Ashburton Guardian Farming November 25, 2020

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Farming

Dairy Focus

Wednesday,november25,2020

GUARDIAN

CUTTING DAIRY’S

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Wednesday, November 25, 2020

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Farming

Farming

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Time for tech rethink

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PAGE 31 MULCHING MAGIC

T

he frustration of scientists was obvious at a gene editing forum at Lincoln University.

Gene editing is highly sophisticated and highly targeted with minimum change in the genome, but under New Zealand law it is treated the same as the older GM technology which had people marching in the streets in the mid-1990s.

In the past 20 years the technology has moved on, but the laws haven’t.

Gene editing can speed breeding programmes up by years and even decades and result in plants with improved genetics and no new DNA. You can’t test for gene editing because it leaves no trace, the same as in traditional plant breeding.

The importance of the rapidly advancing technology was highlighted by this year’s Noble Prize in Chemistry going to Emmanuelle Charpentier, of Germany, and Jennifer Doudna, of the United States for the development of CRISPR/Cas9, a form of “genetic scissors”, which is used to change the DNA of animals, plants and micro-organisms with extremely high precision.

Countries like Australia, Canada and the United States have agreed that some edited crops don’t need to be regulated, while New Zealand and Europe remain fully regulated.

Scientists have been at the forefront of New Zealand’s successful Covid-19 response, but it seems that when it comes to plant breeding, the public don’t want to trust them.

Heather Chalmers

RURAL REPORTER

Some of that is the complexity of gene editing – it is difficult for the average person to easily understand how it works.

Some scientists are now advocating that laws should regulate on the trait that is released rather than the technology used to produce it. Then the benefits and environmental risks of a trait could be assessed, whether these were developed through GM, gene editing or more traditional mutation breeding.

A panel of experts set up by New Zealand’s Royal Society last year recommended an overhaul of the regulations and an urgent need for wide discussion and debate, 20 years after the laws were last reviewed. However, since then there has been largely silence.

With the Government preoccupied with the Covid-19 response and more interested in maintaining the status quo than tackling anything controversial, a review of New Zealand’s GM laws looks unlikely to happen anytime soon.

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The

Mt Somers farmer Duncan Humm with a pet deer from his PHOTOS HEATHER CHALMERS velveting herd.

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I

“

Farming isn’t always sunshine and rainbows so we choose to talk about both the good and bad

f you see Mid Canterbury foothills deer farmer Duncan Humm checking his phone while shifting stock he can legitimately claim it is work related.

That’s because his phone is also his office as he combines running a deer velvet and venison herd at Mt Somers with co-managing one of New Zealand’s most popular social media pages, NZ Farming.

Since starting almost seven years ago, NZ Farming has become the

Heather Chalmers

JOURNALIST

go-to social media platform for people wanting an independent grass-roots take on what is happening in the New Zealand farming community. continued over page

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Farming

From P3 Viewers from throughout New Zealand and around the world are attracted to its photos, videos, news, advice and commentary which give an insight into real farm life.

It was while working at yet another of his roles, at Top Soils near Methven, that Humm met NZ Farming founder Tyler Fifield.

“I started following NZ Farming from the start and was

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quite engaged with it. About a year later Tyler came and worked at Top Soils for the summer and we hit it off.”

Not long after Humm started helping out with administration for the site. The two now share the role of moderating the site along with Fifield’s partner Sophie Lee. “No-one really sits down at a computer to work on it, it is just when you have a spare five minutes you can pull your phone

out and have a look. I might be having a coffee or moving a mob of deer.

“It is run by a bunch of cockies with no marketing or journalistic experience. We have mostly stayed in the background as it is not really about us.”

About a dozen people help out with the site, with some only covering certain topics such as dog trialling, agricultural contracting and fencing.

As a moderator it was a

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matter of picking posts which people would engage with or be interested in. Timing also sometimes dictated how popular a post was. “A story might fly one day and the next day it mightn’t.

“If someone is trying to get something into the news and needs a platform, we try and help with that. We’re always open to sharing good opinion pieces, promoting fundraising events or highlighting important issues in the rural community.

Mainstream media follow us and often pick up on stories or events.”

A lot of the posts were community sourced. “People will read an article or post elsewhere and message us to suggest it will be worth posting for the community to see.

“We try to achieve a good balance of content, it’s pretty hard to keep every last follower happy. There are a lot of negative things in the rural

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The Humms’ velveting herd at Mt Somers.

space, but sometimes you need to have confronting conversations, such as winter grazing, mental health, or farm safety. Farming isn’t always sunshine and rainbows so we choose to talk about both the good and bad.”

In addition to Facebook, the Instagram page provides another avenue for photos and videos of everything from farmers tailing lambs to tractors getting stuck to scenic farm views. “People get a kick out of seeing what happens on farms in real life and real time.”

The NZ Farming Facebook and Instagram pages have a reach of two million in a slow week and more than 10m in a busy week.

It is Facebook’s second biggest platform in New Zealand in terms of engagement (measured by post views, reactions, shares and comments).

This puts it amongst top sites such as AirNZ, McDonalds, KFC and Spark. “The only company we haven’t been able to knock off

is Netflix.”

While the agricultural sector was fed the narrative that farmers had trouble having their voices heard, this showed this wasn’t necessarily the case, Humm said.

“If you were trying to sell a newspaper or advertising on those numbers you would be pretty happy.”

While NZ Farming was never expected to become this big, for the moderators its popularity has always come with a degree of responsibility in terms of the platform’s influence.

Being authentic is key to connecting with people and NZ Farming doesn’t claim to be politically correct, or shy away from risking offending people at times.

Having a thick skin is also a prerequisite to the inevitable online abuse that comes with the job of moderator.

“You realise pretty quickly that sometimes it is reflection back on them, rather than being about us.

“Not that we haven’t pushed the limits from time to time.”

Humm said that he hadn’t received much online abuse from vegans and animal activists and it was more from within the farming community that he had encountered the worst trolls.

Being involved with the platform has personally broadened his horizons and helped him to understand other people’s viewpoints. “I’m happy to have a conversation with someone who has the opposite view to me and I believe more people should do this.”

The site’s popularity has led to NZ Farming setting up an online store for branded clothing, as well as establishing a rural job listing service.

“I’m always stoked when I see a NZ Farming sticker on a ute, or someone wearing some of our ‘merch’.”

Humm said that when asked, he often provides advice to businesses or people looking to build their connection to farmers

through social media.

“In social media it is all about being social, so don’t stuff advertising down people’s throats. People want to understand and connect to what your brand is about and not what you are selling on any given day.”

While Humm likes his devices, like his phone and a drone to check on stock, he said they have their limits.

He was using electronic identification tags on stock for the tracking of each individual animal’s performance long before they were a Nait requirement.

However, his adoption of regenerative agriculture has taught him that “knowledge is the biggest technology”, he said.

Humm and his wife Lorna run Carluke Deer, a small herd of English red deer, mostly for venison production. Hind numbers were 200, but are now down to 150.

“My heart lies with venison production, but about six years ago when venison prices were

low we decided to add velvet to the mix and drop dairy grazing.”

The Humms now run about 60 velveting stags of Warnham genetics and also breed velvet replacements.

As Lorna is a veterinarian, the Humms are able to velvet the stags themselves. Deer farmers need to be accredited to velvet animals under anaesthetic in a designated clean zone.

“So we can do it at the optimum time for size and grade.

You can be a day or two late and go out of specification quickly and lose value. As we don’t have a big number of animals we normally do it after work, or in the evening.

“Once we could velvet ourselves it made it worthwhile to run a small velveting herd.”

Humm is a fourth-generation farmer, after his grandparents moved from dairy farming at Kaikoura to the Mt Somers property. continued over page

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Farming

From P5 While his parents ran a mixed cropping and sheep operation, Humm persuaded them to introduce deer. “I always loved deer. When I used to go to school on the bus, I’d always look over the fence and admire our neighbour’s deer. There were some big deer farms on Tramway Road then.”

While deer were regarded as easy care, modern deer farming was more intensive than what it used to be. Genetics, husbandry and nutrition have come a long way, he said.

When they started farming deer, animals were weaned at an average 58kg in June. Now weaning is the start of May and averaged 77.5kg this year.

They try to have all weaner stags sold by the end of October to meet the premium spring European chilled venison market at carcass weights above 60kg.

Surplus weaner hinds are sold as breeding replacements.

“Deer love variety and diversity which ties in well with regenerative agriculture.”

Two years ago, Humm planted 22 species after a no-till fodderbeet crop. This included annuals such as sunflowers, radish, annual clovers, linseed, phacelia, mustard and vetch to prime and restore the soil after the fodderbeet crop. This was undersown with a more traditional pastoral mix of ryegrass, clover, plantain and chicory.

“I planted it all in the same mix. Experts would tell you that the base pastoral crop would struggle to establish and persist, but as the deer ate the primer crop off this came away.

“Deer didn’t touch the sunflowers until they flowered and then they demolished them.

“During the dry spell last year, the traditional ryegrass paddocks had dried off, but this was still green and growing.”

Humm said he became interested in regenerative agriculture after meeting Don Hart of Top Soils, where he now works as store manager.

“I started as a client as I wanted different fertiliser than the standard fertiliser companies could supply.”

Top Soils supplies products

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Above – Duncan Humm’s phone is also his office, as he combines farming with moderating the popular NZ Farming social media page.

Left – Mt Somers farmer Duncan Humm with a pet deer from his velveting herd.

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based on the Kinsey-Albrecht system of soil fertility and biological farming.

This aimed to provide balance to soils and improve biological function using more soil friendly fertilisers, compared with the mainstream fertiliser companies that were focused on “pretty basic nutrient sufficiency”, Humm said.

“As far as farm animals go, deer are the barometer of healthy soil, if the soils and plants aren’t healthy they don’t do well.

“On a dryland farm we can’t have a big fertiliser budget so we are looking for the best value for money for our fertiliser spend.”

The two main benchmarks for

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a venison operation were carcass weight and weaning weight and these were improving every year.

As deer are seasonal, weaner growth rates usually slow in winter, but grazing on a diverse forage mix looks to be negating this.

“Normally growth rates of 150 grams a day is flying on fodderbeet, but this winter animals were averaging 300g a day or more and I have never seen this sort of result on the scales before.”

The mix included some turnips and rape as well as radish, phacelia, vetch, oats, triticale and some clover.

“I had a bag of sunflower

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seeds so I threw them in and they coped surprisingly well with frost.”

To avoid the need to cultivate, Humm has found local contractor Tom Waddell who is able to plant fodderbeet or swedes using a precision planter mounted on to a direct drill, and also does a great job of 10 to 20 species mixes with his other direct drill.

A couple of years ago Humm joined a new farmer-led regenerative agriculture group called Quorum Sense, which has now become the central hub in New Zealand for open source peer-to-peer learning among farmers, scientists, marketers and consumers.

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Links to social media pages Duncan Humm is involved with:

NZ Farming Facebook

@nzfarming on Instagram

@hummblemedia and @whodeerswins (his personal Instagram accounts)

@quorumsense (Instagram) quorumsense.org.nz

@duncanyzf20 on Twitter

Carluke Deer (Facebook) @ carlukefarming (Instagram)

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7

Finding the balance

“

Farming looks mighty easy when your plow is a pencil and you’re a thousand miles from the corn field.”

Former United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower once made this famous observation.

Many would suggest it is as true today as ever and Wellington is less than 1000 miles away.

Most of us as working farmers are in overalls and boots, working daily at the routine tasks of keeping our businesses financially sustainable and trying to have some form of work/ family balance.

By far the majority of us also recognise that guardianship of the land in a farming business includes a high degree of social licence and responsibility, as does being a producer of food.

But where does the balance lie?

There is an expense heading in

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President of MC Federated Farmers

my accounts that increases every year, that of compliance.

It seems every year or more so currently every month, a politician or their trusty bureaucrat comes up with something new for us to comply with.

With ardent loyalty to the cause, a person in hi-vis with a clipboard is sure to make their way to our farm to inspect how we are doing things and proffer advice on how to do it better with the thinly veiled threat of dire trouble if a cross rather than

a tick should strike in the box.

The ever-such-a-nice chap from the grains industry came out to inspect our production systems, he left amazed by the technology employed in our machinery and the digital mapping of every activity.

Another chap wishes to inspect our livestock systems from one end to the other, while another wants to know if our fertiliser spreader has a current Spread Mark certification.

The regional council have been good enough to remind us that the five year verification on the water meters has expired, while another is concerned as to whether we have completed a bucket test on the irrigators this season.

Someone else with a clipboard has pointed out that if the agricultural chemical shed does not have a manifest updated

daily with all products, quantities and safety data sheet current and held securely away from the building, we are non-compliant.

It is becoming incessant.

Overseer continues to throw out wacky results that gives no one confidence in the outcomes except the consultant who will gleefully furnish an invoice to ensure our environmental compliance, and an overly enthusiastic bunch of politicians want to turn on the climate change module to model our methane emissions to boot.

Our government, fearless in their leadership of the legions of clipboard carriers now wish to embark on a project known as Whole Farm Plans.

Quite what that will entail is yet to be fully realised.

No doubt they will be influenced by those who know how to do what we do better.

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There has to be a balance of course.

We understand the need for compliance, we are on a journey of environment improvement and have been for a number of years.

What I am seeing in my own business, and I’m sure most of you will be seeing the same if your have a critical look, is that thousands, tens of thousands of dollars are being spent year on this tidal wave of compliance.

Compliance has not planted one tree on this farm, has not fenced one waterway, but has satisfied those with the pencils, 1000 miles from the corn field.

What the folk with the pencils need to remember, is that the chap in the field still needs to have the time to actually use the plow.

That is the challenge for them, to find that balance.

8

Farming

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he right decisions applied, ensure irrigation does not result in ponding. › Stock – Preferable graze in advance of the irrigator. This means the soil is at its driest and minimises soil compaction and pugging. › How much water the irrigation system can apply. › What the evapotranspiration (ET) rate is.

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When irrigating, the objective is to: › apply water when the plant needs it, to

maximise plant growth › not overfill soil, which wastes water.

There is no value (only cost) in applying more water than the soil can store, but if water isn’t applied before critical soil water deficit is reached, pasture growth will slow down.

If the irrigation system and water supply arrangements allow, irrigation should happen when the soil moisture level reduces to refill point.

Up until this point, moisture levels will not limit pasture growth and no visual signs of plant stress will be occurring.

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10

Farming

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Genetic breeding technology has advanc N

ew Zealand risks falling behind overseas food producers as other countries adopt gene editing while laws here haven’t been reviewed for 20 years, scientists say.

No further progress has been made since a panel of experts set up by New Zealand’s Royal Society last year recommended an overhaul of the regulations and an urgent need for wide discussion and debate about GM technology.

Professor Andy Allan of Plant and Food Research said supermarkets will be selling geneedited fruit and vegetables within the next two years in Australia, the United States and Asia.

Current or planned laws will allow this technology to be unregulated in these countries, something which is not possible under New Zealand law.

“If these products are better in some way that the consumers want, then it will be marketed in supermarkets.

“This is a problem for New Zealand as these places are where we export our produce to.

“It’s Singapore, London and New York where we want New Zealand’s products competing and to be just as good as these new ones and the only way to do that is to try to keep up.”

The world also faced a much bigger challenge over the next 50 years, Allan told a New Zealand Institute of Agricultural and Horticultural Science gene editing forum at Lincoln University.

“The discussion on GM, or not GM, or gene-editing or not geneediting is a small one compared to the global climate and population crisis.

With the global population forecast to grow by one billion in the next 30 years to nearly 10 billion people, solutions are needed to feed these people while also dealing with a climate change crisis.

Feeding this lift in population will need a 52 per cent increase in crop calories, requiring a further 593m hectares, an area nearly twice the size of India “So we cannot go to agricultural systems that reduce productivity.

Heather Chalmers

JOURNALIST

If we do that in our special bubble in New Zealand we will not be able to help feed those extra people. I find that quite tragic as I am a global scientist, not just a New Zealander,” Allan said.

No review of GM regulations have been carried out in New Zealand since the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification held in 2001 and the subsequent amendments to the Hazardous Substances and New Organisms Act (1996).

DNA is in everything and it changes all the time, Allan said.

“When a plant breeder changes DNA that is considered okay and safe. When a scientist changes DNA people start to worry and I don’t know why.”

Using gene editing, only one to three gene changes are made, compared with 300,000 gene changes when breeding corn using interspecies crossing.

“So the perceived risk is not proportional to the amount of DNA change.”

In New Zealand supermarkets a premium is paid for a Europeanbred hybrid tomato marketed as Kumato.

A cross between a domesticated tomato and a wild relative, Kumato is the result of 300 million DNA changes that would never have previously occurred naturally.

The tomato, which has a higher fructose content, varies in colour from green to reddish brown to purple. Swiss global biotechnology company Syngenta holds Kumato’s ownership throughout the value chain from breeding to marketing.

In contrast, a gene-edited tomato with five times more lycopene than a normal tomato had four base pairs changed “and

Professor Emerita Paula Jameson of the University of Canterbury, says that while research work on GM crops can be done in the laboratory and glasshouses under current legislation, it is often too expensive to move to the next step of field testing.

PHOTO UNIVERSITY OF CANTERBURY

it freaks people out”.

“So the gene-edited tomato is thousands of times safer than the other one if you are worried about DNA change.”

Allan is involved in a government-funded Turbo breeding programme, running from 2016 to 2021, looking at new breeding technologies for

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New Zealand’s high value plant industries.

This involved rapid flowering in apple breeding to produce red fleshed apples. While rapid flowering is a GM process, where the parent plant is continuously flowering, it results in non-GM progeny.

Plant and Food Research

had been breeding for red fleshed apples for 30 years and still needed about five more generations of crossing. “Every six years you are able to make a cross as it takes six years for a tree to grow from seed.”

However, using the new technology, the new apple arrives with improved genetics and no

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11

ced but debate hasn’t, scientists say

Professor Andy Allan says much faster breeding techniques to improve genetics in apples and kiwifruit must be labelled as GM under current legislation despite having no new DNA. PHOTO PLANT AND FOOD RESEARCH

“

Gene editing is the most safest technology to implement genetic change that you could imagine, compared to the huge disruption to genomes and the massive changes caused through early technologies used in plant breeding that are now widely accepted – Dr Tony Conner

new DNA, at a speed seven times faster.

“If you want to allude to its parents and sisters being GM, you would have to prove it. There isn’t a test possible.”

Rapid flowering has also been applied to kiwifruit breeding.

These techniques produced progeny which aren’t GM, but

under New Zealand were still labelled as such, despite not being biologically measurable as GM, Allan said.

“It is a completely missed opportunity.”

Different countries had different approaches to gene editing, with the US using a case-by-case basis regarding whether a product is

regulated. Ten edited crops so far have been determined to have non-regulated status.

Australia has decided that small edits are excluded from regulatory scope, while Europe is regulated.

“There will soon be new products in export markets that will be edits and be distinguished only by the fact that they are

better and they arrive seven times faster.

“The solution is a new discussion about the outcomes, not the process.

“We just have to keep offering the public a pipeline of exciting new things for them to consider.”

New products should be well labelled, so the consumer decided, Allan said.

“If you ask people to accept a new risk, then you need to show them a new benefit, so they can balance it themselves on a caseby-case and person-by-person basis.

“There are some consumers that really want to try new things and we are not talking to them at the moment, as we are worried about the people we might upset.”

In the US, the organics and GM markets were both successfully expanding, through co-existence, Allan said.

Dr Tony Conner, of AgResearch, said that gene editing was highly sophisticated and highly targeted, with minimal change in the genome.

Plant breeding technologies had progressed throughout the 20th century without incident, but GM technology “suddenly hit a nerve with the public that hasn’t gone away”.

“As you move through development of plant breeding you are getting decreased disruption of the genome and increased precision in the genetic change. So, if anything, the risk is decreasing.

“Gene editing is the safest technology to implement genetic change that you could imagine, compared to the huge disruption to genomes and the massive changes caused through early technologies used in plant breeding that are now widely accepted.”

Regulation should be based on the trait that is released and its environmental risk, rather than the technology used to produce it, Conner said.

Professor Emerita Paula Jameson of the School of Biological Sciences, University of Canterbury, said that while

research work on GM crops could be done in the laboratory and glasshouses under current legislation, it is often seen to be too expensive to move to the next step of field testing because of stringent requirements, including public hearings.

“So the technology would then likely go overseas and potentially into the hands of multinationals.”

While there are no commercially grown GM plants in New Zealand, there are several herbicide and/or insect-tolerant crops widely grown elsewhere around the world.

“If you have ever eaten pawpaw (papaya) in Hawaii, you will have eaten a virus-tolerant GM plant.”

CRISPR gene-editing technology has “taken the biological world by storm” and leaves no traces of the transgenic event after crossing, unlike GM. The importance of the rapidly advancing technology was highlighted by this year’s Noble Prize in Chemistry going to Emmanuelle Charpentier, of Germany, and Jennifer Doudna, of the United States for the development of CRISPR/Cas9, a form of “genetic scissors”, which is used to change the DNA of animals, plants and microorganisms with extremely high precision.

It is impossible to distinguish between a natural mutation and a CRISPR-induced mutation, Prof Jameson said.

However, under New Zealand law CRISPR/Cas9 is treated the same as older GM technology.

“Will legislation (and fear) mean New Zealand will join Europe as the deathplace of agricultural innovation,” Jameson said.

Research which could benefit New Zealand if gene-editing technology was allowed, includes work that could increase seed number and/or seed size in various crops, decrease seed shedding in perennial ryegrass, increase resilience of crops to drought and disease, edit neurotoxin genes in endophytes, increase herbage digestibility, and utilise speed breeding in tree crops.

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12

Farming

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FEATURE

5 Top Tips for farm machinery and farm I

t is so important to do proper maintenance on farm machinery.

Farm machinery is hardly cheap and the breakdowns are often just as expensive to repair. Untimely breakdowns can also affect your productivity and income when you are not able to bring in that harvest on time.

Safety is a huge issue with machinery that isn’t properly maintained and can result in property damage and operator injuries. Properly maintained machinery has a much lower chance of breaking down when you need it the most and these machines pose much less risk to those working with them and your resell value is a lot higher when you take great care of your machinery.

So why do so many farmers neglect the maintenance of their machinery when they always end up paying for negligence? Well, the answer is simple.

Most people just don’t know how to properly care for these big, bulky and expensive machines.

Here are a few tips to ensure that your farm machinery is always maintained properly.

GET THE RIGHT OPERATOR TRAINING

Most farms have quite a few operators using the same machinery.

It is important to get all operators up to date on maintenance and operation requirements as well as the manager

or supervisor. If everyone knows how to effectively man the farm machinery then the chances of missing out on maintenance are much lower.

Employees or operators will also know how to properly handle and maintain their machinery.

Another good tip is to keep manuals close by so operators can brush up on their understanding of the machine whenever needed. If manuals are particularly challenging then the maintenance sections should be rewritten in easy to understand terms.

REMEMBER TO LUBRICATE YOUR MACHINERY

Lubricants should be used on all moving parts on farm machinery.

Lubricants reduce friction and enhance the life expectancy of machinery and parts. It is important to use a good quality lubricant and to always clear up dirt and messes found on the machine before adding new lubricant. Buildups and dirt should be cleared out so your machine parts can run smoothly at all times.

KNOW THE SIGNS OF WEAR AND DAMAGE

If you know your machine well enough then you should be able to tell the moment something goes wrong.

Vibration, shock, overheating, friction and strange noises are all signs of wear or damage. It is important to keep an

eye or ear out for these signs so you can get your farm machinery serviced before a major breakdown happens.

KEEP MACHINERY CLEAN

It is tough to spot signs of breakdowns and wear and tear when your farm machinery is too dirty.

Keep your machinery clean so you can spot danger signs such as oil leaks and grease build ups easily. It is also important to do proper cleaning maintenance such as filter cleaning, buildup removal, vacuuming and dusting inside farm machinery so your machinery will look great for a long time to come.

KEEP A SCHEDULE

The farm life can be quite busy and it can be easy to forget when a machine is due for a service or for repairs. Create a schedule of the time your farm machinery should be maintained and keep a track record of previous repairs and maintenance that have been done on the equipment.

It is also important to keep track of the operators that man and maintain farm machinery so you will know exactly who is slacking off in their job or who is damaging your machinery by working the farm equipment too hard.

With proper maintenance, your farm machinery will stay in great shape for a long time to come and your farm machinery will be much more reliable.

FEATURE

13

vehicle maintenance

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Farming

14

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Lockdown hits malting barley sowings W

ith total grain production for the 2019-20 season over one million tonnes, it’s great to see that willing growers are finding willing buyers, Federated Farmers arable vicechairman grains Brian Leadley says.

In the latest Arable Industry Marketing Initiative (Aimi) report, cereal grain production (wheat, barley and oats) for the season totalled an estimated 881,800 tonnes and maize grain 181,800 tonnes, for a total of 1.06m tonnes.

Unsold stocks of grain, across all six crops surveyed are estimated to have reduced by 50 per cent between July 1 and October 10.

Compared to the same time last year, unsold stocks across all six crops are largely unchanged, with an increase in the unsold stocks of milling and feed wheat offset by a decrease in unsold stocks of malting and feed barley, Leadley said.

“Obviously, we have plenty of end users recognising the benefits of quality New Zealandgrown grains, whether that’s for products for human consumption or for stock feed.”

The Aimi survey report said the total area sown, or intended

Left – Federated Farmers arable vice-chairman grains Brian Leadley says Canterbury growers are concerned about low soil moisture levels.

PHOTO ASHBURTON GUARDIAN

to be sown, in cereal crops for the 2021 harvest was estimated to be 95,500 hectares, down 3 per cent on last year. At the date of the survey (October 10) 85 per cent of this total area had been planted.

Some Covid-19 related turbulence was still apparent in contracts for malting barley with the area sown estimated to be 36 per cent down on last season.

“It’s known that the lockdown and subsequent restrictions hit the sale of kegged beer, thought bottled beer for drinking at home continued apace.

“I think it’s just that uncertainty factor,” Leadley said.

“There had been talk that China’s ban on Australia’s barley might lead to product landing on us from across the Tasman, but it hasn’t happened.

“Our local industry is pretty committed to domestic grain.”

Leadley was confident the malting barley market and forward contracts would pick up again.

Sowings of other cereals, including milling wheat, feed wheat, and feed barley were similar to last year.

Spring sowings in Southland have been delayed by wet

conditions while growers in other regions have reported concern over low soil moisture levels.

This underlined the case that re-sowing paddocks used for winter grazing by a blanket national deadline, despite regional climate variations, was a flawed approach, Leadley said.

“The intent of the freshwater regulations, to stop nutrients from moving, is right, because plants hold the soil. But to try to do it by putting a timeframe on it, with no regard to good management practice allied to weather conditions, is detached from common sense.”

Heavy sowing machinery used on paddocks that are too wet compacted the soil.

“You get a double hit. You get run-off from compact soil and it also means that you might only get 40 to 50 per cent germination of the plants.

“Fewer plants means less root mass to hold the soil.”

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15

Field peas’ potential as protein source T

he consumer appetite for plant-based meat substitutes has emerged as far more than just a fad over recent years and this will create opportunities for grains, oilseed and pulse producers across the globe, including in New Zealand, according to a new report by agribusiness banking specialist Rabobank.

In the report Getting Granular with Plant-Based Meat Substitutes – Opportunities for Grains, Oilseeds and Pulses, Rabobank says that as consumer preferences start demanding certain brands over others and, with them, certain ingredients over others, producers of plantbased meat substitutes will increasingly turn their attention toward ingredient sourcing to strike the right balance between quality and price.

New Zealand consumption of plant-based proteins is dominated, as it is in Europe and North America, by soy and wheat proteins.

While this was the case, RaboResearch grains and oilseeds analyst Cheryl Kalisch Gordon said New Zealand’s prospects of capitalising on the growth of plant-based animal protein consumption would

RaboResearch grains and oilseeds analyst Cheryl Kalisch Gordon says New Zealand could expand its field peas production to cater for the PHOTO SUPPLIED plant-based meat substitutes market.

largely hinge on greater demand for products utilising protein sources other than soy.

While varying between markets, pea proteins, rice and lentils have also gained

prominence in the plant-based meat substitute segment.

“Increased usage of field peas as a protein source in meat substitutes creates the greatest opportunity for New Zealand as,

at present, field peas are the only pulse produced in New Zealand at scale. However, at just 8000 metric tonnes per annum, this is still a relatively small volume,” she said.

“There is scope to increase to closer to 20,000t of field pea production with appropriate price signals, but this would still represent a small supply base on which to build processing capacity.

“Given the challenges in achieving competitive unit costs in production and fractionation without scale, a New Zealand supply chain aiming to secure opportunities from plant-based meat substitutes would be relying on an even stronger provenance premium to be paid by manufacturers and consumers to cover the costs of production,” Kalisch Gordon said.

Plant proteins are already an important contributor to meeting the protein needs of the global population.

Wheat, for example in the form of bread, pasta and other flour products provides 20 per cent of the daily protein for more than half of the world’s population.

Soy proteins have been used for thousands of years in Asia, in tofu and tempeh, and in textured

protein food additives since midlate last century.

Historically, plant proteins have primarily, though not exclusively, been consumed where meat has been unavailable or unaffordable, or to “extend” the available meat further, given cost considerations.

Over the past decade, the global consumption of plant proteins has continued to increase in developed economies, but with change driven by consumer demand and with innovation for plant-based proteins aimed to complement or substitute animal proteins.

Global growth in the total meat substitutes category (tofu, veggie burgers and meat analogues) averaged 4 per cent per annum between 2014 and 2019, well above that of the much larger total global meat consumption.

Growth in plant-based meat substitutes has been a key driver of this growth and is expected to continue over the coming decade, supported by the extent of investment in the sector, Kalisch Gordon said.

Over the past decade in the US alone, more than $US2.3 billion of venture capital was raised by companies in the plant-based food domain.

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Farming

16

www.guardianonline.co.nz

Impacts of red meat consumption M

yths and misinformation about the consumption of red meat will be put under the microscope in a New Zealand-based project researching the impacts of eating pasture-raised beef and lamb on a person’s health and well-being.

About 100 people will be monitored in two ground-breaking clinical studies, led by researchers from AgResearch, the Riddet Institute and the University of Auckland.

The projects will assess the physical effects on the body from eating the different foods for up to 10 weeks, as well as psychological elements, such as satisfaction, sleep and stress levels.

The research team includes meat scientists, agricultural academics, dietitians, behavioural experts and social scientists.

Meat Industry Association chief executive Sirma Karapeeva was excited by the programme of research being undertaken by its innovation arm.

Much of the global research on the health, nutritional and environmental aspects of red meat was based on intensive grain-finished farming systems, she said.

“However, New Zealand specialises in free-range livestock farming that is naturally pasture-raised, antibiotic-free and hormone-free.

“We know there are myths and misinformation about the production and benefits of eating red meat, so we have turned to research to help bring balance to what consumers are hearing.

“Nutritionists tell us moderate amounts of red meat can be an important part of a well-balanced diet, and this research aims to build on the substantial credible evidence that underpins this advice.

“Consumers are choosing to make

Left – Much of the global research on the health, nutritional and environmental aspects of red meat is based on intensive grain-finished farming systems used overseas.

Left – Meat Industry Association chief executive Sirma Karapeeva says consumers are choosing to make ideological decisions about what they eat.

PHOTOS SUPPLIED

ideological decisions about what they eat.

“In part, this is a backlash against broken food systems, such as factory farming and ‘big food’. There is a growing consumer desire for better quality food produced from natural systems, which supports a strong future for ‘real’ red meat as produced in New Zealand.

“Research shows there is untapped global demand for natural beef and lamb raised on grass pastures and consumers are prepared to pay a premium for it.

“New Zealand farmers have a compelling story to tell about our natural farming systems and a strong point of difference against many of our

international competitors.”

The initial stages of the programme are led by AgResearch and the Riddet Institute. AgResearch will develop nutritional profiles and the Riddet Institute will undertake labbased (or “in vitro”) digestive analysis of the products.

Results from these two studies will provide baseline data about pastureraised beef and lamb and its consumption in comparison to other foods.

University of Auckland researchers will then oversee the final two stages, investigating both the short-term and long-term well-being and health benefits

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of red meat consumption.

The highlight of the programme, a sustained clinical study, will see members of 40 households on a managed flexitarian dietary regime over 10 weeks.

The participants will be monitored over the course of the study and changes in health status, behaviours and attitudes and perceptual well-being recorded.

Senior scientist Dr Emma Bermingham of AgResearch said: “We will carry out an advanced analysis of red meat, looking at its unique components, such as bioactive lipids and minerals, that make red meat such a nutritious form of protein when included as part of a balanced healthy diet.”

Mike Boland and Lovedeep Kaur, both senior scientists at the Riddet Institute, will demonstrate how the human digestive system responds to the differing food compositions to release the nutritious proteins and lipids for the body to use.

Dr Andrea Braakhuis, an academic director and research dietitian at the University of Auckland and her team will examine how the beneficial lipids and nutrients from a single meal are absorbed and utilised by the body, before moving to the longer 10-week study where health and well-being benefits of red meat as a part of a balanced diet will be the focus for the researchers.

The research is supported by Meat Industry Association Innovation and jointly funded with Beef + Lamb NZ, the High-Value Nutrition National Science Challenge and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).

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Dairy Focus

Wednesday,November25,2020

CUTTING DAIRY’S

FOOTPRINT Page 18-19

Dairy Focus

18

www.guardianonline.co.nz

Looking at the farm through an environ Heather Chalmers

JOURNALIST

A

high performing Mid Canterbury dairy farm, Coringa Park, is focusing its attention on reducing its environmental footprint by cutting its nitrogen fertiliser use.

Owned by Matt and Amanda Ward in conjunction with Matt’s CUSTOMER CHRISTCHURCH VEIN CLINIC PUBLISHING 02/09/ North Island-based family, SALES REP BERNADETTE.CHRISTIE PUBLICATION STRAI Coringa Park is a large-scale 2100-cow property at Maronan, DESIGNER Unknown SECTION GENE near Ashburton.

CUSTOMER CHRISTCHURCH VEIN CLINIC PUBLISHING Run by farm managers Josh PROOFED 27/08/2014 1:31:18 p.m.

SIZE 10X7 PUBLICATION Wardell and Louise Spowart, SALES REP BERNADETTE.CHRISTIE ERTISING AD ID 6268508AA FAX 4528 Coringa Park was bought eight DESIGNER Unknown SECTION years ago and converted from a ROOF PROOFED 27/08/2014 1:31:18 p.m.

SIZE dairy support block.

PLEASE APPROVE THIS AD AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. NOTE THAT ANY ALTERA The 550-hectare farm has a AD ID 6268508AA FAX stocking rate of 3.9 cows/ha and MUST BE FINALISED BY OUR MATERIAL DEADLINE. high production of 2047kg of milksolids/haTHIS and 526kg/MS/AD AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. NOTE THAT ANY A ROVE cow in the 2019-20 season.

Its operating profit is inBE the MUST FINALISED BY OUR MATERIAL DEADLINE. top 10 per cent for Canterbury dairy farms, while maintaining relatively low operating expenses of $3.95kg/MS, compared with the Canterbury Dairybase owner-operator average of $4.91.

Coringa Park runs a production 4 system, with 950kg of supplementary drymatter per cow fed during the milking season. In addition, pasture and crop eaten is 16.8 tonnes/DM/ha compared with the Canterbury average of 16t/ha.

Matt Ward said they aimed for than 40 dairy farms taking part an N application on a fast pasture wasting it by putting too much in terms of nitrogen loss to maximum days in milk, with a on.” Clover content in pastures round, it was easy for N rates to the environment, farmers also in a five-year DairyNZ project mean calving date of August 15. had been improving since N rates add up, he said. faced new government-imposed leading the way in showcasing “We dry some light cows off in were reduced.

In the 2016-17 and 2017-18 freshwater regulations which how nitrogen (N) losses can be May, but most milk through to Cutting nitrogen applications seasons Coringa Park had used limited synthetic nitrogen reduced to protect waterways.

June 1.” also helped to drop Coringa about 340kg/N/ha but dropped applications to 190kg a hectare, The project is focused on DairyNZ project leader Park’s N loss to water rate from this to 220kg/N in the 2018-19 starting on June 1, 2021. farms in the Hinds and Selwyn Virginia Serra told a field day 93kg/N/ha/year in 2016-17 to season, without any detrimental Ward said that Coringa Park catchments where there is a on the farm that it was well 67kg in 2018-19. impact on production. was historically a reasonably target for N loss reduction under run in terms of productivity In the 2019-20 season N rates “We didn’t notice any high user of N and so a the Canterbury Land and Water and profitability “but today we lifted slightly to 245kg/N/ha particular changes in pasture conscious effort was made to Regional plan. want to look at the farm with an as more was used in autumn or production from dropping reduce this.

Serra said that while the environmental lens”. because of difficulties getting N rates.

We were obviously When following the cows with project was focused on outputs Coringa Park is one of more

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19

nmental lens

Left – Coringa Park farm managers (from left) Josh Wardell and Louise Spowart, with farm owner Matt Ward.

Above – Plantain is being added when resowing a ryegrass, white clover pasture mix because of its ability to reduce nitrogen leaching.

PHOTOS HEATHER CHALMERS

cull cows away because of Covid-19 restrictions reducing killing capacity at meat works.

“So we made some good progress, but then went a little bit backwards.”

This season, an application rate of 220kg has been budgeted with a plan to “battle our way to 190kg next season” to meet the new cap.

To the end of October this season 58kg/N/ha has been

used, compared to 66kg in 201819 and 70kg in 2019-20. Coated urea is used to reduce losses through volatilisation.

On an individual paddock basis, Coringa Park’s highest paddock had an application rate of over 300kg and the lowest under 200kg, but this flexibility will be lost under the 190kg cap.

To meet the 190kg N cap the plan was to skip an application in December, Ward said.

Serra said that many farmers were considering dropping an N application in summer,

as response rates can be low because of hot temperatures impacting pasture growth.

Clover is also actively growing and fixing N and mineral N is available in the soil.

Whether this was done in December, January or February depended on the season, she said.

DairyNZ environmental change specialist Katherine McCusker, who has been working with the Wards on different scenarios to reduce their N loss, said Coringa Park’s light soils were not leaching as

much as originally thought.

The two main drivers of N loss in the root zone were N surplus and drainage, she said.

Coringa Park is predominantly Lismore 2A soils, which were previously regarded as having a low water holding capacity in previous versions of nutrient modeller Overseer.

“Manaaki Whenua Landcare Research did a lot of digging of holes and looking at what is exactly happening in the soils in this area. So it is based on robust science, including a lot

of sampling.” Researchers also found that stones hold water.

“So there is not as much leaching with Lismore 2A soils as originally modelled.”

Ward also believed that the water holding capacity of the farm’s soils would improve as soil organic matter built up over time under pasture.

McCusker said it was notable that while Coringa Park imported supplementary feed, which added to the N surplus, the farm’s high productivity meant a lot of this N went out of the farm in the milk tanker.

“On this farm the amount of product leaving the farm as N is 133kg/N/ha/year, compared with 100 to 110 on a lot of Canterbury dairy farms which shows how productive Coringa Park is.”

Ward said he was trying to improve management practices, rather than being focused on the N loss number. Coringa Park received an A grade in March as part of an auditing programme required by its irrigation company MHV Water.

Dairy farms in the Hinds water zone, like Coringa Park, are required to progressively reduce their N loss beyond good management practice levels by 15 per cent by 2025, 25 per cent by 2030 and 36 per cent by 2035.

Management improvements have included fine-tuning of the farm’s irrigators and soil moisture monitors, so the farm has fewer drainage events and more efficient watering.

As effluent was applied through the mainline of the pivots and applied to the entire pivot area, rates were too diluted to justify dropping N application rates in any individual paddocks.

New pastures were being resown with tetraploid ryegrass, 2kg/ha of white clover and 2kg of plantain.

Serra said plantain was very promising environmentally in terms of reducing leaching, but it was a challenge to maintain sufficient levels in pasture.

20

Dairy Focus

NUTRITION FEATURE

www.guardianonline.co.nz

Matching feeds to maintain peak N

Z dairy is unique when it comes to nutrition. Not just because it is largely grass based. We see similar industries in Australia, Chile, Ireland and even parts of Europe and Japan in the summer.

The uniqueness stems more from having grass as the most cost effective energy source; plus the fact that the industry tries to maintain a seasonal calving program, but more on that later.

Let’s look at grass being the most cost effective energy source.

This may be unsurprising, but perhaps it is a surprise that it is not the most cost effective in other countries.

With its moderate climate NZ grows higher energy grass than most countries but the main reason grass is not the most cost effective energy source in other countries is that grain is so cheap; here it is expensive.

It’s clear grass is the most cost effective energy source, but do we know how to best utilise it? Unfortunately when grass is chock full of energy, it is also full of components that reduce the ability of cows to utilise this energy. At Sollus we call them ANF’s or Anti-Nutritional Factors. They can result in cows squirting, excessive passage

rates, milk fat depression, acidosis, bloat, the list goes on. All end in the same thing – terrible conversion of grass energy into milk.

This is where supplementary feeding comes in. Feed supplements, ranging from straw to maize silage to grains and PKE blends, all have a place in the NZ grass based diet.

Their primary role in NZ is

considerably different to other countries. In other countries they use them to add energy.

In NZ we use them to increase the utilisation of the grass and as a carrier for vitamins and minerals.

However, it’s not as easy as picking a blend, or a silage and sticking with it for the season. As grass changes, supplementary feed needs to

change with it. In early spring we need to add fibre and dry the diet as much as possible so the grass can be utilised and saliva can be produced.

Now, coming into summer, cows have peaked and we need to hold that peak as long as possible.

The grass is drying out, going to head and finally generating some effective fibre. To reflect

this our feeds need higher energy, perhaps some true protein, maybe some ruminally degraded protein which will help keep cows peak up as the ME drops out of grass.

Being a nutritionist in NZ is not about the feed, it’s about the grass, every dairy manager is the nutritionist on their farm.

It’s time to feed cows to convert more grass into milk.

www.guardianonline.co.nz

21

Finding ways to keep cows cool Fred Hoekstra

VEEHOF DAIRY SERVICES

W

e have been getting a few days lately where summer is showing us how hot it can get.

Personally, I like to be inside when it is that hot – at least I need to be able to find some shade every now and then so I can cool down.

You can see where I am going with this article can’t you?

Cows feel the heat more than people. The reason for this is because cows have a big rumen that creates heat as it is digesting food. They also have relatively less skin surface area than people so less heat transference.

A cow will also use her horns to regulate her body temperature (as well as being a fighting weapon), but for particularly good reasons, we remove the horns. Unfortunately, from a heat regulation point of view, this does make life more difficult for cows.

It is not unusual to see cows

Dairy cows are sprayed with water to keep them cool before milking.

panting in the paddock or in the yard. At mating time, when you stand on the observatory platform behind the cows you realise that it can be much hotter up there than at milking level.

There is a strong correlation between heat stress and lameness. Cows that suffer from heat stress stand a lot. They have the stress of the heat itself to deal with and they are also not resting.

Fortunately, our climate in New Zealand is such that the

nights are a lot cooler, so the cows do get relief from heat stress sooner than cows in Australia and America. There they are in the heat day and night for weeks on end at times.

Nevertheless, it is still important to think about strategies to minimise the effects of heat stress.

A cow’s optimum air temperature is between 5-15°C depending on humidity, so when it is hotter than 15°C, a cow is starting to feel warm.

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Some of the things you can do to minimise the effects of heat stress is to provide a cow with cooler resting places and/or help the cow to handle heat better.

The first one would be to provide shade. Either in a barn or with trees. Barns are expensive and trees are not practical with irrigation.

A hedge can provide shelter from wind, but is not that good for shade. They certainly don’t provide much shade when the sun is at its highest point and the

temperature the hottest.

So, the next best option is to help cows handle heat better.

Water is crucial with this strategy.

It is very important at the best of times but when there is a lack of shade, it becomes even more important. A cow’s body is 80 per cent water. Water is the second most important nutrient after oxygen.

Lots of farmers add minerals to the water. While it is a great way to get the minerals into the cows, the down side is that they make the water taste horrible and cows will drink less water because of it. Maybe it is better to mix the minerals with salt and make it available to the cows that way and leave the water fresh.

It works great with my cows at home.

Other things you can do are have sprinklers on the yard and misters in the cowshed, have the cows walking the long distances in the cool of the day and keep the cows in the paddocks closest to the shed during the day.

Doing things like this is much better for the cows, it will increase milk production, reduce heat stress and therefore will have a positive effect on lameness.

22

Farming

www.guardianonline.co.nz

ADAMA FEATURE

®

Custodia foliar fungicide from ADAMA increases farmer options

Cercospora infected beet

Greener leaves, and feed when you need it most

C

rop protection company ADAMA New Zealand has released a beet foliar fungicide, which not only supports greener, healthier and more vigorous leaves, but also provides greater grazing flexibility in situations when there is pressure on feed supply.

New Custodia® has a withholding period of just 28 days compared with the previous industry standard of 42 days.

Custodia is effective against foliar diseases in both fodder and sugar beet including powdery mildew, rust, and the major fungal pathogen Cercospora leaf spot, which can cause significant

yield losses if unchecked.

Custodia is compatible with a range of commonly used plant protection products.

ADAMA New Zealand Marketing Manager Elisabeth Johnston says beet producers are increasingly recognising the importance of leaf quality.

While the focus was previously often more on bulb weight, poor leaf health has a perceptible knock-on effect.

“When the leaves are diseased, there’s reduced photosynthesis.

That, in turn, has an impact on crop growth, yield, leaf palatability, and feed quality.”

Strong beet leaf production adds to the dry matter of a crop and provides grazing stock with protein, phosphorous and calcium. Elisabeth says the

protein from healthy leaves helps provide nutritional balance in beet crops, reducing the risk of metabolic issues.

“It will not be enough on its own, but it definitely does help.”

Custodia’s release follows dry spells and droughts in some regions, which impacted feedbudgeting, encouraging farmers and advisors to weigh up their options.

Bryce Simpson, ADAMA New Zealand Commercial Manager, says Custodia did a “fantastic” job in the company’s trials.

“You could see the textbook, checkerboard effect between the treated and untreated plots. The foliage on the treated plots was clean of disease and a healthy green with a significantly greater number and volume of

leaves.”

Bryce says high value beet provides farmers with a flexible feed option. “The potential grazing or harvest window for beet is quite wide. And when a farmer needs to get as much feed as they can per hectare, then fodder beet is a good choice.”

Bryce says a shorter withholding period is a big factor when feed is tight. “Two weeks when feed is short can be like a lifetime.”

ADAMA New Zealand has an extensive beet protection toolbox with Custodia being one of two products launched recently.

The other is Goltix® Gold. This beet herbicide has a unique formulation which reduces the hazard profile without compromising the proven

efficacy in controlling hardto-kill weeds of its industrystandard parent Goltix Flo. In fact, it is even more effective on fathen and wireweed.

With beet yellow virus becoming a significant issue, particularly in Canterbury, insecticide Pyrinex® 500EC, is also part of the specialist beet portfolio. Pyrinex 500EC can be used to control aphids, which transmit the virus in beet.

Other products in the ADAMA beet programme include; Goltix WG Herbicide, Goltix Uno Herbicide, Ethosat® Herbicide, and Rifle®.

Rifle is a co-formulation of two synergistic, beet-selective herbicides, phenmedipham and desmedipham. The herbicide is one of the few post-emergence options that provide robust weed control at the beet cotyledon stage without impacting on crop vigour. The specially developed SE formulation enables Rifle to be applied earlier than some other products without damaging the delicate beet plants.

All ADAMA beet products have been rigorously tested and refined to complement New Zealand growing conditions and beet varieties and are backed by robust trial results.

For more information on how to maximise weed control and increase returns on beet with ADAMA products, contact your local technical advisor or visit www.adama.com.

Greener fields, greater yields.

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Contact your local merchant for details.

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FUNGICIDE

24

Dairy Focus

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Farmer lobbying not everyone’s job A

n exchange on Twitter caught my eye this week; a Waikato dairy farmer had landed a new 50:50 sharemilking job for the next season and was posing proudly with his family while holding a copy of his new Federated Farmers’ herd owning sharemilking contract.

After some light-hearted banter, the farmer was asked when he was going to sign up and become a Federated Farmers member.

Tongue firmly in cheek he replied that, contracts aside, the only good thing to ever come out of the old boys’ club that was Feds was that they fought to keep Rural Delivery going.

It was pointed out to him that Federated Farmers advocate strongly on local and central government issues for farmers.

“What then,” he quite reasonably asked, “is the difference between Federated Farmers and DairyNZ?” This was an excellent point and made me ponder what exactly the groups advocating on my behalf deliver and is it what

Craig Hickman

ELBOW DEEP @dairymanNZ

I want.

In recent years Fonterra has moved from arguing with everything the Government announces, to constructively working with those in power.

Despite lingering accusations from some farmers that this is “sucking up”, the co-operative has been able to make significant gains in areas like the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act (DIRA) and softening the impact on farmers of policies like freshwater reform and zero carbon.

Fonterra does these things because they’re good for Fonterra and their farmers, so I’m happy for them to continue down this path. By

happy coincidence I think the leadership role they’ve taken on environmental issues is also good for the country and I’ve made good use of the support offered to farmers in the form of their Farm Environmental Plan services.

The Fonterra Shareholder’s Council is another entity that shifted into a farmer advocacy role when that’s not really their function. This was most obvious to me with the SHC’s press release on proposed changes to DIRA, while no doubt reflecting some farmers’ views, it was quite inflammatory and at odds with Fonterra’s stance.

I understand the SHC is not Fonterra but too many people, politicians included, don’t differentiate.

The SHC definitely has a farmer advocacy role to play, but that is by supplying farmer feedback directly to Fonterra’s board, not by issuing press releases with their opinion on government policy.

DairyNZ receives a levy from all milk producers in New

Zealand and have used this to pay for research and development to make all dairy farmers more efficient and profitable. I still have a ring binder in my office with their Facts and Figures for Farmers series that I bought while at university.

While the internet has made my ring binder obsolete, DairyNZ has always been the go-to place to find up-to-date resources and data about the New Zealand dairy industry.

With that in mind it’s disappointing that they seem to be changing their focus to that of being a lobby group.

To my mind, DairyNZ should be in the background supplying the scientific muscle to support farmers and farmer advocates.

Federated Farmers is the organisation that was set up to advocate for all farmers at both local and central government levels and their strength is in their broad membership base.

Each region knows its catchment intimately and can focus its local knowledge on an issue with laser-like intensity.

This strength can also be a weakness because, at a local level, the battle is often being fought by members who still have the mind-set that working with the government is the same as sucking up to them.

Federated Farmers cares deeply about whatever issue is in front of it at the time and it will fight to the death for farmers on that issue, but you don’t need to win every battle to win a war and trying to win every single battle is not always the best tactic.

I am not for a minute pretending government relations is easy and I don’t envy Federated Farmers for the scale of the task they have, a task that seems to be made more difficult by the regional groups saying whatever they think is necessary to keep their members happy.

As the person who pays DairyNZ, Fonterra and Feds, I’d like to see them helping to protect my business by sticking to their strengths and I’d like every other wannabe farmer lobbyist to get out of their way and let them get on with it.

Next Dairy Woman of the Year sought N

ominations are now open for the 2021 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year as the industry searches for its next inspiring and passionate leader.

Dairy women are encouraged to nominate their role models in the industry before February when finalists will be put before a judging panel, comprised of Dairy Women’s Network Trustee Sophie Stanley, 2019 Dairy Woman of the Year Trish Rankin, and representatives from Fonterra, Global Women and Ballance Agri-Nutrients.

The 2021 Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year will be the 10th year for the award.

Dairy Women’s Network chief executive Julie Benton said it continued to call for leaders beyond the farm gate who offered support to the wider dairy industry and its people, and who were committed to giving back to their communities.

Nominees may not work for a farm business but be striving for the future of dairy through leadership in industry organisations.

Benton hoped that the award would attract young women who haven’t had the same level of on-farm experience as previous recipients, but whose experience was supplemented by a commitment to the industry through other avenues.

“One of our core values as an organisation is about seizing opportunities and this year’s recipient, AshLeigh Campbell, demonstrates

While this year’s winner Ash-Leigh Campbell, of Canterbury, was one of the youngest finalists, the award has no age limit.

this in both her work and her attitude. “We hope that her success will encourage other young women in the industry to nominate their peers and remember that there is no age limit for this award.”

Fonterra’s group director for Farm Source Richard Allen said no other award in New Zealand specifically recognises and encourages the capability and success of women in the dairy industry.

“Each year we see many outstanding women nominated

who, like Ash-Leigh, are passionate about the dairy industry, leaders across the sector and in their communities and networks, and who are contributing to the frameworks that will enable the next generations of farmers to succeed.”

As one of the youngest finalists for the Fonterra Dairy Woman of the Year and the first female finalist for the 2016 Ahuwhenua Young Maori Dairy Farmer of the Year, Campbell is passionate about

supporting other young farmers and showing other young women in the industry what they are capable of achieving.

She has previously been recognised for her leadership qualities at the New Zealand Young Farmers Excellence Awards and is chair of the New Zealand Young Farmers board, the first time in 12 years that a woman has held the position.

Starting her farming journey “swinging cups” throughout high school, Campbell now oversees eight farms in her

PHOTO SUPPLIED

role as technical farm manager with Ngai Tahu Farming. She is responsible for assisting with their management and performance and helping to address on-farm environmental issues.

Campbell joins previous winners Trish Rankin, Loshni Manikam, Jessie Chan, Rebecca Keoghan, Katie Milne, Justine Kidd, Charmaine O’Shea and Barbara Kuriger.

Nominations can be made at dwn.co.nz/fonterra-dairywoman-of-the-year.

www.guardianonline.co.nz

25

Projects to improve water health M

ore than $6 million will be spent on helping farmers improve the health of rivers, wetlands and habitat biodiversity in Canterbury and Otago, as well as improving long-term land management practices, Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says.

Four farmer-led catchment group Jobs for Nature projects have been allocated between $176,000 and $2.3 million over the next three years to fund environmental improvement work across dozens of sites in their regions. These projects will also employ between 15 and 20 people as well as specialist contractors over that period.

O’Connor said most of the initiatives were being led by established catchment groups with hundreds of farmer members.

The work will involve fencing and planting around water bodies, clearing of unsuitable trees and pest control. Projects also include building a wetland boardwalk and structures to protect endangered fish from predator species.

“These projects, like the WAI Wanaka project, will build on the work farmers are already doing to nurture their environment,

Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says the projects will build on the work farmers are already doing to nurture their environment.

PHOTO SUPPLIED

as well as providing crucial jobs in areas affected by Covid-19,” O’Connor said.

The Jobs for Nature projects include:

› North Otago Sustainable Land Management Riparian Project, $362,000. › Lindis River project, Otago, $772,000. › Pomahaka wetland

restoration project, South Otago, $176,000. › The Tinaku project, Ellesmere, Canterbury, $2.2 million.

A further $2.9m investment will help around 300 Hurunui farmers in North Canterbury work towards improving the health of their land and water through applying farm environment planning and sustainable land management practices.

The Future Hurunui project will provide catchment support to the Hurunui District Landcare Group for its members to use towards developing their farm environment plans.

The funding will enable the group to partner with trusted rural professionals to provide advice and support to their catchment members. The group will employ three people to do this work.

“Hurunui farmers have had a particularly tough few years, with the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake causing thousands of landslides and significant damage to large areas of land,” O’Connor said.

“This project will help farmers recover and prepare for the

future through developing the farm environment plans that will help improve their farms’ productivity and sustainability.”

The farm environment planning process is the crucial step for farmers in managing their land to minimise impact on freshwater and soils. It involves recognising on-farm environmental challenges and opportunities, as well as setting out how to manage these.

“Producing food and fibre for the world with strong environmental credentials will create more value for our products, and is a core part of delivering our Fit for a Better World – Accelerating Our Economic Potential roadmap and New Zealand’s economic recovery from Covid-19.

“An important component of all these projects is that they are led by farmers and the community. Farmers working directly with each other through local catchment groups means they can develop and share their knowledge about what works for them and provide a connected network for support and advice.

“Through Jobs for Nature projects they can start to make a difference that will be seen in years to come,” O’Connor said.

Gilbert family shines in on-farm Canty show

A

n ayrshire cow named Delilah, shown by the Gilbert family of Mid Canterbury was the star of the Canterbury A&P on-farm competition, despite the breed being in the minority in terms of numbers.

The Gilberts’ success in the competition means they are now preparing to take a team of cows, including Delilah, to the Stratford A&P Show in Taranaki on November 28 and 29, traditionally a big dairy showcase.

More than 90 entries were tabled for the on-farm competition, which replaced the cancelled dairy judging at the Canterbury Show in the wake of Covid-19 restrictions. Instead, the exhibitors prepared their cows on-farm, as they would do for the show.

The judge Corey Ferguson, from Otorohanga, moved between farms placing the animals from November 11 to 13.

The Gilbert family, led by Peter and Anne Gilbert, had reluctantly chosen to stand down from showing at Christchurch over the last two years because of concerns about cattle disease mycoplasma bovis.

They have two dairy farms, at Winchmore and Rakaia, run by their sons Nick and Michael respectively. Another son, Luke, is driving trucks, but also involved in the farming operation.

They run three registered

The Gilbert family entered three dairy breeds in the Canterbury A&P on-farm dairy competition (from left), Michael with an ayrshire, Luke with a jersey, Nick with a holstein friesian and father Peter. PHOTO MUD MEDIA

pedigree dairy herds – jersey, holstein friesian and ayrshire – under the Glenalla stud name.

Last week the Gilberts Glenalla jersey stud won junior, intermediate (co-owned with Megan Thomas, of the United Kingdom) and senior champion in the jersey show.

However, the main talking point was the family’s single ayrshire entry who proved you don’t need many to pack a punch.

Pukekaraka Elle Delilah – who they bought for $2500 in a group of five cows from the Robinson family’s dispersal at Atiamuri in April 2019 – easily walked away

with grand champion ayrshire.

However, where the six-yearold really left her mark was when she won supreme senior champion of all breeds and supreme senior best udder of all breeds. She is the first ayrshire to win the supreme senior award since 1981.

Michael Gilbert said he didn’t have Delilah among his first picks when he bought her at the Pukekaraka sale last year. Even though she was dry with no herd test results, he decided she needed to join his 630-cow herd.

She produced more than 8000 litres in 280 days on her first

lactation and won the Canterbury and national on-farm for her breed age-group last year.

When she calved again at the start of September with a heifer

by Kingsire, she was producing close to 3kg of milksolids a day.

The Canterbury A&P on-farm was a chance to step her out.

“I hoped she’d be competitive in the all breeds for her age group, but to win the supreme senior champion was a pretty big honour.

“There haven’t been a lot of ayrshires in Canterbury do that well in a long time.

“Since we haven’t been to a show since 2017, it’s felt like a

long time between drinks for us,” Michael Gilbert said.

Delilah is headed back to the North Island next week with her jersey herdmates to compete at the Stratford A&P Show.

The Gilberts haven’t backed away from the commitment it takes to truck cows between islands, despite having more than 1200 cows over two farms to take care of at home.

“We already had Delilah pencilled in for Stratford before these results,” Gilbert said.

“It’s going to be a massive show, there are some good ayrshires in the North Island, and we wanted to see what she’ll look like alongside them.

“Plus, we haven’t been out for a few years and we’re really ready to get back into it.”

Ayrshires make up 1 per cent of the New Zealand herd.

Supreme champion all-breeds winners: Supreme junior champion all breeds, Cresslands B52 Peggy (holstein friesian), Cresslands Farms, Rangiora; supreme intermediate champion/ intermediate best udder all breeds, Sherraine Gold Charm-ET (holstein friesian), Sherraine Holsteins, Ohoka; supreme senior champion all breeds/supreme best udder, Pukekaraka Elle Delilah (ayrshire), Gilbert family, Ashburton; supreme champion all breeds, Sherraine Gold CharmET (holstein friesian), Sherraine Holsteins, Ohoka.

26

Farming

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How do high-performing farmers tick?

H

igh-performing farmers are front-footing challenges facing the sheep and beef sector and adapting their businesses, according to new research by the Red Meat Profit Partnership (RMPP).

RMPP commissioned UMR Research (UMR) to ask a group of New Zealand’s highest performing sheep and beef farmers to identify the main drivers of their performance.

This year’s research, which followed a similar study in 2015, identified the critical characteristics that enabled them to consistently achieve good results.

The research also focused on what had changed for these farmers, particularly the challenges they were facing and how they were responding to the issues compared to five years ago.

According to the study, consistency of execution, attention to detail and measuring and recording performance were critical to driving performance on sheep and beef farms.

The research found there was a stronger focus among high performing farmers on addressing environmental challenges through quality assurance programmes.

However, these farmers noted feeling that additional regulations had led to an increasingly negative public perception towards farming.

Many high performing farmers want to take ownership of this issue with some wishing to help show the public how they farm with integrity, especially regarding animal welfare and the environment.

Facing droughts, dealing with climate change, and the need to map pathways towards becoming carbon neutral were also more prominent issues compared to 2015.

Meanwhile, the farmers recognised the changing consumer preferences and what this meant for the long-term viability of their businesses.

Covid-19 also presented a range of challenges and

RMPP chairman Malcolm Bailey says high-performing farmers PHOTO SUPPLIED do not blindly follow trends.

opportunities.

RMPP chairman Malcolm Bailey said the research showed most high-performing farmers were continuing to do what they have already been successfully focusing on for many years.

“These farmers do not blindly follow trends, rather when they introduce new practices, they tweak them to suit both their style of farming and the environment they operate in.

“High-performing farmers, through a strong sense of self-awareness, are particularly good at translating their values or what’s important to them into a ‘style of farming’ that is profitable and sustainable for the environment they occupy.”

The research also suggests a way to support other farmers to improve their performance is to first help them to understand

what they value most in farming and then translate this into a plan that suits their circumstances.

“This may take some time and require facilitation and peer support,” Bailey said.

“While each plan may be slightly different, measuring and recording performance should be universal and small steps adopted.

“The decision on what to measure and focus on first should be driven by what the individual farmer values and enjoys the most about farming.

The ultimate outcome from this approach will be sustainable ways of farming.”

The study also suggested a range of other high-performing farmer practices that other farmers could consider adopting including:

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Using technology to target inputs more efficiently, especially fertiliser and animal health interventions.

Making early decisions to pre-empt the loss of stock and pasture condition using an in-depth knowledge of their farm and animals via close observation over many years.

These observations are almost always recorded, generally via technology, but also in some cases via extensive handwritten diary notes.

Having a clear picture of the three to five aspects of their farm that drive performance and almost always getting these right.

Investing in quality infrastructure (over time), as the consequences of not doing so, are a distraction from focusing on what is most important -

animals and grass.

Making sure they are alert to what is happening on the farm by remaining physically close to pasture and animals.

While planning and office work are important, more money can be lost if farmers are not continually observing what is happening on the farm.

Always paying close attention to both stock and pasture and being prepared to more regularly shift animals.

This means focusing on trying to balance both pasture and stock condition throughout the year.

Working alongside other well-regarded farmers, rural professionals, and family members to test and tweak ideas and find new ones.

UMR interviewed 29 high performing farmers in 2015 and 22 this year.

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27

Sheep and beef properties remain firm Calvin Leen

S

PGG Wrightson Real Estate

heep and beef property remains in heavy demand in our region.

Two significant sales indicate the strength of the market, though potential purchasers outnumber the properties available, and anyone who lists such a farm for sale in the coming months is likely to achieve a satisfactory result.

At 912 hectares, Haka Downs, 43 kilometres north of Kurow is a substantial property.

This is the homestead and hogget block of the original Hakataramea Downs Station, comprising the best producing land of the original historic holding, which was one of the original runs that form the basis of the region’s agricultural heritage.

Capable of wintering 7500 stock units, subject to an intensive development programme in recent years and

virtually fully deer fenced to a high standard. Haka Downs’ sale to a local purchaser went unconditional in October.

Until recently, borrowing to secure the purchase of a property of this scale has been challenging. However, low interest rates are making finance easier to obtain, while the Reserve Bank signalling that the situation is not going to change

anytime soon makes investing in rural property a better option than leaving money in the bank.

Those factors are persuading some parties to revisit the opportunity to secure key land assets.

Clifton, a 592ha breeding, forward store and finishing property farmed diligently by the Henriksen family for several generations 38km west of

Timaru is another recent notable sale.

Both transactions achieved values firm on current benchmarks, at between $1000 and $1100 per stock unit.

Several other drystock properties have also changed hands recently and the number of sheep and beef properties currently available for sale is severely diminished.

Eager competition for any land offered ensures a seller’s market prevails.

Since relatively few farms look likely to list for autumn sale, expect prices to remain firm for the foreseeable future.

Calvin Leen is Mid-South Canterbury and North Otago Sales Manager for PGG Wrightson Real Estate Limited

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Prudent irrigation required Tony Davoren

SWIMS CONSULTING Ltd

T

he rainfall in the first week of November might have suggested that the La Niña comparison with 1988-89 was done for.

That might be the case for some areas but for others it still looms large.

It is just November and every irrigation decision should be carefully considered.

In parts of Mid Canterbury, the end of the first week of November brought some welcome relief in the form of a great catch-up rainfall. Not the deluge of parts of Hawke’s Bay, but sort of perfect.

Draw a line through Methven to Wakanui and the area north received that rainfall relief with 48mm at Methven, 46mm at Chertsey, 45mm at Wakanui and 56mm at Dorie.

Yes, even Dorie, which always seems to miss out, received the perfect gift. Head south from

about that line and rainfall diminishes quite quickly with 33mm at Orari and 15mm at Timaru Airport.

For those in more southern parts of Canterbury the comparison (at least in terms of rainfall) with 1988-89 is still present.

Climatologists have not deviated from their prediction of the La Niña event – it is here.

The Southern Oscillation Index is still in La Niña territory. It is still positive, but as the latest

from Weatherzone.com.au shows, the strength dropped off a little for the month of October. While this is a key index it is not the only influence on our weather so we will have to wait out a month to see where it lies.

Thus far the NIWA La Niña based forecast is holding pretty true and we should heed the likelihood it will remain into 2021. This could mean continued irrigation through into next March and April.

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• know what is in the forecast, and not just rainfall but cloud cover, temperatures and wind.

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FEATURE

29

Know Your Catchment goes live I

rrigationNZ believes it is important Kiwis get up-to-date information about freshwater in their local catchments and have created a new way to do it.

‘Know Your Catchment’ is an online platform which showcases water monitoring data and different ways freshwater supports wellbeing.

IrrigationNZ chief executive Elizabeth Soal said the platform is a step in the right direction to better inform the public about freshwater and help track the effects of farming practice change on water quality over time.

“This platform will engage and educate both rural and urban communities about the commitment farmers and growers have made to maintaining and improving water quality with information about water quality, irrigation, recreation, wetlands and more.”

The project started in 2018, funded by the Ministry of Primary Industries Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures Fund and managed by IrrigationNZ in partnership with Waitaki Irrigators Collective, Otago Regional Council and Environment Canterbury and supported by Beef & Lamb NZ and FAR.

“Given the public feeling about water quality, farmers and growers need to openly demonstrate the practice change that is happening and all the robust environmental monitoring data needs to be consolidated in an easy-tounderstand way – which is what Know Your Catchment does.”

Farmers and growers are doing a lot of monitoring in their catchments and bringing this data together to tell the catchment story is important.

Ms Soal says the platform has been piloted in the Waitaki Catchment in South Canterbury and North Otago and it would be great to see it utilised in other areas.

“This project has a lot of scope and potential; we really hope people use it for many years to come and we are currently looking at ways we can extend it for future use.”

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Farming

30

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100% strike rate for Telford graduates T

elford is toasting its Massey Diploma in Agriculture class of 2020 with all its graduates going directly into fulltime employment in the rural sector after graduation.

Telford’s programme manager Debbie Rankin was thrilled for the graduates. “We are so proud of them all – they’ve done all the hard work themselves and committed to two years training. We just want them to do well, they certainly deserve their success.”

Rankin said she thought the successful 100 per cent employment rate was due to all the students completing two years at Telford. “They did the hard yards in the

Telford graduate Anna Jordan is looking forward to starting her full-time shepherd’s job soon, at Pamu Lynmore, a Landcorp farm near Te Anau, having completed a Massey Diploma in Agriculture this year.

PHOTO SUPPLIED

first year and they got out and got known.

That first year is a key part of their success.”

Telford is a faculty of Southern Institute of Technology (SIT) and runs the Massey Diploma in Agriculture (DipAg) programme, with many students completing a certificate year prior to committing to the diploma in year two.

The 2020 class of DipAg students were all farming systems students from 2019, having already gained a New Zealand Certificate in Agriculture (farming systems, level three).

Rankin stressed the importance of the role host farmers play in shaping Telford graduates. “The students gain work experience on up to 12 different farms including our own commercial units, Telford Farms, and in the process, they’re exposed to many different styles of farming. At the same time, they’re also networking and making connections within the farming community and this is crucial to their success.”

The diploma year was more academic and there was not the same opportunity to do networking.

DipAg graduate Anna Jordan is starting her new role as a shepherd at Pamu Lynmore, a Landcorp farm in the Te Anau basin, in early December. She loved her time at Telford and how much knowledge she gained. “I loved being able to do the dog training, and every day we learnt something new – I loved that it was different every day.

“At Telford you know everyone, it’s like a community of friends and family – everyone supports everyone,” she said.

Allan Roxburgh is Telford’s work experience co-ordinator, as well as a tutor, and he is passionate about his role in placing each individual student into the right farm, to increase their knowledge and experience, but also to assist them in finding employment after they graduate.

The DipAg students are motivated and usually start actively looking for work from around August onwards and his guidance was there to help match graduates to farms looking for staff.

He liaises closely with host farmers and has his finger on the pulse of what farmers need when wanting to employ a graduate.

Whilst it’s not unusual to have most, or all graduates with jobs to go to, he’s noticed increasingly, Telford students are valued and desirable in the workplace because they have such a strong practical component in their programmes, where practical skills are taught from day one.

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“Farmers from Canterbury will ring us looking for graduates and they prefer to take our students because of the practical element taught here”.

A successful placement means both farmer and student get something out of it. “It’s got to be rewarding for the farmer too.

From day one Roxburgh consistently tells students the rule to success – attitude.

They must want to be there and be prepared to get out and try things.

“It’s all about the attitude, if you have the right attitude, you’ll be successful.”

The Massey Diploma in Agriculture will be offered at Telford in 2021 under the Targeted Training and Apprenticeships Fund (TTAF), which means there are no course costs. Students only pay direct material costs and accommodation if residing on-campus.

For further information, contact Telford on 0800 835 367 or go visit: www.sit. ac.nz/Telford

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31

Mulching makes gardens happier Left – Harvesting silverbeet grown in nutrient-dense, mulched soil. It tastes delicious.

PHOTOS SUPPLIED

Sheryl Stivens

can also use old bed frames. Old merino or cotton clothing can be cut up for garden ties, ice cream container lids make great garden signs and there is no end to what can be re-used in a functional way in our food gardens.

It’s fun to make food growing areas attractive as well as productive.

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ow the soil temperatures have increased and the weather is warming up November heralds the main planting time for summer vegetables in our food gardens.

It’s also time to mulch around plants reusing and recycling whatever materials we have.

Covering up bare soil with mulch not only protects our soil from the hot sun; it also helps to create the right environment for worms to do their job – aerating and building soils in the dark moist environment they require.

An additional bonus is that the biodegradable materials you use break down into new soil in a short time.

Soil is the biggest carbon sink we have, so by mulching your gardens in this way you are also doing your bit for climate change.

Cardboard is my favourite material as the corrugations in flattened cardboard boxes allow aeration and perfect little spaces for worms to lay their eggs and multiple very quickly at this time of year.

Recycle your flattened cardboard boxes on to your moist garden beds around your vegetable plants, cover with a good layer of unsprayed lawn clippings, straw or old hay and watch the magic happen. Wet newspaper strips sprinkled with lawn clippings work very well between rows of carrots etc.

Black plastic sheets from silage covers or large feed sacks can also be re-used to grow summer crops such as pumpkins.

We have used this method to grow tomatoes, aubergines and peppers in our paddocks commercially as the plastic mulch increases the warmth of

Sowing pumpkin seeds under the black boy peach tree means the vine can grow up the tree and pumpkins can hang from the branches.

VERTICAL PUMPKINS

the soil around the plants as well as retaining the moisture.

We have been reusing the same black plastic sheets from the recycle depot for more than five years and find when we remove the plastic in autumn there is a very healthy worm population underneath and no weeds due to the lack of light.

It’s so easy to grow a crop of pumpkins using either cardboard or black plastic mulch. We are still eating the last of last season’s pumpkins so they keep

very well if you store them in a dry place.

We grow our pumpkin vines up a fence or up into fruit trees and the pumpkins look so pretty hanging from the trees. This season we are keen to try putting up some poles to grow our crop vertically. We first saw this vertical growing method at the King of Thailand’s experimental farm near Bangkok.

The vegetables that grew on their vines such as pumpkins and gourds were grown vertically

and hanging overhead to keep them off the moist tropical ground and away from the rampant insect populations.

I’ve never forgotten how amazing it looked. It’s also another way to create a shady interesting play area for children.

Climbing beans and peas can also be a feature as they climb and flower and produce luscious pods and seeds on the recycled or reused structures you erect for them.

Bamboo is very useful, but you

T

o grow pumpkins vertically, install a trellis on a mulched garden site.

Place your trellis on the south or east side of the garden to avoid shading it.

Space sturdy posts along the planting area and attach netting or mesh to the posts.

Make holes in the mulch under the trellis or poles; cultivate and enrich soil and plant four to six pumpkin seeds in each hole.

Cover and water.

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32

Farming

www.guardianonline.co.nz

FEATURE

Regenerative agriculture – no new thing A

veteran farming academic thinks regenerative agriculture is a largely redundant concept for New Zealand because it has been practised here for years.

Keith Woodford said it was an American idea, born out of necessity on the prairies, but largely superfluous in New Zealand.

Regenerative agriculture focuses on topsoil regeneration, along with improving the water cycle, supporting biosequestration (or removal) of harmful products like greenhouse gases and enhancing the integrity of ecosystems.

It has become a popular catchcry in New Zealand and was strongly pushed by the Green Party during the last election.

Professor Woodford, who taught at Lincoln University for years, said the regenerative farming philosophy came from the United States, and was adopted here by people who often did not understand the science behind it.

He said farmers in the US had been spoiled for over 100 years by the natural fertility of their land.

That meant they were able to practise depletive farming methods for generations.

Belatedly, American farmers woke up to the long-term problems caused by extractive farming.

So they began to regenerate their soils, which Professor Woodford said had been done in New Zealand for years.

“New Zealand pastoral agriculture was (traditionally) built on regenerative principles, with clover-based pastures

“

Some of those ideas have just come into American thinking ... regenerative agriculture as a concept is excellent, but we need to recognise that a lot of those principles have been in place here for a long time

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33

FEATURE

for New Zealand farmers on almost all classes of land, combined with cropping rotations,” he wrote in a blog.

Interviewed later, Professor Woodford said farmers in New Zealand had long practised regenerative agriculture.

“We have always in New Zealand placed a lot of emphasis on clover and other legumes and nutrient cycling and the importance of carbon in our soils, and that has been taught at

universities for a long time.

“Some of those ideas have just come into American thinking ... regenerative agriculture as a concept is excellent, but we need to recognise that a lot of those principles have been in place here for a long time.”

Professor Woodford said it was clear that regenerative agriculture could be improved in New Zealand and should be.

But he said people who

understood the science of agriculture did not always like being lectured by people who understood only the slogans.

However, these comments have been contested by man who teaches regenerative agriculture to farmers, Jono Frew.

He said it was wrong to call regenerative farming an American fad designed for American soils.

“All soil is soil, it doesn’t

matter where it is, and soil function can be increased regardless of context,” Frew said.

“To say we are already doing it and we don’t need to do it avoids the responsibility of taking on a new approach (to better soil care).”

Frew said moving to regenerative agriculture did not mean earlier methods had to be thrown out - but there were still

basic principles to be followed.

“A few of those fundamentals are increasing plant diversity... the more plants growing in one area the better.

“Each plant is responsible for pumping a unique form of carbohydrate into the soil, attracting and feeding a different microbial community.”

Frew said greater microbial variety made the soil more resilient.

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34

Farming

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Alliance performance ‘credible’ A

lliance Group says its market share for sheep meat, beef and venison has grown over the past year, despite disruptions to processing and export markets caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

New Zealand’s only 100 per cent farmer-owned major red meat co-operative achieved a record turnover of $1.8 billion for the year ending September 30, 2020.

It announced an underlying profit of $27.4 million. Adjusted for one-off events, the annual profit result was $7.5m before tax.

Alliance chair Murray Taggart said it was a credible performance for the company, given the disruption and volatility in global markets as a result of Covid-19.

“The co-operative has faced challenges on many fronts.

Like many businesses, we have been impacted by the pandemic.

Our farmers also experienced extreme weather including drought, snow and flooding in parts of the country and difficult growing conditions. These on farm challenges also flowed through to the co-operative.

“Alliance Group displayed agility and diverted product to other markets and changed product forms for the different channels as the global pandemic gathered pace. We worked to ensure our supply chains were as robust as possible,” Taggart said.

Alliance chief executive David Surveyor said the company’s response to the challenges was pleasing. “We are proud of how our people across the business responded to the Covid-19 situation. Our people went above and beyond to deliver for our farmers, our customers and the country.

“The

Above – Alliance chair Murray Taggart says the co-operative recorded a credible performance, given the volatility in global markets as a result of Covid-19.

Right – New processing technology to be installed at Alliance’s Lorneville plant near Invercargill.

PHOTOS SUPPLIED

implementation of our business strategy, the approach to sales, the continuing level of investment in the company and the building of capability over the past five years has cemented our resilience to deal with change and disruption to our business and demonstrates the company has the right strategy in place.

“Although the season began with high protein prices for red meat, driven in part by African Swine Fever impacting the Chinese pig herd, there was a price correction as China took measures to curb protein inflation and this reduced farm gate lamb prices.

“This was further compounded by the spread of Covid-19 across the globe and the resulting lockdowns, which resulted in people movement restrictions and massive disruption to the food service sector.

“Covid-19 also impacted

the co-operative’s processing operations with new operating protocols limiting capacity for farmers. We acknowledge and thank our farmers and livestock team for the support in managing through this period when farmers needed to have their livestock processed under restricted conditions.

“Importantly, Alliance Group’s market share for ovine, bovine and cervine has grown over the past year. Our beef performance is particularly satisfying. The co-operative has grown the cattle business by about 50 per cent over the last five years and this year Alliance processed more than 300,000 cattle.”

There was considerable interest from farmers in the co-operative’s new premium Handpicked Lamb offer, which was part of Alliance’s commitment to differentiating its products and rewarding shareholders, he said.

Alliance strengthened its investment in modernising its plant network as part of a manufacturing excellence programme. “We have completed projects to lift the capacity of our Smithfield and Dannevirke plants and a $5m programme is underway to reconfigure the venison plant at Lorneville near Invercargill so it can also process cattle.”

Alliance was also investing $12.5m in new processing technology at Lorneville and another $3.2m to upgrade the plant’s Engine Room 2.

Improving the health and safety performance at the cooperative remained paramount, Surveyor said. “We continue to make good progress in reducing the number of people getting hurt. We have invested $33m over the past five years to look after our employees and ensure they go home safe and well to their families every day.

While we have had substantial improvements in health and safety this year and injury rates are falling, but there is more to do.”

Alliance has also been investing in its people with the launch of a new training programme for apprentices and trades staff.

The annual result includes a $19.9m provision in relation to claimed historic partial non-compliance for employee entitlements, known as donning and doffing, the time lost to workers as they changed in and out of safety gear for meal breaks.

A proposal to resolve these claims is subject to ratification by the New Zealand Meat Workers Union.

Taggart said there would be no profit distribution to shareholders this year, reflecting the challenging operating environment.

www.guardianonline.co.nz

35

Helping make farms predator free Left – Rats like this brown rat, as well as mustelids, cats, possums and hedgehogs can be efficiently controlled on farms using a combination of toxins, trapping and shooting.

PHOTO LUC HOOGENSTEIN

Mary Ralston

FOREST AND BIRD

P

redator-free 2050 is a great goal for New Zealand and significant progress has been made.

There’s a greater awareness of the vulnerability of our wildlife and primary production sector to the impact of pests and a willingness from town and country people alike to help out with community projects. Volunteers working for groups such as the Lake Heron Conservation Group make a huge contribution.

But to get to predator-free status by 2050, we need to do our bit on private as well public land. Mustelids (stoats, ferrets and weasels), rodents, possums, wasps, hedgehogs and feral cats don’t care about land tenure – they are widespread and everyone needs to get on-board with pest control.

Farmers know pest control benefits their business as well

as helping native biodiversity.

Possums spread TB, rodents eat crops, cats can spread leptospirosis to cattle.

Most farmers are familiar with the three main tools used to control pests – toxins, trapping and shooting. All methods have their pros and cons – what to use depends on farm type, what predators are in your patch, their densities and what areas of native bush or forestry are on your property or nearby. Having a collaborative approach with

neighbouring properties makes the most of pest-control efforts – it is much more efficient if pest niches aren’t re-filled by animals coming in from next door.

Control of widespread and/ or high numbers of pests may be most effficiently done with toxins but make sure that livestock, native wildlife, children and dogs are not exposed. Bait can very effectively target possums: bait stations can be attached to trees 30cm off the ground at 150m spacings, well away from stock

access. Wasp bait stations are also best attached to trees (with a different toxin!). Night shooting is a good way to make a dent in possum numbers and a good possum-dog can be worth its weight in gold.

Trapping is useful once numbers have been reduced by toxins or shooting. Self-resetting traps reduce the labour required to re-set traps and they ensure the trap does not sit idle once it has caught something. Animals may be wary of traps and it can

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be hard to get the “last one”.

Different habitats on the farm may require different approaches.

Forestry blocks are likely to have different pests than around wetlands and riparian margins, and wetlands will hopefully attract wildlife that is worth protecting. Traps set around the wetland may be the best approach. DOC 200 wooden box traps with enlarged openings are useful against the cats, weasels, stoats and ferrets that prey on birds, eggs and chicks.

Sheds, silos and other buildings often shelter high numbers of pests. Self-resetting traps here will be worthwhile or if numbers are high, bait may be more effective as long as it well concealed from dogs and children.

There’s more information on the Predator-free 2050 website and there’s a regular email that you can sign up to which has plenty of good tips and inspiring success stories.

36

Farming

www.guardianonline.co.nz

Rural real estate market resets

By Conrad Wilkshire

S

pring always brings a lot of anticipation for what the new season holds in store for us all in the primary sector.

Added to the mix this year has been the Covid-19 economic response and a general election.

Farmer and grower confidence surveys of late have not been favourable as the sector absorbs a raft of recent changes from freshwater standards to constraints with seasonal employment, to name a few.

In terms of direct rural property impacts, restrictions on foreign ownership of rural land look set to remain, but importantly, the sinking lid on rural lending is expected to moderate as the sector benefits from positive re-ratings.

Producer confidence is likely to improve though, as lower interest rates and improved commodity returns are reflected in the year-end accounts.

The big difference this season is an emerging trend that rural land investment yields are increasing, while bank deposits and wider NZ investment yields are trending down.

The opportunity to acquire quality rural assets, at a reliable cash return, is looking positive

across the board.

The strength of our rural sector, and the impact on provincial New Zealand, was highlighted with Fonterra’s final farmgate milk price for the 201920 season of $7.14/kgMS, and a dividend of five cents per share.

The highest pay-out performance since the 2013-14 season. Fonterra paid $11 billionplus to its farmers last season, which when combined with this year’s advance is assisting our local provincial economies greatly. The forward outlook for the current season continues to improve too.

Sheep and beef producers continue to trade profitably

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on prices more aligned to the five-year average than last year’s strong schedules. As we navigate dire wool prices and the uncertainty with chilled trade, it is clear that this season is far from typical. However, the top of mind conversation nationally just now, is the very low annual rainfall.

So, while it’s been a kind winter climatically; many farmers now appear to be hedging their bets for the new season, cutting back trading stock to build some feed buffer back into the system.

Horticulture, for its part, is set to spearhead New Zealand’s postpandemic recovery. Employing 60,000 people in an industry

worth $6.39b in 2019, the horticulture industries, including apples and pears, kiwifruit, avocados, and vegetables, are forecasted to grow to $10b by 2030. We continue to see record prices attributed to land going into horticulture.

Rural property sales above 20 hectares, sold on the open market, for the 12 months to August 31, 2020, at 709 sales was back again on the prior year for the third year running. Dairy farms sales over the same period on the same basis totalled only 89 sales, and that’s despite the dairy farm median sale price back about 20 per cent on the prior year at $3.23 million.

The dairy property story now is one of improving farm gate returns, but buyers are forward pricing the risks, and staying firm on acceptable cash returns (5-6 per cent plus) on bank budget guidelines.

All sectors last season were impacted by a moderated risk appetite to lend to farmers and growers. Dairy particularly was significantly impacted by the revised Reserve Bank policy settings, but as they often say in rural, “it’s a long road without a bend in it”.

The wheel is starting to turn and our early sales results this spring support the same conclusion. Those looking to take their properties to the market now have the benefit of last season’s results to set realistic price expectations.

We’re also likely to see an ongoing re-rating of the risks associated with our sector as debt continues to be repaid from profits.

The rural real estate market is resetting as farmers and growers look to grow their businesses sustainably in conjunction with a much stronger emphasis on the underlying cash returns.

Conrad Wilkshire is GM rural for Property Brokers

When you list your farm with our South Island team, there are Property Brokers’ members across the country working alongside them to get you the best result. That’s because every one of them has signed a binding agreement to work together to sell your property. It’s a New Zealand first for the rural real estate industry that means we put your best interests first. Which is exactly where they should be.

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37

Shaw Tracks S

A future-focused beef programme B

eef + Lamb New Zealand Genetics is launching a future-focused beef programme designed to generate more income for beef producers and the economy while protecting the environment.

B+LNZ Genetics general manager Dan Brier said modelling has shown that through this programme, farmers can increase the beef industry’s income by $460 million while improving the environmental and social outcomes for their farms and communities.

The programme, which builds on previous work by B+LNZ Genetics such as the Beef Progeny Test, is the industry’s response to increasing demand for high quality food produced with a lower environmental footprint.

Brier said that with the right science and tools, farmers will be able to produce great tasting meat with a good environmental story while maintaining and improving their production efficiencies.

“Our meat companies are already moving in this direction, with several introducing quality grading systems and working under the Taste Pure Nature initiative to target the “conscious foodie” consumer.”

AbacusBio consultant Jason Archer will be providing the science lead on the programme while Matias Kinzurik from B+LNZ Genetics will be the overall manager.

The programme incorporates seven areas of work which start with the development of NZ-centric breeding objectives.

These will be focused on New Zealand’s pasture-based system where cows play a dual role of supporting sheep production while producing a highquality product.

A data measurement and collection system will be developed to collect phenotypic and genotypic data and a new Beef Progeny Test, using angus,

hereford and simmental genetics, will identify the performance of the agreedon traits linking with international beef and dairy beef genetics.

“The Beef Progeny Test will be underway this mating season, having secured a farm and identified bulls to create linkages to international datasets and previous progeny tests. Time is of the essence when dealing with biological systems so we took the opportunity to get started so we have calves on the ground next year.”

The fourth area of work is the use of next generation commercial genomic tools to support stud and commercial operations. Commercial farmers, who are performance recording, will be used to ground-truth these tools and provide broader-based performance data and feedback.

B+LNZ Genetics will use its experience of building a genetic engine for sheep to build a similar engine for beef, combining phenotypic, genotypic and genomic data to calculate breeding values for agreed traits.

Ultimately, under the Beef Programme, B+LNZ Genetics plans to extend nProve genetics systems to include stud cattle.

This would give commercial users the ability to quickly and easily source the right genetics for their environment and farm system.

“The final and arguably most important part of the Beef Programme is industry uptake and we will bring a laser-like focus to this challenge, ensuring we are transferring knowledge to commercial farmers and making cutting-edge tools and resources available to the beef industry.”

The NZ beef industry is made up of 25,000 farmers and 3.6 million beef cattle. Of these, one million are breeding cows which combine with the dairy herd to produce 1.4 million animals for processing annually.

Beef exports total $4.2 billion.

haw Tracks was originally established by Gary Shaw, who saw a need for a reliable local supplier of rubber tracks and pads for excavators and other heavy machinery in New Zealand.

Located in Dunedin, Shaw Tracks can get rubber tracks or pads to customers in a matter of hours, instead of days. Competitive freight pricing means that Shaw Tracks provides great quality products to wherever you are in the country, North or South Island.

In 2020, Phil Leyden purchased the Shaw Tracks business. Phil’s 31 years as a tradesman painter means he has a well-established track record of providing great service to customers and clients. His painting and decorating business won several New Zealand Master Painters Awards and he looks forward to bringing that same high standard to Shaw Tracks 2020 Ltd. Phil has known Gary for years and he is keen to build on the success of Shaw Tracks and take the business to new levels. Quality rubber tracks at the right price.

Shaw Tracks stocks high quality, competitively priced rubber tracks for Hitachi, Komatsu, Cat, Bobcat, Airman, IHI, Kubota, Takeeuchi, kobelco,Sumitomo and Case excavators.

The tracks are made using continuous steel cords, which means there are no joins or breaks, making them up to 60% stronger than joined steel corded

tracks. Shaw Tracks rubber tracks are also corrosion resistant ensuring they are more reliable in harsh conditions.

Rubber tracks offer a smoother and quieter ride and are more versatile.

Steel tracks can damage hard surfaces, so unless you have rubber pads, rubber tracks are a better option, especially on concrete and ashpalt.

Paul Clarke, Clarke Machinery Hire, Dunedin I run one of the larger rental fleets in New Zealand and have been using Shaw tracks rubber tracks and pads on our equipment for over 10 years. I have used other aftermarket tracks and pads, but found they weren’t as high quality or as long lasting as Shaw tracks , which last at least 40% longer right across the range. Shaw Tracks stocks every size track that we use for our fleet and their service is second to none – Phil can get us new tracks in hours not days, which saves us a lot of time and money.

38

Farming

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Thomas House - a family environment T

homas House, at Timaru Boys’ High School, is a great boarding option for your son. We provide a huge range of academic, sporting, cultural and social opportunities to help our boys grow into confident young men, who can positively contribute to society.

We recognise that every boy is a unique individual so we offer personalised care and support.

The boys thrive in our family environment, building life-long friendships while learning the attributes of tolerance and empathy. Our onsite facilities include a fully catered kitchen as well as newly constructed and refurbished sleeping and living spaces.

At Thomas House, we strongly believe in the importance of an academic focus. We provide pathways for all learners with on-site tutoring available from qualified staff.

Student wellbeing is central to the Thomas House ethos with a focus on providing outstanding pastoral care including: • dedicated on site nurse • 24 hours on site active care and supervision • resident staff who are all experienced,

registered teachers We aim to develop the boys’ skills of self-management and resilience, but we also understand that they are young and will need assistance with this journey.

Thomas House life is stimulating and full, but there is also time for winding down and having fun. Our boys tell us that “it’s like a second home.”

Call us today or drop in and take a tour any time and see the Thomas House family in action Thomas House: “Learning Together Growing Together”

Good men in the making Timaru Boys’ High School Day and Boarding Enrolments welcome Ph: 03 687 7560

Learning together Growing together www.timaruboys.school.nz

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FEATURE

39

Arable – The Unsung Hero In Uncertain Times U

nder the pressures of the global Covid-19 pandemic, New Zealand’s $2.1 billion arable industry has emerged as the quiet achiever behind many of our nation’s every day essential products.

As the strong demand for flour during Covid-19 demonstrated, our locally grown grains form an important part of many New Zealander’s diets.

High quality arable crops such as wheat, barley, oats, maize and seeds harvested on some 180,000 hectares around the country might not receive the same attention as their horticultural counterparts such as kiwifruit or avocados, but their value to our nation’s economy is just as important.

While many of the products made by arable crops are easily identifiable such as the bread, pasta, beer and oils on supermarket shelves, the industry is also critical to the success of our more than $20 billion livestock industry as the source of seed for pastures and grain and silage for complementary animal feed.

The Foundation for Arable Research, (FAR), has been supporting arable growers throughout New Zealand for a quarter of a century. Chief Executive of FAR, Dr Alison Stewart, says the industry’s importance to New Zealanders has never been greater.

“Arable growers around New Zealand work tirelessly to provide an essential source of nutrition for families around the country. The team at FAR are proud to recognise the role of these unsung heroes whose efforts fuel our local economy, particularly in times of hardship and disruption such as those experienced this year.”

While remaining relatively unknown to their fellow Kiwis, New Zealand’s arable growers are the most productive in the world. The 11,500 workers employed

in the sector produce an astonishing 60 percent of the world’s radish seed and are also global leaders in the production of carrot, ryegrass and white clover seed.

They also hold the world yield records for both wheat and barley.

“The quality of New Zealand-grown arable products is exceptionally high. We’d love to see more Kiwis actively seeking out products made with locally-grown grains and seeds to support the continued growth of the industry,” says Stewart.

Much of the work undertaken by FAR in recent years has been focused on the environmental sustainability of the arable industry.

Grown on some of our most valuable, fertile land, the management of this land for future generations is at the heart of the organisation’s work.

“Arable growers are proud kaitiaki of the land they farm. This is high value land so returns must also be high to justify investment and that in turn must be balanced with long-term sustainability.

“The use of water in arable cropping is a good example of balancing these needs with research by FAR assisting growers to ensure crops grow to their best potential, and water and nutrients are carefully managed.,” says Stewart.

The resilience of the local arable industry has become even more important in 2020. In the face of a global pandemic and disrupted international supply chains, locally grown arable products provided a lifeline for New Zealand families. Dr Stewart believes that the growth of the local industry is an important way to ensure food security in years to come.

“Protecting and supporting our local arable industry will ensure the unlimited, affordable access to high quality, nutritious food products for all Kiwis.”

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