne at Barber Well Drilling 027 221 1467 (03) 693 1403 or 0508 BARBER admin@barberdrilling.co.nz

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IRRIGATION FEATURE

25

Water rules will have a big impact IrrigationNZ supports the new Essential Freshwater strategy but says that further certainty on water policy is critical to ensure farmers continue to invest in on-farm environmental improvements to achieve water quality targets.

The national strategy was announced this month by ministers David Parker and Damien O’Connor.

“Farmers need certainty around what rules will be in place today, and in 10 or 20 years’ time - we urgently need a framework which enables timely decision making,” said IrrigationNZ chief executive Andrew Curtis.

“It will also be important for the government to engage with primary sector organisations to work through the impact of policy changes ‘on the ground’ to ensure changes are achievable and able to be implemented on farms.”

IrrigationNZ said it supported the direction of the new strategy including the focus on catchments at risk and the government’s plans to carry out consultation with advisory groups for nutrient allocation options.

However, the irrigation body believes changes in policy on nutrient allocation and water takes will have a big impact on farmers and growers so it would like to see the government narrow down the areas of focus further and clarify how the different advisory groups would work together.

He said it was positive to see the recognition of the importance of Farm Environmental Plans and support for them adopted nationwide.

“Farm Environment Plans are contributing to improvements in water quality seen in the recent LAWA data. The government’s target to achieve improvements in water quality by 2023 is ambitious but can be achievable by building on the environmental improvement work already underway through Farm Environmental Plans and community decision making models in place in regions such as Canterbury.

“Irrigation schemes hold the biggest consents in the primary sector and farmers connected to

the larger schemes all have Farm Environment Plans. The schemes also carry out their own monitoring and education of farmers and they will continue to play a key role in leading changes on the ground,” he said. IrrigationNZ also supports the approach signalled by the government towards water allocation.

“It’s good to see the government’s new strategy acknowledging environmentally responsible water storage and distribution, managed aquifer recharge, and technology will all be considered to resolve water allocation issues. These are all options that are being used internationally,” said Curtis.

The Essential Freshwater work programme plan includes a focus on improving water quality in catchments at risk, adopting a new National Policy Statement for Freshwater Management and a new National Environmental Standard for Freshwater Management by 2020.

Amendments are included in the plan to the Resource Management

Act to review consents in order to introduce more quickly water quality and quantity limits.

New advisory groups have also

been established including a Kahui Wai Maori, the Science and Technical Advisory Group, and the Freshwater Leaders Group.

BY BYLINDSAY LINDSAY

• Concrete Water/Feed Troughs • Precast Panels • Water Tanks/ Effluent Tanks • Silage Pits • Concrete Bunkers • Weeping Walls • Cattle Stops

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Irrigate New Zealand & Bauer GmbH Take pleasure in jointly announcing that all Bauer Irrigation Products will now be available to the Mid/NorthCanterbury region through the team at Irrigate New Zealand. We are pleased to inform all existing Bauer clients that John Parker, Richard Kingsbury & the team at Irrigate New Zealand will be able to assist in all Bauer servicing, product & sales enquiries, effective as at 1st September 2018. With Irrigate New Zealand now being able to offer Bauer Low Pressure & Hardhose products, this means they are able to offer their clients and existing clients, a full irrigation portfolio moving forward.

Richard & John are proud to be able offer Bauer Irrigation technology, with a full array of Pivot & Linear options. Bauer is able to offer same branding on hardhose, pivot, linear, and sprinkler equipment. This offers the farmer the opportunity to have all farm irrigation equipment on the same platform, where both hardhose & low pressure systems can be accessed either

by SMS or the Bauer SmartRain portal. Bauer also offers fully integrated VRI though use of the SmartTouch control panel.

SmartRain offers real time operations, not an estimated program position, so what the farmer sees, is exactly what the equipment is doing.

John says Bauer Rainstar machines while primarily designed for irrigation, are also ideally suited to effluent application, with external drive options to provide higher retraction speeds.

With Bauer Rainstar machines, it is also possible to have remote operating access to the machine, including access via Bauer’s SmartRain visualisation server. This provides the client with daily updates of when paddocks were last watered, and which paddocks next need to be watered, without needing to visit the farm to visually inspect paddocks.

Bauer is also pleased to jointly offer its fully integrated VRI System with remote access programming, individual nozzle control, real time package, through Irrigate New Zealand.

Through this program package, Richard & John are able to offer farmers a fully interactive, control of all Bauer irrigation equipment on the site. The Bauer package is easy to use, stable in its operation, & allows easy upload of soil & EM mapping to the software, in multi -file format. The program also offers a farmer multi-tiered access, with allocated access functions to selected users.

John & Richard are looking forward to offering continued and improved service to all its existing and new clients through Irrigate Soultions. This positive step will see the continued delivery of existing Bauer products, as well as a number of key newly developed products, designed to local market requirements, in recognition of more stringent industry requirements.

Please feel free to contact John Parker on 021 405 557 or Richard on 021 0359 239, or at www.irrigate.nz

Bauer and Irrigate New Zealand– a winning team for all your irrigation requirements.

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27

Claw blocks essential for lame cows There are a variety of options out there for claw blocks and while they all do the same thing, they all have their pros and cons.

The principle of the block is to glue it to the sole of the healthy claw. This way, the weight of the cow is being relieved from the sore claw giving it the rest it needs to heal.

If you are in doubt as to whether a particular cow needs a block or not, you should put one on. It is only when you are sure she doesn’t need a block that you can decide not to use one - remember a claw block is always cheaper than a lame cow.

A cow that has a lesion in the claw will walk much better when a block has been fitted because the pain has been reduced significantly.

Claw blocks provide a lifeline to many cows that otherwise would have ended up at the works.

The thing with claw blocks is that they need to be placed correctly on the claw. All the weight that was spread out over the two claws is now only

asualty

Fred Hoekstra

VEEHOF DAIRY SERVICES

going on the claw with the block attached. This means that the block needs to be fitted flat, in line with the interdigital space and far enough back on the heel of the claw as to ensure that the claw is still supported properly.

Imagine what it would be like if the sole of your shoe was attached all wonky?

Preparing the claw is the key to getting a good adhesion regardless of what type of block you use. The claw needs to be clean and dry, but dry is more important than clean.

We don’t recommend the use of methylated spirits, just clean the claw with your angle grinder and/or knife and make sure you keep water away from it throughout the whole trimming process. Water gets

absorbed into the claw easily which doesn’t help the glue.

A block should normally stay on for 4-6 weeks.

Any longer and you will risk lameness on the healthy claw because of the constant overloading, which means that the block should be taken off after six weeks if it hasn’t come off by itself.

I would recommend that cows are kept close to the shed until the block is not required anymore, if possible.

The different options for claw blocks include: shoe type blocks, wooden blocks and rubber/polyurethane blocks.

Shoe type block

These blocks will stay on the claw for a decent amount of time - often for too long, and they are not particularly easy to remove. They can also be too small for some cows.

Casualty Stock Stock Collection Collection Service (cows cattle) (cowsand and cattle)

If the block is sitting too far forward on the claw, then the heel is not supported properly.

This can force the toe upwards which will put a lot of strain on the deeper flexor tendon.

The Demotec Easy bloc design does overcome this problem with the block part of the shoe set back from the toe, and the shoe part is quite flexible allowing better fit on different sized hooves.

Wooden blocks

These blocks are glued to the claw with either a PU glue or super-glue. It is even more important with these blocks

Service

Phone our dedicated call centre on:

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or book online at

www.wallace.co.nz .nz See website for all conditions that apply Collection costs $30 incl. GST per booking Phone our dedicated call centre on:

0900 97 933 or book online at

www.wallace.co.nz See website for all conditions that apply Collection costs $30 incl.

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Year d Roun ce Servi

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that the claw is prepared properly as there is less contact area with the claw.

The big advantage of the wooden blocks over the shoetype blocks is that you can place them better on the claw.

It doesn’t matter if the claw sticks over the front of the block as long as the heel is flush with the block. If cows are put back with the main herd after being blocked, then the wood block may wear too fast if long distances are being walked.

Wooden blocks are usually the most cost-effective option.

Rubber/polyurethane blocks These work the same as wooden ones and the same glue can be used. Rubber blocks are harder wearing than wooden blocks, which can be useful if the lame cows cannot be kept close to the shed for whatever reason. The disadvantages are that they need to be taken off more often than wooden blocks, are more difficult to remove and are not very environment friendly.

 Eco-friendly & approved  Kills better than chlorine  Costs less to use

u Eco-friendly & approved v Kills better than chlorine w Costs less to use

Introducing DX50 Dairy Sanitiser Help your farm achieve higher productivity 2. DX50 kills 2.46x better than chlorine with our sanitiser eco-friendly

the target pathogen cell walls. Due to this mode of action, disease bearing organisms cannot build up resistance to the product.

DX50 Dairy Sanitiser is Chlorine Dioxide in aqueous solution and is 2.46 times more effective at oxidising (killing) harmful bacteria than standard chlorine.

Why does DX50 kill pathogens more effectively?

When oxidation occurs, the cell wall of the bacteria is dissolved, exposing the enzymes that lie beneath the surface. These enzymes control the biochemical reactions within that cell.

When DX50 contacts these enzymes, it immediately deactivates them by breaking their chemical chains.

With the enzymes ruined, the pathogenic bacteria is instantly destroyed.

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• Kills 2.46x better than toxic Chlorine • Kills faster than toxic Chlorine

3. DX50 can cost 15-20% less DX50 kills 2.46 times more effectively than chlorine at 50ppm vs 600ppm of chlorine. That means far less product is required to achieve better results.

When DX50 is used with Ultimate Liquid Caustic and Ultimate ULF Acid as a full cleaning system, farmers can save up to 15-20% on sanitising costs.

DX50 Dairy Sanitiser is not pH dependent and works most effectively in cold water. DX50 can also break down the protective bio-film surrounding a wide range of pathogens.

What makes DX50 so much better?

The triggering action for DX50 Dairy Sanitiser is the sugar-like substances that are an integral part of

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A full chlorine-free cleaning system As stated, DX50 is eco-friendly in that it kills only pathogens, not the good bacteria. But what if you use a chlorine-based alkaline as part of your cleaning system? Does that undo the eco-friendly work done by DX50?

Yes, it does. When any chlorine is washed into the effluent pond, it kills the good bacteria that are eating the crust and liquefying the effluent.

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Here’s a chlorine-free answer DX50 Dairy Sanitiser has formed a partnership with CLARK Products Ltd to provide you with an ecofriendly Hot Alkali and Hot Acid Detergent By using DX50 with Ultimate Liquid Caustic and Ultimate ULF Acid, you’ll have a complete cleaning system that is eco-friendly and costs 15-20% less!

For more information on DX50, or to find a DX50 stockist in your area, call Ross Wright: 027 246 2114