CountryLife | 26 January 2018

CountryLife Friday January 26, 2018

Colin and Keryn Brown are on a quest for the perfect steak at Lake Farm in Karapiro. Full story page 2.

CountryLife – 1

JANUARY 2018

2 – CountryLife

Friday January 26, 2018

A steak, a pie and a beer

By Claire Castle At Colin Brown and wife Keryn’s property, appropriately called Lake Farm, on the banks of Lake Karapiro, work is underway to produce the perfect mouth-watering Angus steak. Part of the problem with mainstream meat production, Colin said, is that farmers get paid on the weight of the carcass rather than the quality of the meat produced.

Standard beef cows are bred for short gestation times, ease of calving and low birth weights, not for eating quality, he explained.

“The bigger and faster it grows, the more you get paid, and there’s nothing wrong with that but at the end of the day, beef is a meat to be eaten,” he added.

So, Lake Farm has gone their own way, with an intensive focus on genetics in the quest to only have Angus cows with good marbling – intramuscular fat that gives it an appearance similar to a marble pattern. The presence of marbling, more than any other factor, will affect the eating quality of an animal, Colin said. “You get more flavour from the fat, plus it melts when it’s cooked.”

It’s so important that Colin gives each cow an ultrasound before they are sent to Auckland to be killed, just to make sure the marbling is there.

Also, he only breeds from the marbelled cow.

And, because stress is also a factor that can diminish the eating quality of meat, the animals are sent up in pairs rather than herded into a crowded truck, trying to reduce their anxiety as they take their final journey.

The chilled carcasses are then trucked back to Hamilton to be cut and packed for distribution.

Winners of the Beef and Lamb “Steak of Origin” competition in 2009 and 2014, they are clearly doing something right on their 75-acre property.

Since 2009, they have reached the semi-finals in that competition every year, putting them in the top 20 per cent of cattle in New Zealand. They didn’t enter last year, because their main focus has been breeding rather than “finishing”, Colin explained.

“We’re first and foremost farmers trying to grow some special beef,” Colin said. “It’s more than ‘farm to plate’, and more like ‘from conception to consumption.”

As part of a nose-to-tail approach to using the animals, the farm has contracted a pie factory in the Bay of Plenty to produce pies to Lake Farm’s own recipes. Credit for that goes to wife Keryn, who Colin describes as a “fantastic cook”. Only a small percentage of the beast is made up of prime cuts of meat, so by using the less popular cuts in pies it’s a good way to showcase their beef and make best use of the whole animal, Colin explained. Frustratingly, they can’t enter the Pie of the Year competition with their pies, because they are not manufactured by them.

The pie maker can’t enter them either, because he doesn’t sell them. So, it’s a stalemate on that front. But they are flying out the door thanks to online orders, being despatched around the country to pie-lovers everywhere.

And what better to go with a pie or a steak than a cold beer? So obviously Keryn and Colin are all over that as well. Their son, Aran, is an

Colin and Keryn’s pies are manufactured in the Bay of Plenty and shipped around the country.

The Lake Farm cows are reared to yield the best meat for eating, rather than being bred for size. avid homebrewer and has provided the recipes only the best. for the Lake Farm range of craft beers, which are “You have to believe you can be the best in the manufactured by a boutique brewery in Matangi. world at what you do.”

The Matangi plant produces around 3,000 Too right, we reckon. bottles of Lake Farm’s special brew each month, and it’s not pasteurised so it needs to be handled with care. Avoiding pasteurisation is key to developing the intensity of flavour, and the beer can last up to 12 months if refrigerated. It’s also available online, and from Onyx as well as the Angus Aberdeen Steakhouse in Palmerston North.

“Our beer is specifically designed to accompany food…we don’t want our beers to be too “hoppy,” Colin said.

There are three varieties in the Lake Farm Beer stable, with Karapiro Gold, Farmhouse Pale Ale and Black Angus Ale. Also in the pipeline is a Ruby Red Ale, which will have a bit of “New Zealand pizzaz”, as opposed to some of the other more Irish-influenced beers on the market Colin said. And it’s named after Ruby, the farm cat.

All of this is a far cry from Colin’s previous working life, as owner of a computer assembly business. When a downturn saw the business close, Colin knew he needed something completely different. “I didn’t really want to go back into business, but it was a hard road with limited funds…most people wouldn’t do this,” Colin said.

It takes a special kind of “driven personality,” he This oblong sirloin steak has just the right reckons, which is probably why he gets out with amount of marbling to hit Lake Farm’s high an ultrasound machine to make sure his steak is standard.

Friday January 26, 2018

Draft LTP underway

Greetings everyone, and compliments of the season.

I trust this issue of Country Life finds you all in good spirits, and that you’ve all had a decent break. Things have certainly turned out better rain wise that we were probably anticipating before Christmas, however the prolonged dry period has still left its mark.

This is going to be a busy year for the Regional Stu Kneebone Council. Our 2018/28 Long Term Plan (LTP) is coming together, with the council meeting next week to discuss/debate and ultimately agree on what levels of service and the associated financial implications for ratepayers that we will be proposing for the draft LTP. Key issues for this LTP from an agricultural perspective are the ongoing challenges of biosecurity, and new pest incursions into our region. Maintaining current levels of service for existing plant and animal pests becomes harder with every new incursion that makes it’s way into our region, simply because they all compete for our limited resources.

It’s always tempting to think that certain weeds that were problems in the past have been “dealt with”, so resources can be re-directed elsewhere to deal with new issues. While this is sometimes the case, we have to be sure we don’t reignite a weed problem that was successfully controlled. So we are facing cost increases in this part of WRCs business to ensure we can maintain current levels of service for things such as possum control across our PPCA programmes, and the various other weeds that our contractors currently focus on such as Tutsan, Alligator Weed and Velvet Leaf, as well as ensuring we are equipped to deal with new incursions.

Wallabies have long been present in the Bay of Plenty, and have been steadily moving towards the Waikato - a serious threat we can’t ignore. We are working on a joint approach with the BOP Regional Council to address this.

The draft LTP is scheduled to be finalised and signed off by council late February. We have made significant savings in recent years that have resulted in very small rate rises, however, opportunities for further efficiencies are not infinite. Combined with the increasing resourcing required to provide the level of service expected by the community, particularly in biosecurity, this draft LTP will be requiring rate increases that are higher than those of the last LTP 3 years ago.

The proposed draft LTP will be consulted on, and I would encourage readers to spend a few hours digesting the parts that affect them, and then making a submission to assist council with its final decisionmaking.

Stu Kneebone Councillor, Waipa/King Country Waikato Regional Council

Dust nuisance closes driveway

By Claire Castle Having to close their main driveway and use another access 70 metres down the road instead might not seem like a big deal, it’s left a sour taste in the mouths of the owners of the Olde Berry Farm.

Original plans for the farm saw the driveway decommissioned, and resource consent was granted by the Waikato Regional Council with the condition that this would happen. A section by the new driveway was planned for development into a retail store, however co-owners Peter and wife Debbie’s children who were driving the initiative moved to Australia instead and the idea was shelved.

Peter assumed it would be no problem to vary the consent for the farm they coown with business partner Michael Jiang, however this was not accepted by council and the driveway was ordered to be closed, following complaints from a neighbour about excessive dust.

Ana Maria d’Aubert, Waikato District Council consents manager said Mr Molloy had communicated to council that his circumstances had changed. “He asked if he could keep the existing entrance open because of his desire to provide and in/out circulation of traffic to the berry shop using two entrances (given he was no longer going to relocate his shop). Staff have advised him that he would need to apply for permission to do so, and given the dust issues, would need to mitigate this by sealing the drive.

He indicated that he intended to put an application in to Council, but no timeframe was given.”

It’s cost them more than $5,000 try to fix the dust issue, Peter reckons, with an irrigation system they had installed to mitigate the dust coming off their decommissioned driveway now sitting idle.

The new accessway will need irrigation put in at significant cost, as well as a mirror so motorists can check for oncoming traffic as they navigate a hairpin bend. “We were

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100% happy with the irrigation,” Peter said, “but the neighbour wasn’t, and we weren’t given the opportunity to fix it.”

Ana Maria d’Aubert said the closure of the driveway was a foregone conclusion because of the consent, however in response to Mr Molloy’s indication that he wanted to apply to have the entrance remain open, staff were trying to provide some flexibility to him to pursue this avenue but emphasised that he would need to manage the dust situation.

“Staff provided reasonable flexibility and timeliness, but clearly with complaints and staff visits verifying dust nuisance, this was not being manged adequately.”

To add insult to injury, Peter said they were given just 48 hours to make the change and they now have to restore the berm to its original state. “There remains ongoing obligations on Mr Molloy to formally decommission it (remove metal from road reserve and reinstate the berm). Once done, Council will return a bond of $7000 to Mr Molloy,” Ana Maria d’Aubert said.

There might be a smiley face on the sign, but the Olde Berry Farm’s Peter Molloy is far from happy about the closure of the driveway.

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4 – CountryLife

Friday January 26, 2018

Mammoth Flexi Tank installed

By Claire Castle

The rain held off while the first one million litre Flexi Tank in the country was rolled into position on Friday. Weighing in at 2 tonnes, the tank is a flexible bladder made from seven layers of warp and weft of technical fabric, with a tensile strength of 450kg per 5cm, meaning it won’t rip.

Compete with inlets and outlets and 14 stirring valves every seven metres, the tank is selfagitating and once filled it reaches a height of 1.6 metres. The tank took a crew of 14 just an hour and a half to install on the paddock, sitting on a sand base.

Jonny Douglas, who oversees four JD and RD Wallace farms in Cambridge, said the tank was the ideal solution for Mooloolaba Farm, which is

on peat. The high-water table and peat soil on the property, 10 minutes out of Cambridge on the way to Te Awamutu, makes it difficult to install a traditional effluent pond, he said. “With farms on peat, building ponds is not easy or cheap. You need to import clay, and because you can’t dig into peat the pond needs to be above ground level,” Jonny said. “This is a great option for farms with no clay.”

Because the Flexi Tank is self-contained, there is only a requirement for stock fencing, not the usual extra fencing to prevent accidental drownings. There’s also no need for OSH compliant signs, and it doesn’t need resource consent.

Anton Meier from Flexi Tanks said doing away with the pond consent alone could save the

farmer $30,000 in fees. Plus, you can depreciate it at 26 per cent each year as it is a tangible asset that can be rolled up and sold if required.

Anton also explained that because the effluent is undiluted by rain and is not evaporating in the tank, spreading it on their farms will also cut down their urea bill, because much of the nitrogen will remain intact.

Jonny said in February a three-day sump with

a stone trap to catch solids will be built, with the resulting solid material drying out and taking on a sandy consistency similar to compost. The liquid effluent would be transferred into the tank, awaiting distribution onto the land. Normally this would happen in August and September, he said, with effluent pumped straight out onto the farm for the rest of the year provided conditions were not too wet.

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Jonny Douglas from JD and RD Wallace said the flexi tanks are a good option for peat farms.

Friday January 26, 2018

Online hub for severe Waikato weather An online hub for rainfall and flood related information has been set up by Waikato Regional Council to help people more easily keep up to date with severe weather events in the region.

The page went live at the start of the month, the day before a rapidly deepening low from the Tasman Sea brought heavy rain to the Coromandel Peninsula, and severe wind to the Waikato region.

When there is a weather event, the page will be updated with advisories and situational reports (sitreps). An advisory is a recurring report over the period

of the hazard event containing information on the development of a hazard event that is potentially going to occur or is occurring.

A sitrep is a recurring report over the period of the hazard event which details the current impacts and possible issues/impacts due to the hazard event. In addition to event information, there are tabs on the page for who to contact, river levels, rainfall, Civil Defence, road closures as well as weather information.

It can be found at waikatoregion. govt.nz/flood-room

Farmers recall Jim Anderton Farmers will remember former Minister of Agriculture, the late Jim Anderton as a pragmatist who got things done, Federated Farmers President Katie Milne said.

"While many Kiwis cherish him as a straight-shooter who spoke up for the disadvantaged and less well off, his significant contribution to the primary sector also should not be forgotten."

People in rural communities have joined other New Zealanders from many walks of life in mourning the loss of a respected MP and leader who fought hard for the causes he believed in. Mr Anderton died in Christchurch on January 7.

There were some raised eyebrows when Helen Clark appointed Mr Anderton as Agricultural and Biosecurity Minister in 2005. Three weeks into the role, he told a meeting of the Federated Farmers National Council that while he didn’t know much about farming compared to his audience, as Economic Development Minister for the previous six years he brought expertise in bringing industries together to improve their economic performance and "I'm the minister for 'getting things done'."

"So it proved," Katie said. "He turned

out to be one of our best agriculture ministers. He was a strong advocate for the sector, and regularly reminded New Zealanders that farming was the most important source of export income for New Zealand.”

His advocacy spurred a significant boost to the sustainable development of the primary sector, including $700 million for the R&D Fast Forward Fund, rebranded as Primary Growth Partnership; financial support to establish a nationwide network of Rural Support Trust to assist rural communities following adverse events; and funding a range of initiatives seeking to reduce the primary sector’s carbon footprint, recognising that bringing livestock emissions into the ETS was problematic.

Mr Anderton was not afraid of a challenge and would do what was right rather than what was popular, Katie said. He was one of Ministers who initiated New Zealand taking Australia to the World Trade Organisation over their blockage of NZ’s apple access to Australia.

Despite a degree of opposition, he was a strong supporter of the highly successful Recognised Seasonal

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Employer (RSE) scheme that came into effect in 2007. It has been vital to the horticulture and viticulture industries to recruit workers from overseas for seasonal work when there are not enough New Zealand workers.

"Federated Farmers pays tribute to Mr Anderton, who earned the wide respect of those in the primary sector during the three years he was Minister of Agriculture.”

The late Jim Anderton.

6 – CountryLife

Friday January 26, 2018

Saying goodbye to a little

By Claire Castle Peter and Eunice Martin have had a great 25 years on their rural property, but now they say it’s time for some new blood to take over. It wasn’t an easy decision to make for the couple, who have run guided eco-tours of their property at 44 French Pass Rd since 2000, sometimes hosting two busloads of tourists a day.

“It will be a challenge to move back into town,” Eunice said, “but once the thought-patterns were right the rest just followed.”

With a rammed-earth home, built for them

by Paul Geraets and the first of its kind in Waipa, there are a lot of memories on the 4-acre property just out of Cambridge. Sitting in the macrocarpa-lined kitchen, with the scent of freshly-oiled wood in the air, this is no town house plonked out in the country. “It was always a country house built for the country,” Eunice explained. Back in 2012, the construction was put to the ultimate test when a one-in-one-hundredyear flood sent water flowing through the house.

It survived unscathed, with only a fine layer of silt left on the outside walls. Since then, the council has replaced the old metal drains running alongside the property, which had collapsed in the deluge, upgrading them to cope with storm water running off Maungakawa.

Also on the property is the barn where Eunice has held her mosaic classes for the past 15 years, and where Peter’s hand-built olive press produces olive oil from the couple’s 90 trees each year.

Originally, they were going to share the barn, but Peter said he quickly realised he’d need a ‘man shed’. “I got thrown out of the barn when the girls took over,” he chuckled.

Peter and Eunice Martin are ready to move on to the next chapter With an olive press he made himself – he’s their own oil from the press, he said. Peter and an engineer by trade – Peter has been pressing Eunice have planted eight varieties of olives, olive oil from their own trees and for people with with some for pickling and some for pressing. small groves but no equipment. People whose The oil extraction uses the whole fruit, crushing driveways were lined with olive trees would bring everything up including the stones, then mixing their fruit along, getting a couple of bottles of the pulp in giant mixer with a paddle. “Within

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about an hour what floats to the top is the best oil,” Eunice explained. Then it’s layered into the hydraulic press where the oil is extracted, ready for bottling. “I just bottle it until I’m fed up with doing it,” Peter said. The press will be staying, but Continued next page

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Friday January 26, 2018

slice of country heaven it’s up to the next people if they want to use it or not.

And let’s not forget about the still Peter has for making his damson plum liqueur. Trying some purely for research purposes, it is a taste of summer reminiscent of the syrup in mum’s bottled plums.

It’s definitely a tipple that could be dangerous

in large quantities, as it went down alarmingly easily. Much to the relief of family and friends, no doubt, Peter said he will be planting a damson at their next home, so he can carry on production.

Where that will be is still up in the air, but it will be back in town. Peter has bike riding and plenty of tramping to keep him busy, and he wants to join service clubs, while Eunice has negotiated

Peter and Eunice’s rammed-earth home was the first of its kind in Waipa.

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with Resthaven to use their craft room to run community mosaic classes.

With stories for every square inch of the property, it is clear that Peter and Eunice have put

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their hearts and souls into the place, however at 77 and 75 respectively, they know that the time is right to hand over the reigns to the next owners.

Eunice has been teaching mosaic tiling in the barn for the last 15 years, and it is also home to Peter’s olive press.

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Friday January 26, 2018

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The scheme was announced in December 2015 to give regional council staff an opportunity to help colleagues facing financial hardship when they’d exhausted their paid sick leave entitlements, but still needed extended time off due to ill health, Vaughan said.

“There’s no obligation for staff to make the donation, it’s entirely voluntary. But we’ve had an amazing response, with more than 2100 hours donated in the first two years – an average of 5 hours per staff member – and more than 960 hours used so far.”

Debbie’s family has also set up a give-alittle page to help fund a 20-month treatment programme. Her page is at http://givealittle.co.nz/ cause/debbies10.

CountryLife contacts Editor Claire Castle claire@cambridgenews.nz

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At Waikato Regional Council staff have got each other’s backs.

That’s evident in the culture of donating sick leave to staff suffering long term illnesses and a recent fundraiser organised by colleagues for single mother of two Debbie Peters, who has incurable cancer.

Leading from the top is council chief executive Vaughan Payne who has thrown his support behind former Cambridge resident Debbie.

“We have an environment where staff care for others, and when times are tough we come together to show that,” Vaughan said.

“That’s demonstrated through our sick leave donation scheme where staff recognise that some workmates need more sick leave than others.”

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Publication of contributions are entirely at the discretion of editorial staff and may be edited. Opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the publishers.

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