Improving livestock traceability

Two “Know Your NAIT” drop-in sessions, organised by Operational Solutions for Primary Industries (OSPRI), were held in Tākaka earlier this month.

Small block and lifestyle farmers were invited to one session, and larger commercial operators to the other. The focus was that “we are all in this together when it comes to biosecurity”. All livestock owners need to stick to the rules of tagging animals and reporting movements.

Presenting the sessions was Heather Alexander, regional partner with OSPRI for the upper South Island. She started out as a rural vet technician, then worked on dairy farms in New Zealand and Ireland, then became a case manager in the Mycoplasma bovis programme. Now she works with OSPRI, supporting the delivery of the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) and TBfree programmes in the regions. OSPRI regional partners are based all around the country, working alongside OSPRI farmer committees. From Golden Bay, Jon Harwood is chair of the Top of the South committee, and Neil Sixtus is a long-standing member. They represent local farmers in OSPRI matters and advise on issues in our region.

Heather spoke about MyOSPRI, a new online system that is being introduced. She explained that “this is currently home to electronic Animal Status Declaration (ASD) forms and soon will be new home to NAIT.” Farmers tend not to love paperwork, and OSPRI are working hard to develop a system that’s smarter and easier to use, improving livestock traceability. Groups of farmers are now testing the different functions and providing suggestions and ideas of how it will work best.

While NAIT upgrades are still being worked on, the current MyOSPRI system does have a simple-to-use electronic ASD function. Heather encouraged farmers to fill in and send ASD forms quickly online when moving animals farm-to-farm, or farm-to-meat processors. A copy goes straight to the transporter too, so truck drivers are relieved of paperwork. It is mobilefriendly, so forms can be completed and edited at the yards. Heather’s message to farmers was to please sign up to the MyOSPRI system by visiting www.ospri.co.nz. Ensure that your MyOSPRI and NAIT contact info matches; this is important before it goes live, so records transfer automatically.

The TBfree programme began in the 1970s to control and eradicate tuberculosis (TB), a disease found in animals and humans. Funded by levies on milk and meat, the project involved TB-testing cattle, tracing livestock, post-mortems at works, and pest management. Over the years, this has been very successful and the number of infected herds in New Zealand is now thankfully very low. Monitoring continues and Golden Bay farms still regularly TB-test cattle.

OSPRI is a partnership between government departments and farmers. OSPRI started in 2013 when two national programmes, TBfree and National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT), came together to manage more diseases than just TB.

The importance of keeping good records tracing stock movements has been highlighted with the M. bovis outbreak in recent years, as well as the constant threat of foot and mouth disease at the border.

Heather’s final plea: “Remember to keep tagging and registering cattle and deer, no matter how many you have on farm. And all animals coming or going need to have movement recorded in NAIT within 48 hours.”

All owners of livestock are part of the operational solution for our primary industry.

SOL MORGAN, GROWISE CONSULTANCY

As the growing season slows into winter this month, now is a great time to look at what we can do to improve fruit health for the coming year. It may mean culling unproductive, diseased trees, or perhaps you want to start an orchard. Here are some tips.

Climate and microclimate

Climate affects how suitable a fruit will be to our place. Selecting varieties that can handle a warm, wet climate is preferable and takes some research. Ask neighbours what works for them. Heritage fruits tend to offer the best option, as they exist because they are resilient. Subtropicals like avocados are getting easier to grow as the climate warms.

There may be different microclimates that can be utilised for fruit placement. Fruits that like a colder situation, like apricots and cherries, can be planted in the coldest place that also gets good sun for optimum fruit set and disease prevention. Peaches and nectarines want a sunny position with good airflow. Most subtropicals like a sheltered position with reasonable sun. Berry and cane fruit do best with good sun, but can be interplanted between other larger fruits, getting partial shade.

Spacing

Planting too close affects fruit quality due to less sun, reduced airflow, and more competition for available nutrients. Best plant at suggested spacing.

Training and pruning

Training fruits from a young age creates a much healthier tree or shrub, structurally. Ongoing fruit pruning to maintain a good shape will increase light penetration and encourage flower bud initiation, which equals more fruit. Removal of damaged, crossing, and diseased branches also contributes to tree health and productivity. Fruit thinning reduces the amount of nutrients required to produce healthy fruit.

Nutrition

Most disease prevention can be mitigated with optimum nutrition (shown by soil scientist Dr Albrecht’s work). Firstly, make the most of resources at hand, on site, like wood ash (provides potassium and sulphur). Prunings and trimmings from various woody plants and shrubs, then chipped and applied as a mulch, offers both habitat for beneficial organisms, and a range of nutrients - depending on the diversity used. Utilise what's available locally, like manure and seagrass with valuable micronutrients (no need to rinse). Lastly, taking a soil test to determine what you are not able to supply nutrient-wise, will ensure fruits have access to the necessary minerals to keep their

Vegetable Care: physiological processes functioning well. A plant getting the right nutrients, with good biological activity underfoot, will make them more resilient and healthier. Foliar sprays of seaweed also provide micronutrients and boosts plant health.

Biodiversity

Combining fruits with other beneficial plants that provide various ecosystem services, helps produce healthy fruit. Herbaceous perennials like bulbs, dahlias, lilies, and comfrey all provide additional nutrients to the rooting zone as they die off during winter, if planted near fruit (drip line of fruit trees). Other semi-woody flowers such as everlasting daisy offer abundant nectaries to beneficial insects that play a vital role in the ecology of an orchard. Planting flowering shrubs and trees attracts birds that also aid the balance of the ecosystem.

SOL’S GARDEN JOBS FOR JUNE

Liquid feed and cloche young plants to boost growth. Plant garlic, shallots, and onions into reasonably fertile beds. Sow peas and broad beans into weeded beds with lime/ dolomite and some compost. Complete seed processing.

Plan next year’s garden. Check seed stocks and make an order or come to the local seed swap at Tākaka Memorial Library. Minimise weeds, as they attract slugs and snails. Use coffee grounds or ash to deter them.

Seagrass-mulch Brassicas, silver beet, broad beans, and peas. Plant new asparagus for cropping spring 2025. Apply lime, compost, and straw/seagrass mulch. Sheet mulch any vacant beds or cover with black plastic, if you have not sown green crop. Hothouse: Make an inside compost from crop residues to warm house. Plant salads, green crops, or heavily mulch. Clean plastic or glass for improved light.

Sow direct: All seeds 2, 22 June. Mesclun salad and spring onions (also 3, 21 June). Peas and broad beans (6, 24 June). Flowers. Sow for transplanting: All seeds 2 and 22 June. Spring onions and leafy greens (spinach, spinach beet, lettuce, endive, Japanese greens, Chinese cabbage, spring cabbages) (also 3, 21 June). Flowers (also 29 June).

Plant: Best 8-18 June. Onions, garlic, shallots (2 June). Salad greens, spinach, cabbages, broccoli, and cauliflower. Flowers, eg bulbs.

Avoid gardening full moon (4 June), and dark moon (17 June).

Herb Care:

Take hardwood cuttings, and transplant rooted cuttings. Plant herbs, eg parsley, or transplant self-seeded perennials like oregano.

Harvest, weed and mulch.

Fruit Care:

Plant fruit trees when available. Create swales or terraces if on slope.

Support laden persimmon/tamarillo branches. Harvest late apples, feijoas, tamarillos, persimmon, pepinos and kiwifruit.

Weed strawberry beds and replace two-year-old plants with young runners.

Spray all fruits with diluted seaweed. Spray copper oxychloride or lime sulphur (but not both together) on fruits susceptible to disease. Spray safely.

Spray citrus with neem/oil vs sucking insects.

General Garden Care:

Make and turn compost heaps. Make leaf mould compost.

Lime the lawn.

Prune trees for greater sun into garden, hedges, shrubs after flowering, including roses.

Take in hoses. Clean and fix garden tools.